In researching Jewish polemics, I ran across two articles by William Lane Craig where he argues that “the Jewish polemic presupposes the empty tomb” of Jesus. ¹  Craig makes several assumptions to show that Jews of the time of Jesus’ death conspired to deny the resurrection based on their counter-arguments to Christians’ claims.  He clearly states that the origin of each claim is Christian in origin and attempts to use Jewish response to validate those claims.  Though his argument of the topic is acceptable based on the presumptions he asserts, one must look at those presumptions to determine if they can stand on their own against the weight of the argument.

Though nothing in the book of Matthew can tell us who actually wrote the document, when it was written or where it was written, the scholarly view is that the book was most likely written in Antioch between the years 80 and 85 of the common era.²   This is approximately fifty years after the generally accepted date of the crucifixion which has been calculated to most likely have happened April 3, 33 C.E.³   It has been further hypothesized that the work was not original, but based upon another source document known as the Q document⁴  as well as upon the book of Mark (ibid).  As such, it would be unlikely that the Matthew document could be construed as an eyewitness account.  However, I will concede to Craig’s assertions for the sake of answering his argument on his terms.

The following article from General Semantics came to my attention earlier this evening.  The article including copyright notice follows in its entirety.  I am awating verification of the information from the copyright holder and will provide any update if available.

I am fulling willing to admit that I do not understand most of what is written here without further research into the topics.  The opinions and statements belong to the copyright holder and not to the owner of this blog.

At the bottom of the article is a link to the forum where this topic can be discussed.  I am looking forward to a civil discourse of the matter.

A fried sent me an email that she thought I would be interested in.  I am not certain if she was aware of previous similar posts to this blog or thought my interest would be because I am Jewish.  But it does not really matter.  It is something that I will comment on.

I thing the title of the article is a little misleading.  I don't believe that Jews in general are upset by the latest statement by the Vatican.  It is only one more in a series of bizarre declarations from a former Nazi who has attacked every other culture which conflicts with his own.  In a sense, it was expected.  I am not shocked or dismayed by this latest relevation.  I am just disappointed that a spiritual leader for so many sould be so short-sighted and bigoted.

I was continuing to research Scientology to find out how many businesses they are operating and was amazed to find so many different companies who are Scientology front groups for spreading the word about Schientology.  The names of the companies appear to me to be an attempt to defraud the masses while Scientology hides under the guise of many humanitarian causes.

Check out this list for yourself.  It is not all-inclusive.  But the number of agancies is startling.  And they are still a non-profit?