Stuart wrote: ↑Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:17 pm
The theology contained within [was probably] neither Marcionite nor Gnostic, but rather ambiguous ... at least few versions of the prototype were made ...
Probably. And probably several different scenarios of this in communities in several different regions.
There was probably a milieu of mystery-pagan, gentile, Roman, Jewish, and other beliefs in an Egypto-Greco-Roman mixing pot.
Stuart wrote:
It is my general belief that Christianity had two primary camps of factions, one which became known as all the various heretical Gnostic type sects, and the other would coalesce into the Orthodoxy (after many decades of evolution).
I agree there was likely to have eventually been two camps prior to the NT canon being formed. The Dutch Radicals proposed a Jewish-messianic camp and a Gentile-Gnostic camp. A few combinations are possible.
Jax wrote: ↑Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:38 am
Accepting a 2nd century dating for all of the Gospels is kind of tough, as the first Gospel, usually thought to be Mark, can possibly be as early as the 70's in the 1st century. The last Gospel, possibly Luke, may be as late as after the introduction of the Marcion canon somewhere in the 140's. This gives a possible spread of 70 years for the four Gospels of the NT. Not exactly a boom.
If it could be shown that the Mark Gospel is reliant on the Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus and that this Gospel was indeed the first then we could shave about 20 years off of this estimate.
Lot of If's.
Why limit the inquiry to the canonical four? All of the following noncanonical texts, and more, can lay a decent claim to having been written either late in century I or any time in century II:
Memoirs of the Apostles (as cited by Justin Martyr, with seeming differences from our canonical gospels).
Diatessaron.
This list does not even include commentaries and similar works such as those by Basilides, Papias, and Hegesippus. Nor does it include purely hypothetical (but hardly impossible) early sources like Q, the Signs Source, or the Passion Narrative. Dating virtually any of these works, however, is diabolically difficult, both in relative and in absolute terms. And, even if we were able to locate the date of each to within, say, a decade, whether the results ought to be characterized as a "boom" may be open to interpretation.
Ah! Yes! I agree.
I misunderstood the question being asked as to relating to only the canonical Gospels. As to there being a "boom" in Christian literature during the late 1st and throughout the 2nd centuries there can be no doubt.
