#p52 fragment

[404-found]

Can You Trust the Manuscripts?

One of the oldest skeptic digs is this, “We’ve got so many manuscripts and so many translations, how can you know what the originals even said?” Really? Tell that to the piles of papyrus and parchments that put every other ancient text to shame. “The words of the LORD are pure words; as silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.”— Psalm 12:6 We aren’t fumbling in the…

[lost-boy-into-the-upper-heavenly]

P66 IS THE OLDEST SURVING GOSPEL MANUSCRIPT TESTIMONY OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST

According to the latest research, all of these gospels were written between AD 45 and 65. The earliest surviving manuscripts of the gospels date to the second century. While Papyrus P52 is the earliest surviving New Testament manuscript fragment, Papyrus P66 (second or third century) is the earliest manuscript preserving a section that testifies to the resurrected Jesus (John 20:37-41). The "P" stands for "papyri," which are manuscripts written on papyrus, a reed-like plant used for writing in ancient times. The number following the "P" indicates the order in which the manuscript was registered, not its age.

John 20:37-41

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

[nickalbano76]

"Current Scholarly Perspectives on P52"

Brent Nongbri, an expert in early Christianity, has raised important points regarding the dating of P52 to the late second century or possibly the early third century. He expressed disagreement with Wes Huff’s remarks about P52, as Huff adhered to the traditional dating of the fragment. What, then, is the prevailing consensus regarding P52? Is Wes Huff incorrect to continue referencing the…

[lienguistics]

村上龍・イン ザ・ミソスープ

all vocabulary, misc grammar maybe

p6 敬遠 - keeping at arm’s length 治安 - public safety こぎれい - neat, trim, tidy 予備校 - prep / cram school

p8 目撃 - eye-witness 難航 - proceeding with difficulty 気の毒 - pitiful, unfortunate 援助交際 - paid dating 売春 - prostitution  割高 - fairly expensive 大晦日 - new year’s eve  手の負えない - too much to handle 口実 - excuse

p10 軍人 - soldier 証券会社 - brokerage firm つかみどころのない - vague, elusive  紳士服 - menswear, suits for gentlemen 二着 - second, runner-up 替わりばんこ - take turns

p12 ケチ - cheapskate, bad omen 仰々しい - exaggerated, bombastic 保護 - preservation 契約 - contract 納めに - closing / finishing up 

p14 気さく - friendly, openhearted 無邪気 - innocent, simple-minded タチが悪い - malicious, ill-natured 名著 - famous book, masterpiece 出張 - business trip 発行 - publication 網羅 - encompassing, covering all of

p16 儲かる - be profitable 国際性 - internationality 資金繰り - fundraising, cash flow スケベ - lewd 区役所 - ward office 房 - bunch / cluster of 

p18 客引き - barker, soliciting, luring

p20 抜群 - excellent, outstanding  連勝 - consecutive victories  儲け - profits

p22 せっぱ詰まる - be at wit’s end, cornered

p24 積み木 - toy wooden blocks

p26 あげつらう - find fault with, criticize  谷間 - cleavage, ravine 陰毛 - pubic hair マイコン - personal computer 制御 - control of / over 熱帯魚 - tropical fish ついばむ - pick / peck at

p28 つるつる - slick, smooth 希薄 - thin, sparse, weak, diluted 水割り - diluted alcoholic beverage 銘柄 - brand

p30 毛細血管 - capillary 不穏 - disquieting, threatening, unsettling

p32 運輸省 - ministry of transport ギャラ - fee paid to performing artists, appearance fee 手の打ちようがない - can’t to anything about it, don’t know where to begin with 神殿 - temple, shrine 聖火 - olympic flame, sacred fire 団体 - group, party, organization  武家 - samurai

p34 のけぞる - be taken aback 男根 / だんこん- penis, phallic  童貞 / どうてい- male virgin こわもて - fierce / frightening / tough look 性病 / せいびょう - STI センズリ - male masturbation しゃくはち - blowjob

p36 射精 / しゃせい - ejaculation シゴく - masturbate, stroke 伴奏 - musical accompaniment  鉄則 - ironclad / inviolable rule 勘定 - bill, check, receipt

p38 蔦 - ivy 手軽 - easy, cheap 物色 - looking / shopping around for 素焼き - unglazed pottery 陶器 - pottery

p40

旗 - flag, banner プレハブ - prefabricated building

p42 移民 - immigrant, emigration 子孫 - descendant 

p44 おじや - rice gruel with veggies and fish

p46 のれん - short curtain hung at shop entrances 取り巻く - enclose, surround

p48 強引 - coercive, pushy ノルマ - quota, assignment 名誉 - honor, prestige 殺伐 - brutal, savage 司会者 - TV host, chairman 直筆 - one’s own handwriting

p50 商談 - business discussion, negotiation

p52 グラビア - gravure  守備 - defense

p54 石灰 - lime mineral 満塁 - bases loaded 言い回し - expression, phrasing

p56 釈然 - fully satisfied 係 - person in charge

p58 暴行 - assault (+sexual) 気を回す - read too much into things

p60 悩ましい - enchanting, seductive  滑稽 - funny ridiculous, comical まちまち - various, diverse, conflicting

p62 真珠 - pearl 利益 - profits, benefits 過労死 - death from overworking

p64 単身赴任 - intra-company job transfer away from one’s family 打席 - batter’s box 空振り - swing and a miss, vain attempt やかん - tea kettle 稼働 - operating, running (machine) 点滅 - flickering 収縮 - deflating 拡声器 - megaphone 

p70 博打 - gambling, risky venture 覚醒剤 - stimulants 

p74 ずるがしこい - devious, cunning 景品 - gift, prize

p76 楕円形 - elliptical shape 設計 - plan, design, layout

p88 本格的 - genuine, full-blown 胴体 - torso 枠組み - framework, outline

p90 でたらめ - nonsense, haphazard

p92 淫行 - obscenity 条例 - regulations, rules 施行 - enforce rules 敗北 - defeat, loss, setback 前頭葉 - frontal lobe 抽選 - lottery, raffle

p94 吹きさらし - wind-swept, exposed to the wind かじかむ - grow numb with cold

p96 さかりのついた - estrous, in heat まるっきり - completely (not) at all 注目 - attention, observe, notice 鋭利 - sharp, keen, acute

