Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The motif of fire on the Jordan is surely 'read over' from the baptism of fire in the preceding two verses. For its purgative sense, here's Clement of Alexandria, Eclogae Propheticae 25-26 : " John says 'I indeed baptise you with water, but there comes after me he that baptises with the spirit ...

A question for the always-excellent DCHindley. Your notion that the Nag Hammadi trove is an heresiologist's research library is intriguing. But I'm puzzled by your suggestion that the 'clean' texts are an indication of this. A modern would scrawl all over working copies. From Tony Grafton's work, we...

A further unhelpful note. To force my analogy : in an alternative universe, 13 codices containing 27 texts appear on the Cairo antiquities market over a couple of years in the late 1940s. A brilliant scholar asserts that they form a unified collection, the library of an ancient cult, which he terms ...

An unhelpful note. Let's take the New Testament as an analogy. If all the pieces were anonymous, how would we determine the 'logic' of the collection? For instance, what is Hebrews doing there? Knowing as we do the 'key' of apostolic authorship, the attribution of Hebrews to Paul explains its inclus...

Kirsopp Lake : don't forget the constant reference to 'Our Lord' in B.H. Streeter and W.L. Knox. These traits, along with Knox's determination to mention Posidonius on every page, used to drive me to distraction. But then I got to appreciate their serious erudition, and found the verbal tics part of...

A note re Ben's addendum, "an 'ekklesia' can also be the gathering of citizens of a Greek city-state". Indeed, in his classic 1933 commentary on Acts, Kirsopp Lake stated that it was merely the LXX translation of 'qahal'; "I doubt whether the use of the word in heathen Greek to descri...

Footnote : the line from Horace is not relevant. Not only is it not about Pharisees, it is probably not about proselytizing either. Horace terms the Jews a 'turba', an unruly crowd, a mob. This is how they are described in Rome a generation before Horace, as a pressure -group in the crowds intrinsic...

Back to Matt 23.15. 'Proselyte' is a specific term, referring to a gentile who made a full conversion to Judaism, never to a Jew who adhered to a specific sect. So any connection to Paul would be secondary, social interaction with a Pharisaic mission outside Judea. So to Shaye Cohen's lucidly struct...

Footnote to Ben re the Marcus Aurelius letter : when it comes to philology, like you I defer to the 'past masters'. Harnack argued that the forger had used Galerius' edict @ Eusebius H.E. 8.17.9. Bickerman agreed : "The manuscript of Justin consulted by Eusebius did not exhibit this forgery. Th...

A subset category would be the appropriation of an event. Take the famous 'rain miracle' which saved one of Marcus Aurelius' legions in 172. It is depicted on his column; (the epitome of) Cassius Dio tells the story, attributing it, as one explanation, to the Egyptian 'magos' Arnouphis (presumably t...