The first followers of Jesus, their ideas, their Jewish background.
Most people understand that Christianity grew out of Judaism. Jesus was Jewish. So were Peter, James, John, and Paul. So were the many other named and unnamed initial believers who hailed from Palestine and from the Greek-speaking world. But as followers of Jesus began to invite non-Jews to join their movement, questions immediately arose about …
Continue reading Early Christianity’s Uneasy Relationship with the Torah, Jews, and Judaism
Among the earliest messengers (Greek = apostolos) proclaiming the messiahship of Jesus were the twelve specially chosen disciples and, later, secondary followers of Jesus who learned about him from those who knew him. Initially, these messengers limited their target audience to Jews; after all, the Jewish messiah had come; they based their belief on prophecies …
Continue reading The First “Apostle to the Gentiles”? The Possessed Man from Gergesa
You may already be thinking that if this is to be a “historical” assessment, then it is likely that the entire concept of virginal conception (not “virgin birth”; that is something entirely different) will be dismissed as a mythical fable. But not so fast. History may mean one thing to us today and another thing …
Continue reading The Virginal Conception of Jesus: A Historian’s Assessment
With this post, we complete our historical survey of the lives of the twelve apostles. Here, we discuss the apostles Thaddaeus, Simon, Judas, “and the rest.” Thaddaeus/Lebbaeus/Judas son of James It is possible, though unlikely, that these three names all refer to the same person. Some suggest that the names Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus ultimately …
Continue reading The Twelve Apostles Part 6: Thaddaeus, Simon, Judas & the Rest
We continue our historical survey of the lives of the twelve apostles. In this post, we discuss the apostles Matthew, Thomas, and James. Matthew The Greek word, Matthaios, from which we derive Matthew, comes from the Semitic Mattiyah meaning “gift of Yahweh.” Beyond that, and the appearance of his name in the lists of …
Continue reading The Twelve Apostles, Part 5 – Matthew, Thomas, James
We continue our series of historical investigations into the twelve specially-chosen followers of Jesus with this look at three who bore Hellenist names: Andrew, Philip, and Bartholomew. Andrew Andrew is a Greek name (Andreas = “manly”). All four New Testament gospels (Matt 4:18, 10:2; Mark 1:16; Luke 6:14; John 1:40, 6:8) identity him as …
Continue reading The Twelve Apostles, Part 4 – The Hellenists: Andrew, Philip, and Bartholomew
We continue with our series of historical investigations into the twelve specially-chosen followers of Jesus with this combined look at James and John, the sons of Zebedee. James, son of Zebedee The New Testament features a number of men named James (Greek Iakōbos from the Hebrew Ya’akov or Jacob). Most of what we know …
Continue reading The Twelve Apostles, Part 3: The Thunder Brothers, Sons of Zebedee
We carry on with part 2 of our historical investigation of the Twelve special persons chosen by Jesus to supplement his work. This blog will focus on Simon Peter. “Simon” is the Greek form of the Semitic name Šim`ôn, one of the most common Jewish names known to us from antiquity. It means “Yah(weh) has …
In this series of posts, we will explore the history of Jesus’s closest followers as recorded across numerous ancient Christian traditions. Along the way, we will find that these traditions are often confused, contradictory, or seriously lacking in details. Nevertheless, we will attempt to distill all the historical data possible and, at times, risk delving …
Getting as close to the historical Jesus as possible has been a preoccupation with biblical scholars since at least the 18th century. Many questions must be asked. For example, which of the Jesus-traditions (sayings and stories) now appearing in the New Testament and elsewhere are the oldest? Which are most likely historical? Which gospel was …
David Christian Clausen 