Showing results for "Media" in Biblical History & Culture

Although most people acknowledge that Jesus was a first-century Jew, interpreters of the Gospels often present him as opposed to Jewish law and customs—especially when considering his numerous encounters with the ritually impure. Matthew Thiessen corrects this popular misconception by placing Jesus within the Judaism of his day. Thiessen demonstrates that the Gospel writers depict Jesus opposing ritual impurity itself, not the Jewish ritual purity system or the Jewish law.

The Israel Decree meticulously traces the historical, political, legal, and scriptural foundations of Israel's God-promised right to the land. Writing with clarity and commitment to biblical truth, bestselling author and native Israeli Amir Tsarfati helps you: understand how today’s Israel is a continuation of the ancient biblical nation, fulfilling a divine promise made millennia ago; live with greater expectancy and hope in light of what Bible prophecy says about the rapture and tribulation; and be encouraged by God’s wonderful character as you see it on display.

In this concise, engaging book, noted New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson takes listeners on a journey back to the time of the early Roman Empire, when the New Testament was written in ordinary Greek (koine) by the first Christians. The author explains how the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation evolved into the canon of sacred writings for the Christian religion, and how they reflect a reinterpretation of the symbolic world and societal forces of first-century Greco-Roman and Jewish life.

Distinct from the Greek Books of Maccabees found in other traditions, it blends powerful exhortations and vivid narratives that call God's people to reject idolatry, remain faithful under corrupt rulers, and live with repentance and hope in God's justice. Listen as this ancient text challenges the heart and strengthens faith.

4 Baruch is one of the most intriguing books in the Ethiopian Bible—and one of the most controversial texts excluded from the traditional Jeremiah narrative. In this immersive narration by Christopher Glyn, you'll hear the entire book read aloud that follows the storyline from Jerusalem to Babylon and back again.

Angels are all around us. They are not fairy-tale creatures or New Age sprites but powerful beings created by God to reflect his light. And while we often are not aware of them, the angels are deeply interested in us. In Angels: Our Guardians in Spiritual Battle, moral theologian, author, and speaker Msgr. Brian Bransfield teaches us how to recognize the angels present in our lives.

For Jacob Wright, the Bible is not only a testimony of survival, but also an unparalleled achievement in human history. Forged after Babylon's devastation of Jerusalem, it makes not victory but total humiliation the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting the destruction of their homeland, scribes who composed the Bible imagined a promise-filled past while reflecting deeply on abject failure.

Satan's transformation from opaque functionary to chief antagonist is one of the most striking features of the development of Jewish theology in the Second Temple Period and beyond. Once no more than an "accuser" testing members of the human community, Satan, along with his demons, is presented by Jewish apocalyptic texts and the New Testament as a main source of evil in the world. In Satan and the Problem of Evil, noted scholar Archie Wright explores this dynamic in both its historical and theological trajectories.

1 Clement exhorts Christians to imitate the examples of Old Testament heroes like Moses and Elijah, to submit to godly leadership for the sake of harmony, and to pursue holiness in every aspect of life. Far more than a dry treatise, it pulses with the urgency of a faith tested by persecution and the hope of new life in Christ.

In this full-length audiobook of the Odes of Solomon, you'll experience 42 early Christian poems brought to life through clear, heartfelt narration. Composed between the first and third centuries CE by Jewish-Christian communities, these hymns lay hidden in Syriac manuscripts until their 19th-century rediscovery. As you listen, you'll follow their journey from dusty desert scrolls to today's speakers, feel their powerful messages of divine love and rebirth, and lose yourself in the vivid, poetic language that has inspired readers for generations.

What does the Bible say about sexuality? How have traditions of biblical interpretation influenced our understanding of sex and gender? What the Bible Says About Sex answers that and many other questions. Not shy, it analyzes why the Church claimed dominion over marriage, while the female body remained a source of potential evil. It wrestles with how sexuality is used to reinforce notions of honor, and how it can be used to manipulate others. It looks brazenly at the pornographic and the erotic passages of the Bible, and how traditions of interpretation veiled them.

Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, Simon, Judas, and Matthias - what happened to the men who answered Jesus' call to follow him? What impact did they have on the world? Where did they go and what did they do after Jesus' resurrection and ascension? In these fascinating profiles, Dr. McBirnie offers listeners a snapshot of the lives of each apostle.

Decolonizing Palestine challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts—Israel, the land, election, and chosen people—must be decolonized in a paradigm shift in Christian theological thinking about Palestine.

This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers a clear, accessible, and concise account of the apocryphal gospels - exploring their origins, their discovery, and discussing how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond.

After her brother died unexpectedly and her mother moved into a dementia-care facility, spiritual travel writer and Episcopal deacon Lori Erickson felt called to a new quest: to face death head-on, with the eye of a tourist and the heart of a pastor. Blending memoir, spirituality, and travel, Near the Exit examines how cultures confront and have confronted death by investigating Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Mayan temples, Colorado cremation pyres, Day of the Dead celebrations, Maori settlements, and tourist-destination graveyards.

The Didache—formally "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles"—is a sixteen-chapter handbook composed in Koine Greek around 90–150 AD, most likely in Syria or Asia Minor. Throughout, it emphasizes orderly community life, describing how to recognize and receive itinerant prophets, how to appoint bishops and deacons, and how to maintain hospitality and discipline within the fellowship. The work closes with a sober eschatological charge, urging believers to watch and pray for Christ's imminent return.

The Second Book of Enoch, also known as the Slavonic Enoch or 2 Enoch, is an ancient religious text that is part of the Jewish apocalyptic tradition. It is considered pseudepigraphical, attributed to the biblical figure Enoch, who was said to have been taken up to heaven and shown divine revelations. The book exists in various versions, with the most well-known being the Slavonic manuscript preserved in the Russian National Library. The Second Book of Enoch is comprised of several sections that offer a glimpse into cosmology, theology, and eschatology.

In this unique and thought-provoking work Gardiner proves that the Ark of the Covenant, the Shroud of Turin, and Mary are united in ways never before imagined. Travelling across the world, from Rome to India, Portugal to Egypt, Gardiner uncovers the trail of the Ark and finds that it does not lead to Ethiopia, as many believe, but instead in a direction that nobody could have imagined. The trail of the Ark takes Gardiner on a hunt into the very heart of an ancient secret society with clandestine meetings in far-off lands.

The Life of Adam and Eve, (also known in its Greek version as the Apocalypse of Moses), is a significant Jewish apocryphal writing that tells in colourful detail the fate of Adam and Eve after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It provides more detail about the Fall of Man, in which Satan explains that he rebelled when God commanded him to bow down to Adam.

Issus de "l'étincelle divine", nous sommes tous un fragment de la force créatrice de Dieu le Père et Dieu la Mère. Si notre cerveau possède deux hémisphères, l'un masculin, l'autre féminin, il en va de même du miroir de la création. Notre Père, co-créateur de l'univers, immobile et imperturbable, est pur intellect, alors que Dieu la Mère est le dieu émotif et actif qui peut "interférer" avec notre plan de vie.