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To: Right Wing Professor
Not in the slightest.

First, the website you link to constitutes one man's opinion - and his opinion is definitely toward the anti-orthodox extreme. His use of evidence almost overwhelmingly cites Jesus Seminar associates and supporters - many of whom have never done professional work and who in total comprise less than one-tenth of one percent of NT scholars.

Second, even he admits that 22 of the 27 NT documents fall within a 1st century range of composition.

I'll also point out that the more work that is done, the earlier the dates seem to get - 30 years ago a significant minority of NT scholars dated Revelation to after 110 - now almost no one dates it later than 96.

Most of the arguments against the pastorals' 1st century provenance are based on the assumption that the Church had no hierarchy by the end of the 1st century - but research continues to confirm that the Church was well-organized from early on. Which makes good historic sense, since local synagogues indubitably had highly articulated structures of responsibility.

52 posted on 04/07/2006 7:34:53 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: wideawake
Let me remind you what you wrote Well, according to anyone who's ever done intensive work on the NT - be they Christian, Jewish, agnostic or what have you - all the NT documents except two absolutely date from the 1st century, and there is a good chance that the remaining two do date from the 1st century as well.

Whether or not you agree with the voluminous work referenced on the Early Christian Writings site, its existence clearly contradicts what you wrote.

54 posted on 04/07/2006 7:39:49 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: wideawake

From another forum:

Around 180 A.D., Irenaeus of Lyon, in 'Against the Heretics,' I,31,1, warned about an apocryphal 'gospel of Judas' which was then circulating. Later, Epiphanius and a pseudo-Tertullian spoke of it.

According to these sources, the apocryphal gospel of Judas was a Greek text of Gnostic origin, written by the Cainites' sect, in the middle of the second century.

The Gnostic sect of the Caininites attributed a positive value to all the negative figures of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, such as the tempter serpent, Cain (where Caininites get their name )-- Esau and Judas.


61 posted on 04/07/2006 7:48:40 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
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