Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

In a message dated 10/21/02 10:52:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
JOE ALWARD

In Mark 13:32-37, Jesus tells the story of the type of failure servants must 
not be guilty of:  closing their eyes while the master is away.  There is not 
the slightest hint in this parable that Mark wanted the readers to think of 
the servants' failure in terms of their testing God. 

LARRY SWAIN 
No one has claimed so, so the value of this is nil. 

JOE ALWARD

Nil?

Unless one denies that Mark's story of Jesus and the sleeping disciples is 
NOT based on the parallel antecedent parable of the sleeping servants, one 
cannot escape the implications of the absence of the testing of God theme in 
the antecedent story.  The fact that "no one has claimed so," except me, is 
exactly the point.  Gibson and others will deny that the one story is the 
antecedent of the other at their peril, and the absence of the testing of God 
theme in the antecedent is damning evidence against Gibson's claim.

Thanks for you comments, Larry, but I don't think I have the time address 
possibly two different defenses simultaneously, so I will leave your other 
thoughtful comments unanswered.  Unless Jeffrey agrees to stand by all of 
your arguments, and adopt them as his own, I would prefer to wait to see how 
HE defends his thesis.  It is no more appropriate for you to be arguing on 
Jeff's behalf, while he remains silent, then it would be for a doctoral 
candidate to stand silent while his thesis advisor answered the 
interrogators' questions on his behalf at his PhD oral exam.  Jeff can speak 
for himself, I am certain, and probably will defend his thesis himself when 
and if he thinks he needs to do so.

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Joseph F. Alward, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
University of the Pacific 
Stockton CA 95201
email:  JFAlward AT aol.com

Web Page:  "A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html