Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Celsus in Book Five seems to indicate the trinity was Platonic in origin and that this would account for the existence of the idea in Valentinus. Do you mean this? Origen, Contra Celsus , V.8, http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen165.html Certainly they say that the Cosmos taken as the whol...

stephan happy huller wrote:I was wondering whether stigmata and crucify might have been transposed at some point.

Could you explain?

New blog entry: http://peterkirby.com/the-threefold-nature.html In which I look at a reference from which many have said that Valentinus was one of the first "trinitarians." Introduction: The text attributed to the second century Gnostic Valentinus called “On the Three Natures,” known to u...

You seem not to understand that Doherty presents a mythical Jesus that is completely unheard of in antiquity. You have a tough problem here, but you're not going about solving it in the right way. Your problem is to show that there was nobody in antiquity who presented a "mythical Jesus" ...

Hey, Stephan. WHEN did the "Christians" have the motive, means and opportunity to create apologetics for an educated class (and even backdate them) if not in the 4th century? In the second century and in the third century? WHERE is there a single blessed mention of any Christian existence...

dewitness wrote:It is most strange that as soon as I begin to talk about Doherty's Jesus as you requested that you immediately split the thread.

Just housekeeping. Don't read into it. Good organization makes the forums easier to use.

The most important takeaway from Richard Carrier's presentation (and Metzger's book) is that there was a functional equivalent to the Christian canons before anyone actually tried to make a Christian canon. That functional equivalent was, basically, individual leaders making ad hoc statements to &qu...

There's also a PDF by Richard Carrier that seems more detailed.

Richard Carrier's summary of Metzger should be helpful here.

In my other thread , I'm looking to catalog the arguments for and against the existence of Jesus, and I'm looking for more detail or counterpoints to those arguments in this thread. If it isn't an argument for or against the existence of Jesus, or if your point has already been mentioned in this thr...