So we were studying lesson 2 in the home study manual.

Dad was reading from the text and the subject was Mary and Elisabeth and their babies. The point of the lesson was how you should have faith for God's plan, etc. etc.

But, in the text it talks about Matthew writing his gospel and Luke writing his gospel and the focus of each. The text actually reads, "Matthew wrote" and "Luke wrote"...

Its presented as if these guys wrote these accounts. but historians don't think they did.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel
The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c. AD 66–70,[8] Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90,[9] and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional descriptions all four are anonymous, and none were written by eyewitnesses

also you could listen to get Will Durrant's analysis of the gospels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrLjTkOCo7Y


Its pretty easy to check this stuff. The church is a big highly organized body. You'd think with all their "scholars" they could easily confirm this. Its not anything that would kill someone's testimony to learn that anonymous writers or a collection of writers wrote the gospels. Big Deal.

Why do they insist on these lies/mistakes times a thousand?

By the way, I pointed all this out to dad. He just got a slightly confused look on his face, but offered no argument.

To admit that any part of the Bible is mistaken is to concede that "revelation" could be wrong. That will destroy the whole enterprise.

Being factual about the authorship of bible books doesn't (necessarily) make the bible "mistaken." After all, if what's written is "true," it doesn't matter who wrote it, and the only "mistake" would be the attribution of an author's name.

But, of course, that's a "crack" that mormons (and many christians, too) aren't willing to let open. They think it will lead to other "doubts." So they're dishonest out of fear -- fear of people thinking and doubting.

I read that and thought the same thing. Thought it was poorly research and not scholarly

If the LDS church ever practices proper scholarly research, there would be no church.

Maybe you ought to try arguing sometimes...

In - and out of - your family...

Or maybe it's your father...

Maybe he doesn't care.
Just saying...

M@t

From what I remember Mormons think that Mathew Mark Luke and John actually wrote those gospels. The only evidence that Wikipedia says that they didn't is the phrase in their article:
"The consensus among modern scholars is that..."

So basically Wikipedians are just guestimating and conjecturing. But since it comes from academians who make a living writing books and probably indoctrinate at colleges and universities, all with the governments official approval, then the rest of us are suppose to swallow anything they say?

I'm not saying they are wrong, but the rest of us who aren't as smart or gifted should keep both eyes open when so called scholars are pontificating on top of us. Just my two cents.