User talk:Jonathan Tweet

Welcome to my talk page, where everyone gets along nicely.

The story of our common descent within the animal kingdom is the most important creation story that a child could ever learn. Get a copy of Grandmother Fish for your child, your child’s teacher, a librarian, a Sunday school teacher, or anyone else tasked with the education of our young people. Spread the happy news that we are all part of the great family of animals. Find the author and me under the name ”Grandmother Fish” on social media.

While I’m a natural-science guy, I’m also a big fan of the historical Jesus. Do you as a Wikipedia editor need something looked up? I have good mainstream resources on Jesus, early Christianity, Paul, Bibles, and Christianity. Let me know if I can help. Wikipedia is full of partisans who hate the mainstream, scholarly view of Jesus and early Christianity. It’s hard to blame them, since scholars deny their fundamental tenets. Even C. S. Lewis was opposed to mainstream scholarship. If you want help establishing modern scholarship against partisan resistance, let me know.

POV Editor

An editor with whom I was in a dispute recently resigned. Some of you know that. Some of you might also remember that he once said he was quitting the religion pages. He was gone for a long time. Then, in February, he returned and overhauled the page that was in dispute. He and I have been fighting over it ever since. Is he really gone for good? Maybe. I hope not. Jonathan Tweet 03:19, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think Wikipedia is a bit like the Hotel California ... you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave. Have a look here to see what I mean. Rbreen 11:14, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Could be a coincidence, but unlikely: same point of view, same mode of operation, same location (Yorkshire), and highly characteristic frequent use of the word 'hence'. Rbreen 13:23, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jonathan, to respond to your post about this, you can only read the IP address and thus location of anonymous editors. Otherwise you have to hope they reveal the information. You may need to do some textual critical analysis! As to your earlier post, thanks for your offer of help, I'm trying to keep out of edit conflicts right now but will bear it in mind. Email me via my user page if you feel my help would be useful. --Rbreen 19:44, 15 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Jonathan, probably the best course would be to ask your troublesome editor if he is, in fact, the same person. You might like to note this entry: [2] on the Purgatory talk page, which uses the same phrase 'a purgation of its own', as used by the new editor in the edit summary; the IP address of the that entry is Leeds University; I believe the other editor was a student there. As far as I can see there is no requirement in Wikipedia to prevent someone who has cancelled an account from coming back with another account, and no requirement to declare the fact. At the same time, for reasons of clarity and openness, such a user, if editing the same article, ought to make the fact clear, and it would be wrong to deny the fact. Assume good faith - but verify. Hope this helps. Rbreen 12:30, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Your weblink

In your site, you said "Thomas Jefferson was so conscious his debt to Jesus that he collected Jesus' moral teachings into a book, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." What did you mean by "conscious in his debt"? Jefferson was certainly influenced by moral teachings of the bible, but he, along with many other founding fathers, would not be considered Christian by today's standards. He did not believe in Jesus dying for mankind's sins, did not believe in resurrection, trinity, or any other miracles described in the bible. (See Deism and The Jefferson Bible) -intranetusa

secular authorities?

Secularism is the separation of church and state, a freedom from religion for the government. Fairly certain it would be the religious fundamentalists who initiated the witch hunts. -intranetusa

Re: Satan and the Serpent

Hey man.

As far as the Satan article goes, if you look at the history page, I was only responding to a vandal (72.26.93.96) who blanked most of the article. You may notice that my revision (simply a revert) is identical to the version before the vandal's version. I think the edit you're looking for was actually made by Ardric47. Sorry I can't be of more service. Keep up the good editing! Seidenstud 05:29, 28 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Satan Contents

Hi Jonathan I've just seen your new post on satan talk page I didn't relise some of the contents was being moved. Last night I did a ton of alterations removing cites from that page, your new page still has them so you will have to recopy some of the info over to include the citations. It's just be a case of moving the paragraphs the references will generate them selves. Lots of the cites you can simply remove because they refer to info thats already cited on other pages. Anyway just letting you know. Best Regards, -- Shimirel ^(Talk) 17:49, 15 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jonathan, No problem I've done it already, it wasn't too bad seems most of my edits missed the content on the other page the only change I made that effects you is to View - Middle Ages. I've added some Categories and also put the References bit at the bottom so the references generate properly on the new page. I've added a message at the top of the Satan page so other editors know about the content being moved. Ill probably remove the info from the other page for you too as long as the internet stays on. Hope you wife gets well soon. Best Regards -- Shimirel ^(Talk) 14:05, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've moved the majority of the info some bits might still be left on the original pages Satan and Devil you would have a better idea than me. I've also added a section to link the Satan/Devil page to Devil in Christianity page with the intro. It seems to me either the Satan or Devil pages shouldn't really exist as they serve the same purpose. I might stick a merge tag on them what do you think? -- Shimirel ^(Talk) 15:34, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lost tribes

I am coming to a conclusion that you have a fixation on Europeans and rather obscure LDS thought! (lol) I will post this entry on Jade's talk page also. I am not aware of any precise doctrine regarding literal or adoption into the House of Israel; they both result in the same thing. I am aware that based upon Biblical teaching the ten lost tribes were taken into the north country; that has been interpreted as any country north of Israel. Early leaders of the LDS felt that some of the scattered descendants of these members of the House of Israel did end up in Europe. Some further concluded that because some Europeans readily accepted the gospel that they were these descendants.

I believe Jade's comment on the Ten lost tribes article is not a statement with which I would be completely comfortable, but I also think it is a difference without any significance. We are talking about LDS thought that is obscure; it is not often discussed.

The one time where tribal affiliation is discussed is one's patriarchal blessing. This blessing's main purpose is to identify tribal affiliation. The majority of LDS in days past has been from the House of Ephraim. However, in discussions with multiple patriarchs I have been made to understand that within the church are represented members of every house of Israel. The distinction between adoption and literal descendant is not often discussed. It is believed that some are literal descendants and some are adopted. As I said earlier, it is a difference without significance. All members become part of the covenant people and are responsible for learning to become like the Master, Jesus Christ. That is where we tend to have problems; it is a lifelong pursuit and and we all fall short, but we continue to strive to live as His disciples.

I believe the article should be edited to read more in keeping with this statement or something similar: Within the LDS church is believed to exist members of all of the tribes of Israel; either adopted into the House of Israel or literal descendants. However, there is no difference between being a literal descendant and adopted into the House of Israel. Hope this helps. Storm Rider ^(talk) 07:22, 19 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RE: Old Nick

Thanks for fixing the "English" link so that it goes to a real page. But I think that page should be "England," since it's the English nationality and heritage that it refers to rather than to the language. I'm fixing it, hoping that you agree. Jonathan Tweet 01:24, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

My bad. Sometimes I do so many of those disambig pages that I get confused. The vast majority of my wiki edits happen at work, so that doesn't help things either. Thanks for catching my mistake. --Oatmeal batman 04:09, 14 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You have achieved the Wikibrains barnstar medal for your contributions to Euthanasia! Congratulations --F3rn4nd0 09:03, 29 September 2006 (UTC)![reply]

ty

Thank you for the compliment. I don’t expect things to get heated, and I would like to take the chance to thank you again for your interest and time concerning the article. I will say, if you are interested in things like purgatory, you're likely to bump into a Catholic or two. =) Lostcaesar 08:35, 29 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Aminz

To be quite honest, you've stepped into this discussion quite late. There has been a lot of consensus on this issue, from a multitude of editors: Aminz has consistently tried to add content saying that Christians have not been persecuted under Muslims much at all, something which is patently unhistorical. What's more, we have often been willing to try to negotiate with him, to include part of his text, but he is unwilling to negotiate. He has gone through many mechanisms to add this text, and quite frankly, we've been more than patient with him. Please, I ask you, if you are going to take a side so strongly in the future, I encourage you to do your homework. While I am a Christian, I do not think I am any more partisan towards an issue than you probably think yourself; I do not have a grudge against Aminz. But he has consistently added this unhistorical content in order to promote his Islamic agenda. Again, please, do your homework before making an assumptionin the future. -Patstuart^{(talk)(contribs)} 19:17, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Non-trinitarians

Hi JT, first let me say I did not mean any slight at all by the comment I made about referencing a good book rather than an internet article (though I will say that a fair amount of experience in debating has ingrained an ability for me to sneak in a slight in even the most well-meaning of statements, perhaps a drawback in more friendly dialogue!). About the JS, I think you will get farther in the section on Non-Trinitarians first if you quote from a source that has a smaller axe to grind, if you get what I am saying. Like I said, I don't know enough about the JS to say one way or another myself. Part of the difficulty that you are running into is that the Trinity is about the only doctrine holding together certain protestant ecumenical groups, and since in those groups (by their nature) it is often wondered just what makes someone Christian, the easy answer of Trinitarianism (and the related belief in the consubstantiality of Jesus), once accepted, relegates other groups like LDS and JWM to non-Christian status. The article itself seems to ponder over just what constitutes the identity of "Christian/Christianity", and so your edits have inflamed an open wound, so to speak. So this is quite sensitive. I don't know how much I can help but I will think about it an get back to you. There is a way to phrase this, I know, but it just has to be properly nuanced. Lostcaesar 14:49, 8 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

PS, I haven't forgotten about this, Im just burried atm, sorry, I will get to it soon Lostcaesar 09:31, 12 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Its up, Lostcaesar 00:17, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I thought I got that in there about the "unbiblical" and "tainted peroid of history" part, but I forgot you wanted the JS reference; I think we can say around this place "...which has found agreement by the contemporary scholars of the Jesus Seminar" or something like that... let me have a look. Lostcaesar 14:34, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, since I don't have the ref at hand, let me know what you think about this: at the end of the section, last paragraph, add a final sentence "The view that Jesus did not teach his own divinity [or perhaps "did not claim to be divine / coequal with the Father - you get the idea] has found agreement by the contemporary scholars of the JS [ref]" Lostcaesar 14:38, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Its up, if you get more refs then more can be added if needs be. Lostcaesar 16:38, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Something I was curious about

