tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41456446792656489312012-01-31T10:43:39.797-08:00Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comBlogger27971100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-58904039510453583372012-01-30T13:36:00.000-08:002012-01-30T13:36:47.197-08:00

I have been thinking about this for the last few days and am certain that I have come to an important realization.  The difficulty with 'mythicism' in my opinion is that too much of it seems to be motivated by a tendency to 'overturn' or 'prove' something about early Christianity which was probably not there.  I don't mean to be a chauvinist but most scholars don't have a clue about what Judaism

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-48238242140739660752012-01-30T13:21:00.001-08:002012-01-30T13:21:06.231-08:00

The link is here.  It is very, very interesting indeed!

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-48117366680731453172012-01-28T08:48:00.000-08:002012-01-28T08:48:30.159-08:00

Larry Hurtado wrote what is perhaps the definitive article on the origin of the nomina sacra (i.e. the scribal convention of reverencing certain divine names).  He and others argued, that the ancient Jewish scribal practices used in biblical texts where YHWH appears and the early Christian manner of spelling out Jesus name  in early manuscripts as a unique IH (i.e. the first two letters of

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-31460719567214678182012-01-26T22:59:00.000-08:002012-01-27T14:40:45.804-08:00

I stumbled upon this today: According to y. Taanit 1:1, 64a: “In the scroll of R. Meir they found written, instead of 'The burden of Dumah' (Isa. 21:11), 'The burden of Roma [Rome]'.”  For those who have ears to hear, let him hear.  I should also note that as I was going through Isaiah 21 I couldn't help but think I had heard these words somewhere before.  Sure enough, I looked up a biography

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-77999419201337177322012-01-26T00:49:00.000-08:002012-01-26T00:49:02.108-08:00

I am utterly fascinated by the writings against the heresies.  I don't know when this obsession started exactly.  I think it was just as I was leaving university and going into adult life.  I can't explain why I find this genre so fascinating other than to point to the fact that I have always been intrigued by gossip.  You know, 'who's gay in Hollywood.'  It might come from being Jewish (we

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-66517821241065567782012-01-25T00:03:00.000-08:002012-01-25T00:19:51.679-08:00

I have mentioned this many times now but scholars are often very unenlightened when it comes to seeing the big picture with respect to the writings of the Church Fathers.  I don't know what it is, but it seems to me that after a while they just start churning out papers dealing with the minutae and lose sight of the big picture.  Take the example of the 'general agreement' between the Church

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-67318778615005551482012-01-24T13:35:00.000-08:002012-01-24T13:38:25.330-08:00

From yesterday's article on Jewish manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan: Mystery swirls around Judaic manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan By Ben Harris · January 24, 2012 NEW YORK (JTA) -- It was said to be a finding of groundbreaking scholarly and historic significance, comparable in importance to the 19th-century discovery of the Cairo Geniza and rivaling the Dead Sea Scrolls for sheer

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-53168971757436527842012-01-24T00:49:00.000-08:002012-01-24T09:47:12.533-08:00

I have been working out what the Patristic evidence tells us about the crucifixion.  I was very surprised to see that the evidence firmly lines up against the idea that the Cross was T-shaped.  Yes, I know - the Epistle of Barnabas says so.  Yet as I have already pointed out here before, Clement had an earlier version of the same text where instead of 'T-shape' he read that '300' represented

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-46842272469159780572012-01-22T23:46:00.000-08:002012-01-22T23:51:14.026-08:00

I don't know if you have any religious people in your life, but there is absolutely nothing stranger to them than someone 'thinking' about Christianity all the time - my hobby of choice.  They can understand: believing in Christianity studying Christianity (i.e. a set of beliefs, traditions, texts etc) hating Christianity (because it is a familiar caricature of 'non-belief' i.e. the Devil '

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-10710599830965411682012-01-22T00:21:00.000-08:002012-01-22T00:21:09.040-08:00

Compare Clement's citation of his own gospel in Stromata Book Seven: "Unless ye hate father and mother, and besides your own life, and unless ye bear the sign." (ἐὰν μὴ μισήσητε τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα, πρὸς ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ψυχήν, καὶ ἐὰν μὴ τὸ σημεῖον βαστάσητε) with the parallel saying which appears in the gospel of some heretical group earlier in Stromata 3: They quote the words "

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-12786725495576733562012-01-20T07:56:00.001-08:002012-01-20T07:56:51.692-08:00

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-1601979284967505792012-01-19T02:03:00.000-08:002012-01-20T00:46:39.275-08:00

I have been working and reworking what I have previously written because I think I have a chance to get it published.  Anyone can feel free to offer me any corrections or suggestions.  It is one of the amazing things about the internet which should be seized upon by more authors Chapter One Few narratives have captivated the world like the story of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the biographical

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-17726604761453636032012-01-17T14:16:00.000-08:002012-01-17T14:16:12.125-08:00

You'd think it would be an open and shut case.  Yet when you look through the writings of Clement there is only one allusion to Jesus being baptized by John in all his writings and I think one can make a fair case that it might be suspect.  Let's start with the obvious - the Instructor is not a pristine text.  Already a few scholars have noted that it begins by incorporating a Stoic treatise into

