You wrote:
“It’s irrelevant who determined that Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew once it is determined.”
So it would be irrelevant who determined that Peter’s bones were Peter’s bones once it was determined?
“At that point, he is an apostle, and his words are more relevant than anyone else’s words.”
He was an Apostle? Are you sure? Where is it in scripture that it says the author of the gospel was an Apostle? After all, do we know from scripture alone that the Matthew that supposedly wrote the gospel was actually the same person as the apostle of the same name? Post the verse that proves what you claim please.
When you fail to post such a verse - and you will fail — we will know one of the following:
1) sola scriptura doesn’t work or just isn’t enough.
2) there are no such verses
Which is it?
“We are subject to the apostles, not to Cardinal Joe Blow some 2000 years later.”
You are claiming to be subjects of dead men?
“And we have Matthew’s words.”
How do you know Matthew wrote them? Post the verse.
You’ll fail. And you know it too.
Actually, I won’t fail. Matthew’s words are attested to by the prophecies in the old testament. The new rests on the old.
Therefore, “but you Bethlehem, Ephrathah, out of you will come forth He...”
And he did.
In any case, though, you miss the point. ONCE the writing is testified to belong to an apostle, it is based on the histories carried by those churches about the validity of the document.
Once it is attested to as Matthew’s, then those are Matthew’s words of the ministry of Christ. I am subject to them, and not to the words of those who want to tell me what they say. After all, it is Matthew who is the apostle, not the commentators.
What you are saying is that if I dig up new artifacts about King Tut, that I am the one who makes them King Tut’s by virtue of digging them up and verifying them.
Bull-looney.
They’re King Tut’s or they’re not. If they are, they INDEPENDENTLY tell me something about King Tut. If they are not, then they don’t tell me anything about that king.
Not dodging but I could be out of the net for the next week. We’ll carry on then. Thanks for the kindly debate.