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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: BenDavid vs the World: Round 2
Message-ID: <212@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Nov-84 10:58:33 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.212
Posted: Tue Nov  6 10:58:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Nov-84 07:14:21 EST
References: <964@phs.UUCP>
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
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Jeff Gillette's criticism of Yirmiyahu sounds very convincing to me.

Neither Orthodox Judaism nor RC descended points of view are entirely justified
starting points for interpretation of the bible.

Consider attempting to analyze Marx right now.  Should one start from the
standpoint of the Capitalists of his era, or from the point of view of those
who claim their ideas to be descended from his (such as the Russians, or the
Chinese, or the ...)?  In either case, distortions enter.  If JC was truly as
revolutionary as Marx, then it is inappropriate to view his teachings from the
viewpoint they conflicted with.  Yet it is also inappropriate to view them
with the extensive baggage history inevitably appends, as offical state
Marxist analyses demonstrate.

What then is the solution?  Depends on what the problem is.  If you regard the
texts as sacred, perfect, and essential, then the only solution is to construct
a hypothetical viewpoint using data derived from its descendents.  Both Jeff
and Yirmiyahu both claim to be doing this: I suspect the source of their
disagreement is simply that there is too little data, so they both assume
significance of their data to justify their conclusions.

I regard the problem differently.  As an agnostic, I'm more interested in the
range of possible interpretations.  From these, I can pick and choose ideas
that I consider to have desirable characteristics.  It doesn't matter to me
what the original meaning was if I can find a useful contemporary meaning
by any process (including looking at opposites.)
-- 

Mike Huybensz				...mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh