Historical proof

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Sep 18, 2014 at 06:06

Rabbi,

Your arguments are absurd. The NT was written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and Jude, each of them obviously speaking from different individual points of view; and the internal evidence of the texts points to their having been written in the First Century. What's more, they were believed by multitudes in the third century, leading to their supplanting all the other established religions of Rome in the following century. They were independently testified to by Josephus and others.

Before you start to piously try to revise this history, please tell me how Mishnah stands on any firmer footing. It was written long after the NT, when most of the details of the Second Temple period had been long forgotten.

Don't stop there. Tell me how Torah is attested to more than the NT, especially by contemporary outsiders. I'm looking for the same quality of evidence here, that you demand of the NT followers.

In dismissing the NT as not "historical", you might also note that there is more evidence that Jesus lived, performed miracles, died and rose from the dead, than there is that Socrates even existed.

Do you think you are doing good, by criticising other people's beliefs? I can see why someone would be zealous about what he believes in; but if what he believes in is true, why does he feel the need to attack others?

You know that I am not criticizing Jews or Judaism here. I have Jewish ancestors, and spent a year in a conversion program to become a Jew. I am completely confident in Torah, as well as in the prophets and writings, presumably the basis of Judaism; and I do not go about questioning the historicity of Mishnah and other Jewish writings. I have no trouble with them; but I do have trouble with you, because you seem so eager to stir up trouble.

Someone wisely once said, that true wisdom consists of knowing the right thing to do, and then DOING it. It doesn't consist of sitting on a high horse, telling other people what's right or wrong. Are you willing to lay your life on the line for what you believe, as Jesus and his followers did? Then maybe you can criticize them. Otherwise, all you're doing is moving air. The greatest proof not only of the NT's authorship, but that it was actually the truth from God, is that so many witnesses were willing to die rather than recant it.

"Nec quicquam tamen proficit exquisitior quaeque crudelitas vestra: illecebra est magis sectae. Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis: semen est sanguis Christianorum."
-- Tertullian (c. 160-c.220 AD)

Unless you believe that Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus also did not exist, there's your proof of the New Testament. I will also note, since you claim to come from a place of greater historicity, that this was during the time Mishneh was published, and not one word of Gemara had been put to writing.

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