1. Palestine is one latinized, anglisized old name for the whole area. It goes all the way back to the Philistines. Remember them? Goliath was a Philistine. That's Iron Age, maybe about 800 BCE.

2. The Gospels themselves are ancient sources, or classical sources. They get as much credit or discredit as any other source from the 1st century CE.

3. At that time, Greeks and Romans had ruled the Jews for three hundred years. Jews who spoke Greek were more common than Canadians who speak French now. Jesus probably spoke Greek, at least "Restaurant Greek." (The Romans spoke Greek, too.) And all Aramaic-speaking Jews knew Hebrew.

4. The Gospel of Mark probably was written in Aramaic before it went into Greek. You could look it up.

5. Please stop with silly false assertions, just because you believe nobody here knows enough to correct you. We know.

I caucused for that darn Edwards. And I voted for that darn Nixon, back in 1972, because he fooled me, just because he had gone to China.

Let us hope our President Obama stays out of the National Enquirer.

...And yet believe that Lawrence Welk actually existed?! Here's the proof: Lawrence Welk's music, his giant accordian, his TV show, and his accent inflicted so much suffering and pain, that it is obvious Lawrence Welk was a real presence in our world... and possibly a god to boot. Man + God. Sound familiar? What mere mortal could have caused such universal despair?

In Lawrence Welk, we begin to approach the solution to the age-old Theodicy paradox.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_inside.html?item=3604203&cart=3447775466134202&page=cover&cm_re=detail-_-lookInside-_-cover+text+link

(You can click on my signature.)

If we can track down Arthur Reynolds, we may solve the entire mystery of whether God exists, and why we have suffering.

The Byrds recorded it in 1969, years before the Doobies. I was alwrong (yuk yuk!). Somebody named Arthur Reynolds wrote it. Who the heck is (was) Arthur Reynolds?

in Jesus Interrupted, Bart Ehrman explains some of the techniques for finding out what the lost sources actually said. This is one of the very interesting parts of the book. And, it takes the New Testament texts back closer to the time of Jesus.

Plus... It is something some of the posters here cannot even imagine. Those of you who complain that we do not have Paul's and Luke's and Caesar's actual rough drafts, please read Ehrman's book, and learn to think in new ways.

None of the Native Americans they supposedly met ever wrote anything about them. As a matter of fact, nobody told the story of their supposed "expedition" until after they got back.

Here's the Greatest Hits page from the Doobie Brothers' web site (click on my signature).

They wrote the song, and they spelled it, "Alright." All right?

http://www.doobiebrothers.net/discography/greatest-hits/

1st century BCE and 1st century CE. For quick examples, we have Julius Caesar's own book in his own words and Cicero's letters and essays, plus histories, poetry, scientific works...

Do not believe anybody who says that little survives. Granted, there is not much about Jesus until a couple or a few decades after Jesus's time, but the period is extremely well-documented with original sources.

Read it for that. Mr. Ehrman specifically does not try to break new ground. It is not about whether God exists or whether Christianity is okay. Those are just side issues.

As I wrote before, the book is fascinating for someone who already knows something about the New Testament, but would be deadly dull for anybody else. Anybody else probably would think, "So what? Who cares?"

The book Jesus Interrupted (silly title/good book) is full of interesting specifics about the New Testament. It is extremely interesting if you come from a Christian background, if you have any interest in Jesus, in first-few-centuries CE history.

It may be interesting to Jews, because it discusses the history of Christianity developing out of 1st century Judaism.

But it would be extremely dull for anyone who has no background in Christianity and Jesus, or interst in the development of Christianity. It is not some overarching philosophical sourcebook; it is not some "Shocking Indictment Of Christianity!!!!"

That's one or two nights.

I recommend a two or three night trip with a sleeper compartment. When you book the sleeper, you get the dining car, not just the snack car, plus they have showers and more.

I have done this twice: Indiana to New York City & back, and Grand Rapids to Seattle (also London to Scotland, but that's not Amtrack, and it isn't as good a trip).

Do NOT ever take an overnight train trip without a sleeper compartment; do NOT try to sit in a regular seat all night. Your butt will die, and the other non-sleeper-compartment passengers will steal your dead butt if you ever manage to doze off. In the sleepers, you can snooze, and the sleeper-car porters will protect you from butt-thieves.

The famous City of New Orleans runs the whole length of Miss., north and south. (Amtrak South route map in my signature)

I do not know why Amtrak takes no guns in checked luggage. One thought: Train luggage is much less secure than airplane luggage. Does Greyhound allow guns? I forgot to look.

His mother was a US citizen. Even if he were born elsewhere, he still would be a US citizen, eligible to be president.

I have looked up the US State Department web site several times, and posted it here on Salon several times. I am sick of looking it up. Look it up yourself, or sort back through my old posts.

It does not even matter where he was born! (He WAS born in Hawaii, though.)