Gregg

Reading the lengthy, convuluted posts from people who refuse to accept that the Bible contains contradictions almost makes me believe that there is a little imp of perversity that sets up shop in some people's heads and takes delight in making them doggedly defend the indefensible long after it has ceased to even be amusing.

The Judas thread is a case in point. Never mind the ridiculous efforts to reconcile suicide by hanging with the business of bloating and splitting open in a field...what about the thirty pieces of silver? One account says Judas threw the money into the temple then went and hanged himself--the other says he bought a field with the money. Oh, I know. Here is how it went:

Judas threw the money into the temple then went away and hanged himself. But he botched the job and instead broke both his legs, his jaw, an arm, and a couple of ribs. Since he'd chosen a lonely spot, nobody found him for several days and his body got all swollen and gangrenous. Finally somebody found him near death, and he instructed this person to run to the temple, get the silver before anyone else found it, and buy a field to bury him in. Amazingly, the person did this (instead of simply running away with the money, which was still there after all this time) went back with a cart, tossed Judas in it, and them dumped him unceremoniously in the field, where his horribly swollen, pus-leaking body burst open.

My point is, there are undoubtedly people out there who would rather believe the above explanation instead of doing the rational thing and accepting that the Gospels writers made up two different stories about what happened to Judas. Just like they refuse to admit that Genesis contains two different creation traditions.

It's the imp I tell you! The imp of the perverse!

Gregg

[ October 18, 2002: Message edited by: Gregg ]</p>

Gregg

[ October 18, 2002: Message edited by: Gregg ]</p>