Who was Lydia?

 Lydia was the first gentile European convert to Christianity and was probably the richest commoner mentioned in the Bible. She was a merchant in Thyatira (in modern Turkiye) who sold purple cloth, an expensive luxury item which was only available to the very wealthy and especially to members of the royalty. The purple dye used was extracted from a special sea mollusk. Less well-off people used red dyes while most probably used no dyes at all. Lydia allowed Paul and Silas to use her home as a house church.

Acts 16:14-15.

Nationalities of Biblical Persons if They Were Born Today

 

Ben-Hadad                         Syrian

Judas Iscariot                    Israeli

Herod the Great                Jordanian

Darius the Mede               Kurdish

Queen of Sheba                Possibly Saudi Arabian

Nebuchadnezzar              Iraqi

Gallio                                Spanish

Luke                                 Syrian

Timothy                           Turkish

Solomon                           Israeli

Nationalities of Biblical Persons if They Were Born Today

 

Jesus                                     West Bank Palestinian

Zechariah                            West Bank Palestinian

Ezekiel                                  Israeli

Lydia of Thyatira               Turkish

Paul                                     Turkish

Silas                                     Greek

Amos                                   West Bank Palestinian

Emperor Tiberius              Italian

Mary Magdalene               Israeli

Barnabas                            Cypriot

Modern Names of Places Mentioned in the Bible

 

Acts 11:26     Antioch (Antakya, Turkiye)

Hosea 10:14   Beth Arbel (Irbid, Jordan)

1 Chronicles 5:26   Gozan (Tell Halaf, Syria)

Acts 14:8   Lystra (Klistra, Turkiye)

Revelation 2:18  Thyatira (Akhisar, Turkiye)

The Inspiration of the Bible

I believe in the full and absolute inspiration of the Bible. It is totally free of errors. Where errors have been claimed by critics the critics have usually been eventually proven to have been in error themselves. An example of this is the Hittite people .

Since no archeological evidence was ever found for the Hittites, many believed that they were a fictional element in the Bible. Then. in 1871, at Carchemish, extra-Biblical documentary evidence of the Hittites was unearthed. Later (1906 - 1907), the ruins of Hattusas, the capital of the Hittite empire, were discovered in Turkiye. Hattusas was found the hold over 10,000 Hittite records recorded on clay tablets. Now, Hittite history, including king lists and court records, is well established.

It is true that there are still claims of errors in the Bible. I believe that they will eventually be resolved as we learn more about the history of the Middle East. There is probably more under the dirt of the Middle East than is on top of it.

The Importance of Archeology

“ In a letter to Biblical Archeology Review (May - June 2016, professor Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem states, “If we would have to rely on archeology alone, we would not be able to say anything about Israel until the ninth century B.C.E., except the one mention in the Merneptah Stele in the late 13th century.”    

The Bible mentions cities and peoples otherwise unknown to history, Speaking about unidentified Iron and Bronze Age settlements, Professor Mazar believes that “It is only the Biblical tradition that provides clues to the identity and context of these archeological phenomena.”

One of the cultures mentioned by the Bible which archeology and history declared to be mythological was the Hittite Empire. That is, until the Hittite capital, Hattusas, was identified near Bogas Koy, Turkey in 1884. It was then realized that other ruins discovered in 1834 were also Hittite.  

Opinions about the historicity of the Bible vary wildly depending on numerous factors: educational level, religious background, preconceived biases, etc.  They range from the utterly ridiculous, "2/3 0f Bible is fictional," to the extreme literalist, to the skeptical, to those who give a somewhat grudging acknowledgment.

Ken Ham, writing on the website, Answers in Genesis, quotes from a letter he received from the Smithsonian Institution in response to a question about the historicity of The Flood recounted in Genesis. ’In the best analysis, the Bible is a religious book, not an historical document.’

The historicity of the Bible is the message of the massive apologetic work The Bible as History, written by Werner Keller. Dr. Keller recounts thousands of archeological and scientific items which point to the fact that the Bible is accurate in its historical assertions. Kings and cultures are mentioned in the Bible in the same order and historical context as established by secular sources. The cultural contexts spoken of are consistent with known facts.

The apparent historicity of the Bible is not proof of the truth of the religious claims of Christianity or of Judaism. It does, though, add to the overwhelming evidence pointing toward that truth.  

Place Names with Religious Origins

Mokapu Beach, Maui, Hawaii (USA): The Hawaiian word “kapu” means “forbidden” or “sacred,” the same meaning as the Polynesian word "tabu" or "taboo."  Mokapu beach was forbidden because it was for held for used only by the Hawaiian kings and their servants.

