…according to this post I saw on facebook:
imgur.com/dpnvm
I honestly have no idea whether or not that’s true…and I wasn’t planning on commenting on the post or anything, but I just wanted to know how as a Catholic I would respond to this. Any ideas?
I could take a stab at them, but of course it would just be my opinion… Not answering as a Catholic, or as someone who knows history well,… just thoughts.
As far as the Herod killing baby boys thing… I could see how that would not have been written about. Aren’t the kings themselves in charge of what is written? Just like Saddam Hussein brushed off allegations that he killed his own people (if I remember correctly from his trial)… why would it be any different for a king back in that day? By the way, this is one town- Bethlehem- a country-bumpkin type town, not a bustling city.
This website (
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IXt6jGD_YasJ:www.welcometohosanna.com/LIFE_OF_JESUS/003_NazarethToBethlehem2.htm+In+Jesus’s+day,+was+Bethlehem+a+small+town%3F&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari) states- “At the time of Jesus’ birth, Bethlehem was a small town of maybe 500 inhabitants.” From that, we can assess that at any given time, maybe there were about 100 or so baby boys under the age of two, maybe less? (I don’t know I am guessing. -what would you say?) I do find it a bit odd that some records have not been found on this, but it is possible they did not survive. Also keep in mind who writes the history down… usually governments, or religious leaders. If it didn’t matter to them, it probably wasn’t written at all. I’m sure there are lots of things that occurred in history that we would consider ‘noteworthy’ but were not written down.
Also as I see it, Jesus’s triumphant entry into the town wouldn’t have been written down. I think that is silly to assess that it would have been so newsworthy to make ancient tablets. Its not like people had news agencies back then like we do today, telling us every scrap and detail of the smallest occurrence. It would have been an event not unlike a winning team came home to cheering crowds. Its not history making type of stuff. (Unless you were a Christian, and looking back saw it was prophetic.) The same for the money changers event… Really? They think this would have been written down somewhere??? Do you think they would have written about every riff raft ruckus that occurred in the temple??
raises eyebrow incredulously C’mon…
weak!
Earthquakes in Jerusalem… I’d like to know how many ancient texts noted every earthquake. I simply don’t know if this was something always noted. You would think it would be, but I don’t know.
The last three are sort of ridiculous to think it would be written about in historical documents. No one would take it seriously that dead men came out of their graves and walked around. C’mon. And if you saw that, you aren’t going to be wanting to discuss it. I would think the sheer fear factor of trying to compute what you just saw would probably override and desire to having it documented publicly. Also people would think you were nuts so you’d probably keep quiet about it, unless with others whom you also know saw. (And its plain to see in Scripture that people had the same types of behaviors regarding that sort of stuff as they do today, only I think they might have been a bit more open to the existence of the supernatural.)
I think all the allegations are pretty silly if you ask me. I think they also come from a mind that is thinking like someone from the 21st century and not Christ’s day and culture. It would be important to study ancient texts to find out what types of things were actually documented and compare them if one were to really want to look into these allegations. Like, are there ancient texts that document ‘supernatural’ occurrences? (Just as like today, I kind of think not- AND no, “odd news” category does not count as no one really considers that ‘news’, that’s why its in the ‘odd news’ category.)
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There could be simple sociological explanations for the reasons why these things weren't written in ancient texts.. Also... just because there isn't a physical ancient text that we have now, doesn't mean that there never was. I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line some texts were lost, or discarded or thought of having no real importance and fell into dust. I used to do genealogical work.. sometimes you'd find that huge stores of written records were burned accidentally in a church fire and so all that information was lost.
Like it is said they did in Scripture, if the Romans came back to guard the tomb to make sure nobody came to steal the body of Jesus to make it look like he resurrected as they expected might occur, you better believe they weren't 'up' to writing about anything amazing that really occurred with Jesus either.
Silly premises based off of silly conjecture. I really can’t stand the arrogance when people today think they can rewrite history because they believe we somehow know better. There is no way of really knowing, sure… but doesn’t mean we get the freedom to poke holes at our roots (history).
