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Old 11-22-2007, 08:23 PM   #298
photon
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I meant those are the things we THINK he taught through the writings we have today, but there's hardly anything from Jesus' time. Despite the supposed uproar he caused among the Jewish leaders, writings from that time are mostly silent about him.

Don't get me wrong, do unto others is pretty central to the way I try to live my life, many of Jesus' teaching are excellent guides for moral living.

I'm just asking do we really know what Jesus did teach, because while some Christians in the early church believed in Do unto others, other Christians believed in 3 gods, or 30 gods, or Jesus wasn't human, or Jesus was only human, or any number of other things.. And these beliefs came from writings by people who claimed to have known Jesus, just as the writings that make up the canon do.

We do know that some portions of the existing canon were added as time went on perhaps to combat other writings and beliefs the majority (or the scribe) thought to be heretical. The story where the pharasies bringing the adulteress to Jesus and he tells them that whoever has no sin can cast the first stone for example was added long after John was written, for what purpose who knows. And that's a pretty key phrase and point of doctrine for Christians.

Just an example. Again I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater saying the Bible is worthless, just saying that we don't even know for sure what the historical Jesus (if he even existed, there's been discussion about that before here too) taught for sure, so it's hard for me personally to invest in a religion where the source of doctrine and such is in question. Keep in mind that I was raised to believe the Bible was the inerrant word of God and if something disagreed with the Bible, that thing was wrong, not the Bible.
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