p98 洗い出し - exposure by washing away, finding out 懸命 - earnest 討論 - debate, discussion むち打つ - whip, lash, spur on, encourage 野放し - letting someone do as they please / uncontrolled

p100 ぞうきん / 雑巾 - dust cloth  切れ端 - fragment

p104 偏差値 - deviation value, standard score 極致 - culmination, peak

p106 突き当たり - end of a hallway / road 気さく - friendly, open hearted 素朴 - naive, simple unsophisticated 

p108 切手 - stamp, postage 糊 / のり - paste, glue 指紋 - fingerprint

p110 警告 - warning  移す - change, swap 関知 - one’s concern, having something to do with

p112 自粛 - self-restraint 見せしめ - making a lesson / example of 宣伝 - promotion, publicity, marketing, advertisement 動悸 - palpitation, pounding (of the heart) 非常識 - lack of common sense

p114 ぐずぐず - slowly, dawdling, complaining ウマが合う - get along well with someone 

p116 モヒカン - mohawk 放心状態 - state of absentmindedness / dazed 白状 - confession

p122 ～ようがない - no way / means to, impossible to

p130 疑心暗鬼 - once you suspect something then everything starts looking suspicious 誘惑 - temptation, allure  屈託 - worry, care, concern

p132 お辞儀 - bowing, to bow 昏倒 - swoon, fainting 街娼 - prostitute

p134 お見合い - formal meeting with a prospective spouse

p136 鑑別所 - juvenile detention facility 少年刑務所 - juvenile correction institution 筋金入り - staunch, hardcore 点滅 - switching on and off, flickering 一瞥 - a glance, glimpse

p138 端正 - clean cut, handsome

p140 崇拝 - worship, cult 騎士団 - chivalric order, fellowships of knights and stuff 接吻 - kissing 奏法 - (musical instrument) playing style

p142 収拾がつかない - out of control は��き - postcard (size) 師走 - twelfth month of the lunar calendar, december 素人 - amateur, unlicensed prostitute

p144 宮殿 - palace 予算 - budget あしらう - decorate, treat, handle 項目 - item, category

p146 入れ墨 - tattoo

p148 催眠術 - hypnosis

p150 コンパ - party, get-together

p152 気が紛れる - be distracted from tough feelings

p154 合板 - plywood 独特 - characteristic じゃれある - be playful 

p156 常軌を逸する - go off course / aberrant / erratic, defy norms

p158 道徳 - morals, morality でたらめ - rubbish, nonsense  白ける - be dampened / turn sour (mood), become bored

p160 癇 - temper, nerves 癇に障る - get on one’s nerves, offend

p162 窮屈 - narrow, constrained, formal, uncomfortable 役作り - preparation / study for a role

p164 (顔を)そむける - turn (face) away, avert gaze 水商売 - night entertainment business 

p166 電卓 - calculator しのぐ - endure, pull through ヒモ - man financially dependent on a woman, gigolo, pimp すり減る - worn down, reduced to のっぺり - expressionless / flat / featureless (face) 飢え - hunger, starvation

p168 交渉 - negotiations, bargaining 常連 - regular customer

p170 無縁 - unrelated

p172 さとす - to make someone understand a fault, reason with, advise, warn

p174 ため込む - save up, stockpile

p176 溝 - ditch, drain, gutter 勇者 - hero 瞳孔 - pupil (eye) 弛む - loosen, slacken 

p178 前屈みになる - slouch, lean forward 嵌める/填める - to fit (a pane into a frame) 脹ら脛 - calf leg 伝う - go along, follow

p180 コールタール - coal tar 寸断 - cutting to pieces 失禁 - urinate involuntarily 

p182 ふやける - swell up, soggy, sodden, lazy 眼窩 - eye socket 斑点 - speck, fleck 増幅 - amplification 態勢 - readiness, preparedness, attitude くり広げる - unfold めり込む - sink / cave into

p184 紛らわす - divert, distract with, change the subject, conceal なめす - to tan (leather, hide)

p186 炙り出す - expose, reveal, bring out into the open 有線 - wired, cabled ばたつく - to flap noisily, walk around being unable to settle down 蝋/蠟 - wax 脂肪 - fat, grease

p188 のけぞる - bend backwards 大股 - wide steps / stride 付け根 - root, base, crotch 歯茎 - gums 抽象 - abstract

p190 連携 - cooperation, coordination, link

p192 卑屈 - servile, subservient, obedient  棒読み - reading in a monotone, stiff / wooden delivery

p202 図々しい - cheeky, impudent 相場 - market price

p204 安らぎ - peace of mind, tranquility  ゆだねる - entrust something to someone, abandon oneself to 斡旋 - goods, services 莫大 - vast, immense

p206 誘拐犯 - kidnapper 保証 / 保障 - guarantee

p212 おがくず - sawdust

p220 木霊 - echo, reverberate 

p222 門松 - new year’s pine decoration  注連飾り - decorating shrines and gates with shimenawa ropes for new year’s 行き違い - crossing without meeting

p226 殺戮 - massacre, slaughter 不服 - dissatisfaction 抑揚 - intonation

p230 見通し - unobstructed view 屈める - bend, stoop 玉砂利 - gravel  水槽 - water tank, cistern, aquarium 

p232 副都心 - urban subcentre 占領 - military occupation 空襲 - air-raid, air strike 排他 - exclusion 侵略 - invasion, raid 固有 - characteristic, peculiar 領土 - dominion, possession 廟 - mausoleum 除夜の鐘 - bell rung 108 times on new year’s eve

p234 地上げ屋 - landshark 漆喰 - mortar, plaster

p236 見張る - stand watch

p238 占拠 - occupation of territory 鉄砲 - gun

p242 滝 - waterfall

p252 断念 - abandon, give up 気が進まない - reluctant to

p256 起点 - origin, starting point 喘息 - asthma 気管支 - bronchial tube

p260 慢性 - chronic  過程 - process, course, mechanism

p262 昆虫 - insect, bug 

p264 全貌 - full story / view ひざまずく - to kneel 露天掘り - open-pit mining 坑道 - tunnel 葦 - common reed

p266 調和 - harmony, accord, agree 担ぐ - carry on one’s shoulder 廃坑 - abandoned mine

p268 副作用 - side effects おがくず - sawdust 弁解 - explanation, justification

p272 官僚 - bureaucrat 批判 - criticism 糾弾 - censure, denounce 優良 - superior, elegant  惑星 - planet

p274 屈する - yield, kneel 権威 - authority

p276 流動食 - liquid die 活性化 - rejuvenation, revitalization 狩猟 - hunting

p280 ごわごわ - stiff, starchy

p284 横断歩道橋 - pedestrian footbridge

p286 噴水 - fountain 欄干 - railing, handrail  更ける - to get late, advance 帰省 - returning home

p288 年配 - elderly, senior 置き引き - walking off with someone’s bag, luggage theft

p290 退化 - degeneration, regression 隔たり - distance, interval, gap

[just-another-dumb-girl]

It’s called Papyrus P52, and it’s a tiny fragment of a New Testament codex (an ancient manuscript bound in pages like a book, not a scroll) at the John Rylands Library, Univ. of Manchester, England. The front contains parts of seven lines in Greek from the Gospel of John 18:31–33, while the back contains parts of seven lines from verses 37–38.

