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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 03/14/2008 : 11:50:05 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by alleyes
In the thread discussing evidence for Jesus, someone mentioned that just because a fictional novel has the names of some real towns and real historical events, that does not mean it is a true story. I would counter that with the point that just because a fictional novel is not a true story, doesn't mean that whoever wrote it did not draw on real places, events and their real beliefs ( or what they wanted or needed to believe ) about the real world. |
I made that comment, and your counter isn't a counter. Of course a work of fiction that has real places and events in it has drawn on those places and events. Otherwise, we'd be forced to consider the idea that the real stuff in Red Storm Rising (for example) just randomly happened to match up with the real world! While I'm sure some made-up names will happen to randomly match real names (thus the need for disclaimers on films), the idea that someone would just happen to make up words like "Jerusalem" or "Roman" or "Pilate" when putting together the myth of Jesus is, of course, absurd.| So from that standpoint I think everything in the Bible is a really valuable record of things that really happened. The tricky part is sorting out if they really happened historically, or if they really happened in how people imagined, believed, understood or hoped the world worked. Either way it is a valuable record of a real cultural and historical past which continues in many of our beliefs and assumptions to this day. |
I don't think anyone is saying that the Bible doesn't give us knowledge of at least part of Middle-East culture during the thousand years or so leading up to the end of the first century CE. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
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Israeli researcher says Moses was high on drugs
