Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

OK, but the point is that there was the start of significant cultural change and, to a degree, upheaval. Particularly changes in literature: I think the apocrypha and pseudepigraphic apocalyptic literature had a lot more influence on the development of Christianity than has been generally acknowledg...

[edited font colour and size to change emphasis] I have been intrigued by the influence of Hellenism on the Jewish culture 3rd to 1st C BCE starting increased diversity in Judaism - Hellenic Jews removed their marks of circumcision and repudiated the holy covenant First book of Maccabees; the only v...

MrMacSon, let's not forget to mention what Lüdemann is perhaps the most famous for: He got in trouble with his university for denying the resurrection of Jesus/for not being a Christian. He wasn't sacked but he basically was pushed to the side. One of the reasons why one should hesitate before acce...

I haven't read it, but would be interested in perusing it after reading those reviews, and about Ludemann's work.

I thought Tertullianus was one of the first to propose a Trinity ...

Perhaps one of Gerd Lüdemann's best known works is Jesus After 2000 Years: What He Really Said and Did Here are a couple of reviews http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/doug_shaver/jesus.html http://www.christianorigins.com/ludemann.html He has a personal web site Lüdemann has written a number of ...

Didn't the Council of Nicea spend a bit of time and effort finalizing 'doctrine' eg. warding off Arianism?

There still seems to have been a predominance of other gnostic variants in the 3rd C, too.

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 near...

Unless it can be shown that all Paleographers are wrong about the dating of all NT manuscripts before the 4th century then it cannot be argued successfully that the Jesus cult started in the 4th century. For once, I agree. Unless they were re-using materials - paper, parchment or whatever - ie. re-...

theology hardly facilitates truth