anti-X

Hello, All,

I am the new anti-christian here.
[Nero had the correct idea]

Anyway, I found last week a slightly pornographic version of the the New Guesstament version of Luke.

I'll leave the "uncivil" part out --since I agree to conform to the forum's decorum.

What it was/is, is a cynical re-write of Luke, and it went like this:

a) A man named Joseph, a nail-banger, was traveling South because he heard that Ceasar ordered a census --although it is only mentioned in the Western versions of Josephus and would be in 6-7 B.C.C.
b) Along the way he found a pregnant girl along the roadside.
c) They traveled to an inn and asked for a room, but the owner said he ran a respectable drinking establishment, but if she was going to give birth, they could use the barn out back.
d) A group of Zorasteran Magicians were traveling from the East.
f) Herod heard of them from his spies and summoned them to himself, wondering how they were able to cross the Parthian Empire's frontier and then the Roman Army's frontier!
g) Herod asked them: Why have you come this way. The Magi answer "We saw the star of a new king in the East". Herod asked, "If you saw this star in the East, why did you come West?"
But the Magi had no answer for him.
h) So Herod dismissed them and sent his spies after them.
i) Herod wondered what was this "new king" and if these Magi were political provocateurs --as Rome and Parthia were hostile to each other.
j) Having left Herod, the Magi came to the same inn where Joseph stayed and they too were told they could use the barn.
k) Upon entering, the Magi stood aghast at the sight of a woman so shameless as to put her newborn in a feed trough on a cold Wintery night because she was too lazy to hold it.
l) The Magi gave some gold to Joseph saying, "Hire a nursemaid for this child, so it shall not die.
m) And here is some frankensense and myhrr to mask the barn smells. But this was in the days before the dangers of secondhand smoke were known.
n) Herod's spies returned unto him telling all they had witnessed.
o) Herod became troubled saying, "this must be the 'new king' these provocateur's are using"! So Herod sent his spies back with soldiers to slay all the small children and to arrest the Magi, Joseph and the woman.
p) As the soldiers departed, Joseph who was asleep, had a dream that the soldiers were coming. Awaking, he told the woman whom he had found along the roadside.
q) She said, "Warn no one and let us go away, quickly."
r) Doing as the woman suggested, Joseph and the woman made good their escape while the soldiers busied themselves hacking apart the small children and their pleading mothers, and arrested the Magi along with many others.

That was/is essentially the commentary.

What I find interesting is that this provides a good critical assessment of the Luke version of the story/fable.

Depending on how much history and geography of the era we know;

that the Western version's of Josephus had many "biblically oriented" things added into them {the writing style is different and are not contained in the version preserved by the Greeks};

and a critical assessment of Joseph's alledged conduct...

...I can't think, offhand, which vocabulary word(s) to use, but reading this DID alter my view of a story/fable most of us grew-up with.

Thanx

Doctor X

Greetings . . . for a moment I felt I had a Nemesis . . . WHO SENT YOU?!!!

Anyways, I think both Synoptic birth narratives serve their own purpose to "establish" Junior in the myth the writers were creating. Pity that Mt and Lk chose to link there to two different historical events roughly ten years appart. . . .

I find it funny, regarding the Herodian "Slaughter o' the Innocents," that NO ONE thought to mention it. Leave aside the doubt that this could happen without causing a revolt, it does parallel the Mosaic attempt to "slaughter da Chosen One"--I will have to review the Sargon story to see if it also has a similar "slaughter" to remove a possible "great kid." This myth is seen, of course, in Greek myths where someone tries to prevent the rise of a "replacement" by killing him as a child. It never works, of course, part of the "glory" of "da Chosen One" is that he survives the various attempts on his life.

Basically, Herod mythed up. . . .

--J.D.

SLD

Anti-X - Where'd you get this? At least give us a link. Hilarious. (Probably belongs in freethought humor section though).

SLD

CX

I concur, however, there is the possibility of on topic discussion so I'll leave it for now.

anti-X

Hello, All;

Doctor X --well, as Reagan use to begin his answers, I am a "nemesis" to crazy christians. You have a good point about "heroic" stories...as soon as I read that I remember the outlines of one Greek fable/myth...but I forgot who the characters were. I do remember the protagonist was also a half-man--half-gawd hybridized entity and there were gawd-awful attempts to kill it.

SLD --I am glad you liked it. I got it from a yahoo forum and then "lost it" as it didn't print-out. So I don't remember exactly where. One of the problems with surfin'.
I bet you liked the "2nd hand smoke" part, too. It kinda "updates"/modernizes the story.

CX & SLD --it did go through the forum sections and thought this was the most appropriate place to post it ...since by a rewording, the myth carries with-it its own criticism. Sorry, It's my first time.

I do have another, which I'll place in "free-thought", today.

anti-X

Rational BAC

I would rate it sophomoric (as long as you are only talking about high school)