Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

But perhaps most difficult of all is to understand Tertullian's acceptance of 1 Corinthians 3:10's 'wise architect' as a reference to the Demiurge. As I said in one of my posts. I don't think scholars actually sit down and mull this over. Even if Paul is saying 'I am the Demiurge' maybe that scores...

What went wrong? Carrier's application of Bayes' theorem doesn't take into account whether the terms/variables he uses are independent . Oops. That would be a real beginner's error. I don't think it's much consolation, but paleontology on the internet has been taken over by a very productive indivi...

"very human weaknesses" - whether written by Paul solely, or partially, the letters would have been written by a person or persons (in a scriptorium?) trying to come to terms with changing theologies. The Pastorals are considered to have been written by "others". Yes, but they h...

I'll speak for the heretical Paul tradition of antiquity. How much corruption do you suppose occurred to what was originally Marcionite scriptures? Some? None? A lot? Here's the crux. How am I supposed to answer such a question with any kind of certainty? I think that it makes more sense that gLuke...

. Paul may be an anthropomorphized theology: an attempt to make it more human; more real. Maybe. But I'm unconvinced. Paul is too much "anthropomorphized" for me. You can make a pretty detailed character analysis from his letters, and he just screams "sect founder" to me. It's l...

But perhaps more significantly is the reference to the apostle as 'wise architect' or 'master builder.' This IMO is the clearest self-identification of the apostle as a 'supercharged' Demiurge, Yahweh who has been restored with his missing half Elohim (= Jesus), a 'spiritualized' being who created ...

I found the initial idea quite intriguing, but somewhat lost it at the Paul=Demiurge twist, not regarding the textual similarities, but conceptually. I get the similarities in the conversion experience, and Paul's allusion to being Christ himself (more than just in a general sense) lifts its head in...

So what do people think this might mean with regard to the argument of a historical versus myth Jesus? Anything at all? I don't know Israeli geography that well, but would this other Bethlehem still be considered to be in Judea? Because supposedly David was born in the Bethlehem of judea, right? No...

When you write gibberish (and I am certainly not referring here to your absolute mastery of the language itself!!!) about not knowing whether or not Achilles received divine protection, because that notion is derived from misplaced faith in the proposition that supernatural creatures could not exis...

I had looked into this some time ago. There's slightly more to it than the quote says. I'm talking from memory now, so the dates may be slightly off. The archaeological record lists Bethlehem as a rich site for a time when it existed as a city from 1200-550 BC. Then there's basically nothing until 6...