another Easter

Easter is a highlight day for Christians. We are all excited to celebrate the risen Jesus and it is a day that has faith written all over it. Unlike Christmas, our other big day, no one has figured how to take advantage of Easter from a commerce standpoint. I suppose a lot of ham is sold, and of course this is prime easter lily season, but other than that, what? Plastic eggs to be filled with candy? All right, I’ll give you that, too.

Yet, Easter remains, well, Easter. Even the media and magazines didn’t put a damper on Easter. Every year they put out something that is supposed to get us thinking that maybe the Bible isn’t accurate after all, though it was all written within 20-70 years after the time of Jesus, and there are, oh, 24,633 manuscripts of various length, from sections to the whole New Testament, all compiled within 300 years of Jesus. This is compared to number two in ancient writings, The Iliad by Homer, all 634 manuscripts. The single copy of the Gospel of Judas from 300 A.D. was proclaimed, “One of the most significant biblical finds in the past century.” First it is not a biblical find. The Dead Sea scrolls would have something to say about significant, as well. And it is such an important find, that the leading authority on such a manuscript, James Robinson, is not a key scholar consulted. Must be quite a find.

Well, actually the quote is from an ad from the National Geographic Channel, about TV show that has been shown repeatedly. I caught part of it being shown still again, yesterday. It’s been kind of like a small car crash. “All right move on, there is nothing to see here.”

This Gospel of Judas is a single manuscript probably written 130-140 years after the time of Jesus by another group of Gnostics, talking about secret stuff that only a few get to know. Body evil/ spirit good, Jewish stuff no good, seems I have heard this tune before. Yes, there are about 280 of these pseudopigrapha books around already. In my pod cast, which can be played or downloaded from www.Christcast.net, I speak with my friend Matt in a little more detail about this.

Oh well, at least they didn’t try to get me to believe Jesus didn’t really walk on water this Easter season. Wait a minute. Yes, they did!