Re: Is the Earliest Gospel an answer to Revelation?
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:21 am
I think similarly. I think Christianity as we perceive it today, or even how we might perceive it might have been in the early 3rd century, did not exist until [edited] the mid late 4th century (at least; after the 2nd ecumenical council in Constantinople in 381). I don't think there was a focus on -or an attempt to reify- a historical Jesus until the time of Irenaeus.Joseph D. L. wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:52 pm My own personal opinion is that prior to the Temple destruction, Christianity did not exist proper, in that there was not the focus of a historical Jesus. Even Pauline Christianity I think did not exist until the time of Hadrian.
I'd say there were various messianic communities established after the Temple destruction. I'm not sure when any would have become discernabley 'proto-Christian', or been established as that.Joseph D. L. wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:52 pm
But I do think that a community of proto-Christians was established sometime after the Temple destruction. However it's focus was purely Jamesian (adherence to Torah, but a mixture of Egyptian gnosis woven into it). The Essenes look as a good primar for this.
I've started looking at the per- and post-Temple destruction communities, ta'na, and traditions leading to the Tosefta and Mishna, and perhaps other pertinent collections of tannaitic halakhot and aggadot (I've dumped info here http://www.earlywritings.com/forum/view ... f=6&t=3591 but need to re-sort it).Joseph D. L. wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:52 pm
The Talmud does hint at the use of an Evangelion by "philosophers" which have been interpreted as Christians relatively early. I'm to think that it was the Gospel of the Hebrews which all other texts (including Marcion's) worked from.