There is some close reasoning on the temptation scenes by Jeffrey Gibson here.
I wonder who might be interested among my limited readers... and what they think of this. I can say that Secundus likes it - but whether it will anachronistically influence his story telling, I do not yet know.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Synoptic-L message
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4 comments:
I guess I wonder what you mean when you say, "close reasoning."
Q seems like a wholly unnecessary piece of mental gymnastics. These books were written closely enough to the event to have been composed by eye-witnesses. These eye-witnesses were evangelistic by nature. They talked about the things they'd seen, heard each other talk about these things, and watched the things they said meld into familiar stories. What does one need a Q for?
Of all the likely interpretations of the Christian story, similarly, the most likely is that Christ was God come in the flesh to die.
As I skimmed the linked article, it just looks like a lot of work expended on several least likely scenarios. If one starts with the presupposition that was is written is too miraculous to have happened, then one has a lot of work to do in interpreting these stories. But, if one starts from that position, I don't understand why one doesn't study a more full-bodied philosophy. Why spend so much time on Christianity, unless as an anthropological curiosity?
Anyway, there were too many "quotes" around too many important words for me to take the article "seriously." The guy casts himself as having a serious dislike for his subject.
Mental gymnastics is a good synonym for close reasoning. Thanks
I have sometimes thought of the synoptic problem as a bear-trap between the human and the Gospel. It occupies many minds and seems to have no easy solution. Personally I favor Griesbach simply because the Gospel of Mark is the first where I understood the impact of literary structure.
I truly do envy you your background in these things.
Thank you.
I see we have some shared interests - tennis and codepoking - I've done that and programming these past 40 years. The study bit is sometimes a lonely profession. I think though that God, having been human, knows our solitude first hand. It is one of his joys to fill it. I got serious about historical study only 14 years ago and about learning Hebrew only 2 years ago - it's not too late. Find a library near you that is good on Biblical Studies as you listen in to some of the bloggers. Believe it or not the library section for Biblical Studies (at the universities at least) is under BS.
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