RE: How did the writings of the NT come to be?
October 23, 2012 at 10:08 pm
(This post was last modified: October 23, 2012 at 10:09 pm by FallentoReason.)
(October 23, 2012 at 9:33 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:We know that the Christians believed those things.
The issue is....WHEN did they believe them?
Justin Martyr tells the story c 160 AD in his First Apology to Antoninus Pius but "Paul" never mentions never mentions the Lord's Prayer, the Transfiguration, the Sermon on the Mount, Mary, Joseph, Bethlehem, the 3 Wise Men,Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents, Galilee, Nazareth, Pontius Pilate, Judas Iscariot, Gethsemane, or Calvary.
Of course, Justin never heard of "Paul" either. It is a puzzle. The one thing that is certain is that the later story cobbled together by the church as "orthodoxy" is horseshit.
Agreed. Paul alone does more damage than good, and Justin was by far the worst apologist in history. He points out exactly what shouldn't be said, namely, that the pagan religions predate Christianity on many different things.
I guess with Tacitus it doesn't matter what he said or was made out to be saying because, like all other "Jesus references", he wasn't a contemporary and his guess is as good as anyone's
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
