Kata Markon

["Michael Abernathy" <mabernat AT cub.kcnet.org>]

    Perhaps, you have seen at some time the parallels that people have noted
between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.  Whether or not you have I must
say that they appear to be impressive,  almost uncanny.  Following your
logic, I must assume that the parallels in John F. Kennedy's life were
manufactured to make us think of him as the next Abraham Lincoln.  I am not
willing to accept that conclusion.  The logic is specious.
    Interestingly enough, it has been nearly the same amount of time since
Kennedy died that most scholars claim between the death of Jesus and the
writing of Mark.  We have enough eye-witnesses around that if anyone made
historical claims about him that were not true, someone could refute them.
Even if Mark were written at a later time, there are enough echoes of the
Gospels in the Epistles to suggest that the Church either had a written or a
well known oral tradition concerning the life of Christ.  The possibility
that the disciples actually believed the stories they were telling has to be
given the same level of credibility as the assumption that they lied knowing
that their claims could be refuted.
Sincerely,
Michael Abernathy

----- Original Message -----
From: <JFAlward AT aol.com>
To: "Kata Markon" <gmark AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 10:20 PM
Subject: [gmark] Stilling the Storm


> I've argued before in this forum that Mark wanted to have Jesus seem to be
> the messiah who existence he believed--or pretended to believe--was
> prophesied, foreshadowed, or prefigured, by persons and events found in
> Scripture, so he scoured the writings of the prophets for these stories,
and
> adapted them to fit Jesus.  I believe the striking parallels below show
> almost conclusively that Mark's story about Jesus stilling the storm was
> adapted from Jonah, and is fictional.
>
> In Jonah, a violent storm threatens a ship on which Jonah sleeps, so Mark
> made a violent storm threaten a ship on which Jesus sleeps.  In Jonah, the
> apprehensive sailors waken Jonah and question his cavalier attitude toward
> the danger, so Mark made his boat's captain apprehensive also, and had
him,
> too, waken Jesus and question him about his seeming lack of concern.  The
> miraculous calming of the sea in Jonah causes the men fear the Lord, so
Mark
> has the miraculous calming of his sea make the disciples fear Jesus, too.
> (Jonah 1:4-16, Mark 4:37-41)
>
>
> Joseph F. Alward
> "A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
> http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html
>
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