(October 19, 2012 at 5:17 am)pocaracas Wrote: How did the writings of the NT come to be?
I'm not sure these guys aren't poes, but they look legit to me:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm Wrote:Those writings which possessed the unmistakable stamp and guarantee of Apostolic origin must from the very first have been specially prized and venerated, and their copies eagerly sought by local Churches and individual Christians of means, in preference to the narratives and Logia, or Sayings of Christ, coming from less authorized sources.
[...]
Nearly all the New Testament writings were evoked by particular occasions, or addressed to particular destinations. But we may well presume that each of the leading Churches--Antioch, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome--sought by exchanging with other Christian communities to add to its special treasure, and have publicly read in its religious assemblies all Apostolic writings which came under its knowledge.
In other words: they were written to be consumed by people far far away from the supposed origin of the myth, hence completely unverifiable, even in the first century.
Let's try to put present day names to those ancient places:
Antioch == South Turkey:
Thessalonica == Greece:
Alexandria == Egypt:
Corinth == Greece:
Rome == Italy:
Don't tell me the apostles, or witnesses of christ, wouldn't allow this, because they weren't there, where these writings were written, nor where they were read aloud to the new followers.
Ok, I'll give you that one of the original followers is claimed to have traveled to Rome, so he must have left some accounts along the way.... One man's word... we know how easy it is to misinterpret, to twist the meaning or for the original (or subsequent) story teller to add some embellishment.
Do I have to put the video to the Life of Brian, where he loses his shoe? I think it's been posted on this forum enough times, already!
Israel, where the christ myth originated, remained pretty much jew, in spite of all the "eye witnesses". Only the people from far away believed in the myth...
How convenient!
Here's where Nazareth/Jerusalem is (notice how far far away they are from the "leading churches"):
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.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.