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-22557544324543081002012-01-16T10:27:00.000-08:002012-01-16T10:39:13.819-08:00

I know the answer seems to be a straightforward 'yes.'  I can read the list of references in any edition of Clement of Alexandria's works.  Yet I have noticed something strange here, something which would again be more in keeping with Clement being a 'neo-Marcionite' as I have suggested here many times.  A lot of the references to the Pastorals get squeezed immediately before or after other

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-23414120039152798112012-01-14T23:03:00.000-08:002012-01-14T23:03:22.848-08:00

The importance of the chresimon isn't just that makes absolutely manifest what Jesus's original title was.  The symbol completely transforms our understanding of the original context of the gospel narrative.  For it has always been assumed that Jesus's crucifixion was fairly typical.  In other words, since various ancient writers identify crucifixion as taking place on a T shaped object that

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-11977908303364379872012-01-12T22:10:00.000-08:002012-01-12T22:10:09.230-08:00

What stands in our way of coming to terms with the Jesus cult is that we already think we know the essential details.  At its core Jesus the Jew claimed to be a descendant of David, born to a virgin who happened to have other children.  Since messiah was an established concept within Judaism, it is only natural to assume that Jesus would have also conceived of his 'Christhood' in traditional

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-22817115182343595612012-01-12T02:00:00.000-08:002012-01-12T02:03:02.572-08:00

A brilliant epitome of Christian doctrine is presented on the Louvre Cup (c. 350-423), an incised cup with chrismon in the centre, found in a cemetery near Arras. The upright of the Rho lines up with the tree of the Fall, directly above, an apt alignment because the Fall made the Crucifixion necessary. Adam and Eve flank the tree with the serpent wound about it, so that the victorious Devil

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-43564452389688281122012-01-11T01:48:00.000-08:002012-01-11T01:48:54.398-08:00

Too tired to explain right now but a colleague has demonstrated the pertinent Patristic references: Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 91 "Now, no one could say or prove that the horns of an unicorn represent any other fact or figure than the type which portrays the cross. For the one beam is placed upright, from which the highest extremity is raised up into a horn, when the other beam

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-82340230822132216662012-01-09T03:51:00.001-08:002012-01-09T23:16:38.259-08:00

It is certainly less difficult to explain Christianity as a religion developed around followers of a man named Jesus.  To this very day, political movements and religious faiths are founded by charismatic individuals.  The story of ' the man Jesus' also adapt very well to books, plays and movies and then there is the lure of Christmas.  Who would dare mess with this most wonderful birthday

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-63000820721517539432012-01-07T01:21:00.000-08:002012-01-09T03:53:05.850-08:00

Do we still believe in myths?  Of course we do.  Not only would life without art be a mistake, a narrative strictly adhering to the facts would be dreadfully boring.  In the widest sense of the word it is the self-importance of the mythical worldview which sustains each of us through tough times.  Myths are the folly which not only sustains us but keeps us wanting more.  This truth has been

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-4981543146908402752012-01-07T00:41:00.000-08:002012-01-07T00:45:15.733-08:00

I have finally figured out how to write my next book.  I am not sure that this will be a 'big seller' - in fact, it is this disturbing fact that holds me back from giving it a second try.  Nevertheless I know what it's going to be about.  If it was up to me I'd call the book Veni, Vidi, Victus Sum but that would be telling ...

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-7490223390431169742012-01-06T14:21:00.000-08:002012-01-06T14:21:04.644-08:00

As is well known in scholarship, Philo identifies two powers in heaven - 'theos' the power of mercy and kindness and 'kurios' the power of fear and judgment.  Philo gives as a title of the merciful power ὁ χρηστὸς θεός = the god Chrestos as we already saw from his discussion of Genesis chapter 17: Since the, the virtuous man has been bred up among and practised in these and similar divisions

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-34435945713534541332012-01-05T06:56:00.000-08:002012-01-05T06:57:36.310-08:00

Whatever or whoever 'Marcion' was, it is terribly unfortunate that our earliest witnesses to him are now preserved almost exclusively in Latin - Irenaeus and Tertullian.  For instance when Tertullian writes: alioquin certi Marcionem dispares deos constituere, alterum iudicem, ferum, bellipotentem, alterum mitem, placidum et tantummodo bonum atque optimum [Against Marcion 1.6] it is unclear

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-17577693483391102002012-01-04T01:00:00.000-08:002012-01-04T01:00:56.961-08:00

Wow, what a day.  My dog is literally biting its own tail and I have been crazy busy with work.  Nevertheless I always have time to dream.  I know it sounds corny but in those brief moments that I think about early Christianity I float over an ancient landscape and am allowed a brief escape from the banality of existence.  Today's realization is so obvious I can't believe that no one has thought

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-10708831589744684242012-01-03T05:08:00.000-08:002012-01-03T12:04:26.867-08:00

