Fishermen, tax collectors, zealots—ordinary men chosen for an extraordinary mission. Discover timeless lessons from the twelve who walked with Jesus.

Read more here: https://www.maryvv.com/lessons-from-the-disciples-of-christ-twelve/

#Disciples #Apostles #Faith #ChristianLiving #BibleStudy #LessonsFromTheTwelve

The historical and theological significance of the Twelve Apostles offers a profound study in group dynamics and individual resilience. 🏛️📜

I am sharing an insightful new resource by Mary Venable Vaughn: "Lessons from the Disciples of Christ: The Apostles." A valuable resource for those interested in religious history and personal development.

Full article here:
🔗 https://www.maryvv.com/lessons-from-the-disciples-of-christ-twelve/

#Theology #History #MaryVenableVaughn #Apostles #FaithAndPractice #LiteraryAnalysis

Elcesaites

Also known as Elkasaites, Elkesaites, or Elchasaites. The name comes from the alleged founder, Elkhasai, Elksai, or Elkesai.

They were an ancient Jewish Christian sect in Lower Mesopotamia. Then the province of Asoristan in the Sasanian Empire, which was active between the early 2nd century & the 5th century CE. The members of this sect, which began in the Transjordan, performed frequent baptisms for purification & had a Gnostic orientation.

The movement blended elements of Second Temple Judaism, early Jewish Christianity, Gnosticism, & apocalyptic mysticism. It’s mainly known through the writing of early Church Fathers such as Hippolytus of Rome, Origen, & Epiphanius of Salamis.

The sect is mentioned directly only in the commentaries on “heresies” by the Early Church Fathers. Hippolytus of Rome records that, in the time of Pope Callixtus I, a Jewish Christian named Alcibiades of Apamea came to Rome, bringing a book that he said had been received in Parthia by a just man named Elchasai.

According to Alcibiades, the book had been revealed by an angel 96 miles (154 km; 337,920 cubits) high, 16 miles (26 km; 56,230 cubits) broad, & 24 miles (39 km; 84,480 cubits) across the shoulders, whose footprints were 14 miles (23 km) long, 6 miles (9.7 km) wide & 2 miles (3.2 km) deep.

This giant angel was the “Son of God,” who was accompanied by his sister, the Holy Ghost/Spirit, of the same dimensions. Alcibiades announced that a new remission of sins had been proclaimed in the 3rd year of Trajan (100 AD). He described a baptism which should impart this forgiveness even to the grossest sinners.

Hippolytus says that Alcibiades teaches the natural birth, preexistence, & reincarnation of Jesus. Also, Alcibiades teaches circumcision & the Law of Moses. Hippolytus then goes on at length to describe the group’s teaching on baptism. For all sins of impurity, even against nature, a 2nd baptism is enjoined “in the name of the great & most high God & in the name of His Son the great King,” with a plea of the 7 witnesses written in the book (sky, water, the holy spirits, the angels of prayer, oil, salt, & earth).

One who has been bitten by a mad dog is to run to the nearest water & jump in with all his clothes on, using the foregoing formula, & promising the 7 witnesses that he’ll abstain from sin. The same treatment – 40 days consecutively of baptism in cold water – is recommended for consumption & for the possessed. Hippolytus discusses in more detail the teaching of the book, including Elchasai’s Sabbatarian teaching & the instruction not to baptize under certain astrological stars.

Eusebius records a summary of a sermon of Psalm 82 delivered in Caesarea by Origen circa 240-250 AD, which warns his audience against the doctrine of “the Elkesaites.” Eusebius’ record of this sermon forms the 2nd source on the group.

150 years later, Epiphanius of Salamis ground it into use among the Sampsaeans (descendants of the earlier Elceasites). Also among the Essenes & many other Ebionite communities. Epiphanius also mentions that the book condemned virginity & continence & made marriage obligatory.

