The Bible: How’d they do that?

Image via ASPhillips

This isn't about religion...                   

This edition is about facts, peculiar ones. It’s a post that should be of interest to loads of readers, regardless of their beliefs, unbelief or affiliation with any type of religion.

It’s info that’s available in a wide array of videos and blog posts, but isn't common content that will populate the feeds of many folks outside the scope of history and Christendom.

That of course, doesn’t make it less interesting. It just means it doesn’t come up in their content suggestions as often, without a deliberate search for it.

Lots of people with or without religion are intrigued by peculiarity, and the following info is definitely peculiar. If your interests fall into one of the categories below, you qualify and maybe (probably) LOTS of folks you know qualify, too. 

It’s worthy information for anyone interested in...

☙ Anthropology

☙ Architecture

☙ Archaeology

☙ Engineering

☙ History

☙ Languages

☙ Literature

☙ Philosophy
☙ Religion

☙ Sociology

If your interests don’t include any of those categories, you’re welcome to stay and read along anyway.

This post falls into the new By the Way series, Facts & Fiction. You can find the categories listed in the sidebar and the number of how many posts each category (or genre) includes. A click on any of them will populate a list of the posts for you, should you like to read them.

Extraordinary aspects of the Bible’s composition

Here we go!

☙ The Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years

☙ The King James version contains 66 separate books

☙ The books were authored by 40 different people

☙ It’s a unified story written by a physician, a tax collector, kings, fishermen, priests, prophets, scholars, shepherds and warriors

☙ It was written in different nations on three different continents and in different languages

☙ Continents: Asia, Africa and Europe

☙ Africa: Egypt and Ethiopia

                ☙ Asia: Israel, Iraq, Iran and Turkey

                ☙ Europe: Greece and Italy

☙ It contains prophecies and shares wisdom

☙ Many of its prophecies have come to pass and continue to do so at present

☙ Many of the people, places and activities written about in it, continue to be validated and verified by current methods of archaeology and bio-technology

And there you have it. 

It really is peculiar and intriguing stuff! If you’d like to share your thoughts on this phenomenon or see an aspect I missed, please share it in the comments. 

The Wrap!

Thanks for staying to read the whole thing! I hope you’ll share this with any other peculiarity-lovin' folks you know! I admit to having a lot of fun writing in this genre and have several topics to cover in it, in upcoming posts

If you enjoy the content, subscribing is free. You can sign up for an email notification for each edition, near the top of the right sidebar and your information will never be shared, sold or loaned.

That’s it for this one...

Shalom!

Angelia

Facts & Fiction: The Resurrection of Yeshua

 Image via Congerdesign of Pixabay

A new series

This is the first post of a new series I hope you’ll find interesting, regardless of which side you lean toward, regarding fact or fiction. Comments are not only welcome, but encouraged, although keeping them civil is a must, else they’ll be deleted.

Let's begin with the method...

A Roman Death

A Roman crucifixion was brutal and there is no record anywhere of anyone ever surviving a full, Roman crucifixion. Yeshua’s great torture and death was witnessed by man on both sides of the fence–His disciples as well as His adversaries. 

Later, accounts of witnesses were written. They covered the entire ordeal from His arrest, to His torture, His death, His entombment and the sealing of His tomb, ordered by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

Pilate didn’t stop there. To ensure His disciples didn’t steal the body and report He had resurrected, he instructed a massive stone to be placed at the entrance and to seal it as best as they knew how.

But, that wasn’t enough. Pilate ordered his official, procurator Roman seal on the stone. The seal would break if the stone were moved.

And, just in case...

He ordered it to be guarded around the clock by a contingent of Roman soldiers. It’s unknown how many were assigned to guard the tomb, but historians suggest a minimum of four soldiers were ordered to be on guard at all times, and about 16 soldiers were nearby in event things got rowdy, and to relieve the guards posted at the entrance.

By the way, (no pun intended), historians and archaeologists agree upon the estimation of the stone’s weight being between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds.

Early Reports

So, why do historians rely on early reports to support the authenticity of historical events? It’s because they can provide firsthand evidence of historical events, and an unfiltered perspective of what people observed and believed at the time.

They’re considered an essential aspect of historical research that historians use to establish an accurate narrative of past events.

I've listed several for you below that include both Christian and non-Christian documents.

Non-Christian Sources

☙ Flavius Josephus: In his work, Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93 AD), Josephus states that Jesus was crucified by Pilate.

☙ Babylonian Talmud: A rabbinic text from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD contains a passage that refers to Jesus's "hanging" execution.

☙ Tacitus: The prominent Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals, references Christ's execution by Pontius Pilate and his belief in Christ as a historical figure.

☙ Mara bar Serapion: A Syrian philosopher from sometime after 73 AD, Mara refers to the "wise king" of the Jews who was executed by them.

Biblical Sources

☙ The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all contain documentation describing eyewitness accounts of the torture and crucifixion of Yeshua.

☙ The book of Acts and all of Paul’s letters found in the New Testament contain information on not only the crucifixion and resurrection of Yeshua, but his own encounter with Yeshua after His resurrection.

A modern take

An existing report of the resurrection of Yeshua dates back to within three months of His crucifixion. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the resurrection of Jesus, analyzed by Dr. James D.G. Dunn (United Kingdom) reported, “We can be entirely confident that this report was written originally, within months of the death of Jesus.” 

Witnesses Recordings

☙ It's documented that over 400 people saw Yeshua alive after his crucifixion.

☙ The first eyewitnesses were women.

☙ Yeshua was entombed in Jerusalem.

☙ The apostles first preached the news of Yeshua’s resurrection in Jerusalem.

☙ The Sanhedrin insisted the disciples stole the body, admitting Yeshua's tomb was empty. The tomb had been sealed and armed, Roman soldiers were stationed, night and day, near the tomb’s entrance. Their orders were to prevent anyone from removing the massive stone blocking the entrance and taking the body of Yeshua.  

☙ Despite having not believed Yeshua would be resurrected, the disciples made a 360° turn around in their belief after encountering groups of people who saw Yeshua, who later came to them, as a group and ministered to them, on multiple occasions before His ascension to Heaven on the Mount of Olives.

Finally...

Image via BRBurton23 of Pixabay

The wrap!

Thank you for visiting today!

I can only add that most Christians believe in the resurrection because we’ve had (and continue to have) very real, personal encounters with Yeshua, in a variety of ways and manifestations.

Once met, it cannot be undone. There is none like Him.

If you haven’t considered Him, sought Him or encountered Him, I pray you do. Only good can come of it and you will never, ever be the same in indescribably wonderful ways.

Shalom!

Angelia