Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Finding fault, as O'Neill does with Jesus mythicists is the easy bit - what he cannot do is establish historicity for the gospel Jesus figure. O'Neill is an atheist, so I doubt very much that he is interested in establishing the historicity of the gospel Jesus figure. It's worth pointing that out b...

Cicero writes about something similar to the Eucharist, though in disparaging terms: https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/cicero-on-the-nature-of-the-gods When we speak of corn as Ceres, and of wine as Liber, we use, it is true, a customary mode of speech, but do you think that any one is so senseless ...

I see the early churches as travelling shows in the same tradition as the travelling shows in the Second Great Awakening in the USA in the 19th Century. The "church" were groups of Christians who made up the body of Christ. They had received the Spirit of God directly, rather than through following ...

Josephus, The Wars Of The Jews, 6.5.4. But now, what did the most [to] elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how," about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth." The Jews took this predicti...

I also want to touch on 1v13: 13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ance...

gakuseidon, glad you are finally happy. Outstretched does not have to be to the sides, it can be also outstretched in the length, as I said. I learned something that I didn't know before which makes it a win, and that always makes me happy! So I thank you for that since you were the one to bring up...

Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:32 pm

A century before Lucian, Seneca the Younger describes crucifixions as happening in a variety of different ways:

Thanks Ben. I think that puts the matter to rest. (The cheque is in the mail! )

This appeared around 200 when greek was going out of fashion to be replaced by latin. But the bible was in greek, and the Mass probably also. So who would understand what was being said? The Eastern Roman Empire, which used Koine Greek for the next 1000 years until the end of the Byzantine Empire. ...

Gakuseidon, We are talking about the death-penalty. Do you think they would embellish the stake, or try to make it another form? Of course they would. If a cross-shaped stake made death take longer, then I can definitely imagine that they would embellish the stake with a cross-beam. The shape seems...

Gakuseidon: There are no cross-shaped stakes. A stake is a single piece of wood in an upright position. Why not? Why can't there be stakes in a cross-shape, a Y-shape, a tau-shape, or any other type of shape that rests on a single piece of wood in an upright position? I mean, you might be right, bu...