Podcasts about jewish christianity

On todays show Texas Jim leads the Bible Bunch on a talk about Christology, focusing on early Christian practices and their implications. Jim highlighted the significance of baptism into Jesus' name, emphasizing its unprecedented status in Jewish Christianity. The conversation explored the relationship between Jesus and God, referencing Larry Hurtado's work and the inclusion of the Holy Spirit in early Christian worship. The debate included perspectives on Unitarianism, Trinitarianism, and the historical context of messianic expectations. The group also discussed the role of the Holy Spirit in restraining evil and the covenantal nature of baptism, suggesting it universalized circumcision. The discussion delves into Christology, focusing on the psychological and sociological implications of Jesus' teachings contradicting traditional Jewish practices. Speaker 4 argues that Jesus' resurrection should have validated his claims, and Paul's message to the Greeks emphasizes that the gospel provides a clear path to God, contrasting with the "fuzzy lens" of pre-gospel beliefs. The conversation also touches on the theological implications of ignorance and the role of the gospel in clarifying religious choices. The segment concludes with a sponsor's promotional message and a brief acknowledgment of participants. Don't Miss it!

Early Jewish believers in Yeshua created a catechism for new disciples from among the nations. Lost for hundreds of years, this document, the Didache, reveals the expectations and standards the early Yeshua-believing community put in place for Gentile disciples of Yeshua. Our guest today, Dr. Daniel Nessim, has spent his academic career demonstrating that the first disciples of Yeshua considered the Torah to be the moral compass of all those who joined the community of disciples, whether Jewish or Gentile. – Episode Takeaways – The Didache is a discipleship manual created by early Jewish believers in Yeshua for personal Gentile discipleship and how to conduct themselves within the community. The Didache was written around 80 CE during a tumultuous time in history and reflects the beliefs and values of the early Jewish believers, who considered the Torah to be the moral compass for all disciples. The arch of the Didache progresses from directing individuals on the proper moral path to addressing issues of community life that were particularly applicable at the time the Didache was written. – Episode Chapters – 00:00 Welcome Dr. Daniel Nessim to Messiah Podcast! 02:41 The Didache: What it is and where it came from. 05:44 The purpose and significance of the Didache. 08:16 Relationship of the Didache to other early Christian writings. 09:49 The historical occasion for writing down the Didache. 12:37 The clues that betray the Jewishness of the Didache. 14:20 Rediscovery of the Didache. 15:52 Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Didache research. 21:44 Thesis of the book “Torah for Gentiles” by Dr. Daniel Nessim. 28:16 Parallels with Greek moral instruction. 31:12 Modern interpretations of the Didache. 32:36 Textual criticism and the similar sayings of Yeshua in the Didache and the Gospels. 37:52 Hard lines and leniencies in the Didache's concession passages. 41:37 Is there a specific list of Gentile responsibilities to the Torah? 49:02 Judaism as a religion of grace. 50:07 Why the Didache disappeared. 52:24 The end of Jewish Christianity and the historical context of the Didache. 58:27 The value of the Didache in the present era. – Episode Resources – Torah for Gentiles?: What the Jewish Authors of the Didache Had to Say, by Dr. Daniel Nessim https://www.amazon.com/Torah-Gentiles-Jewish-Authors-Didache-ebook/dp/B091G5C914 The Way of Life, The Rediscovered Teachings of the Twelve Jewish Apostles to the Gentiles, by Toby Janicki https://ffoz.store/products/the-way-of-life-book Messiah Podcast is a production of First Fruits of Zion (https://ffoz.org) in conjunction with Messiah Magazine. This publication is designed to provide rich substance, meaningful Jewish contexts, cultural understanding of the teaching of Jesus, and the background of modern faith from a Messianic Jewish perspective. Messiah Podcast theme music provided with permission by Joshua Aaron Music (http://JoshuaAaron.tv). “Cover the Sea” Copyright WorshipinIsrael.com songs 2020. All rights reserved.

Politics is largely regarded as a sphere where darkness flourishes. But maybe that's where the light can shine brightest. In part 1 of an emotional interview, Convention of States President Mark Meckler shares his unlikely journey from militant atheism to Jewish Christianity through grassroots activism.  Learn More About The BattleCry

