Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The other alternative is that such a reading is incorrect and that somehow this is much more innocent than it seems. According to Tertullian and Origin (if memory serves), Marcion (or Marcionites) did claim that "the god of this world" was the Jewish creator god, and they pointed to this ...

I have to ask: how is that Gnostic? Gnosticism, as I understand it, is the idea that a spark of the true God lies within each human being, and there are ways to free that spark from the flesh so that it can reunite with God. Gnostic mythology explains how those sparks were struck from God and ended ...

... gMark soft-pedals Pilate's action, and includes the high priests and elders as being involved, which I believe is consistent with what we see in Paul What passages in Paul do you have in mind? The one related to the rulers crucifying the Lord of Glory. I didn't want to quote it because I didn't...

It doesn't seem at all that "Mark" (author) had a such problem. Mark mentions only Pilate as killer of Jesus. Period. . Well,no, not "period". gMark soft-pedals Pilate's action, and includes the high priests and elders as being involved, which I believe is consistent with what w...

I've extracted passages from Justin Martyr where he notes other Christian groups: Justin Martyr, First Apology : http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html First Apology , Chap 26: And there is Marcion, a man of Pontus , who is even at this day alive, and teaching his ...

Add to this Origen's related comment in Contra Celsus 1.47 : For in the eighteenth volume of the Judaic Antiquities Josephus testifies to John as having been a baptist and promised cleansing to those who were baptized. [F] But he himself, though not believing in Jesus as Christ, [D] in seeking the ...

Do you see Nero in that passage b/c of "Beliar [who] will descent from his firmament in the likeness of a man, a lawless king, the slayer of his mother" ? Yes, that and "Of the Twelve [Apostles] one will be delivered into his hands". AFAIK there is universal consensus on Nero be...

Maier also notes and discusses the Nero redivivus legend, the belief that Nero had either not died or that he was in a kind of “hot storage” awaiting the right time to rise from hell to persecute the church as Antichrist, found in the second century Sibylline Oracles (3.63-74; 5.25-35, 93-110, 214-...

According to my own amateur theory of Christian origins, Jesus became popular after death because he was thought to be in heaven and it was possible for pagans and Jewish people to invoke his magic power by calling on his name. 1 He may or may not have had an obscure life, but no-one was interested...

1. The fact that we have Christian commentators complaining that Jesus's alleged contemporaries did not mention him in their records That sounds interesting. Do you have any references to those Christian commentators? I'd be interested in those references if they were early. The only one I'm aware ...