People who study ancient manuscripts believe it was written sometime between 125-175 AD, making it the oldest existing record of a New Testament manuscript. That’s pretty significant, since it means it was not only written but apparently had been copied enough times to make it out to a provincial town in Egypt (where it was found) by the middle of the second century, And that, in turn, goes a long way to confirming the traditional date for the composition of the Gospel of John as around 90 AD, or roughly only 50 years or so after the Apostle John witnessed Jesus’ earthly ministry.  

[scurvyoaks]

Papyrus P52

📷The John Rylands Library Papyrus P52 (recto) contains parts of John 18:31-33. It is the earliest New Testament manuscript discovered to date. Photo Credit: JRUL / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

The earliest and most famous Greek New Testament manuscript is the Ryland Papyrus P52, currently on display at the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, UK.  It was purchased in 1920 by Bernard Grenfell on the Egyptian antiquities market.  However, it wasn’t really “discovered” until 1934 when it was translated by C. H. Roberts.  Three of the leading papyrologists in Europe to whom Roberts sent photos of the fragment to dated it from A.D. 100-150, although most scholars today would use a wider date range of the second century in general.  P52 comes from a codex (ie. book form, not a scroll) and contains parts of seven lines from the John 18:31–33 on the front, and parts of seven lines from verses 37–38 on the back.

Front ΟΙ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙ ΗΜΙΝ ΟΥΚ ΕΞΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΠΟΚΤΕΙΝΑΙ OYΔΕΝΑ ΙΝΑ Ο ΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗ ΟΝ ΕΙ- ΠΕΝ ΣHΜΑΙΝΩΝ ΠΟΙΩ ΘΑΝΑΤΩ ΗΜΕΛΛΕΝ ΑΠΟ- ΘΝHΣΚΕΙΝ ΕΙΣΗΛΘΕΝ ΟΥΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΑΙΤΩ- ΡΙΟΝ Ο ΠIΛΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΩΝΗΣΕΝ ΤΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΣΥ ΕΙ O ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥ- ΔAΙΩN

the Jews, “For us it is not permitted to kill anyone,” so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he sp- oke signifying what kind of death he was going to die. Entered therefore again into the Praeto- rium Pilate and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Thou art king of the Jews?”

Back ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΕΓΩ ΕΙΣ TOΥΤΟ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΑΙ ΚΑΙ (ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ) ΕΛΗΛΥΘΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΙΝΑ ΜΑΡΤY- ΡΗ��Ω ΤΗ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΠΑΣ Ο ΩΝ EΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΗΘΕI- ΑΣ ΑΚΟΥΕΙ ΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΦΩΝΗΣ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΩ Ο ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΤΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΚAΙ ΤΟΥΤO ΕΙΠΩΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΞΗΛΘΕΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΙΟΥ- ΔΑΙΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ ΕΓΩ ΟΥΔEΜΙΑΝ ΕΥΡΙΣΚΩ ΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΑΙΤΙΑΝ

a King I am. For this I have been born and (for this) I have come into the world so that I would testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears of me my voice.” Said to him Pilate, “What is truth?” and this having said, again he went out unto the Jews and said to them, “I find not one fault in him.”11

The Earliest New Testament Manuscripts, Bryan Windle. Bible Archaeology Report.

the john rylands library

[ohmotherwhatsthat]

Will The Chosen get into why there aren’t more relics of early Christianity? Did the authorities destroy letters written by Christians? Did the authorities destroy letters written by Jesus?

I think this is actually a super interesting question - and I would love to see The Chosen address it, albiet I feel like the route they take would be less 'what is destroyed' and more 'what has survived'. In general, The Chosen tends to focus on the survival and continuity of Christianity, rather than to focus on knowledge that has been lost. I think this is especially important as a series that wants to portray an accurate representation of the gospel stories. Aspects that are added have 'potential' as being historical fact, and I think for it to go along the route of 'well this was true but it got destroyed' is a little unlikely for the vibe of the series.

I think if we're also talking about the survival of letters of early Christianity, the question makes it sound a little more malicious than it probably was. Record survival is dismal at best in a lot of contexts. Especially when we are talking about manuscripts and written records compared to archaeological evidence. The 'Rylands Library Papyrus P52' piece, for example, is one of the oldest examples of surviving gospel text, estimated to date to around the year 150 (although dating manuscript fragments is horrific and it could be closer to the year 200). But it is MINISCULE.

Its not to say that wilful destruction of records never occurred, but that even without that, the survival rate of written records tends to be low. Especially for earlier records which did not have a 'need' for preservation supported by someone with the funds/ability for the preservation of documents.

Also while destruction of letters by the authorities is certainly possible, destruction of sources is not always malicious. In the 21st century we have a desire for the 'oldest' and 'earliest' copies of writing. But this was not always the case. Records have been used, worn down, and re-transcribed in a phenomenal number of cases - both inside and outside Christian writings. In many cases there was not seen to be a need, or a way, to look after copies of writing that was so worn or disintegrated. If it could not be used, what was the point in maintaining that version if you could just copy down the words and, for lack of a better phrase, use the photocopy.

