I think he is talking about the translation dates of 別譯雜阿含經/T100. Maybe T100 has a parallel to SN2.9 (edit: yes it does).thomaslaw wrote: ↑Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:11 amHow do you make up the date: oldest being 352–431 CE?StormBorn wrote: ↑Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:59 amThanks. Similarly one might say that the The Moon is considerably older too as it has two Saṃyuktāgama parallels (oldest being 352–431 CE) and a Sanskrit parallel. From the content of the sutta we can clearly conclude that the sutta is a later fabrication and perhaps an attempt to make the Buddha so powerful to primitive eyes, but at modern times we know this is just a lunar eclipse.thomaslaw wrote: ↑Mon Sep 10, 2018 12:48 am
But, note that the texts pertain to the vyakarana-anga (P. veyyakarana-anga) portion of SA/SN, according to Yinshun (see pp. 68-9 in the Choong's article). That means, these discourses were a later collection subordinated to the relevant Sutra-anga sections.
Then you find The Sun also, but no Chinese parallels.
Credit: Ven. Kusalagavesi
There are older Chinese scriptures, though. And these are simply the dates of the translations. The modern Chinese scriptures are all that has survived from much larger collections. All of the collections to the best of my knowledge are known to be parts of larger collections.