Archaeologist: "Jesus" predated Jesus

[Adrian II]

The majority view is the consensus.

My dear Pindar, it has been said before on this website: if any one of us should one day need a good lawyer, that lawyer would have to be you. You never, ever give up; even if your words fly in the face of Mssrs Merriam and Webster, you will stare them donw, force them to rewrite their own dictionary and make them thank you for it.

I believe The Bible(s) is the product of the winners. From a Christian perspective this refers to the triumph of proto-orthodoxy over its rivals. I therefore see the text(s) as agenda ridden and both intentionally and unintentionally incomplete, and yet I also believe it to contain records of Divine interaction.

Cryptic as usual, but clear in substance. Please bear with me as I try to bear with you.

1. From my superficial knowledge of Mormonism I think I understand your overall position: the Christian canon reflects the teachings of the early Church of Rome as it tried to establish orthodoxy and stamp out teachings and practices it considered as heresies (for instance 'Judaisation').
Apostolic writings that did not fit this teaching were discarded, and passages of the canonical books rewritten to make them conform to incipient orthodoxy. We can more or less reconstruct this process of canonical selection and recomposition in the early Church if we turn to extant apostolic writings, such as the Diadoche of the Apostles or the Clement letter.

Is my understanding accurate so far?

2. Furthermore it seems to me that you, Suraknar and myself share a common interest. All three of us believe that within the wealth of extant sources of the period, we should be able to isolate instances of pure spiritual experience (which you call Divine interaction), as opposed to secundary experience, hearsay, mystification or deliberate falsehoods.

Accurate so far?

3. I believe that Mormons think certain passages in the Christian canon have been rewritten, and that a reconstruction of the original passages is possible. One instance would be the story of Lot in Genesis. Lot gets a bad rap in the Christian canon (he trades his two daughters' honour for that of two angels visiting his home). Whereas Mormons are of the view that the original passage shows him to be the 'righteous' man deserving of God's grace after all.

Accurate so far?

4. I am presuming a lot and I'm out on a limb here, but supposing that all this more or less reflects your views, I have a concrete question (I'm a journalist, I believe in the use of concrete examples).

Question: can we establish who rewrote that passage, or more importantly under what circumstance, and most important of all why is was rewritten in this fashion?