Freethought & Rationalism Archive

neilgodfrey · 12-15-2006, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben C Smith

Quote:

Does this mean that the "historical core" of Jesus is 'established' by a triple method of:

1. assuming that literature about such a character within a certain time frame is a priori grounds for assuming such a person existed; and

2. assuming that the type of character that existed is established by removing from that literature whatever is said about him that is implausible or impossible; and

3. assuming that if there is no other evidence that disproves that the character left over from steps 1 and 2 existed, then we can take that character as "the historical core"?

Is that a fair summary?

That might be one way, if done correctly (and if the literature in step one can lay claim to being contemporaneous or nearly so; is that what you meant by within a certain time frame?). I think there are other ways too.

The problem is that this method has no methodical validity. It is a circular reliance on the self-reference within texts to "establish" what is already assumed from that self-reference within the texts.

A naive reading of a text has to be justified as much as any other interpretative reading of a text.

We need and rely on evidence external to the texts to establish information within the texts. Without this external evidence (which may include evidence relating to provenance -- info completely lacking re our canonical gospels) we would have no way of denying that the story of little red riding hood also has "a historical core".

Neil Godfrey

http://vridar.wordpress.com

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