WishboneDawn

I'm sure I've heard that in fact, we can't assume that. And it's killing me but I can't find the damn source for that. I remember references to oral tradition in the ancient world being often a matter of transmission by people with specific skills in telling and memory. But I can't prove I'm not pulling that out of my ass at the moment.

Still, what sources are there for the idea that oral tradition in not reliable?

Casper

In Rome maybe but in Syria? Marcion certainly had them beat all to hell and back on that one.

Casper

Well now we know why he prefaced it all as a "vision". Psychedelic at that

Gamera

Well, Marcion was a literate man.

By the way, I think to this day his canon was the best. Christiantiy would have been better served to have stuck with the Christian scriptures and put the Hebrew scriptures to the side, since they were and are confusing and ultimately indecipherable. I would argue (with Marcion) that the gospel stands by itself.

Gamera

Well, if Greeks had known about the Mayan Calendar, Paul probably would have studied it at some time. He was a well-read man.

Casper

Marcion was da man!

When I discovered Marcionism it set a whole chain of events in motion in my psyche. I was electrified. Part of the joy was simply that there were others who must have felt the same as I did. Even if they were long gone.

I wonder if early Marcionites felt that way about Paul?

Boro Nut

If there had been a canon in the new testament the Jews would have easily beaten the Romans. It's all bollocks.

Boro Nut

Doug Shaver

That makes Paul a member of the early church. It does not make him equivalent to the early church. For all we know, 99 percent of all Christians living during that time would have said Paul was full of crap.

hatsoff

It's possible, but unlikely. By all accounts Paul enjoyed great popularity among Christians. In one of his Epistles he even tries to discourage people from following him. Even the Gnostics seem to have valued Paul's teachings.

Toto

You mean by all of Paul's accounts? Are there others? I think that there are some church fathers who refer to him as the apostle of the heretics.