Jeffrey Gibson

And these non existent cities would be ....??

Jeffrey

Amaleq13

Who says they were "great"?

Several local groups scattered about the land in various cities, yes. Not bad for what everyone else apparently considered to be an ignorant superstition.

Some question the authenticity of the references but, that aside, how do you know this was not just an exaggeration?

What makes you say that? Judaism has specific rules encouraging the participation of reverent non-Jews (ie God-fearers).

For example?

patcleaver

if you google on ("great churches" Paul Epistles) you get 9,950 hits and several on the first page said that Paul's churches were great.[/quote]

35 years of work and all Paul could show for it was a few house churches and he did not even go to Rome until 65 CE and of course in Rome there are “a great multitude of Christians” enough Christians so that it’s a big problem for Nero so he blames them for the fire, but of course how does he do that when he was not even in Rome. What total BS.

Why would Nero even be aware of any Christians unless there was a great multitude. The population of Rome was several million and Nero was concerned with his entire empire. If the Christians in Rome were not numerous enough to have a Church then Tacitus is obviously false and the theory that there were numerous Christians in Rome in the first century is obviously false.

Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and taken to Rome on the false charge that he allowed a gentile into the Temple. Acts 21:26-30

Sorry, I can not verify the missing cities, I could be wrong, and as I am sure you would agree, like anything that can not be verified (such as religious beliefs), you should not believe it unless it can be verified by evidence.

patcleaver

I feel very guilty to have to admit that I have read the spiritual pornography known as the Epistles of Paul. I wish I had never read them, they polluted my mind with ignorant superstition at the time, it took me years to recover. My advice to anyone who wants to avoid insane delusions is to never read that malignant BS.

Jeffrey Gibson

What I would agree with is that you should not make claims about things that you know little about, and for which you have no evidence.

Besides that, whether Paul made reference to cities that never existed is not a matter of religious belief. It is a matter of fact - which not only can be verified, but which you should have verified before you posted what you did, especially if you are presenting himself - as seemingly you are -- as an authority on Paul, and not as someone who has to distort facts in order to keep believing what you have to believe in order keep hold of the axe you are obviously grinding.

Jeffrey

patcleaver

LOL. You are applying a double standard. Beliefs are beliefs.

You're just a hypocrite if you think that I should verify facts that disagree with your religious fantasies before I believe them, but that you can believe whatever religious fantasies you want without verification. If my beliefs required verification then your beliefs require verification in exactly the same way.

Do beliefs need to be verified by evidence or not?

bopot

This is why Wikipedia is useful only for the references. Think of WP as a collection of bookmarks, like del.icio.us, but with extensive (and most often amateurish) user commentary.

Jeffrey Gibson

Do we find in the NT texts attributed to Paul a mentioning of cities that never existed or not? If so, what are they?

Jeffrey

patcleaver

I apologize for the above comments, about your religious fantasies, I misread your post and have no reason to think that you have any religious fantasies, I am just having a bad day.

I answered Amaleq13, who asked the same question. I am surprised that I can not verify that some of the cities mentioned by Paul did not exist in the first century, since I recall reading that in an article several years ago, but I can not find it or any notes on it. So, as I told Amaleq13 above - it is unverified and I could be wrong about it.

Where have I claimed that I am an authority on Paul?

Are you an authority on Paul?

What would quality someone to be an authority on Paul?

Would someone have to be an authority on Paul before they could comment about Paul on this thread?

Do you disagree that its strange that there is no evidence outside of Paul for any first century Churches that Paul sent his letters to?

I have read that post-messianic Jews were allowed in the synagogues until at least the mid 90's. However, I have also read that gentiles were not allowed in the synagogues. Is there any evidence that gentile Paulists were allowed to use the synagogues?

Jeffrey Gibson

Since what Paul meant by "churches" was not buildings, but a gathering of people, no, it's not strange at all.

What sort of evidence do you think there should be? And why do you think it should exist?

What are "post messianic Jews"? And where did you read about them?

Can you tell me where you read this and which synagogues you are talking about? Did these readings include any discussion of the term "god fearers" or the archaeological/epigraphical evidence of 1st century diaspora "synagogues"?

Jeffrey