Re: The Gospels

I don't know how some of you can write so much! My stomach sinks when I
turn to my computer and see how many emails I'm downloading, and then I find
not only that new responses have been written since the last time, but
responses to those and often responses to those and responses to those.

I plan to respond to what was directed at me and maybe even a bit more
(assuming I can get to it before it's gone cold), but if I can't pare things
down a bit I'm afraid I'll have to abandon ship.

Two very brief comments for now, though:

Tina says to Jim:
<< Just because you don't agree with my point doesn't mean my sources are
any less scholarly than yours. [. . .] It is possible for 2 highly
qualified scholars to disagree, you know. >>

I don't want to drag the authors of your books into this -- and I'd rather
avoid secondary sources entirely, really -- but I do hope you're not
suggesting Freke or Gandy (these are the gentlemen who wrote the Jesus
Mysteries, right?) as "highly qualified scholars" in archaeology,
paleography, textual criticism, the ancient Near East, Semitics, or
virtually anything else relevant to this discussion. If you are, I'm
curious what you mean by "highly qualified scholars."

And in another message:
<< I approached the topic years ago with a search for truth, no hypotheses
involved. >>

A few posts ago you said that you approached the topic years ago with
prejudice, out of hatred for Christianity.

And:
<< As far as my sources not being "respected", I think that the Jesus
Seminar, made up of hundreds of the top Bible scholars in the entire world
garner some respect. >>

I won't detail any of their decisions or arguments (their "decisions," it
should be noted, are votes: the Jesus Seminar should probably be regarded as
a source of majority opinion within a certain segment of the scholarly
community, not itself a source of original scholarship), but I will say that
the Jesus Seminar is not composed of hundreds of scholars, but usually of
about 70, with the number always fluctuating. And for what it's worth, I
regularly read archaeological and philological journals pertinent to most of
the ancient Mediterranean and Near/Middle East, and only about 15 or 20 of
the scholars are people whom one is likely to have heard of aside from
association to the Jesus Seminar. Paul Verhoeven, director of Robocop,
Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Showgirls, is one of them (I believe he
has a Ph.D. in math, or perhaps physics). And I know with direct certainty
that several (many?) of the bigger names on the list have informally dropped
out, or seldom attend.

-robbie
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Received on Wed Aug 6 19:58:10 2003