Historical Jesus Scholarship

I've just read April DeConick's blog from Jan. 29th on the problems and perils of trying to reconstruct a historical Jesus, i.e., a Jesus 'as he really was' (see forbiddengospels.blogspot). She expresses extreme skepticism about the validity of the entire enterprise (she says, "it's bankrupt") since its methods, e.g., multiple attestation, do not inspire "confidence." What is needed is a new methodology, perhaps? I doubt this last. I doubt the Jesus of scripture will ever be overshadowed. I think any new method or discovery will tend to corroborate the Jesus of the canon. Why? There is mighty truth therein for eyes that see.
Look again at scripture. See the beauty of the words. Feel them. Open our hearts to the Spirit.

"Become Like Passersby" 2

More comment on this saying of Jesus from Gospel of Thomas here follows, because the meaning of the saying hasn't been exhausted. ('Meaning' is a deep lake.)

Taking the saying as a guidepost to right conduct, one is instructed not to get involved with things of this world (e.g., marriage, career, family, country), a leitmotif of the NT. This world, according to Jesus, for example, in Mark 13, is coming to an end. So we may interpret the saying against this backdrop. The saying arises from an apocalyptic worldview. It espouses a peculiar sort of wisdom -

'don't get involved, because your involvement would be with things that are doomed.' Was Jesus this radical, annihilating the whole world in thought and value and advocating an ethic of non-involvement?

Maybe followers of Jesus, in strict obedience to the teachings, are in a sense strangers.

"Become like passersby"

This is a quotation from the Gospel of Thomas and may be found at #42. It is a saying attributed to
Jesus of Nazareth in that document and do note that it is not to be found in the New Testament, though it may well be an authentic utterance of Jesus (this would depend, for our knowledge, on
historical argument). Please do not be confused about the meaning of this simple saying (n.b.: the
translation from the Coptic is not so simple). It means, we, hearers of Jesus, trying to obey his teachings, should not understand ourselves to be at rest, at home, arrived at our final destination, but
to be travellers through this world/life headed to another world and life. It is easy, natural, for a person to think stability in lifesyle is a good thing, something to be accomplished as an adult and then
treasured and defended. 'Becoming like passersby' implies an awareness of an end or goal to human
life not contained in this material world and so all the situations we find ourselves in are understood
to be transitory. What might be this goal of human existence?
Further light on this saying may be had by reading the parable of the good Samaritan in the Gospel
according to Luke.

Pondering the Cosmos

How is it possible that I can ponder the cosmos? I am a structured conglomeration of molecules
that is very tiny living within a gigantic universe, yet my brain is able to grasp said universe intellectually as a whole in relation to myself and think about it; its origin, its end, its continuing existence, its purpose or meaning, its makeup. Is the human brain, in some sense, bigger than the cosmos? I cannot physically grasp the cosmos with my hands, but I can imagine it as a whole, like
a bubble or a cloud, and examine it with my mind's eye. Light and darkness put together with eyes
to see and what have I got? Do light and darkness have any meaning apart from vision (someone's)
or perception? Why is not all dark? Is light a characteristic of the cosmos or of an eye (like the one
pictured on the back of a U.S. dollar bill)? I do not know. There is light in the cosmos, which Dr.
Einstein said is the fastest travelling phenomenon within it, and there is darkness in the cosmos.
Scientists, cosmologists are puzzled by what is called 'dark matter' and 'dark energy,' yet they, we,
cannot come to understand the universe without these dark, unknown things which are out there
affecting gravity. Light is made up of photons. Perhaps darkness, physically, is not absence of light,
but micro-matter, which by its nature, voids light. So yes, darkness on a cosmic scale is absence of light, but what is there in place of light that causes its absence? The cosmos is filled with light of many wavelengths, but there is also darkness. Is this fact because light has not reached certain areas of the cosmos or because light cannot possibly reach certain parts of our universe because these parts already contain dark matter? Is it a law of physics that dark matter (I don't know; call it a gloomy mix, each
dark particle - a 'gloomer' with distinct properties yet to be measured) cancels out photons? What is
more primal, light or darkness? I realize that I'm speaking about dark matter and dark energy without fully understanding these concepts in the context of cosmology. The word 'dark' is used therein to refer to human ignorance of what is being observed with telescopes and other technology.
Yet philosophically, I'm speaking of basic properties of our cosmos, Carl Sagan' s cosmos. These things have a lot to do with the eye of the beholder (not unlike a certain tenet of quantum physics).
So here I'll leave it and ponder some more. Later.