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BigWuffleton t1_j3pe41h wrote

Like it or not, Christianity has been a large influence on European/Western history and is therefore important to study how/if it changed over time and how different interpretations were used and carried into practice.

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theSiegs t1_j3penlp wrote

Also, this is Jewish history.

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HoduranB t1_j3pi93s wrote

Jewish history is Christian history. The religions diverged on the basis of who the Jewish Messiah is.

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theSiegs t1_j3r9d6n wrote

Well Jewish history is of course much much older than Christian history. Some, but not very much, of Jewish history is commonly held as the foundation of Christianity.

It's also worth pointing out that Jewish history is both the history of a people and of a religion, and while they overlap a lot, the history of the people is bigger.

Christianity as most of us know it developed mostly independently of Judaism after the destruction of the temple. There was a divide that formed fairly quickly between the Jewish and gentile followers of Christ. You can see this happening in the New Testament in places like the book of James, where James is disagreeing with Paul somewhat on works vs faith. In other places you'll find Paul telling the gentile Christian that they should not be circumcised nor follow the Law because they are not Jewish. This was not a popular opinion among many Jewish followers of Jesus. The divide really takes off though when Rome starts persecuting Jews but not yet Christians, and Jewish followers of Jesus get scooped up in that, while Gentile ones likely avoided association for protection from persecution. The loss of their ties to Judaism left a huge gap in the early formation of Christian theology.. access to the texts.

Which brings us back to this article. With a more complete lens to look at the early formation of scripture (and a more generous orthodoxy to leave room for what it can teach us) students of the history of both Judaism and of Christianity will have more opportunity for growing together, as we should have been all along.

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[deleted] t1_j3pesqi wrote

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MikeMaven t1_j3pgysx wrote

Actually, there is a considerable amount of textual criticism that has been done with The Iliad, The Odyssey, and all the existing Ancient Greek literature—-which includes everything from Athenian politics to Zeus and the gods.

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hullgreebles t1_j3piaiw wrote

Made up or not, all ancient texts tell us a lot about the people who wrote it and the world they lived in. You can take your edgy teen act to r/Atheism

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VarsH6 t1_j3pl8tv wrote

This is going over the Dead Sea scrolls, not the Bible itself.

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[deleted] t1_j3pfaxc wrote

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waltonics t1_j3po65j wrote

You should read up on this if you are interested. The idea that the first council of nicea chose what books were canon is a myth.

Quick edit to suggest Bart Ehrman as a good source of early Christianity and textual criticism articles

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