British scholar Mark Goodacre tackles the mythicist position with a good deal of generosity and aplomb in his latest podcast, moving beyond the usual posturing that characterises the debate to make some important points.
Thomas Verenna draws attention to it on his blog (I'll have some thoughts about his book
Of Men and Muses later in the month), and Mark Goodacre's originating blog post
can be found here.
That's not as light a question that most would think. No matter the belief or disbelief in the text, most would say "well I believe someone like Jesus existed."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure, nor willing to just say yes or no. If we just take the Gospels as truth then it seems that Jesus failed and falsely prophecied about many things that apologists had to bump up to the future. I think when Jesus is said to have said.."this generation" he meant them. Paul certainly meant then when he said "Time is short." Of course it wasn't.
The Astro Theology of the dying Sun God tells me Jesus was just the new Mithras with Easter now being in Aries the Lamb instead of Taurus the Bull as previously.
The lack of contemporary commentary on Jesus is troubling
The disappearance of everyone from Jesus to the Disciples to Paul is troubling.
That Jesus wrote nothing himself is troubling.
That the Book has been tampered with for 2000 years depending on the need is troubling.
I don't know...what thinks Gavin?
Isaiah 53 is the secret to historical Jesus. Just give the suffering servant a name (like Joshua) and the gospel story is already half written.
ReplyDeleteWithin a generation or so, the personification of the faithful followers of YHVH (called the suffering servant) if given a name will almost automatically become a real live person. And, as Paul said, he was given a name, "Jesus".
A personification of a personification - not exactly a myth but definitely not a man.
Unless, of course, one can imagine that a man by some strange set of circumstances fulfilled a prophecy that was not a prophecy.
See "the suffering servant" in Wikipedia for the trouble that the Christian interpretation has caused the Jews when the Jews proved them wrong in historical debates.
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ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your kind words, and for the plug.
ReplyDelete