John's Gospel Cannot Be Trusted Tuesday, September 4, 2012

From: Simon Ewins

To: Michael Hardy

[SE] John 3:22 Jesus baptizes.

[SE] John 3:26 Jesus baptizes.

[SE] John 4:1 Jesus baptizes.

[SE] John 4:2 Jesus does not baptize.

[SE] So you agree then, that John cannot be trusted? Good!

[MH] No. You have to read the whole story.

Flame mode on

I am sick and tired of being told to 'read the whole story'. I have read the whole fucking story countless times. I have read the entire bloody bible cover to cover three times. I have made page after page of notes and taken at least an entire fucking year to read the damned book each time, carefully re-reading each passage that was not immediately obvious in its meaning or intent.

I have cross-referenced and annotated page after seemingly endless page.

Even to this day I read, study and research the bible on average one hour per day. How often to you study the basis of your faith? Don't tell me to 'read the whole story'.

I have and it is so full of inaccuracies and contradictions that it becomes little more than an unbelievable joke. The best word that you could have used is undeniably 'story'. This places it exactly where it should be, right alongside 'Through the Looking Glass'.

Then I come upon such nonsense as what follows.

Flame mode off

[MH] Jesus goes out into the Judean countryside with his disciples, and baptizes some people. More and more people come. One man can't handle the demand. The disciples take over the work so that by 4:2, it was not Jesus who was doing the actual baptisms, but his disciples.

Pathetic

Where the hell does it say anything in John 3:22 to John 4:2 about there being too many for Jesus to handle? Where does it say anything about Jesus' disciples taking over 'the work'? Where does it say that 'more and more people come'?

John 3:1-21 is simply more gnostic pap that has nothing to do with the point at hand.
John 3:22 is a simple statement that Jesus baptized while he 'tarried' in Judaea with his disciples.
John 3:23,24 simply provide some background about John the Baptist.
John 3:25,26 are stating that John's disciples and the 'Jews' (what were John's disciples, if not, also Jews?) had a question about the validity of purification in general and Jesus baptizing in particular.

John 3:27-36 are the words of John the Baptist so they can be eliminated.

John 4:1 states that 'the Lord' (who for some reason seems to be distinct from Jesus) knew that the Pharisees had gotten wind of the fact that 'Jesus had made and baptized more disciples than John'.
John 4:2 states that Jesus didn't baptize. The rest of John 4 is irrelevant.

How in the name of honesty you can make a statement such as the one quoted above is beyond me. There is no support for such an idea to be found in John 3 or 4 at all.

The rest of your pathetic and unsupportable rationalizations weren't worth reprinting. I will simply say that if that's what you want to believe, go ahead. If you insist upon basing your life on something that is inconsistent and laughable then you will end up being inconsistent and laughable. I am sincere when I say that this is a shame because you would seem, in other respects, to have a perfectly serviceable brain.

[Source: HolySmoke.org]