Tag: #christianity

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] In our last post we observed that there is clear evidence that over the centuries a process of ‘harmonization’ of the Diatessaron text had occurred, whereby the text had accrued passages from the standard biblical text in the course of transmission. In this

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] In this third post in the series, we look at some more things we learn from the Diatessaron, a second-century harmony of the Gospels by Tatian. You can find a description of the Diatessaron, and of its author, in the first post in

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] In this post we continue to look at some things we learn from the Diatessaron, a second-century harmony of the Gospels by Tatian. You can find a description of the Diatessaron, and of its author, in the previous post in this series here.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] I recently finished reading an English translation of a second-century Christian work, the Diatessaron, by Tatian the Assyrian. In a new series of posts we look at twelve things the Diatessaron shows us about early Christianity and the New Testament Gospels. What is

Polycarp was the leader (bishop) of the fledgling Christian church in the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor, and one of the earliest church leaders after the last of the apostles, John, died. We still possess one letter written by him, as well as a contemporary account of his martyrdom for the name of Jesus.

On Tuesday BBC Two opened this month’s inevitable series of programmes on the Reformation with a very fair and informative history of the Reformation by David Starkey. Entitled “Reformation: Europe’s Holy War,” the programme recounted the early history of the Reformation — beginning with an obscure German friar named Martin Luther who rose to fame

I would like to commend the Telegraph for printing a balanced article, on 22 September, on some new textual criticism to appear in the journal New Testament Studies. I was recently highly critical of an article by the Telegraph’s Religious Affairs Correspondent Olivia Rudgard on the publication, for the first time in English, of a

The 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation is coming up in just over four weeks. Get people you know talking about the Reformation and what it means for us today, with these 500th anniversary pin badges. On 31st October 1517 Martin Luther nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to the church door at Wittenberg. This

According to religious editor, No Christians took Bible as history for 250 years after the apostles died. On 23 August 2017 the Telegraph published a story, “‘Don’t take the Bible literally’ says scholar who brought to light earliest Latin analysis of the Gospels” The occasion of this story was the imminent publication, for the first

On 27 July 2017 the Independent Online scored a spectacular journalistic fail, by claiming that “Bible says Canaanites were wiped out by Israelites but scientists just found their descendants living in Lebanon” “Wow!” you say — “this must be a game-changer for Christians who’ve mistakenly believed the Bible was a historical record for twenty centuries!”