I've read some of the things on your website, which makes me curious as to your motivations on this comment of yours. It doesn't seem like a comment that someone who's a bright and makes a website with articles like yours would make, were you being sarcastic? I'm just curious is all Homestarmy 17:09, 10 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Curious about something else

Hey Jonathan, I feel driven to ask you this question: why aren't you Christian? You know so much about Christianity and what the Bible says; and the way you talk about it, it almost seems like you do believe it. So, out of curiosity, what's keeping you from becoming a Christian? --Christknight 22:33, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I must start by saying that you have an extremely philosophical mind, and I admire that; I wish I could sit down and and have a real discussion with you. But on to the point. The problems with Christianity you put on your site all have answers to them. I understand how difficult it is to believe in what you can't see, but this is exactly why Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3-4 to become like little children. Now what this means is not to become ignorant or misunderstanding, all it means is to have the faith of a child. If a child is told something by his father, he belives it no matter what anyone else says. This makes it hard for us because we think that as we've grown, we've gotten more more intelligent and more logical - so we think that something we can't see must not be there. However, the Bible says in John 20:29 "blessed are those who believe without seeing." Now, about hell... Christians do not think that Hell is some sort of payback system for them to believe in to help make themselves feel better about themselves. In fact, the Bible says many times not to think that way about our enemies. One example, Matthew 5:43-44, which says to love our enemies and pray for them, not hate them. Also, people don't go to hell because they are mean to Christians or anything like that, but beacause of separation from God. That's why God tells us to spread the good news - to keep people from going to hell at all. But, in the second to last paragraph of your hell page, you have Christianity confused with Islam. The Bible never says anything about God giving his children eternal sex in heaven or anything perverse like that. So, if you can't tell already, I'm saying that the Bible can fix all your problems, and that I think you should be a Christian. --Christknight 06:07, 17 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Historical Jesus

Thanks for the nice message. I'll take on board your advice abt going thru the talk page. As for the cross section, I agree that it needs a new start, but I lack any reference books. PiCo 08:11, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Christianity article is a bit big for me, and full of things I know nothing about. (I did delete the reference to Acharya S, whom I see you want to keep in - I've explained my reasons on the talk page). I'll keep on a bit longer with the HJ article, but I'll restrict myself to editorial suggestions in view of my complpete lack of books. PiCo 06:22, 24 November 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Hi!

Just randomly wanted to say "hi", and comment that your home page is the first reference I've seen to Tekumel for several years. I've never played EPT, but a friend at school (about a hundred years ago) had the book, and I thought its crafted coherence superior to the sprawling chaos that is D&D. Myopic Bookworm 11:32, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote some things on the talk page of Christian apologetics.

I wrote some things on the talk page of Christian apologetics. I don't think we are going to resolve our difference of opinion on this matter though. By the way, I do believe we achieved a compromise position on the articles opening, however. ken 02:15, 26 November 2006 (UTC)Kdbuffalo[reply]

Christianity

I read your comments on the Christianity page and i'm sorry you're having such a hard time but I'm afraid every editor I've seen challenge the orthodox view eventually gets burned out with all the wikilawyering that goes on there. Modern scholarship is moving the way you state but Christians detest the JS so it's like sticking in pins to use them as an example. Have you read Elaine Pagels or Thomas L. Thompson [3] [4]? You can waste an awful lot of time on that page - great if you've got it but I would advise finding other areas where your contributions won't be deleted by the faithful. They are not bad guys (personally the ones I've worked with I have a lot of respect for) but they really think you are wrong and that's a hard step to overcome. It's also why alot of people recognise that the wiki process is fundamentally flawed on sensitive subject such as this. Hope you are managing to contribute sucessfully in other areas. Sophia 07:32, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Have fun then - the advantage of Pagels is that she is a respected academic - Thompson is a little less well known but he ticks all the right boxes for a qualified religious/biblical scholar. Sophia 16:05, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am well known on that page don't worry! Some of the editors there are very knowledgeable so you need references and a good knowledge of all the current academic players to be taken seriously. I've dropped out at the moment due to other reasons (the wikipedia hierarchy sucks) but I also don't have the time to format all the current research to back up the view that the historicity of Jesus is an assumption aggressively pushed by the Church and not a fact. More books are being published all the time so I'm hoping more people like you will come along and make it easier to show the others that the status quo is changing. One piece of advice to heed is that you will find the arguments and requirements demanded by the faithful change as you fulfill previous ones. This is extremely frustrating and time consuming so i would try building on the Pagels/Thompson tips I have given you, as I have had it conceded by some of the editors that you are currently dealing with that Pagels is a respectable qualified biblical scholar. It gives you a start anyway. I will drop in and say a brief message of support but I'm teacher training at the moment so the intricacies of teaching algebra to 12 year olds is higher priority right now. Sophia 09:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

re:

Glad I could help JT, and though I don't know exactly what I said to inspire the confidence, I do appreciate the kind words. Cheers. Lostcaesar 10:30, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Verhoeven

On his page here on Wikipedia, the statement that he as a Ph.D is cited to the following article, which indicates he has a Ph.D in mathematics and physics. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/verhoeven.html JPotter 17:14, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Jesus Seminar

Jonathan,

I'm actually removing the statements made by detractors of the Jesus Seminar, instead of tagging them for citation. I think that's more prudent because the statements are NPOV and even if they are cited, they will be coming from POV and unreliable sources. I had the good fortune of training under one of the Jesus Seminar fellows and have made significant contributions to the article removing POV from Christian fundamentalists over the years. JPotter 17:22, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hades

Because it interupts the flow of the introduction, putting it in between two paragraphs on mythological uses. And because it's already been noted, see footnote 2. Tunnels of Set 23:36, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right Lazarus?

Well, yes and yes and no. The thing about Saint Lazarus is that there are several Lazaruses to choose from. We have the friend of Jesus who is returned to life, and there was a questionable tradition in various churches about what he did after being called from the tomb. Then there is the Lazarus in the parable. Then there was at least one later (3rd c.). Scripture would be taken as unimpeachable authority for the saintliness of a life, and therefore, even without the legends of "cold Lazarus," he was venerated as a saint. If Christ deemed him worthy of raising, then his status was secure. Similarly, the Lazarus of Lazarus & Dives is not only shown in heaven, but receiving intercessory prayer. The association with the plague is clearest with this Lazarus, as he was afflicted with boils and wasting disease. That said, I didn't add the attribution to the article, but I do think it's correct. That, of course, doesn't mean that one of the other saints Lazarus isn't also associated with plague victims. Geogre 05:48, 13 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

John 1:1

Jonathan, I have appreciated your edits (and more importantly, your editing demeanor) when I have run across your edits in the past. I have responded to the RfC on the talk page of John 1:1, and I am trying to get a few more sets of eyes on it. Would you mind taking a glance at it when you have a chance? Thanks. -- Pastordavid 06:55, 14 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

JT

JT, I have decided to take an indefinite break from editing the general religious articles (with an exception here or there). Instead I will spend time in other areas, e.g. history and especially anglo-saxon studies. I thought I would respond to your request about books concerning the "historical Jesus" field. The text I would recomment is Darrell L. Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods. There are some other texts I would not endorse per se, but that are important works in the history of the field and some familiarity with them is important if one is interested in the field in general. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz wrote a German textbook - its been translated into English, though "study questions" sections have been added and that annoys me. There is John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person - warning, its long. E. P. Sanders and R. E. Brown (I think) each wrote an intro text also. Also, a very liberal view is that of Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus.

I find the work of Crossan to be just too condescending and patronizing to read.

If you want to see something critical of the JS (and you should have a look), read Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus ed. by Mr. Michael J. Wilkins & J.P. Moreland eds. If you want something critical of the whole process, see Luke Timothy Johnson , The Real Jesus : The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels

Cheers, Lostcaesar 20:16, 16 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

C. S. Lewis GA nomination

Hi, I'm just letting regular contributors to the C. S. Lewis article know that its good article nomination is on hold until more references are added to the article. We have two weeks to bring the article up to the required GA standards. If you can spare some time, it'd be great if you could add some references to the article, and hopefully improve its chances of becoming a Good Article. If you know of any other editors who would be interested in helping out, please let them know. Cheers, Martin 18:36, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Historical Jesus/JS/Pagels

Sorry if this is out of the blue or covered ground. After someone asked me to have a look at some authorship pages, I stumbled across your talk page. I was interested in some of the comments here, and I skimmed the long discussion you had on the Jesus Seminar. I think I've a basic idea where you are coming from, and am trying to decide where and if I might be of use in the seemingly endless debates regarding historical Jesus studies on WP. Any thoughts would be helpful.

My perception is that editors have been far too touchy about a perceived liberal/conservative or religious/atheist bias. At the end of the day, I feel the articles should be based around the existing mainstream scholarship. Yes, the majority of the scholars are Christians. No, that does not affect their ability to be professional historians/critics anymore than being a materialist would affect one's ability to build a bridge. A few academic points:

1) You can find a comprehensive reading list on all things (historical) Jesus here: http://resources.theology.ox.ac.uk/read2.phtml?school_code=&paper_num=&option_letter=&paper_ID=FH3A

You'll be interested in any of the sections on criticism and, obviously, the one entitled "Jesus". I would add Raymond Brown's 'Introduction to the New Testament' and Barton and Muddiman's (disclosure, John Muddiman was my graduate advisor) 'Oxford Bible Commentary' for more generalist approaches. Currently mainstream historical Jesus discussions (the "3rd quest") have focused on the Jewishness of Jesus. Sanders is the father of this, and Meier's and Vermes's books are the best representatives. The Fredriksen and Allison books are good as well.

2) You might notice a lack of Jesus Seminar works on that list. It's because that whole debate is somewhat dated, and inside the academy the Jesus Seminar as a collective endeavour is largely scoffed or ignored. I wonder whether there was a "controversy" at all, or just some DaVinci Code-esque publicity created by the JS leading to the eventual refutation by leading scholars who got tired of the whole thing. I should point out that some of the individual members have made interesting contributions. Marcus Borg's marxist interpretation of Jesus, for instance. His dialogue with NT Wright is also a good read.

