Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The question as to how orthodox was early Christianity in Egypt depends partly on the definition of orthodoxy. However Roberts in Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt argues that the early Christian manuscripts from Egypt seem mostly broadly orthodox. I.E. the scriptures valued i...

Origen also frequently alleges that Celsus is an atheist and an Epicurean, who thus has no real belief in Æsculapius; which would suggest, if true, that the analogy drawn by Celsus between Æsculapius and Jesus draws attention to some doubt on the part of Celsus regarding the latter god's "exis...

Alexandria http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak//publics/new/BAUER02.htm Certainly there were Christians in Egypt in the middle and at the beginning of the second century -- this story proves nothing more than that. But the burning question is, of what sort were they? Everything that we know of this Chris...

I myself am quite interested to see your stylometer used on the Pauline epistles. IIRC, my first exposure to stylometry was Colossians as Pseudepigraphy , by Mark Kiley. I do not think he himself used such methods, but he drew on someone who did (I forget who), and IIRC those little function words,...

And all the early heretics (especially the Valentinians) already showed an interest in a pre-existent god named Man (anthropos). Out of genuine curiosity, can you reference the Valentinian evidence for us? See Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1 CHAP. I.--ABSURD IDEAS OF THE DISCIPLES OF VALENTINUS AS...

It's an interesting topic to explore, and controversies like this may reveal more than written statements of belief do. Rituals and traditions can persist even when doctrine changes and heretical texts are destroyed. It certainly is curious that the early church could have so much trouble arriving ...

From a previous thread I think Komarnitsky (and Richard Stoneman his source) are probably wrong in dating the Alexander Romance in anything like its present form to the third century BCE. Elements of the Alexander Romance e.g. the totally legendary birth story, probably do date from the third centur...

Thus one Hieracas, an Egyptian heresiarch, grounded his position that Melchisedek (of whom it is said, Heb. vii.3, that he was like the Son of God, and abideth a priest continually) was the Holy Spirit, upon certain passages in chaps. ix. and xi. of the Ascension. "The angel showed me of all t...

I have read modern claims that son of God was one of the titles appropriated by or attributed to Simon Magus, but offhand I do not know the ancient source(s) for this. Are his other purported claims (to be the power of God, for example) close enough, or not? (And in his case the same questions that...

Good to see the little-discussed "Coptic Apocalypse of Paul" aka "Visio Pauli" (not the Nag Hammadi book of the same name) getting some love in this thread. I came across it today in E.A. Wallis Budge's "Miscellaneous Coptic Texts in the Dialect of Upper Egypt." It's r...