Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Part 3 --- I Lied, but … But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it has been written: "That you may be justified in your words, and will prevail in your being judged." But if our unrighteousness shows God's righteousness, what shall we say? God, inflicting the wrath, is unrighteous?...

Part 2 --- Is a Lie that Glorifies God a Sin? The following passage about the righteousness of God reflects the wider theme in Romans, but things seem to get personal --- … But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it has been written: "That you may be justified in your words, and will pre...

Part 1 --- Paul Was No Saint Mostly only children believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the tooth-fairy --- but millions of adults today believe in a great Saint Paul. Among those that would stop well-short of sainthood, many would still picture some version of an evangelist and true believ...

In another thread, a link was posted to 2 chapters from Steve Mason's 2009 book, Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origin s. I’ve moved this to a new thread because the issue I’m addressing is off-topic there. https://www.academia.edu/40012218/Two_Essays_on_the_Apostle_Paul_his_Euangelion_gospel_and_it...

Once again, this is an effort to see through the fog of Paul’s ubiquitous defense of his spiritual system, to highlight the human interactions and dramas revealed in his letters. The basic assumption underlying this post is that Paul’s 7 letters are authentic mid-1st century CE texts and are adequat...

Kunigunde Kreuzerin wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:23 am
At some point someone (maybe Paul himself) came up with the idea of the religious community as a new family.

I think that concept is reflected in Paul in Galatians 4:4-7 and Romans 8:15-17.

Do you have any information on Aretas that would lead us to think that his name would indeed have been well-known enough to impress the "far-away Corinthians" even some 15 or years after the event? Even if the Corinthians did not know of the name Aretas IV, my suggestion of Paul writing t...

Well, OK, that's a lot of words with barely a glancing response to the issue raised in my post.

Clearly it all boils down to our different opinions on who wrote Paul's letters, so I think we have hit a wall.

maryhelena, my apologies for making it personal. My frustration got the better of me and left questions about Arteas inadequately explored. Evidently we agree that some speculation is necessary to develop solutions for the occurrence of the name Aretas in 2 Corinthians 11:32 --- the extant historica...

Delving into interpersonal issues is almost never a good idea in this format. Yes, I opened that door with an explanation of why I started a new thread parallel to an on-going one. I do find the style of some posters to be frustrating and tend to avoid them. Besides differences in style, the discuss...