My abiding belief is that the Dead Sea Scrolls provide no greater insight into the life and times of Jesus Christ than the Shroud of Turin provides into his looks. The latter proselytizes the manifest absurdity that he had features that were more Aryan than Semitic.
I commented on the debunking of such Christian myths nearly a decade ago in “Shroud of Turin Shrouded in Fraud,” October 7, 2009.
____________________
It is noteworthy that, even though leaders of the Catholic Church were too sensible to ever buy into this forgery, they could not resist exploiting it by claiming that the Shroud is a ‘powerful reminder of Christ’s passion.’
No sh#t! It is no more authentic than the hollow rock in which apparitions of Mary allegedly appeared in mid-19th century to a poor, 14-year-old girl. Yet this powerful reminder of Christ’s passion has turned the entire town of Lourdes into a holy shrine where Christians now make pilgrimages that rival those Muslims make to Mecca.
That said, I hope my Christian family and friends will forgive me for spreading the scientific gospel that many of the beliefs, rituals, and vestments of modern-day Christianity have little to do with Jesus Christ, and even less to do with the Almighty God.
____________________
My apostasy aside, here is the latest in what is becoming the second-greatest story ever sold:
Five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the Museum of the Bible’s most prized artifacts, were exposed as fakes on Monday and pulled from displays. …
Doubts were raised as to the authenticity of the fragments held by the museum prior to its opening, due to a soaring increase in forgeries designed to fool wealthy American evangelical Christians. …
The museum said it would swap the fakes with three other fragments (but even those may not be real).
(The Huffington Post, October 23, 2018)
Frankly, the only newsworthy thing about this report is the way it reinforces Trumpian regard for evangelical Christians as gullible fools.
Indeed, one can hardly blame forgers for seeing evangelicals as easy marks. After all, with his brazen and demonstrable lies, Trump has proven that anyone can fool these religious suckers any day, including on Sunday.
Amen.
Related commentaries:
Shroud of Turin…
Evangelicals for Trump…