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Old 11-18-2006, 11:42 PM   #21
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Originally Posted by rob117 View Post
There was no press back then.
Heh. But there were scribes and we have plenty of records, some many centuries before this period.

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Anything said about Jesus while he was alive would be by word of mouth.
Baseless assertion.



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I don't think HJers say he was unknown within Judea itself- it's just that nothing that went on in Judea was recorded by Roman authors unless it affected the empire at large. The argument from silence here is an extremely weak one.
Falsified easily.

Josephus writes of numerous things not affecting the empire at large in History of the Jews.

Q.E.D.

Quote:
If you read MJ posts, you'll see that this is in effect their argument. For example, the OP's post essentially boils down to, "The gospels claim that scribes witnessed Jesus' miracles. This is unlikely; therefore Jesus never existed."
Haw!

Can't contend with the argument, so you just make up a straw man.

Come on back when you can read the OP correctly. It really is tedious to spoon feed this.
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Old 11-18-2006, 11:53 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by GakuseiDon View Post
You WERE making comments about scribes. You said that "no record exists of any scribe actually recording any of these deeds". What record exists of ANY scribe actually recording something similar? If there are none, then why single out


The extant record, yes. The fact is we don't know how many written materials from that era survived. All we can do is go on the materials that have left.


Why would scribes have recorded the gospels?


Can we have some examples relevant to Jesus?
Hi GDon

I can't make any sense out of what you are trying to say. Sorry.


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I don't believe that the gospel Jesus existed.
Then you are a mythicist. Welcome to the party.

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As soon as we start looking at the historical Jesus
OK, you need to explain to me what "looking at" means. Is there some description of him you are reading?

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someone pops up and says that "oh but that isn't the Gospel Jesus".
By all means, show me some other actual account of a Jesus. For example, Josephus mentions more than twenty. Is it one of those?

Is it Marcion's version? What version attested to at the time are you talking about?


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If you know that the "Historical Jesus" being proposed is like that, then why don't you argue on that basis? Otherwise you are just inventing a strawman.
See above. Please present a Jesus attested to. Not one from the imagination.

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As Toto correctly determined, I was talking about Sai Baba. I doubt few people have heard of him, despite his reputation as a miracle-worker. I doubt that he appears in the modern equivalents of Josephus as well.
You mean like in a tract describing current Indian religions or sects? You want to put some money on this?

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No, not in the way that the Gospels describe it.
Then I don't know how you contend with a "witness" who has been so thoroughly impeached.

What exactly are you using to arrive at your version of a "historical" Jesus then?
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Old 11-19-2006, 03:24 AM   #23
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Originally Posted by rlogan View Post
I can't make any sense out of what you are trying to say. Sorry.
That's ok. You wrote "no record exists of any scribe actually recording any of these deeds". You assume that this is significant, but you don't show why. Given that so much material from that time is not extant, I think you would need to show:
1. Why scribes would have written about Jesus. Did they write about similar figures?
2. Why you expect that records from scribes at that time would still exist. Do such writings still exist?

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Originally Posted by rlogan
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Originally Posted by GDon
I don't believe that the gospel Jesus existed.
Then you are a mythicist. Welcome to the party.
Thanks!

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Originally Posted by rlogan
OK, you need to explain to me what "looking at" means. Is there some description of him you are reading?
Yes. Probably born in Galilee, crucified under Pilate, and the person who inspired Christianity.

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Originally Posted by rlogan
By all means, show me some other actual account of a Jesus. For example, Josephus mentions more than twenty. Is it one of those?
Yes, he's under there, somewhere.

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Originally Posted by rlogan
Is it Marcion's version? What version attested to at the time are you talking about?
Yes, he's under there somewhere, too.

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Originally Posted by rlogan
Quote:
Originally Posted by GDon
As Toto correctly determined, I was talking about Sai Baba. I doubt few people have heard of him, despite his reputation as a miracle-worker. I doubt that he appears in the modern equivalents of Josephus as well.
You mean like in a tract describing current Indian religions or sects? You want to put some money on this?
I don't know about "tracts", but yes, I'd be interested to see how Sai Baba is represented in articles or books describing current Indian religions. Josephus mentioned the various sects of his time without spending any time on Christianity. I doubt that much is spent on Sai Baba, despite his divine origin and his miracles.

