Thursday, July 08, 2010

The sounds of silence

I have my differences with the folks over at Triablogue, but some considerable agreements as well. This post, by Paul Manata, drives a well-deserved stake through arguments from silence.

3 comments:

Walter said...

I am not sure how that proves that the anonymous author of our first gospel really was Peter's secretary?

Tim said...

Walter,

It isn't supposed to prove that. It undermines an argument against that claim.

If you're looking for positive evidence regarding Mark, then for starters you might want to check out Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.11.8, Tertullian, Adversus Marcion 4.2, the Muratorian Canon (missing its beginning but clearly referring to our four Gospels), and the use of distinctively Markan language in Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians 5:2.

Victor Reppert said...

Dr. Tim McGrew, (the Tim above), actually wrote the passage about Marco Polo and Ulysses Grant, that is featured in Manata's post.