After WWII, how did a group of mainly Jewish intellectuals, come to believe their mission was to uphold certain Christian ideals? But historian Samuel Moyn explains how the good ideas of this group, known as the ‘Cold War liberals,' turned grievously awry.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Recently Tom Huszti interviewed me for his YouTube channel, the Unitarian Anabaptist. We talked about the importance of geography, archeology, and Greco-Roman history for interpreting the bible, especially the New Testament. Next we delved into early church history, starting with the earliest forms of Jewish Christianity in the first and second centuries. We talked about the Jerusalem church, the Nazarenes, and the Ebionites. Next we considered the persecution many Christians faced at the hands of the Romans for their unwillingness to give their ultimate allegiance to Caesar. The conversation was wide ranging, but what came through over and over is the importance of studying the bible and history in order to restore authentic Christianity and live it out today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KefOimH6ZU —— Links —— For the trip to Greece and Turkey with Jerry Wierwille, see the itinerary here and the map here. Follow Huszti's YouTube Channel, the Unitarian Anabaptist Check out episode 478 Unitarian Anabaptist (Tom Huszti)  Get the free class on Early Church History here. Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Transcript —— This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode. Sean Finnegan:Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to restart studio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. Tom Huszti: Sean Finnegan, welcome to Unitarian Anabaptist. Sean Finnegan: Thanks for having me. Tom Huszti: So this has been a long time in the waiting. I was interviewed by you about 8 months ago and now you're being interviewed by the Unitarian Anabaptist. What a privilege there is. A lot that you have to say today in the limited time that we're going to do this, you just came back from a trip of Italy and Greece. You finished a 500 year history of the early church. There's just so much interrelated and what I would like to do, as we discussed earlier is to relate these things back to the 1st century faith of our early Christian brethren. So to begin, could you give us a summary of the important highlights that you saw on your trip related to church history? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, we ended up going to a number of touristy spots in Greece like Santorini and Mykonos, but we also hit Athens and we came into the port of Piraeus and then got to the city of Athens and and the first thing that I will note. And anyone who's been to the Mediterranean in August will. We'll know what I'm about to say is. That it's hot. It's a very.SpeakerHot part of the. Sean Finnegan: World. So is the Middle East, so it's it's. It's interesting that, you know, like times I've been to Israel, times have been to Greece or Turkey. It is a very different climate than what I'm used to here in New York or you in Ohio there. Tom Huszti: Sure. Yes, yes, absolutely. Uh. Sean Finnegan: And you know that that. Brings to mind the importance of water. Hmm. And something that really stuck out to me in Israel I. Would have never. Gotten that from reading books, but going to Israel you go to these ancient sites and. These cisterns dug into the ground these huge caverns to store water because it doesn't rain that much water is is still a big deal in the 1st century in Rome in.SpeakerYes. Yeah. Sean Finnegan: Other cities Pompeii also got to visit Pompeii. Tom Huszti: A lot. Sean Finnegan: And they brought. The water in through aqueducts and this is. All part of. Their system of city structure, but the question. Who pays for the aqueducts? Who pays for the bath houses? You know, I got to see some bath houses in Pompeii where you had the the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calidore. Yum, you know, and this is the really cold water, the tepid water and the hot water. And this is just what people did. These are these are public facilities. This actually ended up having a great deal of prestige. As wealthy people step forward and this happened in the 1st century, but also in the the 2nd century, was really the heyday of this period, where wealthy people would come forward and they would donate money to build these public works and they would build other great structures like theaters. And whatnot. And these would then be the ones who controlled the cities and won political office. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: And so it's a very different kind of world, you know, just like I don't think about water, I don't think. About wealthy people building bath houses or pools, right? It's just we, you know, we pay taxes and then, you know, we argue about the police. It's just a very different world. And that was really driven home to me on the trip, you know, in Athens, you're on the Acropolis and you're seeing the Parthenon and some of the other structures that still remain. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: It's just like this is an utterly different world, and it's just so helpful to remember that Tom because. We don't do that when we read the Bible, what we do is we just. We have what we. Understand the world to be, and then we encounter the scripture. We read the text and then we think to ourselves. How can I incorporate this new information? I'm reading about the book of acts or one of the church epistles. For example, how do I incorporate that into what? I know about the world. This is an automatic process and the problem is if you don't force yourself to stop and say wait, they lived in a different world where they had different. Different language, different politics, different weather, different everything. Then you can easily misunderstand so much of the New Testament I. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: Think that's a? Lot of what we as pastors do is we're trying to help people understand the scriptures. So the trip was really enlightening in that sense. Also, I'll make another quick point about it is that we did manage to go to the very edge of Mount Vesuvius. Now Mount Vesuvius blew in 79 AD 79, and that's what killed all the people in Pompeii and Herculaneum. And so they say it's still an active volcano. But you can take a.SpeakerOK. Sean Finnegan: Bus all the way up to the top and then you hike until. Tom Huszti: What's the way? Sean Finnegan: You get to the very crater. You can look down into the crater and it's just incredible. It's just dirt and some like grass and stuff. There's no like lava. Or anything cool but. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: It's just a weird experience to like, stand on the edge of an active volcano and think, wow. This thing blew. And you could kind of see why ancient people were like, ohh, the gods are angry, right? Because. Like who would it? Tom Huszti: Uh-huh. Well, yeah. Sean Finnegan: There's no one in living memory of seeing this thing blow the last time, and it's just such a otherworldly power, sure. Tom Huszti: How far is Pompeii from Rome? Sean Finnegan: I think about two hours. If I had to guess something like that, so we approached. Tom Huszti: Ohh that far OK. Sean Finnegan: Pompeii, from Naples, Naples, is on the. Coast came at it from the West to get to Pompeii in the east, and then you get to Vesuvius and. At the top. Of the Zeus, you can see everything you can see just miles and miles in different cities and. It's really incredible. Tom Huszti: My, my. So how far did the lava have to travel to make it to Pompeii from? Sean Finnegan: Well, wasn't it? They didn't get buried in lava, actually. Yeah, you, you. You would, I guess you would expect that, but it was, it was a I think it was a toxic gas. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: That swept through it well. Initially it was uh. Was launching projectiles and ash and rock straight up, and then that fell because of the wind onto the city and so that, you know, imagine like a hail storm, but with stones and bigger ones and smaller ones. But then a gas came from the mountain and. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: I believe that's what happened and it killed the people, but then it continued to rain. Ash, I think they said like 20 feet of ash, something crazy. Tom Huszti: Oh wow. OK.Speaker 5And it just. Sean Finnegan: Settled on the city and people just didn't have a reason to go there for anything or I'm. I'm not really sure why, but it just laid there. Century after century, and I'm not sure exactly when. Maybe in the 1700s eighteen, 100 something something around there, they're just like, hey, I think we found. A city over here, you know? Archaeology. Just finally gets started. And what happened, Tom, is they would come against these air pockets. So they're digging through. And they hit like a pocket of air and they're. Like this is so weird. What is this? And someone got the bright idea of. Of squeezing into it some plaster, yeah. Tom Huszti: plaster plaster. OK OK. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, if you have you seen these images? Tom Huszti: Yeah, I have. Yeah. That's what I was wondering. OK. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. Yeah. And so then they let it dry and harden, and then they chip around it and then they see the exact shape of a human being. Sometimes even with fine detail. Of like facial expressions and stuff. That's kind of become their customers when they hit an air cavity. They just do that and there there are lots of these casts of human beings in various positions. And what's crazy about them is it's. Just like a. Plaster, but inside the plaster are that person. 'S actual bones. Tom Huszti: Yeah. I was gonna ask. OK. I was gonna ask, you know, something that you mentioned to me back. Louisville, KY, was the length of time that bones. Yeah. And we were talking about resurrection and literal resurrection. And you mentioned that bones last a long time. That's something I really was impressed by something that Rabbi Tovia singer was speaking out against being cremated because. Because the bones are supposed to be the material that used for in part anyhow to reconstitute us as human beings in the resurrection. So that view is very Jewish in origin, as you well know. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, I tend to agree with Rabbi Tovia singer on that. I'm not a fan of cremation. I'm not going to say it's going to defeat God's ability to resurrect somebody, feel like that's a pretty extreme position to take. But I have learned a lot and I know you've been to Israel and you've stood on the Mount of olives and you see. Well, the the tombs there that are, I don't know why they're buried above ground, but they're all these stone rectangles and or stone boxes, really rectangular shaped boxes and inside are the bones. And it's like, well, what's the deal with this? Why are they so worried about bones or not worried but concerned about bones and focused and. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: About caring for the bones and you know they have these ossuaries where you know they they found Caiaphas ossuary. Tom Huszti: I know I saw it when I was in Israel. Sean Finnegan: Incredible ornate. Tom Huszti: In the Israel, yeah. In the Israel hit Natural History Museum of all places, back in 2004, I was shocked. Sean Finnegan: Isn't it beautiful? Tom Huszti: Well, well, it's a beautiful ossuary, but what was most shocking was the was the plaque beside it. The plaque, the plaque beside it, said this was the high priest in the days of Jesus that was responsible for his crucifixion. And I thought to see that advertised in the Israel. Sean Finnegan: Oh, what did it say? Tom Huszti: Natural History Museum was just shocking because it's a recognition that this thing happened and this is the man responsible to it. I was, yeah, that was the last thing I saw in the museum on my way out because we were we had a very short time frame and it was at the entrance of the. Museum so we saw it as we exited. Very cool. Fascinating, yes. Sean Finnegan: Very cool. And you see that stuff? You just say to yourself. These are real. These are true stories. This is history, you know. You see. The the litho what is that Lithos Stratos? You know that that street that is beneath Jerusalem, that was discovered where this is where Jesus was beaten or. He was. It's the layer that goes back to the 1st century. It's kind of underneath the city of Jerusalem. You see these things you say to yourself like I like. I've stood there, Tom. Like, I know for sure. Now. Vesuvius is a real volcano. I looked into the. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Crater. Yes, yes. Yeah, right, right.SpeakerIt's like not that. Sean Finnegan: I ever really doubted it, but like when you do it and you stand there and you see and you, you know, you see the cast and the horror on the faces of the. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: People in Pompeii, you're like. OK, this is not a story, this is history. Tom Huszti: Yeah, no. Sean Finnegan: And it's very powerful. But back to your point about resurrection and bones. What really started me on this, this is going to be a really random source, is a Freakonomics podcast episode. They're talking about cremating animals. The guy was saying, when it comes to cremating animals, they it was, they were trying to do an investigation. The big question they had was. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: Do they actually give you the ashes for your animal? This is like a pet crematorium. Or are they just like scooping random ashes? And you know what? What's really going on here? Right. And they were talking it. So they got into the subject of cremation and bones. And they're like, well, you know, what really happens to the crematorium is they burn, you know, the human or the animal or whatever. And then the bones are there. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: Their bones are not burnable, they just, they're just there. Tom Huszti: Right, right, right. Sean Finnegan: So what they do is they grind them. Tom Huszti: That's what Tovia said, too. Sean Finnegan: And after they grind them down, that's the ashes that you get. They're actually ground bones. Tom Huszti: Ohh, is that right? Sean Finnegan: That they return to you. At least, that's what this podcast episode was saying. It was talking about animals, but like, it also talked about humans, whatever. And it and it made me think to myself, like, wait a second. I always just assumed the bones desiccated. I assumed that they disintegrated over. Tom Huszti: OK. Ohh you did. OK. Sean Finnegan: Time and then it it it kind of informed my thinking about, you know, the James Ossuary and the Caiaphas archery and some of these other ossuary findings, like some of the more sensationalized ones said we think we found Jesus and all this, which has been pretty much not accepted by scholarship but anyhow.Speaker 5The idea of. Sean Finnegan: Bones lasting for centuries and centuries was just like common sense to ancient people because they didn't have this separation. Like we have from our dead. Like we don't, we don't. Know but like they would go. Sean Finnegan:A year later. Sean Finnegan: Back to the tomb and they would pick up the bones and put them in a. Little bone box. Space is limited and you want to fit as many ancestors, descendants, relatives in the same cave or tomb as possible. But you're not looking to, like, mix all the bones together. So yeah, it just kind of made sense to get a box the width of the skull and the length of a femur, and to use that to, you know, organize people and just scratch on the side, the person's name. And so I think this all goes back to whether we're talking about the amount of olives. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah. Tom Huszti: Oh, OK. Sean Finnegan: To this day in Jerusalem, or we're talking about the austrias in the 1st century this or or Tovia Singer's preferences. This all goes back to the same thing which is this. Really strong belief in resurrection and so burying your dead in a way that preserves the bones or cares for the bones is is in a sense, I think a an act of faith that the Jewish people have always had. Again, I'm not saying that cremation is a sin or that it's going to damn somebody to, you know, eternal judgment or, you know, that's not where I'm going here, but I think. Tom Huszti: Yes. No. Sean Finnegan: We should ask the question, is this really this is really fit as Christians like I know it's less expensive. OK, but like is it? Is that always the right course of action? Just cause something's less expensive. So I I think burial. Traditional burial it can be an act of faith because you're saying I'm going to Mark Toome. I'm going to rise. Out of this to. Him so. Tom Huszti: Let's get back to your your trip details. I'm trying to picture this, the framework of well picture this setting that the acts of the apostles was written in. Is Athens set on a hill? Sean Finnegan: Well, the Acropolis certainly is. Tom Huszti: The acropolises OK. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. So, yeah, there there are definitely hills there. The propolis is a very high point in the center of Athens and it is kind of steep. I don't know what you call like a plateau that just. Rises out of nowhere. In the old days, that would be the spot where you would retreat to if Athens were invaded, because it can be held much longer. Tom Huszti: Apostle Paul preached in that place. Sean Finnegan: Well, I think he preached. On Mars. So which is right next to it. So it's yeah, it's right. Right nearby. Tom Huszti: Can you imagine the possible Paul in that setting? Sean Finnegan: Yeah. Well, I mean, the interesting thing about the apostle Paul at the Areopagus or Mars Hill is that he is looking at all these statues. And I when I was in Athens, I got to go to the museum. Tom Huszti: Can you picture him there? Carry out this OK? Sean Finnegan: The Acropolis Museum, which is. Walk. We got there and we went inside and you see all these statues? These are all these statues that they found? Of course. The Acropolis had actual temples to gods on it and that wouldn't have been unusual. There would be temples and statues of gods all throughout the city. And that's not weird for Athens. All Greco-roman cities had statues to gods, shrines, little other ways of worshipping their gods, you know, depending on what gods we're talking about, they're all a little different. You know, there's Paul. He's not really from the West, you know, for and for his perspective as as somebody from. Horses and cilicia. Athens is the. West, we say Athens is east, but for him that's. Tom Huszti: OK, he's from us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: West and you know, so for Paul, he would have seen plenty of this throughout his travels and stuff. But for whatever reason, his heart was just so troubled in Athens, he saw that people just in the city just given to this in Act 17, he finds this altar to the unknown God and he's like. All right, well, here's. Here's someplace where I can hook on a gospel presentation. Really good speaking. But it's interesting too, going back to our former conversation about burial and resurrection, when it comes to the part where Paul says that God has furnished proof by raising that Jesus is the Messiah by raising him from the dead. The Athenians had no trouble hearing that Jesus would be the Messiah. I don't think that was like a really understood category to them. They wouldn't have a hang up about that as him being a king or whatever. But when he says. He has given proof by raising him from the dead. Suddenly they're just like this is ridiculous. Everybody knows you don't want your body back again. This is stupid. I'm out of here. And like the Greeks, the Greeks, they're standard approach to the afterlife. Tom Huszti: Ohh yeah yeah. Sean Finnegan:That's right. Sean Finnegan: Was to get rid of the body. It was not to keep the body or to get the body back. Restored and renewed. And so this. This was always a big issue between Jews and Christians. Agree on. Over against the the Greco-roman, whether the philosophers or just like the folk religion of like going down to Hades and you know all the stuff they, you know, they had stories about all that. Tom Huszti: Have you been to Cesarea Philippi in Israel? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, it's like they call it banya or. Tom Huszti: Something banyas. Yes, banyas. And actually, I guess you know why it's called banyas. Sean Finnegan: Well, there was a. Shrine to the God pan there. Tom Huszti: Right pan, right. So the original name was panyas. But the Arabs have a hard time pronouncing the sound, so they change it to bond. Yes, believe it or not. But yes, yes, yes. So now. Sean Finnegan: Well, that makes sense. Thank you. Tom Huszti: You learn something. From me for a change, right? OK. Sean Finnegan: There it is. There it is. Yeah. I have been there. It's a beautiful spot. And you know, again, talking about the heat and the the arid climate of Israel to have a place with a beautiful water supply. Tom Huszti: Oh my. Sean Finnegan: Like sensory flip by where you say, OK, this is it. This is going to be a big spot. This is going to be a place where people are going to want to go and build things and live because there's plenty of water. Tom Huszti: Yes. Yeah. Tom Huszti: Yeah, it's beautiful there, isn't it? Maybe the most beautiful place in Israel. In my my view, as far as the physicality of it, that's arguable, but. Sean Finnegan: I don't know. I loved Dengeki. I thought it was. Tom Huszti: And Betty was beautiful too. Yes. Also water the the shrine. So do you remember what the shrine of Pan looked like? And and with the details about what was happening there. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah. No, no, remind me. Tom Huszti: OK, there's a a graven image of pan on the the wall of the the side of Mount Hermon, the base of Mount Hermon there. And there is a cave right next to it. And there would would have been an altar for a member, correct? There would have been an altar in front of The Cave, and they were doing sacrifices to the God pan, and they were throwing the sacrificed beast into The Cave and the Jordan River begins flowing from that area. So. There was some kind of a relationship to throwing the sacrifice into The Cave and and whether or not the blood came out at the Jordan River that cave. On the side of the mountain, Mount Hermon was supposed to be the gateway to the underworld. Sean Finnegan: It is certainly the case that the Greeks and the Jews looked very differently at the dead. The Jewish mindset was at the dead are resting and they had the term show all for that. The sort of realm of the dead where all the dead are they're they're awaiting, they're asleep, they use that language. Lot, even in the the Christian New Testament. Tons of references, a lot of our translations, just like get rid of it and they say died or. Something like that. But that it actually says fall asleep or fell asleep. Ohh which you know the a Greek person wouldn't say that they would say no, they're in a different realm. And they're in the underworld of Hades, and Hades is not just a realm. It's also the name of a God who's in charge of all of those shades or departed souls. And you know, so, like, these are very different views. You know what I mean? And it's sad to say, but Christianity has more often than not. Agree with the pagans over against the early Christian. Of view, which is a shame, right? Tom Huszti: Unfortunate indeed. Yes, it is in the the first conversation I had with Tovia Singer, we hit upon so many touch points that we agree upon resurrection life in the age to come. The term Messiah is something that we can talk freely about. There's so many things from my Christian view that actually are terms that you can talk to Jewish people in this present day about, especially those who are inclined to study the Old Testament. And that's a conversation that most nominal Orthodox kind of Christians cannot have with Jewish people. The the rule seems to be that Jews have to leave Judaism in order to come over to Christianity. But strangely enough, we received Christianity from the Jews. And so the context that you're you're seeing here is something that is is very interesting. In restoring Christianity to its 1st century foundations, which is your your big desire so. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's what, that's what I'm all about, is trying to clear away the accretions of the Middle Ages and the post Christian. Developments and getting back to that original earlier version of Apostolic Christianity, you know what? What would the church have thought about this in the 1st century rather than in the 2nd and following centuries? The the subsequent centuries? And, you know, I'm not against technology. Renovation. But I am against changing our beliefs from what the New Testament says and that has happened a lot and it happens very slowly. And I've had a a a desire to understand that development. For a long. Time and did my masters on the subject and was really surprised to see that, you know, people are just not asking this question. Like I'm I'm a member. Of the even to this day of the the Boston area patristic society. OK. And so I get emails and, you know, invitations to attend their meetings, which I attended when I lived out there. And, you know, they're held either at Harvard or at Brown University or sometimes at Providence College as well as three schools have good patristic good, early church history programs. And you know so. They they issue these papers a couple. Of times a year. I don't know like 3 or. Four to five times a year and you know you have lint chocolates and a little wine and a little cheese. And you know, you sit around and, you know, just kind of listen in with these, you know, somebody presents on some aspects some facet of. Early church history. Three, I've been a member of this for I don't know a decade they have never done. A doctrine not once. Not once. There's no interest at all in doctrinal development or this mindset that says, hey, let's get back to living out our faith the way they lived out there is, as far as how we treat people or how we think about the government or whatever practical area. There's zero interest in that. In the the more liberal side of the fence and then on the conservative side of the fence, you have the Catholics that really dominate. And not that there aren't liberal Catholics. I'm sure there's plenty of them too. But I'm talking about the more conservative minded ones and they're always just trying to show that what the church teaches now is really what Christians have always believed. So it's apologetic. It's not OK, let's see what happened. It's more like, alright, well, this person like, for example Ignatius of Antioch, there's going to be an amazing presentation on this. Tom Huszti: Come on. Sean Finnegan: At the Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference next month, Nathan Massey has done some cutting edge research on Ignatius of Antioch. But anyhow, people, Catholic scholars in particular love Ignatius, and they'll go to Ignatius and they say, well, see, Ignatius calls Jesus God. Therefore, the Trinity is true as we, you know, 20 centuries later. Teach it it. It's it's all true because Ignatius said Jesus is God, and there's just more problems with that than you can shake a stick at, which you know I won't get into unless you're interested. But like my my point is. There's very few scholars who are honestly going to the sources of ancient Christians. Whatever books have survived right, and saying what were they saying? And and just taking them on their own words, their own terms, giving them the credit that they knew what they. Were talking about even. If it disagrees with what the? First later said was the right way to think, right? So let me let me just give. You one example. So for example. Justin Martyr, Justin Martyr doesn't fit with anybody, right? I mean, he's just idiosyncratic. He has his own way of thinking and talking. About things, he will even call Jesus, the second God sometimes. And you know he doesn't. Think at all that. Jesus, even in his preincarnate state, was equal. With God the. Father ever, you know, at the same time he's he's sort of like very much like in mesh with the Jews and and like very much talking to the Jews and at. The same time, incredibly rude. And it, you know, by what I would say, it's totally inappropriate. You know, some of the ways he he talks to in in one of his books, the book against Trifle. So yeah. So anyhow, Justin Moorer, you know, a church historian will come along and say, Justin, Monta was just. Tom Huszti: Ohh trifle.Speaker 5You know, he was reaching in the dark for the doctrine of the Trinity. He just didn't quite have the language yet to express it, and it's like. Sean Finnegan: No, he wasn't. He had a he had a mature developed view of who he thought Jesus was. And it's just different than yours, man. Just just. Allow him to be him. Tom Huszti: He might have squeeze everybody into the. Sean Finnegan:You know. Tom Huszti: Same mold, huh?SpeakerHe's not. Sean Finnegan: Hinting at anything he thinks he knows what he's talking about. You're not. Tom Huszti: Right. Tom Huszti: He wore the philosopher's robe, didn't he? Sean Finnegan: He did, and he had a he had a a little meeting spot in Rome above a, you know, above a shop, you know, he had a little apartment or whatever, and he'd he'd meet with people and he'd teach him what he thought was the definitive understanding of the Christian religion, just because nobody else later on agrees with him doesn't mean he was just like. Undeveloped or something, you know, he he believes what he believed, and it's just different and that's OK. And what I see when I look at Justin or Irenaeus or, you know, a lot of these guys is I see development. And when I see development, I think to myself, let's rollback the tape and see the trajectory overtime. Yeah. What is the vector? Where is this heading? So if I see you know a couple of points on a line that go in One Direction, I could say OK, I make a measurement here, make a measurement here, connect those dots and trace it backwards. What's there in the? 1st century and that's that's what I love to do. That's what I want to know. That's my my research, my investigation to find. What's the earliest beliefs and practices and that I'm crazy enough to think we can live that out today? Tom Huszti: Yeah, you are a strange bird, but I agree with you I. Guess I am too so. Sean Finnegan: Well, and The thing is we both came to this from very different milieus, different backgrounds, denominations and so forth. But we both recognize that it makes logical sense that if the church has gotten off track. Then you know the best way to do it is to reform back to the, you know, whatever we can recover of the original version of Christian. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: And you know, that's. Yeah, it makes sense to me. A lot of people don't. They don't believe in Restorationism. They they say, oh, that's you can't go back there. It's impossible and it's like. Tom Huszti: That's so true. Sean Finnegan: Well, well, why let? Tom Huszti: Me. Share you with you my thought on this. So the the 1st century church was waiting for the return of Jesus and it didn't happen in their age, but. We who claim to desire the return of Jesus need to be postured as they were. Like I'm I'm just. Wondering you know. Like if Christianity gets far enough away from their origins, it's an awful lot to ask Jesus to return when we've strayed so far from. What our forefathers believed so that the church that I was put out from is called the Apostolic Christian Church Nazarene. And the term Nazarene is a a term that is very, very honorable, I would say. But when you think in terms of the early church, the term Nazarene meant Jewish believers in Messiah. And I still call myself a Nazarene, even though my community has, for the by and large, has disfellowship. Hit me. I'd like to to trace my origins back to the the Nazarenes my my Jewish Brethren, believers in Jesus, and this is something that you touched upon in your. Your church history. You think you could fill us in a little bit about the views of different Jewish Christians, Abbey Knights and Nazarenes and. Any others that would kind of fit that category maybe give us a little summary. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, to do work on the Ebionites or the Nazarenes is to read late reports. By their enemies. I don't know of a single document that survives other. Than I would. Argue that, dedicate, I would say that dedicat is a Nazarene document. Tom Huszti: Oh wow. Sean Finnegan: It reads that way to me. It has a low Christology. It's very Jewish, you know, it's very Christian, you know. And it it just seems to kind of fit that that mindset. So I would argue that the dedicate would be a Nazarene document. Now these these terms, Nazarene, it's actually in the New Testament. The sect of the Nazarenes. Where was that? They said. Tom Huszti: Right, Paul Paul, was it? Yes, they did. That's correct. Yeah. Yes. Sean Finnegan: That about Paul, right? Yeah. So that's old school. Right. But what we can kind of gather is from these late reports and when I say late, I'm talking like from the year 375, we get this heresy hunter named Epiphanius of Salamis and he writes a book called The Panarion. You know, so this is this is riding 300 years after all the action and the excitement has already happened, right? Where's where's the action? Where's the parting of the ways? As James Dunn's famous book called it? Well, it's really in that post 70AD pre. Justin. So like between like 70 AD when the temple. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: Got destroyed and the Romans conquered Jerusalem to the time of Justin Mortar where, like he begins in, you know, maybe like 135 was the 2nd revolution. Right. So you have the the bar Copa revolt. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: Actually, some people might call it a third revolution because there was another one in between the two, but whatever. It wasn't in. Jerusalem. But you know, in that period there, what is that like? Probably like 60-70 years something happened and there was a a splitting away and Gentile. Tom Huszti: Ohh there was OK Ohh. Sean Finnegan: Christians and Jewish Christians. Stops influencing each other. And it's a really murky period of time. Scholars have all kinds of theories from there was never a parting of the ways. What are you? Talking about to it. Tom Huszti: Uh-huh. Well. Sean Finnegan: It happened because of this or because of that. But let's just put it this way, the the the official Christian line on it has always been since. The time of Eusebius. That the followers of Jesus when they. Saw the Roman legions coming. Abandoned the city of Jerusalem. And if that's true and they, he says they went to power, they went to this other area. If that's true, then the native Jewish people who stayed and fought and died. And then many of them also survived. Would not very much like the Jewish Christians because. They didn't stay, they didn't like. Tom Huszti: So you're talking for 70, you're talking about from 70 AD that the Christians would have left. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. Yeah. So, like, after the city is conquered by the Romans, things kind of settle down politically. I mean, I guess the last holdouts are at Masada up until what, like 7370? Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: 4 but like. Then that OK, this period ends, the Romans have reasserted their dominance. But you know a lot of Jewish people survive and and. And they're not looking at the Jewish Christians positively, they're looking at them negatively. And we have this Birkat hominem. Yes. Are you familiar with that? It says for the apostates, let there be no hope and uproot the Kingdom of arrogance speedily. And in our days, may the Nazarenes and the sectarians perish, as in a moment let them be blotted out of the book of life. Tom Huszti: I am. Sean Finnegan: And and so forth. So it's like OK by the time of Justin, he makes mention of this and he says you. Know why? Why? You guys cursing us in your synagogues, right? So like Justin knows about it, so. It's got to be before 160 and it's. Probably after the month. Tom Huszti: So let me ask you this, would that curse? Be specific to Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus. She will. Or would it? That was specifically for them because they were thought they were thought to be created. Sean Finnegan: Well, they they would be the ones to go to the synagogue. So this is something. That would be spoken. Publicly in the synagogue, along with the other blessings and. Tom Huszti: OK. Ah. So that would discourage them from attending synagogue. Sean Finnegan: It would expose them as well because they wouldn't be able to recite that. Tom Huszti: Oh, they wouldn't be able to recite it, OK. Sean Finnegan: You can't curse yourself, you know. It's just awkward. Tom Huszti: Yes, so so so.SpeakerYou know, right. Tom Huszti: During the time of the Barkha revolt, the Jewish believers in Yeshua Miss Jesus would not have taken up arms against the Romans and this would have been a further offense against the. Against the revolution, revolutionaries against the Jews. Sean Finnegan: Well, you know. We we see we see rumblings even before in the I don't know if it's the Jewish war or the antiquity of the of the. Jews with Josephus. He talks about how there was a power vacuum just for a moment in Jerusalem and during that power vacuum when the old governor had, I don't know if he died or just had left or whatever happened to him. But the new governor, I think, was Albinus, was on his way then the non Christian. Jewish people were able to gang up on James, and when James was fairly old brother of Jesus and that they were able to more or less lynch him, you know, they just got a mob together and they they were able to to kill. Tom Huszti: A friend. Sean Finnegan: Him. So there was already animosity before the war. War starts in 66, you know it. It did blow up from time to time. We see it in the book of Acts. Right. There's a lot of animosity between the Jewish Christians, the non Christian Jews. OK, so this this continues. But after the war.SpeakerOK. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: It it's it seems like there's not even much real space left for Jewish Christians to even go to a synagogue with this curse that's put there specifically against them. Again, the war is such a massive historical event. The Jewish War of Rome, 66 to 74, where I mean, how many kinds of Judaism. Do we know? About from the 1st century, you have your Sadducees, you have your Essenes, you have the rebellious types. They call the 4th philosophy and Josephus. You have your Pharisees, and then you have the Christian Jews. Tom Huszti: They would be the zealot. Would there be the zealots or the sikari? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah, that would be the 4th philosophy. The Zealots, the sicari, all the revolutionary types. Right. So you have like, five types of Judaism. And so the Christian Jews. Tom Huszti: OK. OK. Sean Finnegan: Five and the Pharisaic Jews survive, but the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the revolutionaries. They're all gone, or completely disempowered. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: After the war, so now you have pharisaic Judaism, which eventually kind of develops into rabbinic Judaism, and you have the Jesus Jews. And they gave birth to the Christian movement, which is kind of like, it's almost like in a sense gone public like a like a corporation offers an IPO. And then, like, the, the company has kind of a life of its own, independent of what the founder, really. Tom Huszti: Yeah. OK.SpeakerHis vision was. Sean Finnegan: And maybe that's a good analogy for it, cause like Christianity goes pretty much Gentile and there it's Jew and Gentile together in the 1st century for sure. But like as we get into the 2nd century. The kinds of literature that survive from Christian pens. It's just like either ignorant of Jewish practices and interpretations of the Old Testament or outright antagonistic, where you get like documents from like the middle of the 2nd century. Like I'm thinking of the Epistle of Barnabas, and some of the other documents in the Apostolic Fathers, where like they're just like you, Jews are crazy because you kept the law. And it's like, how could you ever say that if you're if you're a little more aware of what the, you know, that that was the law that God gave to the Jewish people to keep, why would they be crazy to keep it? Right? So it seems like there's just a parting of the ways. And that's the term James Dunn used for it. And, you know, we just wish so much that we had. We have more information about it. We just kind of get these little bits and pieces. We don't know exactly how it happened. We just know that it happened.SpeakerOh yeah. Tom Huszti: Some hostile witnesses, of all places. Sean Finnegan: So now you've got. These Jewish Christians, Tom and they're kind of isolated in the east, they're not well loved by the Gentile Christians or they don't have access or I don't know, for whatever reason, there's just not a lot of interaction, which is tragic in my opinion. Tom Huszti: Yeah. Yes.SpeakerBut they're also. Sean Finnegan: Alienated from their own Jewish brothers and sisters because they're not allowed in the synagogue and you know, if you're in a little village and there's only one place putting shoes on horses. Or doing some other craft or trade. And they don't want to sell to you. Guess what? You're in trouble, you know, because you're one of the Nazarenes or. One of the Ebionites. Tom Huszti: Sure, sure. Sean Finnegan: So you know these people had a really tough go of it and you know, we hear about them later on and they may have survived pretty well. Outside the Roman Empire, in the east, in the Persian Empire. But we don't know much about that either, so it's really hard to do scholarship on them. There are more questions than answers, but my best guess, OK. And that's really what it is, is it's a guess is that the community of James, the brother of Jesus, they didn't really get on board. With what Paul? And Gentile Christianity was doing they got on board to a certain degree and and this we see this conflict in the book of. Acts 15 and then later. Tom Huszti: Yeah, 15. Sean Finnegan: On in .2 what happens is.SpeakerThey say all. Sean Finnegan: Right. Well, you you can have. Gentiles and they don't need to keep the law. Fine, but we Jews are going to keep the law. Still, I don't think Paul got on board with that. Paul would say Jews don't need to keep the law either. Obviously they can. Anybody can keep the law. Who wants to? But Jewish Christians, I should say I should be clear. I'm not talking about just Jews in general. I'm saying Jews who believe in Jesus because of a covenantal understanding expressed later. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: In the Book of Hebrews, whoever wrote Hebrews that it is clear that Jewish Christians don't need to keep the law. James and his group of Jewish Christians disagree with. That viewpoint, they say no. This is the covenant. We're Jewish Christians. We're going to continue to keep the law. So I think this James Community is what left during the war and survived north and east of Jerusalem. And that then this community had a doctrinal division where some of them. Accepted the Gospel of Matthew, which possibly was in Hebrew or Aramaic. You know some language that the people could readily read. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: There are lots of hints of that in the patristic literature. People talk about it quite a bit. They don't talk about any other writing. From the new. Testament, all the other books in the New Testament. They never mentioned as being in Hebrew, just Matthew. Tom Huszti: Wow, just Matthew cross. Sean Finnegan: It's the only one. Yeah. So why would you? Put it in Hebrew, whether it was written in Hebrew originally or translated into Hebrew. Why would why? Because you have Jewish people. Reading it. You read the Gospel of Matthew. What does it begin with? A genealogy? Who loves genealogies? The Greeks? No, they don't care about genealogies. The Jews love genealogies. So Matthew begins by making a convincing argument that this Jesus of Nazareth has a claim. And. Could possibly be the Messiah because of his ancestry. That's how it starts. So you've got this community and in. The Gospel of Matthew as well as. Luke, you have. The virgin birth. You have the virgin conception and you know this idea that in in some way Jesus is the son of God.Speaker 5Some of the. Sean Finnegan: Jewish Christians in this community don't believe that. And others do, and that is, and again, this is a reconstruction based on hostile sources like Epiphanius, and you siberius, and there are plenty of later ones too. Like Jerome mentions this stuff and it, and and it's even possible that these Jewish Christians survive. Arrived and they there was some interaction with them. It wasn't just all hearsay. OK, but it's possible for us to know today how reliable these reports are. But so you have the James, Jewish Christians. They go away from Jerusalem and they settle in north and east of of Jerusalem. And they have this difference. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: Among them the ones who? Believe in the virgin birth. Are Nazarenes the ones that do not? Are Ebionites both of them believe that Jesus is a human being? Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: Whom God anointed as a Messiah. They both believe in crucifixion. Both believe in resurrection. Both believe in Ascension. Both believe in the coming Kingdom. So the question is, you know whether he is biologically. Whatever that means, you know, like, if there was this miracle to get him started or if he was the son of Joseph. OK, so that's that seems to be the disagreement there between the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. And here's here's just one more thing to complicate it, make it worse is some Christians will call both groups of unites. Tom Huszti: Yeah, that's a mistake. Sean Finnegan: And they're saying, well, some of you guys believe this and some even nice believe. That it's like. Tom Huszti: Yes, right. Well, it seems to me the very, very important doctrines they agreed upon. And I know I noticed in the Apostle Paul's writing, he never mentions the virgin birth, he does emphasize. The authority that Jesus received through the resurrection, most notably in Romans chapter one, that's where. Sean Finnegan: Yeah. I mean, I think the closest pull comes is Galatians 4 four, where it says when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law. Sort of like the closest. To it you. Can interpret that a number of different ways. Tom Huszti: So it's fascinating to understand that we've actually lost connection to a large extent to the original source of our our gospel message. And I suppose that makes that makes your challenge of restoring 1st century Christianity even a bit. Your task you're trying to recreate these things based on what you know and based on hostile witness accounts. Sean Finnegan: Here's the good news. We still have the Bible. We have the New Testament. You know, we can read it, we can see. And it's not like the New Testament is hiding or covering over any controversy like the The Paul. James, things is is is plain as day in Galatians like pull, yes, pull lays it out, you know, and I and. I'm going with Paul on. This I'm going to. I'm going to disagree with James. I think he was a great. And but I think he just didn't have the full understanding of how Jesus, through his actions, how he affected our relationship with God and and this whole understanding of covenant. So I'm going to go with Paul on that. What happened among Pauline Christianity is. A development that slowly moved away from the New Testament read from a Jewish perspective because I think Pauline Christianity basically got swamped by Gentiles. Tom Huszti: Yeah, I think so. Tom Huszti: Too and I. Sean Finnegan: Think the leaders. Of Pauline Christian. Probably not in his day, but maybe within a generation or two. Became highly educated intellectual gentiles who were financially well off enough to get an education because education costs them money. Otherwise you got a farm or you got to do a craft or a trade, right? So is that is that sort of movement occurred away from? Apostles and their appointed success. More towards these intellectuals. We get Christian doctrine shifting away from what's in the New Testament into these more Greek and Roman ways of thinking. And that's kind of an area where I've been doing a lot of work recently. Trying to understand. Especially on Christology, how would a a Greek or a Roman person? How would they hear the story of Jesus? What would that sound like to them? And so I've done a lot of work on that and I'm going to be presenting that in a month as well at the UCLA conference. Yeah. But that will be out later on YouTube as well. If you don't make. Tom Huszti: Ohh at the OK. But that should be very interesting. Sean Finnegan: It to the conference, you know. Tom Huszti: I bought my ticket already. Ohh, good. Yes. Yes. I'll look forward to that. I guess we probably shouldn't talk too much about it in advance because we have to. We don't want to. Take the the. Thunder out of your presentation. Sean Finnegan: Well, I I just mentioned, I'll just mention one thing, OK. So let's imagine you're a non believer, you're a Pagan. You've worshiped the gods all your life. You've heard stories about Apollo getting banished down to Earth and having to work as a servant. You've heard stories about Zeus coming down impregnating women. You've heard stories about. Tom Huszti: Hercules. Dad. Huh, Hercules. Dad. Sean Finnegan: You've heard stories about Hercules as well, and Asclepius was originally a human who got deified, and he got deified to such a level that he became essentially an Olympian God, that that level of. Elevation and exultation was possible. So you hear all these stories about these gods who come down to become men, or appear as men being made in appearance as a man, right? Like this is this. Is their vocabulary. That's their world. And then you hear lots of stories. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes, right. Sean Finnegan: Humans, who had a beginning normal humans, but were so exceptional that they got to skip Hades and instead go to Olympia or instead go to some heavenly realm like. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: You this is just your.Speaker 5World these are all your stories. Tom Huszti: OK. Uh-huh. Sean Finnegan: Now you're going to hear a story about a miracle worker, Jewish miracle worker. Who was executed came back to life. And now lives in heaven. And is immortalized. You have a category for that. Kind of a being. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: It's called a God. Tom Huszti: Yeah. Yes. Sean Finnegan: Like in our in our language. Today we would say a lower case G God, right? They didn't fuss with capital. A lowercase. You know, like everything's capital pretty much and all the inscriptions we have in the manuscripts from this period, right. So they would just say, oh, that yeah, we. I know, I know. Plenty of other beings that are like that too. Yeah, they're they're called. Gods. And so you're you're trying to say that Jesus is a man and now he's become. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: God. So like you could just imagine a like an evangelism encounter going like that. And if you don't have that Jewish sensibility to say, well, hold on a second.SpeakerThere's only. Sean Finnegan: One God, and that's the supreme God who created everything. You can just see like Christian saying well. Yeah, I guess so. Like in that way of thinking. Yeah, he's a God. So now people. Start calling Jesus God. And now the question becomes well, in what sense has he got? Does he have a beginning before he was a human, you know, and you're just operating in a totally foreign. World View, mindscape than the Jewish mode, which is the Jewish mode, sees Jesus doing miracles and they say how great it is that God has given such authority to men. Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: What do they say when they see a miracle in the book of acts, when Paul and Barnabas? Tom Huszti: Right. Sean Finnegan: You know, get that guy filled. Tom Huszti: The gods are come down to us, the gods. Sean Finnegan: Of course, that's what they. Said that's what they believe could happen, right? We really have two different thought worlds that are combining in in weird and innovative ways. And that's just like one step along the path that leads to the doctrine of the Trinity, which doesn't really get fully developed until the late 4th century. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Tom Huszti: So Paul is trying to emphasize that Jesus is a human being, a second Adam. So that has a different flavor to it, like you have to. Paula is using the first Adam story to introduce the second Adam. And this is a glorified human being who is residing in heaven until God sends him back. That's a different. Category isn't it? For the Greco Roman mine? Sean Finnegan: Yeah, they don't. They don't. That doesn't. That doesn't make sense to them. You know, it's just that's just weird. That's like resurrection. Like, why do you want your body back? And what did Christianity do with that one? We get rid of it. You go to any funeral like unless it's somebody from my own group of churches, network of churches, or maybe like one or one or two other denominations. Right. Like you go to a funeral. What 99% of the? Funerals you go to they. Say this person is now in heaven and their soul. Whatever you know, they make up all this stuff. You know, it sounds just like the Greco Roman stuff from the ancient times. It doesn't sound. Like the Bible. Tom Huszti: Right, yes. Can you imagine sitting in the audience when Paul was preaching from the Acropolis? Sean Finnegan: Not to me. Tom Huszti: Can you put yourself in the in the shoes of a a Greek sitting in the audience hearing this message for the first time? And you know the setting. What would have impressed you or what you already mentioned this earlier but like if you as an individual were doing this? What would be going through your mind? Given your background and context. Sean Finnegan: Well, I think. There's a lot of misunderstanding going on. And and that's just normal. We shouldn't be upset about that. We should expect that. I think we see the same thing today. In the 21st century, where you try to explain something and somebody just doesn't get it, who's not a Christian, and I think that's what was happening here. And what happened is Paul is is evangelizing people. He's talking to people in the marketplace, his Jewish sensibilities, I think, are offended by seeing a city full of idols. It's just as somebody who was raised with the 10 Commandments, it's offensive. I mean, it's offensive to most Christians. Well, I don't say most, but many Christians today are offended. By seeing idols and statues and seeing people actually worshiping them, Paul is very disturbed by this. He's trying to to help. He's reasoning in the synagogue. And also in the marketplace every day. You've got the Epicureans, you've got the Stoics there, and then they say this is act 1718, he says. He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities. Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection and see the word resurrection, there is Anastasia. Tom Huszti: OK. It's a Greek. Sean Finnegan: Word it means resurrection. You know, stand up again, but it seems like. And I I think some translations might do it this way, that they're thinking that. Jesus is 1 divinity. And they think that Paul saying that Jesus is divine being, which is interesting, right in light of what I said just a minute ago. And then the other thing they think resurrection is is another divinity. Right. So there's just. Misunderstandings all over the place. They're. Like you know, it seems like he's bringing in some new gods. Let's go here. What these new gods have to say, he's kind of like you. Remember. Back in the old days, kids would collect baseball cards. Or like when my kids were little, it was Pokémon cards. And you know, you trade with each other. This one, it's like gods to the, to the Athenians. You know, they're like, oh, you've got that. Tell me about that. God, I let me tell you. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: The story about this. One you know, so they're. Tom Huszti: Yes, yes. Sean Finnegan: Interested. And they put them up there and they say, OK, what is this new teaching? Tell us what this is all. About and so we know. There's going to be misunderstanding. We know there's going to be confusion, but that's no reason not to get started. And so he does. He starts in a very friendly and flattering way. Tom Huszti: He used their own poets. Their own poetry. Yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: He's building the bridge as much as he can to their thought world, but at the same time. He's so disturbed. Buy the idolatry that like he just. He just wants to hit that, you know, like it's just and it's not. It's not out of sense of superiority. I don't think. I think it's a sense of empathy and compassion. And so it just starts in with, like, explaining who God is. And he's like there's a God above everything else that made everything else. And he doesn't need you. He doesn't need you to. To offer animals. And he believed in animal sacrifice. I don't know if he still believed in animal sacrifice or not, but he believed in it. At least most of his life. And still, he's just like, look, he doesn't need. He doesn't need anything. God is radically. What do they say? Ah, say he's not contingent or dependent on us for anything, and that's not. How they thought about their Greek gods. They thought their Greek gods needed to be cared for. They believed that the Greek gods created humans to do the work for them, so they didn't have to do the work all the time, including feeding them these sacrifices that nourish them.SpeakerRight. Tom Huszti: Right, right. Tom Huszti: A hutch. Sean Finnegan: You know it's a. Tom Huszti: Very the gods. They were very dependent. They're their gods, were very dependent. Sean Finnegan: They needed a bunch of slaves to do all the hard work of cultivating the lands, raising the animals, planting the vegetables, do all the things so that they could be properly cared for and fed. And if you didn't do that, then they messed with you. They stopped the rain, or they brought war or whatever, you know. So that's the kind of thing he's coming against here. And he says, look there the the God who made the world and everything in it, Lord of heaven and Earth, does not need temples. This is a radical message. I mean, it's just like. You're in a. City, now that I've been there, like I've literally seen the temples.SpeakerWith my or. Tom Huszti: Not they're still there. They're still there. Tom remnants. Amazing. Sean Finnegan: Wow, there's actually, when I was there was scaffolding all around it. You know, they're always restoring these things because of the weather erosion and what, you know, but. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: You know, massive, massive. Structures unquestionable. You don't go to a Greek ancient Greek city and say God doesn't need tempo. Tom Huszti: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean Finnegan: You know that they. Would really get their attention, it's. Like, wow, what is this guy saying? Tom Huszti: Yeah, I can imagine. What would it like these temples were full of pillars and the structure would have been probably unprecedented structures. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're looking at structures that are so impressive that if you didn't live in a city. If you live somewhere out in the country, you can't in the city. It would just take your breath away and then going into the temple itself, seeing most cities, temples they have what's called an apps, which is kind of like the back curved area where they had the statue itself and to see, you know, this huge statue. The artistry was magnificent. And you know, I've seen this where I think I saw this in a museum in Ephesus, on site, they have a little Ephesus museum there. And they had the head of Domitian. Which is a Roman. And it looked like a baby head. The proportions were all wrong. You know, just you know how, like, baby heads look. Weird, I don't know really how to describe it like there. May be a little spot. Tom Huszti: Oh yeah, yeah. Compared to the rest. Of the body you mean? Sean Finnegan: No, no, it was just the head. It was just the head and it and it. It looked like a baby head. And I asked my team. I was a part of a class at Boston University. I asked my teacher. I'm like, what's the deal with this? Why does it look like a baby head? And he just kind of laughed a little bit. And he said. Tom Huszti: Or it was just a hat? A hat. OK, OK. Sean Finnegan: Get low. Imagine this being 20 feet up in the air. Change your perspective and look at it again and it was exactly right. If you got. Low and looked at that same head. Of the mission. From that angle that you would see it. From the ground. All the proportions were perfect. Tom Huszti: So it was designed to be looked up to right? Sean Finnegan: So we're looking at people that have the. Artistry of the skill. Well, to to you know to like factor in perspective and angle. You know what I mean? Like that's something I would never think of you.SpeakerOh yeah. Sean Finnegan: Know. Of course I'm. Not a sculptor, but you know. I mean, you come in and you and you're.Speaker 5Confronted by this? Sean Finnegan: Stone object that is beautifully done. You just takes your breath away. For anyone to question it. It would just be like. What are you talking about, man? Everybody believes in this. And then there's a parade where they bring the portable idols through the city, and then they end up out front of the temple and you get a big barbecue and everybody's rejoicing and you know, the Jews and the Christians are just like, we're not going, we're going to stay home free. Tom Huszti: Oh yeah. Tom Huszti: Neat, right? And they're they're. Sean Finnegan: Well, free meat. Tom Huszti: For the pagans, right? Yeah. For the pagans. Right. Right. Yeah. Do you happen to know this story about the Roman general? Was it Pompeii that when he came into Jerusalem? And he was going to go into the holiest of holies, and the priests were. Standing in the way. And he ordered several, several of them killed with a sword. He wanted to see what the God of Israel looked like, and and he entered in the Holy, Holy Holiest of Holies. After these priests gave their life and he found nothing. What a surprise, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, so the Paul is preaching the same unseen God, but he's preaching the Jewish Messiah, who was seen, who was raised from the dead. Exalted into heaven, and whom God made judge over the earth. So this is the Athenians are being told that this Jesus God gave authority to for judgment, and that the world will be judged by him. Sean Finnegan: Yeah, even before that, you know, just talking about how you mentioned that Paul quoted a couple of their poets. You know that in him we move and have our being, we live and move and have our being and the other statement for we indeed are his offspring. You know, there's a lot of depends on how deep you want to go in this town. But like, there's a lot going on. The schools of the philosophers. Tom Huszti: You know, delve into it? Sure. Sure. Please. Sean Finnegan: OK, so so you have the Epicureans. Founded by Epicurus, and then you have the Stoics founded by Zeno, and they are just. Like total opposites? Right. So the the goal of the Epicurean is to to seek pleasure. Tom Huszti: OK. Sean Finnegan: But not in a primitive like spring break frat party way. You know where, like you just go crazy, and then you you're in pain and suffering the next morning. That's amateur hour. For that, you'd be curious. Or maximizing pleasure over the course of your entire life. Tom Huszti: OK. OK. Sean Finnegan: What would maximize my pleasure, and the Epicureans tended to say that either the gods don't exist, or they exist, but they don't care about us. So you don't need to worry about the gods. There's a lot of precursors to modern atheism and agnosticism there, but the Stoics are saying, ohh pleasure is bad and you got to serve the gods. You have civil duty. The Stoics tended to be the ones in charge of the cities, and the Stoics are absolutely convinced pleasure is. Inherently sinful, like any kind of any kind of pursuit of bodily pleasure, is well, I would say, at least, question. Bowl, but probably like if you could really live without food that tastes really good, or beds that are nice and soft, or a woman's touch or a man's touch if you're. A woman, you. Know like that you would be happier, you would live the good life. So the philosophers are all all about Greek philosophers in particular, or all about how do you lead the good life? Then

