Alfred Wenski | Homepage

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  • The Historical Jesus and Probabilities (Visualized)

    I thought it might help to visualize claims and probabilities like this. (I won’t commit to any of it; I disagree with much!) Obviously the more specific you make a claim, the less probable it becomes, e.g. “Jesus was executed” is slightly more probable and less specific than “Jesus was crucified” (a specific type of… — read more

  • The Farrer Luke Goes Trick-Or-Treating.

    An idea for a Halloween costume: Dressing up in a tunic, carrying around six or seven wax tablets, a worn out copy of The Gospel of Mark, a brand new copy of The Gospel of Matthew, accompanied by a scribe with the Septuagint, and a desk (the last detail courtesy of Dr. Goulder, history buff… — read more

  • Alan Kirk and the Farrer Theory (Youtube Appearance)

    Alan Kirk appeared recently on History Valley–another real Q scholar on Youtube!–and at minute 26 Jacob asks about the Farrer theory. At first I thought it wasn’t fair when Kirk said Farrer theorists can’t agree on why Luke follows Mark for narrative material and Matthew for sayings material, rearranging it (a generalization, of course). “Is… — read more

  • The Historical Jesus in Nietzsche’s The Antichrist

    At the intersection of great literature, moral philosophy, and historical Jesus studies you’ll find Nietzsche’s The Antichrist. And to make my joy complete, he presents a non-apocalyptic parable spinner, someone so sensitive to external stimuli he has no choice but to retreat into a metaphorical, inner world. While this Jesus does not resemble Nietzsche in… — read more

  • Bookends in The Gospel of Mark and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders

    Some commentators see an inclusio in Mark’s “Son of God” title (1:1 / – / 15:39) and the tearing imagery (1:10 / – / 15:38). Would’ve been cool if, writing as the young man, he began with: “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the empty tomb, I had only… — read more

  • Gospel “Communities”

    It’s one of those words that can expand and contract, “community.” Depending on the context, I can use “the Markan community” to suggest a network of hive-minded members whose shared values, rituals, oral traditions, etc went into the making of their own Gospel (a collaborative effort, obviously). And when someone challenges my broad conception–here’s looking… — read more

  • The Farrer Luke’s Plan

    A draft page from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov reminds me of something the Farrer Luke might do in his planning stage. If only we could find something like it! — read more

  • Reza Aslan’s Zealot

    What motivates Reza Aslan to allege the historical Jesus was a Zealot, a violent revolutionary who engaged in treason against Rome? Some history’s in order: Reza is a former Christian, now a Muslim. And what do we know about Mohammed, the founder of Islam? Unfortunately he was (among other things) a conquering war-lord (and I’ll… — read more

  • Q: It’s Working!

    Q has explanatory power. In Q, the Earliest Gospel, after bringing attention to inadequacies in the Griesbach and Farrer hypotheses, Kloppy writes of the 2 document hypothesis: “It works. It produces an account of the Gospels that makes sense. To assume that Matthew and Luke used a second document to supplement what they had from… — read more

  • The Gospels as Wiki Pages

    The Gospels were the first Wikipedia pages; any literate Christian could edit them (under the watchful eyes of apostolic moderators). Later the emergent church discovered they could use Peter’s keys to have the Gospel pages locked. — read more

  • Historical Reliability of the Gospels and Playground Equipment

    A mistake that modern historians make: “The idea that Jesus, after taking a beating that severe, could lug his cross to Golgotha is unbelievable. I’m pretty sure you go comatose after soldiers tear half your back out. And am I supposed to believe that two revolutionaries would–in their agony–shout insults at someone they’d never met?… — read more

  • Lightning and Thunder at the End of Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise

    I snatched an old CD at the Shiner resale shop, early Rubinstein performances of the seven published polonaises. When I’m in a store and I see anything with Chopin on the cover–it belongs to me! As for this find, I don’t care too much for the muffled recording quality and Rubinstein’s playing (for the most… — read more

  • Why We Still Remember Vladimir Horowitz

    I think one reason Vladimir Horowitz was such a memorable pianist can be explained thus:  There are some truly great pieces floating around in the world of classical music, and you’ll often hear pianists make recordings of the same piece, e.g. Chopin’s Ballade in G-minor. These pianists listen to each others’ recordings and begin to… — read more

  • Mark Wrote First–Ask Nietzsche!

    An attempt at an a priori argument for Markan priority: Assuming the Synoptics were written for three communities, each with their own Gospel, what then? Nietzsche made something like the following observation: the more primitive a community is–think nascent, not fully established and robust, its members experiencing insecurity and weakness–the more seriously it takes the… — read more

  • Interpolations | Tell-Tale Signs

    Eleven hints a passage may have been interpolated (i.e. inserted into a book by a later writer): 1. The passage differs physically from the surrounding text, e.g. by way of different ink/handwriting, it looks squeezed in between two lines, etc. 2. The passage isn’t present in some version(s) of the book (often earlier versions). 7.… — read more