A Podcast All About Christianity
The Old Testament Apocrypha—also known as the Deuterocanonical books—occupies a fascinating and sometimes controversial place in the history of the Church. These writings, composed between the close of the Old Testament (around 400 B.C.) and the time of Christ, were highly valued by Jewish and early Christian communities. Yet their canonical status has varied widely across Christian traditions. … Read More “How the Church Has Used the Old Testament Apocrypha” »
You may or may not know that there are books written between the time of or around the time of the Old and New Testaments that are not in the Bible. Among others, these include the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha. There are both Old and New Testament Apocrypha but for the sake of this post, … Read More “What’s the Difference Between the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha?” »
One of the highlights when I teach New Testament introduction courses is to have “story-time” with a reading from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Why would I read from such a book? Critics attempt to cast doubt on the New Testament canon by suggesting that there were plenty of other books that could have been … Read More “What is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas?” »
Christianity emerged out of Judaism. We have already looked at the Jewish background of Christianity. While there are many ways for us to learn about Judaism, one important way is to look at Jewish texts. Certain texts of Jewish origin were very influential on either Judaism or Christianity. In this episode we look at Tanak, … Read More “Episode 26 – Jewish Texts You Need to Know About” »
