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Old 03-11-2008, 03:53 PM   #15
pelagius
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I think you are being unfair here: to mormons in general and FARMS in particular. No one here (although no doubt you can find your fair share of Mormons who deny Greek influence but you can probably find Mormons that Believe Jesus spoke in Jacobian English so that is hardly remarkable) is denying the importance of Greek thought or influence upon early Christians. However, when Mormons usually talk about Hellenization they are talking about more of a full embrace. For example Reynolds' clearly has in mind articulating "Christian belief and understanding using the content and methods of philosophy" in a systematic way.

Also, some of your paragraph is false. For example,

Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte View Post
Later, after destruction of the Second Temple, over forthy years after Christ's death, the Gospels were first written, apparenlty not by men or women who knew Christ, but certainly by expert practitioners of Greek philosophy and language.
This is clearly not true for all of the gospels. Find me some reputable scholars that actually believe that Mark wrote in sophisticated Greek. Every scholar I read says that Mark's Greek is awful. In fact, Matthew and Luke often correct Mark's poor Greek when they use Mark as a source.

Note this is not to deny the importance of Greek culture and language to early Christianity. However, it does point out that you are overstating things a bit and like all of us here there appears to be some gaps in your understanding of Christianity.

I provide you with evidence that FARMS is moving away from understanding the apostasy through the lens of Hellenization. This should make you happy. SU and FARMS are aligned. You could go write for them. However, you continue to rail against position that doesn't really exist anymore.

Last edited by pelagius; 03-11-2008 at 05:08 PM.
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