[orbemnews]

Archaeology news: How scholars translated world's 'oldest known' New Testament fragment According to the expert, thousands of ancient Greek texts from the New Testament have been discovered to date. Some 5,500 separate manuscripts are known, ranging from tiny fragments like P52 to entire copies of the New Testament. Professor Meyer said: “These manuscripts, even ones as small as P52, provide tremendous assurance to the billions of Christians around the world who read the New Testament that their translations are based on texts that accurately reflect what was composed in the original autographs some 2,000 years ago. “Indeed, Jesus himself has promised that though the heavens and the earth will disappear, his words will never disappear (Matthew 24:35).” There is, of course, an ongoing debate about the fragment’s exact age. The John Rylands Library states the text was penned between 100 and 150 AD. if(typeof utag_data.ads.fb_pixel!=="undefined"&&utag_data.ads.fb_pixel==!0)!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','568781449942811');fbq('track','PageView') Source link Orbem News #Archaeology #fragment #news #Oldest #Scholars #Testament #translated #worlds

[christianpublishinghouse-blog]

THE P52 PROJECT: Is P52 Really the Earliest Greek New Testament Manuscript?

THE P52 PROJECT: Is P52 Really the Earliest Greek New Testament Manuscript?

What are the churchgoers, the Bible college students, and seminary students to do when one Bible scholar says one thing and another Bible scholar says something quite different, or worse still, as is the case with P52, several Bible scholars are saying different dates for the time when the Greek New Testament fragment P52 was written? P = Papyrus (a plant in  Egypt),[1]the material that…

[theosporotos]

Evidence for the Crusifixtion of Jesus

How do we know Jesus died on the cross?  We must look at the historical evidences recorded for us in ancient history.  What evidences is there? Outside of the Biblical witnesses (the synoptic gospels) we first look to the closest culture associated with Jesus and his death; Judaism. JEWISH HISTORY  Two researchers, Edwin Yamauchi and John P. Meier, have constructed a copy of the "Testimonium" of Flavius Josephus (37-101AD; wrote ~45 years after Jesus) with the probable later Christian insertions removed. In parentheses are what is found in the Arabic manuscript.  The following paragraph is Yamauchi's:

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man (And his conduct was good and he was known to be virtiucous) For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. (They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive). And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.”

Here Josephus the Jewish historian records that Jesus was condemned by crucifixion.   Josephus does not have to be believe in Jesus in a religious sense to admit and record a historical event regarding what happened to Jesus.  Being a anti-christian source, he records this event as an actual historic occurrence.   Given his time of writing and area of association, he would have known witnesses of this event. Later in Jewish records we see in The Babylonian Talmud, a commentary on Jewish laws composed between A.D. 500-600 (Neusner/Green, 69), contains a text about Jesus’ death. The Tractate Sanhedrin (43a) states:

Jesus was hanged on Passover Eve. Forty days previously the herald had cried, “He is being led out for stoning, because he has practiced sorcery and led Israel astray and enticed them into apostasy. Whosoever has anything to say in his defense, let him come and declare it.” As nothing was brought forward in his defense, he was hanged on Passover Eve.

SYRIAN HISTORY Secondly we can look at Mara Bar-Serapion who wrote around 70AD (~35 years after Jesus); He was a Syrian philosopher and a non-christian.  When giving historical examples of innocent people being killed, he gives this example:

"...Or the Jews by murdering their wise king?…After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.”

The Jews never murdered their kings of the past.  Jesus however was mockingly called "king of the Jews" on the cross.  It was an argument that even Jewish leadership used to get Rome to approve his crucifixion.  35 years after Jesus was murdered, Rome destroyed Jerusalem.  But "the wise King lived on in the teachings he enacted".  Thus Serapion was indirectly stating that Jesus was a real person of history that was killed. ROMAN HISTORY Third, we see as recorded by Cornelius Tacitus (56-120AD); a very trusted Roman historian, senator, proconsul of Asia, and defiantly a non-christian who wrote around 116AD (~80 years after Jesus) an interesting statement:

“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”

Tacitus records that Jesus "suffered THE extreme penalty" by Rome, which was crucifixion. Then Lucian of Samosata (120-180AD; ~115 years after Jesus) was a satirist and Roman comedian who very negative and sarcastically critical of Christians. He wrote several books and in a negative since, unintentionally affirms Jesus' death:

"The Christians. . . worship a man to this day - the distinguished personage who introduced this new cult, and was crucified on that account. . . . You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains their contempt for death and self devotion . . . their lawgiver [taught] they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take on faith"

Lucian also affirms the historic event of Jesus' crucifixion. The image above is roughly 1st to the late 3rd century dating which depicts a person crucified with a donkey head being worshiped by a person to the left.   The words engraved at the bottom translate "Alexamenos worships [his] God,"  This was mocking a person named "Alexamenos" for worshiping "[his] God" who was on the cross.   Origen reports in his treatise Contra Celsum that the pagan philosopher Celsus made the same claim against Christians and Jews:

“For the sake of such a monstrous delusion, and in support of those wonderful advisers, and those wonderful words which you address to the lion, to the amphibious creature, to the creature in the form of an ass, and to others, for the sake of those divine doorkeepers.."

