Did anyone else catch this? I totally missed it.
In trying to locate the news report Mudy mentions above, I just found the following news, also in the Times.
Here goes, the first of the two news reports:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/f...icle1542945.ece
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->March 20, 2007
<b>Archer, the story-teller, turns pen to Judas</b>
Jesus never turned water into wine, He did not walk on the water and He never calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, according to a new 'Gospel' published today with Vatican approval and co-authored by Jeffrey Archer, the convicted perjurer.
The Gospel According to Judas is being launched at the prestigious Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Written by Lord Archer with one of the Pope's top theological advisers, Professor Francis Moloney, <b>the 'fifth Gospel'</b> is being regarded by senior Catholics as a way of bringing the Christian gospel to Lord Archer's 125 million readers.
Many churchgoers will be surprised at the Church's overt backing for a book that debunks some of Jesus's best-known miracles in the run-up to Easter. The Gospel According to Judas is also being backed by the Roman Catholic Church in England, with a launch planned for tomorrow at Westminster Cathedral.
But in interviews with The Times, both Father Moloney and Lord Archer said they did not include Jesus's three most famous 'nature miracles', beloved of Sunday School children worldwide, in The Gospel because they "<b>never happened</b>".
Nor did they include the most famous Judas story of all, where he is reported in the Bible to have betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The betrayal took place, they say, but no cash changed hands.
<b>Although the idea that Jesus's miracles did not happen and were pure invention have been common in academic circles for decades, for many of the faithful it will still come as a shock.</b>
<b>Father Moloney, believed by many to be the world's greatest living Biblical scholar,</b> <b>drew on years of scholarship to make The Gospel According to Judas as close as possible to those passages thought to be genuine in the three synoptic gospels and the Gospel of St John.</b> <b>But he insisted they leave out verses agreed by scholars to have been made up by the original authors of the Bible.</b>
The partnership with Lord Archer, which began in a Rome restaurant called The Two Thieves, almost collapsed when the best-selling author attempted to inject unbelievable elements of fiction into the story of Jesus's life, death and resurrection. Father Moloney agreed that the story-teller could invent a plausible ending to Judas' life but drew the line at the author's dream of giving Judas a death-bed conversion to Christianity.
Father Moloney told The Times that he did consider Jesus to have been a 'miracle worker'. But he had studied the Bible all his life, and had become convinced that some of Jesus's miracles were invented by the early Church.
Turning water into wine at a wedding feast came "out of a profound desire to show that Jesus, like the God of Israel, is the messianic giver of all good things". Walking on water and calming the seas stemmed from a desire to prove that Jesus had the same mastery over nature as the God of the Hebrew Bible.
Father Moloney said that he had no doubts over the resurrection, however. That was not a miracle by Jesus, that was what God did for His son: "What is official Church teaching is that in the person of Jesus, the divine has entered history."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->(About very last paragraph above) Yeah, right. We believe them, with their wonderful track-record for the truth: 'most of what we've been teaching for > 1.5 millennia is a lie, sheep. But believe us when we say that the resurrection <i>is</i> still true. (Tomorrow we'll change our premise again...)'
And 'baaa baaa' go the faithful sheep in unison, while others wake up and become human again.
Article continued on p2:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/f...=null&offset=12
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Father Moloney said that when he started working with Lord Archer, although he knew he had been to jail, he was not aware of how he was regarded by many in Britain - "I am certainly aware now." He had read some of his novels, such as Kane and Abel, and "enjoyed them very much".
They worked together closely for a year. "I found him an incredibly hard-working man. There was intense collaboration. I always admire a man who really works hard and he does."
He added: "I really admire his honesty and integrity. That is the exact opposite of what everybody says about Jeffrey Archer. And I am sure he is a bit of a villain, I would not doubt that, but my personal experience of him has been nothing but quality workmanship and a very high respect for me and my person and for who I am as a Roman Catholic priest."
He also admired Lord Archer's willingness to capitulate over their "three or four major conflicts".
He said: "On one occasion the whole project nearly got dropped. We never had yelling matchings but he is a story-teller. I insisted that what was in this Gospel might not be probable, but it must be possible.
"He was really anxious to have some sort of final deathbed conversion of Judas. I said that would make a wonderful ending, but it could never have happened."
