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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Who rose from the dead?
Message-ID: <865@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 20:58:31 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.865
Posted: Thu Nov  8 20:58:31 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 05:36:45 EST
References: <1376@pucc-h> <256@qantel.UUCP> <222@pyuxd.UUCP> <1485@qubix.UUCP> <233@pyuxd.UUCP> <289@qantel.UUCP> <217@cybvax0.UUCP>
Reply-To: mangoe@maryland.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 28
Summary: The Bible isn't history

[Ken Nichols]
>> As far as I know, the Bible is the most historicaly acurate, and well
>> documented books on the earth.  If it doesn't have any credibility, then
>> either does any other historical document.

Nonsense.  The bible isn't history at all; it's a statement of theology.
There is precious little outside verification of ANYTHING in the Hebrew
Bible, and huge tracts of it (for instance, the entire Book of Job) are
clearly just stories intended to illustrate some point about man's relation
to God.  It's quite clear that anything which represents itself as having
occurred before the reign of David was either made up out of whole cloth or
was passed on as oral tradition for many centuries.

THe New Testament is just as bad.  Much foolishness written about the Gospels
starts with the premise that they are biographical.  More nonsense.  The
ease with which Matthew and Luke rearrange and elaborate upon Mark's text
belies any notion that the authors thought of their works as biographies.
The Acts of the Apostles is full of evidence that Luke bundled a number of
Paul's visits to a location into one or two.  We also mustn't forget to
note that stylistic evidence in the letters attributed to Paul indicates a
number of authors.

The Bible way be an impotant religious document, but history it ain't.

Charley Wingate umcp-cs!mangoe

Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est.