Posting attempts at interpretations
of scholarly works on this site is fraught with difficulties because here is
not the medium for precise thinking, logical examination and supply of textual
evidence. We here can casually talk of “a hoax” as we think in our everyday language:
yes religion or Jesus is a hoax...and that is the way it is.
But when it comes to trying to
verify these thing at a deeper level, unless we have studied the subjects of first
century Roman history at least at a masters degree level we are usually
floundering (me especially). What is required is a profound knowledge of the
whole subject including textual studies and Iron Age and Classical period literature,
the power politics of the period, contemporary philosophy and religious beliefs
and the very important history of both of them, ethnography and mythology and
the social function of myth and even the subject of how we read and interpret the
past---in order to be able to give a serious response.
Most of us don’t have the time and
having been JWs have missed this opportunity in life to study at that depth.
But fear not! Robert M Price, as Mephis directs us, has most of these
requirements under his belt so to speak. What Price is debunking is the trope
of Atwill describing all the known stories of the NT as a furtive joke, a nod
to those in the know and a put-down of resurgent Jewish opposition to Rome for
the sake of political compliance.
I usually find academics tied to
religious institutions suspect in their allegiances and find Price reverent of
the Bible text but not of the traditions of Christianity. However he does not
think there is sufficient evidence to say that Jesus was a real person and
finds a mythicist explanation for his presence in the gospels.
Atwill said that Jesus is, “the only fictional character in literature whose entire life
story can be traced to other sources”. I agree with him
and probably so would Robert M Price.
