willhud9 wrote:You mean pseudo-history. Myth is a separate category all together. The gospels including the birth narrative flow as historical narrative. Luke's author more than likely used the sources he had available to him (doesn't mean that it's accurate information as is evident by Luke's clear failure in relating the fact that there was no ancestral home custom, but this could very well stem from the author's lack of knowledge of Hebrew customs) to create a birth story and also why his gospel is the only one which we see Jesus as a child and being presented in the temple. Matthew's birth narrative is probably more fictitious than Luke's as Matthew's birth narrative fits in well with the theme throughout the gospel that Israel has turned its back on God and smells of a great way to shift blame to the false kings (Herod and Caesar).

Myth is a story which describes origins of human culture of some sort. Nothing of the gospels shout myth. Unless by myth you meant a traditional story and then I would still say that's not an accurate term for the birth narratives.

Animavore wrote:Even taken that way I find it not uplifting. A saviour from what? It's not the same as Superman or Optimus Prime or even the shaggin' Americans saving us from a clear and present danger like in the movies. Saviours I can handle but I'm not sure exactly what Jesus is supposed to be saving us from? It's not a fall from a height, it's not a meteor and it's certainly not evil robots bent on wanton destruction. Sin is something so nebulous it would be like a scene in The Avengers with Iron Man saving a child from an oncoming yet entirely invisible, soundless and undetectable train looking, as he would, like a big, metal mime much to the bewilderment of onlookers.

Byron wrote:

Animavore wrote:Even taken that way I find it not uplifting. A saviour from what? It's not the same as Superman or Optimus Prime or even the shaggin' Americans saving us from a clear and present danger like in the movies. Saviours I can handle but I'm not sure exactly what Jesus is supposed to be saving us from? It's not a fall from a height, it's not a meteor and it's certainly not evil robots bent on wanton destruction. Sin is something so nebulous it would be like a scene in The Avengers with Iron Man saving a child from an oncoming yet entirely invisible, soundless and undetectable train looking, as he would, like a big, metal mime much to the bewilderment of onlookers.

What's the Christ saving us from? Pick a card, any card. Original sin, economic woes, rough breakup. As you like. Christianity's traded on its versatility for 2,000 years.