At Christmas time, believers naturally focus on imagery recalling the birth of Jesus. Visual depictions of a crèche filled with figures representing the holy family, wise men, shepherds, angels, and various livestock are meant to recall the events depicted in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But few may realize that the elements of a …
Continue reading The Imagery of the Nativity: Where Does it Come From?
According to the Book of Acts, when the apostle Paul arrived in the city of Corinth in Greece he met up with a husband and wife Christian missionary team of Prisca and Aquila. The text states that the two were among a number of Jews who had been expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius. …
The next woman of the early church that we will now meet doesn’t appear in the New Testament at all. She was said to have been made a disciple in Iconium after hearing Paul preach. Acts (though not Paul’s letters) says that Paul was in Iconium (IK-oh-NEE-um, modern Konya, Turkey) with Barnabas during their joint …
I am happy to announce that the official cover artwork and title for my forthcoming book from McFarland has just been released! The book will be featured in their spring catalog for release in 2016. I'll post further updates as I get them.
In the last installment in this series of articles we saw that women, like men, were joining the new movement founded on the belief in the risen Jesus and, also like men, were being persecuted for it. But the traditions tell us there was a definite upside to such faith as well. Peter, the leading …
In reports filed online yesterday, it seems archaeologists may have found remains of the fortress built just before the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BCE) that once overlooked the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. (For one report, go to: http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/04/middleeast/israel-acra-discovery/.) Remains of the citadel and tower (Photographic credit: Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the Israel …
The Acts of the Apostles is one of those New Testament texts that is often overlooked in favor of the gospels or letters of Paul. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating document, full of history, mystery, and hidden clues as to the activities and personalities within the early Jesus community. From a historian’s point of view, …
The first-century travels of Paul as outlined in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles help to shed light on the formation of some of the earliest Christian house churches in the world. Certainly Acts uses some fanciful imagery and supernatural events to combine tradition with evangelization but this need not stop us from gaining …
Our ability to shed light on the origins of Christianity depends almost entirely on ancient sources. These can be either documents or archaeological artifacts. Each discovery can potentially reveal new information to help us understand a people and a period of time so far removed from our own. But what happens to the public’s confidence …
In my last post regarding the origins of Christianity in Syria, I mentioned a number of early Christian texts believed to have been authored somewhere within the Roman imperial province. One of those is the Didascalia Apostolorum, Latin for “Teaching of the Apostles.” Most scholars believe the DA was authored in Greek in the third …
Continue reading The Didascalia Apostolorum or “Teaching of the (Twelve) Apostles”
