BE> Here's the original exchange:
 BE> FR: -Some clues are in the Mithra rituals paralleled in the Christian
 BE> -bible.  The "rebirth" of Lazarus -- Jesus's homosexual lover -- -could
 BE> very well be the Mithratic ritual of "rebirthing" a man by -placing him
 BE> into the belly of an animal and "rebirthing" him.
   Bob, look at Rice's sentence above which reads: "The "rebirth of Lasarus 
-
Jesus's [sic] homosexual lover...."
   Rice does not qualify that statement in any way as you surely would have 
o
admit.  HE STATES IT AS A FACT - A GIVEN.
   It is true that I brought up Morton Smith as the source because that is
really where this speculation was first dealt with in a historical enterprise
as far as I know.  But getting into Smith and the rest is NOT the central
point.  If the above does not show Rice setting forth something as a fact 
hen
it really IS only speculation then I'm missing SOMETHING would you not agree.
There is not sufficient evidence for ANYBODY to assert that Lazarus was 
esus'
homosexual lover.   He might well have been but then I go further in my
skepticism than Rice even thinks of going.  I do not, as he does, take the
fundamentalist position that things written in the "bible" are LITERALLY TRUE
and if I wanted to study any part of it I'd go to the genuine bible scholars
who spend lifetimes doing so.  "Proof-texting" the "bible" is a 
undamentalist
ploy.
   I hope this is clear enough.
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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