Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

M. David Litwa has been mentioned here a few dozen times (on Xtian topics), but not regarding this material. A couple of years ago, I appreciated his addition to the Hermetica , the easily read translation Hermetica II: The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient Testimonies in an Engli...

Thank you, Ben!

I also spent two hours - surely: I made some mistake, misspelled smthg, missed the most obvious alternative, etc. - before concluding 'It's just not there!'

Pollux 6. 26 “τὸ γὰρ νηφαλιεύειν τὸ νηφάλια θύειν ἔλεγον, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ χρῆσθαι θυσίαις ἀοίνοις, ὧν τὰς ἐναντίας θυσίας οἰνοσπόνδους ἔλεγον”. "νηφάλια θύειν... ἐστὶ τὸ χρῆσθαι θυσίαις ἀοίνοις." e.g, Colson, Philo Judaeus, Vol.3, pp.384;385 for νηφάλια θύειν = offering of sobriety, θυσίαις ἀ...

Dr. Smith was a dodgy character! Was HE gay , or do we just want to 'read' him that way? He was always scheming, too... https://scifihorrorfantasy.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/zacharysmith.jpg (well, it would explain alot, right? If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, swims...

I know that the Pharisees, in general, are held to have believed in the resurrection of the righteous dead, which Josephus explains on their behalf as the installation of the incorruptible soul (ψυχή) into a new body (σῶμα) in Wars 2.8.14 §163. I hope this Reply isnt too far off-topic. I recently r...

I'm fairly convinced that Christians and Chrestians are NOT identical. Although the ancient writers themselves address the confusion, the distinction(s) may have been poorly understood by outsiders across the Empire even then. This situation seems very complex. Here is an outstanding resource, not s...

E. Goodenough, By Light, Light: The Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism [1935], p.43 : “With these {doruphoroi} Reitzenstein* connects a sentence from a papyrus in the British Museum: οἱ δύο θεοὶ οἱ περὶ σέ, Θαθ. καλεῖται ὁ εἷς θεὸς ο εσώτερος Σω, ὁ ἕτερος Ἀφ {=“The two gods who are beside you, Tho...

Alas and alack, quick and dirty is ... quick and dirty. My working translation is admittedly a first draft, has errors, etc. In fact, I haven't read or written French (and I wasn't a good student) in over 25 years. There is no translation, so I must muddle through ... "L'Eglise peut avoir parfa...

Can someone clarify this point, from Moriz Friedländer’s “La Secte de Melchisédec et l'Épître aux Hébreux” in Revue des Études Juives Vol. 5 (1882), Part 1: p.14 L'Eglise peut avoir parfaitement raison de dire que leur hérésie se prévalait de l'Épître aux Hébreux; mais il n'est nullement prouvé de l...

There seems to have been a strain of Judaism, practiced in the Temple, which revered the seven planets, the heavens, and other astronomical entities. Memory of this strain has been repressed in the Jewish scriptures, relegated to descriptions of heretical moments in Israelite history. Temple or Syn...