More on Hengel's Critique of David Trobisch and My Imperial Conspiracy Theory

Trobisch characterizes Hengel's criticism of his theory of the 'unnatural' development of the canon as follows:

Hengel's presupposition is that an edition of alleged apostolic writings could be distributed successfully among Christians only if backed by a central church authority. But this is clearly disproved (in his view) by the evidence of the rich Christian literature of the time. [p. 43]

Of course because Trobisch is a 'real scholar' he can't even consider Irenaeus' own confession that he and the other top figures in the Catholic Church sat in the Imperial court of Commodus and received money from Caesar, which was deposited in Carpophorus's bank in the Piscina Publica of Rome. No, that would be a 'conspiracy theory' and conspiracies have never, ever had a role in history.

I love Trobisch, in spite of the fact that he would never connect Irenaeus' Imperial connections to his theory. Indeed I think it is part of the reason I love his work so much. It guarantees a place for me and my theory. I consider my theory to be nothing short of being David Trobisch's bastard child.