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Old 12-27-2011, 11:22 PM   #21
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No the posting is not from me. Anyway, all the similarity means is that verses or even maxims appear in both places. It does not indicate that Justin knew about a Paul he never mentions.

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It is quite illogical to use the numbers game when arguing with people who hold the fringe that position that Gods do NOT exist.
I'm not suere what you mean. I'm not playing a numbers game and the position that "Gods do NOT exist" is not at all a fringe position in biblical scholarship.



I haven't seen much evidence from antiquity. I've seen selective quotes and naive and undisciplined assumptions imposed upon them in order to draw out certain conclusions, but I see no real objectivity or awareness of the primary texts at work in that process. Take the "Chrestos" nonsense, for instance. I've shown how the texts have been misunderstood, misrepresented, and manipulated, but I know that it's not going to change anyone's mind. It doesn't appear to be so much about what the texts say as what they can be made to say.



So the thousands of people out there in academia with a decade of formal training under their belts who make their living out of coming up with something new and original to say about these topics are just ignoring the evidence and making stuff up? The people who really understand are the people without the training who make a hobby out of this and are quite invested in a particular broad position?

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The PAULINE writings can be shown to be historically and chronologically bogus using the ABUNDANCE of written statements in the very Pauline writings and Apologetic sources.

An Apologetic source claimed Paul preached Jesus Christ to the Gentiles all over the Roman Empire but Justin Martyr wrote of NO such thing.

Justin Martyr claimed it was 12 illiterate men from Jerusalem that preached the gospel to every RACE of men.

"First Apology"

Justin Martyr did NOT write that PAUL was preaching to the Gentiles while the disciples were in Jerusalem.

The Pauline writings were UNKNOWN to the Justin Martyr and had ZERO influence of his writings up to the mid 2nd century.
This all sounds an awful lot like this post. Are you the author of that post? Whether you are or are not, it rides on the rather ridiculous notion that if Justin Martyr didn't write about it, then it didn't happen. Additionally, there's quite a bit of evidence that Justin did know Paul. He not infrequnetly drew scriptural quotations and interpretations from him. For instance, in the text cited above, Dialogue 39, Justin draws an almost verbatim quote from Rom 11:3–4, which quotes two non-consecutive verses from 1 Kgs 19, and he uses Paul's non-Septuagintal version. In Dialogue 95 Justin quotes Paul's non-Septuagintal version of Deut 27:26 from Gal 3:10 and borrows his interpretation of it in reference to Christ. In the next chapter he then quotes Paul's version of Deut 21:23b from Gal 3:13. A couple good discussions of Martyr's use of Paul are Oskar Skarsaune, The Proof from Prophecy (Leiden: Brill, 1987), 92–100, and Andreas Lindemann, Paulus im ältesten Christentum (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1979), 363–67.
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Old 12-27-2011, 11:28 PM   #22
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No the posting is not from me.
So you're copying someone else's work?

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Anyway, all the similarity means is that verses or even maxims appear in both places.
To conclude this you must be able to show the same usage elsewhere. Otherwise there's simply no reason to reject dependence. Can you show that same usage elsewhere?

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It does not indicate that Justin knew about a Paul he never mentions.
The fact that he never mentions Paul has nothing to do with whether or not he knew of him. The most ludicrous part of your assertion is that you guys are simultaneously leaning on the notion that Paul knew secondary versions of Mark even though he never mentions it. The connections you draw are also far, far more tenuous than the direct quotations of Paul in Martyr. I don't think I could ask you for a more flagrant methodological double standard.
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Old 12-27-2011, 11:41 PM   #23
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...I haven't seen much evidence from antiquity. I've seen selective quotes and naive and undisciplined assumptions imposed upon them in order to draw out certain conclusions, but I see no real objectivity or awareness of the primary texts at work in that process. Take the "Chrestos" nonsense, for instance. I've shown how the texts have been misunderstood, misrepresented, and manipulated, but I know that it's not going to change anyone's mind. It doesn't appear to be so much about what the texts say as what they can be made to say....
All you see is ONE word "Christus" and you are satisfied HJ of Nazareth did exist? Have you seen the word "Nazareth" and "Jesus" together in the same sentence in Philo, Josephus, Pliny the younger, Tacitus and Suetonius?

You know that there is ZERO non-apologetic source of antiquity that mentioned a human being identified as Jesus of Nazareth.

