How did the writings of the NT come to be?

[pocaracas]

Hmmm bright light?
New amazing knowledge of the spirit world?

[Minimalist]

Try to remember, children, that Justin Martyr...writing c 160 AD never heard of any "Paul." He never heard of your fucking silly-assed gospels, either. All of this shit was invented later on.

Oh, is that another one of those "academic facts" which you can't stand to hear about?

Tough fucking shit.

Time to grow up.

[John V]

Couple notes on the OP.

Re: the source, it's an older version of the Catholic Encyclopedia (the most recent version isn't available onlive for free). It's obviously biased, but overall it's a good source. Entries on doctrine generally give opposing views with reasonable accuracy.

Re: the twelve apostles going to outlying churches. They didn't need to. Remember, at that time, Jews from outlying areas frequently traveled to Jerusalem for festivals. I doubt it's coincidence that Jesus was crucified during the Passover, and the apostles started preaching on Pentecost. Lots of people from outlying areas were visiting during those times, so verification that the basics had been reported in Jerusalem was not as difficult as you wuld think. For instance:

Acts 2
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

[pocaracas]

Couple notes on the OP.

Re: the source, it's an older version of the Catholic Encyclopedia (the most recent version isn't available onlive for free). It's obviously biased, but overall it's a good source. Entries on doctrine generally give opposing views with reasonable accuracy.

Re: the twelve apostles going to outlying churches. They didn't need to. Remember, at that time, Jews from outlying areas frequently traveled to Jerusalem for festivals. I doubt it's coincidence that Jesus was crucified during the Passover, and the apostles started preaching on Pentecost. Lots of people from outlying areas were visiting during those times, so verification that the basics had been reported in Jerusalem was not as difficult as you wuld think. For instance:

Acts 2
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Jews are not christians... are they?
They just share 1/3 of a god... or something like that!

[Drich]

There was when it first began.

Actually no their wasn't. Have you noticed how we have different letters/books written to different churches/region all focousing on different forms/types of worship? Each church was it's own expression of christanity. Granted there are some core beliefs that are universal in the faith, but how we are to praise and worship their is freedom. This freedom was taken away in/around the 4th century. It is from there that we get the Idea that their should only be one expression of Christianity.

[Minimalist]

This freedom was taken away in/around the 4th century.

An interesting way to characterize the holocaust that jesus freaks unleashed on the ancient world as soon as that cocksucker Constantine put a sword in their hands.

Tell me, do you also consider "gang rape" to be a mild social indiscretion?

[John V]

Jews are not christians... are they?

Uh, they certainly can be. Jesus and the apostles were all Jews ya know.

[Godscreated]

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Sorry but your analogy does not hold up, first there were churches in Israel, second there was mass trade all through those areas. Rome made this easy by land with all the roads they built and sea travel had been going on for a very long time, so you see that part of the world had shrank because of the easier travel.

100 years ago, there were places in this country (Portugal) where old roman roads (yes, the real 2000 year old things) were the best the people had to go somewhere. Back then, it was common for people never to travel more than 50km away from their home town/village.

My claim is that none of the original witnesses would have, most likely, never traveled to where these "leading churches" were located. Thus, there was no way to verify/discredit the writings they received from any self-entitled authority on the subject.
People believed what they wanted to believe... The story was good and appealed to human decency. That's why it stuck.

As John V points out the Jews were traveling back to Jerusalem from far off places, and it's important to remember that Paul was setting up these churches or as said earlier communities of believes. Paul was also leaving people in charge of these churches and the Gospel spread in these areas through these churches. God knew when to send His Son, during the time of Roman domination and innovation, this allowed the Gospel to spread quickly.

[pocaracas]

He could have sent him in the age of the internet: pics or it didn't happen!
Now, it's more: youtube, or it didn't happen!

Anyway, who's to say that the original witnesses would prevent the spread of some extra features on their favorite boy? I mean, how many could have been the original witnesses? 100? 200? How many of these would have been traveling to keep an eye on what other people were saying about the real events?
As it says on the OP, texts had to be sent to particular places so they could read them in their assemblies. Who made sure these texts were accurate? No one, or, at most, one person at each location for a small time... and how could he tell people things didn't happen exactly like they were written?

[John V]

Anyway, who's to say that the original witnesses would prevent the spread of some extra features on their favorite boy? I mean, how many could have been the original witnesses? 100? 200? How many of these would have been traveling to keep an eye on what other people were saying about the real events?

I suppose that's why the gospels were written.

As it says on the OP, texts had to be sent to particular places so they could read them in their assemblies. Who made sure these texts were accurate? No one, or, at most, one person at each location for a small time... and how could he tell people things didn't happen exactly like they were written?

If the texts were being embellished in various locations, we would expect to see divergences in manuscripts across time and across locations. We don't. The changes we see are normal changes resulting from translation and evolution of language and have no effect on any significant doctrine.