From: Jim West (jwest@Highland.Net)
Date: Tue Jan 05 1999 - 10:53:11 EST
At 02:31 PM 1/5/99 -0600, you wrote:
>{Jim}
>Finally, the "tax collectors", like the "scribes and pharisees" have been
>demonized by Church tradition- but there simply is no evidence at all that
>they were somehow viewed by their contemporaries as particularly evil or
>wretched.
>{Bill}
>The evidence in Scripture is everywhere, though.
Hey Bill,
I agree- according to the Christian texts the scribes, pharisees, and tax
collectors were a sorry lot. BUT- my point was that these Christian texts
have a particular reason for saying such things. However, you have not
produced any non christian contemporary texts giving the same perspective.
To refocus- the original post asked about the common conception that tax
collectors were particularly unsavory. I say no- and without some
contemporary evidence stemming from someone without a desire to magnify a
particular person, we cannot assert that they were worse than anyone else.
Best,
Jim
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
Quartz Hill School of Theology
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