Christian History articles from August 1998

Christian History archives from August 1998

Did You Know?
August 1, 1998... Fascinating and little-known facts about Jesus and his times. The population of Palestine in Jesus' day was approximately 500,000 to 600,000 (about that of Vermont, Boston, or Jerusalem today). About 18,000 of these residents were clergy,...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.(Review)
August 1, 1998... There is a curious "hole" in this issue. Almost everything seemed to have been written from the perspective of an outsider looking in. My wife and I had been lay missionaries in West Africa. Over a four-year period we slowly and painfully...

Walking with Jesus.
August 1, 1998... Christians and non-Christians alike have argued over the "real" Jesus since the first century. Conclusions have ranged from the merely odd (like the Gnostic Jesuses who spoke with mystical vagueness) to the absurd (some have argued Jesus didn't...

Primary Sources.
August 1, 1998... What type of history do the four Evangelists tell, and what does it reveal about Jesus? No modern biographer would ignore all of Jesus' early life, as Mark does, or skip over his formative experiences as a young adult, as all Gospels but...

Crisis in the Middle East.
August 1, 1998... Ethnic and religious tensions ran high in Jesus' day too. During the reign of Herod the Great, two teachers persuaded several young men to clamber up on the temple gates and cut down a golden eagle the king had mounted in honor of his Roman...

The Place of Prayer.
August 1, 1998... What exactly took place in a synagogue service? Though first-century Palestine was mostly illiterate, theological education remained a high priority for Jews. So the illiterate gathered with the literate and learned the Scriptures together...

Getting Physical.(geography)
August 1, 1998... The geography that shaped the world--and world-view--of first-century Jews. Sideways? Like most of the ancient Near East, first-century Jews oriented themselves not by magnetic north, but by the sun's rising in the east. Thus, east...

On the Road.(travel in ancient Palestine)
August 1, 1998... The inns and outs of travel in first-century Palestine. The first description of the Promised Land given to Moses captures the essence of Palestine's geography: "The land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of...

Select Circle.(close acquaintances of Jesus Christ)
August 1, 1998... What do we know about those closest to Jesus? MARY 18 B.C.?-A.D. 48? History's most venerated mother Though Mary plays a key role in the birth stories of Matthew and Luke, she is scarcely mentioned in the other two Gospels and...

What happened to Jesus' 'brothers'?(Jesus Christ)
August 1, 1998... According to the Gospels, Jesus had several "brothers and sisters" (see "Mary" for possible meanings), but James and Jude are the only ones mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament--James as a leader of the early church in Jerusalem, and Jude...

Fishers of Fish.(Jesus Christ's life in Galilee)
August 1, 1998... The maritime life of Galilee's north shore, Jesus' headquarters. Jesus' move from Nazareth to Capernaum (Matt. 4:13) was a strategic decision. Capernaum was on the main highway through Galilee. Both Roman and temple taxes were collected...

Mistrial of the Millennium.(Jesus Christ)
August 1, 1998... How those in power bent the rules to ensure the outcome. Less than a generation after Jesus' trial, Joshua son of Hananiah began prophesying judgment against the temple, shouting, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from...

The scandal of the grave.(Jesus Christ's burial)
August 1, 1998... Jesus' humiliation didn't end at the cross Jewish funerals almost always took place the same day as the death. The eyes of the deceased were closed, the corpse was washed with perfumes and ointments, its bodily orifices were stopped, and...

Galilean Rabbi Or Universal Lord?(the historical Jesus Christ)
August 1, 1998... Despite earlier failings, the quest for the historical Jesus still matters. An interview with N. T. Wright Even C. S. Lewis was skeptical of searches for the "historical Jesus." And why not? Even before Albert Schweitzer published his...

The Life & Times of Jesus of Nazareth.(Review)
August 1, 1998... There are also many other things that Jesus did," wrote the author of John's Gospel. "If every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." Well, book publishers...