HJ of Nazareth is a myth.

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People here want EVIDENCE from sources of antiquity not popular opinion.
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Originally Posted by Maklelan
...So the thousands of people out there in academia with a decade of formal training under their belts who make their living out of coming up with something new and original to say about these topics are just ignoring the evidence and making stuff up? The people who really understand are the people without the training who make a hobby out of this and are quite invested in a particular broad position?...
Well, I have been a JUROR and have REJECTED the findings of Experts. I deal with EVIDENCE from antiquity and not with what people claim to have UNDER their belts.

There are EXPERTS who want people to believe an Historical Jesus of Nazareth actually ROSE from the dead.

Please explain what they have under their belts?

And, do you have anything under your belt?


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Originally Posted by Maklelan
....... Whether you are or are not, it rides on the rather ridiculous notion that if Justin Martyr didn't write about it, then it didn't happen. Additionally, there's quite a bit of evidence that Justin did know Paul. He not infrequnetly drew scriptural quotations and interpretations from him. For instance, in the text cited above, Dialogue 39, Justin draws an almost verbatim quote from Rom 11:3–4, which quotes two non-consecutive verses from 1 Kgs 19, and he uses Paul's non-Septuagintal version. In Dialogue 95 Justin quotes Paul's non-Septuagintal version of Deut 27:26 from Gal 3:10 and borrows his interpretation of it in reference to Christ. In the next chapter he then quotes Paul's version of Deut 21:23b from Gal 3:13. A couple good discussions of Martyr's use of Paul are Oskar Skarsaune, The Proof from Prophecy (Leiden: Brill, 1987), 92–100, and Andreas Lindemann, Paulus im ältesten Christentum (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1979), 363–67.
Your claims about Justin Martyr and Paul are erroneous, mis-leading and illogical. Justin Martyr CLEARLY mentioned Elijah NOT Paul and used passages found in 1 Kings 19 in "Dialogue" 39.

"Dialogue 39
Quote:
For indeed Elijah, conversing with God concerning you, speaks thus: 'Lord, they have slain Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars: and I am left alone, and they seek my life.'..
In Dialogue 95 the very same thing occurs Justin Martyr made ZERO mention of Paul, he talked of the LAW of MOSES.

"Dialogue 95
Quote:
...For it is written in the law of Moses, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.'....
In the next chapter of Dialogue, again, NO mention of Paul and Justin clearly made reference to the Law.

Dialogue 96
Quote:
..... "For the statement in the law, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,' confirms our hope which depends on the crucified Christ...
In all the passages you mentioned Justin shows ZERO awareness of Paul or the Pauline writings and was careful to state he made references to Elijah, Moses, and the Laws of Moses.
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Old 12-27-2011, 11:56 PM   #24
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All you see is ONE word "Christus" and you are satisfied HJ of Nazareth did exist?
Wow, that's an incredibly misguided perversion of my argument. No, my argument was that the spelling "chrestianos" that was changed to "chistianos" is not evidence of some original "chrestos" sect that later developed into Christianity.

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Have you seen the word "Nazareth" and "Jesus" together in the same sentence in Philo, Josephus, Pliny the younger, Tacitus and Suetonius?
Why would that matter?

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You know that there is ZERO non-apologetic source of antiquity that mentioned a human being identified as Jesus of Nazareth.
You're really reaching here.

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HJ of Nazareth is a myth.
Do you know why no mainstream scholars taking mythicists seriously?

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Well, I have been a JUROR and have REJECTED the findings of Experts.
Are you saying if a non-expert took the stand to testify about the same topic you would have allowed it? You are hip-deep in rather ridiculous fallacies right now.

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I deal with EVIDENCE from antiquity and not with what people claim to have UNDER their belts.
I've seen no indication you deal with evidence.

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There are EXPERTS who want people to believe an Historical Jesus of Nazareth actually ROSE from the dead.
So what?

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Please explain what they have under their belts?
Are you asking me, or telling me?

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And, do you have anything under your belt?
I do have formal training in this area, yes.

