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Rook Hawkins - Critical Historian
Rook Hawkins is a historian who is currently undergoing the process of Peer Review for the publication of his upcoming book Reinterpreting Scripture. He has been studying the subject of Classical Civilization and comparative religious studies for the past 8 years. He is also the co-founder of the popular internet radio show, The Rational Response Squad.
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Hershel Shanks and the Biblical Archaeology Review
2008-05-05 19:11:07
I have been meaning to write an article on a few of the entries in the most recent BAR. No, not the Browning Automatic Rifle, I’m talking about the Biblical Archaeology Review. Although some of you would probably find the first more entertaining, the latter is really the more important and relevant thing to discuss, as far as I’m concerned. Especially in light of the guest appearance this Wednesday night on our show, Dr. Hector Avalos, and his fascinating book, The End of Biblical Studies. I generally read through this periodical, not only because I find the articles compelling, but the Magazine as a whole attempts to break the chain of evangelism by presenting—and I mean it really tries hard—the most scientific articles it can find, or that have been submitted. Some are unbelievably inaccurate, and at times the Magazine editor, Hershel Shanks, will allow his Jewish-religious viewpoints to interfere with his choice of articles, and often his choice of words.read ...
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Conversation with Jehovah's Witness [Part II]
2008-04-23 01:42:39
(Name withheld), I hope you and your family are doing well. I'm going to respond to your points paragraph at a time. I will be as direct and to the point as I can, so please do not mistake my blunt responses for rudeness. I am just short on time since I am spending so much of it on my book. Below I will separate your paragraphs from mine. (This may seem long but I take this subject very seriously. This is, after all, what I do for a living; as a historian it is my job to correct false presuppositions and educate people on current trends in Biblical scholarship and archaeology) <<<Rook,read more
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Book Status as of 4/16/08
2008-04-17 01:52:33
Well its been a year now since I first started writing with the intent to publish a book. In that year a lot of good has happened. As many of you now know, I have been submitting my book for review with the hopes of getting published by an academic press. This good fortune has been brought about with the help of a friend, and it has allowed me to refocus my book from the original 22 chapters down to 10, significantly shortening the amount of research and time I would have otherwise needed. Initially I was expecting my book to pass around 600-700 pages. Now we're looking at a length closer to 300 including notes, bibliography and appendices. read more
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Recent Discussion with Jehovah's Witness
2008-04-15 21:36:29
As many of you know I work part time at a bookstore because (a) I don't make enough with RRS to support all my bills and (b) I love books and enjoy selling them to people. Well, yesterday morning as I was helping somebody in the religion section, a customer asked me for books on illnesses. I walked her over to the section and pointed out some books of interest to her, and as I was walking away she stated affirmatively that she had managed to get her son to read, and that her job was accomplished for the day even if she didn't find the book she was looking for. After suggesting that I probably read a lot of fiction because I work in a bookstore, I told her that I spent most of my time reading ancient fiction, being that my full time job was that I was a historian. read more
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Josiah Concept Ministries and the Historical Christ Hypothesis
2008-03-12 10:05:29
Josiah Concept Ministries and the Historical Christ Hypothesis By Rook Hawkins After my article on the problems of the historical Jesus and the Gospels as fictional narratives,[1] I was worried that Christians would be afraid to refute these positions, and therefore I would not be able to generate the dialog that I so wanted to have. Thankfully, one Christian, Cory Tucholski,[2] has taken up this charge to defend his faith against my articles. read more
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A Reply to a Troll
2008-03-08 00:45:21
What I am not, apparently, is a historian. There is no truth behind this jocularity, but there is a serious accusation that needs to be addressed. In a recent thread, posted by somebody who exhibits a severe naivety to logical discourse, I have been called out, as it were. In any case, this is a response, although concise as it may be, to the presupposition of this little nimrod (used in the Biblical sense, of course) for everything abrasive. Three headers, or points, are situated throughout the post. They are so called “What is Research?”, “What is a Historian?”, and “What is peer review?”. In all three of these categories, the author has listed examples of the criteria that need to be met in order to be sufficiently considered an expert. In my examination of the three topics, I have not found a single criterion that would somehow invalidate my position as a Historian. read more
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My Lecture on Jesus at FSGP
2008-03-06 22:42:02
You can watch the video of my presentation "Misquoting Scripture" at the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia here.
