Did Jesus Promise to Return within the Lifetime of his Disciples?
For critics of early Christianity, one of the stock objections is that Jesus predicted he would return in the lifetime of his disciples. And since he clearly didn’t return, then he cannot be believed.
Indeed, it is this belief that has spurred many other theories among scholars, most notably Hans Conzelmann’s thesis that Luke’s Gospel was written to explain the delay of the second coming.
But, is it really true that Jesus predicted that he would return in the lifetime of his disciples? Here’s a recent video where I briefly address this question:
As for whether the imminent coming of Jesus affected the development of the NT canon, see my … Continue reading...
Book Notice: The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
Just a couple days ago I received the new book by Bart Ehrman entitled, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World (Simon and Schuster, 2018). I had received a pre-published copy of the book several months ago and have been working through it.
The reason I have a keen interest in this volume is because it covers a lot of the same ground of my recent book which was released last year, Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK/IVP Academic, 2017).
Currently, I am about 3/4 of the way through Ehrman’s volume and plan to review it formally … Continue reading...
The Peculiarity of Early Christian Worship (or How Early Christians Managed to Offend Just about Everybody)
“What in the world is this Christianity thing?”
A phrase like this would not have been unusual among Romans in the first couple of centuries. In the eyes of the average citizen, Christians were an odd bunch. And what made them odd was not just what they believed. It was how (and who) they worshiped.
To be sure, worship was a big deal in the ancient world. The ancient Greco-Roman culture was very religious. Even more to the point, they were publicly religious. Worship rituals and activities were visible for all to see.
And it was precisely here that this “Christianity thing” was found to be strange and unusual. Indeed, … Continue reading...
The Heresy of Orthodoxy: Who is Walter Bauer and Why Write a Book About Him?
In 1934, the German scholar Walter Bauer wrote a landmark work entitled Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. The problem was that no one yet knew it was a landmark work. The Germans (and the world) had other things on their mind during this phase of European history.
But, in 1971 the book was translated into English. And with all the new found (largely American) fascination with apocryphal Gospels like the Gospel of Thomas, the English translation proved to be well timed.
Bauer’s core thesis was that early Christianity was profoundly diverse in terms of its theological commitments. Various Christian groups believed all sorts of contradictory things about … Continue reading...
Five “Fake News” Stories That People Believe about Early Christianity
There’s been a lot of chatter about “fake news” in recent months. Some stories, even though they have no basis in fact, are told so often, and with such conviction, that large numbers of people end up believing them anyway.
And some of these fake news stories even dupe legitimate political figures who repeat the story without realizing it is false. And, of course, once a mainstream political figure repeats a story then it becomes even more entrenched in the national psyche.
While some of these fake news stories are rather harmless, others have become quite dangerous. Most famous perhaps is the “Pizza Gate” incident in 2016 where … Continue reading...