Lacewing wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:28 am
gaffo wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 11:46 pm
Mark is the oldest gospel and so the closet to the time of Jesus - 40 yrs after his death, and because of that i think it shows the more accurate picture of events and the man in question.
What of the author himself?
precisely! and why i do not like Saul - even if what he has to say may be of value, i suspect his character (egoist).
Saul's character shows in some of this letters, and its not good, so i have to take his character into account when i read his works, and pars the history/accurate facts from the man's agenda.
per the other authors, they do not show their egos, Matt shows he is a Jew - reformed to Christianity - so has an aganda - to show that Christ is the fullment of the jewish messiah and so goes out of his way to make links about prophecy in the OT to that of Jesus as the messiah and fullment of such prophesy. so per the author of Matt, i see his agenda - to link the OT to the NT, but he does not show his character/lack of - as Saul does IMO - i.e. author of Matt shows an agenda, but not his character.
author of Luke/Mark and even John do not show an "agenda" nor their character, just a viewpoint per themselves about the nature of your Christ.
Lacewing wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:28 am
Do his characteristics play into the aspects worth considering logically?
OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
duh! ALL the authors of both the NT and OT had A THEME!!!!!!!!!!!! - Amos (Whom i love! BTW) had a THEME (all authors have a theme they wish to write about!) - and they wrote to those living in their time!!!!!!!!!!!!! aLL OF THEM - none wrote to an audience 2000 yr later!
what you do is read the work, know when it was written so as to know the author's audience (BTW Job is also a fav of mine - "job" is not a man, it all Israelis living in 250 BC........that author made up a person name "job" to represent Israelis, and wrote at a time to answer ther central question of their time - they being occupied by Babylon, and then "set free" by Persia - and after 587 BC - to 250 (when Job was written - it did not happen - Zarrabal anyone?) Jews were on the brink of killing off their own religion and thier god 250 yrs after they were "Freed" and still finding themselves as a puppet state of Persia and not free) - author of Job wrote his work to address this question (and his work is to those 2300 yrs ago in Judea - not to us or anyone else) - answer was bleak, question not, i.e you are not your God, deal with it.
Lacewing wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:28 am
How can you know his personal fears, biases, agendas, motivations, mental limitations? Have you read his original version? Why would the time it was written be the most credible factor?
you can't know any of this, historical records do not exist!
all you can do is read the work to 1st, understand the theme the author wished to present to the reader.
2nd. assume it was aimed to those that lived millinia ago and not to you and me.
3rd, assume the author was a good person via default - i find Saul showing in a few places he was an egoist, and so not a good person, other authors i do not find as i find saul, and via default assume they were good guys. lacking evidence to the contrary i cannot in good conscience convict them.
can i?
Lacewing wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:28 am
Look at all the people today who claim what the truth is and how they see it -- at this point in time -- yet they are clearly influenced by countless issues, and in conflict with each other, despite writing about it at the same time!
and? there are many fools and asshole - and both in the same body.
all you can do is be informed, per the bible, HISTORY is central, and then go from there - and assume the authors were good fellows by default that wished to inform their congregation of evil, until you sense any red flags - per me and Saul - then take what they say with some salt (for even if the author is a dick, there may be some truth there - so baby/bathwater may not be the wise option).