Changing the Blog Title Description to Post Kitos War

Every now and again in my studying the development of Christianity I stumble over some fact or event which over throws a good portion of the work I have done. It is extremely frustrating to face, but I like to think I am less pig headed and more scientific than most. I know certain so-called scholars will spend years attempting to belittle the evidence arrayed against their pet position, or end run it, rather than face the fact that much of their work is lost. For me, this happened in the mid-1990s and what I was doing was so off base I care not to even acknowledge it today. [1] But in the scientific model its all part of finding the truth. And so it is today that I conclude one of my blogs fundamental assumptions is wrong. Fortunately the impact is mostly to a couple charts and the description at the top of the page. Whatever else is simply a matter of adjusting a footnote here and a comment there, nothing to major.

Marcion's Revelation: The Eclipse of 118 CE

Hadrian Denarius 125-128 CE  with Eclipse of 118 CE

On September 3rd 118 CE there was a full eclipse whose course went over the entire northern frontier of the Romans Empire giving the garrisons and the Barbarian tribes a spectacular sight. But it was only a partial eclipse that would have only dimmed the skies for awhile, and would not have darkened like night any of the cities of the empire, with one notable exception city on the shores of Pontus Euxinos (Black Sea). That city was Sinope, where it was almost full strength. The weather, if what was typical nineteen hundred years ago is much the same as today, then at mid afternoon it most likely would be about 74 F (23.3 C), almost cloudless and sunny, any fog long burned off, and likely a mild breeze coming off the Sea, as the eclipse occurred.

Paul, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Circumcision, Roman Law, Torah Law, Desolating Sacrilege (Revised 8-22-13)

Hadrian, Emperor 117-138 CE

When Hadrian became Caesar in 117 CE it was under controversial circumstances, Historia Augusta 1.4, a rather gossipy work [1], paints the issue of his adoption by Trajan as something of a deathbed scandal. But the machinations described surrounding his ascension to the throne are consistent with the more reliable account of Cassius Dio Historiae Romanae 69.1 [2], which describes the murky circumstances under which he became Emperor. When taken in conjunction with his immediate decisions on the throne to extricate the Empire from Parthia, to reorganize the legions of the east, secure defensible borders, and put down rebellions in recently conquered territories, it looks for all the world to have been something of a consensus move by the powerful in the Military and the government. They wanted to correct the dangerously unsustainable expansionist policies of Trajan that were overtaxing the Empire and had led to the a quagmire in Mesopotamia, an expensive and failing campaign despite the propaganda. Hadrian was the man to do that job.

Vocabulary of Luke and Marcion: Commentary on John Knox (1942)

One of the most important books that should have upended Synoptic Study, and yet largely ignored, is John Knox's Marcion and the New Testament (1942). Although the work is largely nothing more than a serious of comments on others work, especially Harnack, with Knox adding nothing more than his opinion of various positions from the sophistry of their words, there is however a unique and important section worth keeping.

For the Gospel of Luke and Marcion's Gospel, Knox has undertaken to to study the vocabulary and try to establish the relationship of Marcion's Gospel and the Gospel of Luke. He developed a table of verses to help illustrate that I provide a link to.

Chapter 4 Marcion's Gospel and the Gospel of Luke is a lot more interesting, when Knox actually gathers evidence and takes a critical eye - lacking in his analysis of the epistles - to the Gospel. In Part III he calls out Sanday's analysis which underpinned the opinions of Burkett and Plummer, as well as paralleled in some sense Harnack's, who held that Marcion's Gospel was not prior to Luke.