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.I. THESISJesus was a zealot, advocating violence to overthrow the occupying Romans as well as the corrupt priesthood.For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is very much of this world [144]. John 18:36 has been totally misunderstood [117]. The kingdom is political.Jesus intended that the twelve tribes be reconstituted for a single purpose: war [123].Jesus was a violent man. The God of violence is “the only God that Jesus knew and the sole God he worshipped” [122]. However, later Aslan seems to backtrack: “Nor can Jesus be labeled a violent revolutionary bent on armed rebellion…” [79].Yet Jesus failed to reestablish nation of Israel [19].The church changed the true Jesus into a more heavenly figure with merely otherworldly interests. They “transformed Jesus from a revolutionary zealot to a Romanized demigod, from a man who tried and failed to free the Jews from Roman oppression to a celestial being wholly uninterested in anyearthly matter” [171]. The apostle Paul was the leader of this reinterpretation. “[Paul's] conception of Jesus as Christ would have been shocking and plainly heretical, which is why, around 57 C.E., James and the apostles demand that Paul come to Jerusalem to answer for his deviant teachings” [190]. The early church followed suit, and replaced the zealot Jesus with a heavenly figure [144], putting Paul's letters into the N.T. Today we have the wrong N.T., thanks to Paul's influence [215].Yet the Messiah was to be the Prince of Peace. "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Isa 2:4). (Joel 3:10 – preparation for war.) "He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Mic 4:3).How would the church have survived through 60 years of disillusionment, given they knew Jesus' mission was a failure?In short, Jesus was a revolutionary zealot. Not just a radical man with an amazingly spiritual message, but a violent encourager of murder, rioting, and violent takeover.II. STRENGTHS & INSIGHTSStyleHis no-nonsense approach (despite the many erroneous claims) leaves no doubt as to where the author stands. I find this preferable to the ambling, highly qualified language of many religious writers.Aslan uses highly florid language, which makes reading him rather enjoyable -- provided the reader recognizes the many rare words he uses.Historical backgroundGood job describing various sects of the Jews and zealots and pseudo-messiahs.Great analysis of the working relationship between Pilate and Caiaphas.Nice explanation of the origins and thinking of the Samaritans.Historical insightPoor farmers of Galilee subjected to indignity of turning over earnings to rapacious priests! [92]Demolishes the Roman Catholic notions of the virginity of Mary and the papacy of Peter [35].Helpful reminder that the Temple served as a bank [7].Unlike other itinerant wonder-workers in the ancient world, Jesus healed gratis [103].The Romans' victory over Israel in the First Jewish War (66-70 AD) wasn't merely over the Jews, but over their god.John the Baptist's popularity perhaps increased through his not relying on his priestly privileges [82]. (John was a Levite, born to Levite parents -- see Luke 1.)Aslan admits that it is more likely the Gnostics borrowed from Christianity when they constructed their esoteric doctrine and myths, rather than the other way around [261].The belief in a dying and rising messiah did not exist in Judaism [165]. (Right--but that doesn't mean the Messiah couldn't die or rise! What about Isa 53?)Things you may want to knowInteresting parallels between Jesus' Transfiguration and Moses' ascent on the mountain with his three companions [131].Cicero: “barbarian superstitions” of monotheism. Tacitus: “while they permit all that we abhor.”Josephus notes 24 sects in and around Jerusalem. And he calls Annas (Ananus) “the great hoarder of money” [198-199].Bible difficultiesCritics keep us on our toes!Two examples: Philip's wife is Salome, not Herodias. A solution? Also, the well-known difficulties surrounding Luke's census of Quirinius [30].III. APPROACHArguments from silenceJohn the Baptist doesn't realize who Jesus is in Mark 1. This means that the story has been jazzed up in the other gospel accounts [87].There is no cliff in Nazareth over which to push Jesus. Aslan is saying that since he does not think there is such a cliff in Nazareth, it didn't exist. But topography can change. Besides, I have seen such a precipice in Nazareth.The nighttime trial of the Sanhedrin was illegal -- therefore it didn't take place. [157]. Yet the Sanhedrin felt urgency in dealing with this situation before Passover.Barabbas couldn't have been released because the custom is “nonsensical” [149]. Yet Pilate negotiates with the crowd over Jesus' possible release. Why would such a custom contradict what we know of Pilate?Speculation“So when Stephen saw the gaggle of hirsute men and ragged women huddled beneath a portico in the Temple's outer court—simple provincials who had sold their possessions and given the proceeds to the poor….—he probably did not pay much attention at first” [164].Paul wasn't asked by the high priest to hunt down Christians… [183] Yet by Paul's own admission (Acts 22:4-5), “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.”Fondness for quoting liberals at far end of theological spectrum.Calling into question uncontroversial points, e.g. that Acts is part 2 of Luke [167].Leading statements: Jesus' brothers named after great heroes of Judaism (implying a radical revolutionary tendency ran in the family) [230].Shock statements that aren't quite true… but are later clarified, once the shock has been felt -- usually a few paragraphs later.E.g. the Romans walking up cliff side of Masada, “shields up, swords drawn” – as Aslan makes clear, he well knows it took many weeks for the Romans to advance up that side of the mountain [57].Or that the meeting between Pilate and Jesus is ludicrous…. A reasonable argument can be made for it having happened. Aslan claims the “trial” before Pilate “beggars the imagination” and is “pure legend” [148]. There was no “trial” before Pilate [241]. Yet the gospels never say there was a trial. Further, while at first Aslan mocks the idea, later on he states that for a potential political prisoner, Pilate might well have made time to see him -- and John Meier makes a compelling case for the position [244]!Assertions without proofJesus ChristJesus could not have understood the "Son of Man" as a divine figure (as in 4 Ezra) [144]. But what about Daniel 7?Mark 9 tells us that Jesus' transfiguration affected only his clothes [251] (which it doesn't) -- therefore his body (unlike Moses' -- Exod 34) wasn't glowing.There are no OT messianic prophecies that say the Messiah will do miracles [248]. Really?! How about Isaiah 42, 60, etc?More than a few biblical scholars have openly labeled Jesus a magician [108-109]. I know of only one (Morton Smith).All the miracle stories of Jesus have been embellished [104].Daniel's Anointed One isn't killed (Dan 9:26), but only cut off [166]. Yet it's not clear whether "cut off" implies death, so there's no room for dogmatism here.Jesus didn't stay in the desert for a time of testing, but in order to spend time learning from John the Baptist [89].Apostles and other leadersMatthew isn't Levi [97]. Yet two names were common (e.g. Simon Peter, John Mark).Jesus recruited from among “the fishing village's disaffected youth” [96]. But why can't Simon and Andrew be the same age as Jesus? (Rob Bell wants them to be teenagers, but he goes too far.)Few if any of the apostles agreed that Paul was a disciple [184-185].Paul never recounts his Damascus Road experience, which is a fabrication of Luke [184]. Yet see Acts 22. The fact that the three accounts (Acts 9, 22, 26) have minor differences suggests Luke wasn't making up the story, nor was he concerned to rewrite it to make it less problematic.None of the apostles spoke Greek [193]. Jesus and his disciples were illiterate peasants [203, 226]. Aslan should read Alan Millard's Reading and Writing in the Time of Jesus.The Jerusalem Christians didn't evangelize – they just blended in [263]. Yet Acts 4, 5, 12!James took no baths [197].The church in Rome fell under authority of the Jerusalem church [203].Some assertions have weak proof, e.g. that Stephen led the independent Hellenistic community [181], and that the Hellenists held that Jesus came not to fulfill the law, but to abolish it (!). Or that the Church of Jerusalem was demolished in 70 AD [150, 212]. James and the Jerusalem Christians stayed in Jerusalem, awaiting coming of the Lord, and so were killed by Titus' army. But that would mean that they ignored Jesus' prophecy [Luke 21:20].IV. TONEMocking, SarcasticStephen's “long and rambling diatribe” [168].Luke is Paul's sycophant [184-185].On 500 soldiers accompanying the prisoner Paul: “This is absurd and can be flatly ignored” [266]. But there's a plot afoot involving 40 men determined to kill Paul. The conspirators are armed, armed disturbances were somewhat common in Palestine, and the Romans know it. What number of soldiers does Aslan think the officer should have dispatched: 40? 100? 150? Might not the number of conspirators have been snowballing? Is this not a case of better safe than sorry?Reactionary comments -- which are frequently overstatements“With the help of his disciples he blocks the entrance to the courtyard, forbidding anyone carrying goods for sale or trade from entering the Temple. Then, as the crowd of vendors, worshippers, priests, and curious onlookers scramble over the scattered detritus, as a stampede of frightened animals, chased by their panicked owners, rushes headlong out of the Temple gates and into the choked streets of Jerusalem, as a corps of Roman guards and heavily armed Temple police blitz through the courtyard looking to arrest whoever is responsible for this mayhem, there stands Jesus, according to the gospels, aloof, seemingly unperturbed, crying out over the din: ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.”'” [74-75]Cleansing of temple caused a “riot” in the Court of the Gentiles [147].Jesus' apostolic band was “armed with swords” [146]. But there were only 2, and Jesus discouraged their use – hence the unanimous pacifism of the early church.The “brief but bloody tussle” although two swords weren't enough [78].“Thus, on a bald hill covered in crosses, beset by moans of agony from hundreds of dying criminals, as a murder of crows circled eagerly over his head waiting for him to breathe his last…” [159]Disunity and strife suppressedThe early Christians were fearful of John the Baptist's continuing influence: “frantic attempt to reduce John's significance” – and the truth that “Jesus very likely began his ministry as just another of his disciples” [89].In Acts Luke “paints a picture of perfect harmony between Paul and the council's members…” [191]Gal 2:11 = “fierce public feud” [266]– yet no evidence Peter lashed out in return, or rejected Paul's correction.Superior attitudeEven in the vocabulary: 98 lucubration; 108 Lugdunum (ancient Lyon)As though this were his own insight: “To the Jews, a crucified Messiah was nothing less than a contradiction in terms. The very fact of his crucifixion annulled his messianic claims” [178]. Credit belongs to Paul more than to Aslan. Or the observation that wisdom is personified in Wisdom of Solomon as a woman (Sophia), in order to better connect with those with a Greek philosophical background [179]. But this is in Proverbs, and is well known to those who read the Bible.“Two decades of scholarly research” [xx] – perhaps absorbed from the ultraliberal institutions where he did his study? (Harvard University, U Cal Santa Barbara, Santa Clara University -- Jesuit)Negative feelingPalpable hostility towards biblical Christians. Aslan admits his anger – “I angrily discarded my faith as if it were a costly forgery….” [xix].Paul's anger at James and the original apostles “seeps like poison through the pages of his later epistles” [207].One wonders if Aslan has projected his own negative emotions onto Paul!V. ERRORSWell over 100, not even counting all the mistakes highlighted in other sections of this podcast!Life of JesusPhil 2:7 doesn't support the incarnation – because Jesus is one of God's first creations, the "firstborn" [189]. But what about Ps 89:27? "And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth."The incarnation is rejected [88], as well as the divinity of Christ. But what about Mal 3, Ezek 34, Ps 110, and many other passages?Jesus was a tekton (builder, carpenter, mason...) only in Mark 6:3 [34]. Aslan has forgotten Matt 13:55.“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” suggests arson [89].Aslan assumes "the Kingdom of God is at hand" means that the end of world is near [80] –a common mistake among those unfamiliar with the already/not yet of Christian theology.The Parable of the Sower is mainly anticlerical [101]. Yet the parable is about loving one's neighbor.The Temple in Jesus' time was 500m x 300m – this was the complex, not the temple proper. (To be fair, in John's gospel, however, sometimes the entire Temple Mount complex is referred to as the temple.)Jesus was joking when he told the leper to go show himself to the priest, since the leprosy was gone. Aslan seems to have misunderstood Lev 14 [112].There would have been no need for a large band of soldiers to snatch Jesus -- yet later Aslan admits a sizeable crowd went to Gethsemane to arrest Jesus [153]! He seems to be changing his mind, or rethinking, even as he is writing his book.After confessing he's the Messiah, Jesus then muddies everything by identifying himself with the Son of Man in Daniel (Mark 14:62) [144]. Aslan seems unable to grasp the two sides of the Messiah, Lion and Lamb (Rev 5) -- the same mistake so many of Jesus' Jewish contemporaries made.When the crowd (manipulated by Annas and Caiaphas) is manipulating Pilate – “We have no king but Caesar!” -- Aslan claims they couldn't have said that [152].Pilate is portrayed as a righteous but weak-willed man in the gospels [47]! He is increasingly exonerated in the gospels [151]. He tries to save Jesus because he thinks he may be the Son of God (!) [152]The crucifixion required three iron spikes [159]. Actually, the skeletal evidence of crucified persons indicates the Romans used four nails.Crucified people would hang on the cross for hours [159]. Actually, days were a more common.Mark wasn't interested in Jesus' resurrection [29]. Really? What about Jesus' predictions of his resurrection, several of which Mark records?Our author claims the series: Last Supper—Betrayal—Arrest—Sanhedrin—Herod & Pilate—Cross—Burial—Resurrection is what it is for liturgical reasons [153-154]. But what else could it be if Jesus was betrayed?Re: Luke 24:44-46 – there isn't a single line of scripture on the suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day of the Messiah [177].  But the resurrection is prefigured in Dan 6; Gen 22; Ps 16; Ezek 37 and more clearly identified in Dan 12 and the DSS 4Q521.The apostlesPaul was uninterested in the words of Jesus [187]. Common claim. What about Acts 20:35? 1 Cor 11? Quite a few allusions to Jesus' words?James forces Paul to (hypocritically) back down from his anti-Torah position, taking an oath and joining others in this vow (Acts 21:23)….[195-197, 208-209]. But what about 1 Cor 9:20? "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law." Besides, Paul has a positive view of the law (read Romans). He argues that the gospel is for the Jew first, then the Gentile (Rom 1:16) – and this is in one of the letters Aslan agrees Paul actually wrote. Further, Paul's custom was to share the gospel with the Jews, through speaking invitations at synagogues… When he wore out his welcome, then he turned to the Gentiles. If he were as anti-Torah as Aslan insinuates, it is doubtful he would ever be invited back for a second lesson!Paul disagrees with James over salvation [206]. They use the same passages to prove opposite things (James 2; Romans 4). But works and faith are two sides of a coin. Aslan's position is based on an old and tired argument. Paul required nothing for salvation but faith in Christ [215]. Aslan claims Rom 10:13 contradicts Matt 7:21 [187].Aslan misses Paul's point in 2 Cor – which he calls "Corinthians" (proofreader lapse?) – when he makes Paul call the Jerusalem apostles "servants of Satan…" [192]. But Paul's opponents valued prestige, comfort, honor; they did not suffer. The "super-apostles" Paul excoriates cannot be the Jerusalem apostles, who it seems were nearly as poor as Paul!Re: Paul's arrest in Jerusalem: He is mistaken for the Egyptian – and this is the only reason he was taken into custody by the Romans [194-195]. But Paul denied being this person, and the text makes it clear that once corrected the commander still decides to refer the case up the ladder of command (Acts 21:39).After his meeting with the Jewish leaders in Acts 28, "Paul vowed from that moment on to preach to none but the gentiles, ‘for they will listen' (Acts 28:26-29)” [196]. Yet the text indicates a mixed reaction -- some Jews were persuaded by Paul. True, in Acts 28:28 Paul says he will focus on the Gentiles, but not only the Gentiles. In fact, this isn't a change of missionary strategy for Paul, since that has been his method all along: first the Jew, then the Gentile...James (presumably unlike Paul, who cared little about earthly matters) truly cares for the poor [272]. What? Gal 2:10! 2 Cor 8-9!Simon Peter “swore he witnessed the resurrection with his own eyes, as did many others among them…" [156]. This is false. There were no eyewitnesses of the resurrection, unless the Roman soldiers were able to see what was happening (which seems unlikely). Many witnessed Jesus after the resurrection, however.Later ChristianityAslan confuses the Circumcision Party (as in Titus 1 and Acts 15) and Jewish Christianity [186].James loses credibility to Paul because of the nascent doctrine of the virginity of Mary (James being Jesus' brother) [202]. An interesting possibility, and there may be some truth in it, but biblical Christians accord equal respect -- and obedience -- to the teaching of both James and Paul.The Ebionite movement continuing to teach the theology of James [272]. Yet biblical scholars note that this movement wasn't really a Christian movement, since they rejected Christ's divinity. In Zealot Aslan seems to believe that James believed in the Second Coming of his brother -- in contradiction to the Ebionites.Judaean Christians shared with none but their fellow Jews. Love thy neighbor means one's fellow Jew [121]. But what about Luke 23:34, Luke 10:25-37? Matthew 5:38-48?Ancient languagesGreek errors: Matt 11:12 – the kingdom “operates by force” [251]. In Acts 15, Aslan has krino mean “I decree” rather than "It is my judgment" [270]. Overstated! He spells basileus (king) as "Baselius" [234].Hebrew: He denies that in Isa 7:14 'almah is virgin. Yet the point is that that was how the ancient Jews understood it, as evidenced in the LXX, where 'almah is rendered parthenos. Aslan writes Xristos and Yesus ha Xristos – confusing the two languages!Latin: dinarii should be denarii. Aslan claims Pilatus means “skilled with the javelin” [46] -- yet at most this means "armed with a javelin."Other: the kingdom of Medea [139] should be Media.Dating & ChronologyPaul's conversion 37 AD [265] (more like 32 or 33 – which Aslan admits, citing Martin Hengel).Phil about 49 AD [170 AD]. But Paul hadn't even visited Corinth that early. Philippi wasn't a city visited on the First Missionary Journey!1 Cor written 50 AD [175]. This is too early -- See the Gallio Inscription.Peter and Paul were executed 66 AD [196]. He should have given a range of acceptable dates, since the persecution began in 64, and Nero died in 68.All four the gospels were written after 70 AD [75]. But most scholars put Mark c.65 AD. (E.g., the fire and other details of 70 AD are missing in the prophecy of Mark 13.)Paul wrote only 7 letters….. [264]Aslan makes it sounds like Nero sends Vespasian after Masada. (I had to read this section three times to figure out what was going on!) Simple proof-reading would have caught that [60-61].Gospel of Thomas in late 1st or early 2nd century. More likely dates to the late 2nd C.Eusebius' church history Aslan puts in the 3rd C – yet it was probably written in the 320s. All scholars consider his Historia Ecclesiae a 4th-century work.The Sepphoris synagogue(s) date to the 5th and 6th century. Yet Aslan implies that the Byzantine period synagogue was there in the 1st century [38]. Aslan fails to mention that, as he paints a picture of cosmopolitan and wordly Jews.Jesus had a two-year ministry. John's gospel suggests a ministry of 3 or 3.5 years.Old Testament / Judaism errorsAslan mocks the notion that the law was given through angels, as Stephen claims in Acts 7 [168] Later, however, he but admits the idea does come into Judaism (as we see in Gal 3:19).Passover celebration is mainly a political act [144]. While there are political nuances, it was far more than a mere political statement.Aslan uncritically accepts the tradition that when serving in the Holy of Holies the high priest was tied to a rope, in case he died while on duty [9] , without letting the reader know that this is in doubt. The tradition might be true, but it is a mistake to present a possibility as a fact.His view of the Conquest is extreme (utter annihilation) [15]. The O.T. depicts a replacement of the Canaanite population through war, flight, conversion, and intermarriage.David spoke about himself in Ps 16, not the Messiah [166-167]. Yet that doesn't mean the application is wrong. In general, the early Christians used texts to prove Jesus was the Christ that were widely accepted in Judaism.VI. [OUTLANDISH] QUOTESPaul insists he is far superior to all the other apostles [185]. “Simply put, Paul does not consider himself the thirteenth apostle. He thinks he is the first" [186].About the Gospels: “Factual accuracy was irrelevant. What mattered was Christology, not history” [154]. Yet Christianity is a historical religion—a faith anchored in history. If God did not visit our world, if Jesus did not take our sins on the Cross and rise from the dead, then our faith is vain.“Simon Peter was “displaying the reckless confidence of one uninitiated in the scriptures” [166]. Yet I'm not so sure those lacking training would have been as confident as Simon Peter. After all, he was learned in that he had received three years of training from the best teacher on earth -- far better than the typical course of being a disciple to a rabbi.“Paul had no idea who the living Jesus was, nor did he care" [187].“Paul's breezy dismissal of the very foundations of Judaism was as shocking to the leaders of the Jesus movement in Jerusalem as it would have been to Jesus himself” [186].“The story of the zealous Galilean peasant and Jewish nationalist who donned the mantle of messiah and launched a foolhardy rebellion against the corrupt Temple priesthood and the vicious Roman occupation comes to an abrupt end, not with his death on the cross, nor with the empty tomb, but at the first moment one of his followers [like Paul] dares suggest he is God” [169]. But Paul was thoroughly Jewish. The idea of Christ's divinity was not easily digestible -- especially to a Jew.VII. CONCLUSIONThe thesis – that Jesus was a failed revolutionary – is a failed thesis. It is deeply flawed.Aslan makes the same mistake made by those who rejected Jesus as true Messiah in his own day!Aslan admits that once he rejected Christianity he was “confused and spiritually unmoored” [xix]. This shows in his book.One appropriate adjective for the thesis / book: tendentious.Zealot received many accolades—I notice that none are from biblical scholars.Should people read this book?Although I cannot recommend the book as a source for solid information, there are some interesting parts.Further, so much is skewed that many Christians will be put off by Zealot. They will feel belittled.However, teachers, preachers, and other church leaders should know their Bibles well enough to be able to refute these claims, to give truth and confidence to those who may be rattled by teachers like Aslan. That means someone needs to wade in and devote some time to untangling the critics' arguments.

