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Old 06-19-2010, 09:56 AM   #31
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Once most scholars are practicising Jesus believers and worship Jesus then it is almost certain that most scholars who are Jesus worshipers would reject that Matthew 1.18, Luke 1.35, Mark 9.2, and Mark 16.6 are the EVIDENCE of a mythical entity.

Robert Van Voorst is a practising Jesus believer who worship Jesus.

He must say that Jesus did exist or else.

Robert Van Voorst most likely believes that if he DENIES the historicity of Jesus that he would be CAST into Hell and be eternally TORMENTED.

Robert Van Voorst most likely have succumbed to the threats of Jesus found in the NT Canon.
From his bio:

Van Voorst
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The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ witnessed by the New Testament is the foundation of the Christian faith. The health of the church in every age, and the effectiveness of its ministers, is directly related to how well it builds on this biblical foundation in interpretation, teaching, and preaching. Teaching the New Testament to Western students preparing for various ministries is a high calling and a stimulating, rewarding experience.

Background
Ordained in the RCA, Robert Van Voorst served for twelve years as the pastor of Rochester Reformed Church in Accord, New York, while he pursued doctoral study. In 1989 he became a professor of religion at Lycoming College, a United Methodist liberal arts college, and served for three years as chair of its religion department. While teaching college, he was an interim pastor in four Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations, preached widely in north-central Pennsylvania, and was a visiting professor in Westminster College in Oxford, England,
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:27 AM   #32
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Even so, because of its doubt, I don't take it too seriously, and certainly Van Voorst does not take it as certain evidence for the historical Jesus. His last paragraph on the evidence, on page 23, makes that explicit:
What can be gained from Thallos? Some fog of uncertainty still surrounds Thallos's statement: its extreme brevity, its third-hand citation, and the identity and date of the author. While this fog prevents us from claiming certainty, a tradition about Jesus' death is probably present.
Van Voorst seems to claim considerably little. Nobody claims it is a smoking gun. If you still think he is claiming too much, then you need to come up with a more probable (or at least sufficiently competitive) explanation for the evidence, NOT insist on some new minimum standard.
Minimum standard?You mean an actual quote from a document? Before claiming to know what the document is about?

Voort claims 'a tradition about Jesus death is probably present'.

This make him a pseudo-historian peddling junk scholarship.
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:30 AM   #33
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Background
Ordained in the RCA, Robert Van Voorst served for twelve years as the pastor of Rochester Reformed Church in Accord, New York, while he pursued doctoral study. In 1989 he became a professor of religion at Lycoming College, a United Methodist liberal arts college, and served for three years as chair of its religion department. While teaching college, he was an interim pastor in four Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations, preached widely in north-central Pennsylvania, and was a visiting professor in Westminster College in Oxford, England,
Voorst complains about anti-Christian bias of mythicists.


I mean, some of them have not even been a pastor in ONE congregation, the minimum standard needed to be free from bias when assessing evidence about Jesus.
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:35 AM   #34
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Voorst has the historians habit of being able to see the word 'Jesus' when mere mortals cannot see that word.

Voorst claims Mara was talking about Jesus when he spoke about the wise king that the Jews had executed.

'Jesus is 'doubtless' the one meant by 'wise king', writes Voorst,knowing his junk scholarship will be snapped up by the public.

Is there no end to the rubbish Apostate Abe will praise?
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Old 06-19-2010, 05:16 PM   #35
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Originally Posted by aa5874 View Post
Once most scholars are practicising Jesus believers and worship Jesus then it is almost certain that most scholars who are Jesus worshipers would reject that Matthew 1.18, Luke 1.35, Mark 9.2, and Mark 16.6 are the EVIDENCE of a mythical entity.

Robert Van Voorst is a practising Jesus believer who worship Jesus.

He must say that Jesus did exist or else.

Robert Van Voorst most likely believes that if he DENIES the historicity of Jesus that he would be CAST into Hell and be eternally TORMENTED.

Robert Van Voorst most likely have succumbed to the threats of Jesus found in the NT Canon.
From his bio:

Van Voorst
Quote:
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ witnessed by the New Testament is the foundation of the Christian faith. The health of the church in every age, and the effectiveness of its ministers, is directly related to how well it builds on this biblical foundation in interpretation, teaching, and preaching. Teaching the New Testament to Western students preparing for various ministries is a high calling and a stimulating, rewarding experience.

Background
Ordained in the RCA, Robert Van Voorst served for twelve years as the pastor of Rochester Reformed Church in Accord, New York, while he pursued doctoral study. In 1989 he became a professor of religion at Lycoming College, a United Methodist liberal arts college, and served for three years as chair of its religion department. While teaching college, he was an interim pastor in four Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations, preached widely in north-central Pennsylvania, and was a visiting professor in Westminster College in Oxford, England,
I find it totally mind-boggling that people who WORSHIP JESUS and claim to be scholars seem not to even comprehend the meaning of an "historical Jesus."

Once Voorst, a Jesus worshiper, is claiming that the NT Gospels are essentially true that Jesus was born of a Virgin and the Holy Ghost, walked on water, was transfigured, was resurrected and ascended then he is ACTUALLY SUPPORTING the very same arguments of a MYTHICIST.

