You are viewing a single comment's thread from:

RE: The Gospel According To Mark – Clever Myth-Making

in #christianity • 7 years ago

It's all nonsense. The gospels were written in the first century by eyewitnesses (Matthew, John) or those who talked to eyewitnesses (Mark, Luke). Other books of the New Testament were written by those who saw the risen Christ like Paul, James, and Jude.

The internal evidence of the books is overwhelming. We have passages such as these:

(Luke 1:1-4 NIV) Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, {2} just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. {3} Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, {4} so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

(2 Peter 1:16 NIV) We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

(1 Corinthians 15:3-8 NIV) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, {4} that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, {5} and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. {6} After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. {7} Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, {8} and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

(Jude 1:3 NIV) Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

The bottom line is that people who try to destroy the authenticity of the Bible do so to justify their own sin or because they hate the way God runs the universe that He created.

7 years ago in #christianity by
$0.00
    1 vote
    Reply 1
    Sort:  
  • Trending
    • [-]
     7 years ago 
    Hi @barncat and thank you for taking the time to comment. Sorry I have taken a while to reply.

    I would like to briefly address the points you have made.

    The gospels were written in the first century by eyewitnesses (Matthew, John) or those who talked to eyewitnesses (Mark, Luke). Other books of the New Testament were written by those who saw the risen Christ like Paul, James, and Jude.

    All the evidence says otherwise. Also, quoting passages from the Bible is not evidence of any fact unless you are of the belief that the Bible was handed down from God. In which case what about all the other writings of the 2500 or so other religions in the world? Where did they come from – oh yes from their gods. If a god did exist then only one set if writings can be right so why should it be yours? (And please don’t quote another passage from the Bible proving yours is the right one because it would, of course, say that wouldn’t it?)

    So to deal with the rest of your comment.


    You quote from Luke 1:1-4. This passage is merely Luke trying to establish his credentials. Many scholars argue that Luke is trying to unify the Gentile and Torah-observant sects of Christianity. Marks Gospel was promoting a gentile leaning Christianity while Matthews Gospel (written after Mark and heavily copying from him) attempts to go back to a more Torah-observant Christianity. Luke is saying with this passage that his account is the one to believe. I will do a complete post about Lukes Gospel at a later date showing how he copies from Mark, Matthew and Flavius Josephus and how his Gospel is nothing but a fabricated story written around 110-120 AD.

    Your passage from 2 Peter 1:16 – This is widely held by scholars to be a second century forgery and nothing written by ‘the’ Peter. It is nothing more than a Christian book written to deal with the long-awaited arrival of Jesus to end the world and provides evidence that Christians had to combat the accusation that their religion was a deliberate theological construct.

    The passage from 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 – As I will show in a later post concerning Pauls writings, there is every indication that Paul is something of a Mythicist. Paul often says that he received his understanding of Christianity from revelation directly from God. It is curious that Paul hardly mentions any biographical events of Jesus even when it would have made his case to the people he was writing to. Even those that are mentioned can be shown to be later insertions. He received his knowledge from visions and not men. He seems a good example of a schizotype.

    Your quote from Jude 1:3 – There are indications that Jude was written sometime between the end of the 1st century and the first quarter of the 2nd century AD and cannot be considered to be written by an eyewitness.

    Finally:-

    The bottom line is that people who try to destroy the authenticity of the Bible do so to justify their own sin or because they hate the way God runs the universe that He created.

    I “don’t set out to destroy the authenticity of the Bible”. I go where the evidence takes me and the evidence is increasingly in favour of the Bible being nothing but a collection of made up stories. I also don’t “Do so to justify their own sin because they hate the way God runs the universe”. I don’t believe in a God or gods and believe that the universe runs to the laws of physics, chemistry and natural processes. I have nothing to hate but I do like to know the truth.

    Thanks once again for taking the time to engage with me in debating this topic. As I have mentioned above, there are more posts to come (when I have the time to write them!) that deal with the remaining three gospels as well as Paul. I hope you will respond to those as well.

    Have an enjoyable and safe holiday.
    Information is taken from various sources including:-

    David Fitzgerald. “Jesus, Mything In Action Vol II”
    Richard Carrier. “On the Historicity Of Jesus.”
    www.infidels.org
    www.wiki.ironchariots.org

    $0.00
      Reply