Questions tagged [history]
For questions related to history generally. Use the [church-history] tag for the history of the post-NT church.
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Essenes' Beliefs in Comparison to Christianity
Does anyone know (with sources) what the Essenes taught and believed in relation to what Christ taught? Sources are much appreciated.
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5answers
316 views
Could December 25 as the birthday of Jesus have come from Pagan influences?
Could December 25 as the birthday of Jesus have come from Pagan influences?
I am asking this due to the information in the following sources:
“NIMROD” – The LORD of
Christmas
Church of Satan ...
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2answers
51 views
At what time did the scourging at the pillar take place on Good Friday?
I have read some of the post on the accounts that took place between the time of the last supper through the crucifixion hour including the trials.
what time would the scourging at the pillar taken ...
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2answers
421 views
How did scripture get the name bible?
A man came to my home and said that scriptures got the name bible from a prostitution city called Byblos near Tyre. He said that Byblos means "city of bastards" and it was deceptively put on the bible ...
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1answer
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Has Peter Lombard ever been venerated in the Catholic Church?
Peter Lombard was allegedly one of the most important theologians of the Middle Ages. As Wikipedia states, he was:
Bishop of Paris, and author of Four Books of Sentences, which became the standard ...
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2answers
220 views
What kind of movement or denomination in Christianity made being a Christian a personal/individual choice?
What kind of movement or denomination in Christianity made being a Christian a personal/individual choice?
I recently watched a random YouTube video. Random, because I had no idea how I got there. ...
5
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2answers
137 views
What was the language that Enoch spoke and did the Book of Enoch get written 3000 years BC is there any proof or carbon dating of that?
I would like to know if the Book of Enoch was dated around 3000 BC and what language did he speak and is there any carbon dating that was use on any book found? And where are the oldest Scripture of ...
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1answer
69 views
What were the godparent requirements back in the 1960s?
My mother was baptised in the Catholic Church in the 1960s.
I received information that her godfather (her uncle on her father's side) might not have been Catholic but rather Anglican. Could an ...
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1answer
94 views
What was the 16th century Catholic doctrine on Greek gods?
I've long assumed the Catholics have always denied the existence of pagan gods, hence allowed them to be represented in art as a fiction reminiscent of a heroic and remote past. However, the strong ...
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0answers
60 views
Are there any Eastern-Orthodox theologians who question the historicity of, for example, Moses and Joshua?
Some of the early church fathers seem to condone allegorical interpretations of certain part of scripture (for example Gregory of Nyssa concerning God's killing of the firstborn in Egypt). Are there ...
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4answers
129 views
Did Jesus write a Bible commentary?
It seems that Jesus is what the New Testament tends to consist of; him and his teachings.
Did he ever ‘teach’ about the Bible, the first testament, in any capacity?
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1answer
89 views
How to find out more about the the 12 disciples?
How can I find out more about the 12 disciples and their lives and families than is mentioned in the Scriptures?
What did they give up and who they left behind, in order to follow Christ.
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2answers
187 views
What's the first ancient document composed by a non-Christian denying the resurrection?
What is the first ancient document composed by a non-Christian denying the resurrection of Jesus that we have access to?
I am specifically looking for a document actually penned by a non-Christian, ...
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0answers
75 views
Ties between the Jesuits and the Byzantine?
I am reading into Society of Jesus, seeking to uncover its parallels and differences with Orthodox Christianity. It is attested the Jesuit order was formed in France on August 15th 1534, by Ignatius ...
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1answer
254 views
Why is Christianity fixated on ancient Israeli culture? Is such a 'spacetime-lock' evidence of falsehood?
When I studied Mohammed's religion, I thought the insistence and enforcement of 7th century Arabian culture (e.g. diet, clothing, marriage, law) on the entire planet unreasonable, and evidence it was ...
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57 views
Which prophecies does Justin Martyr claim predict Jesus' Advent? Please identify them
In his First Apology Justin Martyr writes:
We find it also predicted that certain persons should be sent by Him into every nation to publish these things, and that rather among the Gentiles [than ...
