Time 18:50: “Let’s be generous and say that the disciples of Jesus were 25 years old when they followed Jesus. Almost all scholars date the writing of the Gospels to between approximately 70 CE and 100 CE. That is 40 to 70 years after the death of Jesus. That would make the authors of the Gospels between 65 – 95 years old when they wrote their gospels. Why did they wait so long??
Why did they all wait so long to write their stories about Jesus?. Is that credible? Is it credible to believe [the traditional authorship of the Gospels]??”
I thought that the traditional authorship hypothesis usually had the gospels written in the 50’s, before the death of Paul. Even if that’s the case, it does still raise the question: Why did the disciples wait 20 years before they wrote their stories down?
Yes, fundamentalists and evangelicals will try to claim that the Gospel of Mark was written three minutes after Jesus gasped his last breath but the majority of scholars believe that the first gospel, Mark, was written circa 65-75 CE.
Time 20:40: The authors of the Gospels were not historians. They were passionate believers. The author of the Gospel of John tells us why he wrote his Gospel: “So that you might believe!”. These are works of propaganda.”
Time 20:54: “One of the things that is troubling about the credibility of the stories about the alleged resurrection of Jesus is that even his followers were skeptical. In a number of the stories, when Jesus appears to his disciples, they don’t recognize him.”
Time 25:00: “There is one thing that could have cemented the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. In Matthew chapter 12 the Jewish leaders ask Jesus for a sign to prove who he is. Jesus tells them that the only sign they will get is that of the sign of Jonah: He will be in the belly of the earth for three days and then will appear to them. Well…Jesus never appeared to the Jewish leaders! Jesus never appeared to the Sanhedrin! He never gave them the sign he promised. He only (allegedly) appears to his disciples.
This is the exact same situation as what happened in Mormonism. The only witnesses to appearances of the angel Moroni and his Golden Plates were the family and friends of Joseph Smith!”
Time 32: “These stories [in the Gospels] were not static, but very fluid. They changed with time until written down 40 to 70 years later.”
Gary: Conservative Christian apologists often claim that first century Jews would NEVER have allowed their oral traditions to change. If that is true, why doesn’t this Jewish rabbi know that??
Time 34: The discrepancies in the four Resurrection stories in the Gospels can be explained by the fact that these books were not written by eyewitnesses. These stories developed and evolved over many decades of oral transmission before being written down by non-eyewitnesses. Christian apologists will often say that this is what is to be expected. They say that it is the same thing that often occurs with traffic accidents: the eyewitness reports will have some inconsistencies.
Well, that is true for situations such as whether the car involved was dark gray or light gray, but an eyewitness will not report that the car ran into a huge semi-truck when everyone else says that the car ran into another car. And this is what we find in the Gospels: Either Jesus was crucified on the Passover or the day before Passover, it can’t be both. Either Jesus instructed the disciples to go to the Galilee or he instructed them to stay in Jerusalem. Both are not possible and no eyewitness would confuse the two instructions.”
Time 38 minutes: Paul had a visionary experience of Jesus. In Paul’s view of resurrection, the original body is not brought back to life. The original body is replaced by a heavenly body. Paul even says, ‘flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven’. The story of Paul’s experience on the Damascus Road is consistent with Paul’s view of resurrection. Paul didn’t see a walking, talking body. All Paul saw was a bright light. This was a visionary experience.”
Time 39:40: “Paul’s visionary experience on the Damascus Road is similar to the visionary story of Jesus and his disciples encountering Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transformation. Are we to believe that the body of Moses was brought out of its grave and reconstituted for this scene?? And what happened to Moses after this scene?? You see, these are visionary experiences. They are not real.”
Time 44:40: “Paul preaches in his epistles that a resurrection does not involve a revivication of the original body. Such an idea is repugnant to Paul. Paul believed that the original body is replaced by a heavenly body. So if Paul met with the original disciples three years later in Jerusalem, and they told him that Jesus had appeared to them in a flesh and blood body, why does Paul never mention one word about this fact? The fact is, Paul never once mentions a word about anyone seeing a resurrected BODY.”
Time 45:35: “It is very odd that if Jesus really did appear to his followers in the flesh…the Church did not keep track of the locations of these amazing events! Think about that: Three days after Jesus is buried, he starts appearing in the flesh to people…but no one bothers to record or remember where these places are! This is evidence that the appearances were visionary in nature, not physical.”
Time 48: “Three hundred years after the Gospel of Mark was written, the Church decided to add some appearance stories to the Gospel because they were embarrassed that this Gospel, the first Gospel, said nothing about any appearances. So they took some parts of Matthew, some parts of Luke, and some parts of John and created a new ending for the Gospel of Mark. This is evidence that we are not dealing with trustworthy historical accounts.”
Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 
Time 3:51: “In Judaism, the messiah is the king of the Jewish nation. He is not an extra-terrestrial being that comes down from outer space.”
