Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

This may not be uncontroversial enough to qualify (and may even be what prompted for your question), but Julius Africanus on Thallus: On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. Thi...

There is another way to resolve this --- Paul was not a Pharisee. This does not really help with the geographical problem I was posing. If Paul was not really a Pharisee in the same way Josephus was not really a Pharisee, it leaves the question of where Paul was educated in Pharisaism. Josephus was...

Just a few scattered thoughts here. Not committed to any of this. Despite the lack of explicit evidence for it, there were Pharisees outside Judea, in Antioch and Syria and at least as far north as Tarsus in Cilicia. What would Matthew 23.15 mean if not something like this? Even if we grant it is a...

Thanks for the replies. What originally inspired my question was Ben’s post about Sabazios which tangentially addressed the question of where the New Testament was written. Wherever Paul was from, and wherever Matthew was wriiten, did they have Pharisees there? If the sect of Pharisees was not activ...

Paul says he was a Pharisee in Phil. 3.5. I don’t believe he ever says where he was from in his epistles, but Acts says it was Tarsus in Acts 21.39. Do we have first century sources that refer to the sect of Pharisees operating outside of Judea/Palestine? (I’m not counting Josephus claim to have dec...

Yes, Stuart said Asia Minor. I just wanted to clarify that you meant not Syria when you said that. I know many think some of the Pauline epistles and the Johannine literature (Revelation almost certainly) were written in Asia Minor. Matthew and Luke are frequently placed in Antioch (but it would see...

No, but Antioch, Galilee and Judea have their defenders.

The Roman province of Asia? Or the modern continent?

I have nearly always been of the opinion (not well formed, but distinct) that the epistle of James is pseudonymous, and this verse strikes me as the author's homage to its namesake: speaking in his name to condemn the very sorts of people who supposedly put him to death. Ben, Is there enough eviden...

Do you have any opinion of the list in pseudo-Tertullian's Poem Against the Marcionites (Latin, English )? After the apostle Peter (of course) it runs: Linus Cletus Anacletus Clement Evaristus Alexander Sixtus Telesphorus Hyginus Pius Anicetus I've never looked at it before, but my immediate reacti...