Mining the New Testament for historically reliable information

[serenity]

Authorship:

There is no propaganda value to early Christians attributing two of the gospels to low-ranking, obscure Christians. That's what makes it seem credible. Luke's Gospel is probably reliably attributed to a companion of Paul named Luke. Mark's Gospel is probably reliably attributed to Peter's companion Mark. Gospel of Mathew probably isn't directly written by the apostle Mathew but may be based on part on earlier writings he wrote in Hebrew attesting to some of the sayings of Jesus. I don't know enough about the Gospel of John, other than it was probably written after 90 AD long after John the Apostle should have been deceased.


Historicity of Important New Testament figures:

A combination of archeological evidence, and independent first century literary sources outside the Christian canon support that Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and his brother James were real historical figures.


Crucifixion:

The Jews of the early first century would never have expected the Messiah to be arrested and crucified as a common criminal. It's not a story they would have made up out of whole cloth. The fact that the apostles dispersed and ran away like rats from a sinking ship is not a flattering story and would not have just been made up.


Resurrection:

In antiquity, women would not have been considered reliable witnesses. Only a man's testimony would have been given credibility. The Gospels report that it was women who first found the empty tomb; this does not sound like a story made up from whole cloth.

That the apostles seem to believe they saw Jesus after his crucifixion is not a later legendary account added to the canon. This belief goes all the way back to the original eyewitness and to the earliest days of the Jerusalem church, as attested to in Corinthians. The fact that some of the apostles were willing to die and be persecuted for believing they had seen Jesus after the crucifixion is difficult to square with a claim that the story was simply something they conspired to make up in a tavern over carafes of wine. That doesn't necessarily mean Jesus came back from the dead, only that the apostles genuinely believed they had seen him after he was thought to be dead.

Isn't the New Testament only 1,630 years old by the Gregorian calendar established from Jesus's day of corpse disappeared written by the same government that crucified him almost 4 centuries before converting from a Pagan world political power to a spiritual global enterprise of Roman Catholic church collecting intellectual souls cradle to grave.

Separation of spiritual philosophy and intellectual psychological class warfare still leaves population left alive evolving in plain sight of genetic outcomes living eternally separated every day alive born to dead.

Life exists per cycle conceived to decomposed, now

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Isn't the New Testament only 1,630 years old by the Gregorian calendar established from Jesus's day of corpse disappeared written by the same government that crucified him almost 4 centuries before converting from a Pagan world political power to a spiritual global enterprise of Roman Catholic church collecting intellectual souls cradle to grave.

Separation of spiritual philosophy and intellectual psychological class warfare still leaves population left alive evolving in plain sight of genetic outcomes living eternally separated every day alive born to dead.

Life exists per cycle conceived to decomposed, now

No.

 

[serenity]

No.

Shame you won't accept how evolving works in the natural universal moment your body is living self evident results of series parallel streaming of compounding chromosomes per ancestor alive daily throughout the entire food chain native to this universal location now.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Shame you won't accept how evolving works in the natural universal moment your body is living self evident results of series parallel streaming of compounding chromosomes per ancestor alive daily throughout the entire food chain native to this universal location now.

Wrong again.

 

[Yakuda]

And keeping literacy alive and being islands of learning in western Europe in the MIddle Ages, and recovering much of the lost Greek knowledge from the East. I am not on Team Protestant, Team Catholic, or Team Atheist. What interests me is genuine historical knowledge.

That fact about the universities doesn't change the fact the Catholic Church had become very corrupt by the late Middle Ages, and somebody like Luther or the others were going to eventually react against it.

Universities AND hospitals and we agree the church had become corrupt, that doesn't change the good that they did. Luther was right though that change was needed but not splintering. His actions led to an even greater corruption then they one he tried to correct.

 

[Cypress]

Universities AND hospitals and we agree the church had become corrupt, that doesn't change the good that they did. Luther was right though that change was needed but not splintering. His actions led to an even greater corruption then they one he tried to correct.

Luther, a former Augustinian monk, desperately wanted to reform the Catholic Church from within, but the Church dragged him before a tribunal, oppressed him, and ultimately tried to have him murdered. If anyone created the Lutheran Church, it was the Catholics in some very real sense.

 

[Yakuda]

Luther, a former Augustinian monk, desperately wanted to reform the Catholic Church from within, but the Church dragged him before a tribunal, oppressed him, and ultimately tried to have him murdered. If anyone created the Lutheran Church, it was the Catholics in some very real sense.

All irrelevant to the impact his actions ultimately had on the church. Protestants brutally attacked the church and Catholics. Luther was the serpent that divided the church just like the serpent that divided Adam and she from God. Pride as says is the root of all sin.

 

[serenity]

Wrong again.

Believing in inaccurate statistical facts creating reasonable doubt your body has always adapted with living eternally separated now doesn't change the results of your time alive is accomplished living eternally separated now.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Luther, a former Augustinian monk, desperately wanted to reform the Catholic Church from within, but the Church dragged him before a tribunal, oppressed him, and ultimately tried to have him murdered. If anyone created the Lutheran Church, it was the Catholics in some very real sense.

It amazes me how oppression creates opposition. Human beings can be pretty amazing at times.

