Thursday, August 10, 2006

The disputes between Christians and Jews in the early centuries CE are a bit more well known than the disputes within Christianity concerning women. The idea of Jesus as Messiah was quite alien to Jewish thought at this time as he hardly conformed to the expected powerful Jewish leader that was anticipated. The social climate of the time also respected whatever was "ancient" and considered novelty as lesser. the Christians had every incentive to claim the "ancient" (much less so than imagined, even today, as evidenced by Biblical scholars other than the author in question) Jewish scriptures while still searching for a way to differentiate themselves from the Jews. One thing the author doesn't mention is that the Jews were also winning more than a few converts at this time. The author gives various examples of anti-Jewish alterations of the New Testament.
Finally, there were controversies between Christians and pagans. In connection with this it should be noted that "persecution" of the Christians was nowhere near as strong or persistent as Christian mythology makes out. As Ehrman says,
"Contrary to what many people appear to think, there was nothing "illegal" about Christianity, per se, in those early years. Christianity itself was not outlawed, and Christians for the most part did not need to go into hiding. The idea that they had to stay in the Roman catacombs in order to avoid persecution, and greeted one another through secret signs such as the symbol of the fish, is nothing but the stuff of legend."
The pagans saw the Christians as an anti-social group that was detrimental to society. They also mocked Christian beliefs and their supposed founder, as well as the -even then- obvious self-contradictory nature of the Christian scriptures. The alterations of the New Testament for "apologetic" reasons were basically done to "elevate" the persona of Jesus whose personality and origins seemed less than exalted to the "respectable society" of the time. There were also alterations to erase some of the contradictions that were pointed out by pagan authors. Though many contradictions still remain.
Tomorrow...summing up

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