Damanhur, Egypt: The ancient Egyptian name of this city was Timenhor (in ancient Egyptian: Dmi-n-Hr, the “city of Horus”), derived from the name of the Egyptian deity, Horus. The Greeks called the city Hermopolis Mikra or Hermopolis Parva (from the Roman god Hermes.)

Izamal, Mexico: Itzamma was the supreme god the ancient Mayans. Most of the buildings in modern Izamal are painted yellow and it is popularly known as the Yellow City.  Settlement of the site predates the 15th century.

Ani, Turkey: The name of the ancient Persian goddess, Anahid or Anahit, survives in the name of the ruins of this medieval Armenian city. Anahit was the mother protector of the Armenian people.  She was the goddess of fertility, healing, wisdom, and water. 

The city is first mentioned in 5th century documents and flourished between 961 and 1045 as the “City of 1001 Churches.” It was sacked by the Mongols in 1236 and further damaged by an earthquake in 1319.

Omkareshwar, India: “Om” is the Sanskrit word which represents the “holy sound” used in Hindu  meditation practices. Omkareshwar is a  temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The temple is on an island in the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh State.

Christian Heresies: Arianism

Heresy in Christian usage is when a person or church denies or distorts scriptural doctrines which are essential for a proper understanding of Christianity. Heresy is not just acceptance of odd ideas or even aberrant beliefs. Heresy involves changing the nature of the Christian message. We can argue among ourselves about some things, but we can NEVER accept heresy into the church if we wish to remain authentically Christian. 

We have to be careful about throwing around the “heresy label” and to do so, we have to be sure what is the authentically Christian message. A good discussion of this is here. There are a few doctrines on which there can be absolutely no compromise. They are false and it is important to know that they are false.

All of the classical heresies presented a different gospel from orthodox Christianity and should be rejected because they are inconsistent with revealed scripture. What may surprise many is that most, or even all, of the classical heresies are still in evidence in the modern world among professed Christians.

One of the most dangerous and powerful of the classical Christian heresies and one which is very evident today in the teachings of many “progressive” Christians is Arianism. This doctrine for a while threatened to gain ascendancy in the Roman Catholic Church but was condemned by the First Council of Nicaea in 324 and again at the First Council of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) in 381. Protestants would say Arianism was rightly condemned because it is at total variance with scripture and changes the essential nature of the gospel. It is a totally different gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6-9)

Arius (born about 250 in Libya - died 336 in Constantinople) was a priest in Alexandria (al-Iskaderiyah), Egypt. He taught that Jesus was not pre-existent but was the first created being.  Arius held to a monotheism which insisted that the godhead was unitary and could not be shared. The doctrine of the Trinity was rejected and Jesus, while still worthy of worship, was not God.

The teachings of Arius were rejected in 325 at the Council of Nicea (Iznik, Turkey) but were accepted in 357 at the Council of Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia). The issue went  back and forth, sometimes violently. Constans, the Emperor of the West, was Nicene, while Constantius, the Emperor of the East, was an Arian. Emperor Valens (364-378) persecuted non-Arians in the East but under the teachings of the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) the Nicene definition began to gain ascendancy. Emperors Gratian (367-383) and Theodosiuis (379-395) were both Nicene and finally in 381, the Council  of Constantinople denounced Arianism. The doctrine survived into the seventh century among several Germanic tribes such as the Vandals under Genseric.

Variations of Arianism survive among the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Unitarians, the Church of God (7th day) Salem Conference, and in some Branhamite sects (followers of the Pentecostal leader William M. Branham, 1909-1965). 

Postmodern Progressive Christianity can be viewed as a modified form of Arianism. Man is the true measure of all things and Jesus's humanity is stressed to the near exclusion of his divinity. He is viewed as a brilliant moral teacher and a beautiful example of humanity at its highest. He was a human so full of God that He became "divine." He shows us the divinity within ourselves. This is just one baby step away from the neo-Hinduism of the modern New Age movement. It is certainly not orthodox Christianity.

Extrabiblical Evidences of Biblical Persons, Places, and/or Events: The Gezer Calendar

The Gezer Calendar is a tenth century BC/BCE (possibly 925 BC/BCE) fragment of an inscribed limestone  plate.  It was found in the ruins of the Canaanite city of Gezer (Tell el-Jazari).  The inscription is one of the earliest known examples of a text written in ancient Hebrew script.  It consists of seven lines of text and was discovered in 1908 by R.A.S. Macalister (see the bibliography below).  The Hebrew name, Abijah, appears in the text.

