ttbn,

Again - Thank You for your opinion.

We can only speak from our own experiences
So I fully understand that yours are different
to mine. However -

Tara is very clever - and very stubborn. She's quite
the personality. And she comes out with the most
unusual things. BTW - I'm giving her the book
"The Life of Jesus" by Sally Grindley for Easter.
And lots of chocolates of course.

Spencer,

No response to you from SR, typically; he comes out barking (less and less, fortunately), cocks his leg, and slinks back to his kennel.

As always, this conversation should show Christians that they need to look for a safe space, something that is not available even in churches these days.

God Alan B:

I don’t know why I bother but here goes.

Firstly, the Jews would definitely rate as the most unhappy tribe of natives on earth.
This is what the poor confused Romans were dealing with.
In exasperation, as their traditions were in dealing with the exasperating contemptuous, they struck out physically.

On the most part, Jews escaped the early Roman persecution by fingering their enemy the Christian sect members: Coupled with this deflection tactic, the Jews had engineered a truce agreement with Rome allowing them to be exempted from idol worship the Romans so adored; but sadly for the new Jewish cult members, Christians, their intransigence was rewarded with innovation of terror, and fed to the lions as public entertainment, for only one morbid example.

As an escape mechanism from Roman persecution, Christians appealed to Rome for exemption from idol worship based on their understanding they were the true Jewish religion, pointing to their understanding of the Torah.
Only in 312AD did Roman persecution of Christians cease, at the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.

So at this point in history, there is a need to define the new Jewish cult as the real McCoy “officially”; and a need to for the official Bible suitably endorsed by Roman authority.
Very little to do with the need of theology for the masses.

Dan

Yes, the first council of Nicosia did compile the first of many versions of the bible from existing hand written scrolls, Even so none of those "books" were eye witness accounts of the event, but hearsay written at least fifty years after the event.

Moreover, the inclusion of what was included and what was left out was the decision of Constantine the great who was at the time a pagan sun worshipper. He also had his minions appointed as the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople!

And therefore, changed Christian teaching and practice forever. Given the early esoteric Christians did not use an altar, nor hear confessions, perform marriage ceremonies, nor build giant constructions to glorify God. But met in one and others homes to break bread in remembrance.

And their leaders did not practice unnatural celibacy! Nor take the sword to disbelievers! All that came later after the intervention of the pagan sun worshipper Constantine!
Alan B.

Constantine was only baptized on his deathbed as insurance. Until then he was bona fide sun worshipping pagan. And as such responsible for much of the pagan rituals that permeate Christian sacrament/worship.
And orthodox Christians use a less altered bible as their foundation for "Constantinian" belief.

Of the new testament writers, only John was literate. All the others relied on scribes to put their words down on parchment. And explains the unusual differences and disagreement? As paraphrasing and editing scribes left out and or included social mores/beliefs they did or didn't agree with?

And the scholar Paul was not an apostle, but disciple who came years after the event. And a self confessed homosexual, who had and has, with his letters, great influence on esoteric Christian belief!
Alan B.

Well Alan B's gone from confidently assertion the Gospels were written 350 years after the event to confidently asserting that they were written 50 years after the event. Quite an [unacknowledged] backflip.

He's still wrong but not so wrong as to make me want to argue the issue.

He equally confidently asserts that they weren't eye-witness accounts. Wrong again.