3) Elaine Pagels's work is also not very well regarded by most NT/early Xian scholars I know of. Before mentioning Princeton, please consider that she is in a department with Cornell West, at a university that just axed its 40 year old ESP studies program last week.

I raise the last two points only for clarification and discussion. Despite the seeming diversity of historical Jesus/NT/early Xian studies, it is actually a very insular community. Borg, for instance, studied under GB Caird at Oxford. Caird was also NT Wright's advisor, as well as John Muddiman's and God knows how many others. So, despite appearances there are some very basic agreements amongst the vast majority of NT scholars (like the existence of a man Jesus). Much like any other discipline, most of the debate here is esoteric and done in articles or commentaries, not full length books. The JS/Pagels popularised content coming out is eye catching because it is controversial or derivative, but it is a minority view and far from mainstream.

Enjoyed Ars Magica back in the day, btw. Though I disagree with you about ADnD. Best,--Mrdarcey 08:20, 18 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"It's not being a Christian that makes one ill-qualified to address Jesus historically. It's believing that the New Testament is something other than a fallible, human-created document subject to standard historical analysis."

I don't disagree. But that is a reductionist statement. 3 methods of biblical interpretation other than literalism, including alegorical interpretation, have been officially endorsed by the Church since Origin's discussion of them in the 2nd c. CE. I knew a man who left a very conservative Protestant seminary when they taught Genesis should be read allegorically, for instance. Additionally, I think you would be hard pressed to find any relevant, mainstream scholarship about the NT from that sort of ultra-Calvinist perspective. Even more traditionalist scholars like Dale Allison or NT Wright would never approach textual interpretation in that manner. Particularly since most scholarship after Norman Perrin began disagreeing with Bultmann has focused on understanding the man Jesus in his contextual setting. The vast majority of scholars find literalism as irresponsible as they do the JS.--Mrdarcey 00:44, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Literalism? Who said anything about literalism?"

You did when you described a belief in the NT as "something other than a fallible, human-created document subject to standard historical analysis." The specific term for this form of reading is "literalism." A pejoritive for someone who follows such a reading is "fundamentalist." And quibbling about semantics merely avoids my point, which is that no scholar worth their salt allows such a belief to permeate their work. Most find it as insulting a characature of Christian belief as they do Elaine Pagels and Starhawk. In fact, almost exclusively, academic analysis of the NT treats it precisely as a "fallible, human-created document[,] subject to standard historical analysis."

"Look, I'm sorry but if you and I are so far apart that you think I'm talking about literalism when I never mentioned it, then we're too far apart to have a meaningful exchange on this topic."

I'm afraid you have misunderstood me. I have some level of academic knowledge regarding early Christianity. If I don't know something, I've direct access to leading academics who might. I would like to apply said knowledge to editing WP articles. Unfortunately there are a vast number of articles in this area, most of which suffer from some bad information/argumentation and are held hostage because of a loggerheads between extreme skeptics and extreme believers. Forgotten or ignored, often accused by ignorance, are reasonable, representative and knowledgable editors. For instance, pointing out Elaine Pagels's appointment at Princeton does not change the fact that a clear majority of NT/early Xian scholars consider her work marginal, if not simply incorrect. While you are quite obviously a skeptic, you appeared to be interested in finding some consensus. To that end, I was asking to what specific articles I might be of use.

"I do entertain ongoing discussions with believers on my discussion boards, but not on WP talk pages. So it's up to you whether you want to take it there or drop it."

While I've no care to discuss any matters of personal belief other than the value of scholarship, please do not assume holding degrees in theology a "believer" makes. Good day,--Mrdarcey 12:27, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Jesus

NPOV and NOR are sacrosanct to me. I did not mean to offend; I really respect all religious views of editors. But we just need to keep them out of the article. Slrubenstein | Talk 10:01, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree we can work it out. My view is this: the section on the life of Jesus according ot the Gospels should be clear about synoptic and/or John - something I know you have been very dilligent and careful about. I also think as you do that it should stick to the text as close as possible. But I also think we should stick to the most non-controversial reading of the text as possible. Now to applying my principles: in the specific case we are in conflict over, I really think that what is going in in Mark itself is open to interpretation. I think that many things in this section of the article actually fall short of my principles, and on my talk page you offered a perfect example. The quote you highight on my talk page is editorializing, in my view. So, what should we do? Rather than achieve NPOV by adding equally (if opposing) controversial or partisan interpetations into this section, I think we should prune out the editorializing and elements subject to interpretation. i.e. cut the passage you quote on my talk page. Other editors may not agree with me but I think that the "Gospel account" of Jesus' life should stick to what Christians and non-Christians, laypeople and scholars, theologians and historians, would agree on. For example, I think everyone would agree that according to the Gospels Jesus used parables. When it comes to why, I think the Gospels are open to interpretation. I think you know of many other passages in this section of the article that go beyond a straightforward caaount of Jesus' life according to the Gospels and strays into "how Christians interpret the Gospels." I think virtually all that material belongs in an article on Christology, or some other article like "interpretations of Jesus' ministry" and do not belong in the general article on Jesus. I know you fear I hold you to a double standard. I deleted what you added because I had a free moment to follow the page and it coincided with your edit, and it was immediately suspicious to me. I agree I have not systematically gone through the section and cut other things, although I did make some other cuts of egregious stuff (like, it was Jesus who started calling God father). Look, if you see other clear examples of editorializing that you think takes any specific POV, Christian or non, and want to cut it I will likely back you up all the way. And to anyone who gets upset I would encourage them to work on an article on Christology or views of jesus' ministry. Slrubenstein | Talk 14:51, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

re

Here is the requested text from the old article page:

In the 3rd century, Hippolytus of Rome depicted the righteous and unrighteous alike as going to Hades where they suffer temporal punishment and await the final judgment. For the righteous this punishment is a form of purification which prepares them for their entrance into the blessedness of Heaven, some measure of which they experience in anticipation whist in Hades^{[citation needed]}. For the unrighteous, their sufferings are merely a foretaste of their eternal torments which they shall suffer in Hell after the last judgment. The elect, meanwhile, are in bliss rather than in torment.^[1]

Lostcaesar 08:30, 4 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

1. Against Plato, on the cause of the universe [1]. As to the state of the righteous, he writes, "And there the righteous from the beginning dwell, not ruled by necessity, but enjoying always the contemplation of the blessings which are in their view, and delighting themselves with the expectation of others ever new, and deeming those ever better than these. And that place brings no toils to them. There, there is neither fierce heat, nor cold, nor thorn; but the face of the fathers and the righteous is seen to be always smiling, as they wait for the rest and eternal revival in heaven which succeed this location. And we call it by the name Abraham's bosom."

Purgatory

Jonathan,

I would be quite happy to contribute. I have not looked at the article Purgatory recently. I have read, and quite enjoyed, Jacques Le Goff's La naissance du purgatoire (The Birth of Purgatory).

Do you have any advice to give?

Best Regards

Miguel de Servet 14:02, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Could you please

Take a look at this [5]

Thanks --Aminz 20:06, 13 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Reference

The reference was added to the talk page. 1550 for a performance, then again in 1570, although, of course, since those were performances rather than printings, it's impossible to be sure that we're talking about the same melodies. That's how it is with ballads, though: they were too "low" for printing. Even the composers who wrote them in a later age (Tom D'Urfey and Henry Carey (writer)) were tarred with the charge of being trivial and worthless for writing ballads, and, in Carey's case, this is after the success of The Beggar's Opera! Geogre 01:44, 14 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

purgatory

On the purgatory page you wrote, "This page should be about purgatory, not about purification after death". What you do think the differences are, and on what source do you gain your information? Lostcaesar 09:00, 18 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Reply

This is a reply to your question on my talk page, if your summary of the edits on the article "Purgatory" is a fair summary.

I do not consider that a fair representation of the process as it is highly selective. It ignores, first, that I have made numerous attempts to incorporate your suggestions, insofar as that is possible. Every request you have made has resulted in substantial effort and improvements to the page.

The text you wrote was, as a general rule, either unsourced, original research, or, in the rare cases a sources was given, insufficiently or erroneously sourced. I had little choice but to correct statement that were mistaken, honest mistakes I am sure. For example, you tried to edit in that Tertullian believed no one enjoyed the blessedness of heaven until judgment day, as per your own personal reading of one of his works. However, you did not know, since you are not an expert on Tertullian, that in another work he stated that martyrs go directly to heaven. You made similar personal commentary on other Church Fathers. The Fathers wrote much, its understandable that you would not know all they wrote, and I certainly do not, but this is why original research is not allowed. I had to read three journal articles before finding a text on Tertullian’s eschatology before I was able to correct your error on him. Yet this work on my part you somehow think is hostile or pov, when its nothing but hard work and good faith editing. The page at present has 76 references (with many of those containing multiple sources per reference), from books and academic journals mostly. It is much better than it was, no doubt.

Further, I am not convinced you truly wish to have a NpoV article, and I have reasons to think this. For example, after my changes, following the request for comment, you placed on Alecmconroy’s talk page a statement that I had not implemented his suggested changes yet had removed the pov tag. Not only is this incorrect, as I had made substantial efforts to include his changes, but you noticeably did not make any requests on the talk pages of InfernoXV, who stated that he wholly agreed with the page, nor did you place a comment on the page of Vassyana. In other words, you seem to have placed personal requests on talk pages of people whom you believed would agree with you, and not those whom you feared might not. Hence, it could be inferred from this that you are not entirely interested in a truly non-pov article. Here it should be observed that, earlier, after I had first edited the page to your objections, you put in requests on the talk pages of Miguel de Severt and Andrew c, (saying I had overhauled the page for a catholic pov). Now, let me say I have no difficulty with these editors contributing, as I have worked with some of them well in the past and appreciate their work, and indeed I have long thought that more input was needed, and certainly welcome all opinions. But my point is, first, your statement on my talk page that you were “playing along” with my edits, presumably meaning that you decided to allow me to make contributions with little objection, hides the fact that you were in fact actively seeking support to undo the contributions but, when this failed to be forthcoming, you had little other recourse. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, since this is a collegial website, but you did leave this out of your presentation, noticeably. Second, and more importantly, it may be, though this is not certain, that you are less interested in a truly n-pov article as you are in having your own pov (for which there seem to be few to no citations, or at least none provided) manifested, hence you welcome only contributions from those whom you believe will agree with you.

