(June 21, 2015 at 2:32 am)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:Jesus had to mix dirt with spittle for the eye miracle thing.
An idea stolen by the thieving xtians from Suetonius' Life of Vespasian.
Quote:A man of the people who was blind, and another who was lame, came to him together as he sat on the tribunal, begging for the help for their disorders which Serapis had promised in a dream; for the god declared that Vespasian would restore the eyes, if he would spit upon them
Suetonius Vespasian 7, 2
Nothing new under the sun...especially when xtians are involved.
Suetonius Life of Vespasian (from the 12 Caesars) was written in AD 121, by which time the Gospels were finished (the synoptics a long time previously).
There are different sight-miracle-with-spit incidents. Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) uses direct to eye spit only and is more like the Vespasian incident. Siloam (John 9) uses spit and mud.
I would also mention the deaf-mute healing with spit (Mark 7:31-37).
There's some fascinating questions all this raises. I'll work with the Bethsaida incident.
Jesus doesn't get the healing first time, and has to have a second go. He also uses saliva, and has to ask how things are going. He comes across rather like a primitive doctor/magician.
Also, there is no continuity with any practice within the Early Church or any known stream of christology. The Early Church did it differently, and this isn't a very “God as man” story.
Finally, there are none of the usual miracle garnishes- no holy choruses of glorious shock, no praising of God, no mention of faith...
Given the criteria of clear discontinuity, and of heavy embarrassment, and the particular oddities; most probably historically, some kind of incident occurred around Bethsaida which the witnesses believed was some kind of healing.
(Please note the phrasing of the last sentence carefully!)
So, it wasn't stolen.