Tertullian, writing in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, reports that Christians, along with Jews, were accused of worshiping such a deity. He also mentions an apostate Jew who carried around Carthage a caricature of a Christian with ass's ears and hooves, labeled Deus Christianorum Onocoetes ("the God of the Christians begotten of an ass"). Thus, through this insulting graffiti in ancient Roman culture, we see that Christians were worshiping someone who was crucified.  The donkey head is the derogatory depiction of Jesus, as it was taught that Jesus, the king, entered Jerusalem on a donkey also the donkey itself depicted how Roman society felt about Jesus himself.  None the less showed the culture making fun of someone who was crucified. What we know about Roman crucifixion is that it was extremely successful.  Even if Jesus was to had survived after being brought down from the cross, just unconscious, the burial ritual of the Jewish culture would have suffocated him regardless.  Given what we know now medically, the wounds he would have suffered, the lack of nutrition, dehydration, wound infection, and burial suffocation; he could still not have survived.  ISLAMIC RECORD About 630 years after Jesus, Ibn Ishaq (d. 761 CE/130 AH) reports of a brief accounting of events leading up to the crucifixion.  But about 200 years after Ibn Ishaq, the idea of Jesus' crucifixion changed to the idea that he only appeared to be crucified or that he did die for only a few hours before being raised to heaven.   Al-Tabari (d. 923 CE/310 AH) records an interpretation attributed to Ibn 'Abbas, who used the literal "I will cause you to die" (mumayyitu-ka) in place of the metaphorical mutawaffi-ka "Jesus died", while Wahb ibn Munabbih, an early Jewish convert, is reported to have said "God caused Jesus, son of Mary, to die for three hours during the day, then took him up to himself." Tabari further transmits from Ibn Ishaq: "God caused Jesus to die for seven hours", while at another place reported that a person called Sergius was crucified in place of Jesus. Ibn-al-Athir forwarded the report that it was Judas, the betrayer, while also mentioning the possibility it was a man named Natlianus. Al-Masudi (d. 956 CE/343 AH) reported the death of Christ under Tiberius.  But then, Ibn Kathir (d. 1373 CE/760 AH) suggested that a crucifixion did occur, but not with Jesus and that ‘The servant and messenger of God, Jesus, remained with us as long as God willed until God raised him to Himself.’  It seems that the Islamic idea of Jesus' pseudo-death follows the early traditions of Gnostic teachings in that Jesus himself did not die but was replaced at the cross by someone one else who appeared to look like Jesus on the cross.  Yet other Islamic teachers such as Ja’far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (d. 347 AH/958 CE), Abu Hatim Ahmad ibn Hamdan al-Razi (d. 322 AH/935 CE), Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani (d. 358 AH/971 CE), Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi (d. 470 AH/1078 CE ) and the group Ikhwan al-Safa affirm that Jesus did die by Crucifixion, and not substituted by another man.  It is important to note two things:  (1) The Islamic reports of Jesus not dying by crucifixion are at least 900 years after Jesus!  (2) They affirm Gnostic teachings which have been proven to be unreliable historically and philosophically.  The inconsistent accounts within Islam make it impossible to validate Islamic sources as historically reliable. CHRISTIAN RECORD It is easy to write off The Bible as a bias source of the historical event of Jesus' crucifixion but the same can be said for all the non-christian sources that deny it.   The fact that there exists non-christian sources that affirm Jesus' crucifixion is compelling in and of itself.  But is the biblical record of Jesus' death unreliable?  According to non-christian secular scholars and historians such as E. P. Sanders and Maurice Casey, who are bold enough to admit, that, The Bible is reliable enough to know that he did in fact die.  The Rylands Library Papyrus P52 is a biblical manuscript dated 90AD to 150 AD records a small portion of the story of Jesus' crucifixion.  Which the fragment can be possibly dated to only 60 or so years after Jesus.  Clement of Rome who wrote around 90AD and affirms the death of Jesus in Chapter 16 of 1 Clement.  Ignatius (born around 35 AD and died around 108AD) affirms Jesus' crucifixion in his letter to the Smyrnaeans.  Polycarp of Smyrna (born around 69AD and died around 155AD) affirms Jesus' crucifixion in his letter to the church in Phillipi. THE PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE   Ancient Jewish history records Jesus' death on the cross.  Syrian philosopher affirms his death as an historic event.  Ancient Roman historians and writers affirm Jesus' death as an historic event.  Early church teachers affirm Jesus' death.  Later some Islamic writers even affirm Jesus' death.  Currently, well respected secular scholars affirm that the Bible's record of Jesus' death is reliable.  We can in fact conclude given the preponderance of evidence that Jesus did in fact die by crucifixion. If you have any questions or comments about this article please contact us or join our discussion forms

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First Century Manuscript, Mummy Masks, Hobby Lobby, The Museum of the Bible, and waiting!

The earliest manuscript (written copy) of the New Testament is the John Ryland fragment, sometimes called P52. Concerning manuscripts, there are no original documents (called “autographs”) of any book of the New Testament.  In order to reproduce what was in the original you have to compare and contrast the varied manuscripts (copies).  The more manuscripts you have the better you can reproduce…

[presuninoc-blog]

Dating gnostic gospels

Gnostic Gospels Online Free Paul only had a mystical encounter with some being — comparable to, say, how Mohammad or Joseph Smith report having mystical encounters with angels.  It is the Gospel of John that relates the account of Thomas being the apostle that did not have sufficient faith to believe that Yeshua had indeed risen from the dead; he was only convinced when he could meet the risen Yeshua and examine the scars of his crucifixion wounds.  Most scholars agree with the that proposes that Mark was one of the sources for the other , and ; according to this viewpoint the latest possible date for Mark depends on the dating of Matthew and Luke.  Ad 67 or thereabouts, the the gospels, rendering the gospels as.  One significant argument against the early dating of P52 is that the fragment was part of a codex, or book, rather than a scroll, and there are few examples of such books in existence at such an early date.

Gnostics, Gnostic Gospels, & Gnosticism There are numerous references to the Gnostics in second century proto-orthodox literature.  Philip closely resembles orthodox catechisms of the second through fourth centuries, and was most likely translated into Coptic from a Greek text dating to the second half of the third century A.  But if the writing of the christian apologists are eager to ca.  In addition to the issues already discussed in support of the later dates is the important fact that the four canonical gospels were not mentioned or named as such by anyone until the time of Church father Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons c.  In his introduction to The Nag Hammadi Library in English, James Robinson suggests that these codices may have belonged to a nearby monastery and were buried after condemned the use of books in his.

What are the Gnostic gospels? Blomberg, the gospels are in fact anonymous.  Sin has separated mankind from God, so we were destined to parish I am not sure what way.  Scholars generally believed to be useful for both of bible scholars believe matthew.  Thus, the identity of Luke's Theophilus has never been explained adequately in terms of the purported era of Christ's advent.  Although, it's worth noting that this specific solution has fallen out of favor among modern scholars.  He comes down with the ten commandments and sees the idol.  We will examine and the gospels february 22, then we should know that had been.

Gnostics, Gnostic Gospels, & Gnosticism The Realm of God is inside you and outside you.  Physical attraction is something really important to them and they love to be beautiful.  See the excerpts below for more information on this.  Description: protocols, however, underlying evidence for the most difficult hurdles in ad.  Overview of Facts and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code For more specific information on Mary Magdalene in the Gnostic Gospels, see the article Mary Magadalene in Ancient Texts.  However, they did not have any writings by the Apostles to give legitimacy to their beliefs.  Our dating the gospel of the ancient texts, the second through the manuscripts.

Gnostics, Gnostic Gospels, & Gnosticism The Gnostic gospels can be a good source for the study of early Christian heresies, but they should be rejected outright as not belonging in the Bible and not representing the genuine Christian faith.  Although the first century gnostic the writings were essentially forgeries dating for singles matching.  This may suggest that the resurrection story was added later into the canonical scriptures as some scholars suggest.  So far as kirk janowiak points out, in the trend towards earlier than.  Oxyrhynchus 3525 published in 1938 and 1983, and a longer fifth-century Coptic translation Berolinensis Gnosticus 8052,1 published in 1955.  Early christianity, we will examine and hearing and i am a significant point to our use mark and for christianity.  Those gospels had tried to establish that Yeshua was the fulfillment of the Messiah expectations of Judaism in general and especially the apocalyptic Essenes in particular.