The calendar describes the crops planted, tended, and harvested in various months.  The purpose of the calendar is unknown, but some have suggested that it may have been used for taxation purposes. 

http://www.google.com/search?q=the+gezer+calendar&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-9jBUerzIYzS9ASAzoDQCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1202&bih=812

The limestone tablet is housed in the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul, Turkey. The Jewish Virtual Library gives these bibliographical listings for the Gezer Calendar: 

R.A.S. Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, 2 (1912), 24–28; Albright, in: BASOR, 92 (1943), 16–26; L. Finkelstein, ibid., 94 (1944), 28–29; Wright, in: BA, 18 (1955), 50–56; Segal, in: JSS, 7 (1962), 212–21; Talmon, in: JAOS, 83 (1963), 177–87; Wirgin, in: Eretz Israel, 6 (1960), 9–12 (Eng. section); Rathjen, in: PWQ, 93 (1961), 70–72; Honeyman, in: JRAS (1953), 53–58; Pritchard, Texts, 320; Pritchard, Pictures, 272; EM, 2 (1965), 471–4 (incl. bibl.).  S. Ahituv, Handbook of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions (1992), 149–52.

Biblical mentions of Gezer: Joshua 10:1-34, 12:12, 16:3-10, 21:21; 1 Chronicles 6:67, 7:28, 14:6, 20:4; Judges 1:29; 2 Samuel 5:25; 1 Kings 9:15-17.  Gezer is not mentioned in the New Testament.  During that period it was known as Gazara.

At the Time When David Became King of israel

At the time when David became king of his unified Kingdom of Israel (ca 1000 BC/BCE), this is what was happening in other regions of the world.

The Chavin Culture established a trade network in Peru.

Japan was inhabited by a hunter-gatherer culture.

Agricultural farming began in Kenya.

The Phoenicians invented their alphabet.

Latins began to arrive in Italy.

The Hittite city of Troy (Troy Layer VII at Hisarlik, Turkey) was destroyed.

The Tamil language appeared in India.

China prospered under King Kang (ruled 1020-999BC/BCE) of the Zhou Dynasty.

Modern Names of Biblical Places:

Iconium, mentioned in Acts 14:1, is the modern Konya, Turkey.  Images of modern Konya.

"And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed." Acts 14:1

Modern Names of Biblical Places: Smyrna

The ancient city of Smyrna survives today as Izmir, Turkey.

“And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;” Revelation 2:8

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Rufus: The brother of Alexander and one of the sons of Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21).  He is possibly the same man mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:13.

Marcus: Marcus was a relative of Barnabas.  He left Paul but later became an important Christian leader.  (Acts 13:13, 15:39; 2 Timothy 4:11)

Simeon: (aka: Niger) Simeon was a leader in the church at Antioch (Antakya, Turkey).  He chose Paul and Barnabas as missionaries.  Acts 13:1-2.

Epaenetus: Epaenetus of Rome is mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:5.  He was possibly the first male Christian convert in Asia.

Philologus: This Roman Christian is mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:15.

Who is Ricardo Montalban?

In1993, actor Ricardo Montalban received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.  Here is part of what he said about the progression of an actor’s career.

“Who is Ricardo Montalban?
Get me Ricardo Montalban,
Get me a Ricardo Montalban type.
Get me a young Ricardo Montalban.
Who is Ricardo Montalban?”

First class actor that Montalban was, he will be remembered in two hundred years only by film academics.  Film greats such as John Barrymore,  Louise Brooks, and Claude Rains are now almost entirely forgotten.  The memory of other celebrities such as Ceelo Green, Kim Kardashian, and even Honey Boo Boo will be even shorter.

Being politically and historically important are no guarantee of being remembered.  How many know the stories of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni tribe, or of the Trung Sisters?

Important religious leaders, even the founders of religions, fare no better.  How many non-Bahais can name the founder of that religion?   Who was Father Divine, or Anton Sandor LaVey, or Sidney Rigdon, or George Gurdjieff, or Elizabeth Claire Prophet, or Adoniram Judson, or Aleister Crowley, or Aimee Semple McPherson?

Entire cultures have been forgotten.  Until the ruins of their capital city were discovered in Turkey in 1871, no one believed that the Hittite Empire mentioned in the Bible really existed.

Jesus of Nazareth was a simple carpenter from a dusty little backwater town.  If you say His name almost anywhere in the world you may not find any of His followers, but you can be sure that someone will at least have heard His name.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (b. 1813, Italy – d. 1901, aka: Joesph Fortuninus Franciscus Verdi, Joseph Fortunin Francois Verdi) Italian composer, mainly of operas.  Roman Catholic.

Hrant Dink: (b. 1964, Turkey – d. 2007) Editor, journalist, columnist, civil rights activist.  Armenian Apostolic Chrurch, Evangelical Protestant.

