I would like a consensus. Do you believe Giuseppe's theory about Barabbas is viable?

[Joseph D. L.]

Because either Giuseppe is a genius who has access to the fifth dimension and I am just incapable of comprehending it; or his theory is a tossed salad of circular reasoning, tortured logic, and and meaningless rhetoric.

[Secret Alias]

Do you really think that anyone actually thinks Giuseppe is a great Biblical exegete.

[Joseph D. L.]

He is ready and willing to die for his belief about Barabbas, and it's by far is weakest and most poorly argued theory.

Even with his idea about some "celestial crucifixion" has some merit, even though everything he has offered in no way proves that he is right. But Barabbas? This is Time Cube levels of incomprehensible.

[Secret Alias]

So what.

[Joseph D. L.]

Meh, good question.

[Charles Wilson]

There is an old picture of Mao swimming in the Yangtze River. He was in his seventies as I recall. Someone went to the site and discovered that there had occurred a Miracle!!! Mao had covered the distance claimed in a time faster than the current World Record!!! Yet, it could not be questioned.
Because Mao.

I've tried to offer another explanation of Barabbas. It is another rewrite of something written in Josephus concerning the Parthians and the Concubine Thermusa. Now, it could be wrong but, in similar manner to Mao, all that matters to Giuseppe is "Barabbas". The End.

To me, if you don't at least TRY to find some History here, you are left with Vacuous Metaphysics, nothing more. Vacuous because there is no content that can be challenged. Metaphysics because there is nothing physical to be argued.

"Do you remember Uncle Eldon? He claimed that he saw..."
Well, Uncle Eldon had to be careful that his Drool Bib wasn't tied too tight. He saw things. SPOOKY things. Were they really, RILLY there?

[Giuseppe]

But the true question is: Is this thread really necessary?

[DCHindley]

Giuseppe builds epicycles upon epicycles, but the orbit just doesn't match observations.

I look at the presence of Barabbas in John but not the Synoptics like this:

Jesus is executed as if a rebel.

2nd century Christians rationalized that Jesus could not have been a rebel, but a divine redeemer, the favored son of his Father (God).

The rebel aspect of Jesus was spun off into a subsidiary. Then, using stray facts plucked from here and there, such as Jewish practices of the 2nd century to mask the names of famous heretics behind fake names like Beh He-He & Ben Bag-Bag, reasoned that there *must* also have been some rebel arrested at the same time as Jesus, who used the pseudonym "son of his father," so damned was his real name that it was forbidden to utter it. See, it was all just a tragic misunderstanding.

Carving up a problem to dispose of the troublesome parts, used today by Mitt Romney's company Bain Capital to turn unproductive companies into productive ones, was also a tactic used in magic incantations: The parts that the magician considered good are retained (the girl, riches, power), but the parts that the magician doesn't like (the girl's husband, rivals, obstacles) rendered impotent by magical spells. Mitt uses legal spells. Same process.

[Secret Alias]

So Mitt Romney was the inspiration behind the Richard Gere character from Pretty Woman - i.e. "like stealing cars and selling the parts."

[perseusomega9]

But the true question is: Is this thread really necessary?

That's the question I ask on any of your 23 new weekly threads.