[zeek]

Originally Posted by awareness

Great response. Thanks for taking the time to reply. And I'm sure the hordes reading this thread appreciate it too.


I know you know that translations are hard. That's why we've got so many of them. And now, we even have footnotes to explain the translated wording. Not just Lee, but The Net Bible to boot.

"2. Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

I've heard plenty of Christians saying that the Dead Sea Scrolls prove their Christian faith.

The truth is, these finds, and the Nag Hammadi finds, are disturbing the Christian faith. We're finding out more and more how they thought back then. Sound minded Christians today would consider that their superstitious mindset was silly to the absurd ; some of it, for sure. And when we realize how they thought back then, and apply it to the stories we consider authoritative, it's disturbing.

I mean, the 'walking talking cross' found in the Gospel of Peter is just absurd. But so is the virgin birth found in the canonical gospels. That's how they thought back then, 2000 years ago ... get that, back 2000 years ago. We know very little of what went on back then. Only some writings that have managed to survive, that can only tell very little. So finding new records is a sensation to the scholars, and it trickles down to ordinary Christian believers, thanks to the web.


Thanks for presenting that.


Just adding it up as best I can.


I'd have to be bilingual to determine that.


I guess we fall for those that have the explanations. We love explanations.


That's an argument against Peter dictating to Mark.

I don't know if anybody is reading this thread besides you and me. The question is why Christian's were seduced away from the simple teachings of Jesus to create the corrupt institution that Lee alleged was "Christianity. I figured that all people that were ever involved in the Lord's recovery must have supposed that something like that happened.

Apostasy was a word we used to refer to it. And we believed that God himself is going to restore the church back to its original state or, perhaps even a better state. In that sense the Lord's recovery was part of the larger Christian restoration movement.

So obviously it's a vast and controversial subject about which there is no agreement among Christians generally. I've been pursuing the hypothesis that Hellenism which is sometimes blamed for the apostasy was actually an influence from the beginning possibly even on Jesus himself. I'm investigating the historical evidence. But I admit it isn't a conclusively proven theory and I haven't insisted that anybody accept it as a condition in order to participate on this thread. I welcome all points of view.