The early church and authentic writings

Brian Dean bridean@worldnet.att.net
Fri, 9 Oct 1998 20:12:26 -0400 (00907996346, 19981010001346.HOZH2374@default) 

STEVE CR
Glenn Miller is an internet apologist with some interesting web-pages. In
August last year I challenged him over one of his claims:

' 3.The ethos of the early church was to distinguish sharply between
reliable and unreliable reports. (Mt 28:11-14 and Acts 9:11-14). They knew
the difference and opted for truth. And in 2 Thess 2.2, Paul warned against
the acceptance of the teaching of a letter 'supposed to have come from us'!

'This attitude against 'pious fraud' (including NT pseudonymity) continued
in the early church. Numerous quotes and events from Eusebius, Serapion,
Tertullian, and later writers shows that pseudepigraphic writings and the
fanciful elaboration of the NT apocrypha--even for noble and pure
motives--were NOT accepted by the church and carefully guarded
against...The criteria of truth and demonstrable authenticity was too
high.'

As examples I gave the writings known as I & II Clement and the Letters of
Ignatius which do not appear to demonstrate this clear distinction between
'authentic' and 'non-authentic' writings.

I had pretty much given up hope of a reply, but just recently Glenn has
posted a thesis of over 30,000 words in answer to my question. It is
located at <http://www.christian-thinktank.com/dumbdad2.html > for anyone
who is interested.


BRIDEAN
I haven't had time to look at it myself but here is something from the
web site that you may have overlooked.

__________________________________________________
There are several approaches we could take here, but the main one would be
to read his document
verse by verse and look for any striking commonality in language and
content (and maybe even
style) with the NT documents. For example, if Clement makes use of Pauline
language of "Christ as
the Last Adam", then we might be warranted in assuming that he had read
Pauline passages to that
effect. Likewise, if he uses large chunks of material from the Book of
Hebrews, then we might be
warranted in assuming his familiarity with it. Since Clement is dated
anywhere from 80 AD to 130
AD, all of the NT would have been written, in circulation, and considered
"scripture" (according to
my view) by this time. 

So, does I Clement have any thematic or linguistic connections (e.g.,
allusions) to the NT
documents? 

Yes. Tons. 

In a document roughly the size of the Book of Romans or First Corinthians
(less than 400 verses), I
count approximately 215 possible 'connections' to NT documents, of varying
probability and
strength. 

When I sort these by type of source (e.g., gospels, pastorals, etc.), I
come up with the following
count of possible connections: 

     85 to the Pauline epistles (31 to the Corinthian correspondence) 
     32 to the Pastorals (1 and 2nd Timothy, Titus) 
     27 to the book of Hebrews 
     25 to the Petrine lit (I and II Peter) 
     17 to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) 
     12 to the book of James 
     8 to the book of Acts 
     6 to the lit of John (the gospel of John and the three letters) 
     2 to the book of Revelation 
____________________________________________________________


Also the quote of Jesus that YOU yourself give

'Especially we should remember the words which the Lord Jesus spoke, when
He taught clemency and long-suffering. For thus He spake Have mercy, that
ye may receive mercy: forgive, that it may be forgiven to you. As ye do, so
shall it be done to you. As ye give, so shall it be given unto you. As ye
judge, so shall ye be judged. As ye show kindness, so shall kindness be
showed unto you. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured withal to
you.' 

Seems very similar to the sermon on the mount and other places in the
gospels.