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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

There is reason to assert that the
gospel writers had little first-hand
knowledge of the Jerusalem culture;
more evidence of the writers' lack
of authority to produce "holy" writ. 

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Preview and Summary: A section in Mark does great damage to the image of the Bible as "infallible."

The most telling moment in the gospels ... is when Mark (chapter 7: 1 - 23) has Jesus quote from the Old Testament in his arguments against the Pharisees. Nothing surprising about this - except that Jesus quotes from the mistranslated Greek version [LXX, The Septuagint] of the Old Testament, which suits his purpose precisely, [but] not from the original Hebrew, which says something quite different and unhelpful to his argument. That Jesus the Jew should quote a Greek mistranslation of Jewish Holy Scripture to impress orthodox Jewish Pharisees is simply unthinkable. (Freke and Gandy, "The Jesus Mysteries")

The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. What is the difficulty here?

It would be something like an Iowan trying to impress a native Frenchman with his knowledge of Paris and French culture - gleaned from the back of a ketchup bottle.

Would the Pharisees be swayed with a quote based on the Septuagint? If this scene had actually taken place, these purists and guardians of Jewish law and culture would have belly-laughed Jesus as theologian-quack, right out of the Temple - and would not even have bothered to kill him!

Are we to accept that Jesus, purportedly the Master Teacher, would commit such grievous faux pas before the narrowing and winnowing eyes of the Doctors of the Hebrew Law?

All of this does make eminent sense, however, if this incident were entirely made up - much later, maybe 100 years after the fact! - by non-eyewitnesses, ignorant of the Jerusalem culture, with no idea of the original meaning of the Hebrew text; and, as such, put nonsense-words into the mouth of Jesus which reflected their own provincial ignorance!

Allow me to put this in another context, especially for those who insist upon "infallibility."

If this is an accurate, literal account of what happened that day in Jerusalem, then:

(1) Jesus is not very smart, pretty inept - as he doesn't even know what the Hebrew law says; worse, he quotes a disreputable knock-off version that the Pharisees would have hooted at;

or,

(2) Jesus is a lying politician - he knows that the Septuagint version mistranslates and misrepresents a particular section of the Old Testament, but he uses it anyway, since it suits his agenda at the moment.

But, if we do not like these options, as I certainly do not, then...

(3) This is a fraudulent account of what Jesus said and did. It never happened.