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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
More than 25 previously unpublished "Dead Sea Scroll" fragments, dating back 2,000 years and holding text from the Hebrew Bible, have been brought to light, their contents detailed in two new books.
The various scroll fragments record parts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Ruth, Kings, Micah, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Joshua, Judges, Proverbs, Numbers, Psalms, Ezekiel and Jonah. The Qumran caves ― where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered ― had yet to yield any fragments from the Book of Nehemiah; if this newly revealed fragment is authenticated it would be the first.
Scholars have expressed concerns that some of the fragments are forgeries. [See Photos of the Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments]
These 25 newly published fragments are just the tip of the iceberg. A scholar told Live Science that around 70 newly discovered fragments have appeared on the antiquities market since 2002. Additionally, the cabinet minister in charge of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), along with a number of scholars, believes that there are undiscovered scrolls that are being found by looters in caves in the Judean Desert. The IAA is sponsoring a new series of scientific surveys and excavations to find these scrolls before looters do.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday October 11 2016, @07:28PM
How many wars have been fought over Harry Potter? How many people burned at the stake? How many crusades? Will these scrolls spill the beans about Jesus' family? How many children did he have? Wives? That will be truly entertaining.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday October 11 2016, @07:37PM
> Believing books cause wars
We are at a cargo cult level of naivety here.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @07:40PM
Yes, believing in those books does indeed require a high level of naivety...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @09:26PM
Not BOT person, but its not the books which cause the wars, they are only the justification some assholes use for war.
GOD WILLS IT!
** God wills it **
Its all for the greater good!
** The greater good **
SHUT IT!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by TrumpetPower! on Tuesday October 11 2016, @07:47PM
Yes -- and they already have...but not in the way Christians are hoping for. And I don't mean in the tabloid sense of salacious gossip.
You see, the Scrolls are actual original pieces of papyrus / whatever from Judea penned before, during, and after the time of Jesus's life...and they contain not one offhand mention of him or his antics. They are entirely unsullied by any trace of Jesus in any form whatsoever.
Philo of Alexandria was old enough to have been Joseph's older brother, and his writing career extended well beyond the end of Pilate's reign. And he did write of Jesus...but only of the ancient demigod (the one in Zechariah 6, the Prince of Peace, Crowned with Many Crowns, the Rising, etc.). And Philo equated Jesus with his own theological construction of the Hellenistic Logos. Of Jesus's physical manifestation at the time he was waxing poetical about him...Philo is perfectly ignorant.
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday October 11 2016, @08:30PM
For what it's worth, I work with three Zoroastrians and as far as they're concerned the Jesus stories are lifted almost wholesale from their traditions.
There is no doubt the ancient Jews had contact with Zoroastrians, as it was the dominant religion of the various Iranian empires up until the Muslim conquests.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday October 12 2016, @12:08AM
It's not so much that they were lifted wholesale from Zoroastrianism or any other preceding religion...as that they're bog-standard common ancient theology. Pick any Mediterranean Pagan demigod and you'll find overlap with Jesus one way or another. With the Osiris / Dionysus death / resurrection / salvation variants, it's especially obvious...but, then again, so, too with the Divine Messenger gods like Mercury.
If you want a great example in the form of a laundry list of righteous Christian outrage, do a search within Justin Martyr's works for "sons of Jupiter." He was writing in the second century, the first of the Christian Apologists...and his big obsession was all the Pagan precursors to Jesus whom, Justin complained, were invented by evil daemons with the power of foresight who knew Jesus was coming and who wished to lead honest men astray, mostly by convincing them that Jesus was just another Johnny-come-lately.
Even the Eucharist, Justin bemoans, was thus stolen in advance by the cult of Mithra. Those knowledgeable of Christian scripture will note that the Eucharist is the closest thing to biographical detail to be found in the authentic Pauline Epistles....
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:09AM
Yeah, but don't tell Christians their savior is just a stand-in for the Sun...
(Score: 2, Disagree) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 12 2016, @05:50PM
You're wrong. [wikipedia.org]
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:49PM
Josephus wasn't even born until after Philo died -- never mind that even the Catholic Church admits the main passage about Jesus is a blatant forgery and that the secondary passage is clearly about Jesus ben Damneus, not Jesus ben Joseph.
If you wish to be honest with yourself, you will admit that your faith is, as Paul described it in Hebrews 11:1, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Had you solid evidence of the life and miracles of Jesus, you'd not need faith in them. Instead, you see not and yet hope for their substance.
If you're unhappy with the fact that you rely not on fact but faith, then your argument is with yourself and your ontology, not with the facts. But if your faith truly is paramount, why are you so desperate to convince others of things that are so unashamedly unsupported by facts?
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Tuesday October 11 2016, @08:05PM
How many wars have been fought over Harry Potter? How many people burned at the stake? How many crusades?
To be fair, they have a 2000 year head start. Give H.P. fans a bit of time to catch up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @08:14PM
I, for one, look forward to the ravening horde of Hufflepuffs sweeping through the major populated areas of Antarctica.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday October 11 2016, @09:03PM
Actually, more than a handful of zealots keep fighting to this day to keep the HP books out of their children's libraries, for there was no other source of tales to corrupt the weak minds with sorcery before they were written.
Which month are we in, again?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday October 12 2016, @08:10AM
It hasn't taken Jedi long to catch on :-)
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 12 2016, @05:46PM
No war was fought for religion, despite that's the reason given by the psychopaths who wage them. ALL wars are fought for money and power (or keeping someone else from grabbing money and power) and nothing more. If you think ISIS has anything to do with Islam, you're naive. IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY.
Likewise the witch burning (most were hanged): religion was just an excuse to kill someone you hated, despite the fact that the bible explicitly forbids it. Death penalty? The Bible says you need two eyewitnesses to to the crime to put someone to death. I doubt any of those hanged witches (read some history, son, hanging was common, burning VERY rare) had two eyewitnesses to them turning anyone into a newt (except perhaps Mr. Gingrich).
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org