Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

A better thread-topic is "How early might the gospels be?" We should not fall into the fallacy of dating a text by the last item that might have been inserted into it. Scholars think the kernel of Mark is the passion account and may go back at least to the 40's. (Why not even earlier? The...

There is also the possibility that 'four' is a pun/metaphor (metafour?) for 'fore'. And of course, 'Forewarned is forearmed' (I'm sure that wisdom can be extracted from some OT verse or other if someone tried hard enough). Is this a hint that Jesus was a militant or terrorist, or at the very least a...

This analysis says nothing about whether what Mark's first readers knew came from historical facts, from legendary tales, or from previous gospel texts. Any or all of those options are left wide open, much in the same way that there are many different ways in which Josephus' readers might have come...

Why does Luke change the anointing from the head to the feet? Is Luke uncomfortable with the anointing of the head because of its latently subversive political/regnal implications? Is he uncomfortable with a woman doing the anointing? Why does Luke alone ignore the issue of the expense of the oil a...

Personally, I think your definition of what is and isn't syncretism is rather wider than mine. If you're interested in reviewing some literature around the subject: Syncretism/antisyncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis , Stewart and Shaw, 1994 Dialogue and Syncretism , Gort, 1989. Dated an...

neilgodfrey wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2018 3:47 pm Mostly I thought you were just having a go at me for expressing another perspective.

You're right. I apologise, and I take back the calling you being silly (twice I think) and dogmatic (twice I think), presumptious (just the once) and that you were only tossing out flippant gotchas.

I think there's a big difference between expecting an event in one's lifetime on the one hand (Paul) and expecting it to happen within a very few months or a year or two at the most on the other hand (the common/literalist interpretation of Mark 13). Maybe, but that's not got anything much to do wi...

Why not try something else: study Second Temple era Jewish thought, literature and apocalyptic writings and learn about how different ancient minds understood and wrote about these sorts of things? Possibly. I also hear a site called Vridar might be worth visiting. But then I heard that it's run by...

We could ask similar questions about Paul. Why worry about extracting financial contributions 'for the church' at such a time, etc. If Mark had simply said what Paul said, that no one knows when, that the day will come without warning or any particular signs (like a thief in the night) then there w...

What my general theses are has nothing to do with that post, or with many of the exchanges we have had. You seem intent on ignoring the content of or the points in the posts I make to you. I had hoped that that post - http://www.earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=81511#p81511 - might encourage...