Posted: May 02, 2012 12:31 pm
angelo wrote:Blood wrote:angelo wrote:I think the main problem here are the sources. The only source we have of a HJ are the discredited gospels which are chock of block full of supernatural trivia that no clear thinking person would ever accept unless the person has a hidden agenda. Like funding from a certain organisation for example. This third quest for a HJ will end up as the last two unless new evidence is presented, which I doubt exists.
Yes, this "attestation" idea is a canard of epic proportions. It is not the mere fact of a past figure's textual "attestation" that is a determinate to historicity, it is the nature of the sources of that attestation. Robin Hood is well-attested by textual sources, as is Hermes Trismegistus. But the nature of those sources do not give us much, if any, confidence that they are describing actual historical figures.
Exactly. All the sources are suspect, therefore the figures they describe are also very suspect. There is textual sources about the gods of Mt Olympus as well, surely no historian in his/hers right mind would insist they existed.
Well of course, if the sources are in greek they must be trustworthy, since we know Zeus and Heracles spoke greek...