So, to answer your question, I do not consider your summary on my talk page to be “reasonable”. You ignored that I have patiently tried to incorporate of your contributions and wishes which may aptly be included, you did not mention that your edits have no references or only primary source references and contained errors, you made it seem as if you sat back patiently when in truth, it would appear at least, you tried to find support for your position and, failing that, had little choice, and, finally, you did not mention your selective requesting of commentary.

All that said, I would like to say I think you are a fine editor. I make no firm statements otherwise, only I wish to make observations. I appreciate your thoughts and contributions, which are always helpful. It is in part thanks to you that the article is so much better now. I also appreciate your demeanor and patience, you tact and reasonableness. And, of course, I look forward to working with you in the future.

Lostcaesar 07:06, 1 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Jonathan, you are smart, inquisitive, reasonable, and amiable. One day I hope to call you brother. Lostcaesar 08:35, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There was a synod in Northumbria in the early eighth century attended by Bishop Wilfrid. There, Wilfrid was asked if he agreed, out of obedience to the archbishop, if he would sign all documents produced therein. He was then taken into a tent, and it was revealed to him, by a nobleman, that this was a setup. Afterwhich, he declared that he would not sign something without first knowing the contents, at which point he was told that he had to agree to relinquish all his monastic holdings, not only in Northumbria but in Mercia and elsewhere. If you want to know how the story ends, you can read the Life of Wilfrid. My point here is made. Lostcaesar 16:20, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to work together well. Lostcaesar 18:44, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

JT, let me just say that I don't like these odd regulations. I stick with WP policy. If you add material that is informative, properly sourced, NPoV, and not OR, then add what you want. The reason I deleted your earlier points is because you added clearly OR material - you read some origen and made a personal conclusion and added it - same with Tertullian. You made a mistake (you thought they didn't believe anyone was in heaven until the end of time) because you are not a Patristic scholar and did not know their entire corpus. Also, you mischaracterized the RCC position, against the cited Catechism. I'm just trying for accuracy. Lostcaesar 19:00, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

updating the Trilemma

Hello Jonathan, I am planning to update this article and I know you take an interest in it and I thought it would be useful to have another perspective on this. Essentially, I think the details of the whole "Jesus claimed divinity" section are getting out of hand - this is not the place to have such a debate. The article is about Lewis's variant of the trilemma and criticism of it. Since one major criticism is that Jesus never made such a claim (and I have a number of well-referenced academic sources which support this view, including a former Archbishop of Canterbury), it is appropriate to show that this view exists. I don't think, however, that it should go into a to-and-fro debate about whether the claim is valid or not; it is enough merely to show that there are well-supported opposing views. (I do think, and I mentioned this on the talk page, that it would be interesting to have such a discussion on an appropriate page, but there isn't one).

Anyway, what I am proposing to do is to remove the paragraphs of Debate over the Trilemma's validity beginning with "Although some Christians see..." down to "In the absence of any Gospel verses ...". Since some of these were written by you, I thought might be useful to find out your opinion before going to the Talk page. (By the way, I was the one who removed the trilemma reference in the historicity of Jesus article; I didn't know that was one of yours. I think I explained this clearly but I am very happy to discuss it if you want). Probably this section could then be expanded again with some material directly relevant to Lewis's claim and scholarly opinions about it.

Do you have any thoughts about this?

Rbreen 14:13, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

John Money

I saw your basic statement at Talk:John Money, and I would be very curious to see you elaborate. Thanks! Joie de Vivre 18:17, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Me as well. As you know, I am open to arguing facts, but would appreciate your assistance in explaining to the above editor the difference between arguing facts and simply reverting with insult. While we have disagreed on this topic, you have not put words in my mouth to argue against, rejected referenced facts, or claimed inaccuracy without pointing it out and supporting it. Thanks for your input on this. alteripse 04:46, 12 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I feel completely misunderstood at the MedCab for John Money. If you have time to take a look, I'd appreciate it. Joie de Vivre 17:01, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you can't find a source for him covering up, then we can't add it. I don't claim to be an expert on the case, but if he really did, wouldn't you think his tenure would be revoked? If you have any questions, leave one on my talk page! mcr616 _Speak! 18:50, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome! Thanks for participating in the discussion! mcr616 _Speak! 21:45, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I now have a new appreciation for your ability to disagree and question me while cheerfully sticking to arguing the facts. I mean that sincerely. I don't want to perpetuate the argument on the mediation page, but wanted to respond to this part of what you wrote:

For instance, AI says "[Money] lost touch with the family before the child reached adolescence," when the fact is the Reimer threatened to kill himself if forced to see Money again. Why does AI choose such a vague version of this fact? Looks like POV to me. AI is aggressive in defending their POV.

You realize of course, that my version and yours are both true, and certainly not exclusive. I emphasized the "lost touch" angle because it is unreasonable to accuse Money of covering up a changing situation he no longer had the opportunity to observe and confirm, but I have certainly not denied that he was cut off because Reimer rebelled against continuing to see him. My admiration for Money has some limits, but I draw the line at some of the ignorant, self-righteous character assassination that this article is full of. Your characterization of me (there is only one of me) isn't entirely inaccurate (especially the "aggressive about defending a POV" if I think someone is trying to insert inaccurate information), but it seemed strange to be described as "pro-nurture". I think of myself as more "let's not get too comfortable with political conventional wisdom" and have argued the hormone and nature side (like Pinker) far more times than the nurture side over the last 3 decades. It is just that I am old enough to see how much prevailing political views influence the popular acceptance of either the nature or nurture viewpoint, when the accurate answer is usually "both," cynical enough to expect the pendulum to swing the other way in a decade or two, and burned enough by being trained in the Hopkins approach to be skeptical when anyone evinces too much confidence that he or she has The Answer and everyone else is a fool or a villain. Perhaps my real POV is that all the Hopkins doctors were generally admirable, caring, and well-respected men who were trying to do their best for their patients (I have met all of them, but only worked with one-- not Money). They don’t deserve demonization by those whose understanding of this is too shallow and recent to know anything other than the kind of nonsense currently in the article. My actual views on the magnitude of biological influences on gender identity are not far from Gooren (who is about as pro-hormone as they come in his career publications). His 2006 review of The Biology of Human Psychosexual Differentiation in Hormones and Behavior 50 (2006) 589–601 is excellent and I can send you a copy if you do not have university access.

I would like to resume fixing the Money article. You seem to respect accuracy and referencing, and seem to understand the difference between opinion and fact, not an ability all contributors to this page show. I would like to pre-empt arguments that confuse fact and opinion and am thinking of posting to the talk page a "full disclosure" of my opinions about Money and the Reimer case, and a fully distinguished list of what I consider the verifiable facts. I don't particularly care whether everyone disagrees with my opinions (which I do not intend to put in the article), but I would like to avoid the tediousness of arguing with those who think that discerning my opinion thereby refutes a fact. I would welcome referenced correction of facts, and your critical look will help ensure I don't inadvertently slip an "inaccurate fact" through. After getting some consensus on the facts on the talk page, I hope to avoid hysterical reversions when we start fixing the article. Are you interested enough in this topic to be game? alteripse 23:25, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Elijah

I made some changes at Elijah.ThomasHartman 23:28, 27 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Council of Jerusalem

In case you're interested, looks like some major changes are being proposed for Council of Jerusalem, see also Talk: Council of Jerusalem.64.149.82.195 01:23, 10 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Twt"?

Because, while referring to Jonathan Tweet more unmistakably than, say, JT, it is so short. (I have been on a journey. Though I linked up once, I was interrupted before I could reply to your question.) Lima 18:27, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Celsus ref is incorrect

Would you care to defend the material you added to Criticism of Jesus at the talk page? I think you were just propagating an error, but in the off chance you know anything..... -- Kendrick7^talk 22:58, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Raymond Brown-

I've removed the edit since the edit was much more of a rant/soapbox than anything relevant to actually improving the page. See WP:TALK. JoshuaZ 22:31, 19 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can read JoshuaZ's comment to me on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Runwiththewind You can read my apology and reply to him on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:JoshuaZ#On_the_Roman_Catholic_Church_and_Father_Raymond_Brown

I just don't want to see Father being smeared as a Priest who was not in full communion with the Church when the Church has never made such a comment about him. God bless. (Runwiththewind 06:38, 20 May 2007 (UTC))[reply]

Informal mediation

I have adopted Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2007-05-28 Purgatory. I have reviewed the general history of the article and talk page. Please indicate on the case page if you will accept my assistance as an informal mediator. I have contacted the mediator from the previous case, in the instance they had advice to offer or would like to join in the current case. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Vassyana 21:45, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please join us on the case talk page so we can define the scope and issues involved. I have posted a few questions to be answered to help us towards that end. Vassyana 17:18, 5 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Liberal Christianity

Jonathan, I will no longer be editing Liberal Christianity. So feel free to make up anything you like and add it to the article.--Riferimento 22:25, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Protestant POV pushing at Template:Books of the Old Testament

Just thought you might be interested in User:Alastair Haines attempts to push a Protestant POV at Template:Books of the Old Testament, see for example [6]. 75.14.208.224 19:44, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Higher Criticism

Thank you for your kind comments about my attempt to improve article on Higher Criticism. I have been running a serious discussion with Kuratowski's Ghost who seems to find obscure Medieval Ethiopian Christian documentation as relevant to the History of ancient Israel and Judah. Your help here would be appreciated. Warm regards - John D. Croft 07:56, 29 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Harnack, Iranaeus etc

I have cited Chadwick in support of the fact claim in the Adolf von Harnack article that the canonicity of John was accepted at least by the time of Iranaeus. Chadwick gives a brief account of the controversies about John and notes that its canonicity had been claimed before Iranaeus but not fully accepted, while after Iranaeus questioning it was the exception rather than the rule. That seems to be the support the Harnack article needs. The role of Iranaeus in this matter is indeed common knowledge among church historians but cannot be assumed to be among encyclopedia readers. The Chadwick book is widely available in libraries. seglea 15:38, 1 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

And thanks for linking the reference to the Chadwick page - I was looking for it in the wrong place. seglea 15:58, 1 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dei Verbum is Dogma

I recently noticed you have been led to believe that Dei Verbum is not dogma. This is not true. You may want to visit SSPX to understand that some Catholics are following an ultraconservative position that rejects Vatican II. Their leader, Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated! They have a voice on the internet but not in the Church.

