Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Two of our earliest sources from Gentile testimonies may shed some light onto this. The first is Pliny the Younger's Letter to Trajan. Written by Pliny in 112ad, this is the earliest mention, reference or allusion to anything barring the semblance of Christianity. Even so, Pliny is not at all forthc...

Robert M Price suggests that Paul is a composite of several historical figures, including Marcion [of Pontos], Stephen the Martyr, Simon the Sorcerer, and an iconoclastic evangelist who was named Paul. Price thinks Paul's letters were written and edited by other people, including Marcion & Poly...

Can you give one more hint with regard to your understanding of the general era of his active life? Do you believe he was still alive in roughly 155 CE as per Justin? That he attempted to present his understandings of Christianity to the Proto-Orthodox Church in Rome circa 138-140 CE, and was expel...

If I understand well, you are saying that you disagree with me because you think that the epistles are aware of a historical Jesus, therefore who wrote them (for example: Marcion) could very well also write a Gospel. A simple misunderstanding. I think that whether the epistles are aware or not of a...

I wonder if there are element of the likes of Akiva (or ben Zakkai, or a contemporary or disciple of either, such as Aquila "Ponticus" of Sinope) in some of the texts, too. Aquila "Ponticus" (fl. 130 AD) of Sinope was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek (the Tanakh), pro...

^Isayre

I intend to argue to the best of my ability who I believe Marcion is in a book I am in the early stages of formulating. A sort of biography of the man, if you will, in the vain of the Acts literature.

Hint: he is a man of many names and forms.

I think that the dilemma (how could Marcion himself write a Gospel and be totally unaware of a historical Jesus in the presumed epistles authored by him) can be resolved only: 1) by assuming, with Robert Price, that Marcion authored the epistles but he was unaware of any Gospel. 2) by assuming, wit...

The ''Gospel of the Hebrews'' betrayes already in the name the anti-marcionite influence: it is the Gospel of the Hebrews , against the exclusively Gentile Evangelion of Marcion. There are two points I would like bring up. First, the name Gospel of the Hebrews may not have been what it was original...

I think similarly. I think Christianity as we perceive it today, or even how we might perceive it might have been in the early 3rd century, did not exist until the mid 4th century. I don't think there was a focus on -or an attempt to reify- a historical Jesus until the time of Irenaeus. I am very m...

My own personal opinion is that prior to the Temple destruction, Christianity did not exist proper, in that there was not the focus of a historical Jesus. Even Pauline Christianity I think did not exist until the time of Hadrian. But I do think that a community of proto-Christians was established so...