Lord Archer, who has given few interviews since he was released in 2003 after he served two years of a four-year sentence for lying and cheating in a 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, told The Times that neither serving time in jail nor writing the book had affected his faith.
Nor did he identify in any way with the character of Judas himself. He was attracted by the 'mystery' of the story. He has been a practising Anglican since childhood and his wife, Mary, sings in the choir at Grantchester.
"We are pretty normal," he said. "A lot of it [Christianity] remains a mystery for me. Working with one of the world's leading minds on the subject has not made it any easier. When you are being taught on a daily basis for a year by such a clever person the mystery grows. Sometimes it is much easier to understand. Sometimes it is clear. But a lot of the time it becomes more complicated because you start thinking about things you have never thought about before. My own faith, my own beliefs - a lot of it is itself a mystery."
He said that he had never had a religious experience in his life. <b>"Meeting Mother Teresa was frightening enough. That was highly terrifying. She made Margaret Thatcher look like a wimp,"</b> he said.
He had wanted to write The Gospel According to Judas for 15 years but was told he needed a good collaborator. Eventually an old friend, Father Michael Seed, famed for bringing high-profile converts known as 'Seedlings' into the Roman Catholic Church, effected an introduction to Cardinal Martini.
Cardinal Martini suggested the Australian Salesian monk, Father Moloney, a close friend of the present Pope and for years one of his theological advisers in Rome. Father Moloney has recently returned to his home country having been made provincial, or head, of the Salesian order for the region. The theologian will be giving his share of the royalties to a charitable project; his co-author will be keeping his.
Lord Archer confessed that one gift prison had given him was an awareness of how fortunate he was. Speaking in his penthouse on the Ãlbert Embankment, overlooking the Thames, he said: "There is not a day I do not get up and look out of that window and think, you are a lucky boy."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Catholic church has apparently seen the influence <i>and</i> economic gains to be had from Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
The above and the next news article on this topic (see post 159 below), make lots of very interesting points. They can be placed in four categories:
(1) GREEN: It's a case of Roman Church-approved modern creation of new fiction gospel - just like the fiction 'gospel' writers of the early centuries.
Church is back to its old late 2nd-4th century mode of churning out christo-novels ('gospels') in mass numbers. All on the same theme; all variations on the same plot even: the jeebus plot.
(2) RED: Why is Roman Church supporting this new gospel/book? They hope it will attract more readers = more converts (sheep) = more fools = more power and money.
Reasons may be:
- Hopes to appeal to a different kind of people. The Church already has the blind-faith believer permanently caught in christo-net (they won't accept this book, so church is secure in knowing they won't become 'lost' sheep). Now it wants to catch others.
- It's a skeptical millennium, fewer people believe in the miracles of jeebus which are plagiarized from earlier (pagan) religions anyway. The Church thinks debunking miracles will catch the skeptics?
(3) PURPLE: Church finally recognises the primary need to absolve Judas which babble readers have cited forever: that judas made possible gawd's plan to kill christ in order to 'save' mankind. Without judas, gawd's plan wouldn't have gone through.
At last Church has realised that judas was a key pawn in their fable and now, after over 1.5 millennia of making judas 'the arch-villain assuredly inhabiting hell', Church wants him redeemed. It makes christoterrorism seem more compassionate and finally fit its thus-far unimplemented moral: 'forgive your enemies'.
(4) BLUE: Most importantly, the biblical scholar and his co-author, both of whom are supported by the catholic church, admit that many miracles of jeebus never happened but that the early church made them up. In effect: catholic church finally admits these miracles never happened.
Since <b>Church is now a self-professed liar</b>, why would we believe any other claims about jeebus that it (or the babble it had put together) make?
Church admits many gospel tales of jeebus are nothing more than tall fiction. Less and less evidence for jeebus when even church says gospels are unreliable eye-witness. Now, taking away the gospels, there's not even a single eye-witness for jeebus left!
Like many have said for centuries (but died before they heard the latest proof for it from the mouth of the Prime Institution itself): <b>jeebus never existed</b>.
Shame on evil Church. It tortured and murdered 'heretics' for centuries, some of whom pointed out the frauds to which the church admits today but which it murdered those heretics for. Christoterrorism is built on christolies. Say No to drugs/christianism.
