Comment by Nick on April 24, 2009 at 1:20pm

"There will be a day reckoning, and you will have to answer to God [about making a 7 year old tuck in her shirt]." That is funny no matter what your religious belief.

Comment by Pam on April 24, 2009 at 1:47pm

And people think fashionistas are just being superficial! God places waaaaay to much emphasis on how we ought to dress.

Comment by Pam on April 24, 2009 at 1:48pm

*too much

Comment by Nelson on April 24, 2009 at 2:04pm

what's funny is that the Pastoral Epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy plus Titus, are almost universally acknowledged by New Testament scholars to not have been written by Paul.

so while it always seems strange to me why someone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus would, instead of following Jesus' teachings, follow Paul's instead, here's a person not following even Paul's teachings but rather following an unknown writer, likely a later follower of Paul's.

Comment by Cara Coleen on April 24, 2009 at 3:36pm

Oh yeah. People have no idea who wrote the Bible... well, you know... God wrote it. Even IF I believed something as absurd as that, I'd still like to know who was claiming He spoke through them. I mean, David Koresh could have dictated a book for all we know... for all they know... which is very little.

Comment by Nelson on April 24, 2009 at 4:13pm

often we have no idea who wrote the books of the bible but what's more important is that we absolutely do know who DID NOT write these books. the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke were never even attributed to THE Mark, Matthew, and Luke until by Irenaeus around 185 CE. the author of the book of John never claims that he is THE John, the son of Zebedee, that is, the apostle John, or indeed that his name is John at all. regardless, John was a very common name at the time just like it is now. and we would certainly expect that if the author were THE John he would certainly say so. the same is true of the book of James. traditionally understood to have been written by James the brother of Jesus, the author never says that he is THE James. again, James was a very common name at the time- there are seven other people named James in the New Testament besides Jesus' brother. just like the book of John, if the author was really THE James we would expect the author to say so. Acts is understood to have been written by the same person that wrote Luke but as we've seen that person was not THE Luke.

in fact, the only books of the New Testament that we have any reason to think were written by the person whose name the books bear are some of Paul's letters, i say "some" because only some of the letters attributed to Paul are understood to have been written by Paul himself, and the Revelation of John- but here again, there's no reason to think that this John is THE John, the apostle. of the letters of Paul that made it into the New Testament only Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon are legit.

everything else is either misattributed or are pious forgeries- books written in the name of someone else so that the work would be taken seriously and most often to press a theological point that the author wanted made.

what's crazy is that this is nothing new. we've known this for decades, some of it since the 18th century. it's taught in divinity schools and theological seminaries- all but the fundie schools and seminaries that is. pastors in training learn it. what's amazing is that no one teaches their congregation what they learned during their divinity training or in seminary. they get assigned to their church and immediately ignore it all and insofar as they teach the bible to their congregation they do it from a devotional aspect rather than historical critical. incredible.

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