This was filmed yesterday at Speakers’ Corner in London. I invite Christians to debate me on the New Testament claim that Jesus of Nazareth died and rose again from the dead on the third day. See what happened…
Categories: Bible, Christianity, Jesus, London, Speakers Corner
Blogging Theology 
Hi Paul,
At the 13:00 mark you’re incorrect. You said they all doubted. Verse 17 says that only some doubted, thereby implying that some had no doubt at all.
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Hi Allan
actually I was quite correct. The Greek can be translated “but some doubted” or “but they doubted’, implying all of the disciples in the latter translation.
The New American Bible which is the officially approved translation of the Roman Catholic Bishops of the USA translates the passage thus:
Matthew 28:17 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
17 When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Footnotes:
28:17 But they doubted: the Greek can also be translated, “but some doubted.” The verb occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Mt 14:31 where it is associated with Peter’s being of “little faith.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A+17&version=NABRE
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Yes, you are correct, though the NABRE is the only translation I know of that says this. Look at all the translations on bible.cc, they all say “some”
http://biblehub.com/matthew/28-17.htm
Also, I should point out that I’m Canadian, not American, and our Bishops Conference uses the NRSVCE which says “some”.
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Yes I’m aware you are Canadian, but much more importantly the Roman Catholic Bishops of your own Church (in the USA) endorse the translation which I quoted from. I can quite understand why other Christian Bible translations do not like that translation. It is quite embarrassing for Christians.
And even on your own preferred translation we still have an unspecified number of disciples (perhaps the majority?) doubting that Jesus rose from the dead even after seeing him!
This is a significant blow to the credibility of the Christian message.
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So Paul, I guess you’re going against “the majority of scholars” here.
Let me get to the meat of this though. Are you saying that the Biblical testimony states that the disciples of Christ didn’t come to believe in his death and resurrection? I’m just curious where you stand on this. If I were to ever come to speakers corner one day I would gladly take up this debate with you. I also would want to debate the deity of Christ with you, but that’s another subject.
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All I am saying is that an unspecified number of disciples (perhaps the majority?) doubted that Jesus rose from the dead even after seeing him.
That’s all we are told by Matthew. It is most unlikely he would make such an embarrassing story up. Make of it what you will.
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I agree with you on one thing. He certainly didn’t make it up.
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so why did some or all of them still doubt after the appearances?
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I don’t know, the scripture doesn’t say why some initially doubted at that moment.
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Hmm, an appeal to the criteria of embarrassment as evidence. That must mean that in PW’s mind Muhammad tried to commit suicide and was revealed verses by Satan without realising it. After all, why would Muslims fabricate such embarrassing stories?
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These aren’t Muslims fabricating it,its your mind coming across Unauthentic ahadith and thumping them and trying to deceive gullible Muslims,oh wait even Gullible Muslims can see through these lies 😉
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four translation 1-EOB 28:17 BUT THEY DOUBTED. 2-ONE NEW MAN BIBLE BY WILLIAM J. MORFORD BUT THEY DOUBTED 3-THE BIBLE BY NICHOLAS KING BUT THEY DOUBTED 4-THE HUMAN BIBLE BY ROBERT M PRICE THOUGH THEY DOUBTED 5-PRE-NICENE NEW TESTAMENT ROBERT M PRICE THOUGH THEY DOUBTED
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