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To: kosta50
It would seem that by the beginning of the second century with the entire NT written, most of it some thirty years earlier, as well as Paul's preaching and establishment of the various congregations, that Christianity's “divine authority” had been established, for believers since it would never be so for Jews.

What could establish Christianity's authority to any greater degree than a risen Christ and Stephan's vision of him enthroned in heaven or the testimony of those healed and resurrected from the dead by the apostles?

So who really wanted to Hellenize Jesus? John or some apostate “church fathers” that wanted to mix Greek philosophy with the Gospel?

The latter I agree was and is a nightmare.

8,039 posted on 10/01/2010 8:20:41 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: count-your-change
So who really wanted to Hellenize Jesus? John or some apostate “church fathers” that wanted to mix Greek philosophy with the Gospel?

There was no "John" per say. He is a conjecture based on the legend. "John's" Gospel, Revelation and Epistles remain anonymous and were "assigned" to John by the Church based purely on legend or better yet myth.

But there is no doubt why the last Gospel was written and why all the Johannine Espites and Revelation followed suit: the establishment of divine Christian authority separate from, and outside of Judaism.

It not the risen Christ per say—since Paul preaches the risen Christ—but the divine risen Christ of John that accomplishes the goal of establishing a divine authority for the new sect rejected by the Jews.

For Paul, Christ is the true Jewish messiah, raised by God, and is never identified with God, but only as the image (icon) reflecting the fullness of divinity, a foremost among the creatures to whom God gave all authority.

But to Paul, being a Christian was no different than being an Essene, a Pharisee, or a Sadducee: they were Jews. They attended synagogues and sacrificed at the Temple. There was simply no "new god" in any of it until "John," that is—when the Nazarenes were thrown out of the synagogues and their books rejected by the rabbis c AD 90.

9,941 posted on 10/10/2010 1:31:24 PM PDT by kosta50 (God is tired of repenting -- Jeremiah 15:6, KJV)
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