Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Well, you have to have a starting point somewhere. And the likelihood of the non-existence of such a person is greater because there are no independent sources of information even from mutually antagonistic sources as to his existence. And the bottom line comes down to FAITH in the claims of certain...

It's not a matter of rhetoric, Peter. It's a matter of context and facts. All the discussion about Marcion is based purely on speculation but often expressed as if there were some evidence for the existence of this man in the 2nd century (or even "Justin" for that matter). That's why it's ...

What I actually meant was a common usage of the word Muhammad to mean praised one outside of a couple of sources, as opposed to a proper name. If it can be shown that the name Muhammad was never used as a proper name at all, that is important. What would be even more important would be that the adje...

So go ahead and believe that Marcion's papa was "a bishop" because someone said so. Go ahead and say he had a "gospel of Luke" because someone said so. And that he had "the epistles" because someone said so, despite the fact that there is no evidence that the collection...

Of course it must be kept in mind that this Josephus is found in no ancient traditional Jewish text at all, not as a historian, not as a priest, not as a general, not as a writer. Nothing about him at all. No evidence that he ever existed, at least in Jewish sources. I always thought that Josephus w...

What is the evidence for common use of the word Muhammad to refer to the Praised One rather than a proper name among Arabs or Aramaic speakers??

This is hard to understand. Justin was allegedly in Rome at the same time is Marcion, but never mentions a word about Marcion's text, community, gospels or epistles. Nothing about origins, background or anything else of significance. Probably for very good reason in that the author of Justin didn't ...

Well, there weren't all that many fathers, and the conspiracy wasn't all that elaborate. Theywere in the employ of the regime and relied on a few predecessors and doctrines.

And the evidence for the existence of "Marcionites" in Armenia??

stephan happy huller wrote:The claims of Marcionites still living in Armenia

What eventually made Mecca holy besides the qibla after the Muslims gave up on praying facing Jerusalem?
And why did they create the legend of Muhammad's ascension to heaven from the site of theTemple in Jerusalem?