[Springfield Reformer]

Ah, yes. Those 66 books that the Apostles and several generations of early Christians had no concept of.

Well, they all had the OT, right? (Minus the OT deuterocanonicals, which didn't show up as part of the Septuagint until about the 4th-5th Century.) So they had the law and the prophets, as Jesus so often referred to them, right out of the gate.

And this part boggles my mind. How can anyone think they didn't have the Gospels and the epistles within the first generation or two? They were apostolic work product. They HAD to exist during the apostolic era. There's even a physical fragment of John that dates to about 125. So while they didn't necessarily have them all neat and organized like we do, they were contemporary to the first years of the church. The ecclesia of Christ, the one that would overcome even the gates of Hell, has never been without Scripture.

Peace,

SR

[don-o]

And this part boggles my mind. How can anyone think they didn't have the Gospels and the epistles within the first generation or two?

You must account for what was normative and authoritative in the interim. It cannot be disputed that there was not a, what we call "New Testament." Polycarp and Ingatius had to fulfill their bishoprics without it. They defeated heresy without it.

You have to account for that. The heresies they refuted could not be refuted by Old Testament Scripture, because the Incarnation and the Resurrection had rocked the world. The heretics, like Marcion and the Gnostics were coming at the Church with ideas that rationalized or mystified the Incarnation.

So without a New Testament, they refuted the heresies and forged a link in the chain of orthodoxy (right belief). How do you account for that?

[roamer_1]

And this part boggles my mind. How can anyone think they didn't have the Gospels and the epistles within the first generation or two? They were apostolic work product. They HAD to exist during the apostolic era.

I studied on this a bit. There are protocols that need to be followed for an itinerant rabbi to preach in a synagogue. Submittable in writing, and what not, for approval... This was to permit the 'home team' time to formulate correction for 'right teaching' and debate. Probably somewhere in the Talmud, I bet...

This is one of the reasons I regard an original Hebrew Gospel to be almost critically necessary, and something like Hebrews too, as 'work product', as you say. Maybe some archaeologist will dig up some transparencies or a powerpoint presentation... some CDs out in the entrance... Then we'll know.