Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

If we look at Paul's use of "earthly" terms, it's clear that it favours an "earthly" Jesus, since that is the implication of Paul's use of "seed of David", "seed of Abraham", "Christ came from the Jews", etc. … So the most parsimonious explanation f...

An earthly Jesus can still be non-historical, as per GA Wells' theory for example. An earthly Jesus can still be mythical, as per Marcion. Sure. Are you differentiating or do you differentiate non-historical and mythical? Yes, depending on the theory. A "fictional" Jesus would be non-hist...

I think a historical Jesus would be the most parsimonious explanation if the Pauline epistles gave better accounts than they do eg. if they were more explicit about James being the brother of Jesus ie. beyond Gal 1:19 the Pauline epistles had better provenance than they do for other reasons (but, l...

Not so much "Jew first, but also the Greek", but more "Natural/flesh first, but really the spiritual". Yes Paul has a flesh/spirit theology across many passages. But are you saying that Paul is not primarily talking in Romans 9-11 about the Jewish people as constituted under the...

It is worth pondering that almost every affirmation made in 9:4-5 of the distinctiveness of the Jews has its contrary/contrast elsewhere in the epistle: to the Israelites belongs the adoption as sons For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (8:14) It is not the childre...

I think it's worth noting that both Paul and gMark reference the book of Isaiah frequently. Some of gMark seems to have 'ripped off' events in Isaiah. Paul used references to Isaiah more than to any other OT book. For Paul: according to here: https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bbr/isaiah_oss.pdf An ...

The text calls Christ God. Because this statement is genuinely un-Pauline, and most likely a mimicry of 2 Corinthians 11:31 and/or Romans 1:25 and/or the LXX Psalms, and ambiguously worded like many other fraudulent biblical texts, and an abrupt change of subject matter within the discourse about t...

I'd say that, throughout history, 90% of Christians had no idea and no interest in Christianity other than those parts that were socially useful. (I'd say that this is the same with ancient Romans and Greeks as well.) If the church leaders claimed that Jesus was of a different substance to the Fathe...

The statement that the demons recognized Christ seems like it must be a response to the claim that Christ came into the world disguised and unknown to the rulers of this world. Interestingly, while I would say that Mark agrees with Paul on so many points, this seems to be an instance of disagreemen...

Perhaps it parallels a similar theme in Mark 9: [37] Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. [38] And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth ...