In the 1990s, Professor Carsten Peter Thiede turned both Theology and New Testament criticism on their heads. His findings utterly destroyed the so-called research of countless academics - and they are incandescent with rage at the ruthless slaughter of so many sacred cows.For donkeys' years, claims have been made that the Gospels were written very late - in the second century at the earliest. Naturally, this meant that they were so far detached from the actual events, they could be treated as 'pious fiction' or 'rough approximations'.
Unfortunately for all these negativists,Thiede proved definitively by the science of papyrology, that the fragment of Matthew's Gospel known as 'The Magdalen Papyrus' or sometimes, 'The Jesus Papyrus', was written, at the very latest, AD 68 - just 34 years after the crucifixion and there are pointers to a considerably earlier date.His work is ten years old and yet the facts have not made even one jot of difference. The same rubbish is being taught in seminaries and theological colleges.
The Gospels MUST now be taken without a pinch of salt.
[ Incidentally, it is conclusive that Mark's Gospel preceded Matthew's.] One excuse fewer for unbelievers.
Well done Peter!
Article first published on this Blog in 2006.
