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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: JFAlward AT aol.com
  • To: gmark AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: The kiss and Peter
  • Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 01:14:40 EST


In a message dated 3/11/02 8:59:38 PM Pacific Standard Time,
eugor3 AT hotmail.com writes:

<< In the same fashion we must not dismiss the betrayal by Judas as pure
fiction simply because it is not mentioned in the Pauline letters.
>>
In a message dated 3/11/02 8:59:38 PM Pacific Standard Time,
eugor3 AT hotmail.com writes:

<< In the same fashion we must not dismiss the betrayal by Judas as pure
fiction simply because it is not mentioned in the Pauline letters. >>

I think we can go much farther than merely dismissing the kiss; I think we
have good reason to dismiss most, if not all, of the elements of the gospel
stories as fictional. G.A. Wells, in his book The Historical Evidence for
Jesus [pp. 22-23], explains it well:

"The...Pauline letters...are so completely silent concerning the events that
were later recorded in the gospels as to suggest that these events were not
known to Paul, who, however, could not have been ignorant of them if they had
really occurred.

"These letters have no allusion to the parents of Jesus, let alone to the
virgin birth. They never refer to a place of birth (for example, by calling
him 'of Nazareth'). They give no indication of the time or place of his
earthly existence. They do not refer to his trial before a Roman official,
nor to Jerusalem as the place of execution. They mention neither John the
Baptist, nor Judas, nor Peter's denial of his master. (They do, of course,
mention Peter, but do not imply that he, any more than Paul himself, had
known Jesus while he had been alive.)

"These letters also fail to mention any miracles Jesus is supposed to have
worked, a particularly striking omission, since, according to the gospels, he
worked so many...

"Another striking feature of Paul's letters is that one could never gather
from them that Jesus had been an ethical teacher... on only one occasion does
he appeal to the authority of Jesus to support an ethical teaching which the
gospels also represent Jesus as having delivered."

Joseph F. Alward
"A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html



  • Re: The kiss and Peter, Rick Frommich, 03/10/2002
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: The kiss and Peter, JFAlward, 03/12/2002

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