A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
From ChatGPT on 12/9/2025. Below is the mainstream historical-critical picture about what may have happened to Mary after the crucifixion, why scholars reach those views, and what evidence exists. None of this relies on Christian apologetic arguments; when citing later Christian writers. 1. What the earliest historical-critical consensus says The earliest recoverable position is simply: […]
Continue ReadingThe first 25 minutes is Tabor providing background to his book “The Lost Mary”. After that, Crossan tells how his growing up in Ireland in the violence of the 1940s-50s made him realize what Mary and Jesus faced with the memories of Herod and the current violence of the Romans. Tabor shares his alternative view […]
Continue ReadingKey Points repeated from the Summary of Bart and Magan’s video cited at the bottom of this page. From ChatGPT on 9/18/2025. Scroll down to the Summary of Bart and Megan’s podcast titled Critical New Testament scholars who study early Christian literature tend to treat the Protoevangelium of James (also called the Infancy Gospel of […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 7/29/2025. Here is a comprehensive list of all the stories in the Bible where Mary, the mother of Jesus, is explicitly mentioned by name. This includes both the New Testament accounts and the Acts passage after Jesus’ ascension. Citations are grouped by context or story. Summary of Books Where Mary is Named: […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 7/1/2025. The debate among critical Bible scholars over whether James and Joses (also spelled “Jose”) were biological sons of Mary (Jesus’ mother) or children of Joseph by a prior wife stems from differing interpretations of New Testament texts, early Christian traditions, and theological developments in later centuries. Here’s a summary of the […]
Continue ReadingFrom OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com. 12/27/2024. Walking from Nazareth to Ein Kerem (traditionally associated with the village where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived) would be a significant journey, both in terms of distance and terrain. Here are the details: 1. Distance and Travel Time 2. Elevation Changes Elevation Changes Along the Way: Additional […]
Continue ReadingFrom Bart’s post Twelve Days of Christmas Day 8: Why Was Jesus Born of a Virgin in Matthew and Luke? In Matthew’s version, Jesus is born of a virgin because this is what was predicted in the prophet Isaiah, as he explicitly states in Isaiah 1:22-23: “All this happened in order that the word spoken […]
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