Jucdor wrote:
Native Americans had very similar system, yet their belief has changed a lot over the centuries. For instance the idea of the Great Spirit as a the leading god in many tribes was born only when indians needed to be more united against whites & thus they needed someone to symbolise their whole faithsystem. So the fact that indian wizards, shamans (can't remember what word you generally use in english for poppamies) dedicated their lives to remember spells & stories doesn't mean that they weren't changed. Your logic is the same as "Bible can't have errors, because those who wrote them was divinely lead". It doesn't hold water. Human mind is not a copy machine. I for instance have a couple of very emotional moments in my life few years ago and at the time I paid heed to remember those moments as well as possible, paying particular attention to some of the words that were used. But do I remember them now? No I don't. And it's been only 3 years.
The Jewish people held the art of remembering stories and what people said in the highest regard. There is no way you can compare the Native American culture to the Jewish one. The Jewish people’s oral culture is head and shoulders above the Native American’s culture in respect to oral traditions.
In the Middle East now and back in the time of Jesus the ability to recite, and write poetry was held in very high regard. It was one of the many things that were found to be attractive about a man.
Jucdor wrote:Yes, I'm sure that the historical Jesus probably knew a lot more about medicine than average Joe at the time. I do believe that he probably did a lot what people back then called miracles, but would modern people call them such? Well, some of them probably would as some people tend to use word miracle on occasions like doctor saving lives.
I’m going to disagree with you about Jesus knowing more about medicine then the average Joe. His earthly father was a carpenter and he was also taught this trade along with this brothers. He would not have been trained in the field of medicine. The field of medicine at that time wouldn’t have made a difference any way in the healing of a blind or lame man. If they were blind or lame they had to depend on their family to take care of them or bed as many of them did. Their bones wouldn’t have been reset and there was nothing they could do for eye sight.
I think if we saw a lame man get up and walk after not walking his entire life we would consider it a miracle even today.
Jucdor wrote:Well my input wasn't to question anyone's belief. It's just my historian side that wanted to remind people how history is researched and what are proved & what are matter of faith.
I agree with you .
Jucdor wrote:I agree with you on this one. However as I earlier pointed out there were a lot of other Gospels as well and they were in use for 4th century until New Testament was assembled & at least half the Gospels were thrown out because they weren't coherent with the ones that were chosen as holy.
There were a lot of “gospels” written in the second and third centuries that’s true. But they were Gnostic gospels and were condemned as heresy at the councils of Nicea and Constantinople. Arius was the preacher in Alexandria that was condemned for his Gnostic beliefs. His beliefs were that Jesus was only a spiritual being and not a physical being. The orthodox belief is that Jesus was fully man and fully God.
These Gnostic “gospels” were written by people who were not who they claimed they were. Take the gospel of Judas for example. He hung himself before Christ was crucified so how could he possibly have written it. There is also the gospel of Peter, Mary, and Thomas.
Athanasius was the bishop of Alexandria that fought the ideas that Arius was trying to preach. Athanasius was the one that went through the books up for consideration for canonization and decided if they were legit. He canonized the books that are now in the Catholic Bible but not in the Protestant Bible. These are called the Apocrypha. The reason they are not in the Protestant Bible is because they have nothing to do with Jesus or have theological significance.
I disagree with you that the Gnostic “gospels” should be canonized. This is because they are not consistent with what the orthodox beliefs of the church are.