The Jesus Fantasy

James Tabor's most recent post is the most honest of his posts yet. He admits to several things I have critiqued with him and does so unashamedly. His main point, yet again, is that we know how the world works; the New Testament has stories contrary to how we know the world works; we are right; therefore, the New Testament must be re-read in a symbolic and apocalyptic way.

Here's my critique: Seriously? Are we still at this? Do you really think this is such a devastating critique? The frustration that Tabor shows again and again in his posts with orthodox Christians is so easily turned back on him that I feel almost embarrassed pointing it out. He shares his disregard for one worldview in its ability to believe something, all the while arrogantly stepping on a premodern worldview just because he "knows" this is the case. (As though 1st c. people didn't know that dead people stay dead.) He remains "convinced that the evidence supports the view that [Jesus] was most likely reburied in a rock hewn tomb in Jerusalem, which well might have become a family tomb for other intimate members of his family." But this evidence disregards the earliest documents we have concerning the events; disregards the most plausible (in my opinion, of course) historical explanation of the emergence of the Jesus movement; is based in a post-Enlightenment worldview.

I'm tired and cranky. I haven't engaged completely with Tabor's thought, but there's not much there in his post to deal with. Once one gets past the ad hominems, it's one worldview against another. And since Tabor already knows that dead people don't come back to life, that 1st c. women need men to become pregnant, and that people don't walk on water, there's nothing to critique. The discussion is over.

Ecce homo.