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The Therapeutae: Christians before Christ? The Ebionites and Nazarenes Did Josephus mention Jesus Christ? (c. 68 CE) Notes on Ignatius and the historical Christ (c. 100 CE) Athengoras: A Christian without Christ? (c. 117 CE) Theophilus of Antioch (c. 117-181 CE) Aristides and the historical Christ (c. 125-161 CE) The pagan appeal of Justin Martyr (c. 100-165 CE) Did Irenaeus say that Jesus was fifty? (c. 125-191 CE) The curious case of Minucius Felix (c. 150-250 CE) The joy of Celsus (c. 175-180 CE) Origen the doctrinally vague (c. 185-232 CE) The unreliable Eusebius (c. 260-341 CE) These pages discuss various issues arising from early Christian writers. Their slant is the general unreliability of the texts which have come down to us, and the very different views that early Christians had about "Jesus Christ". Of particular note are the writings of Theophilus of Antioch (c. 115-181 CE) and Athengoras (c. 117 CE), who never once mention "Jesus Christ" in any of their works on Christianity which have come down to us; and Minucius Felix, who specifically denied that Christianity taught such things as the humanity of Christ or the resurrection. In fact, the only two "apologist" Christian writers before c. 180 CE who supposedly did mention Christ as a historical figure were Aristides and Justin Martyr - and there is reason to doubt the "early" dates attributed to the works of both. For more on this topic, see Quentin David Jones's The Foundations of Christianity. The mainstream Christian views of the early texts are defended in Roger Pearse's Tertullian Project. |
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