Category Archives: Christian origins and literature

“Are we. . . to listen to her?”: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene (NT Apocrypha 7)

“Forgery” (deceit) or “pseudonymity” (admiration): Ehrman’s take (NT Apocrypha 12)

“Gnosticism” as a scholarly category and the study of the diversity of Christianity (NT Apocrypha 15)

“Who is this guy?”: The Gospel of Mark on the identity of Jesus (NT 1.3)

A guided tour of the heavens: The Ascension of Isaiah (NT Apocrypha 21)

A second highly probable thing about the historical Jesus: Immersion by John the Baptizer

A very Jewish Jesus: The Gospel of Matthew’s portrait (NT 1.4)

Acts of John: Be thou like the bed-bugs (NT Apocrypha 5)

Alexander the Great (d. 323 BCE) and Christian origins (NT 1.2)

An early Christian schism over how to view Jesus’ flesh: Opponents of John the elder (Diversity 1.2)

April D. DeConick’s The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says

Breaking news: Early Christians had no New Testament (NT 2.1)

Breaking news: Early Christians were impious atheists . . . (NT 3.2)

Christian Origins (NT 1.1)

Contexts of early Christianity (NT 3.1)

Did the peasant Jesus ignore Judean ritual laws? Crossan’s answer

Diversity, part 2: Judean diversity fits with plurality of Jesus groups

Early Christian Apocrypha and the historiography of early Christianity (NT Apocrypha 6)

Interpreting Judean scriptures in Paul’s time (NT 2.10)

It’s the end of the world as we know it: Paul’s apocalyptic worldview (NT 2.6)

Jesus said: Let the children. . . get lost? (NT Apocrypha 11)

Jesus’ descent into hell and Satan’s conversation with Hades (NT Apocrypha 3)

Judas Iscariot as the “good guy”?: The Gospel of Judas

Let’s talk about sects: Diversity in Second-Temple Judaism (NT 2.3)

Luke’s portrait of Jesus: Prophet Elijah and “Saviour” (NT 2.14)

Marcion’s Stranger God (also “strange”)

On Sexual Indulgence: Paul and contemporaries like Musonius Rufus

Paul and the situation at Galatia — again (NT 2.9)

Paul and the Super-apostles at Corinth (NT 2.8)

Paul, the Galatians, and circumcision (NT 1.6)

Peter (in the Pseudo-Clementines) on “false” passages in scripture (NT Apocrypha 4)

Peter vs. Simon Magus (alias Paul) in the Pseudo-Clementines (NT Apocrypha 17)

Reflections from the Diversity of Early Christianity course, part 1: Invested sources

Sex and salvation in the Gospel of Philip

Sophia’s mistake: The Sophia of Jesus Christ and Eugnostos (NT Apocrypha 16)

Sophia’s repentance: The Apocryphon of John (NT Apocrypha 20)

The “savage” Marcion: Ethnographic stereotypes in attacking “heretics”

The Gospel of Judas and ethnographic stereotypes: The priests “sacrifice their own children”

The brilliant student and the humiliated teacher again: Smart young Apollonius of Tyana (NT Apocrypha 8)

The Coptic Gospel of Thomas and an interesting online debate (NT Apocrypha 13)

The Cursing Infant Jesus: Ancient vs. modern sensibilities (NT Apocrypha 1)

The Fall of the temple of Artemis according to the Acts of John (NT Apocrypha 14)

The Jesus Ultimatum: Action and suspense in Mark’s gospel

The Little Drummer Boy and Protevangelium of James (NT Apocrypha 2)

The morphing Jesus: Christology in the Acts of John (NT Apocrypha 19)

Thecla, Tertullian, and controversies over women’s leadership (NT Apocrypha 18)

Viewing the diversity of early Christianity through opponents (Diversity 1.1)

Was Paul a man of his time?: Contemporaries on the treatment of slaves (NT 2.11)

What crime did Ignatius of Antioch commit and who laid the charges?

Worshiping the Beast / Honouring the Emperor