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Originally Posted by rlogan
What exactly are you using to arrive at your version of a "historical" Jesus then?
Paul, Josephus, Tacitus and the NT itself -- the usual suspects.
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Old 11-19-2006, 06:12 AM   #24
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Originally Posted by GakuseiDon View Post
Probably born in Galilee, crucified under Pilate, and the person who inspired Christianity.
Another probability theory.

.
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..... I'd be interested to see how Sai Baba is represented in articles or books describing current Indian religions. Josephus mentioned the various sects of his time without spending any time on Christianity. I doubt that much is spent on Sai Baba, despite his divine origin and his miracles.
Another probabilty theory.


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Paul, Josephus, Tacitus and the NT itself -- the usual suspects.
You have a serious credibilty problem.
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Old 11-19-2006, 06:18 AM   #25
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We also hear the ridiculous criterion of "embarassment" being used to legitimize Jesus - that the fact the crucifixion is mentioned, for example, is so embarrassing that it must be true.
This is all the more ridiculous since the crucifixion is prefigured in the "Old Testament". How can it be embarrassing when Jews themselves expected a savior who would be killed in such a manner.
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Old 11-19-2006, 06:27 AM   #26
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This is all the more ridiculous since the crucifixion is prefigured in the "Old Testament". How can it be embarrassing when Jews themselves expected a savior who would be killed in such a manner.
Any so-called prophecies, in the OT, about the character Jesus Christ were all taken out of context. There is in effect no link or any other ties with that character and the supernatural being, commonly reffered to as the God of Abraham.
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Old 11-19-2006, 06:45 AM   #27
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Originally Posted by Malachi151 View Post
Jews themselves expected a savior who would be killed in such a manner.
Can you cite a Jewish source for that claim?
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Old 11-19-2006, 06:51 AM   #28
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Originally Posted by aa5874 View Post
Any so-called prophecies, in the OT, about the character Jesus Christ were all taken out of context.
If someone sees pigs flying, let me know, because for once, I actually agree with aa5874.

More to the point, the problem with saying that crucifixion was prefigured in the Old Testament is that the supposed reference to crucifixion--which is in Psalm 22:16, "My hands and feet have shriveled [or pierced]"--is too vague to indicate crucifixion on its own. There isn't even an implication of an execution or nails, etc. It is only trivial to see crucifixion in the psalm if one already has crucifixion in mind in the first place; it's not something you get from the psalm by reading it cold. Saying, then, that Jews themselves expected a savior who would be killed by crucifixion is a stretch.
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Old 11-19-2006, 07:01 AM   #29
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Originally Posted by jjramsey View Post
If someone sees pigs flying, let me know, because for once, I actually agree with aa5874.

More to the point, the problem with saying that crucifixion was prefigured in the Old Testament is that the supposed reference to crucifixion--which is in Psalm 22:16, "My hands and feet have shriveled [or pierced]"--is too vague to indicate crucifixion on its own. There isn't even an implication of an execution or nails, etc. It is only trivial to see crucifixion in the psalm if one already has crucifixion in mind in the first place; it's not something you get from the psalm by reading it cold. Saying, then, that Jews themselves expected a savior who would be killed by crucifixion is a stretch.
This is true, I was just thinking of all the "pierced" phrases in the OT and the passages such as Isaiah 53:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...053&version=31

These don't specifically address crucifixion, but the Hebrew scriptures go on and on about saviors who are treated poorly, shamed, suffer, etc. I don't see why any specific form of causing this would be more "embarrassing", than others.

The claim, as I understand it, is that they would ave been embarrassed that their leader was executed, or is the claim that it would have been okay if he was executed by any other means than crucifixion?

Of course, we know that this doesn't really make any sense since the crafter of the Jesus story choose crucifixion as the means by which he is made a sacrifice.

Also, we have the many passages that "require" the "offering of the savior" to be a blood sacrifice, which is also why I think a crucifixion was used, so the shedding of blood is once again something that was prefigured in the Hebrew texts, at least in the minds of the followers of this cult, so I would see no reason why they would be embarrassed by this since this is indeed what they were expecting.
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Old 11-19-2006, 08:11 AM   #30
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If someone sees pigs flying, let me know, because for once, I actually agree with aa5874.
You actually don't agree with me, because pigs don't fly and they never will.
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