WOTM: 500 Witnesses?
Dale Allison is my favorite Christian scholar. He's as honest and fair as they come. But even he goes off the rails some times. Enjoy! And thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! B
Comments (10)
If 500 people had seen Jesus walking around Jerusalem, at least one of them would have been a Roman snitch and sold him out. Jesus would have been snatched up in a trice (a trice being a Roman invention) and nailed up again, this time with a round-the-clock guard. Even if there were no snitches, gossip travels at the speed of sound, so the Romans would have gotten word of this "miracle", again in a trice, and away he would have gone. This is an obvious reason to show this claim was false.
Great points!!! I’ll check it out.
Good piece! Gonna look at your shroud piece now.
*Was* the claim of 500 eyewitnesses a powerful apologetic argument? Nope. I know because the Bible tells me so. None of the 4 gospels mention this incident, not even obliquely. That means the gospel authors either (1) had never heard it (remember that Paul’s claim was written decades before the gospels), which is hard to imagine since they were right there to see it (and Paul wasn’t) or (2) they had heard it but knew it was false. I’ve written more here: https://onlysky.media/bseidensticker/500-eyewitnesses-to-the-risen-christ-not-likely-2/
Brian, I'm around Your age. I've read and heard enough about Christianity to know I'm done reading anymore about it. Done. lol.
I totally understand!!!
Wait… wasn't it… 493? Er… 504? I guess Elohim only distributed an even 500 tickets to the snake-oil presentation…? Ah, but I'm sure Dale would explain that Paul simply used a flying carpet to travel that distance. I mean… they were a common means of transportation in the Middle East, weren't they?
I just wish the snarky texts would remain in-screen longer so I have an easier chance to read them—they add a lot to the enjoyment.
I've been making them longer and longer over the years. And now I get the comments that they're too distracting when they stay up so long. So, I think I've hit the sweet spot. Sorry. On YouTube, you can play it back slower. Or (as some do), watch once for the audio, and watch again for the pop-ups. More views for me too. Win/Win!!! 😉
Love that Sleepless in Seattle ref haha. Nice video :)