You could be right. I do not have any definitive answer and do not expect to find one. But I think that it is a good question, and one that we should keep open. The only people who could venture a worthwhile answer are the real experts on the other gospels--and it is my suspicion that they rarely ask such questions....

I think it would be very interesting to launch a whole series of unconventional questions out to the working stiffs in the academies especially to the scholars in the Jesus Seminar to help free them from the unconscious blinders they wear.

Sorry, Dan--I don't think I really understand what you are saying here. Explain it again, using different words perhaps.

See my response above...

It is no longer "tied," if it ever was. It has become a way of being. Contrary to conventional belief, the modernist revolution is not over and its essential spirit has now developed ongoing traditions of its own. It is valid by measure of its pervasiveness.

A careful study of history shows us that Jesus has been tied to every culture's paradigm. It is like syncretism writ large through history. Two useful books in this regard are "Jesus Through the Centuries" by Jeroslav Pelikan and "A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible" by Grant and Tracy.

I again have trouble following you here concerning Joseph Smith and the Mormons(Sorry!). Tell it to me again like I am a six-year-old...

As for my belief in a "tolerant, unassuming Jesus," I did not make myself understood. For one thing, the Roman state did not brutally execute people for being "tolerant and unassuming." And for another--much of the contextual bite of Jesus' sayings have regrettably become deadened and too remote for us after 2000 years of familiarity and repetition. And recent work on the parables show that they are a speech form designed to dislocate the first-century listener and subvert traditional ways of seeing. Jesus was an iconoclast. We seem to be more comfortable keeping him as our icon.



[This message has been edited by aikido7 (edited June 05, 2001).]

Oh, do not mind SecWebLurker. Though my personal opinion of him is that he would have a much better place in front of a speeding train than a computer, and that his pathetic pussy-whipped choir boy self would renounce every bit of nonsensical Christian bullshit he ever spit out of his cocksucking mouth if so much as a super soaker were put to his head, that is beside the point of understanding the cause of his attitude: his sarcasm-masked anger is just frustration over his own "sin". He just cannot help banging the neighbor's dog, passing up the extra 10 dollars a night he can earn by orally pleasuring the preists at his church, or the constant fornicating he does with his girlfriend (even if she is inflatable). So he takes his frustrations out on other non-Christian 'sinners' over the internet, when in reality, he is merely bashing the 'sinner' within his own loser-oriented mind.

SecWebLurker, you silly little bitch, cheer up! Its not that bad - afterall, you could always find a large cliff to jump off of, thereby plunging yourself into the caring arms of your loving God. Hell, if they ever legalize assisted suicide, you need not even go to the effort of doing it yourself. Just ask the Cute Little Baby, and me and my good friends Smith & Wesson would be glad to help you out by doing the job for you.

Good luck out on the street corner tonight you mischevious little male prostitute!

Sincerely,
Cute Little Baby