I am sure this has been asked before, but with christianity revolving solely around the words and actions of Jesus, why is there not a single passage in the Bible written by his hand? Why the distance of several generations between his verbal speaking and written quotations?
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The missing Bible author
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daveleau
In all you do, do it for Christ and w/ Him in mind
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Actually, the whole thing was written by Him, in a way. 
He gave the ideas to the authors and in a sense is the author of the entire Bible.
Someo f the quotations were written down a couple of decades after His crucifixion. The Word was passed verbally until then.
He gave the ideas to the authors and in a sense is the author of the entire Bible.Someo f the quotations were written down a couple of decades after His crucifixion. The Word was passed verbally until then.
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Didaskomenos
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What a good point, SwissPalms! The answer is that God chose to use witnesses to testify to him, rather than jump out and scare people into submission. Notice that he's still doing that today (or have you seen him around, lately? ). The Bible is made up of men's testimonies to their encounters with God. God places a lot of stock in humanity: he became a human, died for humans, and gives humans the responsibility of spreading the revelation of himself. I really think it comes down to his wanting us to come to love him as a friend and a father, rather than wanting to force us into his kingdom just because he's the King.
). The Bible is made up of men's testimonies to their encounters with God. God places a lot of stock in humanity: he became a human, died for humans, and gives humans the responsibility of spreading the revelation of himself. I really think it comes down to his wanting us to come to love him as a friend and a father, rather than wanting to force us into his kingdom just because he's the King.
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Mother Vashti
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Jesus did not write the Gospels. Jesus did not baptize persons into His name. We did these things.
God has made it clear that He will merely be the door showing us the way to salvation. It always has been, and always will be, up to us to enter therein.
God has made it clear that He will merely be the door showing us the way to salvation. It always has been, and always will be, up to us to enter therein.
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holyrokker
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It wasn't a distance of several generations. The last portion of the New Testament was The Revelation - written around 70 A.D. by one of the original apostles of Jesus.SwissPalms said:
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Polycarp1
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While the theories of modern scholars would dispute those dates, that's not the point of my post.daveleau said:
But most of the early Christians apparently expected Jesus' imminent return at the Second Coming -- and in the interim, they had the Apostles and other eyewitnesses to tell about him. Other than letters sent from Apostle A in point X to church B in point Y, the reduction of the faith to writing only took place as people who were eyewitnesses started dying off, and the church realized it needed a more permanent record.
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2 Peter comes in real late at around 125 AD which means that folks like St Ignatius of Antioch was around during the New Testament times.
Jeff the Finn
Jeff the Finn
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holyrokker said:
None of the books of the New Testament mentions the destruction of Jerusalem as a past event. Seeing as how Jesus prophesied of Jerusalem's destruction the writers of the NT would not have passed up the opportunity to point out it's fulfillment if it had been already fulfilled when they wrote. This proves that all of the books of the NT were written prior to 70 AD (the year Jerusalem was destroyed). The date of 95-100 on Revelation that most modern 'scholars' go for is most likely due to an assumption that no such thing as predictive prophecy exists in reality. In other words, the late date is the result of liberalism and disbelief. Not that those who have posted this idea are disbeliving but that those who conjured it up are.
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ufonium2
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So someone who was born in the year that Revelation was written would be 2.6 generations removed from Jesus. But John was zero generations removed from Jesus. My grandpa is not 3 generations removed from his sister even though she died 60 years ago. See what I'm saying? To say several generations seperate Revelation from Christ makes it sound like Revelation was written by someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew Christ. In fact is was written by someone who knew Christ.herev said:
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ChristianCandy
Live Well, Laugh Often, and Love the Lord!
There is a letter preserved written by King Abgarus to Jesus, & sent to Jesus by Ananias, the King's footman, to Jerusalem, inviting Jesus to Edessa. There is also Jesus' reply to the King's invitation & I will quote the short letters here for you:
"Abgarus, King of Edessa, to Jesus the good Saviour, who appears at Jerusalem, greeting.
I have been informed concerning you and your cures, which are performed without the use of medicines and herbs.
For it is reported, that you cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, do both cleanse lepers, and cast out unclean spirits and devils, and restore them to health who have long been diseased, and raisest up the dead;
All when which I heard, I was persuaded of one of those two; viz: either that you are God himself descended from heaven, who do these things, or the son of God.
On this account therefore I have wrote to you, earnestly to desire you would take the trouble of a journey hither, and cure a disease which I am under.
For I hear the Jews ridicule you, and intend you mischief.
My city is indeed small, but neat, and large enough for us both."
The City of Edessa was in Mespotania where King Abgarus reigned. Here is Jesus' reply to the King's invitation:
"The answer of Jesus by Ananias the footman to Albgarus the king, 3 declining to visit Edessa.
Abgarus, you are happy, forasmuch as you have believed on me, whom ye have not seen.
For it is written concerning me, that those who have seen me should not believe on me, that they who have not seen might believe and live.
As to that part of your letter, which relates to my giving you a visit, I must inform you, that I must fulfil all the ends of my mission in this country, and after that be received up again to him who sent me.
But after my ascension I will send one of my disciples, who will cure your disease, and give life to you, and all that are with you."
These letters were discovered by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. For their genuiness, he appeals to the public records and registers of the City of Edessa in Mesopotania, where Abgarus reigned and where he affirms that he found them written in the Syriac language. He published a Greek translation of them, in his Ecclesiastical History. The learned world have been much divided on this subject; but notwithstanding that the erudite Grabe, with Archbishop Cave, Dr. Parker, and others, have strenuously contended for their admission into the canon of Scripture, they are deemed apocryphal. The Rev. Jeremiah Jones observes that the common people in England have this Epistle in their houses, in many places, fixed in a frame, with the picture of Christ before it; and that they generally, with much honesty and devotion, regard it as the Word of God, and the genuine Epistle of Christ.
