RE: Why Bart Ehrman Pisses Me Off..... sometimes
February 2, 2018 at 5:57 pm
(This post was last modified: February 2, 2018 at 6:05 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Ah, I see the disconnect, now. When I'm discussing the historicity of the NT with you (or, honestly, anyone who isn;t a raving loon), I'm not actually concerned with establishing that there is no godman, or that people shouldn't worship him.
I'm assessing the story itself as a historical artifact, and trying to determine how and why it took the shape it did...which has nothing to do with any jesus the man. This is an issue of cultural anthropology, not arguing with batshit apologists. My wider position, here, has absolutely nothing to do with actual gods or reasons not to worship them. It's a complete non issue. The issue is that the particulars of this story are the thematic elements of a myth..even the "plausible" ones, whose existence serves as a narrative device to move us from parable to parable and establish the traditional bona fides of a myth that people believed in.
This is not the biography of a man in any single detail, it's the biography of a religion in-every- detail. You picked out three and I immediately identified their purpose in the narrative for you. We can do this back and forth all day. The NT is chock full of this stuff, that's part of what helped it to persist all this time.
I'm assessing the story itself as a historical artifact, and trying to determine how and why it took the shape it did...which has nothing to do with any jesus the man. This is an issue of cultural anthropology, not arguing with batshit apologists. My wider position, here, has absolutely nothing to do with actual gods or reasons not to worship them. It's a complete non issue. The issue is that the particulars of this story are the thematic elements of a myth..even the "plausible" ones, whose existence serves as a narrative device to move us from parable to parable and establish the traditional bona fides of a myth that people believed in.
This is not the biography of a man in any single detail, it's the biography of a religion in-every- detail. You picked out three and I immediately identified their purpose in the narrative for you. We can do this back and forth all day. The NT is chock full of this stuff, that's part of what helped it to persist all this time.
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