Malachi151

I'm trying to put together a timeline of events relevent to the devleopment of Christianity. Here is what I have so far. Any help is appreciated:

165 BCE - Maccabee defeats Greek Army
140 BCE - Hasmonean Kingdom established
44 BCE - Death of Julius Ceasar
37 BCE - Herod declared King of the Jews by Roman authority, ending Hasmonean rule
20 BCE - 40 CE Jewish theologean Philo integrates Greek philosophy and Jewish theology
4 BCE - 33 CE - Supposed lifetime of Jesus
37 CE - Death of Pontious Pilate
39 CE - Death of John the Baptist according to Josephus
50-70 CE - Letters of Paul written
63 CE - Jewish revolt against Roman authority in Judea
67-70 - Judea destroyed by Roman army
69-75 CE - Gospel of Mark written
80-100 CE - Gospels of Matthew and Luke written
94 CE - Josephus writes Jewish Antiquities
109 - Tacitus write Annals, possibly refers to Christians being persecuted in 64 CE
112 - Pliny the Younger write letter to Trajan about Christians
120-140 CE - Gospel of John written
132-135 CE - Bar Kokhba's Revolt
313 - Edict of Milan - Constantine allow freedom of all religions
380? - Theodosius declares Cathololocism official state religon of Rome
394 - Battle of the Frigidus, Theodosius defeats remaining pagan armies in the Empire, all of Rome now offically Christian

hatsoff

I'd tighten that to 48-64.

I'd expand that to 66-80.

I'd expand Matthew to 70-110 and Luke to 70-140.

This is the only thing I could find that is definitely wrong. John was written c.90-120.

mountainman

4 BCE - 93 CE - Supposed lifetime of the author Apollonius of Tyana

100 - 250CE - The Second Sophistic

325 CE - Council of Nicaea, summoned by Constantine (supreme 324)
325 CE - Exclusionism of Arius' "there was a time when he was not"

c. 327-330 - First citation of the physical binding of the New & Old Literature (so-called "Constantine Bibles")

362 CE - Julian's invectives "The NT is a fiction of men composed by wickedness"

Malachi151

I have a problem with the Dataing of John, however there are problems with my problem.

My problem is this. According to the Talmud and to Jewish tradition, the first time the term Messiah was used was in relation to Bar Kokhba in the 130s.

The only time that the word Messiah (in english translations) is present in the Bible is in the Gospel of John.

Now, it would make sense to me, for a variety of reasons, including this, that the Gospel of John was written after Bar Kokhba had been designated Messiah.

This would explain why John is so anti-Jewish, deepens the split between Jews and Christians and why John calls Jesus Messiah.

Now, either the parts of John that call Jesus Messiah were added later, or this whole business or Messiah isn't as well defined as I think it is, or something has been lost in translation, or John was written in the 130s, after Bar Kokhba had been named Messiah.

Thoughts?

angela2

The Hebrew word xyXm (the anointed one) is used 38 times in OT. The transliteration of that word is Mashiyach with a phonetic spelling of maw-shee'-akh. The Greek equivalent of that word as John tells us is cristoß, a word used 500 times in NT.

Malachi151

Interesting, but doesn't cristoß = Christ?

Are Christ and Messiah eqivilent?

angela2

That's what John says. I see not reason to suppose that the other gospel writers believed otherwise.

Certainly John is using a Hebrew word in a way that it was not originally used. But I don't see that as a problem for the credibility of John's gospel or for that matter the synoptics.

Malachi151

No, my issue is that Bar Kokhba was supposedly the first (only) person to be declared "The Messiah" according to the Talmud in the 130s.

I'm trying to figure if John was written in opposition to this declaration of Bar Kokhba as the Messiah, by delcaring Jesus the Messiah, since this would make sense in many ways, and, at least in the English translations, only John uses the word "Messiah".

Toto

What is your source for the idea that Bar Kokhba was the only person to be declared the Messiah? The term was certainly in use before 130 CE.

Malachi151

I hate to say it, but I got that from wikipedia. However, I did a search on Biblegateway to see if this had any backing and a seach of the whole Bible for Messiah only had two results, both in John, hence I wondered if John was written after this time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_bar_Kokhba