Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

There were ancient beliefs that certain stories about the gods were allegories. According to Tatian: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tatian-address.html And Metrodorus of Lampsacus, in his treatise concerning Homer, has argued very foolishly, turning everything into allegory. For he says ...

Any idea what book Lüdemann (2) is refering to? There's nothing in (2) that justifies the quote of Melito... It isn't clear in Freke and Gandy's book but I'm guessing it's Lüdemann's "The resurrection of Christ : a historical inquiry" since it fits the year of publication listed in F&...

“Indeed, when in 160 Bishop Melito of Sardis went to Judea to discover what had become of the legendary Jerusalem Church, to his dismay he found not the descendants of the apostles, but instead a small group of [...] Christians, who called themselves the Ebionites or 'Poor Men', [who] had their own...

?2) "Before the War, there were Nazoreans" but were they distinct from what I call the Jamesian church, and if so how? Was I wrong in arguing to John2 that under the Jamesian church the Nazarenes were the followers of Paul? According to Epiphanius, all Christians were called Nazoraeans. S...

If they were Jewish messianic claimants they could well have been perceived to have been rebels (?) ie. deviating from Jewish authority and perhaps/probably deviating from The Law True, but the converse wouldn't be true: rebels wouldn't have necessarily been perceived as messiahs. Most in Giuseppe'...

The following table shows the various messianic figures of which Jesus is probably the amalgam: Nitpick: are they 'messianic' figures, or just rebels? I would be cautious in equating "messiah" with "rebel", unless you are arguing that the historical Jesus (if there was one) was ...

Everything there fits my definition of Ebionaen+Nazoreans - there's nothing according to our criteria to distinguish the two, So I'll invent a new word we can use: NEbionaen :=,) I'd be cautious there. The history being presented by Epiphanius (its accuracy is another question) is: 1. Before the Wa...

According to Epiphanius in his Panarion , the first disciples moved to the area of Bashan, which included Pella and Cocabe. Epiphanius claimed that Ebion himself was connected to Cocabe. This is from where the heretical sects the Nazoraeans and the Ebionites arose, according to Epiphanius. First, th...

A view that seems to pre-date the full canon of the written Gospels, and one we believe represents the view of the earliest Christians is: Jesus came to earth humbly, as a man. No miracles, no powers, but of the Davidic line. He lived a life that conformed to God's law, and acquired his divinity at...

2) "His execution led to the view that he had become perfected and so became a Christ" doesn't address the question that I raised: " the Ebionaens believed that Jesus survived the cruxifiction? " If he survived the cruxifiction then to the Ebionaens, he could not "become a ...