Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

For the record, the historicity of some persecutions against heretics in the fourth century is not really in question, and assigning them more or less significance than the persecutions against Christians in the third and early fourth century seems to me to be subjective.

I'm not sure that a single, obscure text, completely unknown to rabbinical Judaism ("The Wisdom of Solomon"), can be used to broadly claim that "Judaism had already taken a turn for the Arian." Melito, I believe, classified it within the New Testament canon. People who think the...

I suppose the most that can be said is that this can be argued, probably, to be in error, but, if so, it means nothing more than that Tacitus may have been guilty of an anachronism. It's easily understood as such whether stemming from Tacitus or an interpolator. Rubbish, Peter. Tacitus clearly unde...

From my reading of Fergus Millar's first article, Carrier's got nothing to support his views. If you regard the question as inconclusive, then I believe it has to be dropped as an argument against the authenticity of the passage. You require the conclusion that to call Pilate a procurator was a mis...

Crossan thinks that "secret Mark" was the original Mark's gospel, which included the two passages noted by Clement of Alexandria, and ending at 15:39 (I do not agree with that, I think "secret Mark" was an elaboration of canonical Mark). Right. You seem to have represented him f...

I found a larger excerpt... http://stephanhuller.blogspot.com/2011/07/john-dominic-crossan-on-canonical-mark.html My theory, then, is that canonical Mark dismembered Secret Mark's story of the young man's resurrection and initiation so that only Mark 14:51–52 residually evidenced the initiation and ...

I'm not sure that a single, obscure text, completely unknown to rabbinical Judaism ("The Wisdom of Solomon"), can be used to broadly claim that "Judaism had already taken a turn for the Arian." Melito, I believe, classified it within the New Testament canon. People who think the...

It's not so much a question of being "sure," of being able to "solve" things, or of being able to "prove" anything as it is being able to produce a consensus. Not everyone interested in the subject is interested in approaching it rationally (most, in fact, aren't). This...

If there was originally no reference to the brother of Jesus then you would expect either a man (accusative) whose name was James (nominative) or simply James (accusative) Correct. Earl Doherty (and, by quotation, my essay) acknowledges that, under this hypothesis, there would have been a change in...

From my reading of Fergus Millar's first article, Carrier's got nothing to support his views. If you regard the question as inconclusive, then I believe it has to be dropped as an argument against the authenticity of the passage. You require the conclusion that to call Pilate a procurator was a mis...