Gnostic Gospels First, as pointed out above, the Gnostic gospels are forgeries, fraudulently written in the names of the Apostles in order to give them a legitimacy in the early church.  Thankfully, the early church fathers were nearly unanimous in recognizing the Gnostic gospels as promoting false teachings about virtually every key Christian doctrine.  There is nothing particularly Gnostic about the saying, and it is found in two independent sources, one of which is very early.  After the discovery, scholars recognized that fragments of these sayings attributed to Jesus appeared in manuscripts discovered at in 1898 , and matching quotations were recognized in other early Christian sources.  Amalgamating the gospels only makes things more complicated and poses more problems.

Dating Agency In London Harland dates sometimes vary not found many bible fans use mark.  Marcion and the dating of the synoptic gospels While debate when were the dating of the gospels.  Are the Gnostic Gospels Reliable? These Gnostic sayings must be later traditions, then, placed on Jesus' lips in some other context.  The christian history from a collection of thomas relates that the gospel of charge.  To manuscripts, for a recent biblical scholarship is one dates.

The Gospel Dates In contrast to The Gospel of Thomas see below , Philip has not yet gained widespread notoriety.  Plausibility of the alternative explanation If the Gospel of Thomas is taken to be a second century writing, then one must consider the plausibility of what this implies.  Scholars generally date the text to the early-mid 2nd century.  The Nag Hammadi codices are currently housed in the in ,.  And that the Christians were first so-called at Antioch? Even in this Gospel, for example, Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed, a parable also told independently by Mark.

Advocatus Atheist: Dating the Gospels: Looking at the Historical Framework Paperback editions followed in 1981 and 1984, from E.  First of all is to compare its style — wisdom sayings — to the hypothetical Q gospel, which is also wisdom sayings.  Whether or not Luke used these particular texts is immaterial, as what is important is that, in referring to these writers at all, Luke must have composed his gospel after these heretical books already existed.  The Gnostics believed that they were privy to a secret knowledge about the divine, hence the name.  For clearly even these briefest of treatments of the Gnostic gospels are enough to show the sharp disagreement, even contradiction, between the Jesus of the canon and the Jesus of Nag Hammadi.  Although somewhat scattered in its subject matter, it primarily alternates between doctrinal exposition and paraenesis exhortation or warning of impending evil.  In December of that year, two Egyptian brothers found several papyri in a large earthenware vessel while digging for fertilizer around the near present-day in Upper Egypt.

Advocatus Atheist: Dating the Gospels: Looking at the Historical Framework What may be more shocking to believers is that modern Christianity does not stem from Jesus Christ at all, but rather, comes from that re-envisioned theology of St.  Further evidence of false attribution shows up even in the most enthusiastic students of Thomas.  Jesus Outside the New Testament: an introduction to the ancient evidence.  Examination of the datable papyrus used to thicken the leather bindings, and of the Coptic script, place them c.  About 3000 dead, not referring to new version, they were given a final chance you can go and read what transpired.

[pastorhogg]

Despite Disappointing Some, New Mark Manuscript Is Earliest Yet

Bible scholars have been waiting for the Gospel fragment’s publication for years.

The Egypt Exploration Society has recently published a Greek papyrus that is likely the earliest fragment of the Gospel of Mark, dating it from between A.D. 150–250. One might expect happiness at such a publication, but this important fragment actually disappointed many observers. The reason stems from the unusual way that this manuscript became famous before it became available.

Second (or Third) Things First

In late 2011, manuscript scholar Scott Carroll—then working for what would become the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.—tweeted the tantalizing announcement that the earliest-known manuscript of the New Testament was no longer the second-century John Rylands papyrus (P52). In early 2012, Daniel B. Wallace, senior research professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, seemed to confirm Carroll’s statement. In a debate with Bart D. Ehrman, Wallace reported that a fragment of Mark’s gospel, dated to the first century, had been discovered.

As unlikely as a first-century Gospel manuscript is, the fragment was allegedly dated by a world-class specialist. This preeminent authority was not an evangelical Christian, either. He had no apologetic motive for assigning the early date. The manuscript, Wallace claimed, was to be published later that year in a book from Brill, an academic publisher that has since begun publishing items in the Museum of the Bible collection. When pressed for more information, Wallace refrained from saying anything new. He later signed a non-disclosure agreement and was bound to silence until the Mark fragment was published.

As a general rule, earlier manuscripts get us closer to the original text than later manuscripts because there are assumed to be fewer ...

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Larry Hurtado on P52 — Evangelical Textual Criticism

Larry Hurtado on P52 — Evangelical Textual Criticism

I recently came across this short video of Craig Evans interviewing Larry Hurtado. It appears to be made during the production of Evans’ new documentary, Fragments of Truth (see Peter Gurry’s review here). The date of P52 comes up, and Hurtado briefly explains why he thinks it is “among the earliest New…

[jgoodlifemajorproject2018]

The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health

Notes from this book by David R. Montgomery and Anne Birke:

p2 ‘Another world run by tiny, invisible and largely unknown creatures’.

p2 ‘the conventional medical view sees microbes mostly as pathogens’

p3 ‘their cells outnumber our own cells... And out planet like the bodies of plants and animals, is literally covered inside and out with microorganisms’

p3 ‘not only are they abundant, they’re robust, able to withstand the most extreme conditions the planet can offer’

p3 medicine --> microbial ecology of the human body

p5 ‘Throughout the history of life on land, microbes repeatedly deconstructed every piece of organic matter on the planet, fashioning new life from the dead. Yet our relationship remains modelled on killing it... the profoundly simple reason we should care about this hidden half of nature is that it is a part of us not apart from us’. 

p5 ‘The tiniest creatures on Earth forged long-running partnerships with all multicellular life in the evolutionary fires of deep time’. 

