Mostrando títulos en Historia y Cultura Bíblica

Ancient Near Eastern texts such as The Baal Cycle portray the pagan god Baal as a rebel—the hero of a revolution, worshiped and glorified for his long string of victories. In The Baal Book: A Biography of the Devil, Fr. Stephen De Young shows that the Hebrew Scriptures consciously turn the Baal story on its head, depicting him as a failed and defeated rebel who nonetheless tries to steal the glory that belongs to Almighty God. From these Scriptures, the figure of the Devil emerged within Jewish and Christian Tradition.

The question of whether Jesus’ resurrection actually occurred has been exhaustively examined, scrutinized, and contested over the years, yielding a wide range of conclusions. Some may now view the topic as a "burned-over district" in New Testament scholarship—a subject so thoroughly debated that little new ground seems left to cover. Is there, then, any fresh and fruitful way forward? answers with a resounding yes. He identifies a crucial yet often overlooked issue: the very framework of how historians approach the question—particularly when it comes to miracles.

How do you introduce something so groundbreaking and new, yet also so ancient that it deals with the very first moments of Creation? Most people know about the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, and many have studied a bit of quantum theory. However, one thing has been missing that has to do with the divine language of Eden and the reset back to Eden and beyond.

When we picture the first Advent, we see Mary and Joseph huddled by a manger. We picture Gabriel, magi, and shepherds tending their flocks. A shining star against a midnight sky. But this harmonized version has lifted the Advent story out of its context--those who experienced the first Advent had to travel through great darkness to reach the hope that shining star announced. Trusted scholar and community organizer Kelley Nikondeha takes us back, to where the landscape of Palestine is once again the geographic, socioeconomic, and political backdrop for the Advent story.

A fresh reading of the Old Testament text in light of the ancient Near Eastern context can open new avenues of awareness. Walton provides a clear, helpful guide to the nature of biblical prophecy and apocalyptic literature that will help listeners avoid potential misuse and reclaim the message of the prophets for their lives.

Start Your Journey Into the Bible Jesus Actually Read One Question Changes Everything:What if the Old Testament you've been reading your entire life isn't the same one Jesus knew?What if the apostles quoted from a different source than what's in your English Bible?What if the tradition that shaped Christianity from the beginning was somehow lost along the way for many believers? That tradition is the Septuagint. And it's been hiding in plain sight for over 2,000 years. The Septuagint— the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible completed more than a century before Christ —was the ...

Who wrote Great Expectations? That’s easy: Charles Dickens. Who’s the author of Beloved? Toni Morrison, of course. Now how about the Old Testament? You’d think for a book as widely known, studied, and distributed as the Bible, the question of authorship would have been sorted out by now. But the question is more complex (and fascinating) than it seems. Why? Because asking it is to challenge everything we might assume about the Bible’s identity as a book, about what “writing” and “authorship” really mean, and about how a written text could become sacred.

A literary history of our most influential book of all time, by an Oxford scholar and Anglican priest In our culture, the Bible is monolithic: It is a collection of books that has been unchanged and unchallenged since the earliest days of the Christian church. The idea of the Bible as "Holy...

Read by the author. Go from feeling frustrated when reading Scripture to learning to love the Bible. Feeling overwhelmed and confused by the Bible? Bestselling author Zach Windahl breaks down its entire storyline in The Bible, Simplified, making Scripture clear, accessible, and life-changing...

Women were there. For centuries, discussions of early Christianity have focused on male leaders in the church. But there is ample evidence right in the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders. Nijay Gupta calls us to bring these women out of the shadows by shining light on their many inspiring contributions to the planting, growth, and health of the first Christian churches.

Mary Magdalene is one of the most influential symbols in the history of Christianity - yet, if you look in the Bible, you'll find only a handful of verses that speak of her. How did she become such a compelling saint in the face of such paltry evidence? In her effort to answer that question, Cynthia Bourgeault examines the Bible, church tradition, art, legend, and newly discovered texts to see what's there.

Esau is one of the most Enigmatic characters in the Bible. His birth alone is strange to say the least. "He came out red, covered in hair from head to toe like a hairy cloak." What if I told you there is much more to this guy's story, but has been lost to us throughout the ages. That his story is scattered in pieces throughout other ancient "extra biblical" books. This is a story of what we would call today a Bigfoot. This story goes back to the garden of Eden, a serpent, supernatural garments, and a birthright.

The official editions of the King James contained the books of the Apocrypha until 1796. Most printers did not clear inventories and change to the 66-book version we know today until the mid 1800's. Ethymologically, the word "apocrypha" means "things that are hidden", but why they were hidden is not clear. Listen to find out more!

Have you ever wondered what the Old Testament - especially the Old Testament law - has to do with your Christian life? You are not alone. Some Christian leaders believe we should cast off the Old Testament now that we have the New. Carmen Joy Imes disagrees. In this warm, accessible volume, Imes takes listeners back to Sinai, the ancient mountain where Israel met their God, and explains the meaning of events there. She argues that we've misunderstood the command about "taking the Lord's name in vain." Instead, Imes says that this command is about "bearing God's name."

When we first encounter the Bible, we are taught its stories—Adam and Eve, Moses and the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, and more. When a story lacks the details we crave, we fill in the blanks—with what we've seen in movies, read in books, and been told by our Sunday school teachers. But there's a better way to encounter the whole story of Scripture: uncovering and understanding the ancient world and the people who experienced biblical events.

Josephus’ Retelling of the Bible—Now in a Fresh, Modern Translation From creation to the restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah, Antiquities of the Jews, Part One (Books 1–11) recounts the story of Israel for a Greco-Roman world in sweeping detail. Covers biblical history from Genesis through Ezra-Nehemiah. Retells familiar stories—Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon—with added detail and perspective. Preserves Jewish tradition alongside the biblical narrative, making it a unique witness to ancient interpretation. Written by Josephus, a Jewish historian and eyewitness to the first-century...

You've probably heard of St. Raphael Hawaweeny, St. Alexander Hotovitsky, liturgical translator Isabel Hapgood, and other righteous men and women who made their mark on the early development of Orthodoxy in America. But what about the notorious itinerant Bulgarian Monk? Or Fr. Raphael Morgan, the first black Orthodox priest in America? Or Vera Johnston, who served the Orthodox Church without renouncing her Theosophist roots?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From a renowned National Book Award–winning scholar, an extraordinary new account of the life of Jesus that explores the mystery of how a poor young man inspired a religion that reshaped the world. “This is a brilliant and necessary book. Sober, wise...

Paul the Pharisee celebrates not just the New-Paul as Jew but the New-New-Paul as Jewish Pharisee. Granted past Christian, Jewish, and Roman matrices of interpretation, this book explores the historical Paul through the fourth matrix of Evolution. (Think of those matrices as four Russian nesting Matryoshka dolls.) We are not on the Titanic; we are the iceberg. What, then, does Pauline “resurrection” have to do with human evolution?

Porphyry’s Against the Christians was the most hard-hitting, incisive, and lengthy critique of Christianity that the ancient world ever knew. It was so dangerous that three Christian emperors wrote decrees ordering it to be burned. The Christians succeeded in destroying it, but they did not destroy—or seek to destroy—the fragments and traces of the work in Christian authors themselves. Thus testimonies and fragments of Porphyry’s great work survive. This is the material translated and commented upon in this book. Its purpose is to correct the errors and massive gaps of R. J. ...