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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Jesus fanfic




http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2012/09/18/scripture/5249b247721383635e01f5b037d380f4097a105e/scripture-1x.jpg
Photo by Prof. Karen L. King



















I am in possession of a document from 2003 that contains a quote: Galileo Galilei saying "I wrote all of Shakespeare's works.". I can even show you the laser printer it was printed on!

We should have the same faith in the veracity of that writing that we should accord the Egyptian Coptic papyrus fragment that is making the chat shows now. You know the one; Jesus is speaking and makes a reference to "My wife..." and “she will be able to be my disciple.”.

Let's look at this: a fragment, smaller than a business card, purportedly written in the fourth century AD, contains things found in no earlier manuscripts (of which there are multitudes). This is me being convinced. The New York Times, ever the theological Source of Record, breathlessly conjectures

Even with many questions unsettled, the discovery could reignite the debate over whether Jesus was married, whether Mary Magdalene was his wife and whether he had a female disciple.

The debate has been quite small, and primarily held amongst cranks. Scripture makes no hint of Mary Magdalene being married to Jesus, or to Shlomo the Tailor for that matter; her identity in Scripture is the woman from whom Jesus cast seven demons. As to female disciples: disciples, yes. apostles, no. The Gospels tell of women of means who helped support Jesus' ministry, so yes, there were female disciples. Herp, derp; why was this ever a question? Read the Book!

I reiterate the contention of Chez 'Vark: The Early Church Pseudepigrapha, with Gnostic Gospels like "Thomas" and "Judas" are Christian fanfic, rather like "My Immortal"  and are to be respected as such.

5 comments:

Jay said...

It having been written several centuries after the time of Christ kinda tipped me off as to its' "authenticity".

As for the media jumping on this, is this what is known as "lower criticism"?

The Aardvark said...

"Lower criticism". RIOT!!!!

For the life of me, Jay, I cannot fathom how people miss that leetle detail. Over 300 years, and it suddenly appears in a not-Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek text.

"I'd like to buy a clue, Alex!"

Jay said...

It makes them feel better when the word of God is "debunked". Anything to distract them from their ultimate culpability come judgement day.

I forget who said it but "people will believe anything as long as it's not in the Bible".

The Aardvark said...

http://aardvarksplumbline.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-have-been-science-fiction-fan-for.html

TheWayfarer said...

Seeing as how this whole preposterous concoction was fabricated by a dude who is flagrantly
A) Gay
B) an atheist, and
C) a fiction writer, who openly told everyone it is fiction
I find the New York Times efforts to use a forged document fragment to build his cult-following amusing info-tainment, but nothing more.