Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

got to say this info on Basilides makes me doubtful on the date of it it kind of looks like a Basilidean tract trying to fit in with orthodoxy and tick the right boxes, similar to certain Valentinian texts so i wonder how sure we can be this is genuine Basilides and not a later piece i mean, there's...

There is no indication in the letters that Paul was talking about the worship of a real person. The Jesus of the Pauline letters is clearly a deity. yes, but the Jesus of the gospels is a prophet, a spirit possessed human. so it's a short jump to say the spirit is Jesus by Paul rather than seeing t...

I think earliest belief was a mythological Jesus per Paul's original letters, as explained by Richard Carrier's Jesus from Outer Space. Seems to be the general tenor of the responses. A sign of the times that Marcionites-first is rejected not because of mainstream scholarship, but because it isn't ...

I think Paul's genuine epistles were the first Christian writings except the genuine epistles constantly claim and confirm (affirm) they are not the first or original membership of the group in question how can you say they are genuine and not also accept their claim that they are not the start of ...

Yes they were. Philonic and Pauline. It was the beginning. The one place Acts doesn't go. Marcion was Alexandrian. nope. nah, i see where you're going wrong though its true Philo and what-not, Pauline you call it, are part of this identifiable trend going on that's philosophical and is the origins ...

No the Odes are just not having it. The Odes say they are the original keepers so by definition the answer is no to that Were the Marcionites the keepers of the original Christian faith? Therefore No, only to the extent they kept certain parts unchanged from the 'spiritual' side of things One can't ...

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...