(February 23, 2013 at 12:11 pm)Minimalist Wrote: 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?
It's the best anyone can do under the circumstances. Eusebius's view of the Son's status didn't get adopted as the official Roman religion, for example.
The Nag Hammadi Texts provided further information.
Quote:The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of thirteen ancient codices containing over fifty texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945. This immensely important discovery includes a large number of primary "Gnostic Gospels" -- texts once thought to have been entirely destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define "orthodoxy" -- scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth.
The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library, completed in the 1970's, has provided impetus to a major re-evaluation of early Christian history and the nature of Gnosticism.
(February 23, 2013 at 12:11 pm)Minimalist Wrote: 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.
I wonder if anyone made a list of martyrs from Bithynia when Pliny was in charge.
I can only find reference to Paramonus, Philumenus and 370 companions being martyred there in 250 AD. They seem to be connected with the Greek Orthodox chruch but I haven't a clue where they got the their information from.
Where are the snake and mushroom smilies?
