CADRE Comments

Several years ago, Time magazine published an article about archaeology and Christianity. the article appeared to concede that there was a great deal of archaeological evidence consistent with the descriptions of the places and events described in the New Testament (as Christians contend). However, as one heads further back into the murkier days before King David, the article announced unreservedly that the archaeological evidence actually contradicts the Biblical account. One of the breaking points that I recall was the account of the fall of Jericho to the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land as recounted in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 6. According to the Time story, Jericho hadn't even been occupied at the time that the Israelites would have entered into the Promised Land. Hence, the entire account had to be a myth made up at a later date. My own personal thought was: how do they know that? After all, there really is no confirmation as to the date of the Exodus itsel...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) Knights and King, Errant Now getting into the boat, Jesus and His disciples crossed over again and came to His own city (Capernaum). And the crowd (whom He had given the slip by departing in the middle of the night before) welcomed His return, for they had all been hoping He would! And Jesus, standing beside the lake, sees the crowd as they gather to Him; and He has compassion on them, for they are harassed and thrown down, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He is saying to His disciples: "The harvest is vast; but the workers are few. Therefore implore the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest!" Now calling together the twelve apostles, He gives them authority over all the demons in order to cast them out, and to be curing every disease and every disability! Je...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) Dinners and Proposals (7 and 6 days until the end...) Now entering Jericho (says the Scholar, on the way westward to Jerusalem), He was passing through. And look!--a man whose name is called Zaccheus, and he was chief of tax collectors (for the area) and he was rich! Yet he sought to see who Jesus is, and was not able for the crowd, for he was short in height. [Plotnote: also indicating that the crowd had no respect for him, despite (or because!) of his position in the community.] Now running on ahead, he climbed up on a mulberry-fig, in order to see Him, seeing that He would be passing through that way. [Plotnote: a relatively short tree with very thick foliage; Zaccheus is trying to hide from being seen by the crowd, so that he will not be mocked by them. Moreover, this probably takes pla...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) Be aware, this is an especially long entry. Lawyers and Second Comings (8 and 7 days until the end...) Now it happened that when Jesus finished these declarations (says the Disciple, seconded by the Follower, meaning the teaching on forgiveness seven times and seventy-times-and-seven, while back in Capernaum before the final mission-tour to Jerusalem had begun), He got up and went from Galilee; (eventually) coming into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan (past Jericho, east of Jerusalem 20 miles or more). Now the Passover of the Jews was near (the Evangelist says, taking his turn of the story for a moment), and many went up out of the countryside into Jerusalem before the Passover, in order to purify themselves (in the week before the Night itself). So they sought Jesus, and they said as ...