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Old 06-08-2006, 05:15 PM   #631
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Originally Posted by Didymus
Do you really think that all those allusions to scripture just found their way into Mark's gospel by accident? Or through his subconscious?
Not all of them. Some of them, though, are so loose that they look analogous to someone familiar with the KJV offhandly using KJV language without thinking about it, simply because they are so familiar with it. Also, it isn't necessarily Mark's subconscious that we are talking about. There would have been plenty of other Jewish Christians making up oral traditions who were also familiar with the OT. In other words, some of the allusions look like they come from someone who isn't really trying to make allusions but just perenially has the OT in the back of one's head.

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And you don't think Mark himself would have have engaged in some "very forced applications of the OT"? Do you think that constructing a plausible gospel from ancient texts would be easy?
If one is constructing a gospel from the OT, then one can tailor the events in the gospels so that they are a good fit to the OT.

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Are you claiming that the great majority of Markan passages don't reflect OT scripture? Or what?
The fundamental problem that I see is that you are trying to go from Mark reflecting the OT in his text to Mark intentionally deriving his text from the OT, but some of the ways that the OT gets reflected are not very well explained by intentional derivation.

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What I don't understand is this: Why would you assume the source for a Markan passage is oral tradition when you have a) no evidence of a pre-Markan oral tradition and b) a corresponding OT passage staring you in the face?
See above.

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As I have said repeatedly, Mark's readers would have regarded the Pillars' role as Jesus' companions as previously unknown information that Paul didn't record. If they accepted Mark's Jesus as historical, they would have thought, just as you do, that Paul had his reasons.
You are presuming that the primary way that second-generation Christians would have learned their doctrines would have been via Paul's letters, rather that through the community tradition of the previous generation of Christians.

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I am astonished that you would thrice characterize them as "letters addressing local church problems." I think I can safely say that no reputable theologian, church historian or bible scholar would deprecate them in that way.
That is a description, not a deprecation, and in fact, that is a description that reputable Bible scholars would find apt. They are letters; that is why they are called "epistles." They are addressed to local churches: the church at Corinth, the church in Galatia, etc. Notice that in 1 Corinthians 7:1, Paul writes, "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote ...." The Corinthians broached an issue, and his answer to it follows. The letter to the Galatians deals with the problem of the Galatians turning to a "different gospel" (1:6). In 1 Thessalonians, there is another "Now concerning" (5:1).

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Originally Posted by jjramsey
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And disrespect the chosen companions and hearers of Jesus in full view of his congregations?
See Galatians 2:11-13:

"But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy."
So how is that showing respect for Peter's authority?Or acknowledging Peter's familiarity with the teachings of Jesus?
Obviously, it isn't showing respect. I think I see why you have the smiley, though. If I read you right, you seem to think that Paul's obvious disrespect for Peter implies that Peter was not a follower of Jesus in the flesh, because Paul would never have give a follower of Jesus in the flesh such treatment. :huh:
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Old 06-08-2006, 06:27 PM   #632
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Originally Posted by jjramsey
Not all of them. Some of them, though, are so loose that they look analogous to someone familiar with the KJV offhandly using KJV language without thinking about it, simply because they are so familiar with it. Also, it isn't necessarily Mark's subconscious that we are talking about. There would have been plenty of other Jewish Christians making up oral traditions who were also familiar with the OT. In other words, some of the allusions look like they come from someone who isn't really trying to make allusions but just perenially has the OT in the back of one's head.
If the writer(s) of GMark are using KJV language then I'll have to modify my assumptions about when GMark was written.
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Old 06-08-2006, 06:44 PM   #633
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Originally Posted by jjramsey
Not all of them. Some of them, though, are so loose that they look analogous to someone familiar with the KJV offhandly using KJV language without thinking about it, simply because they are so familiar with it. Also, it isn't necessarily Mark's subconscious that we are talking about. There would have been plenty of other Jewish Christians making up oral traditions who were also familiar with the OT. In other words, some of the allusions look like they come from someone who isn't really trying to make allusions but just perenially has the OT in the back of one's head.
If the writer(s) of GMark are using KJV language then I'll have to modify my assumptions about when GMark was written.
Nice strawman. It was clear enough that I was not saying that Mark was written in KJV English. What part of the word "analogous" do you not understand?
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Old 06-08-2006, 07:00 PM   #634
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Nice strawman. It was clear enough that I was not saying that Mark was written in KJV English. What part of the word "analogous" do you not understand?
I understand it perfectly well, especially the first four letters. :Cheeky:
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Old 06-09-2006, 01:25 AM   #635
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If I read you right, you seem to think that Paul's obvious disrespect for Peter implies that Peter was not a follower of Jesus in the flesh, because Paul would never have give a follower of Jesus in the flesh such treatment. :huh:
But Cephas is not meant to be a simple 'follower of Jesus', he's meant to be the guy that Jesus renamed, and said he would build his church upon.