As many of my regular readers know, I have been thinking about the problem of the origins of Christianity for quite some time - I even published a stupid book on the subject.  My interest in Christianity began with some chance encounter with the person of Marcion.  I don't know how it happened.  I was still attending university and had always had an interest in the pagan religions of

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-47999414623746895512012-01-02T01:41:00.000-08:002012-01-02T01:41:25.906-08:00

One of the best investments I ever made was buying Brill's the Philo Index - the complete word index for Philo of Alexandria - on sale at Half Price Books for $9.99.  I think the choice must have been this book or a Big Mac combo and I certainly made the right choice.  For today while I had a few minutes away from my family I decided to look up the entry for χρηστὸς on the suspicion that I might

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-70850059803267618332012-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:002012-01-01T11:39:54.101-08:00

Have you ever been in the situation where you are in a room and a group women are looking at you whispering?   If you are a vain person you immediately think their secret is that one of them 'is into you.'  If you are insecure you are sure they are making fun of you.  The point is that you don't know until you confront them and even then the answer won't be immediately apparent to you.  It is

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-36695098932771945012011-12-30T23:12:00.000-08:002011-12-30T23:12:27.812-08:00

I have been telling you that we who are interested in Marcion have been playing defense for too long.  Why do we continue to accept the name 'Christianoi' as the original name of the Jesus sect?  An interesting fact I did not know before a few minutes ago. In discussing the use of Chrestos among early Christians Judith Lieu: Hermas, who does not use the word 'Christian', can still see '

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-67795307663653755392011-12-30T08:24:00.000-08:002011-12-30T08:24:42.097-08:00

I have already demonstrated that Celsus was in fact the first person to make reference to the Marcionite sect.  That a pagan should have anticipated the insipid works of Irenaeus and those who copied him (or whose original works were reshaped by him i.e. Justin Martyr) should strike us as very odd. Why is it that all the Church Fathers borrow from Celsus - a sworn enemy of Christianity as it were

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-4936118923460139962011-12-30T01:34:00.000-08:002011-12-30T01:34:02.043-08:00

There is so little imagination in religious scholarship.  Imagination even becomes a dirty word.  Yet we should see ourselves as attempting to decode religion rather than accept what it wants us to believe is its origin.  So it is that we who study the Marcionite phenomenon have to learn to think out of the box, to resist allowing the enemies of the tradition to dictate to us what it is.  

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-39929846451160410842011-12-28T21:27:00.000-08:002011-12-28T21:27:11.468-08:00

The most annoying thing about contemporary Christians of course is that their 'faith in Jesus.'  What exactly is this supposed to do?  I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  Yet when you go back in time and read Athanasius's condemnation of the Arians (i.e. the followers of Arius the 'schismatic' presbyter of the Martyrium of St Mark) you see how the forefathers of these people simply refused

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-23901342311591554712011-12-28T01:15:00.000-08:002011-12-28T01:15:53.173-08:00

People ask me all the time to define what 'my beliefs' are.  I never know how to answer this request and for this reason I have to admit I have a problem with the Christian concept of 'faith.' Whenever I have attended a Christian church service I have found the Nicene Creed portion the most problematic.  It's the part where everyone literally seems to turn off their brain and display what they

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-42745412478478477302011-12-27T01:11:00.000-08:002011-12-27T01:17:59.202-08:00

I don't know about you but every once and awhile when I am thinking about religion I just wonder - how are the scriptures relevant anymore?  Yes they are poetic.  Maybe they are even great poetry (I've never seen it).  But is the whole body of scripture relevant any longer?  Or perhaps more importantly - is it really divine? I happen to work in the entertainment industry where the standard

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-54472554711749363652011-12-26T01:28:00.000-08:002011-12-26T01:30:41.334-08:00

I have already told you that the Alexandrian tradition and the Marcionites (assuming they were different) identified themselves as Chrestoi not Christianoi. The Latinized form of Greek we have grown accustomed to could only have developed as a corruption of the Alexandrian terminology deliberate or otherwise. Yet equally clear as well is that this terminology goes back to the Hebrew name

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-89636810788309018182011-12-25T17:23:00.000-08:002011-12-25T17:23:19.021-08:00

Probably not.   Nevertheless there are so few people who take Marcion seriously out there.  Now Vinzent is noticing something I have talked about for months here - the fact that there were two gospels in the Marcionite tradition.  I know it is still a leap to get to the understanding that the Mar Saba document discovered by Morton Smith in 1958 has anything to do with this phenomenon.  

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-58970739645664130522011-12-25T01:03:00.000-08:002011-12-25T01:03:28.552-08:00

I am not sure that anyone should want to get rid of Christmas.  After all it is a very beautiful holiday - perhaps the most beautiful holiday in the history of humanity. Who knows for certain.  Whenever I spend time at Christian ceremonies I see so much Plato at its core.  It is difficult to hate anything that starts with the greatest of Greek philosophers.  There are of course constant

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-14044651531137922362011-12-24T01:57:00.000-08:002011-12-24T10:42:48.983-08:00

It's almost Christmas and I know its old news but Father Aristarchos confirmed that it was the library Kallistos Douvas ripped the pages of the manuscript from the Voss book (Dourvas happens to still be alive interestingly enough).  It may not be much but at least it is a confirmation of what we already know. Merry Christmas!

