Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

From what I understand of Greek grammar, I don't think it is possible to read 2:28 as referring to a "son of the Sabbath" rather than "lord of the Sabbath". Further, keep in mind that "Son of Man" would have been rendered in nomina sacra , not spelled out. That makes th...

Carl Huffman and Leonid Zhmud, for example, two of the major Pythagorean people writing now, accept that Pythagoras existed, though we know almost nothing about him. I'm always ready to learn. If you know of mainstream scholars who deny that Pythagoras existed, please enumerate them. It doesn't adv...

Long ago, when I was reading on Luke, I noted that a number of scholars were of the view that the birth narrative was additive after the gospel was written. Sadly I can find a good references to that view. I have seen the idea touted by Raymond Brown in Birth of the Messiah , but he doesn't footnot...

7) With Fard we have clearly biographical or historical details of the person placed on public notice. 8) They may be false or mythologized but they are evidently attempts to present a historical reality or what we should believe to be historical reality. 9)Contrast Jesus: despite the historical se...

But is it any more a 'form of Islam' than Christianity was a 'form of Judaism' circa 114AD? 1) This is where the comparison begins to break down. I think Judaism in the second temple era and beyond (into the mid/late second century even) was not a "monolithic" religion as Judaism clearly ...

Does not a case study like this one about Fard indicate that such a narrative is not the sort of event that produces a steadily growing and expanding religious movement? How so? Specifically, comparing Nation of Islam circa AD 2014 to Christianity circa AD 114... 1) Can we empirically establish a q...

Tertullian's commentary is just as illuminating about the original version of Luke as it is about Marcion's gospel.

The idea that one should "assume the current catholic version unless there is evidence to the contrary" is methodologically fraudulent in the extreme.

ficino wrote:No mainstream scholar I've heard of thinks that Pythagoras did not exist, btw.

Are you kidding?

Does not a case study like this one about Fard indicate that such a narrative is not the sort of event that produces a steadily growing and expanding religious movement? How so? Specifically, comparing Nation of Islam circa AD 2014 to Christianity circa AD 114... 1) Can we empirically establish a q...

Hi Jay, Appreciate the additional historical details and analysis - great stuff! I see our minds are going in the same direction here. Of course, the hypothesis that EM murdered Fard is much more speculative... yet fun to think about. :mrgreen: "Forty years after Master Fard Muhammad's disappea...