Ernest David Kelly: Baptist minister, father of actor DeForest Kelly (1920-1999).

Geza Vermes (b. 1924, Hungary) British theologian, historian, expert in Hebrew, Aramaic, and the life of Jesus.  He and his family were Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism.

James Tetsuzo Takeda (b. 1901, Japan; aka: Tetsu) Episcopal priest, chaplain at St. Paul’s University.  He writes Japanese haiku. 

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Edward Crowley: (b. ca. 1830, England – d. 1887) Brewer.  Originally a Quaker, he became a traveling Exclusive Brethren preacher.  His son, Aleister, became the Thelemite occultist known as “The Great Beast 666,” and “the wickedest man in the world.”

Theodore of Tarsus: (b. 602, Turkey – d. 690; aka: Theodore of Canterbury)  8^th Archbishop of Canterbury.

Fulbert  Youlou: (b. 1917, Congo – d. 1972) Congolese Roman Catholic priest, nationalist leader, and politician.  1^st President of the Republic of the Congo.  He lost power after three days of street riots in 1963.

Elpidio Rivera Quirino: (b. 1890, Philippines –d. 1956)  President of the Philippines 1948-1953.  Roman Catholic.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson: (b. 1830, Massachusetts, USA – d. 1886) Reclusive American poet who wrote over 1800 poems.

Religious Place Names

Many place names have religious origins.  Here are a few of them.

Madras, India: from Arabic word “madrasa,” an Islamic religious school

Peshkopi, Albania: from the Greek word “episkope,”  “the eat of a bjshop”

Kilimanjaro (volcano), Tanzania: from the Swahili word “njaro,” meaning “god of gold.”

Omkareshwar, India: “om” is the Sanskrit word for the “holy sound.”

Saytan Sofrasi, Turkey:  This rock formation is named for Satan. 

Turkish Christian Song-Ya Rab Isam

This is a Turkish Christian song.  The title translates as "Oh, Lord, Safeguard."  "Isam" is an Arabic word for "safeguard," often used as a personal name.

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Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Trophimus: A Gentile traveling companion of Paul.  In Jerusalem, the local Jews thought that Paul had allowed Trophimus to enter the Temple. (Acts 21:29)  Paul left him behind to  recuperate in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20) after he became ill.  The ruins of Miletus are found at Milet, Tukey.

Craig Groeschel: (b. 1967, Texas, USA) Pastor, writer, founder of LifeChurch.tv, a Christian church with fourteen locations in five US states.  LifeChurch.tv is based in Edmund, Oklahoma (USA).

Perfectus: (b. Spain – d. 850, aka: Saint Perfectus, Santo Perfecto)  Roman catholic monk and ordained priest in Moorish Cordoba.  When asked, under promise of non-repisal, who was greater, Jesus or Muhammad, he replied in Arabic that Muhammad was a false prophet.  Other men, who had not promised protection to Perfectus, captured him and he was beheaded by the order of an Islamic court.

Wigstan: (d. 849, Mercia, a part of modern great Britain, aka: Wistan, Saint Wystan) Wigstan was a grandson of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia and was probably the ealdorman of the Hwicce tribe.

John Eliot: (b. 1604, England – d. 1690, aka: “the Indian Apostle”)  Puritan missionary to the native Americans in Massachusetts.  Eliot translated the Bible into the local Native American language (Massachusett) and published it in 1663.  He also wrote and published a Massachusett grammar in 1666.  He was the co-editor of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in the British North American colonies.

Film Comment: The Bad Seed

Maxwell Anderson's broadway play, The Bad Seed, has been filmed three times; the 1956 original, a 1963 version made in Turkey, and a made-for-television 1985 film.

The 1956 original looks like a staged play because it is directly based on the Broadway production and features the cast of the stage version.  This gives the film a very claustrophobic feel, a good thing in a classic horror film.

To her horror, a loving mother (Nancy Kelly) slowly comes to the ghastly realization that, Rhoda, her cute little eight year old daughter (Patty McCormack) is a cold-blooded psychopathic killer.  Though she loves her daughter and her daughter obviously loves and trusts her, she decides that the only way to stop the murders and to spare the little girl a life in detention, is to kill her child.

All the violence in this film is offscreen and we never see the aftermath of Rhoda's murders.  We only see her blonde pigtails and her cute smile.  This is evil masquerading as innocence.  The Bible describes Satan as beautiful (Isaiah 14:13,14, Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4).  If he were hideous or frightening we would run from him.  He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
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Similarly themed films: Devil Times Five, Bloody Birthday, The Good Son, Bad Ronald, The Omen, The Children