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-42298540492402673862011-12-23T20:53:00.000-08:002011-12-23T20:53:32.649-08:00

I noticed this reference in the History of Physicians written by Ibn Abi Usaibia sometime in the thirteenth century quoting some Byzantine chronicle by a certain 'Andronicus': The period of the Greek kingdom, from Alexander to the first of the Roman rulers who bore the title of Emperor, lasted 272 years. The first Roman ruler who bore the title of Emperor was Julius Gaius Caesar. He ruled the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-25647848075333213432011-12-22T23:07:00.000-08:002011-12-22T23:07:17.206-08:00

The truth, brethren, must not be disguised; nor must the matter and cause of our wound be concealed. A blind love of one’s own property has deceived many; nor could they be prepared for, or at ease in, departing when their wealth fettered them like a chain. Those were the chains to them that remained—those were the bonds by which both virtue was retarded, and faith burdened, and the spirit bound

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-43001350650460350292011-12-22T20:11:00.000-08:002011-12-22T20:11:23.344-08:00

Thanks to an enlightening discussion with a colleague I think I finally figured out where the rabbinic name for Jesus originated. The rabbis came into contact with 'Yeshu' in the Semitic Christian cultures of the East. Because Syriac does not use the 'furtive' pathach (see link below) Yeshua the shortened form of the name Yehoshua would be naturally rendered Yeshu (i.e. so the 'a' vowel is not

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-36571565993841607112011-12-22T01:31:00.000-08:002011-12-22T01:31:01.677-08:00

I don't know why but I decided to take a break from our discussion about the yesharim (= chrestoi) as the original name of Christianity to cite something that James Snapp posted at a Yahoo discussion group I belong to.  James Snapp has been going through Cosaert's study of the gospel citations of Clement of Alexandria.  Only the first line has any real interest to anyone studying Secret Mark.  

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-32851326954858602492011-12-21T00:58:00.000-08:002011-12-21T00:58:36.981-08:00

If the reader looks carefully at Clement's testimony it becomes near certain that Celsus is the original source of these arguments against the heresies. We shall take a closer look at this later. But first the testimony from Clement: For it is not suitable to the nature of the thing itself, that they should apprehend in the truly gnostic manner the truth, that all things which were created for

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-11892541269908991382011-12-20T08:58:00.000-08:002011-12-20T08:58:37.676-08:00

But it is clear to every one that piety, which teaches to worship and honour, is the highest and oldest cause; and the law itself exhibits justice, and teaches wisdom, by abstinence from sensible images, and by inviting to the Maker and Father of the universe. And from this sentiment, as from a fountain, all intelligence increases. “For the sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to the Lord;

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-11731892038152496232011-12-20T01:25:00.000-08:002011-12-20T01:29:52.261-08:00

In The Statesman he (Plato) says expressly, "So that the knowledge of the true king is kingly; and he who possesses it, whether a prince or private person, shall by all means, in consequence of this act, be rightly styled royal." Now those who have believed in Christ both are and are called Chrestoi, as those who are cared for by the true king are kingly. For as the wise are wise by their

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-59665846260665069422011-12-19T01:24:00.000-08:002011-12-19T01:32:48.056-08:00

I haven't posted anything for the last few days because I have had a breakthrough realization (and besides which it's Xmas and my wife is making me run around in a shallow attempt to imitate a Norman Rockwell painting).  The realization has been that the term 'Christian' wasn't how members of the Jesus sect originally identified themselves.  After all it's a very unusual formulation in the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-49169951105598529932011-12-13T15:26:00.000-08:002011-12-14T00:49:58.762-08:00

Let's take a close look at the passage in Against Celsus. Origen begins by noting that: Εἶτα σωρὸν καταχέων ἡμῶν ὀνομάτων φησὶν εἰδέναι τινὰς καὶ Σιμωνιανούς, οἳ τὴν Ἑλένην ἤτοι διδάσκαλον Ἕλενον σέβοντες Ἑλενιανοὶ λέγονται He next pours down upon us a heap of names, saying that he knows (εἰδέναι) of the existence of certain Simonians who worship Helene, or Helenus, as their teacher, and

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-33004383825362632262011-12-13T00:59:00.000-08:002011-12-13T00:59:42.907-08:00

I don't know how it is going to be when I die.  My son keeps asking me about death and I don't know what to tell him.  In any event, I sometimes wonder what kind of memories are going to go flashing passed my eyes.  I doubt very many of these images will involved getting laid - not because it happened so rarely (even though that's true enough) - but because you don't think about things like that

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-75168455407471015972011-12-12T12:54:00.000-08:002011-12-12T12:57:52.153-08:00

I have been trying to resolve this in my mind with particular attention paid to the Marcionites.  Were the Marcionites a real sect or were they just a misunderstanding which arose from the heresiological literary genre? This question is more difficult to answer than appears at first glance because - as the philosopher Bill Clinton aptly pointed out with respect to another conundrum, it all

