Added the ninety-second Freethinker Podcast YouTube fifth Interview with Richard Carrier on the Reliability of Luke, the Gospels, & Papias (2024) to the Freethinker Podcast page under Resources on the Secular Web.
Check out Freethinker Podcast as host Edouard Tahmizian is joined by freethinking historian Richard C. Carrier for a little under an hour to discuss the reliability of the canonical Gospels, including Luke’s gospel and the Book of Acts, and whether Papias can tell us anything about New Testament authors that isn’t ahistorical. After speaking to the “genre” of the Gospels and to which historical period he would date them, Carrier addresses the historical reliability (or lack thereof) of the Gospel of Luke and how we know that the Book of Acts is “fake history.” The discussion then turns to whether a historical Papias existed and, regardless of the answer to that question, whether we can believe that anything in the writings attributed to Papias provide us with any credible information about a historical Jesus. A lengthy discussion about why some gospels include a story about Jesus transfiguring into a shining, radiant being ensues, followed by a final discussion on John Dominic Crossan’s comment that N. T. Wright’s reconstruction of a historical Jesus makes for good reading, but is entirely fiction. Tune in for a casual discussion with our returning historian on some particularly problematic conundrums for taking New Testament accounts to be more than ahistorical!