The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon Research Paper - 1

The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon - Research Paper ExampleBauer, one of the nearly(prenominal) remarkable scholars of early Christianity, refutes the view that Jewish tendency in the formation of Christian canon was particular to the activities of Ebionites. He turns attention to the Syrian Jewish communities and the writings like Kerigmata Petrou and Didascalia that interpret Jesus as a true prophet and rely on the Peters Gospel while dismissing Pauls views2. Jewish writings in general tended to favor Matthew and disregard Paul, as Paul was one of the most active proponents on the independence of Christian philosophy from the Old Testament code of conduct (the diet, circumcision, and a holiday once a week prescribed by it)3. Matthews Gospel openly demands the borrowing of Jewish Law that is why it was largely supported by different early Jewish Christian movements4. The most influential of the latter were Ebionites (one of the possible etymological explanations of this name is its connection with the ideal of humble, poor living), the supporters of the adoptionist doctrine to them, Jesus was a human being adopted by God, an ideal sacrifice after which separate sacrificial rituals were not needed any more5. From this followed that Ebionites excluded the first chapters of Gospels that told the story of Christs pay to Virgin and that they did not consume meat6. Their doctrine in oral form was based on Matthews Gospel in Aramaic later, the Gospel of Ebionites in Greek appeared for the generation unfamiliar with Aramaic7. The first travail of the canonization of writing about Christ was actually made by a heretic who inappropriate the Jewish doctrine, the one named Marcion. His rationale was to challenge the view of God in the Old Testament and to description the New Testament as the rejection of the older doctrine, a Gospel of Love to the exclusion of Law8. desire many Orthodox theologians of the time, he accepted the Gospel according to Luke a nd the epistles by Paul with slight changes and modifications by Marcion himself some of his changes remained in the later Pauline and Lukan texts9. The first time Marcion declared his ideas was 144 CE, on the Christian Congregation in Rome10. Marcion rejected the entire Old Testament and the epistles of all apostles but Paul he saw Jesus Christ as the son of Supreme God of love and grace, not punishment and justice, and claimed that this son only looked like a human being, so that the first chapters of Luke were viewed as misleading about His coming to the human world (not embodiment)11. He also deleted some parts of the text of the Gospel and epistles (like Gal.iii. i6 iv.6 and 2 Thess. i. 6-8) on the ground that they supported the older Jewish tradition of Law12. Marcion produced his own polemic text and, as some of the Christian historians have proved, the introductory paragraphs to some of the epistles in Vulgata13. Marcions vision was very cute because of the emphasis on mer cy it was very popular among Gentiles who were not native Jews14. Ehrman speculates about the possible prospects of Christianity influenced by either Marcionism