The pieces of the Church puzzle, Mark, are so minuscule, and so numerous, a quick Google check will do the Church and the seeker injustice. I spend hours, days, weeks, researching this stuff. It's fascinating and yet it's also very revealing that the mental image we have is not what it was all about way back then, even if the terms used were the same.
Where are the Acts of Peter, the Acts of Paul, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Judas, etc.? All of them floated around to one degree or another
Spot on, Mark. The Acts of Peter were at one time read in Rome. Early Christianity, even the orthodox party that eventually prevailed, was profoundly heterodox in some aspects.
It is amazing the folks that believe that Jesus and the Apostles walked around with a KJV tucked in their pouches.
Pretty much. Some seem to believe the Bible fell down from the sky like the manna. Scary.
***A little more extended than the ones I hurriedly googled up
The pieces of the Church puzzle, Mark, are so minuscule, and so numerous, a quick Google check will do the Church and the seeker injustice. I spend hours, days, weeks, researching this stuff. It’s fascinating and yet it’s also very revealing that the mental image we have is not what it was all about way back then, even if the terms used were the same.***
Exactly so. The image that many of our separated brethren have is of a prepackaged Twinkie Bible that the Catholics spent 1500 years suppressing until the magic of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli (the weird old uncle that nobody talks about) et al zapped a KJV into every pot. At the same time, they also believe that the NT was written and correct before Jesus was even born so that every country gathering had that KJV to pound on before Jesus was even grown.
The way things were is not the popular version.
***Where are the Acts of Peter, the Acts of Paul, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Judas, etc.? All of them floated around to one degree or another
Spot on, Mark. The Acts of Peter were at one time read in Rome. Early Christianity, even the orthodox party that eventually prevailed, was profoundly heterodox in some aspects.***
The loss of such as Origen resulted from the way that the early Church worked. In a Church closer to today, Origen might have been reclaimed.
***It is amazing the folks that believe that Jesus and the Apostles walked around with a KJV tucked in their pouches.
Pretty much. Some seem to believe the Bible fell down from the sky like the manna. Scary.***
The folks that have tried to save my soul that have no idea whatsoever of what Christianity really is, astounds me. My wife’s best friend (a preacher’s daughter in the CofC) breathlessly informed me that the only books of the Bible that I needed for my salvation were Luke, Acts, and Paul.
Later, she admitted to my wife that perhaps, just perhaps, even some Catholic might be admitted to Heaven. On a case by case exceptional basis only.