These Epistles were published in a book called, "The Lost Book of The Bible and The Forgotten Books of Eden" published by The World Publishing Company, New York, NY first printing July 1963. The excerpts were taken from the 26th Printing, 1971.
"Abgarus, King of Edessa, to Jesus the good Saviour, who appears at Jerusalem, greeting.
I have been informed concerning you and your cures, which are performed without the use of medicines and herbs.
For it is reported, that you cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, do both cleanse lepers, and cast out unclean spirits and devils, and restore them to health who have long been diseased, and raisest up the dead;
All when which I heard, I was persuaded of one of those two; viz: either that you are God himself descended from heaven, who do these things, or the son of God.
On this account therefore I have wrote to you, earnestly to desire you would take the trouble of a journey hither, and cure a disease which I am under.
For I hear the Jews ridicule you, and intend you mischief.
My city is indeed small, but neat, and large enough for us both."
The City of Edessa was in Mespotania where King Abgarus reigned. Here is Jesus' reply to the King's invitation:
"The answer of Jesus by Ananias the footman to Albgarus the king, 3 declining to visit Edessa.
Abgarus, you are happy, forasmuch as you have believed on me, whom ye have not seen.
For it is written concerning me, that those who have seen me should not believe on me, that they who have not seen might believe and live.
As to that part of your letter, which relates to my giving you a visit, I must inform you, that I must fulfil all the ends of my mission in this country, and after that be received up again to him who sent me.
But after my ascension I will send one of my disciples, who will cure your disease, and give life to you, and all that are with you."
These letters were discovered by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. For their genuiness, he appeals to the public records and registers of the City of Edessa in Mesopotania, where Abgarus reigned and where he affirms that he found them written in the Syriac language. He published a Greek translation of them, in his Ecclesiastical History. The learned world have been much divided on this subject; but notwithstanding that the erudite Grabe, with Archbishop Cave, Dr. Parker, and others, have strenuously contended for their admission into the canon of Scripture, they are deemed apocryphal. The Rev. Jeremiah Jones observes that the common people in England have this Epistle in their houses, in many places, fixed in a frame, with the picture of Christ before it; and that they generally, with much honesty and devotion, regard it as the Word of God, and the genuine Epistle of Christ.
These Epistles were published in a book called, "The Lost Book of The Bible and The Forgotten Books of Eden" published by The World Publishing Company, New York, NY first printing July 1963. The excerpts were taken from the 26th Printing, 1971.
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Polycarp1
Born-again Liberal Episcopalian
A couple of quick points:
Scholars from the Middle Ages on have identified the supposed correspondence between Jesus and Abgar as a third century forgery -- and, intriguingly, it's connected directly with something called the Mandylion or Veronika which appears to be a portrait of Jesus claimed to have worked miracles, and with the Shroud of Turin, which supposedly was kept for an extended period of time in Edessa. I tried to find some scholarly cite online for the letters being definitely a forgery, but got either blanket assertions that it was without evidence being cited, or long-winded discussions of the Mandylion and/or the Shroud that made reference to the letters in passing.
Regarding the correspondence of Peter, scholarship suggests that II Peter was a second-century composition attributed to Peter and containing fragments of Petrine writing, along with a paraphrased version of Jude (note the close textual parallels between chapter 2 and Jude). This is vigorously disputed by conservative Christians.
I Peter was almost definitely written from Rome in about 60 AD, and it being a time of persecution, "Babylon" (the world-conquering city of the Old Testament) was used by Peter as a thin disguise for Rome -- the meaning would be clear to the intended Christian readers, who would be familiar with the metaphor, but intended to mislead the persecutors, who would assume the Mesopotamian city was literally meant.
Scholars from the Middle Ages on have identified the supposed correspondence between Jesus and Abgar as a third century forgery -- and, intriguingly, it's connected directly with something called the Mandylion or Veronika which appears to be a portrait of Jesus claimed to have worked miracles, and with the Shroud of Turin, which supposedly was kept for an extended period of time in Edessa. I tried to find some scholarly cite online for the letters being definitely a forgery, but got either blanket assertions that it was without evidence being cited, or long-winded discussions of the Mandylion and/or the Shroud that made reference to the letters in passing.
Regarding the correspondence of Peter, scholarship suggests that II Peter was a second-century composition attributed to Peter and containing fragments of Petrine writing, along with a paraphrased version of Jude (note the close textual parallels between chapter 2 and Jude). This is vigorously disputed by conservative Christians.
I Peter was almost definitely written from Rome in about 60 AD, and it being a time of persecution, "Babylon" (the world-conquering city of the Old Testament) was used by Peter as a thin disguise for Rome -- the meaning would be clear to the intended Christian readers, who would be familiar with the metaphor, but intended to mislead the persecutors, who would assume the Mesopotamian city was literally meant.
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A great many of the sojourners of the Dispersion, to whom the epistle was addressed (1:1), were in Babylon (Josephus Ant, XV ii 2.) It is possible that Paul's visit to part of the Diaspora would influence him to write an epistle to the rest of the Diaspora.
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RVincent said:
(1 Pet 5:13) The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.
"The adj. "elected together with" is fem. sing., and the ellipsis must be supplied by some noun of that gender.
So Peter may be uniting all the brethren with him here, and the ellipsis should be supplied, not with ekklesia, which occur nowhere in his epistles, but diaspora, the dispersion, whom he addressed as elect (1:1). Those in Babylon were elect with them."
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