Friday, November 27, 2015

Christmas Resources 2015

Over the past several years, I've posted a collection of resources for each Christmas season. Here are the posts of previous years:

2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014

Since the 2008 post is foundational to the others, you may want to start with that one. Here's an archive of our posts with the Christmas label. Make sure you scroll all the way down and click on Older Posts to see more.

The following are some representative examples of our posts on Christmas issues:

How Much Matthew And Luke Agree Concerning Jesus' Childhood
What Sources Outside The Infancy Narratives Say About The Childhood Of Jesus
The Origins Of The Christmas Holiday And Its December 25 Date
The Genre Of The Infancy Narratives
The Authorship Of Matthew
The Authorship Of Luke
The Virgin Birth
Evidence For The Bethlehem Birthplace
The Historicity Of Luke's Census
The Star Of Bethlehem
The Slaughter Of The Innocents

After the 2014 post linked above, I posted a collection of reviews I've written of Christmas books at Triablogue and Amazon. In another post, I argued that the census in Luke 2 didn't involve ancestry, contrary to how Luke 2:4 is often read. I gathered a collection of links to articles related to Luke's credibility on matters pertaining to Jesus' childhood. And here's a response I wrote to an article by Hugh Ross on the star of Bethlehem. I also responded to an article by Leonard Hitchcock, professor emeritus at Idaho State University, concerning the historicity of the infancy narratives. Here's a post I wrote on where the magi came from. Later, I wrote about agreement among the early sources concerning Jesus' family background. The post is largely about John 19:26-7 and John's view of Jesus' siblings, the virgin birth, and other issues, but I discuss sources other than John as well. I also responded to an article by Valarie Tarico that repeats some common objections to the infancy narratives (other parts of the New Testament don't show enough awareness of the alleged events surrounding Jesus' birth, Romans 1:3 contradicts the virgin birth, etc.). Steve Hays wrote about Christmas beards. I wrote a post about how skeptics often criticize the infancy narratives for making claims they actually don't make. Patrick Chan linked an article on the incarnation by Paul Helm. I wrote a response to claims that Herod and other individuals in Matthew 2 don't behave in a realistic manner. And I addressed the issue more, in response to further comments made by Jonathan Pearce, here and here. Steve replied to Pearce as well. Steve wrote about some good consequences of the commercialization of Christmas. I responded to an article on the virgin birth by N.T. Wright and outlined some of the evidence that Jesus was born of a virgin. Steve found a copy of Santa's educational transcript. I wrote about Christmas and the defeat of Satan. Steve addressed the objection that the virgin birth is only attested in Matthew and Luke. He also replied to a Newsweek article that criticized the infancy narratives. Here's a post about Andrew Steinmann's view of Luke's census account. I wrote about a potential movie on the star of Bethlehem. Steve responded to Richard Carrier on the subject of Isaiah's virgin birth prophecy. I wrote a post in response to Bart Ehrman, regarding how much the gospels agree with each other, including on Christmas issues. I also reviewed a debate on Jesus' Messiahship between Craig Evans and Tovia Singer, in which some Christmas issues came up. Steve wrote about how restrained the gospel accounts of Jesus' birth are. I posted a link to a review I wrote of Colin Nicholl's book about the star of Bethlehem. Steve linked an article about how Luke 2 has been misrepresented by people discussing Syrian refugees. And I responded to the positive coverage Colin Nicholl's book on the star of Bethlehem had gotten. Nicholl wrote a response to my Amazon review of his book, and I replied. Steve replied as well.

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