Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

As a minor correction to what I writed earlier about Mahayana Buddhism's parallels to Christianity, which I only make in order to deflect potential criticism from karavan, when I referred to "Menandros the Bactrian King", I should have referred more precisely to him as "Menandros the ...

By the way, Neil, when I readed this thread's title, I thought that you were referring to the Christianity as represented by certain second century CE apologists, in which there was (as far as we can tell from their surviving writings), no "Jesus", "Christ", or sacrificial death ...

I note that no person has PMed to me any evidence that karavan has cited a single pre-gospel Christian text explicitly claiming that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet upon the Earth before his death. If karavan has admitted that no pre-gospel Christian text explicitly claiming that Jesus was an apoca...

. . . I'm not saying that every detail of thought between the NT and Justin matches. The NT was created from existing material. That existing material already had various agendas and perspectives. I'm saying that the revisions to the material change it in the same direction as Justin. If you compar...

If however, as a number of scholars have suggested, Justin knew a Synoptic Gospel harmony (similar to the Diatessaron of his student Tatian but without John) If he did, then whence did he get Jesus's birth in a cave? Surely, such a story, found in none of the 4 canonical gospels, reveals that Justi...

If however, as a number of scholars have suggested, Justin knew a Synoptic Gospel harmony (similar to the Diatessaron of his student Tatian but without John) If he did, then whence did he get Jesus's birth in a cave? Surely, such a story, found in none of the 4 canonical gospels, reveals that Justi...

Richard Carrier being the notable exception, if you count him as an academic, which I do Well, whatever his conduct and his theories, Dr. Carrier has a Ph. D. and has published peer-reviewed material, so I see no problem regarding him as an academic. Even if he be motivated by anti-religious bigotr...

Gary Goldberg has published a new argument for his thesis that Josephus' Testimonium Flavianum is dependent on a Christian source also preserved in the Emmaus story in Luke 24 in The Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus (2021): Abstract The controversial account of Jesus in Josephus’s Jewi...

I think a case can be made that Justin Martyr's Apologies and even his Dialogue with Trypho preceded orthodox Christianity. What Justin knew and how he knew it is not clear. Indeed, but Justin Martyr is different from the second century apologists whom I mentioned in my OP because he talks about &q...

I’m also not sure why an epistle to the Corinthians would refer to contemporary practice in Jerusalem, about which his church would know little or nothing. With all due respect, why assume this? A common assumption among scholars of Christian origins (regardless of their views about Jesus) is that ...