Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Clivedurdle · 05-08-2010, 05:14 AM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...books.features

Quote:

Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory

by Lisa Jardine

HarperPress £25, pp400

According to the official myth, moated Britain is immune to invasion. The truth is that it has been regularly trampled by armies of economic predators, from Roman legions and Viking raiders to the current influx of Arab playboys, Russian oligarchs and Polish plumbers.

In 1688 the Dutch staged the most spectacularly belligerent of all these assaults on our supposedly impregnable shores. A bristling armada unloaded 20,000 troops in Devon, with knights in armour on clod-hopping Flemish horses, accompanied by turbaned and feathered black slaves who were specially imported for theatrical effect from the sugar plantations in Surinam.

Marching on London, this portentous force sent the Coldstream Guards packing, hustled King James II from his palace, and installed the Dutch princeling William of Orange and his wife Mary on the throne.

A very significant part of this massive invasion was a propaganda effort - the Declaration.

The whole event was so brilliantly stage managed that I along with most Britons and historians believe our last invasion was 1066 when 1688 was far bigger. History has been rewritten. Arguably there never was a British Empire - it is all a part of the Dutch Empire.

So a basic question. Might the New Testament be a propaganda weapon?

Interestingly, William of Orange deliberately copied Revelation in his invasion....

mountainman · 05-08-2010, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clivedurdle

So a basic question. Might the New Testament be a propaganda weapon?

Of course.

Consider the implications of the following interpolation into Jhn 18:36.

Jesus answered,

My kingdom is not of this world:
if my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews:
but now is my kingdom not from hence.

My kingdom shall await the future world of my servant Constantine
and my war Council of Nicaea three centuries hence.

spamandham · 05-09-2010, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clivedurdle

So a basic question. Might the New Testament be a propaganda weapon?

I think it would be more accurate to describe it as a collection of such weapons. It does not seem to me to be a cohesive work, but the works within definitely have a propaganda nature.

mountainman · 05-09-2010, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spamandham

It does not seem to me to be a cohesive work, but the works within definitely have a propaganda nature.

The collection of works show the signs of a single redactor.

From www.bible.ca:

Quote:

The external identifying characteristics of the witnesses to the text of the Christian Bible-the types of abbreviation of the nomina sacra, use of the codex, a common pattern of names for the individual books ("Gospel according to . . . "; "General Epistle of. . . "; "Epistle of Paul to . . ."), and a uniform name for the two parts of the whole collection ("New Testament" and "Old Testament")-all go back to the earliest stage of transmission.

They show the work of a single redactor who produced the canonical edition of the New Testament as part of a total Christian scripture .

(Lee Martin McDonald, James A. Sanders, Editors: The Canon Debate (or via: amazon.co.uk); Everett Ferguson, "Factors Leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon", p 311, 2002)

Clivedurdle · 05-12-2010, 06:11 AM

Is there discussion of propaganda as a reason for these texts? Surely trying to work out what something is means looking at all the possibilities and discussing arguments for and against.

mountainman · 05-12-2010, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clivedurdle

Is there discussion of propaganda as a reason for these texts?

Is Gold and Absolute Power reason enough?

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05-12-2010, 06:11 AM	#5
Clivedurdle Contributor Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: London UK Posts: 16,024	Is there discussion of propaganda as a reason for these texts? Surely trying to work out what something is means looking at all the possibilities and discussing arguments for and against.

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