I already cited an actual academic article by Craig Evans. He’s one of the top NT scholars alive. Evans has published a number of books and articles that deal with the Jesus’ burial. He has personal knowledge of what other scholars are saying about the subject. So when Evans says that no one buys Ehrman’s thesis, you can take that mean pretty much everybody who writes on the topic. It’s not a question of who disagrees with Ehrman, but who actually agrees with him
Blog posts don’t mean anything. Most people don’t have blogs, NT scholars included. They care about what other scholars publish in actual books and articles. Ehrman trying to rebut his critics by using blog posts is a sign that his thesis is weak. If he had some strong ideas to back him up he would have published them. As long as he doesn’t do that he’ll continue to be ignored.
Yes, I am claiming that he is either ignorant or willfully mispreprenting his audience. I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t cite someone like Jodi Magness (what’s particularly galling is that she teaches at the same university that Ehrman does). Other scholars include Craig Evans, John Granger Cook, Rachel Hachlili, Shimon Gibson. And those are just the specialists on the subject.
This isn’t true. Ulpian specifically says “The bodies of those who are condemned to death should not be refused their relatives; and the Divine Augustus, in the Tenth Book of his Life, said that this rule had been observed. At present, the bodies of those who have been punished are only buried when this has been requested and permission granted; and sometimes it is not permitted, especially where persons have been convicted of high treason. Even the bodies of those who have been sentenced to be burned can be claimed, in order that their bones and ashes, after having been collected, may be buried.”
This is why Ehrman has to claim that Jesus was executed for high treason. Ulpian states that this law was effect since Augustus. There’s no indication that it changed and scholars think that traditions relating to burial are stable over time. There’s also a general pattern of the Romans allowing burial of crucifixion victims when circumstances called for it. Verres took bribes in exchange for letting corpses to be taken down. Cicero talks about empty crosses. Josephus mentions it. Philo mentions it. Jehonanan was a Jew crucified by the Romans. Just because there’s no specific mention of political criminals doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Historians look for patterns, not super specific patterns that allow them shift goalposts whenever they feel like it. What you should be asking instead is where is the positive evidence for Ehrman’s thesis. Where are all the archaeological remains of political criminals buried in the ground? We’ve found stuff elsehwere, why not Palestine? Where in our texts does it state that Roman never ever made exceptions in 1st century Palestine, even for political criminals?
The Gospels indicate that Joseph is a member of the Sanhedrin and an admirer of Jesus. There’s no need to separate the two by him acting as a private citizen. He acts on behalf of the Jewish council by burying the body but does it in a rock tomb. All the Sanhedrin would care about was that the burial was dishonorable. The major two elements for this would be not being buried in the family tomb and no mourning. This happens in the Gospels so the Sanhedrin wouldn’t really care that Joseph buried Jesus in a rock tomb. In fact, a new tomb makes the burial more dishonorable. Furthermore, Magness thinks that her position is compatible with the empty tomb theory. The women and disciples would be referring to the empty loculus in the tomb, not the empty tomb itself.
I didn’t ad hominem them. I state that they aren’t reflective of general opinion. Corley published her article in a Westar journal, which is way out there in terms of skeptical biblical studies. I didn’t call Maurice Casey a reverse fundamentalist either. I said that one particular book was an example of reverse fundamentalism. And I already explained why Casey is wrong. He uses a quote from Barrett that doesn’t actually support his point. His argument also relies on a specific set of charges against Jesus for Roman restrictions against bystanders to be in effect. I cited a number of scholars that disagreed with said charges. I should also note that Gospels are some of the more in depth descriptions of crucifixion that we actually have, so Casey doesn’t have counter examples could actually cite against them.
Ehrman is reposting something he wrote before 2016 which wasn’t in response to Evan’s latest article. The article I mention is part of a book and is much more detailed than the link to the website