I picked up this months Nat Geo last night...

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Just because the term had not been anglicized does not mean the concept did not exist.

Once the writers introduce obvious lies into their story their whole fairy tale crumbles.  That's OK if that is their objective but if they really want to be taken seriously then they should omit the obvious lies.

[Minimalist]

Iesou Christo long predates "Jesus Christ" mainly because the letter "J" was not invented and incorporated into the Latin alphabet until the 16th century.

Gaius Julius Caesar is not a fictional character because before "J" he was known as Gaius Iulius Caesar.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Iesou Christo long predates "Jesus Christ" mainly because the letter "J" was not invented and incorporated into the Latin alphabet until the 16th century.

Gaius Julius Caesar is not a fictional character because before "J" he was known as Gaius Iulius Caesar.

"Christ" is just a title and it wasn't even regularly capitalized until the 17th century.

[Minimalist]

?

Wyrd, prior to the introduction of miniscule script in the 9th/10th centuries AD, Greek was only written in capital letters.  In fact, the term capital letter would have been meaningless to them.

[SkyMutt]

Romey did a Reddit AMA. From that:

Q: Are you a religious person? If so, what religion do you practice?

A: No, I was raised very nominally Catholic but I definitely don’t consider myself religious in any way. That said, I’m really fascinated by religion in general, how religions rise and fall (hello, Zoroastrianism), and why & how we humans in general need and use spiritual belief systems. It’s a major part of human history and how our present works, and I totally respect the role it plays even tho I’m not spiritual myself

Also for those who are interested, the National Geographic story is available online.

Having read the article, I didn't note any particular "reek of desperation." Nowhere does Romey claim that excavations at Magdala prove the existence of Mary Magdalene. The quoted last sentence of the article should be seen in context:

At this moment I realize that to sincere believers, the scholars’ quest for the historical, non-supernatural Jesus is of little consequence. That quest will be endless, full of shifting theories, unanswerable questions, irreconcilable facts. But for true believers, their faith in the life, death, and Resurrection of the Son of God will be evidence enough.

Romey is accurately reporting that what mainstream archaeology in the area has found can be seen as confirming some aspects of the Biblical stories. By no means does she claim that any archaeological finds confirm the existence of a historical Jesus.

Just to be clear, I am an atheist myself.

[vulcanlogician]

?

Wyrd, prior to the introduction of miniscule script in the 9th/10th centuries AD, Greek was only written in capital letters.  In fact, the term capital letter would have been meaningless to them.

Really? Wow, I had no idea. So did someone just "make up" lowercase Greek letters? Or am I missing something?

[Minimalist]

Essentially.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_minuscule

WTH, "Jesus" was invented, too!

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Romey is accurately reporting that what mainstream archaeology in the area has found can be seen as confirming some aspects of the Biblical stories.

I have some major problems with what she wrote.  The biggest is the old canard that "mainstream" historians do not doubt the existence of jesus.  Then she notes that there are two camps.... the fundie fools who think the miracle working godboy is real and the ones who think he was just a guy who built a following.  The third school are the ones who think it is all bullshit and that is the school that is growing.

The simple fact is that the Roman Army destroyed the whole fucking country twice over, leveled Jerusalem and built a new city (Aelia Capitolina) on top of the rubble before Constantine's mother ever got there to start picking out "holy sites."  Israeli archaeologists exploring the first century levels of the city are 30 feet below modern street level.  Romey is a little too enamored by jesus freak bullshit which is what I expected when Rupert Murdoch took over Nat Geo.

[Seraphina]

Ever since it was bought by Murdoch my expectations for good journalism have plummeted.  You can't pick one up to leaf through for fun facts without the fear of picking up an agenda driven, misrepresented poison pill.  I don't buy it any longer.

That explains a lot. I've had a subscription for a few years but thinking about ending it.

The Jesus article in December was a joke and was written as if Christianity's stories are the truth.

There was another article a few months back about trophy hunting in Africa - one of its points was that the animals need to be killed to be "saved".

Yeah, I'm going to cancel it and subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer instead. Or Mad Magazine.

-Teresa

[GUBU]

Having read the article, I didn't note any particular "reek of desperation." Nowhere does Romey claim that excavations at Magdala prove the existence of Mary Magdalene. The quoted last sentence of the article should be seen in context:

Well then why does she insist on Jesus being real, and christianity too, based on no more evidence than "Jews lived in Israel 2,00 years ago", which is what the article boils down to?

Why does she dismiss the likes of Richard Carrier who have assembled strong arguments and evidence with just two sentences*, instead of looking to show that they are wrong?

*Incidentally, Carrier et al are in the position currently that historians who said the bible wasn't an accurate historical account were a hundred years ago, disbelieved yet piling up the evidence. If that trend continues Jesus will be relegated to the same historical footnotes as Abraham and David.

---

Essentially.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_minuscule

WTH, "Jesus" was invented, too!

---

Romey is accurately reporting that what mainstream archaeology in the area has found can be seen as confirming some aspects of the Biblical stories.

I have some major problems with what she wrote.  The biggest is the old canard that "mainstream" historians do not doubt the existence of jesus.  Then she notes that there are two camps.... the fundie fools who think the miracle working godboy is real and the ones who think he was just a guy who built a following.  The third school are the ones who think it is all bullshit and that is the school that is growing.

The simple fact is that the Roman Army destroyed the whole fucking country twice over, leveled Jerusalem and built a new city (Aelia Capitolina) on top of the rubble before Constantine's mother ever got there to start picking out "holy sites."  Israeli archaeologists exploring the first century levels of the city are 30 feet below modern street level.  Romey is a little too enamored by jesus freak bullshit which is what I expected when Rupert Murdoch took over Nat Geo.

Interesting to note too, all her "experts" once she got to Israel were in holy orders. By definition they are going to not only be in the godboy camp, but heavily distort evidence in its favour (because there's so little of it for them).