lclapshaw wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 10:19 am
"Damn the facts! I'm right, I have it all worked out! Listen to ME!"
People listen to what they experience as pleasant, and generally that which doesn't intrude is counted among pleasantries
There are very few facts in this field by the way, save for the texts that we hold in our hands: and I've pointed out again and again that we can't trust the translations of those, and that really all that we have are the very manuscripts, in their original form alone
I like this forum a lot, it has taught me an awful lot about the study of Christian origins. It is a forum so you'll have your clowns, village idiots, assholes and trolls next to the typical handful of people worth interacting with, and I often get to walk the thin lines (and occasionally cross them, as that also is what forums are for).
And to my very great surprise, even after 3 years I keep finding the occasional gem out here, and it usually is in ongoing conversations that I do such, even though the occasional OP also offers some: Giuseppe is a great driver behind much of that, by the way
My greatest disappointment? That hardly anyone is interested in anyone else's theory, plus the fact that most theories out here are mere opinions because they're baseless claims (and CW is an exception there), unsupported by any form of research or evidence
Ah well. I think I'm the youngest there in terms of engagement, almost 4 years of Thomas now (and related) and no one here will challenge my theory, no one has a use for Thomasine Priority as it would completely destroy everything there is, by rendering into fiction all that comes after.
But it is what the evidence demonstrates, alas, so I'm currently wrapping up on a 50-pager, just on logion 47, showing how Thomas led to *Ev and how *Ev led to the canonicals. With the Patristics as witnesses, including the LXX, full of Latin, Greek and Coptic, filled with hyperlinks to publicly available sources - and Easter eggs, of course
It's been a wild diversion, occupying a lot of my time but also greatly satisfying to some extent - yet I'll be back at pure Thomas after this, and you can all safely listen to yourselves again.
Although I'll surely drop a note here and there