Originally Posted by Duvduv

In the chapter called Faith and Life of Christians we see ...

Originally Posted by MrMacSon

What book; by whom?

Originally Posted by MrMacSon

What book; by whom?

Originally Posted by Diane Murdock

After presenting the contention, Ehrman then comments (in brackets):

The second-century church father Justin never quotes or mentions any of the Gospels (25).

[This simply isn't true: he mentions the gospels on numerous occasions; typically he calls them "Memoirs of the Apostles" and quotes from them, especially from Matthew, Mark and Luke.]

Firstly, it should be noted that what Ehrman has "cited" here is not a quote from my book and nothing that I personally state on p. 25 therein. As I have observed elsewhere, it appears again as if Ehrman was working from "Cliff Notes" of my book, provided to him by his assistants, because the sentence he cites, "The second-century church father Justin never quotes or mentions any of the Gospels," is a summary of quotes I provided in The Christ Conspiracy ("Christ Con" or "CC") by John E. Remsburg and Charles Waite. In these quotes, the authors follow their assessment with sound commentary, a fact that Ehrman has evidently chosen to ignore—if he even read these paragraphs in the first place.

Secondly, if Ehrman had followed up on my work or even on my citations in Christ Con, he would have discovered that his claim concerning Justin Martyr, while shared by many, ranks as false and inaccurate. A closer look at Justin's writings reveals not what scholars and Christian believers want to find but what is really there: No verbatim quotes or unambiguous citations from the canonical gospels as we have them appear anywhere in Justin's extant works. Nor does Justin Martyr name any of the evangelists in any known text, an erroneous impression given by Ehrman’s wording here. In other words, Matthew, Mark and Luke are never named by Justin; nor is John.

Originally Posted by Duvduv

In the chapter called Faith and Life of Christians we see moralisms that are also found in the gospels, but this can simply mean that they were floating around before they ended up in the canonical gospels. After all, for a fellow who knew about that lost archive census he couldn't name a single apostle who had memoirs or even the name of his Old Man or where that Old Man learned of the Christ, etc.

Second century? I doubt it.

Originally Posted by Toto

The issue is: Justin appears to know the gospel stories, but not the authors later assigned to them. Where did he get this information (or was it added by a later editor?)

Originally Posted by aa5874

Again, it does NOT make much sense for 4TH century writings to claim Justin found out about Jesus by an old man and that Justin did NOT know of the four gospels, Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline writings.

Anyone familiar with 4th century apologetic sources will easily identify that Justin's writings is NOT compatible with that time period.

We know that Justin did NOT have the four gospels simply because he did NOT mention them and apologetic sources which used Justin did NOT claim he was aware of the four Gospels.

Justin Martyr specifically stated that it was the Memoirs of the Apostles that was read in the Churches on Sundays. See "First Apology".

No apologetic source even acknowledged that a source called the Memoirs of the Apostles existed and was used in the churches.