Exploring the Bible

Have you ever read a Bible passage and wondered how the very first Christians understood it? When we sit down with our Bibles today, it is easy to feel like it is just us and the text. But the truth is, we are part of a massive family of believers stretching back over two thousand years. If you want to know how those early believers read, studied, and lived out the Scriptures, there is a fascinating place to look. It is a vast body of literature known as the Church Fathers Collection. If that sounds like a dusty section of a theological library, stick with me. These writings are actually vibrant, passionate, and incredibly relevant to our faith today. Who Exactly Are the Church Fathers? The term "Church Fathers" refers to the influential theologians, pastors, and leaders of the early Christian church. Their writings span roughly from the late first century up to the eighth century. This collection includes letters, sermons, historical accounts, and defenses of the Chris...

  As modern readers of the Bible, it is essential to establish our current context before diving into ancient dietary laws. For Christians today, the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the strict dietary restrictions of the Old Testament are no longer binding. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus declared that it is not what goes into a person from the outside that defiles them, but what comes out of their heart, effectively declaring all foods clean (Mark 7:19). Later, the Apostle Peter received a vivid vision in Acts 10 where God commanded him not to call anything impure that God has made clean, breaking down the barrier between Jewish and Gentile believers. Today, all food is considered clean. However, to truly understand the history of the Israelites and the richness of the biblical text, we must look back at the Law of Moses. In the books of Leviticus (chapter 11) and Deuteronomy (chapter 14), God established strict boundaries for His people regarding what they could and cou...

  In the quest to separate historical fact from legend, historians often look for what they call "hostile attestation." The logic is simple: if your friends say you are noteworthy, they might be biased. If your enemies—those who despise everything you stand for—admit that you existed and verify the details of your life, their testimony carries immense weight. For the history of the early church, there is perhaps no witness more hostile, yet more historically valuable, than Cornelius Tacitus. Tacitus (c. 56–120 AD) is widely regarded by modern scholars as the greatest historian of the Roman Empire. A senator and a proconsul of Asia, he was a man of the establishment—aristocratic, skeptical, and deeply concerned with the politics of Rome. He had no love for the Jewish people and even less for the emerging sect of Christians, whom he viewed with aristocratic disdain. Yet, in his final and most significant work, The Annals , Tacitus provides a startlingly clear confirmation o...

  The question of whether members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as Mormons) are Christians is one of the most frequently asked, yet widely misunderstood, inquiries in modern theology. Depending on who is asked, the answer is often a resounding "yes" or a definitive "no." To navigate this question honestly, we have to look past surface-level assumptions and examine the foundational truths of both faiths. The discrepancy does not stem from a lack of clarity, but rather from how the word "Christian" is defined. If a Christian is defined simply as "someone who believes in, worships, and seeks to follow Jesus Christ," then Latter-day Saints unequivocally fit the description. However, if "Christian" is defined by adherence to historic, creedal orthodoxy—specifically the theology established by the early church councils—then Mormonism represents a distinct departure from the Christian tradition. T...

In July 2025, the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem announced a discovery that offered a literal, physical touch from the biblical past: a 2,600-year-old clay seal impression bearing the name of a royal family connected to King Josiah, complete with the ancient official's fingerprint pressed into its edge. The Artifact and the Fingerprint The artifact is a bulla —a small, stamped lump of clay used to secure commercial and legal goods in antiquity. An official would press their personalized signet ring into wet clay over the string binding a document or container to ensure it was not opened by unauthorized personnel. Based on paleographic dating (the shape of the letters), the bulla dates to the late 7th or early 6th century BC, placing it squarely in the final years of the First Temple period. The ancient Hebrew script on the seal reads: "Belonging to Yed[a‛]yah, (son of) Asayahu" . When researchers examined the reverse side of the clay, they found marking...

Matthias holds a unique and somewhat paradoxical place in Christian history. As the replacement for Judas Iscariot, he is the only apostle not directly called by Jesus during his earthly ministry, and the only one chosen by a human administrative process (the casting of lots). Yet, the moment he is elected in the first chapter of Acts, he vanishes entirely from the biblical narrative. To understand Matthias, we have to look at the strict criteria for his election, the fragmented traditions of his missionary work, and the surprising archaeological legacy he left in Western Europe. The Apostolic Criteria and the Election (Acts 1) Following the defection and death of Judas, Peter addressed the early Christian community (numbering about 120 people) in Jerusalem to fill the vacancy. Maintaining the number twelve was highly symbolic, representing the twelve tribes of Israel and signaling the restoration of God’s covenant people. Peter established a strict prerequisite for the candida...