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-20474897585045681192011-12-10T21:14:00.001-08:002011-12-11T13:40:06.470-08:00

I had to bring my son to a classmate's birthday party tonight (since when do children have celebrations at night?) and I was ruminating about a new strategy in the Secret Mark debate.  What if we go along with the contention that the addition to chapter 10 does indeed resemble a pastiche of other gospel material?  Doesn't the existence of the long ending suddenly become an argument for

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-39641754072267090992011-12-10T14:25:00.001-08:002011-12-10T14:32:39.216-08:00

In a previous post I mentioned Larry Hurtado's apparently inconsistency - arguing that the reference to Secret Mark in the Mar Saba letter is a forgery in part because it appears as a 'pastiche' while accepting the long ending of Mark as an ancient addition to Mark made up of the three other synoptic gospels.  Now it is time to look at the apparent contradiction in Francis Watson's estimation of

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-4657251789454004582011-12-10T00:51:00.001-08:002011-12-10T01:14:18.126-08:00

In our previous post we demonstrated how the claim that the Marcionites called their collection of Pauline letters 'the Apostolikon' is really quite weak given the corrupt state of the one source that mentions this - the so-called Dialogues of Adamantius.  The Dialogues were clearly written after Methodius had already written his anti-Origenist treatises - so they fourth century compositions.  

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-53505780787611586082011-12-09T22:10:00.001-08:002011-12-09T22:37:41.121-08:00

I know that all Marcionophiles (the hundred or so of us) bandy about the piece of knowledge that 'Marcionites referenced to their collection of Pauline letters as 'τὸ ἀποστολικόν' - but do you know where the evidence for this comes from?  The Dialogues of Adamantius.  There are several passages in the Dialogue in the edition of W. H. van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Der Dialog des Adamantius (GCS 4),

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-18260172925669621932011-12-09T14:14:00.001-08:002011-12-09T14:48:31.332-08:00

I frequently engage in online discussion groups because I readily admit I do not know everything there is to know about early Christianity.  I know that should sound self evident to anyone about everyone in a field or discipline but there is something about studying the Bible which encourages ordinary people to posit that they have 'absolute knowledge' about any given topic.  Perhaps it is the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-79826586820242245482011-12-08T19:19:00.001-08:002011-12-08T19:38:19.023-08:00

What do the rest of you think about Larry Hurtado?  Here's what I have to say - he certainly seems to develop the same argument for 'Secret Mark' being a modern forgery that he does later in the same book for the long ending of Mark being an ancient addition.  Can someone help me out what I'm not understanding about his point?  First Hurtado uses the pastiche argument to demonstrate why Morton

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-62059673272950102212011-12-07T12:44:00.001-08:002011-12-07T15:55:47.747-08:00

I have never had as many hits on my blog so I feel almost like visitors have come over to my house when its messy.  The mass visitation seems to have been caused by my response to a redditor raising certain questions about my book the Real Messiah.  That's cool.  Even people who like me don't necessarily like the book.  The fact that I Google my own name on a weekly - the truth is almost daily

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-52828561305750027132011-12-07T08:02:00.001-08:002011-12-07T08:08:24.480-08:00

I was reading Roger Pearse's newly commissioned fragment of De Lepra (which I inspired him to undertake after a conversation at the Freethought and Rationalism site).  The translation is here.  The original author is the shadowy figure of Methodius of Olympius, the work survives in Old Russian and has never before been translated into English (only German).  It is only a partial translation and

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-54543024444271917732011-12-07T00:15:00.001-08:002011-12-07T00:21:20.321-08:00

The Fifth Book of the Against Marcion series begins quite unusually.  The initial declaration about the nature of ‘origins’ in Adversus Marcionem only serves as a transition to a most unexpected question – that of the actual identity of the author of the Pauline letters. The voice of the narrator returns telling us that we have reached the end of the five books and curiously declares that it

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-79766848985122559412011-12-06T00:39:00.001-08:002011-12-06T21:04:27.162-08:00

There are various possibilities. First, Justin may not have known of Paul or have had very little knowledge of him. If this were correct, then there would be significant implication for the status of Paul in certain Christian circles in the first half of the second century. This may also imply that a collection of Pauline letters may not have been readily available to Justin. In regard to the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-74269198411622840492011-12-05T18:02:00.001-08:002011-12-05T18:36:27.794-08:00

Why do all Christians seem to start with the idea that Jesus was a man when they attempt to make sense of their faith?  This is the one thing that everyone seems to agree on - i.e. that there was this 'Jew' named Jesus who preached and healed people 'proving' that he was the awaited messiah of his people. Ah, this sounds too much like the scratching of nails on a blackboard to anyone who

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-51755798321056572932011-12-05T14:39:00.001-08:002011-12-05T14:49:11.562-08:00