Once Jesus worshipers BELIEVE the NT Gospels are true, then the Jesus of the NT was TRULY a MYTH.
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:29 PM   #36
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When Van Voorst gives us only one irrefutable proof of the existence of Jesus, instead of moaning against the mythicists, the mythicists will disappear.
OK, I am curious: what is the minimum that you would count as "irrefutable proof" for the existence of a normal human Jesus? Given that proof or better, do you think aa5874 would change his mind or just shut up? What about mountainman? What about Acharya S and her acolytes?
1 - It seems that Jesus did not write anything (same thing for Socrates), so, I do not expect anything directly from Jesus, except perhaps, his direct appearance in my garden. When, this happens, I shall tell that here.

2 - As for aa5874, mountainman, Acharya S, I am not authorized to give an answer for them.

Edited to add : A serious historicist should not accept the religious dogmas (physically son of god, miracles, flying up and down in the space without a rocket, and so on).
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:58 PM   #37
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OK, I am curious: what is the minimum that you would count as "irrefutable proof" for the existence of a normal human Jesus? Given that proof or better, do you think aa5874 would change his mind or just shut up? What about mountainman? What about Acharya S and her acolytes?
1 - It seems that Jesus did not write anything (same thing for Socrates), so, I do not expect anything directly from Jesus, except perhaps, his direct appearance in my garden. When, this happens, I shall tell that here.

2 - As for aa5874, mountainman, Acharya S, I am not authorized to give an answer for them.

Edited to add : A serious historicist should not accept the religious dogmas (physically son of god, miracles, flying up and down in the space without a rocket, and so on).
You mean that a "serious" historicist cannot accept the evidence provided by the authors of the NT and Church writers?

You can't be serious!

Serious PEOPLE accept the evidence provided by apologetics and it supports MYTHOLOGY.
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Old 06-20-2010, 08:01 AM   #38
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OK, I am curious: what is the minimum that you would count as "irrefutable proof" for the existence of a normal human Jesus? Given that proof or better, do you think aa5874 would change his mind or just shut up? What about mountainman? What about Acharya S and her acolytes?
1 - It seems that Jesus did not write anything (same thing for Socrates), so, I do not expect anything directly from Jesus, except perhaps, his direct appearance in my garden. When, this happens, I shall tell that here.

2 - As for aa5874, mountainman, Acharya S, I am not authorized to give an answer for them.

Edited to add : A serious historicist should not accept the religious dogmas (physically son of god, miracles, flying up and down in the space without a rocket, and so on).
OK, cool. Under such conditions, I don't think it is so useful to demand "only one irrefutable proof" of Jesus. If just a normal human Jesus (not a god-Jesus) existed, then your preferred proof is plainly impossible. We should be thinking about probabilities, not about irrefutable proofs.
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Old 06-20-2010, 10:25 AM   #39
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1 - It seems that Jesus did not write anything (same thing for Socrates), so, I do not expect anything directly from Jesus, except perhaps, his direct appearance in my garden. When, this happens, I shall tell that here.

2 - As for aa5874, mountainman, Acharya S, I am not authorized to give an answer for them.

Edited to add : A serious historicist should not accept the religious dogmas (physically son of god, miracles, flying up and down in the space without a rocket, and so on).
OK, cool. Under such conditions, I don't think it is so useful to demand "only one irrefutable proof" of Jesus. If just a normal human Jesus (not a god-Jesus) existed, then your preferred proof is plainly impossible. We should be thinking about probabilities, not about irrefutable proofs.
But, it has already been known based on the ABUNDANCE of EVIDENCE that the HJ is the LEAST PROBABLE.

Once Jesus was just a man and lived in Galilee for about thirty years and once the Jews regarded Jesus as an actual blasphemer then the Pauline writings are a PACK OF LIES and/or MADNESS when he claimed Jesus was RAISED from the dead, was the Creator of heaven and earth, who died for the sins of the Jews and that circumcision was to be abolished due to the resurrection of Jesus.

It is FAR MORE PROBABLE that the Jesus story was fabricated many decades after the reign of Tiberius, after the Fall of the TEMPLE, and well away from Judea by some UNKNOWN fabricator and that the story was BELIEVED to be true by the DUPED.

It makes absolutely no sense, ZERO SENSE, for Paul to have told Jews and ROMANS including the ROMAN EMPERORS that every person in the Roman Empire that Jesus, the crucified blasphemer, had a name ABOVE every other name in heaven and earth and that EVEN the ROMAN EMPERORS must BOW to JESUS, the crucified blasphemer, whose body rotted away.

Which Roman citizen would BOW to a CRUCIFIED Jewish blasphemer as to a God BEFORE the Fall of the Temple?

Which Jewish man would BOW to a CRUCIFIED blasphemer as to a God during the time of Philo and Josephus?

The Pauline writings, if considered early, are the product of LIES and MADNESS.

The Pauline writings are far more compatible with fiction than history.

Jesus was just a story fabricated after the Fall of the Temple and believed to be true by the DUPED.
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