A mythicohistorical (hybrid) approach to Christian origins.

[Ben C. Smith]

My view is that your thoughts of transmission are assuming a situation behind the text, and a character of the text, and claims made about the text, that we cannot justifiably assume for several reasons.

What situation and character behind the text is being assumed? (Rather than just allowances made.)

[Ben C. Smith]

Ben:

When a man tells me that his wife is being unreasonable in her demands on his time, I will naturally feel free to suspect that there may be more to the story than just her unreasonableness (that is, I may doubt the direct information I am being given), but I am less likely to doubt that the man is married (the indirect information I am being given).

When Mr. Euhemerus says me that he knows a beautiful woman named Venus who was slave of the king of Cyprus (if myself remember well!), I am entitled to suspect not only about the details of this information (for example, that there was a king in Cyprus), but about the same existence of Venus (!), too.

What is the chain of transmission in this example? Is it directly from Mr. Euhemerus to you?

[Giuseppe]

Ben:

When a man tells me that his wife is being unreasonable in her demands on his time, I will naturally feel free to suspect that there may be more to the story than just her unreasonableness (that is, I may doubt the direct information I am being given), but I am less likely to doubt that the man is married (the indirect information I am being given).

When Mr. Euhemerus says me that he knows a beautiful woman named Venus who was slave of the king of Cyprus (if myself remember well!), I am entitled to suspect not only about the details of this information (for example, that there was a king in Cyprus), but about the same existence of Venus (!), too.

What is the chain of transmission in this example? Is it directly from Mr. Euhemerus to you?

Euhemerus said really that he found the tomb of Zeus.

the tomb of Zeus was shown to visitors near Knossos, perhaps engendering or enhancing among the traditionalists the reputation of Cretans as liars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euhemerus


This 'tomb' would work perfectly as 'chain of transmission' from a real historical Zeus (my irony here) to Euhemerus himself (and from him until to me).

Isn't a tomb by definition a place of record of the dead people lived on the earth?

[Ben C. Smith]

This 'tomb' would work perfectly as 'chain of transmission' from a real historical Zeus (my irony here) to Euhemerus himself (and from him until to me).

Isn't a tomb by definition a place of record of the dead people lived on the earth?

Wow, you have simply no idea what I mean by a chain of transmission....

[Giuseppe]

This 'tomb' would work perfectly as 'chain of transmission' from a real historical Zeus (my irony here) to Euhemerus himself (and from him until to me).

Isn't a tomb by definition a place of record of the dead people lived on the earth?

Wow, you have simply no idea what I mean by a chain of transmission....

Papias met the daughters of Philip, who met the Lord Jesus Christ.

Euhemerus found the tomb of Zeus, and after the death of Euhemerus, people in Crete continued to insist that that particular place (a real physical place) was the tomb of Zeus.

Zeus : Jesus = the tomb of Zeus : the daughters of Philip.

[Ben C. Smith]

This 'tomb' would work perfectly as 'chain of transmission' from a real historical Zeus (my irony here) to Euhemerus himself (and from him until to me).

Isn't a tomb by definition a place of record of the dead people lived on the earth?

Wow, you have simply no idea what I mean by a chain of transmission....

Papias met the daughters of Philip, who met the Lord Jesus Christ.

Euhemerus found the tomb of Zeus, and after the death of Euhemerus, people in Crete continued to insist that that particular place (a real physical place) was the tomb of Zeus.

Zeus : Jesus = the tomb of Zeus : the daughters of Philip.

Yes, like I said: no clue.

[Giuseppe]

As many as seventy ancient authors mention Zeus’s Cretan tomb, and early modern travelers attest to a living folk tradition on the island.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... s_in_Crete

In particular:

Many of the attestations are suspiciously similar: a simple mention of the tomb and a claim that it can be seen “still in my time,” vel sim.

Isn't this a typical chain of transmission?