A truth - forgery specialist in Wattower of May 15, 2000
The Watchtower of May 15, 2000 attempts to ask question: " Evangiles-Histoire or myth? ". In this page I shall not linger to comment on the two only possibilities that leave us the editors in front of the composed question, nevertheless one can advance that Gospel can be a lot of History AND myth and not of the history OR the myth, classic Manichean choice of this kind of fundamentalist movement.
To prove their argumentation, which predictable matter, will go to the sense that Gospel are of the history in 100 %, the publishers of the review declares Page 6 about the ressurection of Jesus:
" Let us take the appearance of Jesus to his followers after its resurrection. A good writer of fables would have certainly imagined for the occasion a spectacular return, a hard-hitting speech or a nimbus of light and magnificence. Now the evangelists told simply that Jesus had in front of his followers and had asked them:
" Children, you do not have anything to eat, it is not " (Jean 21:5). The SPECIALIST (it is I who underline) Gregg Easterbrook fires this conclusion: " It is the kind of detail which smell of the authentic story, and not myth forged with any details ."
In another passage of the Watchtower, same EasterBrook will be quoted to speak about customs in the times of Jesus.
One can wonder two things in the reading of this passage of Watchtower. Of what Is mister EasterBrook A SPECIALIST? In which book does he write this?
Mister EasterBrook is not a specialist of the Bible, or of the biblical archaeology, it is a journalist in the review " Atlantic ", in this newspaper he writes essentially political subjects. These last two books had for subject, the one, ecology (At the Moment have The Earth: The coming age of Environment Optimist-1995) and the other one, faith (Beside Still Waters-on 1997) and it is of this book that come these quotations.
This men participates in an Internet site ( BieliefNet) wher he encourages a kind of theiss's faith and seems a passionate person of extraterrestrial. Http: // www.beliefnet.com
In clear Mister EasterBrook is not a scientist, either an archaeologist, or a bible's scholar, he is a simple religious journalist who is not very well placed for convaince us of the historic side of Gospel, he is not a specialist.
On the other hand is the argument of the SIMPLICITY of the resurrection of Jesus a proof of the historicity of Gospel? The Jehovah's Witnesses do not know that most of the exegets agree to believe of the historicity of Jesus but rather question certain passages this Watchtower of which will well keep of landing.
The Watchtower article is a suite of flat statements of the obvious, it will be even appealed to an Australian scriptwriter whose positive testimony on the Bible should have to convince us
Absolutely of the historicity of ALL the gospel.
By caricaturing the " detractors of the Bible " as the Jehovah's Witnesses appelent those that do not think as them, by appealing to authorities which she makes as the case of Easterbrook or as this unknown Australian scriptwriter, Watchtower preaches only to her own believers. Look at this question of introduction in the article:
" Will Be allowed sceptic intellectuals on the historicity of Gospel instil their doubts " (p. 4)
The JW writer think that the reader of Watchtower believes in Gospel and is surely one of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
There are only the faithful Jehovah's Witnesses to believe that Watchtower have to be distributed to everybody, the own editor of the watchtower knows very well that only the Jehovah's Witnesses will read it and address only to them.
to read Gregg EasterBrook's biography:
Http: // www.theatlantic.com/unbound/easterbr/ge bio.htm