The Lydia McGrew Podcast

In this video I discuss a mainstream criticism of the historicity of John. According to this criticism, John or the "Johannine community" made up the part of John 9 where it says that the Jewish leaders would throw anyone out of the synagogue who confessed that Jesus was the Messiah. Supposedly that was an anachronistic allusion to the "life situation" of the readers of the Gospel, a situation that didn't arise until late in the 1st century. Should we take this criticism seriously? Originally uploaded to YouTube Mar 23 2021

In this meaty video I discuss and rebut the theory that John dyschronologically moved Jesus' references to his "hour," Jesus' expression of distress about his forthcoming crucifixion, and Jesus' reference to dying to live from different scenes in an earlier "Synoptic tradition" and constructed non-historical places for them within his own Gospel in an entirely different setting in John 12.  I talk once again about mainstream scholar Jörg Frey, who thinks that this is exactly what John did. Frey rightly sees that such a theory seriously undermines the historicity of John, if it is true. Of course he's wrong to think that the theory is true!  I then read an extensive segment of conservative scholar Craig Keener's commentary on John, showing that he is advocating a theory much like Frey's but trying to draw a more optimistic conclusion from it--at least John had sources and didn't make up things that Jesus said entirely out of whole cloth! But the "source" is apparently supposed to be some tradition (perhaps a document or perhaps an oral version of what is found in the Synoptics) of Jesus' anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane and his teaching in other Synoptic contexts (e.g., where Jesus talks about dying to live in Mark 8:35), not knowledge of a completely separate, historically recognizable occasion when Jesus spoke in this way.   What we're seeing here is a "glass ceiling for John"--he can be this historical, but no more. We need to be willing to go beyond the invisible ceiling and see John as never inventing anything. This entirely historically plausible theory is supported by the evidence, far more than elaborate theories of theological adaptation.  Don't forget our drawing. If you're a new subscriber (since Holy Saturday), be sure to *get in touch with me* to enter the drawing for a free book! See the previous video for details.  And don't forget to get a copy of The Eye of the Beholder:   https://www.amazon.com/Eye-Beholder-Gospel-Historical-Reportage/dp/1947929151/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2P5N15K1P8TIJ&dchild=1&keywords=the+eye+of+the+beholder+lydia+mcgrew&qid=1617757441&s=books&sprefix=the+eye+of+the+beholder%2Cstripbooks%2C185&sr=1-1   Originally uploaded April 9 2021

This is a reading from "The Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation" by the great Scottish divine Thomas Chalmers. Chalmers is here laying out the nature of the evidential case for Christianity.  https://books.google.com/books?id=-qAPAAAAIAAJ In a recent blog post I noted an historical misstatement by William Lane Craig in Reasonable Faith. Craig states there that in the 19th century it would be difficult to find an influential thinker defending the Paley-style approach to arguing for Christianity. Chalmers is a counterexample to this historical claim. http://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2021/11/on-minimal-facts-case-for-resurrection_29.html Originally uploaded 1.2.22

What does it mean to say, "I believe that as a Christian"? How does that sentence interact with evidence? Is it possible to "believe that as a Christian" and be thoroughly rational about it?   All of this, surprisingly, is related to the issues of miracles, the Virgin Birth, and even intelligent design in science. Watch here to find out why! Originally uploaded 12.26.21

Here I connect the question of the truth of the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke with the question of whether they were trying to bring their Gospels into conformity with the conventions of Greco-Roman biography. Would they have required that motive for including birth narratives? If they thought that these remarkable stories were true, wouldn't that have been enough to motivate them to include them?  For more on the Gospels' genre and on the genre of Greco-Roman biography, see The Mirror or the Mask: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Mask-Liberating-Gospels-Literary/dp/1947929070/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mirror+or+the+mask&qid=1600272214&sr=8-1 For last year's series on the Virgin Birth, see here:   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe1tMOs8ARn3za22QzE28xKqhTq5KvCB2  For some sensible reflections by classicist and NT scholar Colin Hemer on Luke's genre, see here:  http://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2017/06/colin-hemer-on-genre-of-lukes-writings.html While rewatching this after uploading it, I realized that I make what is going to look like an overstatement concerning whether or not Luke alludes to prophecy about Jesus' birth. What I had in mind was the narrator's alluding to prophecy and saying that a particular thing happened to fulfill Old Testament prophecy, as Matthew does at times. Of course the words of the angel to Mary, the Magnificat, and the song of Zechariah do allude to OT prophecy.   Merry Christmas to all my subscribers! Originally uploaded 12.19.21

