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, …
Category: Christian Origins
Fraud in the Search for Christian Origins?
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 …
The Didascalia Apostolorum or “Teaching of the (Twelve) Apostles”
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 …
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Syria: A Thriving Center for Early Christianity?
Most astute readers of the New Testament understand that Jesus and his first followers were Jews who came from Palestine, specifically the Roman province of Judea as well as the Herodian tetrarchy that included Galilee. But after Jesus’ crucifixion, the new Jewish sect of the Nazarenes quickly spread beyond the traditional borders of Israel into …
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Is the Apostle Peter Buried Beneath St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican?
This question has recently come up again as Pope Francis announced in November, 2013, that the relics believed to be the very bones of St. Peter were to be put on public display. Are there any facts to substantiate either Peter’s stay in Rome or his death there? Surprisingly, there is a great deal of …
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David Christian Clausen 