Virgin Mary, Ark of the Covenant

[Aractus]

I could care less what "modern Christian" scholarship says about anything. I ONLY care what "scholarship" says, and YOU have referenced NOTHING with even ONE scholar. Only made assertions. That is utterly worthless crap.

Typical yank, can't even get British idioms right. I don't need to provide references for the settled facts among all scholars, that's ridiculous. It'd be like saying I need to provide modern references for speed of light or other such nonsense. It is in fact you who need to provide sources if you're going to challenge the basic settled facts.

The words in the gospels were invented/chosen by SOMEONE, (a human) or they wouldn't BE there.

Again, you're pulling bullshit out of their air. There's a volume of information within the NT agreed upon by historians (NT scholars), which means that at least that portion of the information isn't "invented".

How ELSE did they get there ? The gospels are proclamations of BELIEF, for believers, to remind themselves what they already believed.

You have no authority to claim what the NT books are.

They are IN NO WAY, "factual".

I'm not even going to dignify that bullshit, go troll elsewhere.

YOU are the one that "needs to provide evidence" that even ONE thing in them is "factual". You can't even provide ONE piece of evidence that Jesus even existed.

I don't need to prove something that's already agreed upon by historians as fact. If you're going to disagree with history it's up to you to provide evidence. Explain the letters of Paul? Explain the book of Acts? Explain Josephus and James the Just?

IF the gospels can't even agree on the day or time he died, the day or time of his trial, whether he gave a speech or was silent at the trial, states that the temple curtain was "torn" (but can't agree on the day it happened), and NOT ONE Jewish historian (who were KNOWN to be IN Jerusalem at the time), EVER ONCE mentioned that fact, and the FACT that the Sanhedrin was NEVER ONCE in all of history called into session on Passover weekend, that there was a zombie invasion (in Matthew) of Jerusalem, and NOT ONE JEW or Roman even mentions that "fact".. it's ALL a pile of horse shit.

You'd make a pretty lousy historian. I don't have to prove every detail in the NT is accurate - we already know many detail are certainly accurate, and there's other details that can't be externally confirmed, but there's nothing in the NT that's been confirmed as wrong - not even Luke's census has been proven not to occur.

Furthermore as you would well know, all the documents we have from that period are copies, no autograph originals exist anymore, so for you to find someone that wrote down these events they had to be copied and preserved for centuries to come or else you have virtually no chance of finding them. The reason that the Gospels and the Gnostic texts and Paul's letters and the rest of the NT and Josephus's tests and other writings have survived is because many copies were made of them. Furthermore many ancient libraries were burned or destroyed along with their contents - Library of Alexandria, the Jewish Temple, etc. The main material used at the time, papyrus, did not generally last very long. There are 5,800 ancient NT manuscripts in Greek and less than 130 are papyri that survived.

I AM qualified to translate the OT. I am a Harvard grad student in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Who is NOT qualified here, is YOU.

So what? Even if you were an OT scholar, that doesn't make you an NT scholar.

So there's that. YOU, and everyone else here has NOT debunked the link about the translation I provided.

What the fuck are you talking about? Isaiah 7:14? The author of the Gospel according to Mathew translates almah as 'virgin', so what? How do you know that it's a mistranslation?

You prove to me Jebus ever existed, and THEN we'll start to talk details.
List all your "scholars" and list the POLLS of ALL said scholars that PROVES what you claim is "consensus" is true. PROVE to me that ONE thing in any gospel that "Jesis said" was actually said by him, and demonstrate how they would have kept a record of that for at least 100 years with NO recording tools.

You're clutching at straws. How about the sermon on the mount? How many scholars do you know that doubt that Jesus delivered that? How about the Last Supper - an event recorded in 5 books in the Bible - how many scholars do you know that doubt that occurred?

Acts "attests" to NOTHING except what believers wanted to make it "attest" to. You actually THINK they would have something (like the Gospel of Thomas, or Judas or Mary Magdalene) in the canon that contradicted their "beliefs" ? Of COURSE it "attests" to what they wanted it to "attest" to. Acts also "attests" to the fact that when Peter was talking to the Jewish authorities, they HAD NO CLUE what he was talking about when he told them they killed Jebus. IF the Jews and Romans went to ALL that trouble to kill him, why would they not go try to re-arrest him, or even look for him, IF he posed such a threat ? Cuz he never existed. He was a figment. YOU cannot determine a difference between this Jebus and the Jesus of Philo or Jesus of Gemala, or Simon of Perea. All messiahs. All died. All said to have risen in 3 days.

Acts attests to the Jerusalem Council for one thing, also talked about in Galatians. Most critical scholars agree it is a real historical event, do you disagree?

Saying "most critical" scholars is crap YOU must name them, or STFU.

Why, especially as I don't agree with critical scholars or I'd be an atheist? Here's one group now disbanded, but I think you'll be able to assess their views very easily, and find that the basic facts I've asserted aren't challenged.