Posted: Dec 19, 2021 3:53 pm
Leucius Charinus wrote:There is insufficient unambiguous evidence to falsify the late chronology.
The opposite is true. There is insufficient unambiguous evidence to falsify a pre 4th century chronology.
Leucius Charinus wrote:It's no use citing the church fathers because the investigation is about asking whether the Nicene Church industry (over the centuries) had the means, motive and opportunity to fabricate a pre-Nicene Christian history in the 4th century. There is nothing wrong with asking this question. The historical method allows for any given source to be forged or corrupt. I am treating the church sources for the pre-Nicene epoch as one source. And classing it as corrupt. If you want to give it a name call it Eusebius.
If you admit that church sources are forged or corrupt then you must also admit that writings attributed to Eusebius are probably manipulated and could have been written far later.
Leucius Charinus wrote:Theoretically we could have some historical evidence from non-Christian sources, from archaeology or inscriptions or from manuscript discoveries which pre-date Constantine. But if so, what is this evidence?
There is Lucian of Samosata c 125-180 CE who mentioned people called Christians in the “Death of Peregrine”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian.
Lucian’s Death of Peregrinus11.
"It was then that he learned the wondrous lore of the Christians, by associating with their priests and scribes in Palestine. And—how else could it be?—in a trice he made them all look like children, for he was prophet, cult-leader, head of the synagogue, and everything, all by himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books and even composed many, and they revered him as a god, made use of him as a lawgiver, and set him down as a protector, next after that other, to be sure, whom11 they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world.
Lucian of Samsata is a non-apologetic source which confirms people called Christians who worshiped a crucified man as a god since at least the 2nd century.