Dear Friends,
This is my third post of direct commentary on How Jesus Became God, by Bart Ehrman. Check here for my introductory comments.
Open series outline: Going for the jugular- Intro post #1: Kickoff
- Intro post #2: Christ myth theory
- Intro post #3: Internet Infidels
- Habermas & Licona, Introduction, Post #1: Meet Gary
- Habermas & Licona, Introduction, Post #2: Meet Michael
- Habermas & Licona, Introduction, Post #3: They Saw Something
- Habermas & Licona, Part 1, Post #4: The Shockwave
- Habermas & Licona Part 1, Post #5: Saved From What?
- Habermas & Licona Part 1, Post #6: Jesus Claimed He Would Rise Again
- Habermas & Licona Part 1, Post #7: Why It's Going For The Jugular
- Habermas & Licona Part 1, Post #8: Washington Myth Theory
- Habermas & Licona Part 1, Post #9: History 101
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #10: Our First Minimal Fact!
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #11: Rumors Of The Bible's Obscurity Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #12: If Your Mother Tells You She Loves You, Check It Out
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #13: No, The Gospels Were Not Written Hundreds Of Years Later
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #14: Clement Of Rome
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #15: Polycarp
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #16: The Seal of Blood
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #17: The Seal of More Blood
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #18: Meet The Scholars
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #19: It was right under my nose
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #20: Oh, so my brother really IS God
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #21: My knees are shaking
- Habermas & Licona Part 2, Post #22: The Bible: It's not just for Christians anymore!
- Habermas & Licona Part 3, Post #23: Kicking the tires
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #24: All together now?
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #25: A red herring
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #26: Moses the friendly ghost
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #27: Consider the source
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #28: Parthian shots
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #29: We’re taking strange fire! Part 1
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #30: We’re taking strange fire! Part 2
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #31: We’re taking strange fire! Part 3
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #32: Suspicious Minds
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #33: Alien vs. Jesus
- Habermas & Licona Part 4, Post #34: A position statement disguised as an argument
- Into the woods...and the Way back home
- Yes, Jesus went there
- Ehrman, Post #1: Make this shot count
- Ehrman, Post #2: Everyone was dead
- Ehrman, Post #3: It's almost like monotheism is the logical choice
- Ehrman, Post #4: Admit you never saw a vulture rising from the flames or die
.
The earthquake, the spirit vulture, and other tricks
Ehrman discusses (Page 33 of 302) a humorous true story written by the satirist Lucian of Samosata, wherein the author witnesses the semi-accidental fiery suicide of the Cynic Peregrinus. Soon after the suicide, Lucian begins embellishing the actual event with claims about an earthquake happening immediately afterwards, and a vulture rising up from the flames and flying towards heaven. And soon after Lucian’s embellishment, Lucian is delighted to hear someone else earnestly mentioning the vulture story as fact. This is Ehrman’s takeaway:
“And so stories go, as they are invented, told by word of mouth, and then come to be taken as gospel truth.”
Did you see what he did there? He seems to have put the credibility of Jesus’s resurrection on the same level as the vulture rising up from Peregrinus’s flaming corpse. Is that fair?
Well, let’s see…do we have any autobiographical written accounts about someone who concocted the Resurrection story? No.
Do we have any accounts of someone sealing their belief in the vulture story with their own blood? No. And yet, Ehrman himself says his hunch is that Paul was martyred (1).
So, no, it’s not fair to toss the Resurrection story, even obliquely, onto a level anywhere near the vulture story.
Don’t know if Ehrman is intentionally trying to trick us or not. But he seems even craftier than ol’ Lucian to me.
God bless, and thanks for reading!
TFOTF
Links:
(1) Ehrman thinks Paul was martyred (search for “hunch” in the comments)
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