The much later idea of Petrine Supremacy was based on that line in gMatt, not the other way around. Jack Kelley published over 9,000 Bible Study resources here from 1999, until the Lord called him home in the fall of 2015. Also, given the growing popularity of the various Jesus cults, what other options were realistic? FringePop321 Chances are good that you know there were other gospels—accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus—that never made it into the Bible. So he sought his father's God in prayer, pleading for him to tell him who he was and to stretch forth his hand to help him. There was no single, central “Church” which dictated these things at this early stage – each community operated in either relative isolation or intermittent communication with other communities and there were no standardised texts or a set list of which texts were authoritative and which were not at this very early stage of the Christian faith. Only gJohn is possibly early second century. Why not? And I take it that since you didn’t respond directly to my theory about Luke being written in the 2nd century that you either agree with it or think it’s too stupid to even address? Do you know anything about that? Theophilus, who lived in the 2nd century, mentions the Gospel of John, and Irenaeus, who wrote a little later, mentions all of the Gospels, and makes numerous quotations from them. So we can confidently say that your favourite Facebook group are even bigger crackpots. a pseudo-atheist shill for Christian triumphalism [and] delusionally insane.” – Dr. Richard Carrier PhD, unemployed blogger. According to many historians and the writer of the famous Da Vinci Code, the content of the present-day Bible that is known to people worldwide was actually put together by Constantine The Great, who was actually a pagan before this. I was reading the comments on this article, and as one of them mentions the confrontation between Emperor Theodosius and Ambrosius of Milan, I wanted to ask what you think about this episode? Lactantius Historical Account. How is that any less cynical? Edward Gibbon . First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Christian church, which took place in 325 in the ancient city of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey). The relevance for “philosophical atheism” of the question who actually put together the NT is beyond my understanding. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued … What again could this astonishing thing be like which people were so anxious to contradict, that in doing so they did not mind contradicting themselves?”. At least until around the 4th century it was a mixture of doctrines and beliefs, it wasn’t until the more literal interpreters of Christianity got in bed with the Roman state in 312 A.D that they were able to impose conformity. I don't disagree about the inherent dangers of power combined with religion, but even today we find negotiating a suitable and workable separation of church and state difficult. Sorry, but the "hijacking" idea is seriously bad history, largely because it confuses ultimate outcomes with intent. Constantine was a Roman Emperor who lived from 274 to 337 A.D. Tim O’Neill’s forthright blog does a valuable job in keeping us all honest, and reminding us that historical evidence rarely behaves as one might want it to.” – Professor Tim Whitmarsh, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge, “A brilliantly erudite blog that stands sentinel against the wish-fulfilment and tendentiousness to which atheists, on occasion, can be no less prey than believers” – Tom Holland, best-selling history writer, “Tim O’Neill’s blog is a fantastic place to turn for critical investigation of commonly-held assumptions about religion in the ancient world.” – Professor James F. McGrath, Butler University, “Tim O’Neill is a known liar …. The New Atheist ideologues at “Philosophical Atheism” don’t care about facts, reason, logic or scepticism. C’est dommage que cette belle recette soit perdue de nos jours. “Combine this with Justin never directly quoting the Gospels and Luke being addressed to Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, it becomes a little too suspicious to be a coincidence.”. stupid …. He ordered for the new copy that highlighted gospels that made Him god-like and deleted those that talked of the human traits of Jesus Christ. Roman religion was a kind of reciprocal bargain – humans gave the gods honour and worship and got protection and favour in return, a little like the relationship between a patron or sponsor and their client or supplicant in many aspects of Roman society. One who had misled the Jews and the good one revealed by.. He is the problem that Constantine had an absorbing vision 29 ) and official all! 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