Why Jesus descended ''in the 15° year of Tiberius'' ?

[Secret Alias]

Is this willful stupidity or unintended blindness on your part? You have these fixed ideas that will not allow you to see any other possibilities even up to the point of ignoring evidence. Yes of course close to the end of the development of what is now Book 4 of Adv Marc we are talking about "coming down to Capernaum" but the original text clearly mentions things that have nothing to do with Luke chapter 4 - especially the "appeared" or "appearance" citation which Roth admits he can't explain. But then again he is more honest than you.

[Secret Alias]

Let me give you another analogy. I spend most of my time when I am not working working on my son's soccer (football) prospects. I happen to live in America where - for the most part - footballers aren't very good. Nevertheless there is a MASSIVE hierarchy in the USSDA. It is simply staggering how many levels of management, the bureaucracy. But the point is that as long as you are buried within the labyrinth of the USSDA you measure your son based on various measures - some kids are doing better than your son others not so much. But then you remember - America sucks at football. The measurements for the bureaucracy. It's a parallel universe which seems like reality. But reality is Europe. Reality is making it in a league where the best play. The things that Americans think are important or stressed for successful 'soccer players' are not oddly the things important to Europeans for their footballers. But you don't see the forest from the trees if you bury yourself knee deep in the bureaucracy.

So my point is that you can create this situation where Adversus Marcion Book 4 was written by Tertullian in Latin as a commentary on Luke based on first hand knowledge of Marcionism. Yes of course you can view the text as this and only this. But in order to do that you have to ignore:

1. clear signs of a Greek untertext with certain expressions left untranslated
2. repeated and wholly unnecessary references to things in Matthew
3. the opening words of Adversus Marcionem which make reference to other 'editions' of the same material some of which are retained by heretics or apostates.

I don't mean to rehash the stuff that Andrew and I think about the original state of the text as a commentary on a gospel harmony but the question of why Tertullian references 'appeared' or 'appearance' in this section certain has nothing to do with Luke as we know it.

[Ben C. Smith]

But then you remember - America sucks at football.

From a male perspective. But the women's team has done quite well for itself. Title IX + a generation of soccer moms toting their daughters to soccer games in the family minivan = world class team.

[Secret Alias]

I am all for unisex soccer. My son brought up an interesting point the other day. They sometimes have boys and girls train together. At the elite levels girls are often superior in terms of technique, listening to the coach and carrying out what he demands. With men it's just aggression - "balls." That's the one thing that distinguishes the sexes.