Documentary Hypothesis

[Windwalker]

Sorry, but his is laughable, especially considering that the author of Mark took the feeding of the multitudes story right out of the old testament, merely changing the names and increasing the numbers to show that Jesus was even more wondrous at creating this miracle than miracle workers of the past.

Your scholarship is amazing! It's not everyone who is qualified to call other scholars laughable. Do you have any published works we can review your research that went into this? I'm sure you have a tenured position somewhere in order to be able to speak with such confidence against other scholars. Your list of qualifications must be staggering, indeed!

 

[lukethethird]

I do not agree that it is laughable that oral traditions and also Old testament stories which they too likely came from oral traditions. The stories such 'feeding the multitudes' was wide spread as an oral tradition. Also, writing style, and the fact that the gospels are divided in discrete sections indicate the possibility that an earlier simpler biographical gospel, maybe Q existed before Mark.

It is true that exaggerating stories and even attributing miracles to amplify the greatness of a leader both civil and divine are a part of virtually all cultures of the ancient world.

Until something other than an echo chamber is provided to support the claims of an oral tradition to fill in the gap between the time that the gospel story was written and the time that the story was set in, I will remain skeptical. Not everyone reads The Bible literally, there are those that don't have a need to look for an explanation for the time difference.