Who said Paul wrote anything? Wanna bet? Someone in Rome wrote Romans, someone else in Korinth wrote the Corinthians, probably Timothy wrote his letters to himself. Okay, its farfetched! Probably the Pharisee network he was spying for delivered the letters for him, for me don't believe in no Roman-Jewish tent-making lawyer!
How exactly did Paul keep in touch with his network of churches across the empire...
by mP 84 Replies latest watchtower bible
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designs
Carrier pigeons...
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Terry
Scholars generally agree that Paul wrote before any of the rest. The so-called Gospels came AFTER Paul's letters.
After Paul's letters came a fellow who was exceedingly influential and almost single-handedly changed the course of
christian history. That man's name was Marcion.
Marcion was a Gnostic who thought the only way to proceed was to assemble the writings on hand into a "canon."
Old Testament Jehovah was obviously a violent and intemperate deity so he was discarded in favor of Paul's Jesus.
Jesus replaced the religion of Jehovah because he was much nicer and his teachings were warm, friendly and compassionate.
Judaism did not take well to Marcion's gnostic appraisal. The eventual "catholic" or universal christian church under the authority
of the pagan emperor Constantine (sun worshipper) received a large donation from Marcion which, upon reflection, meant they'd
have to approve of his ideas which they did not accede to. His money was returned and he was labeled, like many of us--Apostate and heretic.
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Band on the Run
The main answer is in Paul's letter s. Written correspondence and messengers. Trade was extensive.
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mP
Giordano
A page of vellum was extremely expensive measure about $100, unlike email which is free or even snail mail which is almost free. WHile the romans did have messengers, they werent to my knowledge available to the general public. Basically you had to employ someone to make hte trip. Given the trip took months that basically amounts to a major cost. Imagine paying someone a few months salary just to deliver your message. How many messenges can a tent maker like Paul afford to send ?
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mP
I don't think Paul was replying to specific communications. It was more what the rumor mill reported.
MP:
How exactly did rumours about some xian church spread to the new unconquered parts of the empire that Paul was visiting ? Im sorry that only works if the entire empire is xian to begin with. I cant see how that can work prior to such an setup.
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mP
@Rob
Obviously it would have taken a long time for messages to be relayed in the ancient world but, so long as someone keeps all his contacts well informed of his intended destinations, it need not be difficult for messages to be conveyed along busy trade routes.
mP:
There was no postal system in those days. Messenges were delivered by friends, family or employees in the cast government or rich traders etc. Id like to see anyone try and send a message from one side of their country to another city and state a few hundred or thousand kms away using the same thing. No email, snail mail just by people walking, or catching ships. Using a plane or car is cheating and cant be done. I dont think your message wiill ever get there.
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mP
@ThinkAboutIt
But how did he know where to go ? That only works if P left implicit instructions when and where he would be for years in advance. Somehow i dont think that happened. Dont forget he got thrown in jail a few times so any schedule would now be useless, some poor messenger might think P was due in Rio de J so he might catch a ship directly to there, only to not find him. P was of course stuck in Canada, but the messenger would never know that.
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mP
Terry
Pliny the Younger, who lived from 62-114, sent an apologetic letter to the emperor Trajan.
mP:
Pliny was a governor with thousands of slaves/employees and a part of the empire. He could afford to send messages with them when urgency was required. The empire also had ships travelling everywhere in service of the government. These same people were not interested in doing favours for Paul.
You are inventing a general public postal system that did not exist then.
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mP
Terry
Marcion was a Gnostic who thought the only way to proceed was to assemble the writings on hand into a "canon."
mP:
Marcion was extremely rich.
He would be classified as a Billionaire today. When your that rich you can afford to employ men to send messages andgive them money for travelling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcion
His near-contemporaries Rhodo and Tertullian described him as a wealthy ship owner, [3] and he is said to have made a donation of 200,000 sesterces to the church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestertius
If we assume a legionary's wages were based on an individual who needed to support a family of 5 with a working wife, a typical yearly income for the family could be around 1,000 Sestertii. T
A fair estimate of his donation was perhaps 10M$. Anyone with that can afford to pay lots of people to travel. Pick a more humble equivalent for P who is never described as rich.