Christian Texts and History • Re: Fernando Bermejo-Rubio

Seems like a whole lot of work to state the obvious, like studies about how getting more sleep leads to being less tired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure ... berry_Finn

Story about a slave boy Jim that goes on an adventure to escape the American South in the 1840s.

Along the way they encounter al kinds of Southern rascals whom they elude and make look foolish.

Jim displays moral superiority by saving Tom leading to his own capture and is ultimately freed.

The story foreshadows much of the coming Civil War and attitudes toward slavery and the South that would emerge following the Civil War.

This story has just as much historical context and relevance as the Gospels do to their respective time period.

Showing that the story reflects historical conditions of the 1840s doesn't make the story real history. It doesn't mean the story wasn't the invention of a story writer.

.....and it doesn't mean that the invented story writer was asleep to history - anymore than the Jews of today are asleep to their past history. To assume that the gospel writers were asleep to history is to ignore the role history has played in the lives of all who live on this planet. In the case of the gospel story, that history is Roman occupation of Judaea - from 63 b.c. To simply ignore this history as being relevant to the gospel writers is to close ones eyes to the very large elephant standing in the room.

Of course, I don't know why anyone would think otherwise. But to ignore the role of the First Jewish-Roman War and the destruction of the temple is an even greater disregard of history.

Huckleberry Finn was written in 1885, about 20 years after the end of the Civil War. The story is set about 20 years prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Contention over slavery had been an on-going issue in America since the founding of the nation, and many Africans had tried to escape for decades. There had already been many uprisings. The abolitionist movement had been in place since the founding of the country.

And yet, I would argue, a story like Huckleberry Finn would never have been written except in the environment in which it was, following the North's successful victory over the South and the abolition of slavery. It is only at that time, following the Civil War, that the story would be written, from the vantage point of the victorious Union over the vanquished Confederacy.

The same goes for the Gospels. The whole Gospel story is conceived much like Huckleberry Finn, from a vantage point where one can see Jerusalem and Temple in ruins, with Judaism crushed and repressed, and the Jews having brought destruction upon themselves, just as Mark Twain shows that the Southerners brought righteous vengeance upon themselves, even though there were a few good souls who also had to suffer for it. Of course Samuel Clements had knowledge of the pre-war conditions of the nation. It was that knowledge that informs his story. Just as it was that knowledge that informs the writer of the first Gospel, who was nevertheless inventing his story from the post-war perspective, just as Samuel Clements invented his.

And when brining up Josephus, we must indeed consider his perspective. In Wars of the Jews, Josephus claims that prior to the final destruction brought upon Jerusalem, Titus compelled Josephus himself, who had been taken prisoner, to deliver a speech to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the speech Josephus acknowledges that many in the audience considered him a traitor, but he accuses the rebels of being traitors to God. He accuses the rebels of having brought coming destruction upon themselves by disgracing the holy city. Josephus concluded with the following:


This IS the perspective of the writer of the first Gospel, this IS what his allegory is about. The WHOEL story is about this.

What that means is that the WHOEL STORY was created BY THE WRITER from the a post-war vantage point.

Statistics: Posted by rgprice — Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:03 am

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