Oldest(?) Quran fragments found in Birmingham.

[Razgovory]

You will have to explain to Tom Holland that he is not a serious academic.  This isn't a particular safe view to hold these days so I am not surprised a lot of Academics are not eager to go public with their views given that people are being killed over cartoons.  You may have no reason to disbelieve, but the reasons some academic do doubt the story is true is well explained in Holland's book.

http://www.amazon.ca/In-The-Shadow-Of-Sword/dp/0349122350

Well, since you seem to be in a better mood of admitting mistakes, do you endorse the idea that Muhammad was fictional as forwarded in this book you linked.  This is a yes or no question.  I do not require, nor desire anything else in response to this post.

[Norgy]

Holland popularises history and writes well. As long as you keep some critical sense when reading his works, I'd say he is one of the best storytellers alive.

"Milennium" was a great read.

[crazy canuck]

You will have to explain to Tom Holland that he is not a serious academic.  This isn't a particular safe view to hold these days so I am not surprised a lot of Academics are not eager to go public with their views given that people are being killed over cartoons.  You may have no reason to disbelieve, but the reasons some academic do doubt the story is true is well explained in Holland's book.

http://www.amazon.ca/In-The-Shadow-Of-Sword/dp/0349122350

Well, since you seem to be in a better mood of admitting mistakes, do you endorse the idea that Muhammad was fictional as forwarded in this book you linked.  This is a yes or no question.  I require, nor desire nothing else in response to this post.

Raz, it must be nice to live in a world where everything is black and white.  There may well have been a person named Muhammad.  The oral history of Islam certainly says he did exist and that he dictated/wrote the Quran.  To what extent that oral tradition or which oral tradition is correct is the subject of much scholarly debate.  Go visit any university website that has a decent department of near eastern studies and you will see that is so.

If you cant accept that just because a religious text says something happened doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen that way then there is not much that can be done.

[Razgovory]

I live in a world where a question: "Do you endorse an idea?",  can be answered in one word.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the text of a religion I am not an adherent of.  It has to do with fringe theories proposed by a novelist.  It also has to do with being honest with yourself and others, because at the end of the day, "do I think this?" is a yes or no question.  It is always a yes or no question.  If you think it's possible but not certain, then the answer is "no".

I won't be back for a while.  I have to go to Indiana.

[The Minsky Moment]

I won't be back for a while.  I have to go to Indiana.

You could just stop posting a few days, no need to go to such extremes.

[Admiral Yi]

You could just stop posting a few days, no need to go to such extremes.

Penance is good for the soul.

[grumbler]

You could just stop posting a few days, no need to go to such extremes.

Penance is good for the soul.

Penance, Indiana?  Never heard of it.

[Eddie Teach]

I won't be back for a while.  I have to go to Indiana.

I'm fairly sure they have internet there.

[Barrister]

I live in a world where a question: "Do you endorse an idea?",  can be answered in one word.

There are many questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

I don't think this is one of them.

[The Minsky Moment]

I live in a world where a question: "Do you endorse an idea?",  can be answered in one word.

"Maybe"

[Queequeg]

Wasn't The Galilee itself poor but quite mixed? I listened to an iTunes U Stanford course on the historical Jesus and they talked quite a bit about how odd Galilee was compared to the rest of Israel.

It was odd - it wasn't a traditional Israelite area.  It was conquered by one the Hasmoneans and converted.  That was about 150 years earlier but still significant.  There was a big city - Tiberias.  There was another lesser city not far from Nazareth.  Nazareth itself though was a dinky village.  Jesus was a laborer.  His followers were simple people.  He seems to have focused on simple people.  Capernaum is the most significant settlement that he seems to have been active in.  It was basically a fishing village.

I hadn't realized how expansionary the Hasamonean Kingdom was.  Herod was apparently half-Arab, half-Edomite (!!!!!!!!!!!) which just blew my mind. 

How wealthy and well educated was the Kingdom?  I hadn't really even thought of it much before.  I know the Artaxiad Dynasty in Armenia had an incredibly mixed culture-court Aramaic, personal ties to the old Persian nobility, a complex semi-Monotheistic Zoroastrianism that blended with local cults, appreciation of Greek culture-and the Hasamoneans seem quite similar. 

[Malthus]

Wasn't The Galilee itself poor but quite mixed? I listened to an iTunes U Stanford course on the historical Jesus and they talked quite a bit about how odd Galilee was compared to the rest of Israel.

It was odd - it wasn't a traditional Israelite area.  It was conquered by one the Hasmoneans and converted.  That was about 150 years earlier but still significant.  There was a big city - Tiberias.  There was another lesser city not far from Nazareth.  Nazareth itself though was a dinky village.  Jesus was a laborer.  His followers were simple people.  He seems to have focused on simple people.  Capernaum is the most significant settlement that he seems to have been active in.  It was basically a fishing village.

I hadn't realized how expansionary the Hasamonean Kingdom was.  Herod was apparently half-Arab, half-Edomite (!!!!!!!!!!!) which just blew my mind. 

How wealthy and well educated was the Kingdom?  I hadn't really even thought of it much before.  I know the Artaxiad Dynasty in Armenia had an incredibly mixed culture-court Aramaic, personal ties to the old Persian nobility, a complex semi-Monotheistic Zoroastrianism that blended with local cults, appreciation of Greek culture-and the Hasamoneans seem quite similar.

Judging by the truly enormous scale of Herod's building-projects (that still litter the landscape in those parts), he must have had cash a-plenty. Not sure of his sources of income, though. 

[Queequeg]

What would it have looked like militarily?  Would there have been Hasamonean phalangists?  I'd never thought of this for some reason. 

[The Minsky Moment]

1) Herod was not a Hasmonean.  He actually killed off the last of the line, assuming Josephus reports accurately.

2) The development of Jerusalem as a central pilgrimage site came quite late.  The income generated from pilgrims was a important source of income, and also explains why Herod' building program focused on the Temple.  Also Herod benefitted from the fact that his realm - which encompassed several kingdoms and districts - was by his time well-integrated into a Roman organized trading system at or near the peak of its affluence.

[Malthus]

1) Herod was not a Hasmonean.  He actually killed off the last of the line, assuming Josephus reports accurately.

2) The development of Jerusalem as a central pilgrimage site came quite late.  The income generated from pilgrims was a important source of income, and also explains why Herod' building program focused on the Temple.  Also Herod benefitted from the fact that his realm - which encompassed several kingdoms and districts - was by his time well-integrated into a Roman organized trading system at or near the peak of its affluence.

Herod's chief building accomplishment was the reno'd Temple, but he built stuff all over his kingdom - from a first-rate new harbour in Caesarea to his spiffy mountaintop bolt-hole fortress of Masada. It is incredible how much sheer stuff he built, he must have been rolling in coin from the pilgrim trade and other sources.