Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

So let's suppose that the original "three and a half year" period was identified by early Christians as the Jewish War: For three and a half years Vespasian surrounded Jerusalem, having four generals with him: the general of Arabia, of Africa, of Alexandria, and of Palestine. (Gittin 55b) ...

Also consider Paul identifying himself as 'ignotus' to the Jerusalem Church

I was unknown (ἀγνοούμενος) by face to the church of Jerusalem

eram autem ignotus facie ecclesiis Iudaeae quae erant in Christo

The only other 'three and a half' year period that I can find that intersects with Christian history is the rebellion of the Bucoli (172 CE) culminating with the coronation of Avidius Cassius as Emperor (176 CE). Strange. There must have been a lot of Christians in Alexandria at the time.

Many people - including myself, Parvis, Detering - have sought to reconcile the Church Father Ignatius with the Christian teacher Peregrinus from Lucian of Samosata as well as Polycarp of Smyrna. There have been many ingenious theories. Polycarp went to burn himself alive, Peregrinus wanted to be bu...

In that sense then I would assume that Irenaeus's exegesis of Daniel 2:34 - 35 was actually taken over from the Marcionites. The clue here is the strange way that Anastasius of Sinai cites Adamantius's Dialogue as having the Marcionite do all or most of the citing of Daniel: MEG. The proof that Chri...

And here is a challenge even to my assumptions. If the Imperial authorities were actively reshaping Christianity away from forms of the religion which promoted 'two powers' or perhaps better - a succession of the 'young' Son God against the 'old' Father, if it was really all about the triumph of mon...

And notice the note at the end of the entry by Jastrow - "only in later Hebrew does it mean mystical lore" http://cal.huc.edu/showjastrow.php?page=1310

Indeed I should make clear that the root qbl means both 'opposite' and 'receive' in both Aramaic and Syriac. The preceding discussion isn't limited to qbyl. So 'kibla' can mean 'complaint' just as kabala means 'tradition' but they would be spelled identically in either Aramaic or Syriac. So to would...

I have written and corresponded with many of the leading scholars on the subject of Marcion for the last 25 years. We've discussed many things but the focus of my research and my correspondences has never been about medieval Jewish mysticism. My point is that kabbalah is an Aramaic term which simply...

The starting point of your investigation should be - did the Church Fathers like Tertullian actually know who or what a Marcionite was? Did they have Marcionite scriptures before them? Had they any actual contact with Marcionites or - as I would argue - Adversus Marcionem was a loose Latin compilati...