Our focus for this episode is the collection of second-century Christian literature known as the Apostolic Fathers. In total, there are 11 authors in this collection, 9 of whom we will briefly cover today. You'll learn about the earliest Christian documents outside the New Testament, two of  which were possibly written even before the last book of the New Testament. What did Christians write about? Although the Apostolic Fathers is far from cohesive, they do give us a great window into some of the dominant threads of Christian thought in the generation after the apostles died. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwqv-Y87M&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=4 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Apostolic Fathers is a collection of Christian writings primarily from the second century. The Didache Epistle of Barnabas 1 Clement Shepherd of Hermas Epistles of Ignatius Fragments of Papias 2 Clement Epistle of Polycarp Martyrdom of Polycarp Fragment of Quadratus Epistle to Diognetus Sources for APF (Apostolic Fathers) Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org) Michael Holmes' translation (available in English or English in parallel with Greek) Didache (60-150) Jewish-Christian document partly focused on righteous living and partly on church order (baptism, communion, fasting, hospitality, etc.) citations: Didache 9.1-3; 8.1; 2.1-2 Research Recommendation David Bercot's A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs Epistle of Barnabas (70-132) author referred to as Psuedo-Barnabas allegorizing method of interpreting scripture, especially the Old Testament citation: Barnabas 10.11-12; 1 Clement (80-100) letter written from Roman leader to help church of Corinth resolve a dispute citations 1 Clement 59.4 Shepherd of Hermas (100-150) freed slave writing on holiness and repentance citation: Shepherd 59.5-7 Epistles of Ignatius (108-160) bishop in Antioch arrested and brought to Rome where he faced martyrdom three recensions survive: long, middle, and short Long Recension To the Ephesians To the Magnesians To the Trallians To the Romans To the Philadelphians To the Smyrnaeans To Polycarp To Mary of Cassabola From Mary of Cassabola To Tarsians To Antiochenes To Philippians To Hero Middle Recension To the Ephesians To the Magnesians To the Trallians To the Romans To the Philadelphians To the Smyrnaeans To Polycarp Short Recension To the Ephesians To the Romans To Polycarp citations: Ephesians 7.2; Polycarp 3.2 (both from middle recension) Fragments of Papias (130) preferred oral testimony to written[1] wanted to get to the truth of the matter bishop in Hierapolis Citation: Papias 3.3-4 2 Clement (130-160) neither a letter nor was it written by Clement anonymous sermon citation: 2 Clement 9.1-6 Polycarp to the Philippians (135-160) the Philippians had requested Polycarp to discuss righteousness Martyrdom of Polycarp (155-175) narrates story of Polycarp's capture, interrogation, and public execution in Smyrna sets precedent for future martyrs Review The Apostolic Fathers is a diverse collection of Christian books from the 2nd century major focus Christian morality identity vis-à-vis Judaism variety of views about Christ authenticity (Papias) and unity (Ignatius, 1 Clement) [1] See also Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.

