Casey's Superfluous
Chapter 3 Casey’s Superfluous ‘Scholarship’ Ehrman’s book arguing for what is already the consensus view is so under- whelming that the now late Maurice Casey found it necessary to also weigh in on the debate, with what would be his last book, Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? Casey added nothing useful to the discussion, but for com- pleteness, the only other book of recent times written by a secular New Testa- ment specialist arguing for the Historical Jesus ought to be considered. With this book published in 2014, Casey acknowledges Ehrman’s “bold attempt”, but alluded to the latter’s “regrettable mistakes”.1 Casey aims to primarily “set out the main arguments for the existence as a historical figure of Jesus”, and secondarily, to refute the claims of the opposing mythicists.2 Regrettably, he completely misrepresents mythicism, mythicists, and mythicist approaches, and, like Ehrman, seems to completely overlook the more defensible agnostic position. Beginning rather poorly, Casey fails to outline his own method, and, like Ehrman, he also relies heavily on hypothetical sources. He defends against the problem of Paul, though somewhat unnecessarily, as he argues for the Gospels’ primacy by employing radically unorthodox dating methods. Casey finally at- tempts to engage with mythicist claims, though he focuses on the more ama- teurish mythicists, with barely a coherent word about Earl Doherty, who at the time had presented one of the most convincing cases for mythicism thus far (despite technically being an amateur himself). The tone of Casey’s work is also unprofessional and, at times, quite crude.
[Show full text]