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Your claims about Justin Martyr and Paul are erroneous, mis-leading and illogical. Justin Martyr CLEARLY mentioned Elijah NOT Paul and used passages found in 1 Kings 19 in "Dialogue" 39.
You obviously weren't paying attention. Justin Martyr liked to quote the Septuagint. That was his Old Testament. Paul often quoted from a Greek version of the Old Testament that was slightly divergent from the Septuagint. In Galatians he quotes vv. 14 and then 18 of 1 Kgs 19, calling v. 18 the answer to v. 14, and using a slightly divergent version of the Greek. Martyr quotes vv. 14 and 18, also calling v. 18 the answer to v. 14 and using the same slightly divergent version of the Greek. To be brief, the only place where the version of 1 Kgs 19 quoted by Martyr shows up is in Paul.

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"Dialogue 39
Quote:
For indeed Elijah, conversing with God concerning you, speaks thus: 'Lord, they have slain Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars: and I am left alone, and they seek my life.'..
In Dialogue 95 the very same thing occurs Justin Martyr made ZERO mention of Paul, he talked of the LAW of MOSES.

"Dialogue 95
Quote:
...For it is written in the law of Moses, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.'....
And again, he uses a version of the Greek that is not the same as the Septuagint, but is the same as Paul's text from Galatians.

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In the next chapter of Dialogue, again, NO mention of Paul and Justin clearly made reference to the Law.

Dialogue 96
Quote:
..... "For the statement in the law, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,' confirms our hope which depends on the crucified Christ...
In all the passages you mentioned Justin shows ZERO awareness of Paul or the Pauline writings and was careful to state he made references to Elijah, Moses, and the Laws of Moses.
You don't seem to be aware of what it means to cite a non-Septuagintal form of the text. I overestimated your capacity to deal with the ancient texts. That won't happen again. I still find it stunning that you're insisting Pauline dependence cannot be imagined unless an explicit reference to Paul is found while at the same time insisting that Paul is dependent upon a secondary version of Mark despite far less convincing affinities and no explicit mention of the Markan gospel. Again, this is just a stunning double standard, and this kind of methodological and contextual ignorance is one of the main reasons these theories remain little hobby horses tossed around by non-specialists and not be the mainstream.
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Old 12-27-2011, 11:58 PM   #25
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...The fact that he never mentions Paul has nothing to do with whether or not he knew of him. The most ludicrous part of your assertion is that you guys are simultaneously leaning on the notion that Paul knew secondary versions of Mark even though he never mentions it. The connections you draw are also far, far more tenuous than the direct quotations of Paul in Martyr. I don't think I could ask you for a more flagrant methodological double standard.
How illogical and ludricrous can you be? The fact that Justin does NOT mention Paul cannot be an indication that he knew Paul.

Paul was supposed be an extremely significant Jew who allegedly PREACHED Christ crucified and resurrected in Major cities all over the Roman Empire yet Justin does NOT mention this Jew and Pharisee when arguing with TRYPHO the Jew.

How could Paul, who was supposedly MARTYRED, have ZERO significance to Justin?

Justin did NOT know of Paul at all.
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Old 12-28-2011, 12:06 AM   #26
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How illogical and ludricrous can you be? The fact that Justin does NOT mention Paul cannot be an indication that he knew Paul.
You're misrepresenting me. Why on earth would anyone ever argue that not mentioning Paul is evidence that he knew Paul? The fact that he quotes Paul is the evidence that he knew Paul. My concern is with the notion you are explicitly pushing that the fact that he does not explicitly mention his name indicates he simply did not know of him. That's not supportable at all.

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Paul was supposed be an extremely significant Jew who allegedly PREACHED Christ crucified and resurrected in Major cities all over the Roman Empire yet Justin does NOT mention this Jew and Pharisee when arguing with TRYPHO the Jew.
This is not unusual in the least. Have you ever even read the Dialogue with Trypho?

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How could Paul, who was supposedly MARTYRED, have ZERO significance to Justin?

Justin did NOT know of Paul at all.
I've shown that Justin quoted variants of the Old Testament that are totally unique to Paul. You've only shown that you don't know what that means. The above amounts to nothing more than "Nu-uh!" Can you make an argument that is actually based on texts, or must it all rest on the silly notion that if Justin didn't use Paul's name then he didn't know anything about him?
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Old 12-28-2011, 12:31 AM   #27
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How illogical and ludricrous can you be? The fact that Justin does NOT mention Paul cannot be an indication that he knew Paul.
You're misrepresenting me. Why on earth would anyone ever argue that not mentioning Paul is evidence that he knew Paul? The fact that he quotes Paul is the evidence that he knew Paul. My concern is with the notion you are explicitly pushing that the fact that he does not explicitly mention his name indicates he simply did not know of him. That's not supportable at all.
Again, this is a standard logical deduction. If there is NO evidence that Justin knew of the Paul writings then one can develop the theory that Justin did NOT know of Paul.

