Posted: Jan 19, 2023 12:14 am
archibald wrote:Without a Jesus figure who is said to have been human (or possibly just convincingly human-like in form and appearance, at least temporarily) and dying (or convincingly appearing to), the sales pitch would have been severely weakened, I think.
- Yes.
RealityRules wrote:Jesus being portrayed as a human was a key selling point.
archibald wrote: maybe I should have said '...appeal to superstitious jewish readers...' in particular, (or listeners actually), or potential converts.
- Well, the pitch was as much to 'Gentiles'; or soon as much to (though, at first, the accounts might have just been literature to meet what was said to have been high demand for such literature ie. in the 2nd century)
archibald wrote:Whatever about when the referred-to death was supposed to have happened (if it ever did at all) this supposed 'human death on earth' seems to me much more likely alleged scenario (for reasons given above to begin with), and not for instance a celestial-only entity who merely 'died' somewhere else other than on earth, which is probably the main reason I tend to be very skeptical about Earl Doherty's stuff.
- Well, it's not an either or scenario.
ie. Doherty and his acolytes, eg. Richard Carrier, propose Paul was talking about a celestial crucifixion +/- a celestial only entity. But it's clear that the Gospel writers were not writing about a celestial entity or a celestial crucifixion (+/- the authors of the so-called catholic epistles)
archibald wrote:Without a Jesus figure who is said to have been human (or possibly just convincingly human-like in form and appearance, at least temporarily) and dying (or convincingly appearing to), the sales pitch would have been severely weakened, I think.
- And part of the sales pitch and its appeal is that what-is-said-to-have-happened-to-Jesus can and will happen to his devout followers