Ever on top of things, Dr Jim West mentions the appearance of Elaine Pagels on The Colbert Report last night. You can watch the segment online from the previous link. Pagels is pretty impressive given the difficulty of coping with Colbert's Biblical inerrantist persona; most of the time she just ploughs on regardless, but remains good humoured. And I must have been in the USA long enough now to be getting the sense of humour here. On the several occasions that I've watched the programme previously, I have found it pretty loud and irritating. When Bart Ehrman was on, I felt really uncomfortable. But on this occasion, I laughed out loud several times. The funniest line:
Pagels: Bishop Irenaeus mentioned it [the Gospel of Judas] nearly 2,000 years ago
Colbert (shaking his head and waving his finger): Bishop Irenaeus mentioned a lot of things. That guy [hand making mouth movements] was a chatty ?Cathy? [Didn't know the last word].
On the question of content, there's been an interesting thread on Xtalk, including raising the question about the lumping together of the Gospel of Judas with other Gospels when no one dates it in the first century. In this interview, Pagels dates it to "2,000 years ago".
Chatty Cathy :-)
ReplyDeleteI think Chatty Cathy was one of the first dolls that could talk by pulling a string on her back. That's before my time, so I'm not positive. But it's still an expression for someone who talks a lot.
ReplyDeleteEric is right about "Chatty Cathy".
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression the Gospel of Judas is dated to the mid-second century CE. I think stating this particular Gospel was written "2000" years ago even as an approximation can be slightly misleading to the uninformed.
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