Word: punchier
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...aren't we regular folks lucky that the Jesus Seminar pundits have devised their own criteria for determining the reliability of the New Testament? Out of the blue, they assume that shorter, punchier passages are more likely to be accurate, and they prefer parables without explicit applications and impose other arbitrary criteria to the Scriptures. It is not difficult to discredit even the best-attested works of antiquity, given the unscholarly prerogative of choosing the cut according to one's own biases. Liberal theologians since the turn of the century (and before) have attempted to refute parts of the Bible...
...book listed positive and negative criteria employed before taking up the colored beads. The voters favored passages attested to by two or more sources. Since Jesus' culture was oral, not written, they assumed that shorter, punchier passages were more likely to be accurate. They also felt safer confirming idiosyncratic thoughts that ran against the social or religious grain of Jesus' day, involved role reversals or, in keeping with the style of the wandering wise men of the time, employed exaggeration, humor and concrete and vivid images. They preferred parables without explicit applications...