[lbo-talk] Have a happy and merry December 25

[Arthur Maisel]

I am far from being an expert on 1st-century Judean history, but I think
the evidence that the Jesus of Christianity is based on someone who
actually lived is pretty good, attested by sources nearer to being
contemporary than the New Testament. As with Shakespeare, Occam's razor
suggests that it is more likely that there was someone recognizably
connected to the figure who has come down to us than that it was someone
else or no one. Of course, the Jesus of Christianity is a fictional
character, and no one event in the story can be implicitly relied on,
including the crucifiction. Some of his sayings, however, are thought to
date from a contemporary compiliation, now lost, that was incorporated by
the writers of the Gospel accounts. We ourselves can witness how a person
we all know was real is being changed into a fictional character in the
case of MLK.

On Wed, Dec 25, 2013 at 2:38 AM, Chuck Grimes <cagrimes42 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Today, as the world pauses on the birthday of one of history's greatest
>> men, whose teachings continue to benefit the entire human race, let us join
>> in toasting the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and of all the giants on whose
>> shoulders he stood.
>>
>> Jim Farmelant
>> http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
>> http://www.foxymath.com
>> Learn or Review Basic Math
>>
>
> ----------
>
> The annual reminder, reminded me of a question I've never been able to
> answer.
>
> Did Jesus exist? Is there any independent information that he did?
>
> Is there any historical support that any of the original apostles ever
> existed or were there any groups like them? There had to be something, but
> what?
>
> Given Shlomo Sand's Invention of the Jewish People and his rant on the
> second temple, which was the nearest contemporary event rests on dubious
> ground, and given that most `people' are inventions of some sort, well you
> get the idea.
>
> This is coming from my own ruminations on Strauss and his concept of
> classical Greece, which he seemed to think had a very specific worldview,
> which I think is a laugh ... beause ... He seemed to have forgotten that
> his idea of antiquity was an invention of the Renaissance with the late
> recovery of Plato in Florence, and more particularly the Enlightenment (his
> bete noir)...
>
> Strauss had a real axe to grind on the concept of history, which is
> ridiculous since without enligthenment history, he would have no idea how
> to construct a worldview from the texts and fragments of ancient
> thought---which were endlessly mediated by a couple of thousand years of
> translations. The texts that were used in Florence to recover Plato came
> from Constantinople. Not sure of the dates, but probably about the time
> that Justinian  abolished pagan texts. ...
>
> Anyway happy birthday Newton, you old bastard.
>
> CG
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