This is part 3 of the Early Church History class. Today we begin to look at the second century. We'll start by considering Jewish Christian movements, including the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. Next we'll shift gears and explore the cultural pressure of asceticism and how it began infiltrating Christianity. We'll briefly survey the influence of Marcion and his followers before sketching out the various christologies of second century. This episode is a hodgepodge of unrelated topics that overlap in the same time period. This will serve as a good introduction before we get into other topics in the second century. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxFkeSR6LGg&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=3 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Outline Jewish Christianity Asceticism Marcion Gnostics Christologies in the 2nd c. Jewish Christianity Patricia Crone: “Originally, the bastion of law-observing Christianity was the Jerusalem church, the undisputed center of Christianity until the first Jewish war with Rome (AD 66–70). When this war broke out, the Jerusalem Christians reportedly fled to Pella (Ar. Fiḥl) in the Decapolis in Transjordan, and though some returned to the devastated city in 70, they were expelled again after the suppression of Bar Kokhba's revolt in 135, when Hadrian forbade Jews to reside in Jerusalem. Thereafter, Jewish Christians were concentrated in the Aleppo region in northern Syria, in the Decapolis around Pella…and in the Dead Sea region, as we know from Epiphanius (d. 403) and Jerome (d. 420). They would seem also to have been present in the Golan, where excavators of an abandoned village have found lintels decorated with a combination of crosses, menorahs, and other mixed Jewish and Christian symbols, probably indicating that the building was a Jewish Christian synagogue. After Epiphanius and Jerome, however, we have no certain evidence for the existence of Jewish Christians in Greek, Latin, or Syriac sources written before the rise of Islam.”[1] For Nazarenes see Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.1-6; 29.9.2-4 For Ebionites see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.27.1-6 Asceticism ἄσκησις, askesis = exercise, training asceticism is the rigorous pursuit of discipline in avoiding bodily pleasures Examples Acts of Paul and Thecla Proto-Gospel of James Acts of John Marcion of Sinope Lived from 85 to 164 Founded his own churches God of the OT is not the God of the NT Docetism: Jesus only appeared human Canon: list of books in the Bible Gnostics believed in pre-creation myth they were Platonists who accepted his creation account, called Timaeus Valentinus streamlined Gnostic religion and brought Jesus to a more central role followers attended mainstream churches on Sunday, but then studied “deeper truths” during the week Christology in the 2nd Century Dynamic Monarchians (Ebionites, Nazarenes, Didache, 1 Clement, Hermas, Theodotus of Byzantium) Docetists (Marcion, Gnostics, Valentinus) Logos Subordinationists (Psuedo-Barnabas, 2 Clement, Justin, Irenaeus) Modalistic Monarchians (Praxeas) [1] Patricia Crone, “Jewish Christianity and the Qurʾān (Part One)”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol 74, no 2 (October 2015), 226.

