VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Alun|DATE|1364465844|CONTENT|@Graham, you would probably be interested in Bart Ehrman&#039;s book &#039;Jesus, interrupted&#039; (although I prefer Misquoting Jesus). Anyway, in there he shows how each of the gospels tells a different story, and each is influenced by what the writer was trying to put across. These were not histories, intended to be &#039;the truth&#039; about what happened. So one gospel writer has JC being completely calm and in control, and saying lots of things, and another wants to say that he was in anguish, saying nothing except &#039;why hast thou forsaken me&#039; (from memory, I recall the stories conflicted in interesting ways about what they wanted JC to be feeling).

the trouble is that people read the bible &#039;vertically&#039;. ie the might read Mattthew, then read Mark, then Luke, then John, and think, &#039;yeah, they all tell the same story, more or less&#039;. The thing is to read it &#039;horizontally&#039;. To take the same part of the story, say the crucifixion, and compare what each says about it. Then you find that they are actually wildly at odds. Of course, the original greek authors had no idea they were writing chapters in a book, which would be put together and compared with what somebody else wrote somewhere else, whom they didn&#039;t know.|EMAIL|alunap@mac.com|IP-ADDRESS|170.148.198.157|MODERATIONFLAG|