Duvduv

I agree with Shesh, and would apply the same view to the finding of the single so-called "Marcionite synagogue."

Sheshbazzar

Given the fact that the Marcionites were supposedly so widespread, influential, and threatening to the orthodox Christian faith.

It is a case just like all the missing archaeological evidence for those two million Israelites that allegedly escaped Egyptian slavery and wandered in the Sinai Desert for forty years until they all died .....and didn't even leave a dozen identifiable graves.

Duvduv

Actually, it is worth noting that no Jewish claim has ever been made to authenticate the Exodus from any alleged archaeological finding anywhere in the desert as far as I am aware. Neither in the Talmud or in the commentaries, midrashim or commentaries of the later rabbis.

In fact no traditional source has ever claimed that the pyramids were built by the Israelites in order to shore up faith in the Torah. On the contrary, the pyramids were not built by the Israelites.

tanya

Thanks for your comments, here, Toto.

1. "mound of dirt". ..... hmm. reference, please. Yes, it was a mound of dirt 1500 years later. (When the British bombed Koln, they avoided, in general, the famous Koln cathedral, but one errant bomb exploded right next to it, and exposed the wonderful Roman baths, formerly at ground level, at the time of the Romans, but buried beneath ten feet of soil, until the bomb). Do you imagine that the soil arrived there by the wind, or by someone shoveling it? I choose wind.

But, in any event, Dura Europos was buried in dirt. I do not deny this. It was found in the 20th century, buried. Yes. No argument, but, who buried it? I claim no one buried it. I claim the wind buried it. I claim that at the time of Emperor Julian, his forces would have found a city buried with ONE century worth of dirt, not fifteen centuries' worth. They would have needed to stop, to rest, to resupply, and to prepare for the invasion down river. Why not spend a few days in the former Roman fortress, which had been constructed, no doubt, at great cost to the Roman empire. In Julian's mind, this was HIS city. You imagine that he was NOT interested in looking around. So, yes, I think it is a possibility, that the paintings date from a post Constantine epoch.

2. The 3 cm fragment was, I believe, from the Diatessaron, not the Didache.

This was in Syria, where Tatian's document was widely known in the 4th century, if not earlier, so, if it had been left behind by Julian's troops, or forged in more modern times, in either case, it seems more reasonable to assume that the document deposited had been Tatian's work, rather than that of someone from the city of Rome.

mountainman

Isn't it so very wonderful that these scholars know that this figure is the Jesus of the Canonical Bible and that he is saying these things?

[I don't see these words in caption on the mural]

This just has to be the most classic example of reading into the evidence what is not there that I have seen so far.

What a complete load of choice bullshit this is.

The figure could represent many things:

(1) A Physician of Asclepius - the healing god of the empire. There is far more evidence for the existence of Asclepius and his healing temples in the empire than there is for the existence of Christians. How do we know this is not a physician of Asclepius and not Big J?

(2) Mani - It could be the Persian Healer and religious leader Mani - Dura is on the Persian border and Mani reached his peak of influence between 240-270 CE. How do we know this is not Mani the Healer and not Big J?

That this figure is Jesus is a totally misplaced conjecture.

The man is actually walking towards the hospital area.

None of these images are unambiguously Christian despite the bloated willingness to believe such artistic interpretation by the Yale investigators and their faithful flock of believers.

That these images are typically Christian is utterly misguided.

Sheshbazzar

What seems to me most outrageous in all of this Dura Europos 'archeology' is that this site of such high significance was not preserved in-situ for posterity.
Some Christian religious institution gets away with desecrating and dismantling the place and packing it off the other side of the earth to languish in mysterious secrecy for decades.
With all of the countless thousands of religious icon frauds that Christianity has perpetrated upon mankind. I'd like to know why in the hell no one even questions the provenance of this 'finding'.
I don't trust the integrity of anything that any slimy Christian or Christian institution has ever laid their grubby mitts on. Its like a god-damned Joseph Smith run Mormon mummy religious freak show.

stephan huller

as opposed to other contemporary archaeological discoveries like Tutankhamun

Sheshbazzar

There certainly is a difference in the quantity and quality there. And of we don't have to deal with a religion that operates with such an extreme confirmation bias that it puts words into the mouths of mute pictures.

mountainman

The question remains when did the show start?

When did the curtains go up for the plain and simple religion of the Christians?

If we found two or three copies of Joseph Smiths gold plates dating to the 4th century we might think that his freak show started in the 4th century.

We don't have Smith's gold plates, but we do have compete Greek Bible codices.

mountainman

How many of Tutankhamun's theology colleges do digs compared to the digs of Christian theology colleges.

The idea that the Dura "House Church" is unambiguously "Christian" lacks the first degree of common scepticism.

Welcome to the glittering web of illusion called "Early Christianity".


"He Sleeps" - certainly a Christian inscription (Basilides)

It goes on ....