Steven Carr

In The Gospel of John and Christian Theology (or via: amazon.co.uk) By Richard Bauckham, Carl Mosser (2008), Professor Alan Torrance writes on page 254 that Mark does not mention Lazarus, because Lazarus was a wanted man and feared for his life.

What had transformed these people so that they went from a bunch of frightened people to people who could not even be named in Christians books because they were so scared of being killed?

Down

What people are you talking about?

That Professor Alan Torrance thinks so does not mean that was so. Perahaps, Mark does not mention Lazarus, because Mark did not know about Lazarus since story about Lazarus came into later, and did not exist at the time Mak had composed his story.

razlyubleno

Sounds like excuse making... an attempt save Lazarus as a historical person, rather than him being a Johannine invention.

But to play the game anyway, perhaps the destruction of Jerusalem was a turning point? Doesn't seem like much else could have "transformed" anyone.

razly

Steven Carr

Of course you are right.

Professor Alan Torrance is a Professor of Systematically Making-Things-Up.

Lazarus disappears entirely from church history, until there is a parable naming Lazarus , and a story of Lazarus in John.

Not one person named himself as ever having seen Lazarus.

And by what bizarre mechanism could somebody be famous all over Jerusalem, and yet not be mentioned in a Gospel , circulating who knows where, because that would put his life in danger?

razlyubleno

I'm waiting for J.P. Holding to jump in here and start postulating word-count limitations...

razly

JoeWallack

JW:
Why would we expect any Christian author before "John" to be aware of Lazarus? Maybe they were not aware of "John" or maybe they were not aware of that chapter of "John" or maybe their version of "John" did not include Lazarus or maybe the original ending of "Mark" did or maybe, just maybe, it was mentioned as a marginal gloss in Antiquities Book 18 which also explains why they were distracted from seeing that Jesus was also mentioned there.



Joseph

http://www.errancywiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

storytime

What? Resurrection supposedly provides life forever, never to die again. Why then would Lazarus be fearful of anything especially losing his new life and new body?

What transformed these people was brainwashing that caused them to believe their present life was not as glorioius or as worthy as their second life would be. In their next life nothing could harm them, where there would be no pain and suffering and no more death. Belief in Jesus meant they would never die, just shed their existing body to take on another.

Jesus was a magician trained to trick the mind of people who were succeptable to wild imaginations. What came out of the magic hat of Jesus was words not rabbits. Those who were desperate under the hand of Jewish extremists with their whip of religious laws saw Jesus as a more tolerant teacher, offering mercy and not sacrifices. Jesus intentionally deceived these people in order to build his membership in followers, he deceived[lied] to the multitudes while supposedly telling truth to his disciple students. For Jesus said the kingdom of God was not for everyone and he divided the multitude in his parables[magic] and his disciples as inheritors of truth in the kingdom. Jesus was the Jim Jones of his day whose koolaid was drank in secret by some - his disciples, while others openly spewed the poison in preaching. Basically what Jesus did was shift attention away from his believed to be kingdom of God to protect it, and giving a false hope for the others, thus dividing the Jews in beliefs. Whether Jesus believed his protected kingdom was to cover the earth or remain a small minority of Jews in the middle east is speculative, just like the whole story is guesswork. But the lies Jesus ingrained spread and grew in corpses rising never to die again.

There are soo many conspiratorial interpretations to this NT story and the god-man behind the "mystery". :devil1: