2 Peter 📚
- Authenticity (Authorship)📜
- Dating 📜
- Content 📜

A Thread🧵 What's the consensus on 2 Peter's authenticity (was it authored by Peter?)? 📚

Virtually all modern scholars do not think the apostle Peter was the author of 2 Peter with exception of a few. (Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 2nd ed (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 421. Examples of the scholars who reject Petrine authorship are Mayerhoff, Credner, Hilgenfeld, Von Soden, Hausrath, Mangold, Davidson, Volkmar, Holtzmann, Julicher, Harnack, Chase, and Strachan. Scholars who support Petrine authorship are in the fringe minority and are outdated, they include Luthardt, Wiesinger, Guericke, Windischmann, Bruckner, Hofmann, Salmon, Alford, Zahn, Spitta, and Warfield. some scholars could not reach a conclusion, they include Huther, Weiss, and Kuhl. See Louis Berkhof, New Testament Introduction (Eerdmans-Sevensma Co., 1915), 310; James Hastings, et al., eds., A Dictionary of the Bible: Dealing with Its Language, Literature, and Contents Including the Biblical Theology, Volumes I–V (New York; Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons; T. & T. Clark, 1911) V3, p816).

Is Zoroastrianism Monotheistic? 🤔

A Deep Dive Into the Theology of Zoroastrianism, A Thread 🧵| #zoroastrianism #history #persia #middleeast #religion First, how do we define Monotheism? 📜

This is important, because different societies defined 'monotheism' differently.

In my opinion, Prof. Sommer does the BEST explanation to how historians define monotheism: "A narrow, common-sense definition of monotheism is the belief that one God exists and that no deities exist other than this one God. If we adopt this definition, we must conclude that the Hebrew Bible is not a monotheistic work, because it acknowledges the existence of many heavenly creatures in addition to Yhwh. Biblical texts refer to these creatures variously as “angels” (!ykalm – a few randomly chosen examples of the term include Numbers 20.16, 2 Samuel 24.16, 1 Kings 13.18, Zechariah 1.11–12, Psalm 78.49, Job 33.23), “gods” (!yhla – e.g., Psalm 82.6, 86.8; !yhla ynb / !yla ynb – Genesis 6.2; Psalm 29.1, 89.7; Job 1.6), and (collectively) “the council of holy ones” (!yvwdq dws / !ycwdq lhq – Psalm 89.6,8). Several biblical texts portray Yhwh as surrounded by heavenly beings who attend Him or await His orders (e.g., 1 Kings 22.19–22, Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Zechariah 3, Job 1.6; a similar picture is assumed in Psalm 29 and Isaiah 40.1–2). The term !yhla ynb / !yla ynb can mean “sons of God,” “sons of the gods,” “sons of [the high god] El,” or “members of the class generally known as gods.”"

In short, the narrow definition of monotheism is too narrow: If we use it, then the religion of the Hebrew Bible is not monotheistic; but then neither are Judaism, Christianity with the exception of a few highly philosophical forms of these religions that are historically late and have attracted few adherents. Propp, “Monotheism,” 454–5 n.42: “For the ancient world, functional definitions of ‘monotheism’ and “polytheism” are more useful than philosophical definitions: ‘monotheism’ is monotheistic behavior. Apparently, apart from the minds of philosophers and mystics, there is no such thing as monotheism; compare William James’s obiter dictum, ‘[polytheism] has always been the real religion of common people, and is so still today’ (The Varieties of Religious Experience [New York: New American Library, 1958,396).”

When was the Qur'an canonized? Was it during Abdul al-Malik or Uthman? A Thread 🧵 | #quran #islam #islamicstudies #history (Part 2)

https://twitter.com/JordanAcademia0/status/1974514421377679382

@IslamicOrigins released a paper which goes over the arguments for & against both Uthmanic canonization, and Abd al-Malik canonization. I would like to go over them, and also add a bit of thoughts. Let's start off with the criticisms of Ḥajjājian Hypothesis ⬇doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-…

The Arab Conquests are often described as some of the violent wars of their era, but how do they actually compare to other major conflicts of the same period in scale, casualties, and impact? Let’s compare (Part 2/3) 🧵| #islam #history #arabhistory #romanempire #quran #persia

https://twitter.com/JordanAcademia0/status/1980466929606488487

Sources to be used in comparison (all wars in Late Antiquity):
- (1) Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628
- (2) Aksumite invasion of Himyar in 525
- (3) Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591

Other wars I would point to as well are the Gothic War (535–554) & the Lombard conquest of Italy of 568.

