Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

It wasn’t inevitable, given Vespasian and Titus, that someone would compose gMark. The failure of the Hasmoneans doesn’t explain why Jews under the Romans got so good at writing scripture, anymore than Antiochus Epiphanes explains why the Book of Daniel was written or why it had such an impact. The ...

RMP is still alive and I believe he answers questions.

This thread from Prof. Mark Bilby seems relevant Hi Ben, Thank you so much for the question and the constructive feedback. I'll take another look at the Aesop quote/reference in 4.23. Don't want to overstate my case there. About the Signals Triangulation Theorem, this is *exactly* what I wanted to b...

Not any more so than Paul’s brief references to the death and resurrection in 1 Thessalonians (1:9 and 4:14) indicate that Paul had not yet formulated the related details we find in other letters. Apparently, the Thessalonians fully accepted those claims, and there was no need for Paul to waste ink...

Maccoby, BTW, believes the Eucharist was an invention of "Paul" as well. Paul tells us that himself: 1 Cor 11:23 Ἐγὼ γὰρ παρέλαβον ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου , ὃ καὶ παρέδωκα ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ κύριος Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ᾗ παρεδίδετο ἔλαβεν ἄρτον, etc. That Ἐγὼ γὰρ really leaps out. The verbal similarity to 1 Thss 4:1...

The date and authorship of gThomas, and whether it was a “forgery,” is entirely irrelevant.

It offers no biographical data or historical pretense. Jesus does nothing. It’s a spiritual text in which the author uses Jesus to ventriloquize the wisdom (borrowed or otherwise) that he wants to convey.

Paul isn’t preaching the gospel he received by a revelation of Jesus Christ. He’s just a huckster telling people what they want to hear, yada yada yada, so that he can take up a collection. Hyam Maccoby, The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity , ISBN-10 : 0760707871, ISBN-13 : 978-076...

What you seem to be arguing Robert is that Paul’s minimal theology of the death of Christ in 1 Thss—like the content of all Paul’s epistles—is purely accidental. It’s all a function of what the Thessalonians wanted to hear, mere “puffery” and “flowery language.” Everything Paul writes in his epistle...

to Irish1975, "The New Testament; The Odes of Solomon; The Gospel of Thomas; The Ascension of Isaiah; The Didache; 1 Clement." Really, did you check the New Testament lately? And what about 1 Clement (check 31:4), and gThomas (check 15, 52, 79, 99)? Cordially, Bernard If those sayings in gThomas co...

The New Testament;
The Odes of Solomon;
The Gospel of Thomas;
The Ascension of Isaiah;
The Didache;
1 Clement.