Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Stephan Huller wrote:... when there was Dura Europos? It's the same thing here with respect to carbon dating...

Hi Stephan,

In that vein... do you know any 'unquestionably Christian' papyri that have been definitively carbon-dated to before 256AD (= siege of Dura-Europos by the Sassanians)?

Cheers
Theo

Referring specifically to: "The First New Testament: Marcion's Scriptural Canon" (Polebridge Press: November 5, 2013) http://www.westarinstitute.org/store/the-first-new-testament/ Question : has anyone here taken a look at it (or read it)? If so, does it contain any insights not already fr...

Is Eusebius really going to place a whole cloth TF within a time-frame that he is questioning as being problematic? Eusebius had other choices for a time-frame for a whole cloth TF - choices that would not compromise his labeling the Acts of Pilate a forgery. It makes no sense at all to propose tha...

Scientifically, best simple estimate of days per year: (approx.) 365 + (15/62) Hence, a rule of thumb given any arbitrary epoch: If this year is divisible by 4 but not by 124, then assume this year has 366 days. Otherwise, assume this year has 365 days. Source: http://users.bestweb.net/~quenell/pubp...

What's the oldest known manuscript that either:

a) contains text uniquely (traditionally) attributed to Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses, etc.), or...
b) contains the name 'Irenaeus' in reference to a second century Christian theologian...

?

This is utterly left-field and speculative - just another possible perspective to consider... a) Could Simon Magus be the self-professed "Samaritan Taheb/Messiah" referenced by Josephus in Antiquities 18:4*, wherein the slaughter of the unnamed Samaritan's followers are seen as the proxima...