Nestor Wrote:See, it's not actually at all clear that you're not confused when everything in your proceeding comments suggests that you are. But please, do educate me on my "jaded description" of the biblical authors! Perhaps certain facts have been "revealed" to you?
Well, I assure you it is a jaded and simplistic trope. I first heard that idea, nearly word for word, from my classmate in my 6th grade P.E. class... which was 20 years ago. I have heard and read it many times since, mostly from people who have never read an actual sentence of critical scholarly literature about the literary, traditional, textual, and redacted origins of the biblical texts in their current form. Maybe you have, but you certainly didn't learn that trope from that literature.
Does its lack of originality mean that it is actually false? No. Does its overly simplistic and polemical nature tell us anything meaningful? Nope. Consider St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is supposedly the most elaborate tomb some ignorant fisherman from 1st century Galilee who was executed by Nero ever had. Do you think we would care if the origin of a biblical story came from the imagination of some iron-age shepherd? You don't have to believe it, but your intended condescension doesn't quite land.
