Freethought & Rationalism Archive

skepticdude · 05-14-2010, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirTristanC

The fact that the gospels were created anonymously does not mean they were intended purely for current believers. If anything it allows them to be taught as the word of God himself, thereby encouraging non-believers to believe. Without a verifiable author, the average mind jumps to the first source they can think of associating with the bible: God. Ask the average person who wrote the Gospels and they will answer with "I dunno, probably God speaking through someone." This, despite the lack of evidence that God had anything to do with the Gospels.

Can you cite any Christian scholar or bible commentator that agrees, and says the authors of the gospels deliberately hid their identity to make the gospels appear more trustworthy to skeptics?

mountainman · 05-14-2010, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skepticdude

Can you cite any Christian scholar or bible commentator that agrees, and says the authors of the gospels deliberately hid their identity to make the gospels appear more trustworthy to skeptics?

From Roger's Website it would appear, at least on a superficial level, that the Neoplatonic philosopher and author Porphry may have said something along these lines. Trustworthiness is not mentioned, but the statements of skeptical belief are certainly present...................

Quote:

"The evangelists were fiction-writers - not observers or eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus" (p.32; Apocrit. II.12 - Hoffmann).

"But he with bitterness, and with very grim look, bent forward and declared to us yet more savagely that the Evangelists were inventors and not historians of the events concerning Jesus." (p.38, Crafer).

Behind these Eusebian cited extracts from the work of Porphyry which does not survive we may find not Porphyry, but Eusebius. Thats how I am viewing the comments of Porphyry on the "New and Strange religion" for the moment.

SirTristanC · 05-20-2010, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skepticdude

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirTristanC

The fact that the gospels were created anonymously does not mean they were intended purely for current believers. If anything it allows them to be taught as the word of God himself, thereby encouraging non-believers to believe. Without a verifiable author, the average mind jumps to the first source they can think of associating with the bible: God. Ask the average person who wrote the Gospels and they will answer with "I dunno, probably God speaking through someone." This, despite the lack of evidence that God had anything to do with the Gospels.

Can you cite any Christian scholar or bible commentator that agrees, and says the authors of the gospels deliberately hid their identity to make the gospels appear more trustworthy to skeptics?

I did not say it was intentional, did I? I believe I stated that it "allows" for the people to believe (incorrectly) that it is the word of God. You would be surprised how easy it is to attribute something to the wrong source. For instance, the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." is attributed to Star Trek, but that is incorrect. It is actually just a common mocking phrase created as a way of teasing Trekkies, and was never said in the series.

So it is possible for a literary work with no author to be attributed to anyone, and in this particular case, given the context of the work in question, the most common author people accept in their minds is "God".

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.