Christianity Archives • Richard Carrier Blogs

Problems with the Bilby Thesis

Richard Carrier — Fri, 01 May 2026 15:22:30 +0000

Historian Mark Bilby is proposing a new thesis about dating the Gospels (and other NT texts) in an experimental study that, as of this publication at least, is at Zenodo (an open research archive), titled Neologismata, Volume 1: Proofs of New Testament Redactions between 138 and 249 CE (he also promotes it in a video). […]

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The Last Three Objections to Jesus Being a Myth

Richard Carrier — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:34:10 +0000

In my recent update on the “Jesus Myth” debate, in The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus, I note that, now, the best reason to be sure Jesus didn’t exist is that everyone who insists he did has to strangely ignore a lot of evidence (even pathologically avoid it), or else make up fallacious arguments […]

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Recommendations for Getting Up to Speed on Ancient Israel, Ancient Forgery, and Ancient Society

Richard Carrier — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:31:02 +0000

I’ve been running a series reviewing my three recommendations lists, and today I’m switching again to Origins of Christianity. And check this out, because if I can bring Amazon over three grand in sales in a month I get a bonus (alas, yes, Amazon; but only they pay commissions enough to meaningfully earn, so rake […]

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Ken Dark on the Historicity of Jesus

Richard Carrier — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:25:26 +0000

In my last article (on The Historicity of Nazareth) I mentioned in the course of a mostly positive review of Ken Dark’s new book (Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth) that he completely shits the bed when it comes to arguing that “surely” Jesus existed to contemplate as a Nazarene. You get a foreshadowing of this when […]

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The Historicity of Nazareth

Richard Carrier — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 20:22:57 +0000

Just a couple years ago, secular archaeologist Ken Dark published Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth (Oxford University Press 2023), a summary of his own archaeological survey of Nazareth, going over all the previous archaeology there (even admitting its flaws and biases), and updating it with a variety of new and current findings. It is not flawless. […]

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Comparing Apologetical Methods: Jonathan Sheffield vs. Michael Licona

Richard Carrier — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:46:46 +0000

There is a largely overlooked internal debate among Christian apologists about approach. The gist of which is how much Christians should allow fudging, omitting, spinning, and overreach (though the pro side would never describe what it’s doing that way, which is part of the problem). A paradigmatic example is with the authorship of the Gospels: […]

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Christianity in Hitler’s Ideology: The Definitive Study

Richard Carrier — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 23:24:54 +0000

I’ve long pointed out that attempts to make Hitler and the Nazis into atheists is counterfactual propaganda. They were stalwartly and predominately Christian, and largely driven by Christian motives. I’ve covered this several times (in Hitler Homer Bible Christ as well as in my articles No, Hitler Wasn’t a Pantheist and Hitler’s Table Talk: The […]

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Hansen’s Contribution to the James in Josephus Debate

Richard Carrier — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:06:24 +0000

There is a valuable new study by Chrissy Hansen, “Josephus and the Murder of James: An Argument Against Some Common Wisdom,” in the new journal Studies of Biblical Interest 2 (2025). I don’t agree with its conclusion but I think it’s a quality study worth considering. Here I’ll explain what I mean. The Eristic Upshot […]

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T.C. Schmidt on James in Josephus: Apologetics vs. History

Richard Carrier — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 17:08:31 +0000

After Exposing T.C. Schmidt’s Oxford Apologetics for the Testimonia Flaviana altogether (and his fellow Christians failed to rescue him), I now shall address his appendix on my case against Josephus referring to the Christian Jesus when relating the execution of a certain “James, brother of Jesus.” For those who want to catch up on my […]

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Errata for Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus

Richard Carrier — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 16:44:32 +0000

This page will be continually updated. The first section lists typos that will be fixed in a future printing. The second lists additions or changes that might be implemented in a future edition but for now are usefully available here. One error has already been corrected: in the first print run the footnote numbers restarted […]

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