A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
The Church of Laodicea in the Bible and ArchaeologyA look at Laodicea’s “lukewarm” legacy from Revelation 3:15–16 by Megan Sauter, Published March 12, 2026. [Tom’s NOTE – This article talks about the evolving, largely Gentile based Christian congregations losing the protection enjoyed by the Jews due to their religious heritage. By denouncing the Jews, the largely […]
Continue ReadingClaude.ai’s Prompt: Provide details, dates, and context in about 1000 words for the times when the Christian Church was composed almost entirely of Jews. However, as more Gentiles (non-Jews) converted to Christianity, the percentage of Jewish people in the Christian Church decreased, and, therefore, Christians’ special status as Jewish monotheists, which permitted them to refrain […]
Continue Reading3/12/2026 – This post contains a Claude.ai summary of the transcript of an interview of Helen Bond on the History Valley Podcast here and embedded below. The transcript is in her directory in Dropbox. Her book on Pilate was recommended by an active member of BAS.
Continue ReadingFrom Claude.ai on 3/11/2026: How, when, where, and why do critical Bible scholars say Lent began and how it relates to the Jewish Passover and Pentecost? The Origins of Lent: A Critical Scholarly Perspective What Lent Is and When It Likely Began Critical scholars — those applying historical, literary, and archaeological methods to religious texts […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 3/11/2026 in relation to the post here titled The Origins of Lent. Prompt: Was the easter baptismal practice [during Lent] preferred or in some way encouraged or practised? Yes. A number of historians of early Christianity have suggested that practical considerations—including climate and water temperature—may have contributed to the preference for Easter […]
Continue ReadingThis post contains the following prompts and responses, listed below with the conclusion copied with the prompts for quick reference. From Claude.ai based on the prompt: How, when, and why do critical Bible scholars say Lent began? The Origins of Lent According to Critical Biblical Scholarship Critical scholars are largely unified that Lent, as a […]
Continue Reading3/10/2026 – This post contains the transcript from here of a video of Ada Palmer explaining why so many books from the Library of Alexandria were lost. 01:23:02 – The Library of Alexandria isn’t where most ancient books were lost Dwarkesh Patel One thing I wanted to ask you, back to the printing press. Not […]
Continue ReadingThe outline covers 13 chronological events spanning from the giving of the Law at Sinai through the composition of the gospels after 70 CE. Each entry identifies the key figures, describes what happened, and explicitly notes how it connects to the events immediately before and after it in Fredriksen’s argument. The narrative chain Fredriksen is […]
Continue ReadingBelow is based on the book When Christians Were Jews by Paula Fredriksen, pp. 32–41. That portion of her book was copied & pasted from my Kindle version and uploaded to Claude.ai to prepare the outline/summary below. Overview This passage traces a connected chain of political and religious events in Judea from the death of […]
Continue ReadingThe contents of this page are Claude.ai’s summaries of Marg Mowske’s three writings in her The Widows in 1 Timothy 5 (Series) listed below. Part 1. The Different Kinds of Widows in EphesusPart 2. Genuine Widows and Enrolled Widows (pending)Part 3. Young Widows and Female Patrons (pending) Part 1. The Different Kinds of Widows in Ephesus This […]
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