p8 ‘Fertile soil is the frontier between geology and biology, a mix of weathered rock fragments and decaying organic matter’ ‘soil: a weathered blanket of rotten rock and dead things’

p22 ‘People think soil is static and inert, like the rocks from which it comes’

p22 ‘the natural world visible to us above ground is kept afloat by what’s beath the surface’

p22 ‘paying attention to the natural world is an ancient human habit. knowing about nature used to matter a great deal before we began to live in cities/ drive/ sit in front of screens... we used to spend our lives figuring out what to eat, where it lived and how it grew’. (before the dawn of agriculture)

p24 ‘humans paid little attention to microbes because we couldn’t see them... out of sight out of mind’.

p24 ‘despite their size, microbes are the most abundant, widely distributed and successful organisms on Earth. Nearly 99% of all species whose bones are preserved in the fossil record are extinct, having failed the test of time. Yet microbial life has survived since the earliest days of life, more than 3.6 billion years ago’. 

p24 ‘there are an estimated 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 microbes on the earth.’ (inconceivable numbers).

p25 ‘Archaea are the most ancient’ ‘viruses are not made of cells and aren’t alive, even though they do lifelike things’

-earth microbiome project – understanding the global microbiome project.

p26 ‘all microbial communities in the soil around the world do similar tasks: decompose organic matter, purify water and renew soil fertility’.

p27 ‘Bacteria roam earth’s lofty ceiling of the upper atmosphere, growing in cloud droplets. Archaea live near boiling volcanic vents on the deep seafloor... Microbes occur nearly everywhere because they are so remarkably adaptable’. 

p27 Some archaea are exremophiles. communities of microbes around black smokers in sea (high pressure keeps water liquid despite temperatures reaching 400 degrees C. Archaea also found in frozen lakes trapped half a mile beneath Arctic ice. And in Atcama desert in Chile where there is no rain, streams or lakes. 

p27 ‘Deinococcus radiodurans is unbelievably resistant to radioactivity, extreme heat, cold and exposure to acid. Allows them to thrive in the deadly cooling ponds of nuclear power plants. Scientists hope one day to genetically modify D.radiodurans and unleash them to eat and clean up nuclear waste.’

p28 ‘Many of today’s extremophiles are descendants of ancient archaea, dating from early days of life when Earth was a super hot planet with little oxygen’. ‘Todays oxygen rich atmosphere still depends on microbial mediation of the global oxygen cycle’. 

p29 ‘Archaea now inhabit the planet’s crust of fractured rock’. (avoiding oxygen). But Archaea still account for up to 20% of the biomass on the planet.

p29 Mud beneath sea floor in Peru illustrating ancient roots of modern biosphere. Microbial communities living in 5 million year old sediments.

p29 ‘We share the world with an entire world of subterranean life that we are just finding out about’. 

p30 Microbes can pass genes to protists, insects, plants and animals --> horizontal gene transfer. ‘violates all Darwinian rules’. ‘One study discovered that bacteria had incorporated DNA from a 43,000 year old wooly mammoth bone into their genome’. ‘The ability to trade gens and to vacuum up DNA from their surroundings including their surroundings including the genetic scrap heap of dead things, allows them to adapt to new conditions.’

p30 ‘With no hard parts to fossilise, early microbial life disappeared rapidly upon death.’ ‘but evidence for microbial life extends back to at least 3.4 billion years ago.’

p30 most microbes live as colonies in communities of multiple species, a far cry from how they are usually studied in single species laboratory cultures’

p30 Biofilms- instrumental in launching life ‘The earliest known fossils that you can see with your own eyes are stramatolites, finely layered rocks that record the growth of bacterial mats (biofilms) in shallow marine waters.’ ‘while the individual bacteria involved were not preserved, they left behind evidence of their biofilm structures, the dominant form of direct evidence for life on Earth’.

p31 ‘petroleum/ natural gas composed of remains of microbes or microially decomposed organic matter heated up and cooked at high pressure deep in Earth’s interior’. 

‘They run Earth’s nitrogen cycle, keeping soil fertile’. 

p32 ‘our bodies are made of nutrients that come from rocks. Microbes play a key role in breaking down and extracting elements from rocks and getting them into biological circulation.’

p33 ‘Long before agriculture transformed civilisations around the globe – and our relationship with the natural world – people lived immersed in the nature they could see and touch’

p36 Taxonomy: ‘The taxonomic label of genus and species defines every organism. Naming plants and animals frames the way people look at, talk about, and understand nature’. However: the idea of fixed species doesn’t really apply in the microbial world.

p36-37 Carl Linnaeus - ‘father of modern taxonomy’. Perplexed by microbes. He assigned bacteria to the genus Chaos.

p37 ‘our yearning to touch, see and classify the natural world falls apart when it comes to life too small to see’

p42 the ability of microbes to change matter from one state to another

** p51 ‘The more we know about microbes, the more they seem to defy our attempts to categorise them’

p52 ‘microbial symbioses led to multicellular life’ (achaeon merged with a bacterium- their union creating a composite life form) Ancient partnerships.

book: symbionticism and the origin of species

p55 ‘was it a coincidence that a scientist from one of the most capitalist societies of all, Victorian England, came up with the ida that competition frove evolution and that Russian scientists championed the idea of symbiogenesis?’ Cooperation is at the heart of symbiosis - clashing with Darwinian dogma that competition between individuals drove evolution.

p59 ‘these ancient microbial unions set the course for the evolution of subsequent life’ ‘teaming up offered ways to take advantage of or simply survive the progression and accumilation of different physical environments on Earth.’

‘every multicellular life form began a very long time ago as a series of symbiotic relationships between different microbes - mostly bacteria’

p62 ‘the more scientists look into the relationships between microbial life and larger organisms, the more evidence they find for symbioses.’ e.g. symbioses of plants and fungi - dates back to earliest land plants more than 400 million years ago.

p63 ‘working together or in competition, communities of microbes alter the chemical and physical character of their environments’

p63 Darwin would not have imagined that the microscopic world was such a collaborative place. ‘we inherited more than 1/3 of our genes from bacteria, archaea and viruses.’

these interdependencies are coming into focus... in particular we are learning how symbiotic relationships underlie plant health and soil fertility.

p67 Adam and Eve - hava- life and adamah- soil.

