lying for Jesus

[rightcoaster]

For the sake of completeness I will mention two relevant books, both by Bart D. Ehrman, which deal extensively with this subject, although I did not in fact use them in any of the previous posts.

Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are

Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics


It's hard to escape the conclusion that the people who gave us the New Testament and the church were mostly inveterate liars.

XP, I'm surprised that you will read Bart Ehrman (I have read many of his also, even own a few) and not Maccoby on the same sort of lying by Paul. Indeed, as you point out Acts was something of a whitewash of Paul written some decades after the letters (those that are considered authentic).

As to lying for Jesus: Do you think the "cleansing" of the Temple by Jesus actually occurred?

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As you know, Min, The Bible Unearthed disposes of the notion of the great United Monarchy of David and Solomon.

Instead of having an army of 1.3 million fighting men, as claimed in Chronicles, his total number of subjects was somewhere around 45,000, and his capital Jerusalem was a one-donkey town of 1000.

But this is lying for Yahweh rather than lying for Jesus.

Ah, I posted the same title before getting to this by you; will see if I can edit it away {looks like I could, and did!}. Fascinating read.