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2answers
196 views
Does the Minimal Facts Argument have the potential to the biggest Christian revelation over the last thousand years? [closed]
I recently came across the "Minimal Facts Argument" by Dr Gary Habermas. In short, the argument is that there are a half dozen reliable historical facts (even for those who'd judge the NT as ...
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2answers
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How did Pope Urban II justify the first Crusade?
According to the ten commandments, you shall not kill anyone. How did Pope Urban II justify from a theological standpoint the First Crusade? Since it was successful, Pope Urban II must have had to ...
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1answer
150 views
Was Judas based on the story of Buddha and Devadatta? [closed]
To oversimplify greatly, Devadatta was a cousin of the Buddha when he was teaching his core disciples. Devadatta and the Buddha had many disagreements on things such as Asceticism. This cause and ...
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2answers
498 views
When did the term “New Testament” first come into usage?
While reading William Bridge's, "The Wounded Conscience Cured," (1642) I came across Bridge's usage of the term "New Testament" :
"And in the New Testament, Romans 13.1..."
-William Bridge, "...
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2answers
314 views
How were missionaries able to convert native populations? [closed]
What made it possible for Christian missionnaires to convert natives of America, Africa and Asia to another religion despite the fact that they already had beliefs and gods ?
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2answers
677 views
Origin of the (mis)translation “Ten Commandments”
The Old Testament speaks of the עשרת הדברים in Deuteronomy 4:13, a phrase which is translated almost without exception to be the "Ten Commandments" (see here). However, the word הדברים is never else ...
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1answer
109 views
Why were Catholic fasting obligations steadily relaxed?
It seems that since the Middle Ages, the fasts prescribed by the Catholic Church were gradually but steadily reduced. Much can be read about the history of these relaxations, but little is said about ...
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0answers
165 views
How many people were killed by Protestant Inquisition style tribunals? Asking for references
It's relatively easy to find estimates for the number of people killed during the Catholic Inquisition; one just needs to check the Wikipedia page, to see several estimates of the number of people ...
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1answer
109 views
What was the literal meaning of the term 'stone rejected by builders'? [closed]
Matthew 21:42 (NASB) says:
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone
which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This
came about from the Lord, ...
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0answers
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What was the socioeconomic makeup of early Christian Gnostic sects?
There is ample evidence that early Christianity was socioeconomically very inclusive, being made up of the poor, the wealthy, men, women, the educated, uneducated, etc.
For example, Pliny the ...
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0answers
67 views
What's the Greek manuscripts of John with the oldest discovery date?
I'm trying to figure out what are the oldest complete manuscripts of the Gospel of John in Greek.
New Testament (Wikipedia)
For example, papyrus 66
They say 66 is the oldest and nearly complete; ...
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3answers
842 views
Why did early Christians believe in the Real Presence?
I'd imagine that if Christ directly taught the doctrine of the Real Presence, then one of the Gospels would have recorded it. So given that fact that it isn't directly taught, let us assume for the ...
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2answers
339 views
Why did Paul VI strip József Mindszenty of his archbishopric?
József Mindszenty was appointed Primate of Hungary and Archbishop of Esztergom in 1945. There existed a mutual animosity between him and the Hungarian government, which culminated in his imprisonment ...
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3answers
3k views
Why is the word “dragon” in the Bible?
I'm not asking about what is the dragon, it's the devil okay, but my question is why is it called "dragon", why dragons exists in the Bible, when they are nothing more than mythical creatures.
...
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3answers
917 views
How did Christians cultivate their knowledge of the Bible before mass-printing of the Bible?
The Bible is by far the most sold book ever. As this site says:
Bible Society’s attempt to calculate the number printed between 1816 and 1975 produced the figure of 2,458,000,000 – almost 2 and a ...
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1answer
221 views
Is Any New Testament Book Undisputed In Its Authorship?
It seems as though every time I turn around, I find that "the majority of scholars" doubt this person wrote this gospel or letter. It seems as though no book of the NT is immune to this doubting and ...