We discuss the extraordinary late-antique novel of the early Christian church at Rome, known as the Pseudo-Clementine literature. Gnosticism, Jewish-Christianity, esotericism, scriptural and other forgery, and the problem of authenticity itself loom large as we quite improperly discuss a text meant only for true initiates.

Episode Notes Episode 51: Love and Happiness Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today's painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. Amity: We start with a story of a man who is a shame to the cloth in a short segment of Get the Behind Me, Felicia Lemuel: I will start the conversation this way: We will have Amity read all of the negative statements Jesus made about homosexuals and homosexuality. All of the moral correction he directed as the founder of the Christian faith, the head of the Chirsitian Church, and as I believe, God made manifest on earth. Amity: (twenty seconds of silence) Lemuel: This has been a reading of the holy scriptures where the Lord Jesus Christ condemning homosexuality. In all of the accepted canon, Jesus offers not a word. Why not? There were obviously homosexual men and women in Jesus' time, and he had not a word to say against them. Of his disciples no one has anything to say. It falls again on Paul, a man who claims the authority Christ gave to Saint Peter, to nourish the new Church, to carry the baggage of Mosaic Law into the new faith. Amity: Two thousand years years later, this dynamic continues. This time continued by “Pastor” Dillon Awes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4fcQ55Urjc https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-gay-people-solution-killings-bible-1714037 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Amity: Next up, we take a moment to consider something very familiar through a new lens in The More You Know. "Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'" Jesus was a very practical prophet, and he spent his time in action. He did not spend hours conceiving and embroidering elaborate prayers. When asked for a prayer from one of his disciples he produced this. There are two versions of it, in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, with slight variations. Some scholars think this reflects the shift from a mostly Jewish Christianity to a Universal Christianity. The Lord's Prayer is an interesting example of how things have been added to the actual scripture. I learned the prayer with the addition of the Doxolgy, a hymn in praise to God. the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen I always assumed, growing up in the church, that this was a part of the prayer. It was not said by Jesus, but is included in the King James translation of the scripture. This is based on those translators using what they thought was an ancient manuscript. It is actually now a part of the prayer, though it was originally a part of the call and response of the early Church. We have posted some alternative translations of this prayer. Why? Because the KIng James Translation, so well known and memorized, has errors in it. Pope Francis bright attention to this when he addressed the line, “ …And lead us not into temptation.” “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation. I am the one who falls. It's not him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen.” Here are some examples of other versions of the Lord's Prayer. https://www.lords-prayer-words.com/lord_contemporary_message_bible.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer#:~:text=%22Pray%20then%20like%20this%3A%20',deliver%20us%20from%20evil.'%22 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/06/led-not-into-temptation-pope-approves-change-to-lords-prayer#:~:text=Now%20Pope%20Francis%20has%20risked,Conference%20of%20Italy%20last%20month ORGAN END STINGER Amity: That brings us to the end of this week's episode. If you like it, please subscribe and leave us a review - and share it with a friend. Lemuel: We have an internet home: withoutworkspodcast.com. Our show notes and links to stories we talk about can be found there. Find us on Twitter: @WithoutWorksPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ withoutworkspod@gmail.com Our Internet home: www.withoutworkspodcast.com

This episode covers • Jesus as Spirit-bearer and Spirit-giver • Jesus as Messiah • Jesus as Lord • Reading Jesus into the Old Testament • Jesus as Wisdom • Minor Titles for Jesus • Summary of early Jewish Christology The Nazareth to Nicaea vodcast discusses all things about the historical Jesus, the Christ of Faith, and everything in between. This episode is the second of two episodes on the christology of Jewish Christianity.

This episode covers: What is Jewish Christianity? The influence of the historical Jesus on the Jerusalem church Messianic readings of the Psalms The title "Son of God" The Nazareth to Nicaea vodcast discusses all things about the historical Jesus, the Christ of Faith, and everything in between.

How could Christianity – which initially was completely Jewish – suddenly turn against the Jewish people and claim to have replaced them in God's plan for the world? When did the first non-Jew convert to Christianity? Did he have a good relationship with the Jewish people? In this episode Jeff talks to Bob O'Dell, Author of the book, FIVE YEARS WITH ORTHODOX JEWS: HOW CONNECTING WITH GOD'S PEOPLE UNLOCKS UNDERSTANDING OF GOD'S WORD. Together they dive deep to the very roots of replacement theology – a journey which shockingly takes them to the very beginning of creation.First Century Foundations is a Charity that supports ministries in Jerusalem and many other parts of the country of Israel. Our mission is to turn hearts around the world toward the land, people and God of Israel. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW HERE. LEARN MORE ABOUT FIRST CENTURY FOUNDATIONS HERE. Buy your copy of FIVE YEARS WITH ORTHODOX JEWS HERE.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE!Support the show (http://www.firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate/)

In today's episode, Sam (@motherenergy__) joins Josiah to discuss her religious journey from orthodox Judaism to Episcopal Christianity, liberal Christian anti-semitism, and the weird communities that the internet fosters.Green - Young JesusChristian Brothers - Heatmiser, Elliott SmithEmail us at hello@verylegalvery.coolJoin the Twitter hivemind: https://twitter.com/vlegalvcoolpodVisually stimulate yourself: www.instagram.com/verylegalverycoolpod/Audio-visually stimulate yourself: www.youtube.com/channel/UCU6LNzjByApFks97SP9s81wLive stuff https://www.twitch.tv/verylegalverycoolJoin George Soros in funding the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37940154&fan_landing=trueMore at verylegalvery.cool★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Church is growing rapidly in its understand of its Jewish roots. One big leap took place in Gateway Center for Israel Director Nic Lesmeister's life when he discovered unknown anti-Semitism in his theology. Find out more in this episode of the Church InTension podcast, in which Dr. Jon Chasteen discusses the topic of anti-Semitism and Jewish Christianity with Nic Lesmeister.

For this week's episode, Jackson chats with Hady Cohen about exploring faith coming from her Jewish background, addressing antisemitism, and listening to young people (what a concept!). From coming out to entering Christianity, Hady has a wealth of wonderful, personal insights to share. You can read her great essay here: https://bit.ly/3r4qwZB

In this episode, John and Judah discuss John's mission statement for Messianic Judaism, a product of John's coursework in Messianic studies: Today's Messianic Jewish community has the widescale conviction that it composes “the end-time move of God.” This is based in the Biblical conviction that it is actively involved in the salvation-historical trajectory of “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). A massive salvation of Jewish people is to be regarded as “life from the dead” (Romans 11:15). Given the Apostle Paul's magnanimous burden of the salvation of his kinsfolk—“I would pray that I myself were cursed, banished from Messiah for the sake of my people—my own flesh and blood” (Romans 9:3, TLV)—everything that today's Messianic movement does, should be with the expressed purpose of trying to enhance the mission of Jewish outreach and evangelism! Today's Messianic movement was specifically raised up by the Lord to proclaim the good news of Israel's Messiah to the Jewish community, and emphasize that they do not have to assimilate into a much wider non-Jewish Christianity to properly express faith in Him. Many non-Jewish Believers, with a sincere and genuine love for the people and Scriptures of Israel, have been legitimately called by the Lord to be active participants and co-laborers in the salvation of Israel, along with Messianic Jewish Believers. Many of these people are to be regarded as modern-day Ruths, whose loyalty to Messianic Judaism is steadfast to the point of dying with their Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters (Ruth 1:16-17). They have a distinct role to play, in provoking non-believing Jewish people to Messiah faith (Romans 11:11). More importantly, as Jewish and non-Jewish people come together in a special and unique unity, in Messiah Yeshua, they should be representing the “one new man/humanity” (Ephesians 2:15)—a testimony and snapshot of the greater redemption to come to the cosmos in the eschaton (Ephesians 1:10). -John McKee John and Judah discuss this vision in detail: Is the Messianic movement really the end-times move of God? Are there other reasons to serve in the Messianic movement besides eschatology? How and where the movement has diverged from the original vision of Jewish outreach, both good and bad. Is the Messianic movement a more authentic Christianity? Why the Messianic movement views assimilation differently than Christianity. (And how we know God doesn't want Jews to disappear or lose their Jewishness.) The Ruth calling: the role of non-Jews in the Messianic movement We hope this episode will give some clarity around the movement's purpose and calling, and how you, dear listener, may be called to serve in the Messianic Jewish movement.

