That’s hilarious. The suffix -ianus (in Latin and Greek) means any “of” designation, hence Macedonianus, “of Macedonia,” thus Christianus, “of Christ.” It does not matter what the proper noun is (place, person, god). If you are from or follow them, the suffix applies. So gods and angels count.

You realize the bait and switch, right, Wilson? First you were talking about “pagans” then in your response you “clarify” that you are talking about entire pagan nations. Richard responded to the former.

It’s laughable how people of faith and religion claim to practice and believe in a life of humility while they are usually the first ones whom speak out against a differing opinion that doesn’t fit their religious beliefs. Questioning the contents of the Bible is not limited to Atheists, it’s more common for believers to answer the questions of the Bible as it relates to their own agenda. A decent way of describing this phenomenon is by using the term cherry picking.

It is interesting that Paul says Jesus died, was buried, and was raised “ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE.” This may mean Paul thought Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection “fulfilled scripture,” or else that Paul “discovered these things in scripture,” but in either case it means Historicists can’t use Paul as evidence for the death, burial, and resurrection of the historical Jesus because if a section of text serves a theological purpose (scripture fulfillment or scripture derivation, etc.), it is excluded from being used as information about the historical Jesus. This is standard biblical hermeneutics. And without Paul, historicists have a major problem, because there is no reason to think any pericope in the gospels is doing anything but serving theological purposes.

When Paul says that Christ died for “our sins” in accordance with the scripture, he may be speaking as a Jew, on behalf of Israel: Christ died for the sins of God’s people. He refers in the same way to “our fathers” all being under the cloud and passing through the sea (1 Cor. 10:1). If, as seems likely, Paul has in mind the suffering of Isaiah’s servant, who “bears our sins”, who was given over “because of their sins” (Is. 53:4, 6, 11, 12 LXX), etc., then “according to the scriptures” means that this was a death for Israel. Similarly, Jesus’ resurrection “on the third day according to the scriptures” recalls the narrative of Israel’s punishment and restoration in Hosea 6:1-2: “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”

“Chrestiani” are the followers of the human “impulsore Chresto”, accordingly. But were the “afflicti Christiani” of Suetonius the followers of a human Jesus Christ, too? And if Pliny the Younger used the term “Christiani”, only because he did so then he was historicist? What do you think about this argument applied on Suetonius and Pliny respectively? Very thanks.

That reference in the RSV is speculation. There are many more proposals in the literature, and I point out even more problems that remarks like these ignore (as I noted in my comment above, e.g. the fact that there were different scriptures then, which don’t exist now).

But yes, if Paul is saying that he learned of this data from scripture, as he does appear to be saying, then there was no historical Jesus. But if he meant in fulfillment of, as historicists interpret, then the opposite could be the case. And a fortiori, it’s 50/50, so this simply becomes non-evidence for either view.

We need to look at other evidence to know what the most likely thing Paul meant here was.

I am extensively trained at the graduate level in the skills I’ll be teaching in this course. I have a Ph.D. in a covering field. Studied under leading paleographers and papyrologists. I’m even published in the subject in peer reviewed journals and books. So, nice try, but you can’t even get the truth right.

Meanwhile, I like my current job. Better hours. My boss is really flexible. And more people can access the education I’m offering than community college, both in time and money. Indeed, there is no course anywhere at the community level that will give an average person the skills this course will teach.

So, anyone who wants those skills or to improve at them, will see the value in this service, and become a consumer of it.

Hello free market.

The RSV cites Psalm 16:10 as Paul’s “Scriptures” for 1 Cor 15:4:
“For thou doest not give me up to Sheol, or let thy godly one see the Pit.” It references Acts 2:31:”[David] foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.”

Usually what we say is that if a section of text serves a theological purpose (such as Old Testament scripture fulfillment), then there is no reason to think it goes back to The Historical Jesus. If Paul is illuminating Jesus death, burial, and resurrection by saying he understands them “according to scripture,” then there is no reason to think that any of it goes back to the historical Jesus.