JW_Rogue
Hi Rogue:
I accept the same general conclusions of modern scholars on textual criticism (Bart Ehrman in US, Antonio Piñero in Spain). Also, some catholic scholar priests like Raymond E. Brown, admit that the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses of Jesus, and some narrations are not historical facts. I can show you some an example. The Gospel of Matthew could not be written by Matthew. Firstly, according to the church father Papias, who knew some disciples of the Apostles, reported that Matthew wrote the sayings of Jesus in hebrew language. However, it is clear that the Gospel that we know is in Greek, and it is not a translation from the hebrew language. Our Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Greek, and in some quotes it uses the Septuagint, which was the greek version of the Old Testament. For instance, Matthew uses the septuagint version of Isaiah 7:14 so as to "prove" a prophecy on the viriginity of Mary. However, the Hebrew Bible does not contain the word "virgin" in Isaiah 7:14. This is an example of why our Gospel of Matthew was not originally written in Hebrew. Furthermore, it can be shown that our Gospel of Matthew has based its composition on the manuscript of the Gospel of Mark. And we know that Mark was not an eyewitness, but a gentile christian. I want to show an example of this fraud:
Sometimes we see in Matthew, in the author's attempts to create a more elegant version than Mark, trips all over himself and produce a flawed version. A case to point is the story of John the Baptist's murder. Let us first look at Mark's version.
Mark 6:17-29
For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him. Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask me anything you want, and I'll give it to you." And he promised her with an oath, "Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom." She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" "The head of John the Baptist," she answered. At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oath and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Mark's account above tells of King Herod having John imprisoned because of his wife's demand. But he also respected John and liked listening to him. When Herodias' daughter demanded John's head, Herod's reaction of being "greatly distressed" makes sense, as he did not want to kill John, but in view of the situation had no choice. Now let us look at Matthew's version:
Matthew 14:3-12
Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful for you to have her." Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet. On Herod's birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much that he promised her with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me on a platter the head of John the Baptist." The king was distressed, but because of his oath and his dinner guests, he ordered her requests be granted and had John beheaded in prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John's disciples came and took his body and buried it.
As before note that Matthew's account is an abbreviated version of Mark. But we can also see that Matthew has twisted the story such that it is slightly different from Mark's. In the Markan account, Herod was presented as someone who did not want to kill John; he respected the Baptist and liked listening to him. Matthew however said that Herod wanted to kill the Baptist from the beginning but "feared the people". Matthew than reverted to Mark's account and said that Herod was "greatly distressed" when he heard the girl's request. But this does not make sense in Matthew's account for we are told that Herod wanted to kill John from the beginning. It would have made an excellent excuse to have John killed. In short, Matthew by setting out to create an improved version from Mark ended with a blunder of inconsistency.
