tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5818452314475850649.post1686278962421876627..comments2023-05-14T06:59:50.554-07:00Comments on One Year Skeptic: Feb 3Erikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16846371347200009801noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5818452314475850649.post-46768104802713327672010-02-04T16:56:00.233-08:002010-02-04T16:56:00.233-08:00Fascinating connection!Fascinating connection!Erikahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16846371347200009801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5818452314475850649.post-67527655353481383942010-02-04T15:06:56.963-08:002010-02-04T15:06:56.963-08:00Today's New Testament passage is eerily simila...Today's New Testament passage is eerily similar to a famous story about Hillel, the great Jewish scholar who lived around the same time as Jesus. He was approached by a gentile and given the following challenge: if he (Hillel) could teach him (the gentile) the entire Torah while he (not sure which) was standing on one leg, then he (the gentile) would convert. Hillel agreed to the task, and said, "Do unto others as you want to have done to yourself. All the rest is commentary; now go and learn."<br /><br />Now that I think about this further, most of the Torah is not commentary on this (many commandments appear unrelated to the Golden Rule, not to mention all the stories and geneologies). So, the Jesus version seems slightly more credible by not claiming that the rest of the Bible is somehow about the Golden Rule. but they're still remarkably similar stories.<br /><br />So, now I wonder: did the writers of the New Testament copy this story from the Jews and re-attribute it to Jesus? Did Jews copy it from Jesus and retroactively attribute it to Hillel instead? Did both of them come up with it independently? Did both of them borrow it from some third tradition? I have no idea, but I'll wager there's a connection.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com