Replies to post #3569 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[SoxFan]

I certainly hope I didn't give you the impression that I thought they were writing things that were untruthful. I don't think they would as it would not be in their interest. However, just because someone is present at an event does not mean they record the event from memory correctly.

As for the New Testament agreeing with the gospel do we know if one influenced the other? If the writers were reviewing others documents could we have cross contamination of ideas? I know when my kids or wife tell me something happened at an event and I have a vague memory of it happening I agree but really have no knowledge of it actually happening.

If we have learned anything over the years about memory and "collective memory" and "myth as memory" we have learned that interpretations of events can and have changed our understanding of these events. However, in documents like these it is the best we have outside of audio and film. But you might consider that these writers were also marketeers trying to put the best foot forward for their hero. Do you think if another person, who may have been a disinterested person, recalled the same things happening?

The answers to these question come under "faith." However, unless one possesses "faith" then it becomes problematic about the believability of certain events happening.

Today we have many interpretations of the Bible. Which one is the true interpretation?

[sarai]

Jar,

If they were, the other disciples would discredit them and the writings would not have had authority in the early church.

If "church" is a Christian institution, it was my understanding that the Christian Church did not exist until the 4th century. So how could the disciples have written about a "church" several centuries before it existed? Use of the word "church" could actually mean "temple" or "congregation" or something similar. But that would imply "interpretation" or "translation", and is therefore incorrect - per the literalist's or fundamentalist's interpretation. Using the word "church" during the time of the disciples would be historically incorrect.