dfsiemensjr@juno.com wrote:
> Aspects of the discussion remind me of a conversation among a group of
> women that my wife reported. One mother said that the doctor said he
> child felt bad because of intestinal parasites. Another woman said, "I
> don't believe in worms," bringing the topic to an end. There are so many
> things some people can't believe in, whatever the evidence. But they can
> believe that unequalled legends arose within a couple decades of events,
> even while participants were still alive.
Paul does complain about people preaching a different Jesus, so legends do occur quickly.
Pleased to know that you do not think that the story of Muhammad being visited by the Angel Gabriel can be a legend which grew within the 23 years of Muhammads career.
Or that the story of the Golden Plates is entirely legendary, as it occurred within years of the Book of Mormon appearing.
Or that the sightings of Elvis are entirely legendary.
Still http://www.bowness.demon.co.uk/mirc1.htm does have photographic documentation of the literary nature of the miracles stories. I believe the evidence of my senses. It works for the Koran and the BoM. I guess it works for the NT too.
Of course the Corinthians also wondered what a resurrected body could be like. I guess they were fed up to the teeth hearing all these stories of how the resurected Jesus could be touched and ate fish, and wanted to ask somebody who waa not there what a resurrected body would be like.
These ex-Gentile Corinthians and new converts to Christianity must have been baffled by sayings like 'Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God' which takes scholars like NT Wright years of training in Jewish thought to decipher as meaning that flesh and blood *can* inherit the Kingdom of God.
They must have wondered how a body which had been cremated, scattered to the winds or eaten by fishes could be resurrected, if the body which is resurrected is the body died. They did not know about atoms after all, and naively thought a body turned into smoke and ashes had disappeared , leaving nothing to be resurrected.
No problem for Paul though, who realised that our new bodies were already waiting for us, and were not our old bodies literally warmed up again.
2 Corinthians
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
A clothing metaphor implies discontinuity. We replace old clothes with new ones.
Received on Wed Oct 19 01:16:00 2005
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