 

[Cypress]

Isn't the New Testament only 1,630 years old

The New Testament was a fourth century compilation of 27 very old documents that date back to the first and early second century. The earliest writings were composed within 20 years of the crucifixion, and they themselves reference sources and witnesses testimony which go all the way back to the original Jerusalem church, immediately after the crucifixion.

The idea that the New Testament is a collection of legendary accounts written centuries after the events seems to be a tale that gained traction among those who haven't bothered to research the topic.

 

[Cypress]

All irrelevant to the impact his actions ultimately had on the church. Protestants brutally attacked the church and Catholics. Luther was the serpent that divided the church just like the serpent that divided Adam and she from God. Pride as says is the root of all sin.

If you like capitalism, democracy, individualism, you can, in some sense, thank Protestantism - which in northwest Europe undermined concepts of hierarchy, encouraged the tempered accumulation of wealth and modest success by the individual, and promoted a priesthood all believers in contrast to a clerical and ecclesiastical hierarchy.

The Catholic countries of Southern and Eastern Europe were the last countries on the continent to approach capitalism, democracy, individualism

 

[serenity]

The New Testament was a fourth century compilation of 27 very old documents that date back to the first and early second century. The earliest writings were composed within 20 years of the crucifixion, and they themselves reference sources and witnesses testimony which go all the way back to the original Jerusalem church, immediately after the crucifixion.

The idea that the New Testament is a collection of legendary accounts written centuries after the events seems to be a tale that gained traction among those who haven't bothered to research the topic.

every intellectual reality has a common practice within this species every generation gap recorded in current events every day throughout history and you are doing it every day. Ignoring the time you have left adapting to the moment now projecting the idea your intellectual spirit is greater than your time alive.


False witnessing your ability to stay alive today as one of a kind proportionately living since day conceived to add your time to previous generation gaps come and gone directly combined your specific chromosomes unique to your time alive cradle to grave since conceived to decomposed ancestral position today.

Specific gravity of the situation common with all life native to this atmosphere past, current events each next rotation specificity doesn't change, just details never duplicate again.

 

[Cypress]

every intellectual reality has a common practice within this species every generation gap recorded in current events every day throughout history and you are doing it every day. Ignoring the time you have left adapting to the moment now projecting the idea your intellectual spirit is greater than your time alive.


False witnessing your ability to stay alive today as one of a kind proportionately living since day conceived to add your time to previous generation gaps come and gone directly combined your specific chromosomes unique to your time alive cradle to grave since conceived to decomposed ancestral position today.

Specific gravity of the situation common with all life native to this atmosphere past, current events each next rotation specificity doesn't change, just details never duplicate again.

My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the
water is clear?

 

[Litmus]

Agreed. Notice how the Catholic church, with its kneeling to the Pope, is simply a religious version of a monarchy. Even with Protestants, the idea of God is as a monarch on a golden throne, separate and superior to all human souls.

The MAGA movement is similar; a supreme leader who promises to take care of the faithful.

All put communalism above individuality. This is why I believe MAGA is anti-American; it goes against the basic principle of individualism in favor of communalism: snapping one's heels together in favor of a supreme leader.

nations are a community.

tariffs are not communism, boy who cried wolf, chicken little.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

nations are a community.

tariffs are not communism, boy who cried wolf, chicken little.

You shouldn't have dropped out of school, Fredo. You might have learned how to do math.

 

[serenity]

My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the
water is clear?

where did you get your information about teaching reasonable doubt genetics doesn't leave every ancestor alive living eternally separated by and within the moment here?

Genetic results or recited vernacular tribalism.

 

[Margot]

Nothing is more boring than religion.

Organized Religion? Epiphanies? Visions? Apollyon?

 

[Daylight63]

Organized Religion?

Organized religion is anything BUT boring! It is so much fun to see how each individual group of humans builds their own version of God complete with ALL THE REALLY COOL DEMANDS God has for them. Sometimes VERY INTRICATE. Things like The creator of the universe doesn't like it when you mix fibers together. He also is 100% against murder unless it is in service to what He approves. Meanwhile this group over here says that God hates THOSE people but loves US and the real way to tell that is that WE lay on the ground with our bodies aimed this way. And those OTHER folks over there don't even believe God requires that but we have to think a special way to escape the horrors of existence. And this other group over here thinks that there are a BUNCH of gods all working in different departments in heaven.

Religion is a manifestation of how HUMANS would run the universe if they were in charge. And it's pretty cool to see how "complex" they would make it if it were up to them.

 

[Cypress]

where did you get your information about teaching reasonable doubt genetics doesn't leave every ancestor alive living eternally separated by and within the moment here?

Genetic results or recited vernacular tribalism.

The Way that can be walked is not the eternal Way.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of all things.
Therefore:
Free from desire you see the mystery.
Full of desire you see the
manifestations.
These two have the same origin but differ in name.

 

[Daylight63]

The Way that can be walked is not the eternal Way.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of all things.
Therefore:
Free from desire you see the mystery.
Full of desire you see the
manifestations.
These two have the same origin but differ in name.

Had to google this. Is this the Tao Te Xing?