What would Jesus eat?

[molly bloom]

Why would a Buddhist influence be called for? .

I'm not saying that it would be necessarily, just that there might be a possible influence through Iran- given that the whole Hellenistic world was linked in a cultural common market, as it were, from the Gandharan kingdoms in India through to Epirus and as far away as Massilia.

We know of a Zoroastrian influence on Jewish belief- the whole subgroups of angels in mystical Hebrew thought, for instance, and there was a Buddhist influence on Iranian architecture and Buddhists living in the eastern parts of the Iranian territories, and when the Greeks had discovered the benefits of the monsoon wind trade routes were shortened somewhat between the Mediterranean and India and South East Asia.

The characteristics of the some of the Essenes in their daily lives- eschewing certain food products & marriage & carnality, their pacifism and so on, seem an awful lot like the more committed of the Jains for instance- but that's not to say that two distinctly different groups could arrive at some of the same kinds of notions about how to approach the seeming dichotomy between the divine and the worldly.

Gnostics were not christians.

Thanks kiddywinks. I refer you to Marcion, just for starters. Oh, and the extremely useful 'A History Of Heresy', which I have mentioned before to you. It's great fun reading how those early Christians could split a hair 7 different ways before breakfast, whilst being perfectly beastly to each other, all in the name of a loving god.

There is a difference between a heretic Christian and a non-Christian, as you might appreciate, were you not such a clot. But then y'are, Blanche, y'are.

[Kidlicious]

Thanks kiddywinks. I refer you to Marcion, just for starters. Oh, and the extremely useful 'A History Of Heresy', which I have mentioned before to you. It's great fun reading how those early Christians could split a hair 7 different ways before breakfast, whilst being perfectly beastly to each other, all in the name of a loving god.

There is a difference between a heretic Christian and a non-Christian, as you might appreciate, were you not such a clot. But then y'are, Blanche, y'are.

Once again someone has made doo doo in your cheerios? A non-Christian is someone who doesn't have faith in Jesus. A heretic is someone who is labeled by the mainline church for having different beliefs (having nothing to do with faith in Jesus).

[molly bloom]

Once again someone has made doo doo in your cheerios?

I'm not sure I've ever eaten them. Are they one of those pre-sweetened American cereals ?

St. Thomas on heresy: "a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas".

That's from the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

An apostate abandons Christianity altogether. A pagan is by definition, non-Christian. Neither are heretics. Same for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, yada yada...

I refer you also to the Ebionites. And again, to 'A History of Heresy'.

[Kidlicious]

I'm not sure I've ever eaten them. Are they one of those pre-sweetened American cereals ?



That's from the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

An apostate abandons Christianity altogether. A pagan is by definition, non-Christian. Neither are heretics. Same for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, yada yada...

I refer you also to the Ebionites. And again, to 'A History of Heresy'.

Thanks for establishing the fact that they CALLED themselves christians. Any of them that didn't believe in the incarnation didn't have faith in Jesus, and didn't believe that faith was the way to salvation, so not actually christians.