Reading Time: 10 minutes In the past few decades, Christians’ attempted stranglehold on Christmas has receded further with each bit of dominance lost by their tribe. Now, finally, people are embracing the real reasons for the season.
History of Christianity
Posted inReligion
Tim Keller pushes the myth of ‘Original Christianity’ for a reason
Reading Time: 9 minutes Every so often, I’m convinced, Tim Keller starts feeling like the conversation has begun to meander away from his favorite topic (himself), so he blurts out something ridiculously fatuous to get everyone looking his way again. This time, his attention-seeking took the form of lies about Original Christianity.
Posted inReligion
A brief prehistory of Hell
Reading Time: 7 minutes Today, let’s talk about the prehistory of the Christian notion of Hell.
Posted inCulture
The Motherlode of Truth from Justin Martyr (1st-Century Fridays #15)
Reading Time: 11 minutes Hi and welcome back! Now, we come to the last 1st-Century Friday post for a while. After this, we may revisit my master list as time goes on, but I think we’ve finally hit the wall on writers who were even vaguely contemporaneous with Jesus. However, I’m taking us out with a bang. Today, let’s […]
Posted inGeneral
The Mystery of Justus of Tiberias (1st-Century Fridays #14)
Reading Time: 8 minutes When we checked out Josephus recently, a contemporary of his emerged from the shadows: Justus of Tiberias. We don’t know much about him, which is strange considering what he could have had to say about the earliest Christians. So today, let’s check out Justus of Tiberias — and marvel at the mystery surrounding his absence from the record.
Posted inGeneral
Josephus, and the Lies Christians Tell About Him (#13)
Reading Time: 9 minutes I can easily see why 3rd-and-4th-century Christians felt an irresistible urge to edit Josephus’ work to better support their own claims. Around then, they were just starting to wonder why they lacked that kind of corroboration, and it bothered some of them a lot.
Posted inGeneral
Tacitus: Grabbing at Straws (1st-Century Fridays #12)
Reading Time: 8 minutes Needless to say, Tacitus is not even vaguely contemporary with Jesus. He wasn’t even born until 20+ years after Jesus supposedly died. By his adulthood, pretty much everyone contemporaneous with Jesus would have died already. Under that thinking, I, a Gen-Xer, could be considered contemporaneous with F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940).
Posted inGeneral, History, Religion
Filling in the Blanks in Our 1st-Century List (#11)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! For a while now, we’ve been exploring the world of 1st-century writers in the Roman Empire. Our goal has been to see what those writers said — if anything at all — about Jesus, early Christians, or the goings-on in Judea during Jesus’ supposed lifetime. And now, we have come nearly […]
Posted inGeneral
Filling in the Blanks in Our 1st-Century List (#11)
Reading Time: 9 minutes If you’ve seen that list of 1st-century authors vaguely contemporaneous of Jesus, here are all the details you need to investigate them for yourself.
Posted inHistory, Religion
The Silence of Pamphile of Epidaurus (1st-Century Fridays #10)
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! It’s Friday, and that means our attention turns to history. Specifically, we focus on a voice from the 1st century to see if they said anything about Jesus or Christianity during Jesus’ supposed lifetime. This time around, that voice is female. Pamphile of Epidaurus wrote some excellent histories, so let’s see if […]