In trying to locate the news report Mudy mentions above, I just found the following news, also in the Times.
Here goes, the first of the two news reports:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/f...icle1542945.ece
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->March 20, 2007
<b>Archer, the story-teller, turns pen to Judas</b>
Jesus never turned water into wine, He did not walk on the water and He never calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, according to a new 'Gospel' published today with Vatican approval and co-authored by Jeffrey Archer, the convicted perjurer.
The Gospel According to Judas is being launched at the prestigious Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Written by Lord Archer with one of the Pope's top theological advisers, Professor Francis Moloney, <b>the 'fifth Gospel'</b> is being regarded by senior Catholics as a way of bringing the Christian gospel to Lord Archer's 125 million readers.
Many churchgoers will be surprised at the Church's overt backing for a book that debunks some of Jesus's best-known miracles in the run-up to Easter. The Gospel According to Judas is also being backed by the Roman Catholic Church in England, with a launch planned for tomorrow at Westminster Cathedral.
But in interviews with The Times, both Father Moloney and Lord Archer said they did not include Jesus's three most famous 'nature miracles', beloved of Sunday School children worldwide, in The Gospel because they "<b>never happened</b>".
Nor did they include the most famous Judas story of all, where he is reported in the Bible to have betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The betrayal took place, they say, but no cash changed hands.
<b>Although the idea that Jesus's miracles did not happen and were pure invention have been common in academic circles for decades, for many of the faithful it will still come as a shock.</b>
<b>Father Moloney, believed by many to be the world's greatest living Biblical scholar,</b> <b>drew on years of scholarship to make The Gospel According to Judas as close as possible to those passages thought to be genuine in the three synoptic gospels and the Gospel of St John.</b> <b>But he insisted they leave out verses agreed by scholars to have been made up by the original authors of the Bible.</b>
The partnership with Lord Archer, which began in a Rome restaurant called The Two Thieves, almost collapsed when the best-selling author attempted to inject unbelievable elements of fiction into the story of Jesus's life, death and resurrection. Father Moloney agreed that the story-teller could invent a plausible ending to Judas' life but drew the line at the author's dream of giving Judas a death-bed conversion to Christianity.
Father Moloney told The Times that he did consider Jesus to have been a 'miracle worker'. But he had studied the Bible all his life, and had become convinced that some of Jesus's miracles were invented by the early Church.
Turning water into wine at a wedding feast came "out of a profound desire to show that Jesus, like the God of Israel, is the messianic giver of all good things". Walking on water and calming the seas stemmed from a desire to prove that Jesus had the same mastery over nature as the God of the Hebrew Bible.
Father Moloney said that he had no doubts over the resurrection, however. That was not a miracle by Jesus, that was what God did for His son: "What is official Church teaching is that in the person of Jesus, the divine has entered history."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->(About very last paragraph above) Yeah, right. We believe them, with their wonderful track-record for the truth: 'most of what we've been teaching for > 1.5 millennia is a lie, sheep. But believe us when we say that the resurrection <i>is</i> still true. (Tomorrow we'll change our premise again...)'
And 'baaa baaa' go the faithful sheep in unison, while others wake up and become human again.
Article continued on p2:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/f...=null&offset=12
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Father Moloney said that when he started working with Lord Archer, although he knew he had been to jail, he was not aware of how he was regarded by many in Britain - "I am certainly aware now." He had read some of his novels, such as Kane and Abel, and "enjoyed them very much".
They worked together closely for a year. "I found him an incredibly hard-working man. There was intense collaboration. I always admire a man who really works hard and he does."
He added: "I really admire his honesty and integrity. That is the exact opposite of what everybody says about Jeffrey Archer. And I am sure he is a bit of a villain, I would not doubt that, but my personal experience of him has been nothing but quality workmanship and a very high respect for me and my person and for who I am as a Roman Catholic priest."
He also admired Lord Archer's willingness to capitulate over their "three or four major conflicts".
He said: "On one occasion the whole project nearly got dropped. We never had yelling matchings but he is a story-teller. I insisted that what was in this Gospel might not be probable, but it must be possible.
"He was really anxious to have some sort of final deathbed conversion of Judas. I said that would make a wonderful ending, but it could never have happened."
