The Bible is right! Part 2

I must say, I am extremely disappointed in your conduct. First, there are so many inaccuracies in your post; I don’t even know where to begin. I will start with contradiction 3 that I couldn’t respond to in the last round. 3. HOW DID JUDAS DIE? Hanging Matthew 27:3-5, "When Judas, his [i. e. , Jesus] betrayer, saw that he was condemned, he repented and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and elders, saying, 'I have sinned in betraying innocent blood. ' They said, 'What is that to us? See to it yourself. ' And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. " Falling head long Acts 1:18, "Now this man [Judas] bought a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowles gushed out. " Obviously these two statements cannot be reconciled. It is impossible for one to die by both hanging and falling headlong (whatever that means). In my commentary, I brought up a possible second problem with this. I stated that I dropped the contradiction concerning what happened to the money to keep in with the 3 contradiction limit. “First, Judas tried to kill himself by hanging himself. And this is not always a successful way. Keep in mind that it is not uncommon for people who commit suicide to have tried it before. In this situation, the rope/branch could have broke (sic) before or after death, and Judas plummeted to the ground and landed on some jagged rocks. Certainly, these explanations are plausible, thus a contradiction has not been established. ” Answering Christianity points out 4 issues with this “attempt” at harmonizing the gospels (Smith): 1. Judas never dropped from a high place, the passage does not record any mountain cliffs. In order to make this harmonization attempt work, you will have to add to the Bible. 2. Matthew states that Judas returned the silver, and hanged himself. Acts says that he bought the field and “fell headlong”, showing that he could not have fell from a cliff. Acts implies that Judas was thrown ahead, and the impact was so hard that his bowels burst open. 3. There is no reference to a cliff. 4. If Judas fell from the ropes to the rocks below, he never fell headlong! How can you fall headlong from hanging? This is ridiculous, the legs crashed to the ground first, Judas never fell headlong. Based upon these 4 inconvenient facts, my opponent’s harmonization attempt fails. Now, I will rebut the previous round. 1. WHAT YEAR WAS JESUS BORN? A census before 6 CE? My opponent has failed to even address this argument. There are so many factual errors in my opponent’s argument that it is virtually impossible to know where to even begin. My opponent’s evidence for a census prior to 6 CE does not compute. For one thing, we know that the province of Judea was NOT under direct Roman control before that date. (Carrier) Moreover, because Quirinius is the first Roman governor to control Judea, we would indeed expect a census to occur at that time because it was the nature of Roman imperialism (Carrier). Richard Carrier further notes: “Not only is a census before the annexation of a Judaean province against all probability and sense, it lacks all evidence of any kind. It is a purely groundless and ad hoc conjecture. ” (Carrier) “To argue that Luke was wrong because there was NO worldwide decree (because we don't have a record of the specific decree) is to make a common mistake in historical method--arguing from 'slim' silence (some silence-arguments can be made to work, though). ” Uh, I wasn’t arguing that. I was arguing that Luke and Matthew give two contradictory dates for the nativity in Luke. The final nail in the coffin for my opponent’s ad hoc attempt is the fact that he admits that it was in 2 B. C. E. We know that Herod was dead in 2 BCE and hence the contradiction stands. Was Qurinius TWICE Governor? My opponent brings up zero evidence for the idea that he was governor twice. Although we can’t know for certain, the best guess is not Qurinius; rather it is Lucius Calpurnius Piso which is based upon an inscription called the Lapis Tiburtinus. [1] My opponent’s account is ad hoc and has utterly been refuted. Moreover, my opponent has not refuted the evidence I provided to show that “Quirinius was legate (or governor) of Syria between Volusius Saturninus and Caecilius Creticus Silonus, which makes his tenure last for six years, from 6 to 12 CE. These dates are therefore consistent with Josephus' reckoning. (Tobin) I am out of time. [1] Found online at . http://www.askelm.com... Bibliography Carrier, Richard. The Date of the Nativity in Luke. 2011. Web. 2012 June 20. <. http://www.infidels.org... >. Smith, Abdullah. The Death of Judas. n. d. 2012 June 15. <. http://www.answering-christianity.com... >. Tobin, Paul. On Herod and Quirinius. n. d. Web. 20 June 2012. <. http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net... >.