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A Brief Note on the High Christology of the first verse of the earliest book in the New Testament.

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In reading Galatians, which I take to be the earliest book of the New Testament,[1] it is interesting to read the first verse with this question in mind: "Who is this Jesus?"       "Paul, an apostle, sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father...." Notice that on the one side of the contrast you have "man" and on the other "Jesus Christ and God the Father." Who is this Jesus? Obviously, he is in some sense not simply a man. Paul did think of Jesus as a man. This is clear from Romans 1, which say that he was a descendant of David "according to the flesh." But insofar as one can talk of a man side as over against a God side, in Paul's mind Jesus belongs on the God side. _______ I take this to be the case because the issues settled at the Jerusalem Council, but Paul writes as though the outcome of the ongoing debate concerning the status of the Gentiles under the New Covenant is still uncertain. If Galatia...
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On the newly discovered fragment of a childhood story of Jesus from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas 2

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Greek papyrus fragment P.Hamb.Graec. 1011 On the newly discovered fragment of a childhood story of Jesus. The Greek papyrus fragment P.Hamb.Graec. 1011 in the Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky State and University Library was recently identified as the earliest manuscript fragment of the well-known Infancy Gospel of Thomas , containing a part of the famous second chapter where the child Jesus is said to turn twelve clay sparrows he had made into living ones with a word. An allusion to the story also appears in the Quran's Surah 3:49: "He will say: “I bring you a sign from your Lord. From clay I will create for you the likeness of a bird. I shall breathe into it and, by God’s leave, it shall become a living bird."* The discovery is important because it appears to be the earliest Greek fragment of the work. U ntil now the earliest manuscript that existed for the work in Greek dated to the 11the century ( Cod. Sabaiticus  259).  The fragment also provides further support for th...
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Workup 2

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The other day a friend of mine asked me to send him a link to a timeline I had posted on Mormon convert David Alexander's religious peregrinations during his purported " 47 years in evangelical Christianity " before becoming a Mormon on 20 March 2023. My friend responded back with one line: "Thanks! This guy is a regular Martin Harris." This was not the first time I had heard the comparison made between Harris and Alexander in the month or so since Alexander popped up on my radar. One person put the question like this: "Is Alexander a fraud or is he a Martin Harris?" As to the former, the idea that Alexander might be a fraud, was not without warrant. For one thing he did not sound like an evangelical. He did not obviously share their emphases or beliefs. If one asks an evangelical, "What is the most important thing for me to know?" His answer would be the same as was given by the Moravian August Gottlieb Spangenberg to the very zealous but...
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Psychedelics Manuscripts Art Workup under construction

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Library of Congress Ambrose Hexameron: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_13459/?sp=3&st=gallery Morgan Crusader Bible  MS M.638   Rheinau Psalter   Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, Ms. Rh. 167 : Rheinau Psalter Psalter of Saint Germain of Paris. Bury Bible Johns Hopkins Digital Library of Medieval Manuscripts Mainz Psalter Dagulf Psalter  Carolingian Grande Bible historiale complétée. | Gallica (bnf.fr) Bible of Borso d'Este 1 , 1 ,  2 The Furtmeyr Bible. | Library of Congress (loc.gov) Koberger Bible. | Library of Congress (loc.gov) Ms L Sup Abrosiana Facebook  The  Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung - INTF  https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/manuscripts/medieval_manuscripts/medman/A/K21/K21f66r.htm Cambridge MS K. 21 f.66r   Cantica, Hymns etc .  14th century Biblioteca Pinacoteca Accademia Ambrosiana Ms L 58 sup.  Gospel of Pseudo Matthew Psychedelics and Spirituality: Exploring the Intersect...
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