(June 28, 2012 at 1:48 am)FallentoReason Wrote:(June 28, 2012 at 1:20 am)Godschild Wrote: How do you know they didn't know, they would of had these books and used them, the originals could not be used at all the churches, thus the copies without the authors name, they would have pass on the name of the authors, deceit was not part of the early church, they had an example, Ananias and Sapphira.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and agree they weren't trying to deceive. That could only mean they didn't know who wrote them and simply assumed. The evidence for this lies within the Gospels themselves, which I have pointed out several times:
Matthew & John: 3rd person. An Apostle didn't write them.
Luke: most likely Lucius Plutarch, a historian who lived exactly during the time of Jesus.
Mark: I don't know who exactly, but so far the evidence tells me it was written by some Hellenistic Jewish philosopher.
Quote: These were important books to them, however they never knew they would be a part of the scriptures, if they had they might have placed the authors name on the copies. These people and writers did not have a desire to be standouts in their time, it was against the teachings of these very books.
Wait, were they teachings or history that they were writing? You can't have your cake and eat it.
Teachings I think would be the right answer for two reasons:
1) None of the Gospels are written in the way a historian would write them. Have a look yourself by reading some of Josephus' works and comparing.
2) Following on from #1, they have distinct story-telling techniques that the authors used to convey their message.
The genre for these writings is assumed to be historical on a whim, but how can one actually come to that conclusion upon closer inspection of them?
The third person could have been there because the copyist did not want people believing the authors had written the copies, thus being a reason the authors names were not included. Of coarse this is what I think, it does seem reasonable.
The Gospels are for teaching, some history can be taken from them. I do not believe that I said that the Gospels were for history, I know them as teachings for my own personal life.
About Luke, he never claimed to be an Apostle, he was a physician. Do you believe that a historian would have made the mistakes unbelievers say are in Luke?
I've never said historians wrote the Gospels, ( Josephus was a warrior not a historian, he also was a traitor). The writers of the Gospels were not historians, their work does not resemble the work of a historians. They were presenting the life of Christ through His teachings, and I personally believe they did a great job.
Personally I do not know people who look at the Gospels as historical writings, they do see there is a time line of Christ's life through His teachings.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.