“Remember, early Christians weren't converted by the Scriptures. Instead, they were saved by a spoken message. Most couldn't read anyway. The New Testament hadn't been compiled. There was no such thing as the printing press.”

“Among most Christians the Old Testament is little read in comparison to the New Testament. Furthermore, much of what is read is often distorted by prejudice. Frequently the Old Testament is believed to express exclusively the principles of justice and revenge, in contrast to the New Testament, which represents those of love and mercy; even the sentence, "Love your neighbor as yourself,” is thought by many to derive from the New, not the Old Testament. Or the Old Testament is believed to have been written exclusively in the spirit of narrow nationalism and to contain nothing of supranational universalism so characteristic of the New Testament.”

“But all Scripture is divided into two Testaments. That which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old; but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The Jews make use of the Old, we of the New.”
Verum Scriptura omnis in duo Testamenta diuisa est. Illud quod aduentum passionemque Christi antecessit, id est lex et prophetae, Vetus dicitur; ea uero quae post resurrectionem eius scripta sunt, Nouum Testamentum nominantur. Iudaei Veteri utuntur, nos nouo.

“Undergirding what Christians call the Old Testament is a message of particularism, not universalism.”

“The publication of the Revised New Testament by the two University Presses on May 17, 1881, was the most sensational in the annals of publishing.”

“Free press: all may read whatever is printed.”

“I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I'd never been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, they couldn't prove something had happened if it hadn't happened. And second, I hadn't killed anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time, anyway.”

“In the New Testament sense, to be a Christian is, in an upward sense, as different from being a man as, in a downward sense, to be a man is different from being a beast. A Christian in the sense of the New Testament, although he stands suffering in the midst of life’s reality, has yet become completely a stranger to this life; in the words of the Scripture and also of the Collects (which still are read-O bloody satire!-by the sort of priests we now have, and in the ears of the sort of Christians that now live) he is a stranger and a pilgrim-just think, for example of the late Bishop Mynster intoning, “We are strangers and pilgrims in this world”! A Christian in the New Testament sense is literally a stranger and a pilgrim, he feels himself a stranger, and everyone involuntarily feels that this man is a stranger to him.”

“Most of the things people say they remember they only imagine anyways.”

“What follows, then? That one had better put on gloves before reading the New Testament. The presence of so much filth makes it very advisable. One would as little choose early Christians for companions as Polish Jews: not that one need seek out an objection to them — neither has a pleasant smell.”