by Hal Eaton » Thu Jan 06, 2011 10:35 am
Haruo's mention of Hugh Schonfield's "The Passover Plot" reminds me that while I was in 'Nam in 1976-77 with the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade, our general challenged me to read the account of how Jesus manipulated the whole process of his crucifixion to make it come about as proof of his Messiahship. Upon reading the book, I drew the conclusion that Schonfield offered proof of his theory as if he was a true Biblical inerrantist, accepting justification for his theories by believing that every Biblical account of a conversation was the exact presentation of what was said, by whom and when it was said under what circumstances, thus proving the efficacy of his conclusions.
Amid a lengthy list of his publications, Schonfield also wrote "Those Incredible Christians," written with the same premise in mind that the early apostles followed the duplicate conspiratorial aspects of the earlier work. I still have a copy of the second book (someplace).
Schonfield's accounts are further proof of the observation that "Every historian is a revisionist historian."
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. -- Thomas Paine