Scriptural Historicity

[Katy Lied]

I can tell this thread cracks JL up.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I can tell this thread cracks JL up.

Occasionally, yes.

BTW, you never answered my question from earlier today.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Bokovoy with an essay about the NT and historicity.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidbo...new-testament/

So the Hebrew Bible isn’t history. But what about the New Testament? The concept of historicity, meaning an authentic representation of the past, functions as a crucial tenet within mainstream Christian posturing. Surely, therefore, the New Testament contains “historicity.”

Wellllll. . . No. It doesn’t. In fact, not at all.

In fact, the discrepancies between the four Gospel narrative depictions of Jesus’ life are so significant that historians are forced to use fixed criteria to determine what we can or cannot say about the “historical” Jesus. In the words of believing critical scholar John P. Meier, “The real Jesus is not available and never will be. This is not because Jesus did not exist—he certainly did—but rather because the sources that have survived do not and never intended to record all or even most of the words and deeds of his public ministry—to say nothing of the rest of his life.” A Marginal Jew; vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 22.

Instead, they were meant to inspire and teach theology.

Religious readers need not fear the prospect of embracing the New Testament’s lack of historicity. If God truly cared about such issues, I suspect He would have inspired its authors to follow our contemporary emphasis upon historicity. But it really doesn’t take too careful a reading of the New Testament to quickly realize that its authors don’t share that contemporary concern.

Rather than adopting an anti-intellectual approach to the question of scriptural historicity, I believe that a critical reading of the New Testament can be a deeply rewarding intellectual and spiritual journey.

Some nice personal insights at the end.

[Moliere]

Bokovoy with an essay about the NT and historicity.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidbo...new-testament/









Some nice personal insights at the end.

Bokovoy stealing my stuff

[Jeff Lebowski]

Bokovoy stealing my stuff

[SeattleUte]

http://homeboundpublications.com/the...john-neeleman/

[Levin]

http://homeboundpublications.com/the...john-neeleman/

Holy cow. So these are the types of sentences you'll see at that link: "Indeed, from the historical record it’s evident that like the Russian nobility at the beginning of War and Peace, who were Russian to the marrow, but steeped in French culture, speaking French, going to the ballet and the opera, reading French novels, eating French food (yet despising Catholicism), adoring Napoleon and quoting him (until he turned on them), the Jews—including Paul—who created the Christian canon regularly spoke and wrote in Greek, which at that time and place was the language of the intelligentsia, and were originally nobles closely associated with their Roman overlords."

That's a sentence; not a paragraph. Such a sentence could possibly work if the author was trying to juxtapose that mess of a sentence with other sentences that are short and make sense. But the essay is full of 'em. Hemingway and McCarthy would not approve. But I guess the author is going for Tolstoy, but Leo didn't write like that either.

To each his own. But such disorganized writing is a sign of a disorganized mind. Maybe that's why the author is a man of no faith in the afterlife. As another great author wrote, "After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

[Levin]

Another gem: "Not only does Logos follow heroic norms, it can claim status as a sequel to the Aeneid, just as the Aeneid is a sequel to the Iliad."

SU, I'm very happy that you finished your book. What a great creative effort, and you'll now have it forever. But it takes some tone-deaf hubris to write a sentence like that. I guess that's another reason you're a man of no faith. Disorganized mind, and hubris. A lethal combination.

[SeattleUte]

Another gem: "Not only does Logos follow heroic norms, it can claim status as a sequel to the Aeneid, just as the Aeneid is a sequel to the Iliad."

SU, I'm very happy that you finished your book. What a great creative effort, and you'll now have it forever. But it takes some tone-deaf hubris to write a sentence like that. I guess that's another reason you're a man of no faith. Disorganized mind, and hubris. A lethal combination.

I didn't just finish it. It's a triumph. And it took plenty of effort and organization.

I would be interested to see you for once express something coherent about whatever it is your ideology is. You come here asking progmos for moral support. Sad.

The sentence makes perfect sense and it's a brilliant analogy. Have you read War and Peace?

[Levin]

I didn't just finish it. It's a triumph. And it took plenty of effort and organization.

I would be interested to see you for once express something coherent about whatever it is your ideology is. You come here asking progmos for moral support. Sad.

In my view, asking questions of others is a good thing. I like to hear others' perspectives.

Your book can't be a triumph if it's full of sentences like that essay contained. Sorry. The Aenid and Illiad contain wonderfully simple sentences. Virgil and Homer wouldn't be caught dead writing sentences that look like yours (even ignoring substance for the moment).

[old_gregg]

Virgil and Homer wouldn't be caught dead writing sentences that look like yours (even ignoring substance for the moment).

obviously, it's in english you dumb dumb

[SeattleUte]

In my view, asking questions of others is a good thing. I like to hear others' perspectives.

Your book can't be a triumph if it's full of sentences like that essay contained. Sorry. The Aenid and Illiad contain wonderfully simple sentences. Virgil and Homer wouldn't be caught dead writing sentences that look like yours (even ignoring substance for the moment).

You haven't read War and Peace. Just as I thought. Have you really read Anna Karenina? I wonder if you've read the Iliad and the Odyssey other than kiddie versions. Why should I care about the opinion of my book from someone who hasn't read it, especially a person who reacts to the mere premise with such an emotional outburst. My book dramatizes and honors religious experience while you are a caricature if a religious zealot.

Anyway, I'm done exchanging insults with you. I'm pretty much done with you except I remain interested to see if you can express yourself coherently about metaphysical matters.

[Levin]

You haven't read War and Peace. Just as I thought. Have you really read Anna Karenina? I wonder if you've read the Iliad and the Odyssey other than kiddie versions. Why should I care about the opinion of my book from someone who hasn't read it, especially a person who reacts to the mere premise with such an emotional outburst. My book dramatizes and honors religious experience while you are a caricature if a religious zealot.

Anyway, I'm done exchanging insults with you. I'm pretty much done with you except I remain interested to see if you can express yourself coherently about metaphysical matters.

i've read War and Peace twice. Garnett first and then Pevear. So we have a disorganized mind, astonishing hubris, and an ignoramus.

Good job on your book. Seriously. But your illusions of grandeur are hysterical. And try this: subject, verb, object. The structure works!

[Katy Lied]

Appropos of everything and nothing, I own a watercolor painted by Alexandre Nikolayevitch Benois.

[Blueintheface]

I walked on the Moon.