Thank you Roger, for sharing your thoughts on Carrier, and in particular, for highlighting some of his arithmetic manoeuvres of questionable validity. I deny that you misunderstand.
I agree, in large part with your assessment, though, I also concur with Carrier's overall thrust, and in that sense, we are on opposite sides, but, I genuinely appreciate the sincerity of your efforts, and thoughtfulness in your posts, here, and notably, at your blog:
http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/augu ... n-english/
This spectacular copy, of Mark Vermes' painstaking efforts, is especially noteworthy. Thank you so much, Roger, a really terrific web site, and I am sorry to write, a bit under-appreciated, in my opinion. That document, in particular, but all of your submissions, really, is simply excellent.
I am so glad that you are willing to share with us, your insight, and opinions. They are, of course, not in precise accord with my own, but, that strikes me, at least, as of absolutely no significance. Your opinions are meritorious, not only because of the obvious, painstaking travail, you exhibit, in dissecting the evidence, but also because of your logic, precision, and most importantly, in my view, your effort to interpret the data from more than a single perspective, in order to unveil, in these ancient texts, the secret to the authors' genuine motivation and belief. You operate, in my view, in the best traditions of Thomas Aquinas. Well done, lad.