Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

which is why the epistles can be throwing us off the scent. they encompass a bunch of esoteric or mystical things but laying them down in a structured framework really as if presenting them for the first time. But that could just be an intentional feature to make them seem early If there were plenty...

after all , the epistles undermine the claim when they reveal there were other competing traditions and i think it is such as these that may have sourced the gospel stories. I think we also can't just assume that the Gospel stories are based (or mostly based) on other traditions. It's possible that...

that 1Co 11:23 is a pre-pauline creed is unlikely, when the same word 'received' is used of revelations elsewhere in the epistles. highly doubtful commensurate with this, if the epistles don't mention the gospel story its likely because they consciously avoid all such material. i mean, using the epi...

I completely agree with Ken Olson. Just because Paul believed that Jesus was physically raised to heaven doesn't mean Paul knew about anyone actually finding the tomb empty like we find in Mark. The story of people finding the tomb empty could be completely made-up. I personally think the finding o...

goods points, but its obvious to me the disciple Jesus loves is Magdalene and the redactor probably changed it from Mary at these points, but didn't scrub out all the pieces. This would indicate an earlier tradition where she plays more of a role than she does already (a notable role), so even after...

one argument for a proto john is if john were actually using a source for some of it's material and adding a narrative John reminds me of the way a few gnostic texts do this So this would be the first person Jesus stuff of an older revelation or treatise. maybe the prologue John seems quite suited t...

which is interesting from a historicist perspective if your beloved leader suffers such a fate as to be crucified the memorial and remembrance of such would be expected to feature but that is not the same thing as a theology based around the event this is exactly what we see in the Odes where the ev...

isn't this the difference between subjective and objective reality? like, for example, there are wars on-going right now where people are murdering each other. at some point won't people think that the metaphorical view is just an excuse to bypass what is condemned objectively? how is one view super...

the synoptics are not for sure early as 2 out of 3 of them are later revisions
so it's whether the proto-John is earlier than the original synoptic
how do we know that John doesn't preserve more ancient ideas?

i think it looks like the gospels are being massaged to fit in with the Pauline narrative rather than they (or their sources) not existing prior to the epistles. why did Acts take pains to introduce Paul out of nowhere, because he wasn't originally there?