How Literal was the Mythical World?
Image via Wikipedia Is Doherty’s view that earliest Christian belief that Christ was crucified in some heavenly realm even conceivable? Could any ancient mind plausibly think of a divinity taking on a...
View ArticleHow Philo might have understood Christ in the NT epistles
Philo was a Jewish philosopher in Egypt who died around 50 ce. Much of his literary work was an attempt to explain Jewish beliefs in the language of Greek (or Hellenistic) philosophers. Curiously (for...
View ArticleTwo Adams, Human-Divine Mediators and Angels, and a very different view of...
The point of this post is to highlight, with reference to the sources, some of the less widely known beliefs among Jews around the time Christianity was emerging, and that would seem to have some...
View ArticleDemons 101 – Early Christianity’s Middle Platonic Background
In my previous post I cited a “Distinguished Scholar”‘s textbook summary of Middle Platonic ideas that formed part of the background to early Christianity. I continue this post with a discussion of the...
View ArticleDemonology: the basics of Middle Platonic beliefs as a background to early...
This post completes a series on beliefs about demons that were widespread in philosophical thought at the time of the rise and early growth of Christianity. The previous two posts: Ancient beliefs...
View ArticleJesus Christ in Little India
Last night I strolled along Serangoon Road in Little India, Singapore, to see what was happening in the build-up to the Hindu Deepavali festival. Some of the photos here are from Sri Veeramakaliamman...
View ArticleGod: Liar? Compromiser? Poet? Incompetent?
The will to believe is overpowering. And the idea of a single “God” as a real being who epitomizes all Goodness lies at the heart of religions that can trace their historic influences back to ancient...
View ArticleThe Gnostic Gospel of John (1)
Recently I began a series on the pre-Christian Christ Gnosticism but have recently read a book that I think may throw more direct light on that question — The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel –...
View ArticleJewish Foundations of Christianity — Significance of God’s Name
There is something unusual about the way the name of God is treated in the Old Testament books. The name itself sometimes appears to have an existence of its own apart from God himself. It’s natural...
View ArticleJewish Foundations: The Divine Name & Heavenly Beings Become Human
Continuing from Jewish Foundations of Christianity — Significance of God’s Name . . . . . We have seen how pre-Christian ideas within something we might loosely call “Judaism” could conceive of a...
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