{"id":45052,"date":"2017-11-28T11:26:59","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T18:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=45052"},"modified":"2017-11-28T11:29:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T18:29:51","slug":"jesus-even-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/jesus-even-exist.html","title":{"rendered":"Did Jesus even EXIST?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Gila Valley Arizona Temple
(LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to Jaxon Washburn for reminding me of this statement, made by\u00a0Elder Erastus Snow of the Council of the Twelve Apostles on 3 March 1878:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018What,\u2019 says one, \u2018do 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\u2026. I must believe that deity consists of man and woman\u2026 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,\u2026 except they be made of these two component parts: a man and a woman; the male and the female.\u201d \u00a0(Journal of Discourses<\/em>\u00a019:269-270)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quite a few critics have argued that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve addressed this little controversy on several occasions. \u00a0Here\u2019s one example:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes art always accurately reflect history?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to the inimitable Robert Boylan for alerting me (and others) to these two interesting articles regarding the same issue:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMormon Illustration and the Burden of History \u2013 1 of 2\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbridling Mormon Illustration: \u201cFrom the Dust\u201d \u2013 2 of 2\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I might quibble at one point, though: \u00a0Some evidence suggests that the curtain that was sometimes raised during the translation of the Book of Mormon didn\u2019t 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. \u00a0It preserved the peace and privacy of two men who were engaged in difficult and wearying work that required intense and undistracted concentration.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBart Ehrman & Robert Price Debate \u2013 Did Jesus Exist\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The debate runs just slightly more than 2.5 hours, and I confess that I haven\u2019t yet watched it. \u00a0But I intend to do so.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also commented on this controversy, perhaps most directly in these two columns:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAn agnostic\u2019s argument that Jesus did exist\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the son of God, and \u2018one of us'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I readily admit\u00a0to having little patience or respect for the \u201cmythicist\u201d position.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, an interesting new post from Neal Rappleye:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Dynamically Equivalent\u2019 Translation and the Book of Mormon\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Thanks to Jaxon Washburn for reminding me of this statement, made by\u00a0Elder Erastus Snow of the Council of the Twelve Apostles on 3 March 1878: \u00a0 \u201c\u2018What,\u2019 says one, \u2018do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of man and woman? Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDid Jesus even EXIST?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Thanks to Jaxon Washburn for reminding me of this statement, made by\u00a0Elder Erastus Snow of the Council of the Twelve Apostles on 3 March\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/jesus-even-exist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did Jesus even EXIST?\" 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