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1answer
183 views
How did attitues to the deutero-canonical books in the Western Churches change during the second millenium? [closed]
What was the pre-Reformation understanding and how did that change during and after the Reformation Era for Protestants and for Catholics? What is the current position?
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0answers
43 views
Annals of John Hyrcanus
1 Maccabees 16:23-24
The rest of John's acts, the battles he fought and the exploits he
performed, the city walls he built, and all his other achievements,
from the day he succeeded his father ...
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0answers
46 views
Tombs of Mattathias and Sons
From 1 Maccabees 13:25–30:
Simon sent and recovered the bones of his brother Jonathan, and
buried him in Modein, the town of his ancestors.
All Israel kept solemn mourning for him and long ...
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0answers
158 views
The right to read a Catholic church's sacramental register
In the era of handwritten parish registers, when a diocesan or missionary priest performed a sacramental rite, he wrote it up in a semi-structured form in a record book. Sometimes that priest was the ...
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2answers
591 views
Why did Nehemiah need to tell us that the Queen was sitting beside the King?
What is the significance of knowing that the queen was sitting next to the king during this conversation in Nehemiah? Was there some historical or cultural significance to the queen being present that ...
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0answers
171 views
How has Roman Catholic Confession changed throughout the centuries?
Currently, the common practice of confession in the U.S. is...
A person completes an examination of conscious, tells the priest how long it has been since their last confession, then they make their ...
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0answers
53 views
The Resurrection: early Jewish writings on it? [duplicate]
I'm currently studying the Resurrection, which I believe 100%. What ancient Jewish texts close to the first century speak about the Resurrection, or about the empty tomb that Christians claimed Christ ...
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1answer
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What was the name of the Pharaoh during the time of Moses?
In the Bible it never mentions Pharaoh's name but every other king/queen is mentioned by name. Did I miss it? What's his name?
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2answers
362 views
Was Paul's Relationship with Jewish Leadership Close Enough to Act as Their Agent?
After reading this question on judaism.SE I wanted to pose a version of it here. (You know, it's facinating to see how Judaism views us....)
Paul's letter to the Hebrews could be described (and ...
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1answer
144 views
Are there documented reports about Jews around the time of Jesus? And what did they say about the first christians?
Are there any reliable documented reports of Jewish individuals, leaders or groups, around the time of Jesus?
Who were they?
And what did they say about Jesus and/or the first Christians?
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2answers
370 views
What prompted the change in Christian attitude towards usury?
Lending with interest between Jews is a sin in the Old Testament, which should have gone away for non-Jewish Christians
According to Wikipedia, it was only proscribed by Christianity later; at ...
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2answers
740 views
Why is St Martin “in-the-Fields”?
I was reading about the Anglican church St Martin-in-the-Fields and was curious about the in-the-Fields part of the name. It is named after Martin of Tours who was a saint in France during the 4th ...
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1answer
296 views
What are the duties of a Pope? Can a pope be “good” or “bad” in this perspective?
Is there something like "bad" or "good" popes"?
What is the meaning when a pope is qualified "good" or "bad", with the historical perspective. For instance, some popes have bad reputation in the ...
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1answer
328 views
Is every single minute of the year a mass being celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church? If so, since when?
Update: as stated by brasshat's answer below, the Good Friday mass is not celebrated in the Roman Catholic world. Naturally, this makes the answer to my question apparently trivial. It is not totally ...
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1answer
76 views
Biblical era gesture signifying peace between two parties? [closed]
I am working on a painting set in the Biblical era which shows a military group confronting another group.
I am trying to find a gesture which the leader of one army would make to indicate that they ...
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2answers
3k views
Acts 11:26 regarding the word Christian?
Referring to Acts 11:26: Did the people (unbelievers) of Antioch call the "Believers" Christian, or did the Believers start calling themselves Christian first in Antioch?
Here is what I mean: Acts 11:...
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1answer
96 views
What oil was used at the time of James?
James 5:14-17 discusses healing through the anointing of oil. Surely these days we have plenty of different types of oils but what oil was used at the time of this scripture being written?
