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> Pagels’s larger point is that the most improbable Gospel tales serve to patch a fractured narrative—using familiar tropes and myths to smooth over inconsisten
by throw0101c 2y ago
> Pagels’s larger point is that the most improbable Gospel tales serve to patch a fractured narrative—using familiar tropes and myths to smooth over inconsistencies that believers struggled with from the beginning.
"Familiar tropes and myths" is perhaps something you'd consider as the 20/21 Century literary critic, but I'm not sure a bunch of mostly peasants writing in the 1st Century would be.
And it's not like they had anything to gain by writing and spreading about their beliefs: the early Christians were ostracized from their community(s) and persecuted. For the first ~300 years of the existence of Christianity there was probably little but trouble from believing in it, until roughly the conversion of Constantine (312) and later the Edict of Milan.
- onlypassingthru 2y agoWere first century peasants educated and wealthy enough to write? How good were the public schools back then?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- throw0101c 2y ago> Were first century peasants educated and wealthy enough to write? "Peasant" would exist on a spectrum: some think Luke was a physician and thus literate. Peter was a fisherman and probably illiterate, but it was certainly possible to dictate someone who could write. Remember also that oral tradition was a thing as well in many societies: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40859393 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40859393
- myth_drannon 2y agoIn Judea? Probably very high, some sources say up to 20% of men. It's was religious duty of every Jew to read the sacred texts and also to be able to write a Torah scroll(but most likely it was not mandatory). Father was to teach his son to write. Actually it was the initial reason for public schools, for orphans to learn read and write.