Home wasn't quite what Melanie considered the Bell estate these days, even if it was true, there were just too many memories for her but her Dad had been among other things a scholar on most Christian stuff so here she was back in the halls of the house she'd grown up in and as per usual with her gang around her. On the table in the study lay all the papers they had. "So let me see if I'm understanding this correctly."
Brian Raines said flipping through the paper "The Earagon get branded as heretical at the Council of Celestis? Why?"
"Disagreements over core beliefs of what we think of as Christian just look at the voting pattern it's speaking volumes." Melanie said
"It's certainly odd these voting patterns and records." Rosalie said "What's driving it?"
"Here." Melanie said handing Rosalie a bible "Mark sixteen."
"Ok." Rosalie said flicking through the bible "Saturday evening, when the sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus' body. Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. On the way they were asking each other, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, but the angel said "Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn't here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died." The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened." she took a breath "Then..."
"Stop." Melanie said
"Why?" Rosalie asked
"Because you're into the short ending." Melanie said
"Short ending?"
Natasha Raines asked
"Gospel of Mark has two endings, a short one and a long one." Brian said
"Two endings two votes against." Melanie said
"So the Earagon voted against both endings."
Leon Downing said "How does that make them heretics?"
"Ignore the two endings." Melanie said "Where does the gospel finish?"
"With the tomb." Brian said "Crucifixion but no resurrection?"
"Yep." Melanie said
"Mortal not divine." Brian said "And you vote against John's gospel because that's the most explicit account of the resurrection."
"What about the others?"
Lori Downing asked "Don't Matthew and Luke have clear resurrection accounts?"
"Luke doesn't." Brian said "You have the angel but there's no moment between Jesus and the women like you get in John instead you get the walk to Emmaus."
"Matthew?" Natasha asked
"There is a moment between Jesus and the women but it's followed by something." Melanie said "Rosalie Matthew twenty eight verses eleven to fifteen."
"As the women were on their way some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. A meeting with thee elders was called and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe." Rosalie read "They told the soldiers "you must say 'Jesus' disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.' If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you so you won't get in trouble." So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today."
"The seed of doubt." Melanie said "The story itself doesn't make sense, grieving shocked disciples grave robbing? But the theory that's a powerful thing. The Pharisee's can't say it to the guards but 'Achkaerinese conspiracy orchestrated by Pilate' sure makes for a plausible narrative. According to John you can take it that Pilate believes Jesus innocent, what if he said to bring him down off the cross before he was dead? Put him in the tomb, tend the wounds? That explains Emmaus."
"Which then makes the Ascension and the great commission akin to the exile in Abydos?" Brian said "If we're following the Earagon logic of mortal not divine."
"It's a heck of a leap." Rosalie said
"So why do they believe it?" Leon asked "It's a little shaky."
"Faith isn't academia." Brian said
"Ignore John, constrain Mark but accept Matthew and Luke." Melanie said "It's a weird thing and proposing a bunch of other stuff that isn't accepted..." she stopped and looked at Brian "I think I know what the Earagon guard... Q"
"If it exists." Brian said "It would explain an awful lot."
"What's Q?" Lori asked
"When we talk about the gospels we mainly talk about the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke." Melanie said "Mark is the first one, it's probably the closest thing to an eyewitness account there is. Matthew and Luke come after Mark and include some stuff from Mark but there are also parts not in Mark that appear in Matthew and Luke this has led to some scholars theorising that the authors of Luke and Matthew had access to another source beyond Mark. This we call the Q source or just Q."
"So where do we think it is?" Rosalie said "Assuming it exists."
"It's quite well documented which nations the Earagon fled to." Brian said "We might get lucky."
"And if we don't I'm making a trip to Rodina." Melanie said "But there's no way this gets left behind."