Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

I would expect Gnostics to maintain that James had a different earthly father from Jesus because a true Gnostic would regard Jesus as the first emanation of the purely spiritual First God, who would have nothing to do with materiality, which Gnostics viewed as totally evil. Gnostics would not view J...

This is an amazing discussion. Why not let the words of the NT speak for themselves? Paul, the first NT writer, never confuses Jesus with God. He always calls Jesus, “Lord” and God, “God.” He always insists that God raised Jesus from the dead, that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, that God exalt...

Dear Outhouse: Thank you for your comments. I offer the following for your consideration. Even if the Paterfamilias whom you posit is Almighty God herself, there is absolutely no evidence for the existence of the same. (Spare me the beauty of nature and all that finite stuff which cannot demonstrate...

The issue disappears if one interpretes John as the [many different] christian churches interpreted John for the first hundred years or so of the gospel's existence, namely, as a Gnostic gospel. John does not affirm that Jesus is God; John affirms that Jesus is the first emanation or Aeon of God. Th...

Would they be content with an acknowledgement that Jesus might not have existed or are they arguing that the lack of evidence for his existence proves the events described in the gospel don't go back to an actual historical individual? Let me suggest that the question of the historical existence of...