Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

A few interesting points from that MrMacSon: "Clement of Alexandria – is aware that Paul and the individual most call ‘Theudas’ (a variation obviously of the name ‘Thaddaeus’) knew each other" Source? "For his part Simon Iscariot starts this circle all over again and, just as Judas Is...

Thanks for that GD, very informative. Still, I'm often left wondering just how much confusion played a role in all of this, on all sides. Did Irenaeus really understand the details? Like with Tertullian, I trust Irenaeus for what he includes, but I don't trust him for what he leaves out. The nuance...

Thanks for that GD, very informative. Still, I'm often left wondering just how much confusion played a role in all of this, on all sides. Did Irenaeus really understand the details? I have to ask because at this point we have definitive proof that much of what Irenaeus said about the origins of Gosp...

So in the oldest layer, the Evil One (Satan, the devil) is the Creator and Ruler of the world. This figure is equated to the Jewish God. When these scriptures say God the Father, they mean a god higher than the Jewish God. When they say Satan or the devil or the Evil One, they mean the Jewish God -...

Clearly in the texts of the New Testament there is a consistent message that Jesus Christ will come to defeat the Antichrist. We are also told in several places that the Antichrist has come or is coming into the world. Theologically speaking, it makes far more sense that the Antichrist would come fi...

Compare the following statement from 2 Thessalonians 2 to 1 John: 2 Thessalonians 2: 1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a mess...

In 1 John 4 we read: 1 John 4: 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come 1 in the flesh is from ...

There are many passages from the New Testament which seem to indicate that Satan, or the devil, is equated to the Jewish God. and it seems to me that this maybe what lies at the heart of confusion between Gnosticism and orthodoxy. For example: 1 John 2: 15 Do not love the world nor the things in the...

The past couple of days, I was so caught up with looking at the differences between "like a dove", "as a dove" and "in bodily form", that I completely missed the obvious... Luke doesn't even describe Jesus' baptism. He throws it in there like an afterthought. Even the ...

Certainly there is meaningful symbolism in the passages that I am suggesting were added in Mark 3 and Mark 6. But that meaning is imparted by a later revisor. I think when all of the changes I am suggesting to Mark are taken into consideration one can identify the theological views of the revisor of...