Tag: The Bible
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Easter Myth #2: Pilate was a kindly ditherer, open to persuasion
Ten Easter Myths Most leading historians, archaeologists and linguists don’t believe that the four official Christian Gospels can be relied upon as accurate records of historical fact. The Christmas stories, for instance, are known to be complete fabrications based on stories passed down from other traditions, edited to make them appear consistent with ancient Hebrew…
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Easter Myth #1: The gospel accounts of Yeshua’s trial are broadly in agreement
Ten Easter Myths Most leading historians, archaeologists and linguists don’t believe that the four official Christian Gospels can be relied upon as accurate records of historical fact. The Christmas stories, for instance, are known to be complete fabrications based on stories passed down from other traditions, edited to make them appear consistent with ancient Hebrew…
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Surprise, surprise! Adam and Eve never existed!
Surprise, surprise, Adam and Eve never existed! Who says so? No less than the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, ‘G-d’s representative on Earth’ – the Pope. Scholars have known for over 200 years that most of the Bible stories are myths, that even the accounts of historical events were written hundreds of…
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Merry Christmas Everybody
It’s not unusual for religious people to believe that their prophet or guru came into the world in a miraculous way, and Christians are no exception. In Yeshua’s case, tradition has it that he was born in Bethlehem, but this was an invention of the authors of Matthew and Luke’s gospels, keen to tie him…
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People don’t like inconvenient facts getting in the way!
A Brummie friend told me about his upbringing. ‘If I’d been born in Pakistan,’ he said, ‘I’d be a Muslim. If I were from Israel, I’d be a Jew, if from Italy, I’d be a Catholic. When you’re from my part of Birmingham, you’re an Aston Villa supporter. It doesn’t occur to you to be…
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All reported speech in the New Testament is only an interpretation of what was actually said
The entire New Testament was originally written in Greek – a language that Jesus/Yeshua and his disciples barely knew. Their everyday tongue was Galilean Aramaic, now defunct. Yeshua may have understood a smattering of marketplace Greek since Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee and just a stone’s throw from Nazareth, was on the main trade route…
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The First Gospel
‘Mark’ was the first of the four official gospels to be written, around 70 CE. Only the seven authentic letters of Paul and the anonymous letter to the Hebrews were written before this, which means ninety percent plus of the New Testament was written after. Nobody knows who wrote it, but it is clear the…
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Christianity is not about good deeds but blind faith
Does Christianity help or hinder us realising our spirituality? Spirituality is a deep appreciation of our non-physical essence coupled with an enriching process of personal growth and transformation. In contrast, religion is a formalised set of beliefs and rituals presented within a formatted organisational structure. It’s an uncomfortable fact for those who like formality and…
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The Hebrew prophecy of a virgin birth is based on a mistranslation
Two of the New Testament gospels tell us that Yeshua’s mother was a virgin at the time of his conception and that this had been prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures. About a third of the world’s population choose to believe this. But this particular prophecy was a mistranslation of a passage from the Book of…
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The real Pilate was a ruthless tyrant, not a kindly ditherer
If you’ve seen Michael Palin’s portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’, you’ll recall the weak and wavering man with a stutter in awe of his friend Bigus Dickus. Does this in any way resemble reality? No. Not at all. The Pilate of history was a vicious and paranoid tyrant who had…