Lord Archer, who has given few interviews since he was released in 2003 after he served two years of a four-year sentence for lying and cheating in a 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, told The Times that neither serving time in jail nor writing the book had affected his faith.
Nor did he identify in any way with the character of Judas himself. He was attracted by the 'mystery' of the story. He has been a practising Anglican since childhood and his wife, Mary, sings in the choir at Grantchester.
"We are pretty normal," he said. "A lot of it [Christianity] remains a mystery for me. Working with one of the world's leading minds on the subject has not made it any easier. When you are being taught on a daily basis for a year by such a clever person the mystery grows. Sometimes it is much easier to understand. Sometimes it is clear. But a lot of the time it becomes more complicated because you start thinking about things you have never thought about before. My own faith, my own beliefs - a lot of it is itself a mystery."
He said that he had never had a religious experience in his life. <b>"Meeting Mother Teresa was frightening enough. That was highly terrifying. She made Margaret Thatcher look like a wimp,"</b> he said.
He had wanted to write The Gospel According to Judas for 15 years but was told he needed a good collaborator. Eventually an old friend, Father Michael Seed, famed for bringing high-profile converts known as 'Seedlings' into the Roman Catholic Church, effected an introduction to Cardinal Martini.
Cardinal Martini suggested the Australian Salesian monk, Father Moloney, a close friend of the present Pope and for years one of his theological advisers in Rome. Father Moloney has recently returned to his home country having been made provincial, or head, of the Salesian order for the region. The theologian will be giving his share of the royalties to a charitable project; his co-author will be keeping his.
Lord Archer confessed that one gift prison had given him was an awareness of how fortunate he was. Speaking in his penthouse on the Ãlbert Embankment, overlooking the Thames, he said: "There is not a day I do not get up and look out of that window and think, you are a lucky boy."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Catholic church has apparently seen the influence <i>and</i> economic gains to be had from Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
The above and the next news article on this topic (see post 159 below), make lots of very interesting points. They can be placed in four categories:
(1) GREEN: It's a case of Roman Church-approved modern creation of new fiction gospel - just like the fiction 'gospel' writers of the early centuries.
Church is back to its old late 2nd-4th century mode of churning out christo-novels ('gospels') in mass numbers. All on the same theme; all variations on the same plot even: the jeebus plot.
(2) RED: Why is Roman Church supporting this new gospel/book? They hope it will attract more readers = more converts (sheep) = more fools = more power and money.
Reasons may be:
- Hopes to appeal to a different kind of people. The Church already has the blind-faith believer permanently caught in christo-net (they won't accept this book, so church is secure in knowing they won't become 'lost' sheep). Now it wants to catch others.
- It's a skeptical millennium, fewer people believe in the miracles of jeebus which are plagiarized from earlier (pagan) religions anyway. The Church thinks debunking miracles will catch the skeptics?
(3) PURPLE: Church finally recognises the primary need to absolve Judas which babble readers have cited forever: that judas made possible gawd's plan to kill christ in order to 'save' mankind. Without judas, gawd's plan wouldn't have gone through.
At last Church has realised that judas was a key pawn in their fable and now, after over 1.5 millennia of making judas 'the arch-villain assuredly inhabiting hell', Church wants him redeemed. It makes christoterrorism seem more compassionate and finally fit its thus-far unimplemented moral: 'forgive your enemies'.
(4) BLUE: Most importantly, the biblical scholar and his co-author, both of whom are supported by the catholic church, admit that many miracles of jeebus never happened but that the early church made them up. In effect: catholic church finally admits these miracles never happened.
Since <b>Church is now a self-professed liar</b>, why would we believe any other claims about jeebus that it (or the babble it had put together) make?
Church admits many gospel tales of jeebus are nothing more than tall fiction. Less and less evidence for jeebus when even church says gospels are unreliable eye-witness. Now, taking away the gospels, there's not even a single eye-witness for jeebus left!
Like many have said for centuries (but died before they heard the latest proof for it from the mouth of the Prime Institution itself): <b>jeebus never existed</b>.
Shame on evil Church. It tortured and murdered 'heretics' for centuries, some of whom pointed out the frauds to which the church admits today but which it murdered those heretics for. Christoterrorism is built on christolies. Say No to drugs/christianism.