Why Would God Allow Matthew, or Maybe Paul, to Get Easter Wrong
One of my favorite Biblical passages is in the New Testament book of Matthew. It is a favorite because some believers make a broad generalization the Old Testament contains myths and exaggerations but the New Testament, including the resurrection, is history. In Matthew 27:53 it says that when Jesus was killed the graves of long dead people opened, skeletons walked out and were seen by many. (It doesn't say skeletons but what else could the long dead be?) These corpses were raised before Jesus was raised from being dead.
In 1 Corinthians 15:20-25 Paul says when Jesus rose from the dead he was "first fruits." First fruits were the first grains at harvest time and were given to the temple. Thus Jesus was the first of the harvest that went to God. Matthew didn't know the long dead were supposed to wait until Jesus, the first fruits, was resurrected before Matthew ran his own corpses into town. The tale of long dead corpses walking out of graves is every bit as bizarre as the Old Testament flood. If a story was important enough to make the earth shake one would think writers could agree on what took place and when.
There is quite a bit of writing which tells of how government prisoners where killed and what happened afterward. That writing, like the Bible, were recopied countless times before discovered in modern times. If it is accurate, what was supposed to have happened according to the Bible is much different than the recorded common practice of that time. For example, bodies of criminals were left on crosses for many days or even weeks to advertise what happens when one breaks the law.
The various version of Easter differ but not because God did a poor job of guiding the writing. It happened because so far as we know there is no God.
Jon, “It happened because so far as we know there is no God.”
ReplyDeletePerhaps the whole of scripture and the paradoxes therein are simply bad grammar and “God” is not a noun; a person, place, or thing after all. Now there’s a pretzel. ;-)
Ardy B "Now there's a pretzel."
DeleteMighty fine pretzel you tied there. We have to thank Unknown for coming up with the pretzel thing.
When one thinks about it, there are no better pretzel tiers than those who wrote the Bible, edited it and today believe it. God drowned the innocent in the flood, allows abortions by miscarriages but he loves us and hates abortion, Jesus died because he broke Roman laws but he died for our sins, etc., etc. When Christians tie pretzels they get into heaven.
Lol, the Schizophrenia of christian faith......the opposites are one and the same, no thanks .
DeleteMore same old, same old. God killed two million in the flood. Why two million? Do you have a census record from Noah's time? Moreover, I don't think that a miscarriage is an abortion. An abortion is a human act not a natural act. All that aside, I admit that, in your clumsy way, you do have a point. Does God ultimately will every thing that happens in the universe? Or does nature have a certain degree of autonomy? Many very smart people, over the course of history, have thought a lot about this matter. Even I thought about it somewhere around the age of 10-12. And you obviously have also, not in an honest quest for truth, but as a bludgeon to beat up on Christianity. Nuf said on that point tho'. Back to the skeleton nonsense: if you really knew Christianity (you don't, you only know caricatures) you would know that Christians have a concept of the resurrected body, a reconstitution of the person in a mode of being quite different from that of an earthly material body. I am certain that you will mock this view but you could at least try to understand it.
DeleteUnknown "if you really knew Christianity you would know Christians have a concept of the resurrected body, a reconstitution of the person in a mode of being quite different from ..an earthy material body.''
DeleteThere you are, yourself, tying pretzels. How about just dealing with resurrection in a straight forward way, without tying pretzels or arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Just say, there is no evidence from today or back in ancient times anyone ever was absolutely dead and came back to life.
a singularly stupid response. I was merely stating a fact regarding Christian beliefs, suggesting that your skeleton thing was, at best, a caricature. what I get instead is a bit of soap box rhetoric and the old saw about angels and pinheads.
Deleteunknown "a singularly stupid response. I was merely stating ..Christian beliefs.."
DeleteReally, when you state Christian beliefs, especially ones like that about magical thinking, expect some guff. This is not a site where the host will be impressed with magical thinking.
OK, if that's your way of dealing with factual information. it's not mine. even if you prefer to live in a constant state of wrath you might at least try to know something about the target of your outrage. in a way, you remind me of a frothy old Calvinist preacher.
DeleteUnknown "If that's your way of dealing with factual information."
DeleteInteresting concept you have there, "factual information." It's "factual information" that Christians believe in invisible beings and floating bodies that are not skeletons but filled out. Then there is criticism for pointing out what you believe is fantasy. Oh well, carry on.
See Lenski vol 1, Matthew ; pages 1129-1131, too much to copy.
ReplyDeleteYour complaint is noted, and covered.