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The Jesus Mythicist Position: Revised 2008
2008-02-25 21:54:38
The Jesus Mythicist Position: Revised 2008 By Rook Hawkins (1) A Brief Introduction to the Revised Article About a year and a half ago, I started a campaign to educate people about Jesus mythicism. When I had first started working on the campaign I was not as well prepared as I am now. I have to chalk that up to inexperience. When somebody says “a lot can happen in a year”, I will consider what they have to say, because they aren’t kidding. A lot has happened in a year and a half that I felt a revision of this article was a necessity. read more
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On Paul and Identity
2008-02-25 07:27:04
On Paul and Identity By Rook Hawkins TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTIONread more
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Which Jesus: A Legend with a Multiple Personality Disorder?
2008-02-15 06:54:51
Which Jesus: A Legend with a Multiple Personality Disorder?
By Rook Hawkins
Recently I wrote an article on the genre of the Gospels, and determined that the biographical genre of the Gospels is in serious doubt. The Gospels can not longer be considered a history of the life of Jesus. In this article I also brought up the position that modern scholars attempting to find the historical Jesus in the Gospel narratives are in fact fracturing the Gospels into specific sections and verses, while also using personal bias to determine which verse is ‘historical’ and which is not. Although I put forth the probable position that the Gospels are meant to be read as literary fiction, I purposefully left several questions unanswered; who wrote them and why were they written?
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Jesus
Legend
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Tom Cruise and the "Jesus Meme"
2008-02-07 07:00:58
Tom Cruise and the "Jesus Meme"
By Rook Hawkins
In a recent wave of the viral media expose, Tom Cruise and the now infamous Scientology Indoctrination video (you should definitely watch the video before reading the rest of this), which has been systematically been removed from the net where ever the Scientologists have found them. What is the most interesting part of the video is not the maniacal laughter and psychotic expressions Cruise gives throughout the video, it is the way Cruise is portrayed by the film directors of the video itself.
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Jesus
Tom Cruise
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Recent Debate on Josephus and Jesus
2008-02-07 02:18:51
Recently, I have been having an exchange in my other Wordpress blog concerning my post on Josephus (which you can find here and here). So far the exchange has been pretty friendly, despite the disagreements. I thought it would benefit everyone to read the exchange. I'll also add some additional comments on at the end.
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Debate
Jesus
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Josephus and the Testimonium: Is it Evidence of Jesus?
2008-02-05 03:18:28
Josephus: What's the Deal?
By Rook Hawkins
Far too often apologists and evangelicals bring up Josephus as a source for a historical Jesus. This is a continuing error among scholars, and it is fueled by secular scholars who are either persuaded by pseudo-scientific evaluations of the texts, or for reasons dealing only in their presuppositions, such as those discussed above. The Testimonium Flavianum is generally brought up by both apologists and historical Jesus questers more than any other document. Although other supposed mentions of Jesus exist, the subject, so as to not seem as if an Argument from Silence is the only means at which one can attain the position held in this book, will be limited to the Testimonium due to its importance and scope of usage. For this reason, included here in this section is a specific refutation towards the use of this passage, as will be provided ample evidence for its entire dismissal as an interpolation.
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Evidence
Jesus
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Biblical Languages and Dating
2008-02-04 23:00:18
QUESTION:
This question is in two parts: (1) What languages are the oldest copies of the books of the Bible found in, and (2) what language is it believed to be originally written in? I would also like to know why many different books of the bible were written in different languages originally.
ANSWER:
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Biblical
Dating
Languages
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An Example of Jewish Fiction Writing in Antiquity
2008-02-04 12:01:24
Question:
If the Gospels are literary fictions, can you give us any other examples of a fictitious narrative written by Hellenized Jews to reflect reinterpretation of scripture with Greek influence?
Atheist Answer
ANSWER FROM ROOK HAWKINS: Yes. There are quite a few examples I could give, but because I’m short on time because my book demands so much from me, I’ll use the most simple example with the most groupings I can list without having to go into a whole lot of details. The book of Tobit. Tobit is, for lack of a better way to put it, edifying fictions. The story uses very specific literary motifs and tropes, as well as Greek folklore (the dangerous bride, the greatful dead, etc…). Nothing in this story is meant to be taken as historical narrative.
