bacht

That's according to the gospel writers. There may have been apostles such as Cephas/Peter and Saul/Paul who didn't actually see or hear anybody tangible.

The twelve is probably an echo of the the 12 tribes, symbolic of Israel. If the apostles were expecting the day of judgment, God's gathering of the scattered tribes would be a fulfillment of prophecy.

aa5874

And Saul/Paul and Cephas/Peter may NOT have been tangible.

bacht

So in your theory, where did the stories in Acts come from, did they precede the writing of the epistles? Did someone in the 2nd C use these stories to fabricate the letters, the reverse of the usual academic reconstruction?

aa5874

It would appear to me, at this moment, that Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles were written after Justin Martyr's writings. And added to this, Chrysostom claimed, in the 4th century, that very few people even knew that that there was a book called Acts of the Apostles.

It may be that the epistles as we have them today were heavily interpolated, and some parts were written before Acts of the Apostles and other parts afterwards.

It is extremely difficult to determine when the Epistles and Acts were written, except that the Acts and the Epistles are fiction-based and probably written after Justin Martyr's writings.

Another major problem with attempting to date Acts or the Epistles is that is cannot be ascertained when these writings were actually circulated, that is, it is not really known if these writings were written in secret, kept as sacred, forbidden to be copied, and was spoon fed to the general populace or the converts of the Church.

aa5874

Once it is admitted that the Twelve are fiction or a literary invention of the author of Mark, it is irrelevant that Paul mentioned the Twelve only once or that it was an interpolation.

Paul stated, in Galations 1.18, he met and stayed with one of the Twelve fictitious characters, Peter, for fifteen days.

Mark 3.14-16 If Peter is fiction (a literary invention) of the author gMark, then Galations 1.18 is (fiction) a literary invention of the author called Paul.

Galations 1.18-20 It shoud be obvious that Paul could not have met and stayed with a literary invention for fifteen days, and it should be obvious that Paul wrote after gMark's literary invention.

bacht

One thing I do notice about the NT stories is that they present the early Christian believers as "good" Jews, not like those nasty rebels who fought Rome twice. If there was anti-semitism in the 2nd C it might have been necessary to whitewash Christian origins, if not outright invent them as you suggest.

Chili

Those are the 15 days between Christmas and Epiphany with New Year in between when realization takes place.