Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

“Why won’t the Church modernize its teachings about women, sex, celibacy, etc. etc.” The simple answer is that the Vatican would have to unilaterally give away its power if it made any of those changes. This would violated what is sometimes called the “Iron Law of Institutions.” Those who control an...

Alas it is not a well edited book. But still very important. Tons of interviews with named Vatican insiders, with a deep knowledge of 20th century Catholicism in France, Italy, Chile, Poland, etc. These are the essential findings, in Martel’s own words— 1. For a long time the priesthood was the idea...

The literary history of the evil one is long and complicated. (Far more so than that of “the messiah.”) Many cultures, texts, names, mythemes are involved.

AFIK Neil Forsyth’s The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (1987) is still the gold standard.

Has anyone else read Frederic Martel’s In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hyprocrisy (2019; tr. from the French ‘Sodoma’)?

I’m several chapters in. It’s a bit repetitive, but full of colorful, damning information. Explains a lot about the Church.

Is the nomina sacra IC XC used in Paul an abbreviation for Jesus Christ? How can we know when all we have are examples of the nomina sacra? The reason that I find this important is that we can be pretty sure that there were competing sects in early Christianity (Chrestianity?) and the one that fina...

For gThomas, to restore the original (asexual) creation in Genesis 1.

But only through the power of his words, since Thomas’ Jesus is not a dying savior.

1 Thss 1:10
to rescue us from God’s coming wrath

Colossians 1:13 (Marcion?)
to transfer us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son

I agree with the OP with the serious problem in biblical studies with assumptions of oral tradition behind the gospels. Can't wait to see them blow their lid over the word infantilizing though. I disagree in that I believe the Pauline's are heavily interpolated. Robyn Walsh's latest book The Origin...

If we look at where Paul uses "name" with relation to Jesus, we have: 1 Cor 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 1 C...

Is it also a reasonable argument to say that a title loses all its meaning and power once it is turned into an individual name: e.g. I'm thinking of Spanish people named Jesus. Can one imagine those persons - e.g. Jesus Navos the footballer and Jesus Jones the musician etc - attending a pentecostal...