The likelihood of at least some miraculous events happening is still pretty overwhelming if you ask me, etc.
Yes, it was passed by oral tradition. That's why there were several different beliefs about Christ through out the middle-east back in the day. It's why there are places of different accounts of Jesus in the Bible. Also those first lovers of Jesus in Rome did not have anything written down. They were not Jewish, so they didn't even have the Old Testament. Everything for them was through Oral tradition. And when the text was finally pinned, very few copies were circulated. So oral tradition had to continue for sometime afterwards.
Well, I hate to disagree with you, but the early Christians were Jews, and it was common for almost all the Jewish synagogues to have at least a few copies/scrolls from books/scrolls of the OT, etc, because they were written on scrolls back then, etc, anyway, it was common for a lot of Jewish synagogues to have at least a few copies of some of the books of the OT that they both read and studied from on their holy day in both the Old and New Testaments times, etc. They were very big on writing and having things written down even way back then, etc, and scribes could be punished very much severely, and lose their position if they even miscopied or mistranslated even just one letter of one word, etc, so I think you need to do some more research and get some more facts there, as it sounds like you're getting your information strictly from social media or something like that, etc. And as far as the NT goes, and the books/scrolls written there, they kept the same tradition with them, etc, and copies that we have can be traced back to very nearly their time, etc, give or take about 40 to 60 years from the time of the Apostles or so, etc, and have changed very, very little since then, etc, so I think you are getting some very, very wrong information there, etc. Like I said, sounds like the kind of Biblical history denials I see going on in social media and things like that, etc, which are not based on any kind of facts at all, etc, but are just what people want to hear or say in order to dismiss history, or deny the Bible, etc.
In Rome, Paul converted the Gentiles, not Jews. It was the attitude of Love, Compassion and Service to those in need of those early followers of Jesus that brought so many Roman Pagan's to the ranks. Just and FYI: I've been researching this stuff for over 5 decades now. No New Testament text existed until several decades after the death of Jesus. The only way the story of Jesus could have been passed on is by oral stores. It took several more decades after that before the rest of the books were pinned. Than, as I know that you know, it took another 4 centuries before the books were compiled together. But even today, different Christian sects have different books in their Bible.
Several decades seems like a really long time, but it's only tens of years you know, etc, which means most of the original apostles were still alive when they were penned, etc, and before that many still did have some scrolls from the OT, which they taught from as the OT now revealed also, etc.
Reliable witnesses who were there reported that it did not hurt their eyes to look directly at the sun. While the "sun danced" the people present could look at the sun without discomfort.
The Miracle Of The Sun At Fatima | World Apostolate Of Fatima England & Wales
worldfatima-englandwales.org.uk
In O Seculo, another secular paper, Avelino de Almeida adopted a very different tone from a previous satirical article on Fatima, going into even more detail:
“…one could see the immense multitude turn towards the sun, which appeared free from clouds and at its zenith. It looked like a plaque of dull silver and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It might have been an eclipse which was taking place. But at that moment a great shout went up and one could hear the spectators nearest at hand shouting: “A miracle! A miracle!” Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was Biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws—the sun “danced” according to the typical expression of the people. … People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it with its rays. Some said they saw it change colours successively. …”
Another important witness was a young lawyer, Dr. José Almeida Garrett, who wrote to the priest who had interviewed the children, Dr. Formigão, describing what he had seen:
“It must have been nearly two o’clock by the legal time and about midday by the sun. The sun, a few moments before, had broken through the thick layers of clouds which hid it and shone clearly and intensely. I … saw it as a disc with a clean-cut rim, luminous and shining, but which did not hurt the eyes.”
| As Christ said in Matthew 11.25 -
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For the record my mother had a four year old brother who died in that epidemic. She was sick as well, but survived even though she was only two years old at the time.
Well it's not possibile for as they say the sun to dance. The sun isn't just a mere ball overhanging 1 group of people. If the actual sphere of the Sun jumped all over the place the impact of that would be clearly seen not just where Fatima took place but everywhere. It would not be just heard about everywhere BUT SEEN. Nothing like that happened.
If you insist. I would have liked to have been there that day. I suspect if I was I'd still probably be leaving there not believing anything out of the ordinary really took place.
