Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Ken, Just to focus on your interpretation of these texts, There is an extremely plausible historical context in which this problem can be understood. Paul's converts are recent. They are Corinthians, and in all probability participated in the temple feasts in Corinth before Paul came and persuaded t...

But do the existing letters make sense? No they don’t. Not as “letters” (except maybe Philemon), nor as the authentic words of one man writing on a specific occasion. In what sense would you REALISTICALLY understand the Corinthian community to be 'sacrificing to demons'? I’m not sure what you mean ...

What if these zigs and zags are just minor tweaks here and there? (Colossians/Ephesians is another story, that could be Marcionite sure) Paul is basically all over the place because that is what he was like as a person. He has wild mood swings and was never very consistent until he pulls it all tog...

I did not find Doughty's argument compelling. I have to take issue with your claim about circularity, but appreciate hearing your thoughts. I am planning a specific thread on the character and probable origin of Philippians, where I will go into more detail. ...basically I think [Doughty's article ...

We can speculate that it was a corruption of Marcion Why would it make more sense to speculate that Marcion added the bit about 'Jewish' demons when Solomon establishing demons in the central building in Judaism exists independently of Marcion? In other words, the idea that those in Jerusalem worsh...

davidmartin wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 5:42 pm How can he put on his pharisee hat one minute and the next say something contrary like the law is a curse without looking like a radical?

I believe it was Roger Parvus who labeled Paul "the Zig-Zag Man". I take it that he meant that there were multiple hands in the soup that ultimately became each individual Canonical Pauline letter, such that nearly every Zig (Pauline point of view, or perspective, or directive, etc...) ad...

Paul is trying to explain to the Corinthians why they cannot attend feasts in pagan temples, which is what some of them appear to have been doing, without contradicting what he told them earlier that the food is not tainted by having been offered to an idol because the idols do not represent anythi...

that the epistles were preserved in a corrupt form We can speculate that it was a corruption of Marcion, but we know that the canonical text is a 3-car pile up: (1) Whatevs (1 Cor 10: 23-33) The earth is the Lord’s, do whatever you want, just don’t be a jerk to someone in your immediate social circ...

On a narrow reading of the syntax in vv.18-20, it is true that θύουσιν lacks a proper subject, and that Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ σάρκα is the only recently named party. Hence the gloss added in many manuscripts. If readers had been able to recognize immediately that Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ σάρκα was not the subject, the glo...