Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Very interesting responses - although quite a lot of this is going over my head - I'm grateful for the engagement. I've been trying to find where the tradition is found of Polycarp's appointment as Bishop by John. Irenaeus makes the claim he was appointed "by apostles in Asia", but doesn't...

SA - I've been trying to locate the account of Polycarp's installation by John in the Acts of John, but can't find it. I've searched through the version on Early Christian Writings here: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... sjohn.html

Have you got a link to the account, please?

Ben Smith - you are a SAINT! Thank you very much for this extremely helpful response. I've been wrestling with the source for this on and off for months! It's a pity none of the sources cite Apelles, but most are there. I wonder if the first Ariso[n] is the same person as the third bishop, perhaps r...

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help me locate a list of early Smyrna Bishops referred to in a Catholic blog : “According to less established tradition, the first bishop of Smyrna was Apelles (mentioned in Romans 16:10), followed by Strataes, a brother (or uncle) of Timothy, then Ariston, then Bucolu...

Thank you Robert, DCH and Ben - you've been most helpful. It appears that the pilgrimage festivals continued to be celebrated after the temple was destroyed and instead of undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they would celebrate these festivals at their local synagogue. Therefore, this part of Po...

Thanks Ben - that makes sense.

The Preaching of Peter seems to be talking about Jewish calendrical practices for determining the beginnings of years and months in order to determine the dates of festivals. This continued after 70 CE although the festivals could no longer be properly celebrated. Andrew Criddle Many thanks Andrew....

The criticism is of those "serving angels and archangels, the month and the moon". The subsequent part of your quote is just saying that they serve the moon so excessively that if there is no moon they don't observe the sabbath. He could be talking about folk practices. Aye, the PoP does ...

Many thanks for your response DCH. The PoP, based on the fragments and allusions collected by James, does seem to have a very similar orientation to the Judaizing sect. Are you referring to the NT Epistle of James here? If so, where do you find the allusions to the PoP? Were they pre-70? As Andrew C...

Hi all, I’d appreciate any help with understanding the following passage in the Preachings of Peter (I'm not allowed to post URLs, but I've taken the text from the Early Christian Writings site): Neither worship ye him as do the Jews, for they, who suppose that they alone know God, do not know him, ...