Pursuing Veritas

Reflections by Jacob J. Prahlow
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  • Ephrem’s “Hymns on Paradise”

    This post is part of an ongoing series examining Ephrem the Syrian and early Syrian Christianity. Given the length of Ephrem’s Hymns on Paradise and the number of reflection-worthy aspects of his thought demonstrated in these hymns, this essay offers several general reflections on Ephrem’s concepts of Paradise (historic and cosmic), the limiting of investigation,…

  • Jesus and Crossan (Part II)

    This is the second part of a two post-series looking at John D. Crossan’s view of the Historical Jesus as outlined in Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. Key for understanding Crossan’s perspective on the historical Jesus is his understanding of Jesus as a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant.[13] In Crossan’s view, this understanding points to Jesus as a…

  • Jesus and Crossan (Part I)

    Around Easter, various theories about the life, death, and (non) resurrection of Jesus tend to find their way onto various media outlets. Sometimes these theories are outlandish and little more than attempts at attention; other times claims about Jesus come from more respectable sources. In today’s and tomorrow’s posts, I examine one of the more…

  • Book Review: Encountering the New Testament (Elwell and Yarbrough)

    First impressions matter. Whether at a job interview, social function, or classroom, the initial picture people paint tends to color all subsequent interactions with that person. To a large degree, this is true of non-personal interactions as well, with institutions, places, and subject matter. And while a bad first impression can be overcome (often through…

  • He is Risen!

    Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was…

  • Recommended Readings: March 28-April 3

    If you read one article this week, engage An Open Letter to Christian Bakers in Indiana by Russell Johnson. For those of you with more time, check out the rest of this week’s suggested readings from around the internet. As always, if there is something else I should be reading, let me know in the…

  • The Passion of Jesus Christ

    When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was…

  • What Day Did Jesus Die?

    This post also  appears this morning at Conciliar Post. “When students are first introduced to the historical, as opposed to a devotional, study of the Bible, one of the first things they are forced to grapple with is that the biblical text, whether Old Testament or New Testament, is chock full of discrepancies, many of…

  • March Biblical Studies Carnival

    Welcome to the March 2015 Biblical Studies Carnival! In honor of March’s patron saint (Patrick) and in lieu of what would have been a terrible attempt at an April Fool’s Day joke, start off your morning by (re)visiting the classic “St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies of the Trinity.” Before delving into this month’s suggested articles, I…

  • Deaths of the Apostles

    It’s Holy Week for Christians, the week we remember the last days, Passion, Death, and (ultimately) the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The vast majority of all Christian knowledge about the death and resurrection of Jesus comes from the four canonical gospel accounts, each of which records in some detail the events leading up to Jesus’…