Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yitzhak:
I wrote "self-professed pagans", which is different than others calling them
"pagans".

As for the founders of DH being pagans, we have their writings as quoted
extensively in the PhD dissertation Zur Datierung der Genesis "P" Stücke by
Dr. Samuel R. Külling that show their beliefs. Their beliefs were not
Christian, but consistent with ancient Greek beliefs, which are commonly
called "pagan".

If we analyze people according to their self-professed beliefs, the vast
majority of those who call themselves "Christian", or even "born again
Christian" have beliefs that contradict the New Testament, therefore they
are not Christians according to the New Testament definition of who should
be recognized as a Christian. But I wasn't referring to those in the quote
below. In the quote below I was referring to those who proudly say, "I am a
pagan."

As for the New Testament being a "pagan" document, that is a matter of
interpretation, as it was written by Jews, based on their understanding of
Tanakh. As such, it is probably more accurate to call New Testament
Christianity a Jewish sect, no less Jewish than Karaite Judaism that also
had many non-Jewish adherents. To say more is getting too far off topic for
this list.

What brought this up is a discussion of DH, where the lack of historical
documentation to support it made the religious beliefs of those who founded
the theory important. If they had documentation ........ but they don't. End
of discussion.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Feb 2, 2008 5:43 PM, Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com> wrote:

> On Feb 1, 2008 4:16 PM, K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Now I have to come to the defense of the pagans. I am not one of them,
> but I
> > live in an area where there are many self-professed pagans, and this
> > description is completely offensive to them, and to me.
>
> Hi Karl,
>
> I don't know why you say you're not a pagan.  From the Orthodox Jewish
> point
> of view, anyone who believes in Jesus as the "Lord" or who believes in the
> concept of the trinity is a pagan.  It therefore comes as a surprise to me
> that
> you say you're not a pagan, because I thought you did believe in Jesus and
> in
> the trinity.  Wait a minute.  Maybe you meant that you do not view
> yourself as
> a pagan, while others may view you as a pagan.  But what's to say that
> those
> people you call pagans viewed themselves as such?  Who exactly in the
> "history of the DH" that you speak of did not view himself as a Christian
> while
> being a "nominal Christian"?  Do you have any actual evidence that those
> people were pagans?  That they were not Christians?  Could you provide
> names?
> You are providing a history of the Documentary Hypothesis that is
> supposedly
> based on facts, but you provide no facts to support it, and in fact,
> it's probably
> all made up.
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
>
>