Jewish Christianity is a term that has been used in earlier episodes. Here we take a second to define this term and provide a general outline about the Christianity practiced by the earliest followers of Jesus. Join us this week, as we briefly discuss the identity and character of early Jewish Christianity.   To comment on this show or provide feedback, please navigate to https://catholicheritageshow.com/episode108   The Catholic Heritage is devoted to helping Catholic Christians better understand the history, teachings and culture of their Catholic faith so that they can better love and serve Christ, the Church and their neighbors. Dr. Erik Estrada is a Catholic scholar who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and specializes in the history of Christianity and historical theology. He also completed a licentiate (S.T.L) in theology and patristic science at the Augustinianum Patristic Institute in Rome and a S.T.B. at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.   If you would like to invite Dr. Estrada to speak at your next event, you can contact him at feedback@catholicheritageshow.com or 1-909-575-8035.   iOS or Android App of the CH Show iOS App of CHS Android App of CHS   Newsletter Sign-up for the CH Show To sign up for our podcast’s app newsletter, please navigate to: https://catholicheritageshow.com/appnewsletter/ To sign up for our podcast’s community newsletter, please navigate to: https://catholicheritageshow.com/podcastnewsletter/ To place your name on the waiting list for our future learning site, please navigate to: https://catholigheritageinstitute.com      Follow the Catholic Heritage Show on Social Media:   The Main Catholic Heritage Website: https://catholicheritage.co The Show’s Website: https://catholicheritageshow.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholic.heritage.show/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Catholic-Heritage-Show-202869793834233/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/cathheritagshow YouTube Channel   Review our Podcast iTunes (click iTunes > Ratings and Reviews > Write a Review) and Stitcher   How to Connect with Us Comment on the show below Ask a Question via Speakpipe Leave a voicemail for the show at 1-909-575-8035 Email via Contact Form in the Footer of the Site (audio files welcome)   YouTube   How Were the New Testament Books Chosen? Old Age of a Book - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuYpa_DOkg   What is the Canon of Scripture - Canon is a List of Books -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV9Uc26oPZM   How Were the New Testament Books Chosen? Apostolic Origin of a Book - https://youtu.be/2EARsghZhK8   Criteria for NT Canon Point to Church Authority - https://youtu.be/OYSAemeIiNY   Criteria for Determining New Testament Canon Used by Early Church - https://youtu.be/jSI9jponGUk   Why is the Canon of Scripture Important? - https://youtu.be/xGhDSpSvnkw     #             Title     72 - Early Christian Understanding of Scripture, Tradition and Church Authority - CHS 72 3/10/19   71 - Ambrose's Influence on Augustine - Doctors of the Church Series - CHS 71 3/9/19   70 - Evaluating the Secondary Sources - How to Study the Catholic Heritage Series - CHS 70 3/8/19   69 - The Life and Work of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine 1542-1621 – Doctors of the Church Series – CHS 69   68 - Identify the Genre of a Document – How to Study the Catholic Heritage Series – CHS - 68 3/3/19   67 – The Problem with Secret Information about Pope Francis and the US Catholic Bishops – CHS 67 3/2/19   66 - My Recent Trip to the Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro North Carolina – CHS 66 2/28/19   65 - Identifying the Commitments of the Author – How to Study the Catholic Heritage Series – CHS 65 2/27/19   64 - What is the Best English Translation of the Bible in 2019? – CHS 64   63 - Did Catholicism Exist before the Emperor Constantine? – CHS 63 2/25/19   62 - The Gnostic Character of Recent Catholic Criticisms of Pope Francis - CHS 62 2/24/19   61 - Expect the Unexpected from the Sources – How to Study the Catholic Heritage Series – CHS 61 2/23/19   60 - How Fair is Media Coverage of Pope Francis’ Words? – CHS 60 2/22/19     59 - Objectives of the Author - How to Study the Catholic Heritage Series - CHS 59 2/21/19   58 - Catholic Disregard for the Second Vatican Council - CHS 58   55 - How Did Augustine’s Writings Survive the Vandal Invasion of North Africa – CHS 55   54 - What Are the Main Objectives When Studying Church History – CHS 54   53 - How to Locate the Primary Sources for the Study of the Catholic Heritage - CHS 53 2/8/19   52 - What Are the Primary Sources? – How to Study the Catholic Heritage Series – CHS 52 2/7/19   51 - Did Philo of Alexandria Reject the Deuterocanonical Books? – CHS 51 2/5/19   50 - Is Doing History an Option? – CHS 50 2/2/19   49 - Was There a Canon of Scripture in North Africa before 393? – CHS 49 1/20/19   48 - Does Quotation Equal Canonicity? Pt 3 – CHS 48 1/20/19     45 - How to Locate Primary Sources of the Catholic Heritage – CHS 45   44 - Does Quotation Equal Canonicity? Pt 1 - CHS 44 1/9/19   43 – What Have I Learned from My 2018 Work on the Catholic Heritage Show? – CHS 43 – 1/4/19   *05 - How Important Is Context for the Study of Catholic History?- CHSae 05 12/27/18    42 - What Does Incarnation Mean in Christianity 12/25/18   41 - The Canon of Scripture and Christian Unity 12/24/18   40 - Some Reflections on the Current Crisis in the Catholic Church 12/21/18   39 - What Does Heresy and Orthodoxy Mean? 12/14/18   38 - Who Were the Heresiologists? 12/11/18   37 - Jesus, the Apostles, the First-Century Church and the Canon  12/9/18   36 - The Canon of Scripture and How Christians Know Anything About Christianity 12/7/18   35 - Examples of Fraternal Correction in Church History 12/6/18   34 - The Principle of Fraternal Correction and Its Biblical Bases 12/5/18   33 - The Study of History and the Current Crisis in the Catholic Church 12/3/18   32 - Anonymity in Ancient Christian Texts 12/4/18   31 - The Muratorian Canon and Its Unique Character 12/ 2/18                                                 30 - Jerome’s Supporters and Opponents 12/1/18   29 - Jerome and the Knowledge of Hebrew in Early Church 11/27/18   28 - Jerome, Scholarship and the Deuterocanonical Books 11/27/18   27 -  Augustine, Jerome and Their Use of Each Other’s Writings - 11/23/18   26 - The Bible and the Canon – Similarities and Differences in Terminology - 11/23/18   25 - Jerome and the Old Testament Canon pt 2 – Three Perspectives on Deuterocanonical Books - 10/22/18   24 - Jerome and the Old Testament Canon pt 1 – Life, Context and Work - 10/18/18   23 - Origen’s Life, Writings, Reception and Orthodoxy - 9/25/18   22 - The Old Testament Canon Pt 2 - The Church's Selection of Books - 9/25/18   21 - The Old Testament Canon Pt 1 - Between Jewish Diversity and Gnostic Rejections - 9/17/18   20 - The Papacy and Catholic Identity -  9/13/18   19 - St. Augustine on Sinful Clergy, Donatism and the Spiritual Life - 9/6/8   18 - Church Scandals, the Papacy and Augustine of Hippo - 8/29/18   17 - Gnosticism and the Canon of Scripture - 8/20/18   16 - Conclusion for How the New Testament was Formed pt 10 - 8/14/18   15 - Papal Approval - How the New Testament Was Formed pt 9 -  8/7/18   14 - Ignatius of Loyola and His Impact - 7/31/18   13 - Conciliar Reception - How the New Testament Was Formed - pt. 8 - 7/26/18   12 - Patristic Reception - How the New Testament Was Formed - pt. 7 - 7/17/18   11 - Orthodoxy - How the New Testament Was Formed - pt. 6 - 7/10/18   10 - Reception of Books by the Churches - How the New Testament Was Formed pt. 5 -  7/3/18   9 - Apostolic Transfer of Books - How the New Testament Was Formed - pt 4 - 6/26/18   8 - Antiquity - How the New Testament Was Formed pt 3 - 6/22/18   7 - Apostolic Origin - How the New Testament Was Formed pt 3 - NT Canon Series pt 2 -6/19/18   6 - The Criteria Used by the Early Church to Determine the Canon of the New Testament - My Thesis - Canon of Scripture pt 4 - 6/13/18   5 - Which Criteria Did the Early Church Use to Determine the Canon of the Old Testament - Canon of Scripture pt 3 - 6/5/18   4 - When Was the Canon of the Bible Established? - Canon of Scripture pt 2 - 5/29/18   3 - What is the Canon of Scripture and Why it is Important - Canon of Scripture pt 1 - 5/23/18   2 - Ragheed Aziz Ganni (1972-2007) - Priest, Friend and Martyr - 5/18/18   1 - Introduction to the Catholic Heritage Show and Bio of Dr Erik Estrada - 5/8/18   Music provided by Pond5.

Raiders of the Unknown Presents: James Brother of Jesus, this is the first audio-documentary of our series on enigmatic subjects. In the past three decades many books have been written about this enigmatic figure and we are still at a loss to understand a complete picture of his person. There is even less historical data on James that there is on Jesus; however he is a crucial character in the saga of Jewish Christianity, early Christian tradition and the bridge between the many Second Temple Judaisms and Rabbinic Judaism as it is known today. According to the Jewish historian Josephus who joined the ranks of the Roman Empire after leading charge against them in the first century: “And so he convened the judges of the Sanhedrin, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, the one called Christ, whose name was James, and certain others, and accusing them of having transgressed the law delivered them up to be stoned. Those of the inhabits of the city who were considered the most fair-minded and who were strict in observance of the law were offended at this…” Antiquities 20. 9.1 199-203 Another enigmatic figure we discussed is John The Immerser or as he is known in the West as John the baptizer. We explore if he was influenced by the Essenes, as many people claim and how the information available about him can help us learn more about the person of James

In this week’s show we are honored to have back on the program Dr. Bejarano Gutierrez, a graduate from Siegal College and Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning and Leadership. Our topic is Reclaiming St. James: A Jewish perspective on Jacob brother of Jesus. In the past three decades many books have been written about this enigmatic figure and we are still at a loss to understand a complete picture of his person. There is even less historical data on James that there is on Jesus; however he is a crucial character in the saga of Jewish Christianity, early Christian tradition and the bridge between the many Second Temple Judaisms and Rabbinic Judaism as it is known today. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, who joined the ranks of the Roman Empire after leading charge against them in the first century: “And so he convened the judges of the Sanhedrin, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, the one called Christ, whose name was James, and certain others, and accusing them of having transgressed the law delivered them up to be stoned. Those of the inhabits of the city who were considered the most fair-minded and who were strict in observance of the law were offended at this…” Antiquities 20. 9.1 199-203 Another enigmatic figure we discussed is John The Immerser or as he is known in the West as John the baptizer. We explore if he was influenced by the Essenes, as many people claim and how the information available about him can help us learn more about the person of James.

Did you know that there is a path any Christian can walk to receive God's divine blessings? Did you know that for every Christian fruit, there is a Jewish root? Through a discussion of Christian Fruit – Jewish Root, you'll find out the Jewish roots of essential Christian doctrines and be inspired to see just how Jewish Christianity really is. Facebook: https://facebook.com/jewishvoice Instagram: https://instagram.com/jewish_voice Twitter: https://twitter.com/jewish_voice

Did you know that there is a path any Christian can walk to receive God's divine blessings? Did you know that for every Christian fruit, there is a Jewish root? Through a discussion of Christian Fruit – Jewish Root, you'll find out the Jewish roots of essential Christian doctrines and be inspired to see just how Jewish Christianity really is. Facebook: https://facebook.com/jewishvoice Instagram: https://instagram.com/jewish_voice Twitter: https://twitter.com/jewish_voice