I am certainly in the minority of course when I argue that the Marcionites have been completely misunderstood by scholarship.  I think the tradition was rooted in Alexandria and was likely related to or identical with the tradition of Clement of Alexandria.  I am not convinced about the way scholars understand the Marcionite relationship to the Creator.  At bottom the question comes down to

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-72753584083943702752011-12-05T12:40:00.001-08:002011-12-05T13:33:53.787-08:00

The history of the Christian religion is perhaps the most interesting field of study there is.  Many people assume that I have an interest in this stuff because of some personal 'spiritual need' on my part.  The simple answer is - no, this is not what draws me to the early literature of Christianity.  The real reason is that what began as a mystery (= something which only a few people

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-54465683514031618742011-12-04T13:26:00.001-08:002011-12-04T13:27:01.203-08:00

I have long thought that scholars use Irenaeus's 'Against Heresies' uncritically. After all, almost everyone agrees that the current text was written over many years. Has anyone actually thought about this idea or do they just put this stuff out there and then hypnotize themselves into forgetfulness. The idea that the text was written in stages casts doubt over the integrity of the whole five

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-13841342133373635162011-12-04T00:59:00.001-08:002011-12-04T01:09:41.190-08:00

I happened to go to the Biblical Archaeology Review website and noticed that some additional information appears now as a preface to Tselikas's study of Mar Saba 65.  Apparently Tselikas has actually developed a summary and sent it off to Hershel Shanks.  Call me crazy but the study appears far more cautious than the loose jumble of information that appeared on the website a while back.  Of

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-88238334429195083182011-12-03T20:31:00.001-08:002011-12-04T12:19:01.713-08:00

I think I know what many of these people who deny the authenticity of Mar Saba 65 are all about - they want to maintain the status quo.  You know the religion of mommy and daddy.  On those occasions I have found myself in a church, I am always drawn to looking at the crucifix. You know what goes through my mind?  What is this a symbol of?  I mean really.  The ancient world must have thought

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-60542527936002422672011-12-02T21:51:00.001-08:002011-12-03T02:11:31.221-08:00

I am not 'on the side' of the Islamic tradition when I say that I despise Christians who discount its claim that Jesus wasn't really crucified.  It is these sorts of imbeciles who refuse to accept the authenticity of the Letter to Theodore. Why?  Because it 'contradicts' what Mommy and Daddy told them about Jesus. I for one find it suspicious that the Catholic tradition pays so much gory

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-22325059845646980532011-12-02T21:34:00.001-08:002011-12-02T21:47:48.841-08:00

Yes, I wrote a stupid book.  But sometimes the messenger isn't up for the task of delivering the message.  As Jesus once said "I have often desired to hear one of these words, and I had no one who could utter it."  It is because people aren't aware of what Mark says in the Samaritan tradition that they don't my book.  All these people debating 'Secret Mark' but listen to what Mark says in his

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-78103731226280930762011-12-02T17:42:00.001-08:002011-12-02T17:48:09.590-08:00

Yes, I think so and to follow the running thread of questions here started by my son, the one thing I have never been able to solve is - why, if many Christians believed that Jesus was God rather than man, was he named 'Jesus'?  

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-16100786578610560882011-12-02T14:03:00.001-08:002011-12-02T14:19:18.346-08:00

I really don't know how modern religionists get around this.  Even Bob Marley makes reference to it in 'Get Up Stand Up' - 'we know and we understand/mighty God is a living man' (of course the reference is here to Emperor Haile Salessi I but the point is still the same).  We are said to be made in God's image (which can only  literally mean that God is anthropomorphically shaped despite the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-11253967813163054922011-12-02T12:53:00.001-08:002011-12-02T13:09:19.499-08:00

I find this whole discussion quite interesting - not merely because my son is at its center - but because this is a young mind hasn't been trained to distract his eyes from the truth yet.  Whenever the topic of God comes up, the question inevitably follows that is 'why can't I see God?' which reminds me a lot of Celsus's statement (preserved in Book Seven of Origen's Contra Celsum): As Celsus

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-61338107614187862832011-12-02T01:22:00.001-08:002011-12-02T01:32:59.503-08:00

If God was originally conceived as something which could indeed be seen with human eyes, why the change?  Why transform the original beliefs of the Pentateuch and its author?  The answer is very simple - Plato.  Plato changed everything for Judaism.  I have long argued that Christianity = Judaism + Plato.  Plato made it impossible for Jews to claim that their elders "saw God and they ate and

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-49549275210444533322011-12-01T23:16:00.001-08:002011-12-01T23:50:29.297-08:00

I am still working on my paper demonstrating how Schmid and Clabeaux's reconstruction of the Marcionite Apostolikon is worthless (as well as being up to my eyeballs with work).  Yet I thought I would start sharing some of my son's theological and philosophical questions because I have to admit, I find them refreshingly honest after spending weeks reading academic papers. My son asked me the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-1104276598627922302011-11-30T02:06:00.001-08:002011-11-30T02:07:16.761-08:00