I’ll lay out some basic bullet points for you concerning Tobit and Homer. There are four main characters in both the Odyssey and Tobit (Mainly books 1-4 of the Odyssey).
HOMER
(1) Odysseus (father)
(2) Telemac ...
Fiction
Jewish
Writing
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What is a Gospel?
2008-01-30 20:11:37
WHAT IS A GOSPEL?
By Rook Hawkins
What is a Gospel? For the last few hundred years, New Testament scholars, particularly in Germany, have been asking themselves this very question. Are they the biographies of a miraculous savior written by those who knew him and were closest to him? If that is the case, were they redacted by later Christians to include specific dogmatic and doctrinal ideals? Or, were the Gospels written up to centuries after a historical, human Jesus, by which Christians embellished his story into fictional history? And If that is what they are, do the discrepancies between the four Gospels represent the authors own theological perspectives? If so, how would one accurately determine which perspective is that of the authors and which is the perspective of the so-called real Jesus?
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New Book Introduction. Revised.
2008-01-30 00:29:43
To make this absolutely clear, nobody is to reproduce this introduction in any way. It is copyrighted 2008, by Rook Hawkins (me). This is also subject to change.
INTRODUCTION
“We can now say with considerable confidence that
the Bible is not a history of anyone's past.” – Thomas L. Thompson
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Book
Introduction
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RRS Cars
2008-01-03 18:41:28
Now we have 3 non-working cars at the RRS house. But, we're making sure our websites work.
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Cars
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Jewish Assimilation into Greek Culture
2007-11-11 08:00:26
Jewish Assimilation into Greek Culture
By Rook Hawkins
Recently, I published several blogs on the mythicist position. One was in response to the recent occult-like followers of Acharya S on the radical claim of hers that both Krishna and Buddha had established some sort of influence on the development of the Jesus mythos. Why this is near impossible has already been discussed in that blog, and thee are other threads dealing with said topic in my Jesus Mythicist Campaign forum, and won’t be touched on much more in this entry. However, with the recent blog to Rick Hillegas who published in American Atheist magazine recently, I felt it necessary to explain what counts as credible acculturation and socio-cultural assimilation.
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Culture
Jewish
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Problems with Acharya S: A Brief Review
2007-10-21 10:27:58
Over the past few weeks I have been getting an increase if fanboys (literally) of Acharya S, who pour in from who knows where (perhaps the Raves and Shindigs are letting out earlier then usual?). Perhaps they mean well, but this is really what the Jesus Mythicist Campaign was meant to expose - the poor and sloppy scholarship of some of the mythicist defenders out there. Among those who would discredit the movement, I feel Acharaya S is a valid candidate who has been among other things sloppy.
Now, let me clarify by saying I think Acharya is a great woman, who seems to be genuine in her desires to expose the flaws of Jesus historicists. And she is definitely a person with a quality personality. But, scholarship is not a popularity contest, despite what Bart Ehrman thinks. Scholarship is based on foundations of scientific observation and inductive reasoning that seems to be missing from the works of Acharya S (although I have yet to read her new book, with a preface by Robert M. Price, w ...
Review
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I Came to Atheism by Accident, and I Decided to Stay
2007-08-05 22:05:38
I CAME TO ATHEISM BY ACCIDENT, AND I DECIDED TO STAY
By Rook Hawkins
Looking back from where I am at now, my life has always been one of luck. I am one of only three brothers to survive past one year of age, I have the most caring and understanding—if not down right supportive—family a guy could ever hope for, and I’ve really never been denied anything I’ve sought after save perhaps a full career serving my country which is something I think I’ll never get over. My parents did divorce when I was four years old, and even among the normal bickering that parents do when they think they know what is best for their child, I never really felt like I was in a bad place, even if my childhood was something other then what would be considered ‘normal.’
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Accident
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Teaser of my Jesus Tomb blog entry
2007-03-08 00:23:21
I. INTRODUCTION
Mark smiled broadly as he walked towards his next class. He had been waiting for this all day long, since he first had witnessed the great speech given by a new political party the night before. He had anxiously waited in study hall that morning, and later he picked at his food and tapped a fork on the lunch table, hoping these periods would pass swiftly and bring about his Social Studies course. But the time had passed by slowly.