Catechism #891 "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium, above all in an Ecumenical Council." ----Catechism of the Catholic Church

You will probably want to read Pope Benedict XVI at [7] who discusses this problem of rejecting Vatican II. It is a great document! Have a nice day. (Runwiththewind 10:59, 12 July 2007 (UTC))[reply]

To further prove this point the user that misinformed you about about Dei Verbum is now claiming that Vatican II was not infallible. [8]

Reference

Do you have the page numbers available for this referenced material?[9] I'd like to make sure we use proper citations. Thanks! Vassyana 22:25, 19 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello!

Fancy meeting you here indeed. All the best people drop by here. Didn't know you were so embroiled in the religious categories here; will have to come back and peruse the discussions when I have a little more time. Janna Silverstein 05:42, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Purgatory

There has been a recent RfC at this article, and it has gotten more recent attention, resulting in some improvement, and several interesting ideas for further improvement. As an editor who has been involved in the past quite extensively with it, I wanted to give you a heads up. If the spirit moves you (sorry!), see you on its talkpage. Baccyak4H (Yak!) 14:48, 2 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Roman Empire vs. Holy Roman Empire

Little detail: The Roman Empire did not become the Holy Roman Empire. The Roman Empire continued centuries after this soi-distant "Holy Roman Empire" upstart proclaimed itself. That Westerners chose to pretend it ceased existing and magically transformed into a "Byzantine Empire" with no continuity to the past is notwithstanding. Dogface 22:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

GA reassessment of Textual criticism

I have conducted a reassessment of the above article as part of the GA Sweeps process. I have found some concerns which you can see at Talk:Textual criticism/GA1. I have placed the article on hold whilst these are fixed. Thanks. Jezhotwells (talk) 18:44, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Question on Sheol article

Hi Jonathan, I noticed that you seem to be the main editor of the Sheol article in Wikipedia. I was wondering if you would take a look at the bottom section of the discussion page. I suggested an external link to, what seems to me(?), to be a pretty good source. I didn't get any response and tried adding it a few days later. An admin removed it, saying that the site is pushing a book (as far as I know its all free and online), and that it is a "personal website". I don't think either of these things are true. Then, he said that because he's never heard of the guy, it probably isn't a valid source. I don't know that there are too many theologians whom the average person has heard of. Just wondering if you could take a look at it, as to whether these are valid criticisms. I'm new here and did take the time to read the rules for external links. It's not a big deal, bit it just seems frustrating.71.233.140.67 (talk) 01:07, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Elijah

Have you seen Elijah recently? I have been away for a while-health reasons. ThomasHartman —Preceding undated comment added 00:08, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Disambiguation link notification for March 30

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A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diligence
	Just wanted to express my appreciation for your very good work over a long period on the historical Jesus, and the excellent humour with which I have seen you deal with people disagreeing with you. I also very much like your book Grandmother Fish. Keep well and have a happy Easter time. All the very best, —  Cliftonian (talk)  16:45, 1 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Judeans / Jews

Hi Jonathan, please could you let me know which of the sources at Ioudaios#External_References would be acceptable to you to source the statement we are discussing at Jesus? I didn't fully understand your edit comment but realize that you don't agree with the sources proposed so far. Oncenawhile (talk) 18:53, 10 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jonathan, I was looking forward to discussing this with you, but I must say I am extremely disappointed with how you misrepresented my proposal. I am also disappointed that you did not both to refer to any of the sources I pointed you to. Oncenawhile (talk) 19:29, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Reference errors on 26 April

Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

• On the Jesus page, your edit caused a broken reference name (help). (Fix | Ask for help)

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:37, 27 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Re:Jesus

I realise you're an experienced editor, so I'm really puzzled as to why you're removing large chunks of (well-sourced!) text from a Featured Article. This content that was present in the article when it achieved Featured status, and it has been edited repeatedly and fine-tuned by dozens of contributers. I think you may have a good case for removing the text - i.e. there is too much focus on relatively peripheral matters and not on other important aspects of Jesus - but I think any changes should really be discussed on the talk page first. By removing paragraphs you're only going to aggregate other editors. -- Hazhk^Talk 17:00, 12 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Jonathan Tweet

Just wanted to let you know, as long as you're following the rules on Wikipedia you can edit the article on yourself as you wish. You'll just get a lot of extra scrutiny, and generally lose any debate over your edits. If all you're doing is cleanup like you did, you won't run into any issues. You can also remove unsourced negative information, given that it's a BLP. Jerod Lycett (talk) 18:12, 20 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tertiary source

Dr. Carrier characterizes the sources in the proposal as showing that the methodology is "proven to be logically invalid across the board". See page 21 of "On the Historicity of Jesus".VictoriaGrayson^Talk 02:26, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:52, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Reminder about WP:3RR

Please watch your reverts on Jesus. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 20:52, 26 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Looks like I've had my 3. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 20:57, 26 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

edit warring

Notice of Edit warring noticeboard discussion

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion involving you at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring regarding a possible violation of Wikipedia's policy on edit warring. Thank you. Jeppiz (talk) 17:01, 27 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry about that and I have no problems with your version, but edit warring is a big no-no, and 'being right' is no justification. Jeppiz (talk) 17:02, 27 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You are risking a block

Please see Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring#User:Jonathan Tweet reported by User:Jeppiz (Result: ). There is no right to keep restoring the NPOV tag as many times as you want until you are satisfied with the response. Tags, like any other article content, need consensus to remain in the article. Per the usual rules, an administrator could close this 3RR complaint with a block (I was about to do so, but I noticed you've been here since 2007 and have never been blocked). There may still be time for you to respond and promise to wait for a talk page consensus before adding NPOV or any other tags back to the article. Thank you, EdJohnston (talk) 18:39, 27 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

December 2015

Please stop attacking other editors, as you did on Talk:Jesus. If you continue, you may be blocked from editing. Comment on content, not on other contributors or people. StAnselm (talk) 02:27, 14 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Astronomical research on Jesus chronology

Hi Jonathan, I am a lifelong amateur astronomer and have just read the ultimate book on Jesus' chronology - by Professor Colin Humphreys, an engineer at Cambridge University: The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus. (CUP 2011) I have recently revised the chronology section on that basis, for example. Have you read the book yet? If not, would you like me to send you a copy for free? Being Cambridge University Press, it is quite expensive in hardback (55 pounds), but I can get a spare copy for free for you. Do you have a postal address I can send the book to? Alternatively, if you wish to stay anonymous, I am confident I can use CUP as a confidential intermediate (you would contact them, and they release the book to you). If you are even slightly interested in astronomy, it is a sheer delight to read. I gather you are an atheist, whereas the book is written with a Christian outlook, but that does not impact on the calculations and conclusions. And it resolves the main Wiki disputes on Jesus, which is why I think you need to take a look. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.135.37.83 (talk) 19:39, 6 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jonathan. Not a tweet from you yet. Clearly you are not an astronomy geek. So to make a start, please read my addition to Chronology of Jesus - what I have provisionally called the Double Passover method. My new section is not stylistically beautiful yet, but I hope you get the drift. I have just scratched the surface, but I hope I can gradually brainwash you into appreciating the astronomy. My long-term view being that you and the other stick-in-the-muds (St Anselm, Airborne, et al.) become sufficiently engaged that you all help in fixing the amateurish Jesus page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.154.101.37 (talk) 19:33, 21 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Tell me about you.

Johnathan, I am new to Wiki and have a critical view of Christianity as usually presented, similar to the way it appears you view it on the Jesus Talk page. That's why I am here. I have many years of experience and research on ancient texts, and even have made major discoveries which are, of course, discounted by the consensus (mainly the Gospel of Judas and Nag Hammadi). I need a road map for how to introduce some logic and sense to the Christ debate. This is very important. My book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-says-Saviors-ebook/dp/B00CFWE40I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378005590&sr=8-1&keywords=the+bible+says+saviors

I have a new manuscript on Judas looking for a publisher. Wipf and Stock is my hope. It is a bombshell. Sahansdal (talk) 16:37, 10 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

News for you: the greatest story of them all

Johnathan,

Thanks for your advice on WP. I know that what you say is true. Scolaire has already told me another forum may be better. There IS no other forum, however. That's the problem I face. I know this is not going to fly here, but I'll share with you personally, since you already have a counter-consensus center. I am the leading expert on the Gospel of Judas, but it means nothing so far. No scholar knows what I know because no scholar knows a mystic Master, as I do. I know what every scholar on the gnostic texts thinks about it and with no exceptions every one is wrong. I've read everything they have published. None realizes that Judas, not Jesus, is the gnostic sacrifice.

You need to BE a Gnostic ('Mystic') to understand in what way Judas is the sacrifice, not Jesus. Just knowing it superficially isn't enough. This is why we do not yet have any who understand it and why until they get it that Judas is the Master of the day -- as James the Just -- no scholar will be of any help on it at all. Not only do they have it all wrong, they missed the biggest story IN HISTORY. You see, the orthodoxy in Jerusalem of the first century abandoned the real Master, James the Just (see Dr. Robert Eisenman's work on him), under the considerable persuasiveness of Paul of Tarsus to start a new religion, which came to be Roman Christianity. It is a total, damnable, LIE. Only living Masters "save". The "Betrayal" was a coverup of the installation of James as Master (see First and Second Apocalypses of James -- which, when tendentiously inverted, became the "Betrayal" of Jesus by Judas. I believe I have it proven). They had to get rid of the real line of Masters (James was preceded by John the Baptist, and succeeded by Peter - Simeon Cleophas - and then Judas Thomas, apparently) in order to clear the field so they could run with a new teaching.

