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Originally Posted by elchivito
Bishop Spong feels that the writers of the gospels felt a need to create an image of Jesus that ties him closely to not only the OT prophesies but to the Jewish liturgy of the day. He sees this becoming more and more important chronologically thru the canon. In much the same way that later christian missionaries were happy to overlay their religious calendar onto the existing holy days of their proselytes, it's no coincidence that the key moment's in Jesus' life follow the Jewish liturgical calendar closely.
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I remember reading in one of Spong's books that there were two power centers in early Christianity, a Jewish movement based in Jerusalem that was headed up by Jesus's brother James, and the Gentiles movement headed up by Paul in Damascus. Perhaps the inclusion of both faction's writings were an attempt to unify the faith at the time, something Constantine was said to be very concerned about. It happened two centuries after Paul was dead and gone IIRC.