Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Surely Matthew is not the original. Matthew is clearly not a Jewish (or Jewish Christian for that matter) text. This is where faith gets in the way of lucidity. Are you suggesting that Greek Matthew was based on something like the Aramaic/Hebrew gospel of the Hebrews ? (As distinct from the other w...

................................................................ I’m rejecting at least two common interpretations of Papias: Papias’ logia were sayings (which would be logoi) or oracles, in the sense of prophecies about the future (I would suggest logia meant something more general, like “divine c...

The note 5 reads: The decretal of Pope Damasus (382) gives in the list of books of the New Testament: Johannis Apostoli epistula una, alterius Johannis presbyteri epistulae duo. This is from the Decretum Gelasianum the NT canon here may come from Damasus in 382 but may be later. Andrew Criddle

You have to find an ancient witness to the time shift in order to take it Really seriously. An "ancient witness" who stated it overtly? or various less overt things of those times, such as Eusebius reporting the Acts of Pilate dated the crucifixion to the 7th of Tiberius (btw, do you have a citatio...

I've said this before, but I think we must distinguish between the existence of oral tradition and the reliability of oral tradition. Questioning reliability amounts to saying that the stories told about Jesus c 70 CE were highly legendary. Questioning existence amounts to saying that there were no...

I ask the question, why introduce a character with no background prior only to refute a theology not part of your Gospel elsewhere? If you are refuting it where did it come from? I am sorry to admit it, but the answer is easy: Vinzent thinks that Marcion remembers John the Baptist and introduces hi...

About Brodie's argument in chapter 12 of Beyond the Quest ... The orality of ancient literature is not in dispute, nor is the fact that past events can be remembered and transmitted in story-telling. Brodie gives as an example his parents' recollections, transmitted to him in story, of important ev...

Odd that this John the Baptist is unknown to Jews - Josephus is not a Jewish witness. Why would Marcion need to divorce the text from a marginal and possibly non-existent person? Isn't it more likely that the editor wanted to create an Elijah for his 'Jewish messiah'? See http://earlywritings.com/f...

On a general point. I think we should distinguish between two claims. A/ the plausible claim that Marcion's Gospel is a very early witness to the text of Luke, a text which was in flux in the second century and hence Marcion's Gospel may at many points preserve the original text which has been alter...

Celsus seems to accept that a historical Jesus existed. He appears to be more dubious as to the historical basis of the miracle stories about Jesus.

Andrew Criddle