Book Review: Gospel Light by George M. Lamsa

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>LINDA

>I don't agree with everything Lamsa wrote either... but I do believe he was

>right about many things too. You are contending with one specific instance

>concerning Jesus' "cursing" the fig tree.  Well, IMHO it's ridiculous to

>"curse" a tree... especially if it is likely that someone else got there

>first and ate the fruit.  I have no arugment with this. Sometimes it

>appears as if whomever wrote some of the bible must and been an

>anti-christ... Some of it does more to drive people away then to attract them.



AUSTIN
I am working on that on passage for two reasons:

1. It is a passage which is often discussed with fundamentalists and
inerrantists because it doesn't present Jesus in such a favorable light. It
counts as a "problematic passage."

2. I felt that it exemplified not only the methodology used by Lamsa, but
so many biblical apologists: namely, anything "bad" must be explained away
or read metaphorically, whereas anything "good" must be taken literally. So
he didn't really mean "hate" your family, but did really mean to "love"
others. He didn't really mean that people would suffer in a "hell," but did
really mean that we would be happy in a "heaven." He didn't really "curse"
a tree for not having fruit when there was no reason for it to have fruit,
but he really did cure the sick.

<snip>


>LINDA

>If it is true that leaves indicate that the fig tree IS the season for

>fruit as Lamsa noted, (it should be easy enough through horticulturists to

>prove out) then the obvious leaves would indicate that it WAS the season

>for fruit.



AUSTIN
I could accept that.

But I would then insist that the gospel of Mark contains a blatant factual
error. This is the list for it, after all.


LINDA

>I hope your computer ills are cured!  (I need a new machine so bad that if

>it weren't for the approaching tax time, I would hope for the same to

>happen to me.)  (Oh!  slap my hand!)


AUSTIN
In another week I hope to have the old computer back. However, all my email
was on it and I don't know if it has been lost. That'll teach me not to
make regular back-ups!!  Until then, I limp along with an old Quadra and
old modem with an inconsistent ability to connect.

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