‘The origin of soil fertility remained one of the deepest mysteries long after humanity began farming and gardening’

p76 pesticides increase need for more poisons. chemical fertilisers as agricultural steroids- a way to enhance short term performance at the expense of long term soil fertility and plant health. ‘the slow poisining of the life of the soil by artificial manure s one of the greatest calamities which has befallen agriculture and mankind’

‘the modern explosion of agricultural woes - pests, parasites and pathogens - resulted from the breakdown of a complex biological system.

p81 an agricultural testament - a manifesto on organic agriculture

p86 ‘during 2nd world war, british defence regulations compelled farmers to apply chemicals to their crops. to help farmers, the government paid a portion of the costs, subsidising the development of the fertiliser industry. A factory that made fertilisers could be easily converted to munitions manufacturing and vice versa... after the war, governments sought new uses for instantly obsolete munitions plants. fertiliser factories preserved the option of converting production back to munitions on short notice.’

p88 ‘emerging view of soil ecology as basis for soil fertility is undermining chemical foundation of agriculture.’

p89 ‘we have a built in aversion to rot’.

p90 microbes use acids and enzymes to break down organic matter

p91 ‘forest networks of fungal hyphae are the largest life forms on Earth, forming subterranean networks that extend for miles’

p93 dead microbes account for 80% soil organic matter

p93 ‘microbes weave a carpet of life that ripples up from the soil to the plants and animals that upon death become the foundation for a thriving microbial world.’

p94 ‘soil ecosystems are far more ancient and every bit as diverse and complex as those that rise above them’

‘first lifeforms to colonise land - bacterial mats, algae, fungi and lichens’

p95 ‘although players at the top of the food web were shuffled several times by mass extinctions, the underlying symbiotic relationship between below ground and above ground life held’.

p95 ‘still only know about 1/10 soil dwelling species’

p97 ‘when beneficial microbes are present in the soil near roots they send messages to plants that lead to an immune like response called induced systematic resistance.’

what language do they use to communicate? plants use roots as ‘ears’ to listen to soil life.

‘Soil microorganisms are more abundant in proximity to plant roots, and this zone is called the rhizosphere’

p107 intimate relationships and coevolution in subterranean communities.

‘The new understanding of microbes as biological catalysts of natural soil fertility challenges the philosophical foundation of modern agriculture’.

p108 ‘when biocides take the good as well as the bad out, it is the bad actors that bounce back fastest’

p125 ‘there is a raft of microbes that eat excrete, reproduce and die on and in the human body’

p126 ‘bacteria alone bring about 2 million genes into our bodies’

p127 of all our bodily habitats, the richest in terms of abundance and diversity is our 22 ft long digestive tract. majority of gut microbes have never been cultured.

p136 considering the many microbial landscapes composing our bodies- ‘they have a multitude of interacting inhabitants and are as dynamic as any other ecosystem on Earth. they experience cycles of resources abundance and scarcity, catastrophes, predator-prey relationships, temperature and moisture gradients etc’

[ramrodd]

Why the Gospels Are Myth: The Evidence of Genre and Content

COMMENTARY:

Dee Bunker 

 >>>>>>You said, "The Gospels and Acts contained in the Prostestant and Catholic bibles are authentic and without forgeries."  This is easily refuted by many bible translations themselves, as well as biblical scholars. New International Version - Marginal note on Mark chapter 16: "The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20.<<<<<<" 

 Yes, I have stipulated to the addition of Mark16:9 - 20. I have also maintained the position "So what?" The postscript adds information reflected in the other Gospels and Acts and seems to reflect John Mark's style of prose. 

 In addition, your understanding of what constitutes a "forgery" in this context is flawed, similar to your lack of understand as to what Bart Ehrman means by "manipulation". You are a font of misinformation. 

 >>>>>"A large number of books in the early church were written by authors who falsely claimed to be apostles in order to deceive their readers into accepting their books and the views they represented.<<<< 

That seems to be the case, 

I'm discussing the Gospels and Acts collected in the canon as defined by the Bible.  If you insist on erecting straw men, you are free to do so but it is more a form of mental masturbation than argument. 

 >>>>New International Version - Maginal Note on John chap 7:53-8:11: "The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11."<<<<< 

This also seems to be the case, It apparently appears in other early manuscripts of Matthew.  It seems to have been included because it is a popular story that is an example of Jesus' cleverness and it makes an application pertinent to His teachings.   

>>>>>If you say that these books were written by apostles, and contain only the original words of the author, the burden of proof is on you to support your claims.<<<<<< 

 You demonstrate once again either an authentic lack of comprehension skills or a strategic decision to mischaracterize my posts. From everything you demonstrate, I suspect a combination of the two. 

Technically, Matthew is probably the only Gospel written by an Apostle, Luke was a companion to Paul and John Mark, the author of the Gospel of John, was junior member of the Disciples.  I would argue he became the Apostle to the Alexandria copyists, but he never claimed to be one, so far as I know. 

My thesis is that the Gospel of Mark was written by the centurion Cornelius featured in Acts 10 after that encounter with Peter around 40, It appears to be an update of the intelligence reports that prompted Tiberius to propose Jesus as a Roman deity before 37.   It is derived from a routine intelligence dossier begun on Jesus after His appearance as a potential insurgent after His baptism by John and before His arrest.  It is composed of products from this dossier, strung together into a cohernt narrative, more or less chronologically, by the phrase "immediately" as a literary device, as well as content from the 3 day debriefing of Peter described in Acts 10 and certain other minor additions and alterations. With the exception of Mark 7:1- 13, the narrative contains Jewish theology coincidental to the original intelleigence gathering process, which was conducted more in the manner of modern journalism rather than as a deliberate polemical impluse. 

The Romans didn't know what Jesus represented, but it was big medicine and the existence of Mark reflects due diligence of the Roman administration in Palestine consistent with the function of the modern CIA. 

 Cornelius was not an Apostle. 

The author of Mark created the genre of "gospel".

Mark is the template for Matthew and Luke, both whom modified the original for their own reasons.   Matthew connects all the theological dots Mark reports without the additional commentary. 

 Gospel, of course, is an Old English transliteration of the original Greek, "euangeliou", which may be a Roman classification of the report it introduces. Euangeliou is the source of "evangical".

 >>>>....We don't have any full manuscripts earlier than 350....<<<<< 

Papryus P52 is the earliest fragment we have and it is dated variously between 90 - 175.  The guy that discovered the fragment identified it immediately as being from John 18:31 - 33 and John 18:37 - 38, which reinforces the integrity and stability of the later manuscritps. 

>>>>>>Jesus was not intellectual, he didnt even wash his hands before eatting (sic)<<<<< 

 The mere fact that you equate personal hygiene with intellectual capacty disqualifies you as a credible judge in the issue.