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From: vek@allegra.UUCP (Van E. Kelly)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: Who rose from the dead?
Message-ID: <2889@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 10:21:25 EST
Article-I.D.: allegra.2889
Posted: Thu Nov  8 10:21:25 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Nov-84 08:38:03 EST
References: <1376@pucc-h> <256@qantel.UUCP> <222@pyuxd.UUCP> <1485@qubix.UUCP> <233@pyuxd.UUCP> <289@qantel.UUCP> <344@mhuxt.UUCP>
Reply-To: vek@allegra.UUCP (Van Kelly)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 48

In article <344@mhuxt.UUCP> version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site allegra.UUCP version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site mhuxt.UUCP allegra!ulysses!mhuxj!mhuxr!mhuxv!mhuxt!js2j js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) writes:
>> > Did Jesus rise from the dead?  Or do some documents simply *say* that Jesus
>> > rose from the dead?
>
>  Not too bad of a question.  Why believe in Ceasar and not in Christ?  Well,
>first of all, I'll grant that it seems likely that someone named Jesus did 
>exist.  It's much easier to believe that such and such a Roman emporer did
>something mundane than it is to believe that someone walked on water ( or 
>insert your favorite miracle.)  Also, there were several hundred years of
>human history where a very politically powerful entity, which had a vested
>interest in maintaining the divinity of christ, and which was known to be
>totally unscrupulous (remember the crusades?), was the main repository of the
>records which survive today.  Is it any wonder that we doubt the accuracy of
>those records?
>
>Jeff Sonntag
>ihnp4!mhuxl!mhuxt!js2j

Just a minute here.  Not to put down your honest skepticism, but I suggest you
might want to look into a little more of the history and preservation of the
N.T. mss.  While it is true that groups within the Church of Rome during the 
Middle Ages did a fair amount of fancy footwork with manuscripts, (as Erasmus
found out the hard way) the primary mss. for modern N.T. research date from 
well before that period, as Jeff Gillette has recently pointed out.  Also,
the influence of Rome outside the European continent proper (both political 
and theological) was somewhat spottier than you suggest, and not all the
mss. in question are European.

I second Jeff Gillette's recommendation of Metzger's book as an 
excellent source on this subject.  Somewhat more accessible (though more
definitely "slanted" to a conservative viewpoint) is F.F. Bruce's little
paperback "The N.T. Documents -- Are They Reliable?", and also his
"Jesus and Christian Origins Outside The New Testament", available at most
well-stocked religious bookstores and church libraries.  Among the "popular" 
treatments of these subjects, these have the virtue of at least being 
"unsensationalistic" -- not trying to rewrite history to fit the latest 
(half-baked) theories.  

Van Kelly
(allegra!vek)
AT&T Bell Labs
Murray Hill, N.J.
MH3d418

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect
those of my employer, in case anyone thought they did.