Can the New Testament be believed?
The New Testament is impossible to take seriously as an account of how real people would have behaved in the situations that the New Testament says they were in
Take Acts 23, where Paul has been arrested and there is supposedly this letter about him.
He wrote a letter as follows: Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment. When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him.
From Lysias' point of view, Paul was a follower of somebody killed for sedition. He is now claiming that this person is still alive, is the real king and lord, and is still at large. (like we believe Paul's story of the ascension...)
We are not quite sure how this Jesus figure escaped death, and is still at large. But we can kill his followers for their treason now and then look for the ringleader later.
Instead, Claudius Lysias finds Paul guilty of nothing like that, and the only charge that has been brought against Paul is to do with matters of the law (perhaps the dispute over circumcision that Paul mentions in Galatians 6:12)
If the Romans had really heard stories of an historical Jesus somehow escaping death and still being alive, Paul would have been a dead man.
Take Acts 23, where Paul has been arrested and there is supposedly this letter about him.
He wrote a letter as follows: Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment. When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him.
From Lysias' point of view, Paul was a follower of somebody killed for sedition. He is now claiming that this person is still alive, is the real king and lord, and is still at large. (like we believe Paul's story of the ascension...)
We are not quite sure how this Jesus figure escaped death, and is still at large. But we can kill his followers for their treason now and then look for the ringleader later.
Instead, Claudius Lysias finds Paul guilty of nothing like that, and the only charge that has been brought against Paul is to do with matters of the law (perhaps the dispute over circumcision that Paul mentions in Galatians 6:12)
If the Romans had really heard stories of an historical Jesus somehow escaping death and still being alive, Paul would have been a dead man.
posted by Steven Carr at 2:40 PM
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