It worked beyond even their own wildest dreams. Look at the long and lucrative history of the Christian Church! Only the truth about what happened will ever set the world free from this, at least barring a Super Nova of the sun. I have known two living Masters (Maharaj Charan Singh and Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon). Charan Singh (1918-1990) is my own Master. I have been a follower for forty years. It has been quite a ride, I can tell you. I only wish I could show everyone what is possible. Especially so, the Christians I left behind as a teenager. If they only knew what this was really all about! The gnostic story is truly the greatest story of all time. And I mean for ALL time, since the Internet (like what we are doing here) is here now to prevent such a wholesale deception as the New Testament from ever occurring again. I guess I will continue to attempt to publish my book on the Gospel of Judas and hope I can convince the right person who can help get this out to the world, because as an outsider in the heavily Christian world of biblical studies, views like mine are as welcome as fleas in a championship dog show. I can pdf a copy of my first book if you like, for free:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-says-Saviors-ebook/dp/B00CFWE40I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378005590&sr=8-1&keywords=the+bible+says+saviors

The next one on Judas will forever change the course of world history when it finally gets some air time, in Oh, about 100 years, if I'm lucky. I can attach that too in an email to you, again for free, if you are interested in an informed interpretation of the Judas text. The Sant Mat ("Saints's Teachings") website is rssb.org and books are at Science of the Soul.org at cost.Sahansdal (talk) 03:59, 12 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Copy and pasting

We run "copy and paste" detection software on new edits. One of your edits appear to be infringing on someone else's copyright. See also Wikipedia:Copy-paste. We at Wikipedia usually require paraphrasing. If you own the copyright to this material please follow the directions at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials to grant license. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:32, 6 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

http://selmicro.com/authors/f-l/jonathan-haidt/bio/

Haha, I copied this from another WP page. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 18:15, 8 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

New article

Please consider creating a new article per the the topic, the immediate origin of Christianity up to Pauline Christianity § Theological.

Ref.

• Son of God (Christianity) § Pauline epistles.
• Jewish Christian § Jewish origin of Christianity
• Theological Studies 68 (2007) p.19

Content on the immediate origin of Christianity seems to be scarce ? 96.29.176.92 (talk) 18:51, 20 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe. Pre-Pauline Christianity? Jonathan Tweet (talk) 03:50, 21 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Per Dunn, "the first followers of Jesus were known as ‘Nazarenes’ (Acts 24.5)" thus perhaps "Early Nazarene Christianity" (see also Nazarene (sect)) ? And in this context "Early" means "Immediate".

Per Talk:Jewish Christian § Requested move 18 August 2016, Users GreyShark might be interested in a new article.

Ref.

• Historiography of early Christianity
• Proto-orthodox Christianity
• Oral gospel traditions
• Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, & Invented Their Stories of the Savior By Bart D. Ehrman
• Per Split of early Christianity and Judaism § Conversion of Paul, Tom Dykstra, relying primarily upon Michael Goulder’s argument in St. Paul vs. St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions, "Peter’s mission believed that the heavenly kingdom had already arrived and believers were already enjoying the resurrected life, while Paul stressed that the resurrection was yet to come and believers’ present life was more like the crucifixion. . . . Peter’s mission stressed tongues and visions and gifts of the spirit, while Paul’s stressed love and charity; Peter’s mission stressed the need to give away all of one’s possessions since the end had already come, while Paul’s mission advised people to keep working and earning a living."Tom Dykstra (1 October 2012). Mark, Canonizer of Paul. OCABS Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-60191-020-2. (See also Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew on Paul's theology of the spirit)

96.29.176.92 (talk) 04:21, 21 September 2016 (UTC) & 14:03, 21 September 2016 (UTC) & 13:30, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Holy Perfume

Per trivia, Are you up to date that the term Christ/Messiah literally means someone who has perfume oil in their hair ? albeit "Holy Perfume".

• Philip J. King; Lawrence E. Stager (1 January 2001). Life in Biblical Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-664-22148-5. Great skill was required to blend the ingredients of the holy anointing [Perfume] oil (semen mishat-qodes) composed of myrrh (mor), cinnamon (qinnamon), sweet cane (qaneh), and cassia (qidda) (Ex. 30:23-25).

Humorous side note: Issek of the Jug (Ilmater).  96.29.176.92 (talk) 06:55, 21 September 2016 (UTC) & 14:57, 21 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, funny. Thanks. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 04:05, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Eastra

Trivia per "Jesus was a Jew, and his renewal movement was Jewish",
(disclaimer: the following may not be specifically correct or even true :)

• For chickens, some breeds lay eggs daily, some every other day and some just once a week.
• For rabbits it is possible to produce offspring continuously throughout the year.
• Mammals generally produce offspring once a year in the spring.

Eastra is the German pagan goddess for the renewal of light/life (i.e. dawn/spring). Her Festival is on the spring equinox, when night and day are equal, then with the hours of the day increasing as the season progresses.

some derived words are:

• east
• estrus
• easter

Christians did not originally use the word "Easter", the word they used was Christan-passover (as opposed to Jewish-passover) since Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem occurred during the Jewish-passover festival.

Humorous side note: gods of the Dark Ages - Eostre, Mannus, Woden - with the following parameters: "lawful neutral or lawful good clerics with the bonus proficiency of Read/Write Latin."  96.29.176.92 (talk) 21:34, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That's funny, too. I looked up the connection between Eastra and Easter, and it didn't pan out in my own research. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 14:16, 24 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

On the Origin of Christianity

For your consideration on the origin of Christianity.
Host Ben Fama - "Reality Trip" pod-cast series.

• Episode 040: Richard Carrier: Is Christianity and Jesus a Myth? 2016/9/28

96.29.176.92 (talk) 05:46, 1 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Can you summarize it? When I asked Carrier, he had no clear explanation of Christian origins, or interest. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 01:04, 2 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Partial transcript

