DB> At the same time, St. Paul was going around telling the slave he would
 DB> be rewarded in heaven for all his labors by Jesus.  Imagine the
 DB> slavedriver considering the effect of a stoic or Christian preacher on
 DB> his crew, and realizing that if Jesus is going to reward these turkeys
 DB> in heaven, they will be more amenable. In his letter to Philemon, Paul
 DB> makes it perfectly clear that he respects the laws concerning slavery.
   As with the "Moses" figure, "scholars" often go merrily on their way
assessing the historical actions of biblical figures whose biographical hints
are almost purely mythical while equally merrily questioning their
"existence."  
   Sober reflection should remind us that we have no biographies of either
Moses, Jesus or Paul or, for that matter, David, whose very name is really a
TITLE.  There certainly ARE scholars who attempt to flesh out some possible
biographical scenarios based on the assumptions (with varying degrees of
reasonableness) that if a character is written about and has "sayings" and
"doings" associated with her/him then something must have given rise to the
stories.  It is not unreasonable (and there IS some basis) to think that
"David" might have been one of the giant "slingers" that were given such high
rank among the military in writings about him.  
   Scholars like Thiering who develop ideological theories based on material
in or about the Dead Sea scrolls unfortunately are not validated by critics 
o
a very high degree although what Thiering theorizes looks quite logical and
reasonable as a solution to the riddle of the "bible."   Basically it is the
notion that a "Jesus" and a "Paul" as well as the other names REALLY existed
but pertain not to Jerusalem or Galilee but to the Qumran "community" just
outside of Jerusalem on the shore of the Dead Sea where she says all of the
"travels" of "Jesus" took place within a small area.  Names like Galilee 
ould
represent only foreign elements that might have been taken in there as the
movement began to spread to take in Gentiles or foreigners.
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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