Unless Simon picked up his nickname elsewhere (is there anyone famous alive today called 'The Rock'? ) and it was only later - after 'Paul' - than a gospel writer came up with the nifty idea of making Jesus be the one who gives him this nickname.

Edit due to the fact that gospels don't write themselves, they need a writer
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Old 06-09-2006, 02:33 AM   #636
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Welcome Driver8!

Of these myriad messiahs one takes off and becomes the alleged leader of the true messianic religion.

This one is a classic hero figure though.

Maybe the innovation is giving up on these human fallible messiahs and inventing a Christ in the heavens to sort everything - no problem of human fallibility - but that doesn't quite work either - too like a god to be much earthly use - therefore develop the human side of this god - give him a mum, place him in recent history!

Result!
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Old 06-09-2006, 05:42 AM   #637
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But Cephas is not meant to be a simple 'follower of Jesus', he's meant to be the guy that Jesus renamed, and said he would build his church upon.
That wouldn't stop someone with a big ego and a fanatical drive from opposing Cephas, especially if Christianity was just starting and the power structures were not yet cast in stone, so to speak.

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Originally Posted by post tenebras lux
Unless Simon picked up his nickname elsewhere (is there anyone famous alive today called 'The Rock'? ) and it was only later - after 'Paul' - than a gospel writer came up with the nifty idea of making Jesus be the one who gives him this nickname.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least that Simon got nicknamed "Rocky" for mundane reasons (maybe his size, maybe he acted like he had rocks in his head ) and then someone retconned a "holier" explanation for the name.
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Old 06-09-2006, 07:08 AM   #638
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Not exactly off topic, or on it, but perhaps a discussion point - I watched Quo Vadis this week, and at one point there was an excellent scene in which Peter preached to an assembly of Christians and proto-Christians, and during which Peter (played by ancient Scotsman, Finlay Currie) gave what might have well been a reasonable facsimile of "the Gospel" as transmitted orally by the original Apostles.

Incidentally, I seem to remember he only mentioned raising Lazarus from the dead, miracle-wise.
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Old 06-09-2006, 07:34 AM   #639
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Originally Posted by The Bishop
Not exactly off topic, or on it, but perhaps a discussion point - I watched Quo Vadis this week, and at one point there was an excellent scene in which Peter preached to an assembly of Christians and proto-Christians, and during which Peter (played by ancient Scotsman, Finlay Currie) gave what might have well been a reasonable facsimile of "the Gospel" as transmitted orally by the original Apostles.

Incidentally, I seem to remember he only mentioned raising Lazarus from the dead, miracle-wise.
Well you've certainly made it a a discussion point. I'd love to know how you think a motion picture fits into the evidence for or against a historical Jesus. :huh:
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Old 06-09-2006, 08:48 AM   #640
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It's not evidence, it's a model. Quite a lot of MJ questions arise about Paul's silences and other silences on this, that or the other matter. And without even trying, given that the broad stroke story has to be told in a few minutes, there it was - Jesus, orally, by someone who met him. No Mary, no Pilate. And, interestingly, since it was done in 1951, long before the current crop of no-Jesus theories, no twisting of the model to fit any pre-conceived argument in favour of a Historical Jesus against a theory that denies one.

(PS when I said "no miracles" before, I wasn't including the Resurrection narrative the QV Peter gave)

I'm afraid I don't have it on tape to make a transcription from it, but I may obtain one and do it later on.
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