Jeffrey Gibson

Eisegesis.

stephan huller

I am saddened that Jeffrey is no longer participating at the forum. Nevertheless this last comment demonstrates a short-coming of his Weltanshauung. First he thought that I was incorrectly citing John 1:18 - I wasn't, it was Theodotos's text of the gospel. Then he wasn't happy about my claim that even though 'anthropos' wasn't explicitly mentioned in the account (cited in full) it was about the cosmic Man. Then when I laid out my interpretation he labelled it 'eisegesis' = the process of interpreting a text or portion of text in such a way that it introduces one's own presuppositions, agendas, and/or biases.

But he's the problem in this case. He didn't even know that Theodotos had a variant text. He labelled my interest in Marcionite variants a 'hobby horse' repeatedly in the forum. And in this particular case he wasn't even aware that I (secretly) cited an acknowledged expert on Valentinianism as to what Theodotos meant in this passage. The reality is that I was citing Riemer Roukema is Professor of New Testament at the Protestant Theological University, Kampen, The Netherlands just to demonstrate how narrow-minded Jeffrey can be.

Here is the original passage which Jeffrey claimed was 'eisegesis' on my part:

Of course I wanted Jeffrey to stay at the forum. But the problem with experts is often that they are not experts on as much as they think they are. Jeffrey saw our surviving text of John 1:1 - 18 as 'the truth' and discounted any variants, and any variant interpretations (= Theodotus) based on the variant text.

He consistently labeled showing interest in such variants (= Marcion) as engaging in a 'hobby horse' activity. But the reality is that his fixation on the certainty of the surviving material was just as much of a 'hobby horse.' It's just that more people engage in that hobby horse than my interest in variants.

Tristan Scott

No and in this field they tend to form consensus, which has been going on since the 5th c. CE and is why we really know so little about what went on in the 1st. c CE.

aa5874

We know what went on in the 1st century. We have 1st century contemporary writers like Philo, Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius.

They did not mention a Jesus of Nazareth who was worshiped as a God by Jews and citizens of the Roman Empire since c 30 CE or at any time up to 115 CE.

MrMacSon

But Josephus mentions Jesus son of Ananias with similarities of Josephus's writings to some passages in Matthew.

Tristan Scott

Have you ever seen a non-sequitur you didn't like?

stephan huller

How did we get off on this stupid tangent in an already stupid thread?

stephan huller

There are very few Greek words that begin with iota-eta to compare how they might be transliterated into Aramaic. In fact only two or three have widespread use:

ἰή LSJ, Middle Liddell, Slater 245 0 [unavailable]
ἰή2 LSJ 245 0 [unavailable]
ἰηγορεῖν LSJ 0 0 joy
ἰήϊος LSJ 0 0 invoked with the cry
ἰήιος Middle Liddell 9 9 invoked with the cry
ἴηλα LSJ, Autenrieth 0 0 [unavailable]
Ἰηλυσός Autenrieth 0 0 [unavailable]
ἴημα LSJ 0 0 [unavailable]
ἵημι LSJ, Middle Liddell, Slater, Autenrieth 62,925 521 Ja-c-io
ἴηνα LSJ 0 0 [unavailable]
ἰήνατε Autenrieth 0 0 [unavailable]
Ἰηπαιήων LSJ, Middle Liddell 2 2 hymn
Ἰηπαιωνίζω LSJ 0 0 cry
ἰηπαιωνίζω Middle Liddell 1 1 to cry
ἰήρια LSJ 0 0 [unavailable]
ἰήσασθε Autenrieth 0 0 [unavailable]
ἴῃσι LSJ, Autenrieth 0 0 ibo
Ἰησονίδης Autenrieth 0 0 son of Iēson
Ἰησοῦς LSJ, Middle Liddell 0 0 Joshua
Ἰήσων Autenrieth 0 0 Iēson
ἰήτειρα LSJ 0 0 [unavailable]
ἰητήρ Autenrieth 0 0 [unavailable]
ἰήτης LSJ 0 0 [unavailable]
ἰητρός Autenrieth 0 0 healer, surgeon, physician;

stephan huller

The Chinese Manichaean pronunciation of the Christian god was 'yishu' = 夷數 http://www.academia.edu/2630906/Chin...s_Translations

stephan huller

The answer might lie in the unsolved mystery of the Islamic name for Jesus:

عيسى

"ayn yaa seen yaa"