RE: Any Evidence For A Historical Jesus?
August 23, 2012 at 9:44 pm
(This post was last modified: August 23, 2012 at 9:54 pm by Cyberman.)
Min and DP will be able to set all this out in much more detail than I'm able to; however, there are contemporary first century historians, travellers and accounts of battles etc across that entire area in the period that JC is meant to have lived. Yet while remote and obscure villages that never made it into the NT accounts get mentioned by these people, not a single one of them makes reference to a Nazareth, which is all the more interesting since it's supposed to be a city.
The only archaeological finds at what has since become the Nazareth site - named after the place in the story as opposed to vice versa - are in the main funerary. As those more familiar with Jewish customs and laws regarding disposition of the dead* will attest, there are strict stipulations about how far from a population centre a burial site has to be located.
The whole Nazareth thing is to do with a deliberate translational sleight-of-hand by the author of (iirc) "Matthew", made with the idea of presenting another so-called fulfilled prophecy. In this case the author took the word "nazirite", referring to a specific type of ascetic monk-type who wore his hair long (as in "no razor shall touch his head; for he shall be a nazirite") and mistranslated it as "Nazarene", with all the locative associations of a place name. There is a little more to the story than this, regarding an offshoot of (I think) the Essenes who termed themselves the Netzorim, meaning offshoot or branch, and this is somehow tied into the whole mess. I'll leave it to our resident biblical history scholars to untangle it as though I'm pretty sure I'm on the right lines, I'm bound to have got things rather confused, or have made it all sound more confusing than it actually is.
However, regarding U/D's "question to the skeptics (sic)", if I was being cynical i would suspect he wasn't asking that question in order to obtain information.
Not only that, but I tried to be subtle with my hints so as not to give too much away and still the bugfuckery shone through. No wonder it's lasted so long; makes me wonder how many of the 'real' preachers are just cashing in on the satire?
* Incidentally, "Disposition of the Dead" has got to be George A. Romero's next film. If not, we should make it ourselves.
The only archaeological finds at what has since become the Nazareth site - named after the place in the story as opposed to vice versa - are in the main funerary. As those more familiar with Jewish customs and laws regarding disposition of the dead* will attest, there are strict stipulations about how far from a population centre a burial site has to be located.
The whole Nazareth thing is to do with a deliberate translational sleight-of-hand by the author of (iirc) "Matthew", made with the idea of presenting another so-called fulfilled prophecy. In this case the author took the word "nazirite", referring to a specific type of ascetic monk-type who wore his hair long (as in "no razor shall touch his head; for he shall be a nazirite") and mistranslated it as "Nazarene", with all the locative associations of a place name. There is a little more to the story than this, regarding an offshoot of (I think) the Essenes who termed themselves the Netzorim, meaning offshoot or branch, and this is somehow tied into the whole mess. I'll leave it to our resident biblical history scholars to untangle it as though I'm pretty sure I'm on the right lines, I'm bound to have got things rather confused, or have made it all sound more confusing than it actually is.
However, regarding U/D's "question to the skeptics (sic)", if I was being cynical i would suspect he wasn't asking that question in order to obtain information.
(August 23, 2012 at 9:37 pm)YahwehIsTheWay Wrote:(August 23, 2012 at 7:36 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Would it spoil the fun if I were to point out that one of the correspondents on this page is being satirical? Hint - it's not me this time.
[out of character] I think it speaks volumes for just how bugfucked Christianity is that I'm still taken seriously even after I deliberately go out of my way to write the craziest stuff I possibly can. I mean, how far can I push the envelope here?
Not only that, but I tried to be subtle with my hints so as not to give too much away and still the bugfuckery shone through. No wonder it's lasted so long; makes me wonder how many of the 'real' preachers are just cashing in on the satire?
* Incidentally, "Disposition of the Dead" has got to be George A. Romero's next film. If not, we should make it ourselves.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
