Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Zeichman · 05-28-2007, 03:39 PM

Morton Smith had a particularly novel and conjectural reconstruction in his "Jesus the Magician (or via: amazon.co.uk)." The whether-or-not-it-was-there-at-all controversy is hardly that, from my experience. Only Earl Doherty and a few others think it is either totally gone or completely irrecoverable. I don't think it has made a real dent in the academy. I'll e-mail Peter Kirby to see if he thinks it would be worth compiling and if he would host it.

Toto · 05-28-2007, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeichman

Morton Smith had a particularly novel and conjectural reconstruction in his "Jesus the Magician (or via: amazon.co.uk)." The whether-or-not-it-was-there-at-all controversy is hardly that, from my experience. Only Earl Doherty and a few others think it is either totally gone or completely irrecoverable. I don't think it has made a real dent in the academy. I'll e-mail Peter Kirby to see if he thinks it would be worth compiling and if he would host it.

Steve Mason does not come down clearly on one side of the issue, but he does say that once you have decided that the passage was altered, you can't be sure of recovering the original.

You can read Morton Smith's reconstruction on p 60 of the text on Amazon.

Solo · 05-29-2007, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

You can read Morton Smith's reconstruction on p 60 of the text on Amazon.

Smith's reconstruction:

Quote:

At this time <in the middle of Pilate's governorship, about A.D. 30> there lived Jesus a man <who was a sophist>, if it is proper to call him a man. For he was a doer of miracles, a teacher of men who receive <impiety. with pleasure. And he led <astray> many Jews and many of the Greeks <who said that> this <fellow> was the Christ. And when, on accusation by our leading men, Pilate condemned him to the cross, those who formerly loved <him> did not cease <to do so>, for <they asserted that> he appeared to them on the third day, again alive, while <pretended> prophets kept saying these and ten thousand other incredible things about him. And to the present <time> the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not disappeared.

M.Smith, Jesus the Magician, N.Y. 1978, p.46

In the notes to the passage, Smith offers that 'sophistes' was originally in the text in place of 'sophos', 'impiety' (t'asebe) was replaced by 'truth' (t'alethe) and 'false prophets' (pseudopropheton) by 'holy' ones (theion propheton).

Jiri

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05-28-2007, 03:39 PM	#11
Zeichman Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: USA Posts: 562	Morton Smith had a particularly novel and conjectural reconstruction in his "Jesus the Magician (or via: amazon.co.uk)." The whether-or-not-it-was-there-at-all controversy is hardly that, from my experience. Only Earl Doherty and a few others think it is either totally gone or completely irrecoverable. I don't think it has made a real dent in the academy. I'll e-mail Peter Kirby to see if he thinks it would be worth compiling and if he would host it.

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