08-24-2020, 10:08 PM
(08-21-2020, 08:52 PM)robrecht Wrote:(08-21-2020, 05:48 PM)Jason Wrote: But if you throw out blood atonement, you have nothing left in the New Testament. Every single author wrote about blood atonement and that Jesus died for people's sins. If you don't believe that, why believe in Jesus at all? There is nothing else about Jesus to believe in.
I'm not sure every author endorsed 'blood atonement', eg, some say the original text of the gospel of Luke did not contain this interpretation of Jesus' death. If I recall correctly (and maybe I don't), I don't think it is in the letter of James. It's been a while since I've read much of the New Testament so those are just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head.
But regardless, even if most or all NT authors interpreted Jesus' death as in some way bringing about atonement or repentance, so what? One can still investigate the teachings of Jesus for whatever value they may hold, apart from those who subsequently interpreted his death as having some atoning value. Some Jews around the same time also interpreted the death of the Maccabean martyrs as also offering atonement. Does that mean that their witness to their Jewish faith was meaningless? I certainly hope not.
What teachings of Jesus? If you eliminate the New Testament documents, there are no teachings of Jesus. Nothing. What are you talking about?