RE: For People Who Think There Was No Historical Jesus
February 23, 2013 at 12:11 pm
(This post was last modified: February 23, 2013 at 12:12 pm by Minimalist.)
Quote:The only way that the development of Christian beliefs can be figured out is by studying the early Christian writings which survived.
But did they survive "intact?" Were they later forgeries? How do we know that they were not edited to reflect the doctrinal views of later redactors?
The fly in the ointment is that early xtian writings were saved by later xtian writers/copyists.
It is, in fact, the one thing which convinces me that the Pliny correspondence is genuine. No xtian forger would have included the bit about how xtians said "Fuck Christ...Hail Trajan" when confronted. That is completely opposite to the martyrdom scenario being pushed in later times.
Quote:They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.
No xtian would forge that. Neither would a Roman. A Roman wouldn't give a shit.
However, there is another possibility.
http://historyhuntersinternational.org/2...hrestians/
"Christians" evolved from Chrestians."