Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Let's see if we can turn this thread back around... It sounds like the argument is that the "tranquility" of the second century allowed Christianity to flourish. Certainly doesn't hurt, does it? It also says that the general literary flourishing corresponded with a similar literary flouris...

Self promotion, but I'll allow it.

Of course, Roger's already aware of the matter and has given us his account:

http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/euseb ... 2_text.htm
http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2012 ... chronicle/

... Eusebius himself dated the years from Abraham, the earliest figure that he believed he could assign a date to; but as we all know it was Dionysius Exiguus two centuries later whose AD and BC stuck. All the best, Roger Pearse I have already pointed out that your claim is a known fallacy. Eusebiu...

There is no evidence for the existence of any Christian writings or beliefs, prior to the conclusion of the third Roman Jewish conflict, No, you're wrong. There is Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny the Younger, all writing before the Bar Kokhba conflict, which would attest to the existence of Christian...

Just because someone is wrong does not mean that they may not be useful to us all. It is those who discourage interest that do the real harm, not the over-enthusiastic fringe people. That's an interesting way to look at it. There are certainly people that are drawn deeper into the subject, and I gu...

The theory of the fourth century construction of Christianity is something like the construction of a few decades worth of analysis of the Cuban missile crisis, without any Cubans or nuclear missiles or cold war. (The post-135 origin of Christianity, which I now see is Avi's preference, is not nearl...

Yes, I don't know of any serious argument that there was a historical Exodus. This is fairly well-known, of course, and not exactly new.

Word substitution is not an argument. A similar canard could be constructed by someone who favored the historicity of Jesus, with just a different change in name.

Jews wrote Enoch. Guy writes book. Jesus sells books.

... so, Jesus and the Book of Enoch.

Do I win something?