I wanted to start a special thread on Stephan Huller, author of
The Real Messiah. I am shortly completing my review of it for the E-Block, and this guy is in many ways dishonest and despicable. His thesis is that Mark was actually Marcus Agrippa, and he was enthroned Messiah as a child in Alexandria, Egypt in 37-8 AD (which is also about when Jesus was actually crucified....in Samaria). His centerpiece is a "Throne of St. Mark" -- an alabaster reliquary.
Here's a couple of samples from the review:
[12] The Throne piece, as noted, is Huller’s central proof; he supposes that Agrippa himself sat on it during a coronation ceremony. Every credible source I can find, however, dates this artifact to at least 500 years later than Agrippa’s lifetime. How does Huller get rid of those intervening years?
It’s all quite circular in the end: There is an inscription on the throne that says, “”. According to Huller, this can only be a Jubilee year referred to, and there happened to be one of those in, um, 37 AD when he thinks Agrippa was enthroned, which was also the only Jubilee that happened when Agrippa was actually alive. [12] Therefore we must date this throne to the first century. Unfortunately, he says, we can’t be specific about where the throne was in those intervening 500 years. [166]
[88] It is claimed that the rabbinic Mishnah “has a story of how the ancient sages actually acknowledged Marcus Agrippa as (Messiah)” with reference to the book’s appendix., where Huller provides a long list of authors who supposedly acknowledged Agrippa as the Messiah, but not one quote or specific line reference is given. [238] It appears that Huller is doing all he can to avoid having his work checked.
[172ff, 188f] Huller provides a sometimes esoteric, sometimes strained interpretation of the carvings on St. Mark’s throne to support his thesis, generally begging the question of the historicity of his “Marcus enthroned” scenario to force an interpretation. He finds parallels to Revelation, which admit the obvious answer that the throne’s designs were based on Revelation, but insists that the throne must have come first, because the author of Revelation misread an animal on the throne as a lamb, when it is in fact a ram, “and its horns are clearly visible if anyone takes the trouble to look closely.” From here, Huller re-interprets the scene as that of the ram caught in the bush who subbed in for Isaac.
One looking closely notices, however, that this lamblike figure does not have the large, curved horns of a ram; if there are horns at are – which there may or may not be – they are small, and are just as well representative of the horns of the lamb that stands for Jesus (though he has seven – Rev. 5:6). But even if not, Huller’s reason for the disassociation, that “lambs do not” have horns, is false: Sheep breeding sources that I have consulted indicate that lambs have horns as early as 6 months; see for example http://www.lavenderfleece.com/horns.html here:
Please note that lambs will develop horns at an early age. In our experience homozygous (meaning two genes for horns) horned lambs will show horn development by the time they reach about 10 lbs. The ewe lambs will sometimes have very tiny "nubbins"at birth, which will begin to grow out and be visible by the time they are 20 lbs. or about 2-3 weeks of age. Truly horned sheep do not suddenly develop horns when they are 6 months to a year old. However, polled sheep can develop scurs that can become dangerous by growing back into the skull.
It seems that Huller’s “twenty years” of research did not include any research into animal husbandry.
Here's something especially despicable, though. Huller apparently sent out some sort of robot (or personal slave!) to search out blogs that used the phrase "throne of God" and spammed them all with this:
Hi, I notice that you are discussing the throne of God. We have been led to believe by our ancestors that when Jesus was resurrected he went up to a throne in heaven. However I just read a fascinating book by the New Testament scholar Stephan Huller that in earliest Christianity that the original gospel writer (St. Mark) might have had a physical throne ON THIS EARTH in mind - one which originally sat in Alexandria and which he rediscovered in Venice - see the photos of the object in the Basilica di San Marco which Italian sailors stole from the Church of St. Mark in Alexandria along with the body of St. Mark in 828 AD - see photos of the throne here - http://www.therealmessiahbook.blogspot.com.
The point of Huller's book is that St. Mark was the first Pope and that Jesus ruled 'on his right hand' as he sat on this throne (it is a universally acknowledged - albeit ignored - fact that the title 'Papa' or Pope was originally associated with St. Mark rather than St. Peter and with Alexandria rather than Rome; the bishop of Rome only acquired the title after the fifth century).
I was really fascinated by this book. It wasn't anything like what I had been taught in Sunday school. It really made me think and learn about the language that Jesus and the original gospel writer (St. Mark) spoke.
For instance in Hebrew or Aramaic (the language of Jesus) there would be no way to distinguish the concepts of 'divine throne' or 'heavenly throne' - i.e. it would be easy for white Europeans to get misled or confused (like the Gospels of Matthew and Luke speaking about 'the kingdom of heaven' and 'God' even though the Aramaic would be one and the same).
It is an amazing book and here is some background information on the author http://www.stephanhuller.blogspot.com/
Just thought I would pass this along
For example see
http://bloodtippedears.blogspot.com/...t-silence.html
I get the idea that Huller is some sort of freak (well, he does work as a circus acrobat!) who regularly searches the Net a' la DJ for his name, so I'm hoping he'll find this thread and come here for a thrashing.
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Stephan Huller, The Real Messiah: A Load of CRAP!
I know Huller wanted Ehrman to give his book a positive review, but I don't think that'll happen....
Hadn't typed it in yet.
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