Common lies about early Christians – Ben Witherington nails it
I often disagree with Ben Witherington, but in a scathing review he rightly and convincingly blasts a particular sort of biblical reading that is far more widespread than it ought to be. The whole lengthy post is worth reading. I particularly enjoyed this comment about the sloppy assumption sometimes made about house churches and the New Testament. It reflects both BW3’s conservatism and where a careful and honest application of an evangelical view of scripture really leads.
We are given the usual litany about Christians meeting in homes, and how they did not have church buildings. This is of course partially true, so far as we can tell, but frankly they didn’t just meet in homes, nor were there any mandates for them to do so saying “in order to be truly Christian thou shalt meet in cramped quarters.” They also met in Solomon’s Portico, which is to say in the Temple precincts as the early chapters of Acts informs us, and furthermore they went to synagogue services in purpose built buildings, and furthermore they occasionally rented halls, like the Hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus, and later in the first century, as the archaeological evidence makes clear, they met in caves, namely the catacombs in Rome, as well. I don’t see much of a movement in the church today to go back to cave dwelling.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:16 am
Have you read the book?
July 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am
Nope, but then I was commenting on the range of popular ideas, not the book itself.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
If we would only read more as contemporary Christians, we’ll get what Dr. Witherington III is really saying.
July 5th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
another scholar has written a very compelling critique of Ben
Witherington’s review at
http://www.paganchristianity.org/zensresponds1.htm