What and why stories were important to people. The works of Homer were kind of like the Bible in the Hellenistic period. 11:47 Greeks really introduced homer and Homer became kind of like the Bible of of the 11:53 ancient world very widespread it was used for moral stories 11:56 it was used for teaching homer was written in the ninth century 12:18 became sort of like the the capstone book sort of guide to life or in a 12:23 sensor that is the collection of stories about what you could tell and explain 12:27 things about the nature of the world for Greek civilization which expanded around 12:32 the 5th 6th century BC Alexander the Great came along in the fourth century 12:35 BC and spread Greek culture even further pretty much everywhere and Greek 12:40 colonists spread West as well so we got as far as Spain in North Africa and so 12:43 on and that's how i got into Judi as well as that the great conquerors came 12:48 along a Concord Judea and also they weren't traders going to Judea and so 12:51 there's a lot of influence is going on 12:53 that's how Homer spread everywhere Jews had the Old Testament and the Septuagint but the Jews their particular culture 12:57 was highly resistant to just adopting a foreign culture like this so they had 13:01 their book which was well the Bible the Old Testament they didn't have it in the 13:05 form that we have it today they didn't really didn't have a canon they didn't 13:08 have one book that you grab that have all these things and it had a collection 13:11 of 13:11 body of literature but they still regarded that and there was the greek 13:16 version of the Septuagint that they translated to so even Greek even Jews 13:20 who only spoke Greek because they were in the Diaspora they were heading home 13:23 thousands of miles away in Greek colonies elsewhere lot of them like 13:27 forgot or didn't speak Hebrew very well and so they they had this this you know 13:31 popular language version of the Septuagint as I think and the Septuagint 13:35 became super popular all throughout the Roman Empire around the same time so you 13:38 have these two books with very competing messages and very competing values and 13:43 is this subculture that the Jewish culture kind of trying to resist the 13:46 influence of the homeric culture with their own sort of anti Homer their 13:51 particular scriptures There were between 10 and 30 different Jewish sects (thus a very fragmented Jewish culture), some were breaking away from the mainstream and and denigrating the mainstream temple cult as being corrupt i.e. proto-Christians. but the Christians are their Jewish sect they began as a 13:56 sector of cheese now the Jews were very divided at this time there are many 13:59 Jewish sects or we've counted between 10 and 30 different Jewish sects are very 14:03 fragmented and there were many fringe anti-air countercultural second many 14:07 Jewish sects are breaking away from the mainstream and and denigrating the 14:11 mainstream as being you know corrupt and destroying the world and stuff and it's 14:15 all because of you that all the things have gone wrong and so they want to 14:17 train them to change society when reform society they think there's something 14:20 wrong with the way the system works now and they want to reform it 14:23 revolutionizes but they they have to do this in a way that that resonates with 14:28 the assumption that God had always met them to do that they can just come along 14:31 and say God changed his mind they have to say that God always met this and so 14:34 they're already there looking for secret codes and we have this example in the 14:37 Dead Sea Scrolls received before Christianity these these fringe 14:40 countercultural Jewish sects of which Christianity eventually would be one 14:43 they were already looking in these the scriptures the Septuagint in these other 14:48 scriptures the Hebrew Scriptures as well looking for hidden messages from God 14:51 they were they were looking for ways that maybe got hit these these things in 14:54 there that explain how we wanted things to change and we have many texts from 14:59 the dead sea scrolls that show how they were the different ways that these 15:01 French sex were trying to rewrite the Bible we understand the Bible with this 15:05 thing and one of the ways to do that is the with this is called pressure to take 15:10 a look for disparate passages in the Bible and find a new hidden meaning in 15:13 them 15:14 and the you can actually see Christianity evolved out of a pressure 15:17 there it's clear that you look at the letters of Paul and then you look at 15:21 later doctrines of Christians that Christianity someone looked at the Bible 15:25 found these passages families hidden messages and created their own pressure 15:28 became sort of the guide to their their particular sect on the way they thought 15:32 things should change the way we should reform society and eventually when 15:36 people started writing these things down or when they wanted to to spread these 15:39 things they wanted them to compete with this sort of evangelizing right they had 15:42 this idea there evangelizing across three continents right there competing 15:46 against the Septuagint they're competing against Homer that people can hold up 15:49 this book and say hey we've got this book is going great stories in its 15:52 ancient YY replace it with yours and you even have one and so so Christian 15:57 started writing one decades later this is after the decades after Christianity 16:00 started started writing their own Bibles innocence is running their own stories 16:04 and saying hey we've got a better story we've got a hero's Jesus hero and look 16:08 he's better than Odysseus he's better than Achilles and here's the way is 16:13 better that he's better even than Elijah and Elisha better even than Moses and 16:17 here's here the reasons and the ways he's better in the message that this 16:19 entails about how we should change society and so that what they're doing 16:22 is they're trying to create their own new scriptures that are built out of the 16:27 old ones they they're using homer and they're using the Septuagint to 16:30 construct stories about Jesus so that when people read them LOL recognize will 16:35 resonate to recognize the homeric elements and the scepter gentle elements 16:39 will recognize oh IC reflecting on Moses here I see you're reflecting on this 16:43 particular Greek ideal and the way they changed the story the thing that they 16:47 alter the way they've rewritten it that is the message they're saying our values 16:51 are better than those values because look in that story they go off and do 16:55 this but in this story are heroes often does this other thing or says this 16:58 different thing 16:59 this is what makes our values better than their values and this is the way 17:02 they would communicate their messages through storytelling The proto-Christian sect evangelized why Jesus died—he replaced the yearly temple sacrifice, thus a temple & sacrifice are no longer required 21:43 what the Christians do we are doing and saying you know what if we just if we 21:47 have this sacrifice that is way more powerful than this goat it could last 21:52 forever and what you would have repeated every year and if that happens if we 21:54 have one sacrifice that lasts forever then we won't need a temple called 21:58 anymore right that it's it's done you just attach yourself to this one 22:01 particular faith system that gives you this this permanent a tournament 22:06 sacrifice and so they invented the best thing you can have which is the human 22:10 sacrifice but a god-man sacrifice the son of God himself 22:13 you can't get more powerful that's the biggest mojo ever and this by the way 22:17 I'm not making this up this is I just describing to you 22:20 Hebrews 9 this is the Hebrews 9 goes through explaining this is exactly what 22:24 the purpose of the Christian teaching was this is why Jesus died he's 22:28 replacing the temple called the typical has only lasts a year this last forever 22:32 this is way better in the book of Hebrews they hadn't the temple had been 22:35 destroyed yet so they were still trying to argue for Jews to join them and 22:39 trying to explain why they should while the temple called still stood but when 22:42 Mark is writing a typical is gone so he writes this story that sort of 22:47 explaining you know using this as an example to explain why their system is 22:51 better than one being at the temple courts con but the the other being is 22:56 that this is a much more powerful sacrifice that makes much more sense to 22:59 join us and they did this in the brabus narrative you might have some people 23:02 might notice from the Gospel of Mark marca 15 where uh when Jesus is taken to 23:09 pilot and pilots doesn't find anything wrong with it wants to get rid of them 23:13 heat it says it then there was a ceremony every year where they would 23:16 release one prisoner there was no ceremony this is this false Smith and 23:22 pilot goes to themselves who do you want me to release and they all scream for 23:24 Barabbas we want Barabbas and so brabus is set free and Jesus is crucified 23:29 now the thing that most people don't realize you don't know the languages 23:32 Barabbas means son of the father so here we have two sons of the Father we have 23:37 two identical people one carries the sins of Israel it says brabus is a 23:41 murderer and a rebel 23:42 so he carries you know murder and rebellions like the fundamental sins of 23:47 mankind fundamental sins that destroyed the temple called fundamental sense of 23:50 regardless leading to corruption and Judy and all the stuff she was saying 23:53 when the Jews picked brabus they picked the wrong code they picked the one that 23:58 bore their sins they didn't pick the one that actually atone for those sacrifices 24:01 don't repeat that mistake pick the right one and that's the whole point of the 24:06 story is to depict Jesus because Jesus is one is going to save you 24:09 we've already seen what happens when you pick Barabbas the temple called got 24:12 destroyed and the Jewish war in the whole thing so this this whole story 24:17 which is clearly falls there was no such ritual brabus is clearly a fake name 24:20 even in some manuscripts by the way and it probably the original manuscripts it 24:25 actually said jesus promised it was Jesus and Jesus Barabbas we even have 24:29 the same name and so the symbolism in there is very clear and we have even an 24:34 origin the third century Christian theologian he totally saw this and 24:37 articulated in his literature so that that's the point of the story and that 24:41 that's kind of it's a powerful way to communicate you you really need to get 24:45 with Jesus look at what the jews are doing they have no call to have no way 24:48 of salvation we do they're picking the wrong guy pick them are picking the 24:52 wrong horse you might say pick the analogy pick our horse it's a better 24:55 horse and so that's one example of how they were using these stories to sort of 24:59 for the storytelling to sort of resonate with people and communicate values and The gospel stories are updated Elijah stories, as the original Elijah was a judgmental jackass. 27:18 Elijah there are a lot of stories a lot of the gospel stories written about 27:22 Jesus are actually stories told about Elijah in the Old Testament or what we 27:25 now call the Old Testament that have been rewritten they've been relocated in 27:29 time and relocated culturally to the current context and then pieces cast as 27:34 the main character and so on so it's been changed and we I show evidence in 27:38 and on the historicity of Jesus that many misted this outside Judaism within 27:42 Judaism where they would take an old myth update the timeline put it in 27:46 different places her characters and tell the same story of course we still do 27:49 that today right 27:51 west side story is Romeo and Juliet but it's set in a completely different 27:54 historical period always get different names using different tools and the 27:57 story somewhat different but they're really the same story and that's what 28:00 they were doing to they were taking their basically making a West Side Story 28:03 to Romeo and Juliet where Elijah is Romeo and Juliet and Jesus is the west 28:07 side story and so they change these things and and I'll take these stories 28:11 as many of the mom where jesus heals there's a story where Jesus walking 28:17 along and there's this dead 28:19 way that people carrying a buyer and Jesus goes up as not be sleeping and 28:23 racism and so on many of these kinds of Resurrection tales 1 resurrects a girl 28:27 on the Gospel of Mark was very similar to know she's not dead she's sleeping 28:30 and then there's this whole sequence where people begged Jesus to come and 28:33 resurrect her and so on and when you compare the story of Jesus and the kind 28:37 of the story of Elijah that they emulate the legend does the same things to put 28:42 it bluntly Elijah is kind of a dick when you look at the life stories he's very 28:47 dismissive judgmental other the way that I lied to handle the story is if people 28:51 have seen people have died or suffered they deserved it they did something 28:54 wrong and they're being punished for their sins that was the message that the 28:57 Christians wanted they they said well actually sings in the world because 29:00 Satan has deceived people it's not really your fault if you get with Jesus 29:04 and then reformed your life you can actually get away from Madison you won't 29:08 be punished anymore for the four cents and so they didn't want Jesus to go 29:12 around condemning people for all you deserve that because you must be must be 29:16 an awful person but no Jesus says actually uses going on affecting 29:20 resurrections affecting salvation forgiving people of sins and just saying 29:24 you know actually just go and sin no more and you're fine 29:26 for example is that these kinds of stories they're talking they're making 29:29 Jesus a better hero than Elijah with these sort of modern values this idea 29:33 that that that people who suffer deserve it because they must have done something 29:36 bad that's the old view that they find being toxic and destroying their society 29:40 they want to revise its a no actually it's not your fault 29:43 there is another way that you can actually escape these ills that doesn't 29:47 require blaming yourself or whatever and so they rewrote the stories and having 29:50 Jesus not be such a dick as Elijah was and actually represent this new version Jesus like the other dying and rising God served a function 32:19 yeah you know what that story makes sense i see that story a lot but no one 32:23 is that the whole of the the nexus of those two things was the mystery called 32:29 concept of the dying and rising God or just the suffering god they're both kind 32:34 of the same model and they're all suffering gods they all undergo a 32:39 passion by the way the exact same Greek word that 32:41 there's a passion of the christ but there's also a passion of Mithras a 32:44 passion about Cyrus and and so on all these God's underwent some sort of 32:48 suffering some sort of great suffering on behalf of humanity through which the 32:52 game victory over death and therefore could give salvation to the people who 32:55 shared that with them and so when the Christians were building their story in 32:59 the beginning they they really adopted a lot of elements of this dying and rising 33:02 god this suffering God there many dying versions of this to there's a mistress 33:06 is not a dying and rising . but Osiris is Cyrus is a classic example of the 33:12 goddess Ishtar or Donna is probably the oldest that we know of of this dying and 33:16 rising God that eventually a mystery called evolved around and all these 33:21 mystery cults gave you this if you were inducted into the mysteries you would be 33:24 baptized you would share a communal meal with people that were now your victims 33:28 families you would use effective kinship language would call them your brother 33:31 and your sister and so on and you would gain individual salvation in the 33:35 afterlife through this and they also had moral codes as well so Christianity is 33:39 really a Jewish version of this this fat for these things and so when they built 33:42 out the story of Jesus they're very much building out this story of the the same 33:46 sort of suffering God narrative the dying God narrative that was taking off 33:51 like wildfire people were really responding to this all over and so to 33:54 really market their gospel they adopted the same idea and they might have done 33:58 it unconsciously they might not have deliberately created the narrative 34:00 because it would be popular it they created a narrative because it was 34:04 popular and therefore have this resonating effect on the their mind and 34:07 the way they were conceiving how God must have organized society and 34:11 organizes theology and therefore what message must have been in the Bible 34:13 secretly hidden there for them to find their influenced by culture 34:16 subconsciously I suspect to come up with this model but that's how these 34:21 archetypes are used because these sort of hero narratives were very familiar 34:26 and had this sort of this political function that was a safe political 34:30 function you weren't just condemning the authorities to their face you're telling 34:34 this story where it's not immediately obvious like you would if you were 34:37 brought up in trial you could immediately show that their story is 34:40 criticizing the Roman Emperor or this their story is criticizing the structure 34:44 of the Roman government government other tax system or whatever 34:47 I require interpretation to understand you can understand the meaning of the 34:50 story to get the meaning of it understand that the political the 34:53 politics of it and so that's why these stories got written that way it was it 34:56 was a safe way to do this and this is a way that really powerfully affected the 35:00 emotional centers of of people's thinking so did you know in other words 35:04 I when I look at these stories especially within that region that time 35:07 were just stories in general it when it comes to someone that suffering I often 35:12 wondered the psychological reasons why these stories at met something for 35:17 somebody at that time i'm currently working on a documentary called a reason 35:20 to believe has michael shermer Peter Burke ocean in it and when I think I'm 35:24 trying to actually explore my people believe what they believe is that when 35:27 we have fear we have anxiety and and we lack control in our lives a lot of times 35:31 we will turn to systems to alleviate that fear to alleviate that anxiety and 35:36 I find that a lot of these stories whether it's religion mythology the 35:41 their their way for us to in an uncertain world for us to understand the 35:46 world and how we deal with it even though we don't have any control what 35:51 yeah what was going on at it at that time especially when Christianity 35:55 started coming in that people said okay this story right here something why did 36:00 that story because I i think i saw a lecture we're talking about like in the 36:03 East they have a different type of Mythology different type of story 36:06 what do you think was generating in that era in that time for that story to 36:09 develop yeah i mean there are a lot of lot of tangents you can go on that I the 36:13 one that comes to mind 36:14 oh I don't know if it was where you're going with this but it's one that I 36:17 think about people overlook they don't realize that Christianity originated in 36:21 a radically different culture than we have today and it was the way people 36:27 understood the organization of the universe and your time I like this idea 36:30 of feeling helpless in the face of this just disordered chaos that could just 36:34 ruin your life suddenly you're wondering like why like what why why do you hate 36:38 me God you know hi 36:39 why are these wireless Wars why is there all this corruption that no one does 36:42 anything about why is all this widespread disease why is it so horrible 36:46 I'd like half of all babies born $YEAR died before their first year 36:49 like what if what is going on 36:53 and so the way they know today we answer that largely we answer that was science Faith in Jesus can protect you from demons and gurantee resurrection. 36:58 we say well here's the scientific reasons why this happens and let's rally 37:01 as humans can figure out a technology in a human system that can defeat it or 37:05 make it better 37:06 that's the secular way of attacking problems that that and they were using 37:10 that antiquity as well but it wasn't as popular that people weren't as confident 37:14 in that method of solving problems then and people had this whole view of the 37:18 world that was this sort of the way the cosmos was organized was you had to sort 37:22 of corrupt world order below and had progressively more perfect heavenly 37:26 spheres above and God and His angels all live above and this this corrupt sphere 37:31 below which is everything below the orbit of the moon was controlled by 37:36 Satan in these demon so demons explained everything in existence 37:39 you know this rebel angel has run amok easy is taking over he's deceiving 37:43 people he's influencing people he's ruining everything 37:46 and so we have to do is we have to solve this we have to get rid of these demons 37:50 and so the same time you have this same time Christianity have a lot of these 37:53 traveling sorcerers who are doing the same thing where they're saying you know 37:57 what ya all your problems are caused by these their work is really problematic 37:59 demons i got these spells i'll sell you uh that too to get rid of these demons 38:04 that will heal you were get rid of your troubles or fixture for your bad fortune 38:08 or whatever it is and and so they're the Sorcerer's doing is the Christians are 38:12 kind of competing on the source for market by selling the same product but 38:17 they were selling it not for money they were going i'm saying rule solve your 38:21 problems for money they're going up and saying will solve your problems if you 38:25 join us and so they're actually selling the the movement a sentence and then 38:30 they're for growing movement forgetting the money anyway because then people 38:32 join the movement they love the community and mr. donating some money 38:36 starts rolling in it was actually a better racket even if you know whether 38:39 they were aware that it was a racket or not it worked it worked great 38:43 we worked fairly well and there are other religions doing the same thing but 38:47 the Christians are really selling this idea that you know demons run amok this 38:50 explains why everything's screwed up we've got this powerful God Jesus that 38:54 actually hit this the speaking of his name cast out demons like it's this 38:57 isn't you know that it's secure all it's a snake ultimate snake oil and and so 39:01 you understand that the people are going to you 39:04 some of them if they're the ultra elite receiver educated without demons that's 39:08 ridiculous but most people the time are super superstitious like they thought 39:11 this was real like yeah they really are demons what are you talking about and 39:14 they thought it was they actually had anger towards the elite for skeptics of 39:17 the demons and the supernatural nature of the world this disdained them for 39:22 disliking this stuff because it because they obviously it's all this magic and 39:26 superstition supernatural powers everywhere and it's chaos we need some 39:29 sort of supernatural solution and so yes the Christian system was a very 39:33 attractive way to understand why people were suffering and gave them the 39:38 illusion of thinking that they could control this and even and even when it 39:42 failed like you know if you get for example this is an example the guides to 39:45 missionary life and Mark where Jesus can heal some people in his hometown and he 39:49 says well you know profit is is honored everywhere except his hometown or and 39:54 the ultimates . the story Jesus says we don't have enough faith right so they 39:58 have an excuse even when you know they're there demon curious didn't work 40:01 is we don't have enough faith you just need more faith and then if that didn't 40:05 work they say well okay yeah you're your faith might not be strong enough but 40:08 just wait 40:09 God's gonna come and destroy everything is going to melt the entire universe and 40:12 set everything right then everything will be good don't worry just stick 40:15 around stay in because you don't want to you dont wanna fold your cards you want 40:19 to hold your hand too early stay in the pot because Gods coming and you win the 40:23 pot and everything will be good and so that was the way the Christian is 40:26 convince people not only to join up but also to sort of feel comforted that they 40:32 understood the nature of reality and that there was something there was a 40:35 good result they were going to get it had to follow these procedures and it 40:38 would all work out for them and so that's a very comforting thing to feel

