This document contains the show notes for a podcast I made in November 2019 about bishops in early Christianity and the counsel in the Pastorals regarding the choosing of a bishop. I was interested in doing something like this for a while, due to the scholarship that exists regarding theContinue Reading

Layers of “Pseudepigraphy” or Levels of Authenticity Occasionally when I am talking with friends about the authorship of scriptural texts I get inquisitive looks when discussing the idea that some of the New Testament is pseudepigraphal, or not authentically written by the author that claimed to have written the document.Continue Reading

Many years ago I taught near a school where a there was an athletically gifted young man. He had tremendous talent on the football field and the basketball court. He was probably the highest scorer on the basketball team, and his achievements on the football field were noticed by college scouts. WhenContinue Reading

Slavery & Philemon Aristotle developed the theory that some persons were servile by their very nature. There was a tendency starting in the late Roman Republic and continuing in the empire, to restrict the absolute rights of the master over the slave. A number of pagan tourists such as FlorentinusContinue Reading

1 Timothy Authorship In the modern era of biblical scholarship, those that study these texts have questioned whether 1 Timothy (and for that matter all 3 pastoral epistles) was written by Paul. One reason for this is that this text uses a significant number of words not found in Paul’sContinue Reading

An Early Document – 1 Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians may be the first document chronologically in the entire New Testament. It was probably written in the year 50 by Paul and is considered an authentic letter of Paul. According to the record in the book of Acts, Paul’s mission to EuropeContinue Reading

This letter is the most affectionate of all of Paul’s letters. Philippi was the capital of ancient Macedonia, in northern Greece. According to Acts 16, it was the first city in Europe in which Paul founded a Christ centered group of people after leaving Asia Minor in the late 40’sContinue Reading

Colossians According to the text, when “Paul” wrote Colossians, he was in prison (Colossians 4.3, 18). It was “written” by Paul and Timothy, and it mentions Epaphras as one who brought the gospel to Colossae, a city in the Lycus Valley with Hierapolis and Laodicea. The text of Colossians containsContinue Reading

Ephesians 1 is all about who we were in the Pre-earth Council and who God the Father is in relation to us… this is set in the context of First Temple Israelite religion and in the modern Holy Temple I discuss many of these ideas with my colleague Bryce DunfordContinue Reading