Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Matthew identifies himself as one of the 12 in chapter 10. The author says that Matthew was one of the Twelve. The author does not say that he IS Matthew. The author never gives his own name or claims to be any of the characters in his Gospel. He did not call his gospel "The Gospel of Matthew....

You are the in the affirmative position. You need to back up your own claims. In particular, you have made assertions about the content of the Gospels without naming chapter and verse. It is not legitimate to say anyone has to prove the Gospels DON'T say something. What do you want me to do, post th...

Africanus does not claim to be citing documented records, he only cites Levirate tradition and infers the rest from that. This is getting stupid. If you're claiming that Julius Africanus just made it up out of thin air, provide a source. Made WHAT up out of thin air? I am telling you what he said h...

I have read the Gospels countless times, have read them in Greek and studied them formally in College. I know what they say and what they don't say. They don't say they were written by witnesses. You have repeatedly asserted that the author of Matthew claims to be one of the Twelve. I say I know for...

Mental flatliner wrote:What use does your post actually serve?

It is an informal note from a moderator. That's why my name is in green. I'm asking you - as a moderator - to support specific assertions when asked. You will never be penalized for your opinion, but you need to participate in a more substantive way.

Africanus does not claim to be citing documented records, he only cites Levirate tradition and infers the rest from that. What is your evidence that any written genealogies going back to David ever even existed for Joseph (or for anybody else) in the Second Temple period at all? Julius Africanus liv...

You need to support your assertion that the Gospels are eyewitness accounts before the "authority" of such accounts even matters. You have yet to substantiate that first assertion and that is where you need to start. If yiu want to appeal to internal evidence, please cite chapter and verse.

Matthew claims to have been one of the twelve, intimately familiar with every aspect of Jesus' ministry. His gospel is written in diary form, indicating it was written while Jesus was still alive. (You can tell because each episode is in absolute temporal order, and this is nearly impossible to ach...

When reading any original historical source, I treat it as written in good faith until proven otherwise. Do you have this same rule for the Gnostic Gospels, the Book of Mormon and the Koran? What do you even mean by "good faith" when it comes to the Gospels. The authors do not identify th...

During the Roman period, most Jews had two genealogies: one legal, one biological. Where do you get this stuff? No they didn't. The Jews cared about patrilineal lines and that was it. Eusebius went to the trouble to explain in detail how the two differ and why. You should read it. Eusebius did not ...