Did Jesus even EXIST?

Thanks to Jaxon Washburn for reminding me of this statement, made by Elder Erastus Snow of the Council of the Twelve Apostles on 3 March 1878:

“‘What,’ says one, ‘do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of man and woman? Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself…. I must believe that deity consists of man and woman… There can be no God except he is composed of man and woman united, and there is not in all eternities that exist, or ever will be, a God in any other way,… except they be made of these two component parts: a man and a woman; the male and the female.”  (Journal of Discourses 19:269-270)

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Quite a few critics have argued that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been lying to members and investigators through the art and illustrations that it uses, in visitors centers and publications, to depict the early history of the Restoration.

I’ve addressed this little controversy on several occasions.  Here’s one example:

“Does art always accurately reflect history?”

Thanks to the inimitable Robert Boylan for alerting me (and others) to these two interesting articles regarding the same issue:

“Mormon Illustration and the Burden of History – 1 of 2”

“Unbridling Mormon Illustration: “From the Dust” – 2 of 2”

I might quibble at one point, though:  Some evidence suggests that the curtain that was sometimes raised during the translation of the Book of Mormon didn’t hang between Joseph and the scribe taking his dictation, but between the two of them and the gawkers who came to the Whitmer home in hopes of seeing what was going on.  It preserved the peace and privacy of two men who were engaged in difficult and wearying work that required intense and undistracted concentration.

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Thanks to Robert Boylan, too, for calling our notice to this debate between Robert Price and Bart Ehrman on the question of whether or not Jesus existed:

“Bart Ehrman & Robert Price Debate – Did Jesus Exist”

The debate runs just slightly more than 2.5 hours, and I confess that I haven’t yet watched it.  But I intend to do so.

I’ve also commented on this controversy, perhaps most directly in these two columns:

“An agnostic’s argument that Jesus did exist”

“He was the son of God, and ‘one of us'”

I readily admit to having little patience or respect for the “mythicist” position.

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Finally, an interesting new post from Neal Rappleye:

“‘Dynamically Equivalent’ Translation and the Book of Mormon”