Young Ancients

The centuries after the Protestant Reformation brought about a radical reinterpretation of the epistles of St. Paul, disconnected from any historical reality. But Paul operated, during his entire life, as a faithful Pharisee within the Roman Jewish world. In Saint Paul the Pharisee: Jewish Apostle to All Nations, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys Paul’s life and writings, interpreting them within the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.

Violence in the Old Testament has long been a stumbling block for Christians and skeptics alike. God Is a Man of War offers a fresh interpretation of Old Testament accounts of violence, by exploring them through the twofold lens of Orthodox tradition and historical context. Father Stephen De Young examines what these difficult passages reveal about the nature of Christ and His creation, bearing witness to a world filled not only with pain and suffering - often of human making - but also with the love of God.

Imagine the following scene: Eric Schliemann having to get the permission of scientists, telling them that, based on Homer’s descriptions, he believes he can discover the mythical Troy. Besides laughing their hearts out, do you believe there would even be the slightest chance for Schliemann to have gotten their permission? And it is not just Troy nor just Knossos nor just the Mycenae, most major archaeological findings in the entire world, despite the references in the ancient texts, were a complete surprise for the scientific establishment. If that establishment had full control, all ...

Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young, creator of the popular The Whole Counsel of God blog and podcast, traces the lineage of Orthodox Christianity back to the faith and witness of the apostles, which was rooted in a first-century Jewish worldview. The Religion of the Apostles presents the Orthodox Christian Church of today as a continuation of the religious life of the apostles, which in turn was a continuation of the life of the people of God since the beginning of creation.

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.

In The Whole Counsel of God, popular writer and podcaster Fr. Stephen de Young gives an overview of what the Bible is and what is its place in the life of an Orthodox Christian, correcting many Protestant misconceptions along the way. Issues covered include inspiration, inerrancy, the formation of the biblical canon, the various texts and their provenance, the place of Scripture within Orthodox Tradition, and how an Orthodox Christian should read, study, and interpret the Bible.

Many Christians today divide ancient Jewish and Christian literature into two categories: what is in the Bible and what is not. The Christian East, however, has traditionally described a third category considered beneficial for Christians to listen to in the home: “apocrypha.” These texts, from the centuries before and after the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—beyond even the larger canons of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testaments—reveal to us the religious world and theological framework of the apostles and early Church Fathers.

In October 1994, a German archaeologist walked up a hill in southeastern Turkey and found something that should not have existed. Beneath the soil lay a monumental stone temple complex, complete with ten-tonne carved pillars, sophisticated astronomical alignments, and a sealed ritual interior — built eleven thousand six hundred years ago. Seven thousand years before the Great Pyramid. Six thousand years before Stonehenge. A thousand years before the invention of agriculture itself. The builders had no metal. No pottery. No wheel. No writing. By every standard of the textbook timeline of ...

The Roman Republic stood at the edge of collapse. The Senate cowered. Only one man refused to bend. The story of Rome's last defender and the impossible choice that made him immortal —Roman Stoic Marcus Porcius Cato, Stoic philosopher, incorruptible Roman senator, and Caesar's most relentless opponent, spent his life defending constitutional government against the forces tearing it apart. He walked barefoot with his troops, managed Rome's treasury without stealing a coin, and opposed Caesar for two decades with absolute conviction. But principle without power couldn't save the Republic. ...

Bartimaeus, everyone's favorite (wise-cracking) djinni, is back in book four of this New York Times bestselling series that is perfect for fans of Artemis Fowl and Amari and the Night Brothers. Thousands of years before his fateful service to the magician Nathaniel in London, wily Bartimaeus...

Ten thousand slaves toil on a demon ship sailing into uncharted waters. One such wretch, unable to use her sorcery, is Bridget Burns. Mired in cutthroat survival, she fosters two allies: a terrified boy, and a gargoyle “cursed” with empathy.

100 AD. The Danube frontier. Emperor Trajan is preparing for war. Along the river, the legions are recruiting, training, and quietly gathering strength for the campaign that will become Rome's greatest war in a generation. At Vindobona, headquarters of Legio XIII Gemina — Caesar's old legion — two young men arrive from opposite ends of the Empire. Lucius Atilius Corvus is the son of a retired centurion from southern Gaul, joining his father's old legion under his father's name and determined to live up to it. Marcus Ulpius Varro is the nineteen-year-old son of a senator from Hispania, ...

From a preeminent King scholar, the origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who would lead the nation and change the world. We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became, but who was he at the beginning of his life? How did his youth inform his outlook and activism? Before Martin...

How Did Caveman Kids Survive And Thrive Before At The Dawn Of Time When Everything Was Stacked Against Them The caveman kids and grandpa were always at the cave while their parents were out hunting or gathering food. After a successful mammoth hunt they bumped into a little lost baby mammoth and changed history. They were now mobile and they had muscle power. But they were up against nature and sometimes nature turned against them, but this time the baby mammoth sounded a warning, and the whole tribe got out of harms way. As the baby mammoth tried to fit into her new herd she saves the clan...

DARKNESS AND MAGIC PLAGUE EGYPT AS DESPAIR CREEPS ACROSS THE KNOWN WORLD... Maddie, the woman Gavin loves, was abducted while they searched for ancient Egypt's legendary Hall of Records. Now Gavin has to convince his friends to join him on an obscure path to find her—a path that has been hidden for reasons buried long ago. As Gavin struggles to find answers, the body of a young woman is discovered ... Deadly obstacles spring up as Gavin and his friends are tracked by mysterious men. Uncovering the true objectives of these men is Gavin's only hope, but it could cost him his life. Thousands...

KID DETECTIVE ZET: The World's Favorite Way To Learn About Ancient Egypt 12-year-old Zet is on the trail of his latest mystery: priceless amulets are disappearing all over ancient Egypt. Worse, his best friend is being treated more like a prisoner than a student at a secretive jewelry apprentice school. Are the evil teachers and jewel thefts related? When Zet receives a desperate message hidden inside an amulet, he's determined to rescue his friend. Armed with a brainy sister who can read and write hieroglyphics, Zet searches for clues. Can he expose the wicked plot and take down the ...

The Mummy meets Death on the Nile in What the River Knows, Isabel Ibañez's lush, immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt and filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race. Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century...

The Gilded Wolves meets A Magic Steeped in Poison in the first of a new pulse-pounding YA fantasy duology about two thieves who go after the same mythical treasure, from #1 New York Times-bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz. Once upon a time, there was a shining kingdom floating on the sea...

Princess of Egypt.... Cleopatra Selene is the only daughter of the brilliant Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and General Marcus Antonius of Rome. She’s grown up with jewels on her arms, servants at her feet, and all the pleasures of a palace at her command, and she wants only to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a great and powerful queen. Prisoner of Rome.... Then the Roman ruler Octavianus, who has always wanted Egypt’s wealth, launches a war that destroys all Selene has ever known.

The extant letters of Pliny, written between AD 97 and 112, give us a unique insight into Imperial Rome under the early Antonine emperors. Organised into 10 books, the letters reflect a wide range of topics, mirroring Pliny’s own public and private interests. Among many other subjects, the letters also include an eye-witness account of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, with the final book containing the exchange of letters between the writer (whose career culminated as Governor of Bithynia) and the emperor Trajan.