Questions For Brian

EvC member Brian has temporarily thrown the door open to answer some questions. I have no idea if these questions are too hard or too easy. If they are too hard and require work to answer then please disregard. If they are too easy then please conceal this fact and spare me the embarrassment. I say this because I know Brian is very busy and the time he spends in the Forum is for enjoyment and not to work.1) Concerning the Jewish Canon: Absent is the Book of Enoch (the one Jude quotes in the N.T.) and present are Solomonic works like Song of and Ecclesiastes.How could a man who "walked and talked with God" not make the Canon, but a man who kept hundreds of concubines and fell into idolatry get three books in the Canon ?Song of /and Ecclesiastes isn't it a monumental task to separate the cultures they were written in out from the word of God ? How does anyone know when the culture is speaking and when God is speaking ?2) The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the blocks underneath: What structure are these remains from ?3) Jeremiah 1:10: "See,I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to PLANT."Where did Jeremiah plant ?4) Josephus/Antiquities 18/Chp.3/3: Concerning Jesus; genuine or forgery ? If forgery, how so ?Is not Josephus, in general, a great corroborating source for Biblical claims ?5) Where was the first church above ground outside of Jerusalem ?Dr. Scott holds the Traditions of Glastonbury in high regard, what do you think ?6) Did the Apostle Paul visit Britain ?7) As of late Dr. Scott is praising the research of Simon J. Gathercole/Univ. of Aberdeen, Scotland ("Where is Boasting ? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5") (2002)What do you think of Gathercole ?Thanks Brian !P.S.I am accumulating a list of archaeology questions for next time - ok ?

Suggestions and Questions is for Suggestions and Questions about the forum; not general questions on particular topics. This should probably have been a proposed topic; but it can go in short subjects on the assumption that you want short answers and not an extended discussion. Thread moved here from the Suggestions and Questions forum.This message has been edited by AdminSylas, 05-18-2004 11:46 PM

Hi WT,Some quick responses to your questions, if you want to discuss any of them in greater detail just let me know. The Book of Enoch was in some Bibles, the Douay included it for example. It is classed as Apocryophal, Enoch wasn’t considered to be ‘inspired’ but it almost made it, St. Jerome thought it deserved to be in.But the Jewish canon was still an open canon even in Jesus’ time, and there’s no single description or designation of books that has ever been characteristic of Judaism. Subsequent committees decided on the entrance criteria for which books could and couldn’t be included in the Bible, Enoch didn’t fulfil the criteria. All down to the selection process, the Bible books were decided by committees of men, some books that were in early Bibles have been taken out, some have been edited, it’s all down to man’s choice. Solomon’s bloodline was established forever by God, the messiah will come from Solomon’s bloodline, it would be difficult to leave ‘his’ books out. I know Jude quoted it, and the Book of Barnabas did as well, and the Book of Barnabas was included in some early Bibles, but the Book of Enoch was late and was obviously not written by Enoch. It is difficult to say which 'Bible' is 'THE' Bible, there are so many to choose from. Well I think all that the Bible does is to reflect the particular time and place that the books were written in. See how the chronicler has altered many of the earlier works, or the criteria for telling a true and false prophet, they are simply to satisfy contemporary conditions. I don't believe that God 'talks' at all in any book of any bible. Herod’s temple that was destroyed in 70 CE. I don’t believe Jeremiah planted anywhere. I think most people would say there is an original reference to Jesus in there somewhere, but parts of is have obviously been forged. For example, the reference 'He was the Christ' is highly unlikely to belong to the hand of Josephus for at least two reasons. One, Josephus died a pharasaic Jews and did not become a Christian. Two, if he believed Jesus to be the messiah why did he write so little about him? Josephus is actually quite difficult to follow at times, his chronologies for example are sometimes inconsistent and at odds with other hstorians. But Josephus refers to scripture a lot, so if you want to take that as 'corroborating' then that's fine. But not all of Josephus’ works line up well with the Bible, for example, he claims that the enslavement in Egypt only lasted 215 years. But, in general terms, Josephus, when his extreme Roman bias is filtered out, is fairly reliable. Could you clarify this? I really need to know what you mean by ‘church’ here. The early ‘churches’ were just gatherings of followers, or a room in a person’s house, or even in a synagogue. I do not know if you mean the first church building as we would recognise it. I have never looked into this. I have no idea. Never heard of him, so haven’t read his work. Sure, no problem.Brian