Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Below I extend my commentary on Ascension of Isaiah chapter 4 verse 5 to the preceding verse 4. The Latin text of verse 4 goes as follows: Hic angelus Berial in specie istius regis veniet et venient cum eo omnes potestates (exercitus) hujus mundi et audient eum in omnibus quae voluerit. Above Gukase...

In my book A Chronological Revision of the Origins of Christianity and on this forum I have argued that the tearing of the curtain of the temple and the earthquake surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27:51) are not supernatural phenomena but in fact veiled descriptions of war events. I also argu...

I see Vespasian has already been mentioned, but I wonder if Nero also fits the bill? From "Ascension of Isaiah": http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ascension.html 4.2. After it is consummated, Beliar the great ruler, the king of this world, will descend, who hath ruled it since it...

Which false Christ was showing signs and wonders (Mark 13:22)? Maybe Vespasian, as described by Tacitus ( Histories IV:81)? In the months during which Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria for the periodical return of the summer winds and settled weather at sea, many wonders occurred which seemed to p...

IMO this is not a case of a double motif, but of two closely related motifs. GMark 13 is a coherent apocalyptic account of the war against the Romans in two parts. The first part is a general description of the different aspects of the conflict. The second part, starting with verse 14, is more speci...

Thank you DCH and all the others for the excellent information. Based on it I started a new thread: Killing a keeper of a stockpile of Caesar's corn.

Earlier I have argued that the travel narrative in GLuke is in fact a veiled account of the flight of the Galilean rebels to Jerusalem in September 67 CE. After Mark’s mention that the Galileans started their journey in a state of shock and dismay (10:32a), I uncovered at least seven passages in GLu...

Thank you Ben for the attention you draw to Zeichmann’s excellent article. I really love this kind of stuff. Some reflections: • The numismatic evidence that denarii were rare in Palestine before the war is an eye-opener to me. In combination with the other evidence it makes Zeichmann’s argumentatio...

Thoughts? Ben. For the moment I limit my thoughts to verse 6 to 8a, which I consider to be authentically Pauline. They express Paul’s anti-Roman ideology, which is fundamental in his preaching. In verse 6 the wisdom of the ‘mature’ (τελειοι) is opposed to ‘the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of...

The question presses: why, if the days of tribulation are in the future tense in verse 19, are they now suddenly in the past tense in verse 20? I believe a simple answer may suggest itself. Verse 19 is an actual prediction; but verse 20 is a gloss on that prediction. Ben, when you speak about 'actu...