Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

But "... one could argue that a later redactor, again, perhaps at the end of the second century, added in [the] references to the gospels and Paul [to] root Ignatius in the tradition of the Apostles and Paul, while at the same time providing an early witness to the canonical texts." 1 htt...

1. Recent, as-yet-to-be-published scholarship (which I am privy to), puts what I think is a very good case that the Syriac Short Recension of Three Letters that we know about through William Cureton were, in fact, the original Ignatian letters (or reflect original Ignatian Letters), ie., the Ignati...

Looking into this, if only for my own interest: 1. The long recessions were found in Greek and Latin manuscripts. There are 13 epistles, 6 regarded as spurious. 2. The middle recessions were found in Greek manuscripts in the 17th C by Archbishop James Ussher. There are 7 epistles, which matches the ...

I may be confusing "shorter recension" with "short recension". Looks like "shorter recension" is actually the middle recension? So my comment above may be wrong. I'll have to investigate this more tomorrow. Bed-time now in the land of Oz.

Each chapter has two paragraphs, with the first one being the shorter one and the second the longer one.

The Short Recension of Three Letters - discovered and championed by Cureton - the Epistles to Polycarp, to the Ephesians and to the Romans - were almost certainly the first, original letters of Ignatius. They do not include references to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection , the Eucharist , or to C...

The pagan Caecilius accuses Christians of being secretive about their rites But the actions of the cult are not the object of the accusation. Celsus accuses "often" the Christian doctrine of being secret. Which virtually put in doubt the his own certainty about the official version (earth...

Minucius Felix's "Octavian" (my favorite piece of ancient writing!) also lays out the pagan accusations against the secrecy of Christians and their doctrine. The pagan Caecilius accuses Christians of being secretive about their rites which means they must be ashamed of them: https://www.ea...

Where Celsus is very close to put implicitly in doubt the historicity of Jesus is when he raises the accusation that 'the doctrine is secret' . The only way a such claim can be interpreted as an accusation , is that the secret belief is radically different from the public belief, to the point of be...

Yes, Celsus makes some claim about the "real" biography of Jesus, but it is evident that these supposed "real facts" about Jesus are themselves just alternative imaginings derived from the Gospels. "Let us imagine what a Jew- let alone a philosopher- might say to Jesus: 'Is...