Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

That's the problem, isn't it, Andrew? Paul never seems to place the crucifixion in a specific place or time period. Determining what Paul "likely" thought runs the danger of begging the question. An additional problem, if Romans 13 is genuinely Pauline, would be reconciling Paul's view of ...

I agree that the passage is a much tighter, more focused text if that section is excised. As Ben notes, only v. 11 is attested for Marcion's version. Paul's humility ("unfit to be called an apostle") also seems uncharacteristic. I wonder where the interpolation fits chronologically. In som...

Ah, but Bernard, "the son of man has no place to lay his head", and Jesus was rejected in his hometown.

Yeah, you have that and the shorter but similar 3:14-15. But it's all vague and happens off-stage. When the disciples actually try an exorcism in the actual narrative (9:14-27), they fail. So are we supposed to regard Peter and Andrew and Bartholomew and James son of Alphaeus as great preachers and ...

Earl Doherty's article on the Odes of Solomon deserves a read. Here, we have a Jewish document roughly contemporary with Paul that describes Wisdom in personified terms as a Virgin, along with the Son as an incarnate revelation of God who is born through the Virgin. The Virgin displays many of the c...

Maybe it's ironic. Peter and Andrew never become fishers of men. They never deliver any successful preaching, make any converts, or perform any exorcisms in Mark.

Paul seems to transpose the Qumranite duality of Michael / Sons of Light vs. Belial / Sons of Darkness into a Christ / Light vs. Beliar / Darkness duality, suggesting some kind of equivalence between Christ and Michael. What fellowship is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ ...

Addressing OP's question, I agree with the general idea that Jesus was understood to be an exalted angelic figure — divine, but still a creation of the Father. (The "firstborn of creation", as Colossians puts it.) As was typical of saviour religions, the Christ cults focused their venerati...

It was called the "Toronto Blessing" amongst my more Pentecostal family members. Yes, we called it that too. A temporary lapse of memory on my part. The extent to which Luke-Acts has shaped all of our visions of early Christian history probably cannot be underestimated. And yet it was suc...

The world of faith was totally foreign to me and I wanted to understand what my friends were doing. So, I started reading the Bible. I'm always curious when someone without a religious background studies the Bible in earnest. I don't think I could ever get up the same interest to study, say, the Ko...