User talk:DionysiusThrax
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[edit] Mary
Do you want to post an opinion to the Blessed Virgin Mary Content Fork straw poll/vote? --Carlaude (talk) 16:41, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
- I wish to thank you sincerely for your consideration, in offering to include me in this poll; all the same, I think I will leave this matter to others who may be better qualified to make a judgment than am I. Thank you kindly, once again, and Peace. DThrax (talk) 05:44, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Judaism's view of Jesus
Hallo! As I mentioned on the talk page, I support your edit and I dropped a line by a few friends just to get a bit more input. I will revert back your edit tomorrow assuming all are agreeable.
Anyway, just one or two remarks about the issues you raised.
looking at Josephus, Philo, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other sources, to propose that in late Second Temple times there really was quite a bit of diversity within Judaism..
Joesphus's "four philosophies" (I though three) were meant to parallel the Greek Epicureans, Stoics, and Pythagorians, and thus to make Judaism look more "civilized". As such, they shouldn't be taken seriously. Josephus does report that the majority of the common people were with the Pharisees, with the Sadducees as a small aristocratic movement and the Essenes as a small group of fanatics (who happened to leave over a lot of writing). Therefore, the "diversity" of the Second Temple period is effectively minimized.
It would be very easy (though it would not express my *own* POV) to claim justification for an article that says it is "the view of Christianity" that Torah, Written or Oral, is an oppressive system by which the ancients re-enslaved the Israelites upon their exodus from Egypt...
There really does exist an article called Criticism of Judaism (and a similar one about Christianity and Islam. That is how WP works. Many articles about (OT) Biblical figures DO have the type of criticism questioning their "historicity" (See for example the academic views section of the Moses page.)
My point is that by its nature, WP WILL include views that are offensive to believers and other groups and the only way to respond is to include responses within those articles from your own POV based on reputable sources (For instance Mosaic authorship responds to the Documentary hypothesis page).
In any event, I apologise if I've been a bit over-long but I did want to point out (since you seeem to know quite a bit on the subject) thatcontributions from the POV of the believer really would enhance WP and I hope you continue editing. Wolf2191 (talk) 02:30, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
