Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

From Jerome’s Lives of Illustrious Men, we have the following. Paul, formerly called Saul, an apostle outside the number of the twelve apostles, was of the tribe of Benjamin and the town of Giscalis in Judea. When this was taken by the Romans he removed with his parents to Tarsus in Cilicia. (Jerome...

I think Paul was definitely a figure in history, because we have his writings, and they seem genuine. Problems only arise when the gospels and Acts are taken at face value. Given the genre they fit into or the set of documents they belong to which are extant, that is the apocryphal it is clear that ...

Yes, I put all the Pauline epistles as post-70. And authored by Paul or an amanuensis. (Jerome says he flourished after the War.) The earliest and best evidence for Christians is the letters of Pliny the Younger. Dating them at 110, and with a reference to Christians existing 20 years previously is ...

The destruction of the Temple ended the religion of Temple Judaism with its priesthood, daily rituals and so on. Messianic expectation amongst the Jews took two forms. Some Jews thought the Messiah's mission was wholly political. Others that he had first to suffer. (Isaiah 53) The first group develo...

There isn't enough space to list all the evidence for my claim. It can be found in my book, which is available here. http://www.vividpublishing.com.au/onchristianorigins/

The problem of Christian origins is best approached by asking the right question. Whether Jesus existed or not, is the wrong question. The right question is "when did the religion begin?" Taking into consideration all the evidence the answer to this question is clearly AD70. Once this prem...

According to my thesis the Jerusalem church after 70CE was the original church. There was no church or indeed any Christians before this date. In my book "Jesus of the Books" I examine all the evidence and explain how this came about. See http://www.vividpublishing.com.au/jesusofthebooks/ ...