Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

it's not about Marcionite kooky sect, the epistles & pastorals of the NT argue Jesus wasn't the Messiah quite convincingly
only 6 books of the NT say Jesus is the Messiah, that's it you only need Marcionites if you're looking for more extreme views than Jesus wasn't the Messiah

RG that's impressive work. can I add one thing regarding the messianic secret? it could be possible to read this in light of the deprecation (or your preferred term) of the disciples, that the mistake they made was not to keep it secret, not that they might be wrong about it. a proclamation of the m...

If the OP were correct one conclusion based on the disparaging treatment of the disciples is that they though he was the Messiah and Mark's denial would have to be aimed at someone, who better than the disciples? It would suggest a pre-Markan tradition of a Jesus Messiah existed

Where is the evidence that Mark, or authors in general, intend a single reading of their work? Why would the author of "any given text," particularly an elite author like Mark, be unaware that his text "can have various readings?" Why would he not consider this a feature rather ...

the 'kingdom' does sound quite Messianic. how to explain that in a non-messianic reading? isn't it that it's the definition of what the Messiah is that Mark is engaging with? perhaps it's not saying he isn't the Messiah, it's he's not a certain type (but if that were true though it would have to be ...

Why did the common people hear him gladly? I don't understand that part. Is this something that can be extracted explicitly from Mark? the Jesus of the gospels is apparently popular with the people so it fits the expected pattern there is just a general popularity surrounding him. basically due to ...

If I understand your post correctly--I may not--you propose that the Sabellians, as described by Epiphanius circa 370 has somehow something to do with a creation of Bar-Abbas in NT. I am not persuaded. thanks for the translation. The invention of Barabbas against the Johannine Jesus has been made h...

I tend to see it the other way around. These events provide confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah even if they are not occurring in the expected way That's how I see it too. Mark had to somehow explain why Jesus is the “Christ”. I'm assuming that's the tradition the gospels are working from. A Mes...

The author of GMark pushes back against the concept of a Davidic Jesus throughout his story. And the expectations of a king-like figure riding into Jerusalem on a young foal (Mark 11:1-7, Zechariah 9:9), and the expectations expressed by the crowd of a kingly redeemer, “Blessed is the coming of our...

Ebion, you mention negating the law being antinomian do you see a difference between simply 'fulfilling' the spirit of it and negating it as obsolete entirely? would you see the former being the gospel Jesus message and the latter being the epistles? this is how I tend to see it. I'm interested if y...