Sir: Two thousand years ago, the human population of the
world was a fraction of what it is today. Townships were far smaller and widely spaced.; there were none of today's huge conurbations. Even Ancient Rome was far smaller than the modern city. For most people, journeys were undertaken on foot or on a donkey. Hardly anyone could read or write; most communication was by word of mouth.
Only the high and mighty received mes- sages carried by runners or galloping horse- men. Only messages of the highest impor- tance would be transmitted from the Roman Governor of Judaea to his superi- ors in Rome. Execution of 'criminals' was a routine daily occurrence with just a few bored onlookers, as realistically depicted in the very first Cinemascope picture, The Robe. At the time, the execution of Christ was not a world-shattering event with vast crowds in attendance as depicted in other Hollywood epics. It would certainly have not merited any mention in official despatches.
As Bertrand Russell once stated, the his- toricity of Jesus Christ can hardly be doubt- ed — but what of the biographical details in the Gospels? As a child, I was heavily brainwashed in a Roman Catholic parish school into believing that they were an accurate, truthful description of events which had actually taken place — a sort of unedited videotape recording.
Centuries separate the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and other ancient New Testament 'primary' sources, from the events described in them. Whence did the authors (assuming one to each Gospel) obtain their info.? With the passage of time, stories about Jesus and his sayings, passed on verbally, would become accre- tions of tales and legends, literally worth- less to the professional historian. After studying Professor Sanders's article, is it possible for anyone to go on believing that four men named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John sat down and wrote accurate descrip- tions of events which they had witnessed many years ago? Incidentally, references to Jesus Christ in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus have a strong smell of having been interpolated into the text by a later Christian 'enthusiast'.
A.D. Levaggi
4 Grosvenor Street, Busy, Lancashire
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