Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Hos 8:11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning. This is another reference to altars to non-Yaweh Gods. Hos 10:8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. This is abo...

While the word is used in the Bible, it is not used to refer only to the altar in the Jerusalem Temple. For example, in James 2:21, it refers to the sacrifice of Issac: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" Obviously Abraham's s...

The word θυσιαστηριον can be found in Jdg 2:2 for the altars of the inhabitants of the land. In Jdg 6:28, 30-32 it's an altar of Baal, also in 1 Kgs 16:32, 18:26, 2 Kgs 11:18. In 2 Kgs 21:5 it's an altar to all the powers of heaven. Hi spin I noted in my reply to Jay that θυσιαστηριον is occasional...

Hi Andrew, Why would you be suprised to see THUSIASTHRION used for a pagan altar? Greco-Roman Temples had contained altars for animal sacrifice for at least the previous 1,000 years. According to David Gill in his article: Trapezomata: A Neglected Aspect of Greek Sacrifice , in The Harvard Theologi...

Hi Peter One thing I find a bit puzzling about your use of Hegesippus. IF Hegesippus is a historically valid source at all, then he provides evidence of a James the Just the brother of the Lord at Jerusalem before 70 CE. This must be the James the brother of the Lord who Paul supposedly interacted w...

<SNIP> Moreover, the validity of this remark by Eusebius tends to be diminished rather significantly, considering that elsewhere he actually says that someone else wrote the Diatessaron! Because in his EPISTLE TO CARPIANUS, Eusebius also said that the Diatessaron (to dia tessaron euaggelion) was wr...

Thanks for this argument, Andrew. I'd like to reiterate that I do not know whether the Pauline epistles are genuine. So far, I was just arguing against the idea (based on an argument presented here above) that they couldn't be genuine and after 70 AD. It has nothing to do with "wishes," a...

1 Corinthians 9:13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? seems to imply that the temple is still in operation. (More generally; if one wishes to argue that the references ...

You might be aware that Epictetus mentions Christians from around 110 A.D. You may not be aware, hanery, that I am not aware of very much at all, but I am especially uninformed regarding Epictetus. The best information about him, that I have been able to uncover, suggests, contrarily that he wrote ...

Lewis is correct. While anthropomorphic language may fall short of explaining a God that is far beyond us it is the best language we can find for humans are the most “god-like” figures in creation. When we attempt to venture away from anthropomorphic language toward something that sounds “deeper” a...