Small beginnings - just a run through of the first 11 pages to start with. Further comments? Maybe later.
Chapter 1
The Synoptics and John cannot be simultaneously correct when the former assign to Jesus a public career lasting a year, while John stretches it to two or three years by mentioning three Passover festivals… p.10
Others have pointed out that the Synoptic gospels arrange their material more often thematically than chronologically, which may explain the discrepancies. Nonetheless, it is a genuine contradiction. Mark and Luke are definitely not written by first generation Christians, and it would be hard to make a case for Matthew to be written by a first generation Christian. The same cannot be said of John’s account. Reconciliation that might be available from other sources doesn’t change the fact that the Bible itself does not provide a means for reconciliation.
[1] Significant to the claims of two different days for Jesus’ execution, only a small minority of Quartodecimans commemorated the execution on the 14th Nisan – for the majority, the date was 14th Aviv.
[2] Or rather, by the author(s) of John, whom I refer to as “John” for the sake of brevity.
Chapter 1
The Synoptics and John cannot be simultaneously correct when the former assign to Jesus a public career lasting a year, while John stretches it to two or three years by mentioning three Passover festivals… p.10
Others have pointed out that the Synoptic gospels arrange their material more often thematically than chronologically, which may explain the discrepancies. Nonetheless, it is a genuine contradiction. Mark and Luke are definitely not written by first generation Christians, and it would be hard to make a case for Matthew to be written by a first generation Christian. The same cannot be said of John’s account. Reconciliation that might be available from other sources doesn’t change the fact that the Bible itself does not provide a means for reconciliation.
- If John’s dating of the crucifixion to … 14 Nisan is accurate, the Synoptics, who depict the … execution of Jesus on 15 Nisan must be in error. p.10
- The highly evolved doctrine of John points to a period posterior to the redaction of the Synoptic gospels. p10
- It is “hardly conceivable” that Christians could have faced eviction from the synagogue prior to the end of the first century, so the gospel (in accord with the view of mainstream scholarship) was probably published between the years 100 and 110. pp 10-11
- An attempt is made to identify the author as “the beloved disciple.” p11
- No-one testifies in the first century A.D. to John’s move to the farther edge of Asia Minor. Ignatius … In his letter to the members of the church at Ephesus … referred to the Ephesians as the people of Paul, but made no mention of John residing among them just a few years before the letter was written. p.11
[1] Significant to the claims of two different days for Jesus’ execution, only a small minority of Quartodecimans commemorated the execution on the 14th Nisan – for the majority, the date was 14th Aviv.
[2] Or rather, by the author(s) of John, whom I refer to as “John” for the sake of brevity.
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