Category: New Testament

  • Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints

    Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints

    The Maxwell Institute at BYU recently published Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints, and it is a fantastic journey into early Christianity geared specifically to Latter-day Saints.  Through a collection of 14 essays dealing with topics ranging from praxis and worship to scripture and theology, the key elements of Christianity during its first several…

  • If I Didn’t Believe, Part II: God, Jesus, and Other Religions

    If I Didn’t Believe, Part II: God, Jesus, and Other Religions

      God: I feel like the belief in God is one of those almost congenital predispositions; you either believe or you don’t. Empirically, based on fine tuning and the complexity of the origin of life, I would lean towards there being an organizational force, even in the absence of a belief in the Church.  Additionally,…

  • Book Report-Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

    Book Report-Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

    This is a well-written journalistic account of a scandal that happened in the biblical studies community in 2012 when a purportedly ancient parchment surfaced that contained the words “Jesus said to them ‘my wife.’” Despite some red flags such as bad Coptic grammar, Professor Karen King, one of the preeminent scholars in the field, became…

  • Was Jesus Married or Not?

    Was Jesus Married or Not?

    An enigma that has been explored repeatedly over the years, both in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in Christianity more broadly, is the marital status of Jesus of Nazareth. There is little to reliably indicate either way in the established canon of the New Testament, but that hadn’t stopped people from…