Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Luke 21:5-6 and parallels, Mark 13:1-2, Matthew 24:1-2 Me thinks you are trolling here. You know that. The NT is genre literature, setting events in the reign if Tiberius, and Paul being set in the reign of Claudius. Because of these fictions the destruction of the temple is only alluded to. To spea...

How do we know Clement is early? I accept no Church fathers prior to Severus' reign. In fact to turn it on it's head, Clement quoting or paraphrasing teh Didache would suggest that specific writing element at least is later. One of the problems with early dating of the Church fathers, is accepting t...

I don't know the answer but I can remark on some related points: Eating with departed ones was (still is in some places, I think) a way to continue to share fellowship with them. One thing is clear, at least from observations of various religious practices I have seen in South-east Asia today, the ...

DHC, I meant by that post that the model we have for Paul, or more specifically the one WOW uses, has problems explaining issues like that. There are thus some assumptions which must be incorrect. It's easier to accept Harnack's opinion was correct than to reevaluate the entire framing of the NT era...

Well, you are up to Robert Price's speculations
http://robertmprice.mindvendor.com/art_jesus.htm

Can't buy the Didache represents anything early. I would place it post-Decian persecution at the earliest. Papias is one of those Eusubian characters I put almost zero weight on. We are grasping at straws for early references here. But yeah, I'll concede a bit on the pre-Marcion text. One has to rec...

The Marcionite text excludes 10:32-11:2, and likely 11:11-16, as well as 11:23-32. I think Walker identified the Catholic additions and thought those original. This is actually good work in separating the two layers of text, simply the wrong assignment of what was early and what was later. See Adeve...

Historia Augusta is a terrible source, very gossipy and unreliable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustan_History However, the true authorship of the work, its actual date, and its purpose, have long been matters for controversy amongst historians and scholars, ever since Hermann Dessau in 1889 rej...

On Vinzent's "if it were so" statements, well those can be called weasel words. But I don't fault him for caution, as the entire genesis of Christianity is speculative. The observations are worth consideration, so I'll go through them and give my take FWIW. Vinzent's prelude about how the ...

...There is a rival faction of Christians existent and competing with Marcion's, and it has a developed theology with clear markers, requiring a rebuke. .... the subtle differences within the Pauline collection and hints of somewhat differing theology in the Marcionite Gospel from the Marcionite te...