--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "feste37" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > As you well know, all these documents were written many years after > the life of Jesus, in some cases up to two centuries later (if I > remember rightly). They express different ideological agendas. > Whatever "lost" book you are referring to is no more of a guide > to the historical Jesus than the canonical gospels.
Absolutely correct. (And in making this statement, Feste demonstrates he isn't a bibical literalist or inerrantist, by the way.) But let's have another look at what Vaj wrote: > > Well, no, I'm not "making it up". The "gospels" have been edited, > > and the potentially homosexual parts were removed from Mark. We > > know because we found an old copy before the church got it's > > hands on it. So much for Vaj's much-vaunted "scholarship." We didn't "find an old copy." What was found was a letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria that quotes one short passage that does not appear in canonical Mark: "And they come into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and says to him, "son of David, have mercy on me". But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus, being angered , went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus thaught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan." I guess you could call this "potentially homosexual." Or you might just as well call it "potentially about encounters with UFOs." > It just shows that there were people then, as there are now, who > wished to claim Jesus as one of their own. In this case, however, not necessarily gay people. On the other hand, straight people seem to want to rather emphatically claim Jesus as one of *their* own. Is this not just as speculative, just as ideologically motivated, given our uncertainty about the historical Jesus? The more important question for Feste is, if we were to find conclusive documentary evidence that Jesus was gay, would this be upsetting? If so, why? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
