Isn't it great debating with people who simply copy and paste their replies without giving them thought. The fact that there are 4 such passages referring to "Jesus' name" only should make people winder why that was used intead of the trinitarian formula. It is a fact that the first...
Why did Peter in Acts 2:38 say, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" if according to the great commission he was supposed to say in the name of god the father, the son and the holy spirit? Did he have Alzheimer's? Had he...
It was your use of Clement of Rome and Barnabas to support Mark's authorship to which I was referring. Hippolytus distinguishes three Marks: Mark the Evangelist, John Mark and Mark the cousin of Barnabas. You seem to be making a composite Mark.
So we know three people who knew Luke, two of whom wrote non-canonical scripture, i.e. scripture that the church does not recognise as being authorative. The fact that he also wrote Acts, which after the council of Jerusalem becomes very much the Acts of Paul does at least tell us that Paul's...
Who were the gospel authors? Considerable doubt exists on Matthew, Mark and John and, while Luke is widely recognised as the author of his gospel and Acts, what do we know of Luke?
You should acccept that there is a great deal of controversy regarding the authenticity of the trinitarian formula used in Matthew 28:19 and that the original may have been, “Make disciples of all the nations in my Name.”
On another unrelated point, what evidence is there that the...
I seem to recall that the jewish god commanded Saul through Samuel to violate the "thou shall not kill" commandment and kill all the Amalekites, men women and children, and when Saul had the temerity to bring back the king alive, it cost him his kingship. Nowadays it would be called genocide.
How do you know that it is "intrinsically contrary to his nature"? Presumably anyway the commandments are in order of priority so the first commandment, depending on which version you choose, "I am the Lord your god. You shall have no other gods before me" is supreme and you are probably meant...
In my opinion that was not the disciples's tradition was not to treat Jesus as God. The earliest gospel of Mark does not consider Jesus as god, only the latest, attributed to John, does that and, by the time it was written, Paul's heresy had gained a foothold
How come then that the first Christian church in Jerusalem was formed by those who had known the mortal Jesus, who met in the Temple of Jerusalem, were all fully observant Jews, were led by someone who acted as the high priest of Judaism. It is difficult to imagine that, under these...
Critical scholarship seems to find consensus unpalatable. We shall perhaps never know who wrote the NT and/or who the authors truly were. I have thoughts of Paul living to an old age chuckling to himself at pulling off a great con trick (reports of his martyrdom notwithstanding).
First let me introduce myself: I'm an old agnostic/atheist curmudgeon, but fascinated with some aspects of the Christian faith.
Back to the thread title, and my apologies if it has already been debated.
All the synoptc gospels say that the disciples James, Peter, John and Andrew had a private...