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Time 18:50: “Let’s be generous and say that the disciples of Jesus were 25 years old when they followed Jesus. Almost all scholars date the writing of the Gospels to between approximately 70 CE and 100 CE. That is 40 to 70 years after the death of Jesus. That would make the authors of the Gospels between 65 – 95 years old when they wrote their gospels. Why did they wait so long??
Why did they all wait so long to write their stories about Jesus?. Is that credible? Is it credible to believe [the traditional authorship of the Gospels]??”
LikeLike
I thought that the traditional authorship hypothesis usually had the gospels written in the 50’s, before the death of Paul. Even if that’s the case, it does still raise the question: Why did the disciples wait 20 years before they wrote their stories down?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, fundamentalists and evangelicals will try to claim that the Gospel of Mark was written three minutes after Jesus gasped his last breath but the majority of scholars believe that the first gospel, Mark, was written circa 65-75 CE.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Time 20:40: The authors of the Gospels were not historians. They were passionate believers. The author of the Gospel of John tells us why he wrote his Gospel: “So that you might believe!”. These are works of propaganda.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Time 20:54: “One of the things that is troubling about the credibility of the stories about the alleged resurrection of Jesus is that even his followers were skeptical. In a number of the stories, when Jesus appears to his disciples, they don’t recognize him.”
LikeLike
Time 25:00: “There is one thing that could have cemented the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. In Matthew chapter 12 the Jewish leaders ask Jesus for a sign to prove who he is. Jesus tells them that the only sign they will get is that of the sign of Jonah: He will be in the belly of the earth for three days and then will appear to them. Well…Jesus never appeared to the Jewish leaders! Jesus never appeared to the Sanhedrin! He never gave them the sign he promised. He only (allegedly) appears to his disciples.
This is the exact same situation as what happened in Mormonism. The only witnesses to appearances of the angel Moroni and his Golden Plates were the family and friends of Joseph Smith!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Time 32: “These stories [in the Gospels] were not static, but very fluid. They changed with time until written down 40 to 70 years later.”
Gary: Conservative Christian apologists often claim that first century Jews would NEVER have allowed their oral traditions to change. If that is true, why doesn’t this Jewish rabbi know that??
LikeLike
Time 34: The discrepancies in the four Resurrection stories in the Gospels can be explained by the fact that these books were not written by eyewitnesses. These stories developed and evolved over many decades of oral transmission before being written down by non-eyewitnesses. Christian apologists will often say that this is what is to be expected. They say that it is the same thing that often occurs with traffic accidents: the eyewitness reports will have some inconsistencies.
Well, that is true for situations such as whether the car involved was dark gray or light gray, but an eyewitness will not report that the car ran into a huge semi-truck when everyone else says that the car ran into another car. And this is what we find in the Gospels: Either Jesus was crucified on the Passover or the day before Passover, it can’t be both. Either Jesus instructed the disciples to go to the Galilee or he instructed them to stay in Jerusalem. Both are not possible and no eyewitness would confuse the two instructions.”
LikeLike
Time 38 minutes: Paul had a visionary experience of Jesus. In Paul’s view of resurrection, the original body is not brought back to life. The original body is replaced by a heavenly body. Paul even says, ‘flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven’. The story of Paul’s experience on the Damascus Road is consistent with Paul’s view of resurrection. Paul didn’t see a walking, talking body. All Paul saw was a bright light. This was a visionary experience.”
LikeLike
Time 39:40: “Paul’s visionary experience on the Damascus Road is similar to the visionary story of Jesus and his disciples encountering Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transformation. Are we to believe that the body of Moses was brought out of its grave and reconstituted for this scene?? And what happened to Moses after this scene?? You see, these are visionary experiences. They are not real.”
LikeLike
Time 44:40: “Paul preaches in his epistles that a resurrection does not involve a revivication of the original body. Such an idea is repugnant to Paul. Paul believed that the original body is replaced by a heavenly body. So if Paul met with the original disciples three years later in Jerusalem, and they told him that Jesus had appeared to them in a flesh and blood body, why does Paul never mention one word about this fact? The fact is, Paul never once mentions a word about anyone seeing a resurrected BODY.”
LikeLike
Time 45:35: “It is very odd that if Jesus really did appear to his followers in the flesh…the Church did not keep track of the locations of these amazing events! Think about that: Three days after Jesus is buried, he starts appearing in the flesh to people…but no one bothers to record or remember where these places are! This is evidence that the appearances were visionary in nature, not physical.”
LikeLike
Time 48: “Three hundred years after the Gospel of Mark was written, the Church decided to add some appearance stories to the Gospel because they were embarrassed that this Gospel, the first Gospel, said nothing about any appearances. So they took some parts of Matthew, some parts of Luke, and some parts of John and created a new ending for the Gospel of Mark. This is evidence that we are not dealing with trustworthy historical accounts.”
LikeLike