Malachi151

When giving my JM presentation last night I got this same question for the second time. Someone said that their copy of the Bible has a letter in the back that is supposed to be from some Roman that exactly describes Jesus and that it was written by a Roman that talked to him while he was alive, etc.

Obviously this is bogus, but I got this same letter brought up at a different presentation as well.

Does anyone know what the hell these people are talking about?

I did some looking on the Internet, I found these, but I'm not sure what they are or where they came from, I need some history on this.

http://bibleprobe.com/antipas.htm

http://webhome.idirect.com/~birkej/j...r/jesuroma.htm

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=004...2-C&size=LARGE

gstafleu

Abgarus, Agbar, something like that?

Gerard

gstafleu

Here is the Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abgar_V...etter_of_Abgar
Of course we only know about this letter by Abgar via, ahem, Eusebius. I think it is generally seen as inauthentic (now there's a surprise!).

Gerard Stafleu

jakejonesiv

Probably a garbeled account of Josephus' TF.
I think the key is that it is in the back of their Bibles. You are not going to have some obscure text back there to prove Jesus; but the grandaddy of them all.

So, for your next presentation, have ready a skeptical discussion of the TF. Even if they aren't refering to the TF, I doubt they will know the difference.

First, point out that it is extremely unlikely that Josephus, who was not a Christian, write the TF as it stands. Then point out that apologists suppose it to be authentic before being interpolated. Since this is an acedamic group, a good zinger is about "grading on a curve for partial credit."

S.C.Carlson

Looks like a 19th century fake. See Edgar Goodspeed's Modern Apocrypha, e.g. chapter 4.

Stephen

Ben C Smith

I have the Archko Volume on my bookshelf at home. It all looks quite specious to me. I would not touch it with a ten-meter pole.

Ben.

Ben C Smith

The correspondence with Agbar, while almost certainly not genuine, is at least genuinely ancient. I do not think the Archko Volume has even that going for it.

Ben.

Peter Kirby

Pearse has Goodspeed's book up here and a followup of the same name (Strange New Gospels) was done again by a Scandinavian scholar (name escapes me).

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Peter Kirby

Malachi151

No, this is something different, because I go over the TF, Tacitus' quote from Annals, the Pliny the Younger letter, and the Seutonious (SP?) quote.

Roger Pearse

Also the Archko volume. Goodspeed, Strange New Gospels, ch.5.

All the best,

Roger Pearse