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--- 2013:why-lucians-view-of-the-christians-and-jesus-is-indeterminate [2013/10/01 21:18] – frank
+++ 2013:why-lucians-view-of-the-christians-and-jesus-is-indeterminate [2015/12/16 15:42] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 ====== Why Lucian's View of the Christians and Jesus is Indeterminate ======
-One of the main reasons why anyone today reads Lucian is to see his passages on the Christians and Jesus. Although Lucian's view on the Christians and Jesus comprises a very small part of his ouevre, it still is given prominence considering that it is one of the earliest written references of the Christian sect and Jesus. While a lot of websites and articles out there like to try to probe Lucian's account for historical accuracies about Jesus, there a few problems with this viewpoint.
+<html><p xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" style="border-style: none;" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><br />This work (by <a href="https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki" rel="dct:creator">https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki</a>), identified by <a href="http://meninpublishing.org" rel="dct:publisher"><span property="dct:title">Frank Redmond</span></a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p></html>
-. Lucian was a satirist whose main objective is to delight his audience even if the references to the Christians and Jesus are contained in a personal letter to a friend and are not part of a public speech. Lucian still tried to impress his friends as seen in [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/Alexander.html|Alexander]] and [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/TheWayToWriteHistory.html|How to Write History]] amongst other letters. Lucian was not deadset on exposing or demonstrating how monsterous the Christian sect was. He just tried to show that they are like any other religious or social group in that they can be lampooned and exposed. Lucian's work [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/Alexander.html|Alexander]] is a long tract on exactly this sort of thing. But Alexander was some sort of Neo-Pythagorean so his lampooning doesn't hold much prominence with today's audiences even though it is extremely scathing while the critique of the Christians is fairly tame.
+==== Authored by Frank Redmond, 2013 ====
+One of the main reasons why anyone today reads Lucian is to see his passages on the Christians and Jesus. Although Lucian's view on the Christians and Jesus comprises a very small part of his ouevre, it still is given prominence considering that it is one of the earliest written references of the Christian sect and Jesus. While a lot of websites and articles out there like to try to probe Lucian's account for historical accuracies about Jesus, there a few problems with this viewpoint.
-. The evidence for the Christians is not exactly straight from Lucian's mouth. The speech in which the reference is made is given by a character in the dialogue. Lucian liked to play-act with his characters and it is perfectly reasonable that he personally had little antipathy for the Christian sect, but the interlocutor in the dialogue did. A good example of this sort of interlocutor based conversation would be Homer. Homer sung of characters that were meant to be truthful to the speaker and were not necessarily Homer's own beliefs.
+. Lucian was a satirist whose main objective is to delight his audience even if the references to the Christians and Jesus are contained in a personal letter to a friend and are not part of a public speech. Lucian still tried to impress and entertain his friends as seen in [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/Alexander.html|Alexander]] and [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/TheWayToWriteHistory.html|How to Write History]] amongst other letters. Lucian was not dead-set on exposing or demonstrating how monstrous the Christian sect was. He just tried to show that they are like any other religious or social group in that they can be lampooned and exposed. Lucian's work [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/Alexander.html|Alexander]] is a long tract on exactly this same topic. But Alexander was some sort of Neo-Pythagorean. Alexander's lampooning doesn't hold much prominence with today's audiences even though it is extremely scathing and personal while the critique of the Christians is fairly tame and impersonal.
-. The interlocutor is identified as a man who wishes to reflect on Proteus' (the man who was with the Christians) laughable side. The subsequent speech is meant to be tongue in cheek. Would a modern audience take someone doing improv 100% seriously, or would they think that their descriptions and representations were a little hyperbolic? So why should this man's speech be taken at face value and 100% seriously?
+. The evidence for the Christians is not exactly straight from Lucian's mouth. The speech in which the reference is made is given by a character in the dialogue. Lucian liked to play-act with his characters and it is perfectly reasonable that he personally had little antipathy for the Christian sect, but the interlocutor in the dialogue did. A good example of this sort of interlocutor based conversation would be Homer. Homer sung of characters that were meant to be truthful to the speaker and were not necessarily Homer's own beliefs. A good example of this is Book 9 of the Iliad where Achilles trades barbs with other leaders of the expedition, each with their own personal opinions. It is not clear what **Homer** thought.
-. Lucian by no means was an expert on Christianity. If we take his writings at face value, his insights into Christianity could be bunk considering that he was not well versed in their teachings. Knowing things from hearsay is much different than actually being a member of a group. If anything, Lucian's writings expose any prejudices that may have existed concerning the Christians and Jesus not actual facts about them. For actual viewpoints of Christians it is best to stay with reading the texts written by the Christians themselves. Lucian does confirm the Christians and Jesus, but how much of Lucian's view can be taken to be accurate?
+. Lucian by no means was an expert on Christianity. If we take his writings at face value, his insights into Christianity could be bunk considering that he was not well versed in their teachings. Knowing things from hearsay is much different than actually being a member of a group or being a well researched individual on the Christian sect and Jesus. If anything, Lucian's writings expose any prejudices that may have existed concerning the Christians and Jesus, not actual facts about them. For actual viewpoints of Christians it is best to stay with reading the texts written by the Christians themselves. Lucian does confirm the Christians and Jesus, but how much of Lucian's view can be taken to be accurate?