Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: dread78645

Thank you for the link. I'm very interested in these ancient writings.

However, could you summarize for me why the traditional view is inferior to this dissenting, perhaps even deconstructed, view?


301 posted on 01/25/2006 4:54:02 AM PST by papertyger (We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 298 | View Replies ]


To: papertyger
However, could you summarize for me why the traditional view is inferior to this dissenting, perhaps even deconstructed, view?

Because it shows the shift from small local churches to a monolithic Katholikos ecclesia (Universal or Catholic church) with ecclesiastical doctrine that wasn't supported by (then) existing texts.

In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the first writings weren't 'Holy Scripture' as the Jews would call it. Based on what has been recovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, the Jewish scribes were remarkablely faithful in copying what they considered 'Sacred writings'.
In contrast, the early Gentile redactors felt free to add, change, or delete whole passages if it suited the church's developing dogma.
The long conclusion of Mark 16:9-20, John 8:3-11, (the adulterous woman), Acts 8:37-38 (the baptism of the Ethiopian), I John 5:7-8 (the Johannine Comma), the obscuration of the 'Beloved Disciple' in John, etc. all show the hand of a redactor. It wasn't until the 5th century that the texts became unalterable 'scripture'.

In the case of the Pastoral Epistles, they were made out of whole cloth and attributed to Paul to give them authority.
The Pastorals justified (a coincidence, I'm sure) the Church's suppression of the local churches on the basis of 'false teachings'; Gnostic at first, then the heresy of Arius, then later still the wholesale massacre of Cathars.

397 posted on 01/25/2006 2:23:23 PM PST by dread78645 (Intelligent Design. It causes people to lie - joebucks)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 301 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson