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To: BlackElk
They may have been Jesus' adoptive brothers, stepbrothers through Joseph,

ROTFLMBO!!!!!!!

First the RCC stakes it's credibility on (and brainwashes their young to believe) a completely UN-scriptural teaching about Mary being "ever-virgin". Then, when they get busted by slam-dunk archaeological evidence exposing this teaching as a lie, they invent a whole new, ridiculous "BRADY BUNCH BACKSTORY" about Joseph (also completely w/out a shread of Scripture to back up), which they themselves never even taught before!!!

O, what a tangled web we weave...

70 posted on 10/28/2002 3:30:26 PM PST by berned
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To: berned
If I posted the italicized language, it was not on this thread. If I posted it elsewhere, OK, but it would seem like bad manners at best and dishonesty, more likely, if you are attributing to me posts which I have not made.

That having been said, your, ummm, "slam-dunk evidence" is nothing of the sort. There was a Washington Post story on this farce which concluded that the circumstances, as reported, would make it impossible for this "slam-dunk evidence" ever to be taken seriously by actual scholars (as opposed to YOPIOS enthusiasts).

1. The ossuary box or lid or whatever is reported to have been purchased by the unknown Muslim (who wishes his identity to remain secret, sort of like Anita Hill and probably for the same reason) of Middle Eastern residence who is said to own the artifact, assuming that it exists.

2. Although the unknown Muslim is said to have purchased the ossuary box or lid or whatever from other Middle Eastern Muslims whose identity or identities if he, she or they actually exist, is also not revealed to us and is not intended to be revealed to us.

3. We are to believe that neither the unknown Muslim buyer nor the unknown Muslim seller(s), despite their residence in a part of the world that has religion as its most important and widespread product (Judaism, Christianity, Islam of recent note) understood nothing of its significance, and would not have been expected to know that there might be some significance top allegations of a James, who was the son of Joseph and "brother" (the Aramaic language having no word for cousin and using the word for "brother" instead, according to posts here by those more scholarly than I).

4. Why, the unknown Middle Eastern Muslim buyer and the unknown Middle Eastern seller(s) were so ignorant of the significance of those alleged relationships that they transacted a price of the princely sum of $70 when berned or his pastor would probably have paid twice that, at least.

5. In fact, all those ignorant Middle Eastern buyer and seller(s) were so much in the dark that they consulted not local Aramaic language scholars but one all the way over in France with whatever he or they showed him (at an expense very far beyond the $70 which was allegedly paid for the artifact itself, assuming that there is an artifact).

6. The unknown Muslim buyer does not want credit for his find nor money from the interestedly gullible infidels in the West (we Catholics to destroy it or hide it forever or you Prods to gain the right to exhibit "slam-dunk evidence" that you claim proves you were right in this controversy, fat chance). No, no, Mr. (Ms.?) Unknown Muslim (Muhammed el Rootie-Kazootie?) is MUCH too public-spirited and even-handed for such crass personal gain, so much so that the Unknown Muslim buyer is too bashful to allow scientists to examine the ancient wonder box of the desert sands, object of a veritable grailquest by reformed folks everywhere.

7. One would think that if the Unknown (and Inscrutably Unknowable)Muslim buyer/owner were a devout Muslim, he (she) would be taking shameless advantage to advance the Muslim agenda that your Savior and mine was merely a prophet and secondary to the truly great prophet Muhammed. But NOOOOOOO, this Unknown Muslim buyer/owner would not want to offend reformed sensibilities enraptured by TOPIOS which would make publication in Biblical Archaeological Review or Biblical anything whatsoever a bit tenuous. Truly, this is an Unknown Wonder Muslim who is so considerate of the tender sensibilities of our reformed friends. What a swell guy! Or what a swell gal, as the case may be! Salaaam!

9. Then we have the little question of where was the ossuary box or lid found by the Mysterious and Unknown and Unknowable Middle Eastern Muslim seller(s) and used ossuary peddlers? Iraq, Iran, Hebron, the Hejaz Grotto?, the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Valley of Hinman, the Valley of the Dolls, a garage sale at MGM Studios, the late Gerald L. K. Smith's religious amusement park in Arkansas? We know not, nor shall we know for the workings of grave robbers (in the unlikely event that they have risen to the actually honest and candid level of grave-robbers from the lowlier status of modern-day P. T. Barnums) will be needing to be kept from the gaze of the appropriate authorities who frown on Middle Eastern alleged Ossuary or merely alleged Ossuary box lids Bazaars: Hurry, hurry, hurry: Step right up. What am I bid for this scarcely used ossuary lid which legend indicates may have contained the bones of James the Just, writer of the Epistle of James which Christian literary critic Martin Luther termed an "epistle of straw?"

10. My formerly Protestant and now turbo-Catholic wife tells me that these ossuaries of James, son of Joseph, "brother" of Jesus have turned up on numerous previous occasions. Maybe they were produced by the souvenir ossuary factory?

11. BTW, we don't have a problem with Scripture, just with YOPIOS. Further, of course, we feel not compelled to imagine that each and every thing worth knowing may be found in Scripture.

12. The Scriptures begin in Genesis with Creation of the sun, the moon, the earth, etc. Yet there is no mention of dinosaurs which leads some of my simple Prod friends to the conclusion that dinosaur bones are some sort of conspiratorial hoax or a cosmic challenge by God to one's faith in sola Scriptura since they could not have existed, not having been mentioned in the Scriptures.

"Slam-dunk evidence"?????????? Give it an anti-Catholic rest!!!!!! Isn't your faith in Scripture alone or faith alone or grace alone or all three of them alone or best two out of three alone or whatever? Is it also on ossuaries alone?

But, hey, there ARE prizes for everyone, even you. I happen to know that you can get the one and only diary of Der Fuehrer himself, yes the Adolf Hitler diary (!) from the German magazine Der Spiegel and for less than Der Spiegel paid? Interested? There is also a bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. On a quit claim deed, I can get it for you wholesale and yours will be riches beyond the dreams of avarice from the tolls you will charge. First, you must pay in collected funds.

72 posted on 10/28/2002 4:41:25 PM PST by BlackElk
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