After refuting my friend Bob Price's basically lazy rejection of the Letter to Theodore Burke moves on to this: Juxtapose Price’s treatment of Secret Mark by E. R. Smith’s lengthy treatment in The Temple Sleep of the Rich Young Ruler. E. R. Smith approaches the text through a particular theological perspective—namely, the “spiritual science” of Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. I admit to no

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-58463866534152210102011-11-25T16:10:00.001-08:002011-11-25T16:12:55.534-08:00

Irenaeus [AH 3.15.3] "Knowing one and the same Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was announced by the prophets, who from the fruit of David’s body was Emmanuel, “the messenger of great counsel of the Father;” (Isa. ix. 6 LXX) Tertullian [Against Marcion 3:10] "Similarly, again, Isaiah says: “For a child is born to us, and to us is given a son.” (Isa. ix. 6). What novelty is that, unless he is

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-7147854758718637022011-11-25T16:03:00.001-08:002011-11-25T16:04:05.818-08:00

Matthew might certainly have said, “Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise;” but the Holy Ghost, foreseeing the corrupters [of the truth], and guarding by anticipation against their deceit, says by Matthew, “But the birth of Christ was on this wise;” and that He is Emmanuel, lest perchance we might consider Him as a mere man: for “not by the will of the flesh nor by the will of man, but by the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-27235737141650365602011-11-23T14:54:00.001-08:002011-11-23T15:03:37.687-08:00

I have been researching the original Pauline citations of Clement of Alexandria and came away with the distinct notion that Clement never knew anything about the 'incest narrative' at the beginning of chapter 5.  Instead his text argued that God wanted us to get rid of our material being in favor of the newly created (through baptism) spiritual one.  The same thing seems to be evident in what

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-68587094222605326162011-11-21T11:06:00.001-08:002011-11-22T00:05:06.564-08:00

We have already established that there absolutely no reason to believe that Tertullian ever saw the Marcionite New Testament.  He was only using and adapting an older Greek source.  But whom?  Gilles Quispel argues that at least part of Against Marcion derived its origins from Theophilus's work of the same name.  Quispel tried to prove that Tertullian's source was Theophilus's lost writing

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-64724637228230104282011-11-21T00:44:00.000-08:002011-11-21T01:18:45.080-08:00

The clearest example of a group associated with Marcion (= alii) - perhaps 'neo-Marcionites' - who somehow 'reject' the notion that the just Holy Spirit came down to the whole early Christian community giving everyone prophetic powers: These things being so, all who destroy the form of the Gospel are vain, unlearned, and also audacious; those, [I mean,] who represent the aspects of the Gospel

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-79295324361432547442011-11-20T15:32:00.001-08:002011-11-20T20:26:38.156-08:00

I have started to go through Irenaeus's long (and very boring) writings and found a few things which seem reminiscent of citations of the Pauline material in Book Five of Tertullian's Against Marcion.  The first is the deliberately incomplete citation of Gal 1:1 (i.e. not making reference to the resurrection of the dead): Just, then, as “Paul [was] an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-53166252043633635382011-11-19T22:40:00.001-08:002011-11-20T01:38:42.662-08:00

So I am told that 'all sorts of exciting things' are going on in the world of Marcionite studies.  All you have to do is attend the AAR-SBL conference.  Trust me, my readership - there's nothing going on there.  The problem is that these people have no imagination and no intuition.  I am not an accredited scholar.  But what I have going for me is the real world.  I've been with all sorts of

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-57922239969029704172011-11-19T20:03:00.001-08:002011-11-19T20:15:14.751-08:00

I briefly spoke with Trobisch today.  He's apparently in San Francisco for the AAR-SBL conference.  In any event, we were talking about another matter and he reinforced something that he always tells me whenever we speak - Marcion is the 'hot thing' in scholarship right now.  Apparently there is 'mind-blowing stuff' going on in the world of Marcionite research.  I guess I haven't seen it, but I

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-36633007876088609242011-11-18T19:55:00.001-08:002011-11-19T01:04:11.814-08:00

So I have decided not to write a paper on Clement of Alexandria's collection of Pauline writings being related to the Marcionite Apostolikon.  The purpose of writing a paper is after all to prove something.  I was finding it difficult to write a paper about that without referencing how stupid all the scholarship on Marcion is. so I have come to the conclusion - I have to start by writing a

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-19140693691507056832011-11-17T21:48:00.001-08:002011-11-17T22:48:55.967-08:00

I know that I am going to lose all of my readers with this now predictable discussion about how stupid Marcionite scholarship is. Yet I can't help myself, I guess. This topic is so important to me that I literally find my fingers hammering away at the keys without me knowing what I am going to write. I am supposed to be working on a paper arguing that the collection of Pauline letters used by

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-53431196800881324992011-11-17T01:16:00.001-08:002011-11-17T01:19:58.563-08:00

With Blogger's new internal statistics I can see that as soon as I post a new article to my blog my dlvr.it account sends information to my Facebook and Twitter account. In other words, this counts as two hits almost immediately. If someone established hundreds of Facebook and Twitter accounts and then continually made idiotic posts like one notorious overweight Biblioblogger who shall remain