Even still, he had finally made it. And although he was slightly hunched over due to extensive homework assignments he had picked up during the various courses of the day he didn’t let it bother him. All week perhaps he would have scrapped his feet and moved a little slower, but today he tried to move at a heightened pace.
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Blog
Blog Entry
Jesus
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The Resurrection and It's Problems: A Blog Essay
2007-01-28 14:35:46
If the HTML is all over the place on this you can find this here: http://rookthehistorian.blogspot.com
Introduction to the Resurrection
For almost two thousand years Christians have had faith in the idea of some form of resurrection. From Paul to Clement, Tertullian to Aquinas there has been this idea of the living dead, on a spiritual plane of existence namely Heaven. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the resurrection "of the flesh" means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our 'mortal body' will come to life again. And also, "We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day."[1]
Christians feel that as Christ rose from the dead, so too will they and live forever in paradise glorifying the Lord of Hosts. Another side bonus to this resurrection idea is that although ...
Blog
Essay
Resurrection
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Frank Walton Has Been Warned
2007-01-08 20:23:28
Frank Walton AKA Atheismsucks has been roaming the internet in an attempt to discredit me and slander my name. Normally he is small peanuts, but this has gone on long enough. He states in his blog that I have plagiarized Dennis McKinsey and in doing so has committed a grave error. On top of this, he has spread this rumor around on Myspace and blogs of friends of the RRS for some time now. But this is about to end one way or another.
The fact is, Dennis McKinsey is a good friend of mine, who has supported me and I him over the past several years in our endeavors. When Dennis was looking to get on Internet Radio, I was more then willing to help him get on Freethoughtmedia.com. He even guest stared on the Rational Response Squad where he vocalized his friendship with me, and our history. This show is available for free download on my profile in the playlist box. It is show number 2. In the event that it has been bumped for newer content, here is a link to listen: http://www.ratio ...
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Blowhard on Myspace Makes Outrageous Claims
2006-12-31 08:14:36
So I get home today and have two messages on my Myspace blog (www.myspace.com/rookhawkins) and they're from this guy who claims to be friends with another Christian I ran into. Somehow this Christian's posts got deleted by Myspace (So did my two-hour responce to him and I don't know why). Here is my response to him:
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I don't know what you're talking about, but I didn't delete any post - in fact I replied to it here on my blog. I'm surprised to find his post and mine both gone - but I promise you they were both here and I was waiting for him to reply back to me - apparently I see why it didn't happen.
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Myspace
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The Pleasure Cruise
2006-10-04 06:22:42
Once in a while I post story clips from something I'm writing, and I suppose now is one of those times. It can be somewhat graphic, so be warned ahead of time.
The Pleasure Cruise
He ran his finger tips over the curvature of her shoulder, the feel of her silky skin sent electric jolts through his body and into his loins. Just the touch of her excited him, his imagination sent soaring in untold fantastical directions, the things he wanted to do to her. They were the gentle whispers in his ear that nobody else would ever learn of.
She faced him now; her soft, violet-eyed gaze made him dizzy, but he still found strength enough to focus on her. She didn’t have to move at all, he appreciated every inch of her, both inside and out. Yet it was the fact that she did move that made his heart want to leap out from his chest, and had he not been so enthralled by her he might have found that his palms had become sweaty from the heat of their passions.
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Pleasure
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Prayer
2006-09-25 22:49:07
Prayer is the placebo that religion gives for an illness it created.
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Prayer
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Right back at them...
2006-08-26 12:12:47
Here's my refutation of the same person who called me useless, and told me I was a fraud. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and really kicked it to them.
Greetings and salutations and all that.
First let me start by apologizing if I came off as rude and arrogant. If I did, it was merely because I am those two things. I'm not afraid of what I am, and I'm definitely not afraid to admit what I am to anybody.
I seek, tehrefore, not to apologize for what I am, but for the manner in which you didn't deserve to be treated. There was no reason for me to jump on you and proclaim superior status. I don't know you. That was wrong of me.
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