All Criticisms of this Book (Short Thread / Source-thread)🧵| #bible #christianity #biblicalcriticism

https://twitter.com/julienries13/status/1981351160905658705

The most notable responses include:
- Samuel Byrskog, 'The Eyewitnesses as Interpreters of the Past: Reflections on Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,' JSHJ 6 (2008), pp. 157-168; David Catchpole, 'On Proving Too Much: Critical Hesitations about Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,' JSHJ 6 (2008), pp. 169-181; James D. G. Dunn, 'Eyewitnesses and the Oral Jesus Tradition,' JSHJ 6 (2008), pp. 85-105 (96-105); Craig A. Evans, 'The Implications of Eyewitness Tradition,' JSNT 31 (2008), pp. 211-219; Stephen J. Patterson, 'Can You Trust a Gospel? A Review of Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,' JSHJ 6 (2008), pp. 194-210; Jens Schröter, 'The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony? A Critical Examination of Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,' JSNT 31 (2008), pp. 195-209; Theodore J. Weeden Sr, 'Polemics as a Case for Dissent: A Response to Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,' JSHJ 6 (2008), pp. 211-224; John N. Collins, 'Re-Thinking ‘Eyewitnesses' in the Light of 'Servants of the Word' (Luke 1: 2),' The Expository Times 121 (2010), pp. 447-452; James G. Crossley, 'Can John's Gospel Really Be Used to Reconstruct a Life of Jesus? An Assessment of Recent Trends and a Defence of a Traditional View,' in Thomas L. Thompson and Thomas S. Verenna (eds.), Is This Not the Carpenter? The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 163-184; James G. Crossley, Jesus in an Age of Neoliberalism: Quests, Scholarship and Ideology (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 144-148; Paul Foster, 'Memory, Orality, and the Fourth Gospel: Three Dead-Ends in Historical Jesus Research,' JSHJ 10 (2012), pp. 191-227 (194-202); Michael J. Thate, Remembrance of Things Past? (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), pp. 219-225; Ruth B. Edwards, Discovering John: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2014), pp. 179-184; Alan Kirk, 'Ehrman, Bauckham and Bird on Memory and the Jesus Tradition,' JSHJ 15 (2017), pp. 88-114 (101-111); Alan Kirk, Memory and the Jesus Tradition (London: T. & T. Clark, 2018), pp. 52-54; Jeffrey M. Tripp, 'The Eyewitnesses in Their Own Words: Testing Richard Bauckham's Model Using Verifiable Quotations,' JSNT 44 (2022), pp. 411-434. Bart Ehrman, "Jesus Before the Gospels" (2016) also. doi.org/10.1163/174551…

Were the early Arab conquests completely violent, or have centuries of “spread by the sword” narratives distorted history? A Thread 🧵(Part 1/3) | #islam #history #arabhistory #quran #arabhistory Now of course, conquests/war is objectively violent. To summarize about the Arab conqests, the conquests were rather bloody, but not bloodier than any other conquest at the time, and, indeed, the archaeological record shows that the early Muslims did not embark on any large scale destruction of places. It is also hard to say that it is religiously motivated, for reasons I will show in this thread.

The idea that there was widespread genocide is a false myth, as well as large scales of systematic forced conversion.

The next two threads will be talking about other specific claims.

When was the Qur'an canonized? Was it during Abdul al-Malik or Uthman? A Thread 🧵 | #quran #islam (Part 1) There are many debates over the period of time in which the Qur'an was canonized/standardized in. There will likely be multiple parts. I'll be arguing that the Qur'an was canonized during the time of Uthman, in the next part, I will talk about the arguments for the Qur'an being canonized later (during Abd al-Malik) as well as carbon-dating and whether or not they hold up, and the last part I will likely talk about arguments for the Qur'an being canonized even earlier than Uthman.

Does the Qur'an Mistake 'Mary' for 'Miriam'? Why does the Qur'an call 'Mary' the 'Sister of Aaron'? A Thread 🧵| #quran #islam #mary In this thread, I'll explain whether or not the Qur'an mistakes 'Mary' for 'Miriam', the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. I'll also explain why the Qur'an calls 'Mary' the 'Sister of Aaron', which appears in Q19:28.

Does the Qur'an misrepresent the Trinity? Was there a group who believed Mary was God? A Thread 🧵 | #quran #islam There's a few verses that have been interpreted as misrepresentations of Christianity (Q 5:17, 72, 73, 75). Today, I'll explain why they're not misrepresentations but rather a criticism of imperial Byzantine propaganda and evolving Marian veneration.