04-23-2004, 03:25 AM
Akhi Yuri, you should listen to Akhan Paul--he understood exactly my point about what is and is not a smoking gun.
You asked if I think all the "professional Bible scholars" are wrong. Let me be clear:
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't care WHY they are wrong. That is not my burden to explain, although I have some suspicions.
Beyond that, it is simply not for me to care why a title exclusive to Rabulla that appears on the Old Syriac is NOT taken by these people to mean what it most assuredly has to mean. Old Syriac proclaims itself as the work of Rabulla as surely as if he signed it. Rabulla is fifth century. Therefore, Old Syriac cannot be older than Peshitta, quoted by Mar Aphrahat at least a century earlier. Once that's out of the way, then we can talk about Zorba, to which I say, as I have for many years, BRING IT ON!
If you need a reason beyond that, all I can say is 500 years ago almost every "scientist" in the world thought the earth was flat even though Isaiah 40:22 called it a sphere. Didn't they see that? Didn't they understand? No, they did not, and it's not my problem, but theirs. (Okay maybe Galileo's also.)
Can you honestly tell me Yuri that if EVANGELION D'MEPHARESHE appeared on a Peshitta mss that you would not look at that as proof of your position, lining up with the words in Rabulla's own biography? Really? Pardon me, but I don't think you would do that. Why then do you not address it now that it has happened to your beloved Old Syriac? I tell you the truth, the days of Old Syriac distractions are numbered. <!-- s:bomb: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/bomb.gif" alt=":bomb:" title="The Bomb" /><!-- s:bomb: -->
But now let me shift gears to another of your questions. Do I hold an "extreme position"????
First, I would like to define the term as I know it...
An extreme position is when people cut and paste general quotes from others that have no probative value to the discussion.
An extreme position is when a simple request is made to show ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE and that request is consistently ignored.
An extreme position is when someone who has little to no Aramaic understanding is parroted as an authority figure before the very group of people who exposed him for the fraud that he is.
An extreme position is when a Cambridge scholar comes on to this forum and proclaims Y'shua spoke Western Aramaic using weasel word language and general proclamations that offer no proof. Then, when we show that Thackston's Grammar DISPROVES his theory, what does he do but turn tail and run?
THAT, Akhi, is extreme, and NONE of these things came from me. I am here to discuss evidence, and this evidence of EVANGELION D'MEPHARESHE totally DISPROVES the entire Old Syriac argument. There is simply no other explanation--the dates of the mss even are correct to this time period. And if that is not enough, we have those 100+ examples I mentioned.
But to NOT take those things into account, to NOT respond to the compelling lines of evidence, THAT IS EXTREME. <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) -->
Think about it.
You asked if I think all the "professional Bible scholars" are wrong. Let me be clear:
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't care WHY they are wrong. That is not my burden to explain, although I have some suspicions.
Beyond that, it is simply not for me to care why a title exclusive to Rabulla that appears on the Old Syriac is NOT taken by these people to mean what it most assuredly has to mean. Old Syriac proclaims itself as the work of Rabulla as surely as if he signed it. Rabulla is fifth century. Therefore, Old Syriac cannot be older than Peshitta, quoted by Mar Aphrahat at least a century earlier. Once that's out of the way, then we can talk about Zorba, to which I say, as I have for many years, BRING IT ON!
If you need a reason beyond that, all I can say is 500 years ago almost every "scientist" in the world thought the earth was flat even though Isaiah 40:22 called it a sphere. Didn't they see that? Didn't they understand? No, they did not, and it's not my problem, but theirs. (Okay maybe Galileo's also.)
Can you honestly tell me Yuri that if EVANGELION D'MEPHARESHE appeared on a Peshitta mss that you would not look at that as proof of your position, lining up with the words in Rabulla's own biography? Really? Pardon me, but I don't think you would do that. Why then do you not address it now that it has happened to your beloved Old Syriac? I tell you the truth, the days of Old Syriac distractions are numbered. <!-- s:bomb: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/bomb.gif" alt=":bomb:" title="The Bomb" /><!-- s:bomb: -->
But now let me shift gears to another of your questions. Do I hold an "extreme position"????
First, I would like to define the term as I know it...
An extreme position is when people cut and paste general quotes from others that have no probative value to the discussion.
An extreme position is when a simple request is made to show ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE and that request is consistently ignored.
An extreme position is when someone who has little to no Aramaic understanding is parroted as an authority figure before the very group of people who exposed him for the fraud that he is.
An extreme position is when a Cambridge scholar comes on to this forum and proclaims Y'shua spoke Western Aramaic using weasel word language and general proclamations that offer no proof. Then, when we show that Thackston's Grammar DISPROVES his theory, what does he do but turn tail and run?
THAT, Akhi, is extreme, and NONE of these things came from me. I am here to discuss evidence, and this evidence of EVANGELION D'MEPHARESHE totally DISPROVES the entire Old Syriac argument. There is simply no other explanation--the dates of the mss even are correct to this time period. And if that is not enough, we have those 100+ examples I mentioned.
But to NOT take those things into account, to NOT respond to the compelling lines of evidence, THAT IS EXTREME. <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) -->
Think about it.
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
Andrew Gabriel Roth