Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

thanks RG thought provoking, after a session trying out chat GPT its surprising how pleasant it is to receive a human reply, guess i'm the one that's learning dammit I apologise this is off topic I managed to get the chat to agree with me on some things, not sure how to take such agreement but it wa...

well, Randy there's something floating around I can't quite figure out how to say It's the strange connection the Pauline doctrine has to that of the gnostics around the salvific effect of the cross (which is not in the Odes or barely) To both the Gnostics and Paul the life of the earthly Jesus has ...

Interesting thanks, be something if the short recension has a case for priority It's notable that in places these early orthodox texts do contain statements usually associated with gnostics (Ignatius 'the word came forth from silence') It would be v. useful to have these collected in one place Cause...

Its a fun game, for sure, but is there even an original one to guess? I'm often scratching my head when I read Paul rail into some of his opponents--e.g. that faction of the Corinthians who didn't even believe in the resurrection! Seems to me that if Paul really was writing only 20 years or so afte...

If the Paulines are written by Marcion, can we not just ignore them? Exclude them from our canon the way the Ebionites did? Sure, the movement existed for years or decades prior to Paul even with the traditional dating. They didn't have them in their canon as they weren't written yet so ignore 'em ...

Certainly. Christianity was diverse from the very earliest times, but even in the earliest visible strata (Marcion's recension) we see a very combative Paul who had strong opinions about other factions. Indeed, I see them as quite opposed to each other and this state of affairs seems to endure down...

It might help if you put on your Marcionite goggles before you read it: "You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism (the Old-Testament religion of that judgy, vengeful god). I was violently persecuting the assembly of (the merciful, loving) God (of the New Testament) and was tryin...

There may not even have been a historical Simon. But that is really kind of beside the point for, as Richard Carrier, puts it: “The historicity of this Simon has been questioned, but the historicity of his worship as a divine being has not” (On the Historicity of Jesus, p. 71). So, if Satornilus an...

I suspect that Cerdo was a Simonian Christian of the Saturnilian variety, and that as much as 80% of the seven so-called authentic Paulines was actually the work of Saturnilians. Stepping back and avoiding specifics there are curious parallels between Pauline theology and that attributed to Satunil...

in imagining "simonians" they basically disappear into the mix of early christians (itself a name not used till later) what they believed hard to know, i suspect a classic mystic/esoteric bunch that were by no means violent seeing the futility of that route i further suspect their symbols ...