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S3E5 - Methods of Approaching Ancient Text

Risen Jesus — Mike Licona

S3E5 - Methods of Approaching Ancient Text

August 21, 2019
Risen Jesus
Risen JesusMike Licona

In this episode, Dr. Licona discusses various ways we can approach ancient texts when studying history. Is history classified as "science"? How does probability factor into our view of history?

The Risen Jesus podcast with Dr. Mike Licona equips people to have a deeper understanding of the Gospel, history, and New Testament studies. The program is hosted by Kurt Jaros and produced in partnership with Defenders Media.

[0:00] Intro

[0:44] How to Approach a Text

[6:06] Neutrality Toward Text

[8:06] Methodological Credulity

[10:07] Other Historical Claims of Divinity

[12:07] History as a Science

[15:47] Arguments from Statistical Inference

[16:49] Bayes’ Theorem

[20:17] Viewer Question: Matthew’s Little Apocalypse

[24:01] Outro

website | http://risenjesus.com

facebook | http://www.fb.me/michael.r.licona/

twitter | http://www.twitter.com/michaellicona

Donate: If you enjoy the RJ Podcast and want to keep the content coming, please join our team of supporters at http://bit.ly/SupportRisenJesus

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