That is not a summary. Can you summarize who started the sect that became Christianity and how the New Testament books got written in four sentences or so? I can, from a historical perspective. Is this story coherent enough to summarize? Or is it just wishful scholarship? Jonathan Tweet (talk) 20:26, 2 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

On why the historical Jesus is not necessary to explain Christianity.

Per the original gospel (not-extant):

• There were between 10 and 30 different Jewish sects (thus a very fragmented Jewish culture), some were breaking away from the mainstream and and denigrating the mainstream temple cult as being corrupt. i.e. proto-Christians.
• Through mystical visions - Jesus revealed that he had tricked the Devil by becoming incarnate and had subsequently been crucified by the Devil, thereby atoning for all of Israel’s sins, thus the temple cult was no longer relevant and there was no need to pay taxes or participate in the secular world, etc. As a river of fire was on its way to burn up all the damned sinners and all proto-Christians coincidently. But the proto-Christians (previously dead & newly burnt up) would be given new bodies and a new world, to go forth and gambol. As calves of the stall.

Per the extant gospel:

• The works of Homer et al. were kind of like the Bible in the Hellenistic word, for the pagans viz. the Jews having the Old Testament (in Greek per the Septuagint) — i.e. how people understood the organization of the universe.
• With the foundational Elijah-Elisha narrative sourced from the Septuagint. The gospel was then modernized with various popular Hellenistic elements, to create orthodox Christianity — similar to all the other popular Mystery religions in the Greco-Roman world.
• A key selling point: Faith in Jesus can protect you from demons and guarantee resurrection.

96.29.176.92 (talk) 02:39, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That's vague. Who started the sect? When? Where? How? This hypothesis doesn't explain why early Christianity had its distinctive features, such as no leader I prefer the detailed account of the historians, which has lots of details backed by evidence.. Can you point to a piece of evidence that Christianity started in a different way from how the historians say it did? Jonathan Tweet (talk) 20:38, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

CMT article

If amenable, your acumen is needed at Talk:Christ myth theory and on a side note; have you seen the peculiar Samson's riddle ?
-thanks 96.29.176.92 (talk) 20:39, 22 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Discussion to be canceled

https://wikivividly.com/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Massimo_Chiacchio_1997/Archive Can you delete this thread? It appears on search engines with my name. Massi (Report bug) 12:30, 1 September 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.13.201.200 (talk)

I would if I could, but I don't know how, and I'm not sure why you're asking me. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 16:25, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

But, but, saprophage != detritivore ?

Wanting to know more about these two terms I looked up 'saprophage' in Wiktionary. It says same as detritivore, and vice-versa.

Then I looked up Saprophagy. Whoa! not the same!? As in a fungus would be a saprophage (b/c sessile and absorbs), but a beetle would be a detritivore (b/c actively eats). Hey, detritivore says... well it kinda goes back and forth between "Typical detritivorous animals include ..." but then sometimes more general 'decomposers'?

This is confusing. Can you confirm the equality of the two terms? Perhaps it really ought to be just 'detritivores' there!? Shenme (talk) 05:03, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Shenme, thanks for looking into it. It's not that clear! Mostly I want science articles to be clearer to nonscientists. (I'm in science communication.) "Saprophage" is more general, as the page that "saprophage" redirects to makes clear. "Detritivore" is easier to parse, has a better page, and is more specific. I would leave out reference to saprophage, but the term appears in the graph. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 01:06, 5 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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Quotes

Hello again Jonathan. This apparently varies with language, but on en-Wikipedia MOS:QUOTEMARKS and MOS:PUNCT recommend using "straight" ones. It's the manual of style, not policy and I'll leave it to your discretion. Happy editing, —PaleoNeonate – 00:24, 3 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Oops. Thanks. I started editing WP 13 years ago and apparently haven't kept up. Jonathan Tweet (talk) 16:32, 3 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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