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Re: Jesus Seminar Criteria
>Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 11:35:40 PST
>From: "KENNETH D. LITWAK" <klitwak@vnet.ibm.com>
>Subject: Jesus Seminar Criteria
> ... Here we are talking more about
>something along the lines of analysing Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg
>Address: words 1-4 are black; 5-8 are pink; 9-10 are red; 11 is gray;
>etc.
On the other hand if --to make the comparison more relevant-- we had a
half-dozen, significantly varying versions of the Gettysburg Address, each
of which showed an internal bias that was both pervasive and consistent
and, furthermore, we had a good idea who might have introduced those
variations --and why they would have done so-- we might be onto something.
> ... any more than
>you'll find a Music dept. deciding which notes of the Brandenburg
>Concerto are not from Bach.
On the contrary, while the Brandenburgs may not be a good example and while
nobody would argue that any complete lengthy piece was patched together a
few measures at a time, this sort of thing --when there is sufficient
reason to suspect non-authenticity-- is precisely the sort of things
musicologists live for. (The Mozart-vs-CPE-Bach or the Mozart-vs-
Sussman[-or-pick-your-favorite-Mozart-student] controversies are a couple
that come immediately to mind.)
N