Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00706)

JHE
>>Since HPB doesn't back up her statement with examples,
>>I suspect that it was a common and accepted notion among higher
>>criticism biblical scholars in her day.

A
>It`s clear that sinoptics and John`gospel aren`t in
>contradiction about one or three years of duration of Jesus
>ministry,  as HPB suggests.
>
>I reproduce a catholic text, that you can find at Internet

JHE
The probable reason why HPB does not support her statement that
the synoptics differed from John is because she was only
uncritically restating a common perception of the time, and its
actual truth or falsity did not concern her point one way or the
other.  Her point is that Irenaeus followed neither the one year
nor the three year ministry as suggested in the Gospels, but
ignored both and argued for a ten, fifteen or twenty year
ministry.  Therefore, I don't think it fair to fault HPB for
merely repeating a common perception that she neither endorses
nor argues against.  A more legitimate question concerning HPB's
statement is whether there was a perceived conflict concerning
the agreement between the synoptics and the gospel of John on the
length of Jesus' ministry.  The Catholic text that you quoted
seems to confirm that there indeed was such a perceived conflict
since the last section you quoted engages in an argument
attempting to harmonize the synoptics with the Gospel of John on
this point.

JHE

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   |Jerry Hejka-Ekins,                      |
      |Member TI, TSA, TSP, ULT                |
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