[knarf]

Even if true ... why bring it up?

Jesus and Christianity are already under attack, why add doubt to the mix.

Stupid move.

[SoothingDave]

This isn’t exactly news. It’s well known that Herod didn’t rule in year 1 AD.

[alexander_busek]

Even if true ... why bring it up? Jesus and Christianity are already under attack, why add doubt to the mix.

You're right... The Church certainly shouldn't be encouraging intelligent, evidence-based discourse, curiosity, the study of historical records, or the exercise of our facilty of reasoning.

Instead, they should have hushed it up... maybe gotten rid of or otherwise silenced those already "in the know." The Church was always good at that.

Regards,

[wideawake]

Even if true ... why bring it up?

Because atheists who attack the authenticity of the Scriptures point out that Herod did not rule in 1 A.D. and use this to claim that the Gospels are wrong.

The Pope is pointing out that it was a calendarist who miscalculated, and not that the Evangelists lied.

[Melas]

I would suggest that an allegiance to the truth trumps the expediency that you’ve outlined.