Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Thanks for this argument, Andrew. I'd like to reiterate that I do not know whether the Pauline epistles are genuine. So far, I was just arguing against the idea (based on an argument presented here above) that they couldn't be genuine and after 70 AD. It has nothing to do with "wishes," a...

1 Corinthians 9:13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? seems to imply that the temple is still in operation. (More generally; if one wishes to argue that the references ...

You might be aware that Epictetus mentions Christians from around 110 A.D. You may not be aware, hanery, that I am not aware of very much at all, but I am especially uninformed regarding Epictetus. The best information about him, that I have been able to uncover, suggests, contrarily that he wrote ...

Lewis is correct. While anthropomorphic language may fall short of explaining a God that is far beyond us it is the best language we can find for humans are the most “god-like” figures in creation. When we attempt to venture away from anthropomorphic language toward something that sounds “deeper” a...

One reason I doubt that Valentinus himself described the Trinity as separate hypostases is that this type of analysis of the divinity seems more characteristic of his followers such as Ptolemæus . Tertullian Against the Valentinians Valentinus had expected to become a bishop, because he was an able ...

In the hostile account of Peregrinus Proteus by Lucian, Peregrinus early in his carrer becomes a Christian leader in Palestine is arrested by the governor finally released leaves Christianity and continues on a controversial career before his spectacular suicide in 165 CE. Although the account is ob...

Creation of a semi-autonomous Judean political state in the 1st half of 2nd century CE (around 172 CE to 164 CE). This resulted in a lot of cryptically written histories and/or apocalypses such as Ezra-Nehemiah and Daniel, written, I suppose, to "explain" various claims being made by the ...

There must have been enough Christians in 177 CE to justify the persecutions in Gaul. If they were some insignificant group, why persecute them? I think the persecutions in Gaul are partly measures against an unpoplular etnic minority. Christians were a significant minority among immigrants into Ga...

No, Andrew. There are no references anywhere in any Talmudic text referring to the Jesus character of the texts of the New Testament. And if fact, there are no references to Christians or Jesus in the Gemara which covers the third and fourth centuries in Palestine. The Babylonian Talmud makes no re...

C.S. Lewis' ideas in this article ultimately go back to the attempts by Pagan neoplatonists such as Proclus to justify anthropomorphism in Homer.

Andrew Criddlle