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To: trad_anglican
Since the last writings were late first or early second century, then, if this did in fact occur, it couldn't have started before the early to middle part of the second century, correct?

I would put the last writings in the 90's C.E. But obviously the church had long been evangelizing to the gentiles by then. I don't know the precise point when the church went from being predominantly Jewish to predominantly gentile. But as more people joined who lacked the cultural context of Judaism, the understanding of the texts gradually changed. I think it was a gradual rather than a sudden process.

82 posted on 09/28/2001 8:10:43 AM PDT by malakhi
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To: angelo
I think it was a gradual rather than a sudden process.

I understand that. What I'm trying to understand is when is the earliest it could have started and when is the latest it would have been finished.

It couldn't have started before the last of the texts were actually written because the author was still around to correct any misinterpretation. It must have been "finished" by the time of the council of Nicea as that is the time that nature of the incarnation and resurrection were settled.

You're positing that the Church, over time, came to misunderstand its own scripture. The only evidence of this that you've offerred so far is evidence of a development in doctrine during the time that the writings themselves were taking place. But if your theory is true, then the misinterpretation couldn't have started until after the writings, unless the authors themselves were misunderstanding what they were writing, which doesn't seem plausible.

How can you use writings that were completed before the process started as evidence of the process itself?

92 posted on 09/28/2001 8:31:59 AM PDT by trad_anglican
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