https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IPAKsGbqcg
3 parts, 4 hours total. Basically the history of the early church tells you much about what this was all about. And how our modern understanding mis-interprets what the old writings are saying.
Ehrman's problem is that the "old writings" are not old enough.
(https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/253/2013/11/Graph-of-NT-manuscripts.jpg)
And of that handful of early manuscripts some are scraps which are smaller than a credit card. The near continual jesus freak refrain that we have so many copies of NT horseshit shrivels when we realize where the bulk of this crap comes from.
Quote from: Minimalist on March 21, 2019, 10:00:02 PM
Ehrman's problem is that the "old writings" are not old enough.
(https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/253/2013/11/Graph-of-NT-manuscripts.jpg)
And of that handful of early manuscripts some are scraps which are smaller than a credit card. The near continual jesus freak refrain that we have so many copies of NT horseshit shrivels when we realize where the bulk of this crap comes from.
Correct. I would not argue, as some do, from some small scraps, that the Gospel of Matthew for example, goes back to the 1st century. The first nearly complete copies (copies) are from +200 CE ... which is the start of the 3rd century. The jump in the graph, for the 9th century, would be because of the educational reforms of Alcuin, in the Carolingian state. There would have also been many such manuscripts in the Byzantine Empire, but time and Islam have erased them. Of course Byzantium was re-founded in the 4th century.
There is a great little book called "The Jesus Wars" by J. P. Jenkins. In it he makes the point that Greek-speaking christards thought the Latin-speakers in the west were little more than ignorant barbarians. It is also true that the Viking raids began to subside towards the 9-10th centuries so there is that. Of course, even without Viking help the feudal lords of the West were more than happy to kill each other.
Quote from: Minimalist on March 22, 2019, 10:58:13 AM
There is a great little book called "The Jesus Wars" by J. P. Jenkins. In it he makes the point that Greek-speaking christards thought the Latin-speakers in the west were little more than ignorant barbarians. It is also true that the Viking raids began to subside towards the 9-10th centuries so there is that. Of course, even without Viking help the feudal lords of the West were more than happy to kill each other.
Even a great emperor like Charlemagne ... could only X his name in. He was otherwise illiterate. It is not clear if Alfred the Great was any more literate. But both men promoted clerics who were.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6qYjisp51M
Of course the libtards today, are back into Visigoth mode ;-(
The barbarian were naturalists, and not interested in humanity as such.