Freethought & Rationalism Archive

lpetrich · 11-24-2007, 04:27 AM

At least it's possible to read Kersey Graves's magnum opus online; has anyone here bothered to do so?

I will concede that I have not done so, but after reading Richard Carrier's discussion of it, I doubt that I will be doing so anytime soon. He's good at historical scholarship, he does not reject Jesus-mythicism out of hand, and he is usually careful about his arguments.

Freethinkaluva, can you try to rebut Richard Carrier's arguments and try to argue that that book is worth reading?

Roger Pearse · 11-24-2007, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freethinkaluva

I don't know why my comments seem strange as I'm merely ...(reiteration snipped)

Nothing in this seems to need additional comment. Address the issues, please.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

mountainman · 11-24-2007, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lpetrich

At least it's possible to read Kersey Graves's magnum opus online; has anyone here bothered to do so?

I will concede that I have not done so, but after reading Richard Carrier's discussion of it, I doubt that I will be doing so anytime soon. He's good at historical scholarship, he does not reject Jesus-mythicism out of hand, and he is usually careful about his arguments.

Hi lpetrich,

Carrier's critique wisely carries a disclaimer.
Did you read that?

FWIW I have read the work of Graves.

As I have pointed out a number of times the problem is IMO
that Graves' claims are quite numerous - perhaps one in every
of his chapters. They need to be approached one at a time.
They do not need blanket skepticism on the basis
of Richard Carrier's disclaimer.

The classic case IMO is his treatment of the gospel source
sayings, in his chapter 31:

Christianity Derived from Heathen and Oriental Systems

Best wishes,

Pete Brown

Quote:

Originally Posted by GRAVES

We will first arrange Christianity side by side with the ancient system known as Essenism -- a religion whose origin has never been discovered, though it is known that the Essenes existed in the days of Jonathan Maccabeus, B.C. 150, and that they were of Jewish origin, and constituted one of the three Jewish sects (the other two being Pharisees and Sadducees). We have but fragments of their history as furnished by Philo, Josephus, Pliny, and their copyists, Eusebius, Dr. Ginsburg, and others, on whose authority we will proceed to show that Alexandrian and Judean Essenism was identically the same system in spirit and essence as its successor Judean Christianity; in other words, Judean Christianity teaches the same doctrines and moral precepts which had been previously inculcated by the disciples of the Essenian religion.

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11-24-2007, 04:27 AM	#21
lpetrich Contributor Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Lebanon, OR, USA Posts: 16,829	At least it's possible to read Kersey Graves's magnum opus online; has anyone here bothered to do so? I will concede that I have not done so, but after reading Richard Carrier's discussion of it, I doubt that I will be doing so anytime soon. He's good at historical scholarship, he does not reject Jesus-mythicism out of hand, and he is usually careful about his arguments. Freethinkaluva, can you try to rebut Richard Carrier's arguments and try to argue that that book is worth reading?

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