Dr. Fran: Bible, atheism, God's wife Asherah

Dr. Fran, Ryan Kohls, Aug. 25, 2023; Ashley Wells, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

DR. FRANCESCA STAVRAKOPOULOU on the Bible, Jesus, death threats, God's wife Asherah (Queen of Heaven?), New Atheism, and that guy Jordan Peterson

(Ryan Kohls) This is an in-depth interview with atheist Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at Exeter University, England, author of God: An Anatomy. For a transcript and more go to: whatiwannaknow.com/francesca-stavrakapoulou.

Timecodes

• 0:00 - Intro
• 0:50 - Stavrakopoulou: An Anatomy
• 2:04 - Being an atheist Biblical scholar & response to critics
• 5:35 - What is the Bible?
• 7:47 - What is the most misunderstood thing about the Bible?
• 9:15 - Contradictions in the Bible
• 12:00 - How are is an atheist biblical scholar?
• 12:53 - Biases of Christian biblical scholars
• 15:03 - Probability of Moses/Abraham/Noah's existence
• 18:00 - Did people in biblical times believe in existence of Abraham/Moses?
• 21:02 - Did Jesus Christ really exist?
• 23:00 - Other Jesus-esque figures who existed at the same time
• 24:22 - Why/how did Christianity become a global phenomenon?
• 27:14 - Death threats and why some Christians are afraid to study biblical history
• 29:51 - Antisemitic tropes about God of Old Testament vs. New Testament
• 33:53 - When did Christians start believing the Bible was infallible?
• 37:50 - Role of Enlightenment in biblical infallibility theory
• 40:31 - God's forgotten body and the book God: An Anatomy
• 47:13 - God's wife Asherah and roots of patriarchy/sexism
• 51:30 - New Atheists (Dawkins, Harris) and their perspective on the Bible/religion
• 54:52 - Jordan Peterson, modernity, and Judeo-Christian values
• 56:55 - Humanism and Prof. Stavrakopoulou's worldview

Jesus was married, papyrus shows (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR; ABC News via Yahoo News

ABC News reporting on authentic papyrus referring to Jesus's wife (abcnews.com)

Gospel of Jesus's Wife: "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...' " and "she will be able to be my disciple" written in the Coptic language of Egypt, the fragment contains the phrases.

 

In 2012 [a year of revelations], the discovery of a tattered papyrus fragment rocked the biblical studies community after some alleged its text proved that Jesus was married.

 

Now tests show the fragment is not only likely legitimate -- it's also very old.

 

The controversial fragment known as the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" dates to between the sixth and ninth centuries, and could possibly date back as early as the second to fourth centuries, according to a newly published study in the Harvard Theological Review.

Of course my rabbi son was married

The fragment -- which contains the words, "Jesus said to them, 'my wife'" -- first came to light several years ago.
 
Harvard University Divinity Professor Karen L. King, who announced the fragment's existence at a conference in 2012 [declared by the Vatican to be "fake"..."probably" (NY Times)], was quick to point out that the fragment does not prove that Jesus had a wife. [See below as the eminent religious scholar Princeton University Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels weighs. See also as Bart D. Ehrman (author of How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee), Mark Jordan, and King discuss the god's marriage.]

 

Jesus was not Nordic but African

"The main topic of the fragment is to affirm that women who are mothers and wives can be disciples of Jesus -- a topic that was hotly debated in early Christianity as celibate virginity increasingly became highly valued," King said in a statement.

 

The document first came to King's attention in 2011. She had it examined by Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Bagnall's initial findings were that the fragment was ancient, which lead to more testing.

From Harvard University:

Wait, my lord God made love and everything?!

Over the past two years, extensive testing of the papyrus and the carbon ink, as well as analysis of the handwriting and grammar, all indicate that the existing material fragment dates to between the sixth and ninth centuries CE. None of the testing has produced any evidence that the fragment is a modern fabrication or forgery. More

Mary Magdalene's Secrets (Discovery and other new documentaries)

 
Prof. Elaine Pagels
Robert Siegel, All Things Considered (NPR.org, Sept. 19, 2012)

Revelations (timedoesnotrest)

When the existence of the papyrus was announced in 2012, another scholar of early Christian texts, Princeton's Elaine Pagels was on NPR to saying that the papyrus suggests that at the time it was written "apparently, there were stories going around that [Jesus] may have been" married.
 

More Revelations (Elaine Pagels)

"[It] may also suggest that Jesus is using a symbolic language as he is in other Gospels that we know of from the second century, like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Philip," Pagels told All Things Considered. LISTEN

Does it matter if Jesus was married?
(BDE) Professors Dr. Karen King, Dr. Bart Ehrman, and Dr. Mark Jordan address the question, "Does it matter if Jesus [St. Issa] was married?"

• True Tales: Early Christendom and Hitler's Germany
• VIDEO: "Misquoting Jesus in the Bible" (Ehrman)
• VIDEO: How Jesus became God (Christian radio) 
• Albuquerque, NM pattern of police state abuse
• Stephen Colbert to take over "Late Show"

Clergy attack in Bethlehem church (video)

(TelegraphTV) Dec. 28, 2011 - Palestinian police had to break up a fight at the Church of the Nativity -- which Christians consider the birthplace of Jesus -- after scuffles erupted between Armenian and Greek Orthodox clergymen. Before police began beating them, clergy had come to fisticuffs accusing each other of encroaching on the other's portion of the church. Oh, you men!

"Turn Back, Oh Man" (Godspell)

Oldest Bible reassembled online

• World's oldest Bible, handwritten in Greek, reunited online

Words that fell from heaven...space disaster debris: the Diary of Ilan Ramon restored. And if this, as shown here in Israel, why not Christianity's bestseller?