Calling this video a "Brilliant Defense of the Historicity of the Gospels" only displays your lack of familiarity with the Gospels, their content, their history, and their origins. The apologists in this video had a very bad case of tunnel vision. Dr. Williams was it? Anyway, there are much better explanations for the points the good Dr. brought up. And these explanations don't need an hour at a podium evincing historical contortions, nor displaying the mental gyrations evident in the afore mentioned video, Lecture with Dr. Peter Williams.
The following is a response to the claims and arguments put forward in that video.
Originally, every word in the Gospels came from scripture. Period. It is called midrash, but the Gospels themselves are orated stories (from, say, a podium) as generated from that midrash technique. In fact, there is strong evidence that The Gospel According to St. Mark was adapted from a play narrative for a Jewish Graeco-Roman audience (eg. Triumphal March 15:15-19). The Gospels were motivated by the platonic descending-ascending theological explanations expressed by those with a need for a new covenant. This Son of Man theology accorded by the platonic Anointed Savior sects as was communicated by apostolic writers (similar to the likes of Paul/Saul et al.) through the Epistles to the congregations of the Jewish Diaspora, who were dispersed around Europe and Asia Minor from the onset of the Roman conquest and occupation. The Gospels are post hoc prophetic narratives as humanized and historicized from Jewish anointed savior sect's theological explanations of imagined platonic (spirit world) representation at the right hand of Yahweh, that is, his begotten son. That's it.
The oppressed of the Diaspora needed a new mythical hero, so like all religions in such straights, it accommodated them with a spiritual emanation and spiritual mediator for a new covenant with Yahweh whose wrath the Sons of Man (Man being the Fathers) felt they did not deserve, for the old covenant was with, and broken by, the fathers. Only, they had to stay within there sacred writings, the scriptures, when looking for prophecies that would foretell the coming of such a savior. For Yahweh would have had to have known that this would be the case, right? Actually, it's more than likely that for the concept to be generally excepted the Torah, Mosaic Law, and Jewish histories would have to be respected in just such a way.
The reason the names statistically correlate (besides the obvious fact that the main place to find names for such a study now would be from extant documents, most of which are primarily religious text of the time) with the names in the Gospels is because the Diaspora got their names from the same place the Gospels got theirs, OT scripture, or more specifically the Greek Septuagint. This also explains the Sycamore tree, sycomore (Latin) in 8 verses of the KJV, 7 of which are in the OT. This explanation continues to clarify why the cultural centers, villages, and place names are used in the Gospels but relative distances and directions are absurdly misrepresented. Such cases as the pigs of Gadarene running more than 11 kilometers to the water, or the itinerary of this Jesus character taking a tact equivalent to Pensacola to Atlanta by way of Tampa, on foot. The absurdity of the nativity narrative in Luke in which a woman, and the subject of a different Ruler, is dragged across to 2 provinces on the back of an ass on the eve of the birth of her baby—to do what? To be counted in a city they are not from to pay taxes for which there is no historical evidence were ever called for—no! It is for the same reason every word of the Gospels were written. To be post hoc prophecy fulfillment of the scripture, to bring about an apocalyptic revenge against, and purging of, the usurpers and occupiers of the homeland of Yahweh. The Gospels even admit as much in many places.
Such as, John 19:36, "For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, ..." . Or, there is the revenge angle,
Luke 21:22
"For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." How about a verse that ties the descending-ascending platonic (spirit world) anointed savior theology with OT writings and epistolary expressions thereof (see: Hebrews 1:5 and many others) to the Gospel post hoc fulfillment of scripture:
Acts 13:33
"God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."
Yet, by far the best evidence for the scriptural origins of most, if not all, of the details of the Gospels is in the last words of this mythical Jesus character's narrated life, in Matthew 27:46 the words, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" or "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Which is contradictory to the narrative that claims he was sent to be sacrificed and is made to say he knew it. But more to the point, it is, in fact, a quote from the first verse of Psalm 22. If there were ever a time for someone to be original, I am sure the words from the dying breath of an illiterate carpenter would rank very high on a very short list of examples. No, of course, this never happened.
I hope this puts those of you with the predisposition off the habit of believing mythology as fact, and misjudging others as incompetent for not sharing in those delusions. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment