Posted by Illuminati on 5/5/2005, 8:45 am, in reply to "Re: Validity of the Bible" The Muslims applaud the attacks on Christianity and especially on Jesus since they also begin any "exegesis" of the Bible with the same preconception that the Bible contains deliberate lies. Because Muslims hold the Bible in complete contempt they don't even bother quoting the Bible in context and ignore statements in the Bible which directly contradict their positions. Because Muslims also believe the Bible contains deliberate lies, they are just as irrational in their usage of the Bible as are those who are attempting to reconstruct a "historical" Jesus. Once you start a study with the assumption that the source deliberately lied, it is logically impossible to derive anything of factual value from the source. Unless you have outside evidence to corroborate the evidence, how can you know for sure exactly where the source lied? Inevitably the "researcher" accepts those portions which support his own presuppositions and rejecting those which differ from his preconceived opinions. In other words the "researcher" derives from the test exactly what he believed before he started the study. This is called eisegesis which is often pawned off onto the unweary as legitimate exegesis.
206.206.120.230
The Jesus Seminar seems to be the culmination of the skeptical attempt to reconstruct a "historical" Jesus. That they have rejected the vast majority of texts in the New Testament indicates their method is a failure. When they reject 82% of the sayings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, there is no remaining basis for a "historical" Jesus at all. The data needed to construct this Jesus is all gone. The "historical" Jesus is a blank to be filled in by the Jesus movement or anyone else who wishes to project their own ideas on history. This is the inevitable result when one begins research with the assumption that the source lied.
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