Tag: Christian
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Political Intrigue and the Crucifixion; First-Century Watergate. Part One: Branches and Hosannahs.
The story of the last week of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is…..off. As the new convert reads of his trip into Jerusalem, they are filled with many questions…..as am I. Several aspects of the story do not make sense. In this series of posts, we will touch on a few of them as…
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Papias of Hieropolis
Papias of Hieropolis is more than just an amazing name for your next child; he may be one of the most important players in early Christian history that you have (probably) never heard of. It is through him that what little we know about the author of the “main” gospel, Mark, comes to us today.…
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Gnosticism; Then and Now
Most of us are aware of the story of Jesus around which the world’s largest religion is shaped. Over the almost two millennia since the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christian version of his story has coalesced into the form that most of us are familiar with today. As popular and nearly ubiquitous as…
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Thecla; the First First-Woman of the Church.
For as long as anyone can remember, Mary the mother of Jesus has held the position of the highest revered woman of the Church. By sheer volume, more prayers are said to her than any other person; including Jesus. In the early Church however, there was another woman who contended for that honor. Thecla. The…
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Part 1.5: The Man Behind (most of) the New Testament; Paul.
Before we go any further into the individual components of the New Testament, it may be helpful to learn a little bit about the man who is (either directly or indirectly) behind most of it: Paul. It is true that I tend to take a bit of a cynical tone towards his actual knowledge of…
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Part 1: Assembling the New Testament…
Growing up as an evangelical Christian. my sole resource for information on Jesus was the New Testament. From Sunday school and the pulpit came lectures from the epistles of Paul and the four gospels. It took several decades for me to learn that there is a wealth of other material concerning our favorite first century…
The Incredible Jesus 