dan mcclellan

Rebutting Dan Mcclellan’s Attempt at Debunking the Virgin Birth

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You know it’s Christmas when you get your annual lump of coal with the whole ‘Matthew invented the virgin birth’ schtick. This time, it’s from TikTok’s favorite cynical biblical scholar, Dan McClellan: The virgin birth is a tradition that seems to have developed decades after Jesus’s death, primarily because of a poor translation of a passage from the Hebrew Bible…. The earliest writings we have about Jesus, the writings of Paul and the gospel of Mark, say absolutely nothing at all about any virgin birth. Paul’s really only concerned with the resurrected Jesus, and Mark’s story starts with the beginning of his ministry and his baptism. It’s not until after that that people are starting … Read more

Is Inspiration a Distorting Perception? A Response To Dan McClellan

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Recently in a video biblical scholar Dan McClellan said the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture is a serious and harmful distortion. If you’re not familiar with Dan, he’s known on TikTok for debunking biblical misconceptions. I find him to be pretty hit-and-miss, but he’s clearly well-informed about current biblical scholarship. Dan: “The most distorting assumption that’s imposed on the Bible is inspiration….The classic biblical proof text for the doctrine of inspiration is 2 Timothy 3:16, which says, “All scripture is theopneustos,” which literally means “God-breathed.” Now, there are three issues with the use of this passage as a proof text for inspiration. The first issue is that it was not written by Paul. It … Read more

Is Jesus Alive?