Chris Weimer

Hey Loren! Glad you could finally make it here.

Chris Weimer

Jesus isn't being depicted as day in the Secret Gospel. Heck, even all the way in the 19th century males "spending the night with" other males was fairly common - look at Abraham Lincoln, for example. And male intimacy was even moreso common during those times than today. Perhaps you may remember the photograph of President Bush and (I believe) the King of Saudi Arabia holding hands?

Morton Smith had already left the church at this time, and his further works (aka Jesus the Magician) show that he had no love for the orthodoxy.

Carlson, which I can't say for too many others, has always seemed to work without the problem of usual Christian bias. I doubt any here would argue that Carlson is some sort of apologist. In fact, until you mentioned it, I had no idea that he was a Christian.

He didn't need to address this. The evidence he presented was enough. Plus, I think addressing that would be a little out of bounds for him.

Chris

Rick Sumner

This is one of the most frequent--and most empty--ad hocs issued on this forum. Whether or not an author is Christian is irrelevant, and the criticism is nothing more than an easy out for someone who doesn't want to address an argument.

By way of perhaps the best example, few critical scholars (as opposed to apologists) in the field of NT studies are more conservative in their positions than the late Fr. Raymond Brown. Yet Brown, if inadvertantly, has probably done more to forward the idea that the Passion narrative is wholesale fiction than any other scholar, living or dead. There is no such thing as a modern commentary or analysis of the Passion that is not directly or indirectly dependent on Brown's monumental two volume work, The Death of the Messiah. As an ironic testament to its influence, the dependence frequently goes uncited--Brown's readings are so undeniably correct that, once pointed out, it becomes ludicrous to suggest that there is any other apt reading, and so they are quickly chalked up to some sort of common knowledge.

Yet when one points out the similarity between Judas Iscariot and Judah of Technicolor Dream Coat fame, or reflects on the parallel of the only two hanged individuals (Iscariot and Absalom) in Jewish literature both being traitors, and so on, it is never suggested that it needs to be subjected to a more critical eye because of Brown's Catholic background.

Right is right, regardless of who says it.

Regards,
Rick Sumner

Loren Rosson III

Thanks, Chris. Hope to get more involved in some of the discussions.