lying for Jesus

[xpastor]

This is good progress. The notion of usury is of course nonsense, just an added sliming: the moneychangers were there properly, as were the offerings-sellers. ... That plus my prior explanation of the myth of the resurrection covers all of the Passion Week. Pretty good, I say. Over to you ...

As Min emphasizes, even the earliest gospel (Mark) was aimed at a Gentile audience, who would know nothing of temple routine. Just as an aside, the gospels grow increasingly anti-Semitic as time goes by. There is more and more of an effort to exculpate Pilate and the Romans and to blame the death of Jesus on the Sanhedrin and the Jews in general. In the first 3 gospels Jesus' opponents are said to be the scribes and the pharisees; in the last one (John) they are called simply "the Jews" another reason for disregarding the traditional ascription of the 4th gospel to the apostle John—supposedly a born Jew is using the term "the Jews" to mean the bad guys!

As I recall, your theory of the resurrection involved Jesus surviving the crucifixion—forgive me if I am wrong about that. I think that would be giving the resurrection scenes in the gospels entirely too much credit for any historical veracity.

Consider this gem from the Weekly World News (THE WORLD'S ONLY RELIABLE NEWS) explaining the empty tomb at Graceland apparently known to be empty by psychic means.

Possibility 3: Elvis was resurrected from the dead and taken directly to heaven. And though it may sound farfetched, there is compelling evidence to support this theory. Since the King died or disappeared in 1977, thousands of fans claim to have been healed after they mentioned his name in prayers, meditated over his picture or came face-to-face with his spirit.