The damning, discrediting “contradictions” within the canonical Gospels? In which does Jesus preach repentance and the Kingdom of God and in which does he not? In which does he hold up religious authorities for criticism and which does he not? In which does he teach his disciples to put God first, depend on God and preach in his name and in which does he not? In which Gospel does Jesus die and rise from the dead and in which does he not?

Waiting.

Here’s the thing that the “don’t privilege the canonoical Gospels” crowd don’t address.

Do you think that those who privileged these Gospels in the 2nd century already were idiots? Do you think they didn’t read them? That they didn’t notice, for example, that there were 2 (different) infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke and none at all in John and Mark? Do you think they didn’t notice that Jesus doesn’t tell parables in John?

I mean, if they were all after power for a certain story, don’t you think they would have selected – or written – texts that matched each other exactly and that even gave a less ambiguous portrait of Jesus?

The point is, what the privileging of these Gospels show is that they, more than the others, are consistent with the traditions that the early Christians received in the preaching and teaching of the apostles. This is what the “many Christianities” crowd never addresses. If the “orthodox” party was intent on presenting a story that would “win” – they went about it in an exceedingly odd way.

And Mollie – I’m guessing that the consistency that we see in the press stories are on this are due to nothing else than dependence on the press packet. The voices in the stories are all “consultants” and experts to the project. Senior and Evans are both in the program.