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

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 ]


To: dread78645
...all show the hand of a redactor.

"And nothing else can explain this!"

"Now keep on following the Law....."

430 posted on 01/26/2006 8:51:57 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 397 | View Replies ]

To: dread78645

Wow...very interesting! May I ask how you qualified these assertions?


461 posted on 01/26/2006 12:17:55 PM PST by papertyger (We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 397 | 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