Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Aelia Capitolina was not built on the Jerusalem site but just north of it. Nothing pre-Roman or pre-Byzantine has been found under the old city. By contrast just to the south of the walls they have found Gihon, Siloam, and Herod's palace (to the west). I tend to believe the thesis that what we call ...

Hoffman has two books of note, one on Celsus (I have, excellent) and this one on Porphyry https://books.google.com/books/about/Porphyry_s_Against_the_Christians.html?id=XYJ9QgAACAAJ I think the price is steep at $45 and $20 kindle, so I'd use my local library extension. Oxford rips off readers with ...

Peter, I do think it would be constructive if you had an alternate (Dutch Radical) Radical proposed timeline. It is the strongest competitor and the foundations date back to Van Manen at the very end of the 18th century. The viewpoint continues to resurface and has considerable traction today. I wou...

I presume you are referring to Revelation 11:1-14, an d the mention in verse 11:3 of two witnesses (by the voice from heaven) And I will grant (δώσω) my two witnesses (δυσὶν μάρτυσίν μου) ... Well to start this, let's look at Wikipedia, that sometimes accurate, sometimes randoms source. https://en.w...

Stephen, This is not a "proof" in any sense of the word. You clearly lack a mathematical background, and I guess didn't take (or if you did, didn't grasp conceptually) any logic classes. If you did you would instantly recognize that the above is not a proof, but a smattering of anecdotal c...

If you want a radical criticism point of view, based on internal Christian politics of the 2nd century I can give it. But be aware this is based on a few premises: 1. the New Testament is mid-2nd century to late 2nd century literature 2. the characters in the literature have both legendary and liter...

The one in Luke 14:53 is far from secure. It comes from the problematic part 5 of Dialogue Adamantius in the Greek (See Clabeaux, who rejects all of part five supposed Marcionite readings). However the text in Adamantius is not original, as it includes late (very post Marcionite) text variants, incl...

I think the issue should have been settled by Knox in the 1940s. And to illustrate lets do a little exrecise: The Gospel of Luke has 19,482 Greek words in it (we can quibble over 200 or 300 words, but no matter). The Marcionite Gospel was at least 1/3rd fewer words, so lets say for the sake of argum...

Yes Ignatius is legend. It used to be accepted the writings were 4th century, and that is still probably true. Yes, I dodged the ranking of Church Fathers. But mostly because Stephen is attempting to wedge. There is value in the sum of the descriptions of various groups. But they need to be tested a...

You have my position quite wrong. I see Marcion, if he existed, So you are open to the possibility that Marcion never existed. That in itself is a positive development. as one of many heretical teachers. They only thing that makes him stand out is he had his own Canon, which is useful when trying t...