Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sarai]

Jar,

If they were, the other disciples would discredit them and the writings would not have had authority in the early church.

If "church" is a Christian institution, it was my understanding that the Christian Church did not exist until the 4th century. So how could the disciples have written about a "church" several centuries before it existed? Use of the word "church" could actually mean "temple" or "congregation" or something similar. But that would imply "interpretation" or "translation", and is therefore incorrect - per the literalist's or fundamentalist's interpretation. Using the word "church" during the time of the disciples would be historically incorrect.