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-57894303979949765862011-11-16T23:13:00.001-08:002011-11-17T01:15:02.778-08:00

I have another half hour to write a post so let me continue with why Schmid's study (and Clabeaux's for that matter) have begun to start annoying me.  We have Tertullian's work - Against Marcion - and in Books Four and Five there is clearly a separate work, undoubtedly originally written by someone else and 'adapted' by Tertullian in his usual 'free translation style' (compare Against Marcion

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-43952254729550395072011-11-16T14:13:00.001-08:002011-11-16T14:52:54.723-08:00

So I have another half hour to write a post, that is - f I don't get interrupted by a phone call first.  I don't know if I properly conveyed how stupid the whole attempt to reconstruct the Marcionite New Testament is.  Maybe I will try again right now. I think almost everyone has experienced desperation.  You know, you're hungry so even though you decide to use a jar in the fridge whose expiry

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-41941951629463311772011-11-16T00:10:00.001-08:002011-11-16T00:43:35.164-08:00

I have been working on a new paper that I am writing with the hopes of publishing it in an academic journal.  I haven't been posting much here because I have been rather busy at my day job which leaves me only a few hours a day to work on the monograph.  The subject of the article will be my contention that Clement's New Testament canon is related to the Marcionite New Testament canon.  For

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-62616032938772921752011-11-12T20:59:00.001-08:002011-11-12T20:59:40.522-08:00

But we say that the fire sanctifies not flesh, but sinful souls; meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire but that of wisdom, which pervades the soul passing through the fire. [Clement Stromata 7.6]

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-39872164200202415852011-11-07T15:28:00.000-08:002011-11-07T15:29:52.514-08:00

The Anonymous Epistle (a.k.a. 'to the Ephesians') 1.1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-71937792626572091812011-11-06T01:28:00.000-07:002011-11-06T01:28:09.064-07:00

the End of the Epistle to the Galatians 5.1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-89171978687052488202011-11-04T21:27:00.000-07:002011-11-05T00:14:12.982-07:00

Galatians 1.1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-77121782114019859482011-11-04T02:03:00.000-07:002011-11-04T02:03:05.817-07:00

Galatians 1.1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-19536154691316159652011-11-02T21:04:00.000-07:002011-11-02T21:04:06.062-07:00

We have come up to a dead end in our construction of the First Epistle to the Corinthians - Clement stops citing material from the epistle at 1 Cor 15:50 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.' He also ignores most of chapters 14 and 15. The fact that the text would break off at this very point is quite telling because 1 Cor 15:50 is clearly the single most difficult passage from

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-76633228777207688242011-11-02T00:30:00.001-07:002011-11-02T00:31:00.854-07:00

I went through all the references to chapter 16 - not only are there no references to the chapter in the writings of Clement, but no one before the fourth century has any clue about this chapter. It's a fake. The question now is whether Clement's 1 Corinthians continued further using material from another letter. I think so but I am going to have think about this a while longer.

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-69061209837433314612011-11-01T23:53:00.000-07:002011-11-01T23:53:31.973-07:00

1 Corinthians Chapter 15 1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-9696015398888233442011-11-01T12:11:00.000-07:002011-11-01T12:41:28.067-07:00

1 Corinthians Chapter 14 1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-67210901506653570502011-10-29T01:17:00.000-07:002011-11-02T19:17:32.688-07:00

1 Corinthians Chapter 13 This is still a work in progress; the material in verse 13 follows in Strom 4.7 as does what appears in verse 12.  3. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body, to hardship that I may boast, and have not love,  1. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love I am sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal 3. If I distribute

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-18928314122287627552011-10-28T22:40:00.000-07:002011-10-28T22:40:40.538-07:00

I am going to be away from my computer for the next three days but my readership should see what is emerging here in our ongoing study of Clement of Alexandria's First Letter to the Corinthians - the epistle is a commentary on the 'secret gospel.'  The context is clearly the unveiling of the agape ritual by Christ a.k.a. the 'teaching of the kingdom of God' in the material cited from the secret

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-25169429445282862022011-10-28T17:16:00.000-07:002011-10-28T17:18:00.563-07:00

1 Corinthians Chapter 12 1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.  2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.  3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-78599218034114328092011-10-28T10:23:00.000-07:002011-10-28T10:24:57.712-07:00

1 Corinthians Chapter 11 1 Be ye followers of me, as also I am of Christ.  If ye are of me, and I am of Christ, then ye are imitators of Christ, and Christ of God 2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. 3 For I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man: and the head

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4145644679265648931.post-64787404249735486732011-10-27T14:45:00.000-07:002011-10-27T21:00:17.315-07:00

1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Introductory Explanation for the Radical Revision Which Follows This is by far the most difficult chapter to reconstruct given two important details that can't be ignored.  The first is that Clement clearly and unmistakably connects 1 Cor 8:1 and 1 Cor 10.1 in Stromata 7:16 and then goes back to 1 Cor 8:2 as if the material in 1 Cor 10 represented the 'puffed up

Stephan Hullerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712300237611095445noreply@blogger.com