We are thrilled to be with you, beginning a new semester at Southern Seminary. Many of you have new fall schedules before you. Many of you have friends and loved ones, relatives who are beginning new academic terms. It's not always coincident with us beginning a new expositional study, but after about three years in the book of Hebrews, verse by verse, we turn this morning to begin in the book of James. If you find the book of James, which conveniently is the next book in our English Bible translations after the book of Hebrews, we'll begin our study. The title of the book is quite simple and straightforward: the letter of James. In many Bible translations and in its published format, you will see a reference to the epistle of James as one of the Catholic epistles. The Catholic epistles refer to the fact that even as many of the other epistles are addressed to a specific congregation, especially as you look for instance at the majority of the letters of Paul as you have the letter to the churches at Thessalonica and Corinth and Philippi and Ephesus, here you do not have a letter addressed in terms of its designation by the recipient but rather by the author.In other words, there is a clue to us here at the very beginning of this study, that it is the identity and role of James as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ that is going to be crucial to our understanding of this letter. This is a letter not written to a specific church that is then shared with the entire Christian Church, but rather this was addressed from the very beginning to all of the churches. The letter begins, as we are familiar with Greco-Roman letters beginning, with the identity, the sender: James. James identifies himself as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.” (1:1)As we begin our study, the book of James is going to be very interesting as we keep in mind that this has been one of the most controversial books in the entire New Testament. It was controversial from the start and became far more controversial in the 16th century and beyond. The reason for this is that if we are not careful, and if we do not practice a good process of interpreting the Scripture, a good discipline of interpreting the scripture, then we can fall into the trap of believing that there are certain texts that are at odds with other texts. In particular classically, it has been suggested that there is a conflict between the gospel as understood by the apostle Paul and the gospel as understood by James. I said the controversy was ignited in a big way in the 16th century, and of course you'll recognize that that is the century of the Reformation. In the Reformation, the gospel was recovered and it was asserted in terms of all of its Pauline and New Testament purity. There were many who were involved in the defense of the gospel at that time who were concerned that James appeared not to affirm many of the same things that Paul affirmed, but rather to be looking at the gospel from a very different direction. Luther himself, Martin Luther, the great magisterial reformer, referred to James quite infamously as “a right strawy epistle”. In other words, he saw it as “straw”, over and against the meat of Paul. There have been others who have suggested that the book of James is in many ways, a corrective to many misunderstandings of the gospel in the early church. As the most faithful Bible interpreters have understood from the very beginning, the Holy Spirit has given us not only individual books but the Canon of Scripture, that is the entire collection of scripture, in particular, the Canon of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit who inspired every single word of every one of these writings, superintended the fact that we need both of these witnesses, we need both Paul and James. Furthermore, even as we begin our study, we affirm our understanding that the authority and perfection of Scripture requires that we understand that there is a consistent understanding that if there appears to be some sort of contradiction or contrary word within the text, the problem is not in the text, but in our understanding. As the church has matured in its understanding of the book of James, it has come to the blessed realization that what we have in James is the gospel applied. Even as you have the recognition that the apostle Paul was inspired to define the gospel in such clear terms as being that our justification is by faith alone, along comes James to remind us that faith without works is dead.When we see a book like this, not addressed to a specific congregation by which it is known, but rather designated by its author, then the question immediately comes to us, “Who is this author? Who is this James?” In the New Testament you already know of several James'. There were two who were with Jesus almost from the beginning. One was the brother of John, the son of Zebedee. There were other James' also found within the New Testament, but from the very beginning of the Christian tradition, it has been understood that this particular James is James, the brother of Jesus Christ.Now, when we think about the story of Jesus, the account of the life and ministry of Jesus, and then we think about the account of the earliest church in the book of Acts, and then we think about the continuation of the story of the church in the New Testament, we recognize that James plays a very, very important part. There is no reason internally or externally to believe that the author of this epistle is anyone other than James. As a matter of fact, there are both external and internal references and evidence to indicate that this is none other than James, the brother of Jesus. And of course, when we say the brother of Jesus, we mean the half brother of Jesus. The main opponent to the understanding that this James is James, the brother of Jesus, is the fact that the Roman Catholic church, teaching the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, has argued for centuries that Jesus had no brothers. That indeed, when there are references to those who are the brothers of Christ in the New Testament, they're actually his cousins.Well, let's just make a couple things clear as we begin. There is absolutely no claim in the New Testament nor implication, nor inference of any sort that Mary remained a virgin married to Joseph after the conception and birth of Christ. As a matter of fact, in the infancy narratives, you have a very clear reference to the fact that she kept herself a virgin until the birth of Christ. Not only that, there are internal references within the gospels to those who are the brothers of Christ and the word used there is brother in the sense that we would use the word brother. Not just in the generalized sense, in terms of fellowship, but in the familial sense of a blood relative. If this is indeed James, then as we know the New Testament, we know that there is a particular meaning here to the fact that this is written by the brother of Christ.That means, before we get into the actual text of the letter, we need to consider just a few things about what the New Testament has told us already about the family of Jesus, including his brothers, in terms of his earthly ministry. We look to a text such as John 7:5, and here we read “for not even his brothers believed in him.” So John tells us in John 7:5 that there were many who heard Jesus were moved by him, were intrigued by him, who saw the signs and miracles. Even as many in the crowds believed in him, not even his brothers believed in him. It was a comprehensive statement, not one of Christ's brothers believed in him at this point, as we read in John 7. We look at the gospel of Mark 3:21. There we read concerning the family of Jesus, “when his family heard it, they went out to seize him for they were saying ‘He is out of his mind.'” So in other words, the revolutionary message of Jesus so scandalized the family of Christ that they sought to do what families do when scandalized by one of their members, to take him away and to try to explain it away. Mark is very clear about this, “they went out to seize him for they were saying ‘He's out of his mind.'” So, from John 7 and Mark 3 we have the indication, not only that his brothers did not believe in him, an emphatic statement, but that not believing in him, they were scandalized by him. They sought even to explain him away by saying, “He's out of his mind.”Now, there are many things we could trace out from this. One of them is that this is also one of the clear internal references to the fact that Jesus clearly claimed deity from the very beginning of his ministry. Liberal scholars throughout the last three or so centuries have tried to argue that it was the church's reinterpretation of the Scriptures, it was the apostles' later revision of the gospel in which Christ claims divinity. But what you see here is one of the internal evidences, when it says in John 7, that even his brothers didn't believe. What was it they didn't believe? It was the claims he made concerning himself. When it says in Mark 3 that his family was scandalized by what he said and when they tried to seize him saying, “He's out of his mind”, why do they think he was out of his mind? It's because he was clearly claiming to be deity and acting as if he were. Thenhen you have a very remarkable transformation. It's a transformation that has to be found as you look closely at the New Testament. Because one of the things that we must always keep in mind when we're looking at a text like this, or at a question like this, is that we have the testimony of the Scriptures. As we look to the Scriptures, we have the evidence of what the Holy Spirit inspired that we are to receive. We do not have the totality of the experience of the early church, which means obviously, as John says at the end of his gospel, if you were to collect everything Jesus said and did into books, the world itself could not contain all of them. There are times where we see a reference in Scripture, and then we realize, this is absolutely astounding.Something huge had to happen between point A and point B. Point A  in this case is the fact that not one of his family members believed in him, and that his brothers in particular are identified in John as not believing in him. Then you come to 1 Corinthians 15, the great passage in which Paul speaks to the priority of the gospel and of the power of the resurrection of Christ. He begins this way in 1 Corinthians 15:1, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas,” that's Peter, “then to the twelve.” (1 Cor. 15:1-5) Then notice carefully, “Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” (1 Cor. 15:6-7)James, simply mentioned here by name, because simply to mention his name is all that is necessary. This is clearly not one of the James who was in the original disciples of Christ. This is James, identified as one as an apostle who stands out simply by the reference to his name as being worthy and necessary of this inclusion. “Then he appeared to James.” James, the half brother of Jesus, as you know, becomes the central leader of the church in Jerusalem. The one who, along with his other brother, did not believe in Christ, who considered him insane and tried to explain that he's out of his mind. By the time you get to 1 Corinthians 15, we are told that Christ appeared to him, and then we understand the transformation. The central event, the transformation of James from one who thought that his half brother was insane to when he became the great pillar of the church, was his knowledge of the resurrected Christ. The resurrection changes everything. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changed everything in the life of James. When the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 recites how he became an apostle and the centrality of the resurrection of Christ to the gospel, he refers to the fact that as Christ made his series of appearances, he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. “Last of all,” Paul says, “as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Cor. 15:8) We also have another very important reference to this James from Paul found in the book of Galatians. As you look at Galatians 1:19, there is no mystery whatsoever that Paul leaves concerning who James is. Galatians 1:19, “But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.”Now it's very helpful to us because we would think that's who James is. We believe that's who James is, but we don't have to connect any dots here. The dots are all connected. This is Paul who says, now when I mention James you be very clear, this is James, the Lord's brother. James fulfills a very important role in the early church as is made clear in the book of Acts. And in particular, to make reference to the most important passage in the book of Acts, you look at Acts chapter 15. This passage is known as the ‘Jerusalem Council'. James plays a very important role and that very important role is underscored with some particular language that we will find when we look to this passage. This was the great question about how the Gentiles are to be incorporated into the church and in the dispensation of the gospel, how it is that the Gentiles are to be included. Must they become Jews in order to become followers of Christ, faithful Christian disciples? And of course the answer was no, but this council was necessary in order to determine that. To answer a basic question about circumcision, a basic question about the identity of the gospel, the leaders of the church are gathered here. What you find in the book of Acts chapter 15 is the chronology of this particular council. Now look at verse 13. As a matter of fact, look back at verse 12 first, “and all the assembly fell silent and they listened to Barnabas and Paul, as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, ‘Brothers listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree just as it is written,' ‘After this all will return, I will rebuild the tent of David that had fallen.I will rebuild its ruins. I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord. That all the Gentiles and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,' says the Lord who makes these things known from of old.'” Then look very carefully at the first words of verse 19. “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them, to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood for, from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city, those who proclaim him for he was read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”Now the conclusion of the Jerusalem council is so important to the history of the church and frankly, to our own inclusion in the gospel of Christ and how we understand that gospel: the new covenant over and against and as the fulfillment of the old covenant. For our purposes in this study, the most important words are those that begin verse 19, which in context are thunders in their implications. There James says, “Therefore, my judgment is”. In other words, the stature of James in the early church and in particular in the Jerusalem church and amongst the apostles was so massive that when James says, “Therefore, my judgment is,” that's a massive judgment, as is made clear as you see in verse 23.Look at verse 22 first, “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter, ‘The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, Greetings.” And then they go on to relate the determinations of the Jerusalem council. So in other words, you put together verse 19 and verse 22. In verse 19, James says, “Therefore, my judgment is,” and then to verse 22, “then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church.”So what do we know about James? We know from seeking a comprehensive picture of him from the New Testament, before we get to the letter that bears his name, that this is the brother of Christ, specifically the half brother of Christ, the son of Joseph and Mary. And that he, along with his other brothers during their earthly ministry of Jesus, did not believe in him, but that after the resurrection of Christ from the dead, when Christ appeared to James, James not only believes in him, but becomes an apostle one who is sent out with the authority of Christ as a leader of the church. And he becomes the pillar of the church of Jerusalem, such that when the Jerusalem council is held, James says, “My judgment is,” and it becomes the judgment of the church.We know something else about James, and there is of course, many other references to him in the book of Acts. But most importantly, what we know about James comes from the earliest historians of the Christian era, who tell us that during the governorship of Festus, James was martyred. The chronological year of that martyrdom would've been in AD 62. So the earthly life of James came to an end, according to the best historical sources, as he was martyred for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Lord who was his brother, who in whom he did not believe until he saw him when raised from the dead and then gave his life to serve as an apostle.The date of the letter of the book of James therefore is likely between that of 30 and 62 AD. It's a pretty wide span, but it is adequate for our understanding to date it in the earliest history of the early church. And thus, when James writes this letter, he writes it to a church that has experienced already, as we know from verse 1, a dispersion. “James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” James identifies himself, not as the brother of Christ. It's a very interesting thing here. Paul, as you saw in Galatians chapter 1, refers to James as the brother of Jesus, but otherwise he's referred to as James. And when he here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, begins a letter written to the whole church, he identifies himself, not as James, the brother of Christ, but as, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”. It is a stunningly powerful way of making a point.The most important thing about James is not that he was the brother of Christ, but the servant of Christ. The most important thing about James in his own self understanding is that he was a doulos, a servant or a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He here refers to the one who by the flesh is his half brother. And instead of saying, “I was the brother to Jesus,” he says, “I am the servant of God,” and notice the title, “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Again, the centrality of the resurrection is so important as Paul makes clear in Philippians chapter 2, on the basis of his obedience, even at death, God has highly exalted him in the resurrection and given him the name that is above every name. And that is the title of Lord, promising that one day, “every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ Lord to the glory of God the Father.” This James, who knows that the most important thing about himself is not whose brother he was, but whose servant he is, he writes to the entire church. Following the traditions of Greco-Roman letters, he begins by identifying himself. By the way, that would be very helpful. And as a matter of fact, when we receive letters today, you'll remember what those quaint things are. They're printed on paper, they begin “Dear somebody” and end “Sincerely” or something like that, you still want to know who the letter's from. You can't understand the letter until you know who it's from. So we look to the bottom of the letter, the Greeks had a better system. The Greco-Roman system began in their conventions of letter writing by beginning with the sender, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”, and then the address, “to the church of the Lord, Jesus Christ”. To the church here, the church there? No. The language of James is “to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, Greetings”. As we will follow word by word and verse by verse through the book of James, we will discover it is in every syllable saturated with the gospel, saturated with Christian truth.It is written to the church, not just to a specific congregation in a specific place in a specific time, but written to the church throughout all the ages everywhere it is found. He refers to the church as, “the twelve tribes in the dispersion”. Again, the meaning of this could be easily passed over, but it is thunderous and earth shaking. James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem was the congregation, of course, where the gospel was first preached, in terms of the congregation there formed in the aftermath of the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, going all the way back to the day of Pentecost. The church in Jerusalem was made up of Jews who had come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Jerusalem church becomes the center of Jewish Christianity.Thus, when the gospel is then shared with the Gentiles and the door is open to the Gentiles, even the discussion of how the early church is going to understand that, by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, comes to Jerusalem. It can't be settled anywhere but in Jerusalem. The council is held in Jerusalem and it is the leader of the church in Jerusalem, indeed, James, none other than the brother of Jesus, who says, “my judgment is”, and it became the judgment of the church. One of the hardest questions for the early church to figure out is, “What's the relationship between Israel and the church? What's the relationship between the Jews who come to know Christ and the Gentiles who come to know salvation in Christ? Are they one people or two people?” And of course you have in the New Testament a symphonic answer to that question. The summary of it is, that as Paul writes. It is the truth that the Gentiles have now been grafted on to the promises made to Israel.There is no more powerful demonstration of that than when James begins his letter referring, not to Israel, the Israel of old, but rather the new Israel, the church. By referring to the church as the twelve tribes in the dispersion. James knows to whom he is writing. He's  writing to those who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just writing to Jews who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just writing to Gentiles who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has written to all those who by God's grace have come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they are now the Israel of God.That doesn't mean that God does not still have promises made to the nation of Israel under the covenant of old. It does mean that salvation belongs to the Israel of God. The new Israel, made up of all those who buy their confession of faith and belief in Christ now find themselves amongst the twelve tribes in the dispersion. It's incredible. James doesn't say, “I'm James, the brother of Jesus.” He says, “James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He doesn't say, “I'm writing to the church.” He does say that, but in different words by saying, “to the twelve tribes in the dispersion”. The twelve tribes, the new Israel, the people of the new covenant and the dispersion, they're everywhere. Now the word dispersion is not an innocent word. It is a sinister word in the sense that it means that Christians have been scattered about. We know that even as the word dispersion was used in both the Old and the New Testaments, particularly in the New Testament, it refers to the fact that Christians have no homeland. Paul will say, our citizenship is in heaven. Peter will begin his letter by suggesting that we are aliens residing in places everywhere. So the church is not made up of a national people, not in terms of earthly kingdoms. The church is not geographically designated. The church is not locally limited in any way. The church is made up of the 12 tribes, the new Israel dispersed in the dispersion. In other words, James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying, “I'm writing to Christians wherever they are found, to Christian churches, wherever they've been dispersed. I'm writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to all believers and to all churches everywhere at all times until Jesus, my brother, comes. Greetings.” Just a few words.Most of the time when we begin a letter, we just begin it in order to get to where we want to go. We dispense with the niceties in order to get to the point. The formalities are just that. These are not formalities. These are not literary niceties. This is James, the brother of Jesus, who says, “The most important thing you need to know about me is that I am a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To whom am I writing? The new Israel, the church dispersed wherever it's found, whenever it lives, Greetings.” Now don't you want to know what follows that? It will be our privilege to learn every word together. Let's pray:Our Father, we are so thankful for the power of your Word. Every single word inspired by your Spirit and every single word is not only meaningful, but vital, essential in our understanding. Father, thank you for this which you have given us by the gift of our brother, James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we will wait expectantly to hear your Word as you speak by your Word, and we'll pray that in so doing, you will conform us to the image of Christ by the Spirit in the word. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. You can find Dr. Mohler's other Line by Line sermons here.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.

Paul tells Jewish Christians that if they think that they are righteous by the Law, they must follow the Law, otherwise the gain they boast in is actually judgment against them. This is not just a litany of prohibited acts, either. The Law must penetrate into the hearts of those who profess it, as well, and it is precisely this circumcision of the heart that Christians are bound to through Baptism. For those who do not follow the Law they claim to be heirs of, their circumcision becomes uncircumcision, and it is because of such people that the name of God is blasphemed. Those who loudly condemn certain acts and then commit the same acts cause others to see the faith as a trivial thing and invite such blasphemy. This, however, does not mean that Jewish Christianity is without merits. Paul tells us that there are some who claim that Christians desire evil so that good may come. This philosophy is condemned, as when we sin, we sin against God and God alone, and all sin offends God. Likewise, we cannot do good works to compensate for our sinfulness, but neither can we deny the fact that God has given us the ability to do good works as a way to lead us back to Him, and we cannot abandon our obligation to do His will.The closing theme is Gerard Satamian's Chansons Sans Paroles Op. 2 Pastorale, from the album Dry Fig Trees. www.magnatune.com

Paul's original audiencePaul's use of the marriage allegoryThe character of Jewish ChristianityThe evolutionary development of Pauline thoughtThe Commandments and the continual problem of Sin"Who Shall Deliver me from the body of this death?"