Flawed theories

Alan Hinnrichs and Steuart Campbell (Letters, 28 December) both seem devoted to 
19th-century German biblical scholarship.

Alan Hinnrichs and Steuart Campbell (Letters, 28 December) both seem devoted to 19th-century German biblical scholarship.

I say this because that’s the last time their wild accusation about Jesus being a redressed version of preceding pagan myths was regarded as a respectable academic theory.

The alleged similarities are often non-existent or incidental, but that doesn’t stop the theory from circulating around the internet.

Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, and, free from the antisemitism of previous centuries,

contemporary scholarship correctly interprets the gospels in this context, not the context of culturally irrelevant pagan mythology.

Sceptics like to present themselves as the voice of reason against ignorance, but they are often the voice of discredited conspiracy theories against solid evidence.

Richard Lucas

Broomyknowe

Edinburgh