Yuri Kuchinsky

Tercel,

We've had some discussions on this forum before, but I don't think you've ever presented any rational arguments in reply to anything I've said that could not be answered, or that I didn't answer.

And now, while I wasn't around, you've opened up with this personal attack. Doesn't look good on you, I'm afraid...

So please be good enough to point out anything that I said here that was "wacky". Or else, apologise for this personal attack.

Yours,

Yuri.

Yuri Kuchinsky

Bede,

Have you read Walter Bauer, _Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity_, 1934? I think he covers this area quite well. The book is available online.

Quote:

For instance, nowhere is there evidence (a part from Edessa, perhaps) of non-orthodox Christians arriving earlier than the orthodox.

How about Britain?

(Of course I realise the irony of having to explain to "Bede" about the British history. )

Quote:

Nowhere is there evidence that non-orthodox ideas were taken into orthodoxy rather than the other way around. The evidence for really early heresy is extremely scanty and has been extrapolated a lot further than it will reasonably go.

I think it's quite obvious that the earliest Christians were "Judaizers". These "Judaizing" ideas were then rejected by the later, Gentile-oriented Church. Thus, "heresy" came before "orthodoxy".

Yours,

Yuri.