Today we have another reading from an historical apologist, the historian George Rawlinson. Our special guest Tim McGrew returns!  See here for a different passage by Rawlinson on the accuracy of the Gospels in factual matters:  http://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-annotated-rawlinson.html Remember all of this when anyone suggests to you that the negative connotation of fabrication is modern and that any of the Gospel authors were more interested in spiritual truth than in historical truth. Originally uploaded 12.12.21

We have a special guest this week! Tim McGrew, aka Esteemed Husband, provides us with a reading from the Library of Historical Apologetics. This is taken from the writings of Richard Whately, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin. He is talking about how we do need to use our minds to investigate the truth, but we should not think that we are obligated to answer every objection. Rather, we need to get a sense of the relative strength of the objections on both sides of the argument.  This is a reading from the work Introductory Lessons on Morals and Christian Evidences, available here:  https://www.google.com/books/edition/Introductory_Lessons_on_Morals_and_Chris/mxcSAAAAYAAJ Entry on Whately here:  https://historicalapologetics.org/whately-richard/ Browse other great works on:  https://historicalapologetics.org/  Orig. uploaded 12/5/21

This is my second video on the phenomenon I've called artificial disharmonization in the previous video and that I call utterly unforced error in The Mirror or the Mask.   Here I discuss three more examples where a scholar questions the historicity of an event or saying for (in effect) no reason at all, creating a problem or an issue out of nowhere and then applying the heavy-handed tools of literary conjecture to explain something that didn't need any special explanation in the first place. The three I discuss here are...  Did John the Baptist call himself the voice of one crying in the wilderness? Did Jesus say, "I thirst" on the cross? Did Jesus breathe on his disciples and say, "Receive the Holy Spirit"?  Hey, while I have your attention: Christmas is coming up!  Consider putting Hidden in Plain View, The Mirror or the Mask, or The Eye of the Beholder into someone's stocking.  Or maybe all three!  https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Plain-View-Undesigned-Coincidences/dp/1936341905/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Mask-Liberating-Gospels-Literary/dp/1947929070/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mirror+or+the+mask&qid=1600272214&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Eye-Beholder-Gospel-Historical-Reportage/dp/1947929151/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2P5N15K1P8TIJ&dchild=1&keywords=the+eye+of+the+beholder+lydia+mcgrew&qid=1617757441&s=books&sprefix=the+eye+of+the+beholder%2Cstripbooks%2C185&sr=1-1 Originally uploaded 11/28/21

This is a very different video from my usual. In it I discuss a recent serious (and possibly permanent) health condition I have developed and how this intersects with my Christianity and my defense of Christian evidences. The existential problem of evil is going to hit all of us in one way or another at some time in our lives. It behoves us to gather evidence on the ultimate questions when we have the opportunity. Thank God that the evidence is there for Christianity!  Here is the link to the video by  @Joni and Friends  on finding peace in pain, which I mention in this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FheUIFQ6pI Here is a link to a Facebook post where I talk about my condition:  https://www.facebook.com/lydia.mcgrew.5/posts/10165489537245640 My thanks again to the ever-patient David Yuen of Digital Pizzazz who helped with the sound on this video. Originally uploaded 10/10/21

Here I continue discussing Luke's central section, sometimes called the "travel" section. I bring out some really interesting connections with John's Gospel and with Josephus and make some chronological suggestions. This is an illustration on the use of reasonable conjecture and imagination in dealing with apparent discrepancies in the Gospels.  Here is my older post on the topic:  http://lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-possible-solution-to-long-standing.html  Here is a map showing the Jezreel valley:  https://leejagers.wordpress.com/2007/05/29/jezreel-valley-place-of-victory-and-slaughter/ Here is a video on the concept of achronological narration:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4TzGiFCeLE&list=PLe1tMOs8ARn0QhpT_JgxzoxmUolEg9d3K&index=1&t=6s  Originally uploaded Oct 3 2021