Justin Martyr was EXTREMELY meticulous he consistently mentioned his sources. He mentioned the books of the prophets and other books by name and even mentioned the chapters of those books.

Justin mentioned by name the prophets Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Micah, Amos, Ezekiel, Jonah, Zechariah, Malachi and the Psalm about 150 TIMES yet failed to mention Paul one single time.

By the way, If there is NO evidence that you committed a crime then it can be LOGICALLY deduced that you are not guilty. This is just so basic.

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Paul was supposed be an extremely significant Jew who allegedly PREACHED Christ crucified and resurrected in Major cities all over the Roman Empire yet Justin does NOT mention this Jew and Pharisee when arguing with TRYPHO the Jew.
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Originally Posted by Maklelan
This is not unusual in the least. Have you ever even read the Dialogue with Trypho?
That is a pure rhetoric. You will soon find out that Paul was an INVENTED character.

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How could Paul, who was supposedly MARTYRED, have ZERO significance to Justin?

Justin did NOT know of Paul at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maklelan
....I've shown that Justin quoted variants of the Old Testament that are totally unique to Paul. You've only shown that you don't know what that means. The above amounts to nothing more than "Nu-uh!" Can you make an argument that is actually based on texts, or must it all rest on the silly notion that if Justin didn't use Paul's name then he didn't know anything about him?
You have NOT shown that Justin was aware of the Pauline writings. I actually showed you Dialogue 39, 95 and 96 and Justin CLEARLY referred to ELIJAH, Moses and the Law of Moses.
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Old 12-28-2011, 12:59 AM   #28
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...
This all sounds an awful lot like this post. Are you the author of that post? ...
I believe that dejuror on RationalSkepticism is in fact aa5874. I don't know why Duvduv answered your question. Things can get confused.
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Old 12-28-2011, 05:20 AM   #29
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I don't know what you're talking about. The fact is it's not a big deal if sayings and references were floating around that ended up quoted in more than one place. Now let's see how hard it would be for Justin to spell out the name of the apostle Paul. All he had to do was spell P A U L. Now that's easy, isn't it?
And where did I say that the author of epistles knew a version of Mark?

It remains clear that whoever prepared the package of epistles did not know of the gospels, which had not yet been produced, or were produced elsewhere. Perhaps the set of epistles inspired the creation of the first gospel story in written form.

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No the posting is not from me.
So you're copying someone else's work?



To conclude this you must be able to show the same usage elsewhere. Otherwise there's simply no reason to reject dependence. Can you show that same usage elsewhere?

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It does not indicate that Justin knew about a Paul he never mentions.
The fact that he never mentions Paul has nothing to do with whether or not he knew of him. The most ludicrous part of your assertion is that you guys are simultaneously leaning on the notion that Paul knew secondary versions of Mark even though he never mentions it. The connections you draw are also far, far more tenuous than the direct quotations of Paul in Martyr. I don't think I could ask you for a more flagrant methodological double standard.
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Old 12-28-2011, 05:59 AM   #30
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I have now noticed this interesting fact. Whenever ancient writers talked about "Paul" and the epistles, the writers always described them in a package. You never read that "blessed Paul" wrote four holy epistles.
You never read that blessed Paul wrote one or two epistles "that we are aware of." You never read about Paul and his 20 epistles.

The canonical epistles always come as a package.

As I wrote elsewhere, it strikes me that there are several possibilities:

a) that a particular epistle was not written ONLY to the recipient community such as Galatians or Ephesians, but that they were distributed to all communities of the sect.
Except 'where stated otherwise' internally, with instructions given for sharing, they were undoubtedly written to particular churches, as Paul addressed particular conditions and states of mind in each letter, and quite often mentioned names of recipients. The letter to the Galatians is easily the most distinctive, yet even that holds much that not only applied in some degree to others, but was also very useful written evidence— Scripture, the word of an apostle— in cases of disagreement. So there was no formal distribution, but there was sharing of memorised lore, orally, very important at that time, or by the making of copies to be taken or sent to others interested. There would have been considerable and immediate interest among Christians, as there is today, and as there always has been. It may be reasonably supposed that most of the church had most of its Bible within a few years of Paul's last letter.
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