Posted by Gunnar on August 20, 1999 at 02:30:22:
In Reply to: jesus of nasareth posted by the admiral on August 19, 1999 at 11:52:35:
: sak and gunnar: notice that i took the pains to refer to "jesus of nasareth", that is, the new testament jesus.
: josephsus was born 37 c.e. three or more years after the alledged execution of j of n. he was a jew and the reference to jesus in the antiquities was obviously written by a christian. possibly by eusebius who had no compunction about lying in furtherence of christianity. a trait of christians to this day.
: the admiral
As you no doubt observed from my post above, I agree that it is not at all improbable that you could be right about the reference to Jesus in the antiquities not originating with Josephus. As for over-zealous Christians in the past and present lying promote their faith, I doubt that honest Christians will even deny that has occurred. Zealots of every description (not necessarily just religious zealots) often seem to feel fully justified in telling "little" lies now and then in order to further a (by their reasoning) a "greater" truth. It is remarkable how many of them never seem to figure out that that inevitably does more harm than good to their credibility in the long run (at least in the minds of people not afraid to think for themselves).
It is worth repeating that by far the most important and credible of the teachings attributed to Jesus (as well as many other revered religious leaders) is the principle of treating others with the love and respect with which we would like to be treated ourselves. The further religions stray from that central, unifying principle, the more likely they are to find themselves in a morass of irrational, intolerant folly.
Gunnar