Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

... There is a very common fallacy that "having an explanation" (that's "better") really means anything but reiteration of personal biases and assumptions. That being able to say, "that's how it happened, and hey it actually kinda makes sense," means that what you're s...

Peter Kirby wrote:

iskander wrote:Jesus may have been a tzaddik who did not conform.

Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe he had a baby that got rabies. Who knows.

Jesus the tzaddik explains the origins of Christianity better than a baby that got rabies.

A man like Jesus was not a rare occurrence in his time and culture . Jesus may have been a tzaddik who did not conform. Often people call someone a tzaddik simply because he is an exceptionally good person. Then there are times they come across a spiritual superhero, someone more like an angel than ...

What are the general theories? In particular, why did he choose it instead of the earlier Mark? The point of departure for Marcion's criticism was provided in the Pauline contrast of the law and gospel, on the one side malicious, petty, and cruel punitive correctness, and on the other side merciful...

Paul’s stories in Galatians with Peter/Cephas, James and John were primarily intended to demonstrate --- for the benefit of his Galatians --- that these men were NOT concerned about circumcision for Gentile believers. If one does not grasp that concept, then IMO, trying to understand the letter to ...

They are not the same , true. Christianity was a heretic Jewish sect Paul speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus . His message is that he was sacrificed once only, and resurrected in Paradise. It is a message of life., not of death. Baptism is very simple, all what it requires is water! In Judaism members...

It is the rabbinic conversion ceremony that the Christian baptism is replicating , with modifications. The convert becomes a son of G-d in each religion. The purification ritual , such as the sprinkling of an object with water, was also inherited by Christians: Catholic priests purify objects by spr...

Sacrifice is the third component of the rabbinic conversion ceremony , and Paul merges the sacrifice of Jesus with immersion. Paul leaves out circumcision to make men and women formally equal in the eyes of G-d.

Immersion ( baptism ) was a Jewish ritual that Christians inherited. According to rabbinic law, then, in the Second Temple period the ritual requirements for conversion were three: circumcision, immersion, and sacrifice. The first of these applied only to men; the latter two applied to both men and ...

Isaiah 52:7 in the New Oxford Annotated Bible is the approach of the ruler. Isa 52.7-12 the approach of the ruler. The basic metaphor is of the approach of a king to a subject kingdom. His coming is announced by lookouts on mountains along the route and eventually by sentinels on the walls of Jerusa...