A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus’ Arrest by Joan E. Taylor at BAR. When visitors to Jerusalem are shown a large cave called “Gethsemane” on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, they usually give a perfunctory look and hurry on to the famous Garden of Gethsemane, the small garden of olive […]
Continue ReadingThe text below was a response by Marko Marina in a BSA conversation here. Like most critical scholars today (Catholic and non-Catholic alike), I’m [Dr. Marina] convinced the figures called “brothers” of Jesus in the New Testament were in fact his biological siblings, children of Mary and Joseph born after Jesus’ birth. Below, I’ll respond […]
Continue ReadingHow To Pronounce Qos The Edomite god Qōs (also spelled Qaus or Qos) is typically pronounced like the English word “coast” without the “t”. So, put together: Qōs = “Kōs” (One syllable, long “o”, hard “k”) In scholarly transliteration, the “Q” preserves the Semitic root consonant (qoph), but there’s no need to emphasize it unless […]
Continue ReadingThis post contains extracts from two great articles at BAR that provide a summary of information about the three kingdoms. Who Were the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites in the Bible? Ancient Israel’s neighbors east of the Jordan at BAR by Megan Sauter, June 17, 2025. Her post has summary statements (extracted below) about the three kingdoms, […]
Continue ReadingClick here for the text from William Ellery Channing‘s famous 1819 speech on Unitarian Christianity at the First Unitarian Church in Baltimore, MD. In a BSA comment, Charles Bledsoe offered the link saying: “Here’s a link to a literarily sophisticated and quite famous sermon in the history of American Christianity…” Scroll down the long page for text about why […]
Continue ReadingThis post points out an issue with Paul’s statement in Philippians 3, where Paul admits to having once dioko (Greek for persecuted or pursued) the church. In addition, Acts (especially Acts 8) presents Paul (then Saul) as a fierce persecutor of early Christians, aligned with the martyrdom of Stephen. Paul makes this statement in Galatians […]
Continue ReadingBelow is ChatGPT’s summary of my transcript of the YouTube Video by Dr. Robyn Walsh at https://youtu.be/oEoouKCTTOw?si=BtMXkNOGmMOdOXjI. Prepared 6/20/2025. She explores the alternate interpretations of the Greek dioko as persecute or pursue. The Transcript is in her DropBox directory. The transcript, “Did Paul Really Persecute Christians?” by Dr. Robyn Walsh, explores the traditional and scholarly […]
Continue ReadingFrom Claude.ai in Explanatory Mode on 6/19/2025. Jump down to the ChatGPT response to essentially the same question. Jump beyond that to a geographical overview, featuring a great map of where the key Jewish-Christian and Orthodox sects were active. Claude Prompt: Provide a summary of Jewish-Christian sects, including Roman Christianity. Cite all sources. I’ll help […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 6/18/2025. Prompt: Do critical bible scholars find a literary consistency between the Gospel of Mark, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter as would be expected if they were all written by John Mark? Cite all sources. See the related posts on this site for more info on John Mark and the issues with the […]
Continue ReadingHow Many Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill? Written by Marko Marina, Ph.D. Posted at BSA on May 29th, 2025. The table and text below are extracts from his excellent article, which includes brief discussions of the sources listed in the table below. Twelve of the most frequently mentioned prophecies Jesus is said to have fulfilled, served up in […]
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