Comments on: The Gospel according to Judas Debunked

By: Denny Burk » Remember the Gospel of Judas?

Denny Burk » Remember the Gospel of Judas? — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:26:59 +0000

[...] “The Gospel according to Judas Debunked” – December 19, 2007 [...]

By: jeremy z

jeremy z — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:40:05 +0000

I got you now.

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:07:21 +0000

I feel a bit like Gandalf confronting Bilbo over the Ring…

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:05:27 +0000

jz: I wasn’t jumping on you.

The quote as you rendered it states, “I have studied mythology my whole life, and the gospel[s] are nothing but a myth.” That sentence means the gospels are simply myths. It runs counter to the point you were trying to make that they are NOT myths.

Really, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt by calling the quote into question, not your beliefs.

By: jeremy z

jeremy z — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:54:07 +0000

Denny you are right. I was reading a Craig Evans book: Fabricating Jesus and he summarizing Lewis’ quote, which is why I thought those words were exactly his words. My bad. Both were essentially saying the same thing: The gospels are not myths, but facts.

By: jeremy z

jeremy z — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:52:20 +0000

I am still trying to track down where I got that quote.

Also, Ken I was arguing that the gospels are not myths. How did that quote undermine my argumentation.

I am one of you and you just jump on me right away.

By: MJH

MJH — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:58:55 +0000

Have you read “The Great Divorce”? Or the last in the Narnia series, “The Last Battle”? Both have some of C.S. Lewis’ theology towards the end of his life. I’d love to hear what you think of them.
MJH

By: Denny Burk

Denny Burk — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:04:33 +0000

I believe C. S. Lewis' original words read as follows: "I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this." This is from an essay titled "Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism" (also published as "Fern-Seed and Elephants"). You can read the entire essay here. I love this little essay. It's required reading in all of my intro to hermeneutics courses.

By: MatthewS

MatthewS — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:00:30 +0000

Ken,

My thought was that Lewis’s quote probably refers to the gospels in the sense of “true myth” instead of “myth as opposed to truth.”

Also, the quote as given lacks subject-verb agreement. Either the verb is supposed to be “is” or else the subject is supposed to be “gospels.” The latter case is not a trivial difference.

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:54:02 +0000

Paul: Possibly, but I don’t think so. Lewis was an expert in medieval literature and knew the structure of myth through and through. Although he and Tolkien talked about the concept of “true myth”–the qualities of myth actually come to pass in human history–in Christianity, I’m betting that the quote more accurately reads as “the gospels are nothing LIKE a myth,” meaning that they are composed and presented as historical narrative and not according to myth conventions.

Besides, the quote as given undermines jz’s argument.