Image via WikipediaAncient Writings, and Beliefs: An article in the NYT (click here) tells the story of a stone slab and its possible interpretation and significance:"A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days. If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time...
[One scholar, Israel Knohol, says]: “This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”
I found it interesting that some were suggesting that the message on this slab might have an impact on the beliefs of Christians regarding the resurrection of Christ. So I ran a search and looked around to see what was being said about this article in various blogs, and (no surprise!): the Christian bloggers are saying that the message on this slab is either (a) a fraud or mistranslation; or (b) just another of the many (mostly scriptural) prophecies that Jesus fulfilled by his life, death, and resurrection. And the atheist bloggers are saying that this is just another piece of evidence that Jesus never even lived, much less was raised from the dead...
Confirmation bias is an amazing thing: If we believe something, our minds will strongly defend the belief. Almost anything can be used by the human mind to support an already-existing belief. If the belief is truly important to the individual, it is very difficult to find anything that will create doubt... religious and political beliefs are particularly hardened in this way (almost as much as outright delusions). We all know that we shouldn't talk about religion or politics over the dinner table... we insult, maim, and murder each other over this stuff. One has the urge to exclaim: "God help us!"
My understanding is that the early Christians were very careful to tell the Jesus story so that he fulfilled the messianic prophesies. Everybody knew the prophesies--it is likely that Jesus also did his part to fulfill the scriptures. ("This was done so that scripture might be fulfilled..." esp in Gospel of John.)
ReplyDeleteIt is highly probable this stone tablet text is simply another sensationalist scam, as is clearly indicated by the facts
ReplyDelete(1) that no specific information is available on its provenance and
(2) that no details are provided on carbon dating of the ink.
As such, this "news" falls right in line with the faked Lost-Tomb-of-Jesus "documentary" designed to make a profit off of people's fascination with the "real" Jesus, and with the larger scandal of the biased and misleading way the Dead Sea scrolls are being presented in museum exhibits around the world, with an antisemitic expression appearing on a government-run North Carolina museum's website. See, e.g.,
http://spinozaslens.com/libet/articles/dworkin_ethicsofexhibition.htm
and
http://blog.news-record.com/staff/frontpew/archives/2008/06/dead_sea_scroll.shtml.
Scam? Who knows. However, what the writing says is what scripture scholars have known for some time regarding Jewish theology and the presentation of Jesus in Christianity.
ReplyDeleteFind Israel Knohl's article and comments in full on Shalom Hartman Institute website, http://hartman.org.il
ReplyDelete