It allowed the worship of cult images to escape persecution, provided the act was merely an external one, disavowed in the heart. Prayer was to be made to the East. But always towards Jerusalem. He also records that the saints of Elcesaites were 2 women: Martha (“mistress”) & Marthana (“our mistress”).

All animal sacrifice was condemned, with a denial that it had been offered by the Patriarchs or in the Torah. The Prophets & the Christian Apostles were rejected. As well as Paul the Apostle & all his writings.

The Cologne Mani-Codex (dated from the 4th century) describes the parents of Mani (founder of Manichaeism) as “followers of the prophet Alchasaias.” Scholars have identified with Elchasai. Alchasaios is stated to be a prophet also honored by Mani. His name appears in several other sources on Manichaeism. But in such an altered form that the identification with Elchasai was clear only with the publication of the Cologne Codex.

The Codex deals with the Elceasites extensively and confirms some of the Church Fathers’ statements about them. It pictures Mani as a “reformer” with the purpose to “restore” the true doctrine of the prophet Alchasaios, which his followers had “misunderstood.” In particular, Mani criticizes their repeated baptism rituals.

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St. George

St. George (Romanized: Georgios), a.k.a. George of Lydda, was a Christian martyr. He’s venerated as a saint. He was born in the late 3rd century (circa 270-281 AD) in Cappadocia in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), to Christian parents of noble Greek descent.

According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army. He became a soldier in the Roman army. He became a soldier after his dad passed away. He became a Tribunus (a high-ranking officer). He eventually became a member of the Diocletian at Nicomedia.

But he was later executed, as part of the Diocletianic Persecution. In 303 AD, Diocletian issued an edict allowing the persecution of Christians. George was ordered to renounce his faith & offer sacrifices to the Roman gods. He refused. He also tore up the emperor’s edict.

He was beheaded on April 23, 303 AD. His courage was so admired (in some traditions) that it led to Empress Alxandra of Rome to be martyred also.

He’s 1 of the most venerated saints, heroes, & megalomartyrs in Christianity. He has been especially venerated as a military saint since the Crusades. He’s also prominently venerated by the Druze (& by some Muslim groups) as a martyr of monotheistic faith.

In hagiography, he was immortalized in the legend(s) of St. George & the dragon & as 1 of the most prominent military saints. In a famous tale of George rescuing a princess from a dragon in Silene (Libya) 1st appeared in Georgian texts in the 11th century.

It was popularized in the West by the Lombardic “Golden Legend” in the 13th century. In religious iconography, the dragon represents the devil or Paganism, & the princess represents the Church.

In Roman Catholicism, he is also venerated as 1 of the 14 Holy Helpers. His feast day, St. George’s Day, is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The Church of St. George in Lydda (now Lod, Israel) has a sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain George’s relics.

According to tradition, a fierce dragon was causing panic in the city of Silene in Libya when our guy George arrived there. To keep the creature from ravaging the city, the inhabitants gave it 2 sheep each day. But when the sheep were no longer enough, they were forced to sacrifice people chosen by the townesfolk themselves.

Eventually, the king’s daughter was selected, & no one was willing to take her place. Georger saved her by slaying the dragon with a lance. The king was so grateful that he offered George treasures as a reward for saving his daughter’s life.

But George refused & urged him to give to the poor instead. The townspeople were so astonished by what they saw that they all became Christians & were baptised.

George (In Arabic, Jirjis or Girgus) is included in some Muslim texts as a prophetic figure. The Islamic sources state that he loved a group of believers who were in direct contact with the last apostles of Jesus. He was described as a rich merchant who opposed Dadan, the king of Mosul, in his reaction to Apollo’s stature.

After confronting the king, George was tortured many times to 0 effect, was imprisoned, & was aided, allegedly, by angels. Eventually, he was exposed to the fact that the idols were possessed by Satan. But was martyred when the city was destroyed by God in a rain of fire. (This is giving serious Sodom & Gomorrah vibes.)

According to Muslim legends, he was martyred under the rule of Diocletian & was killed 3x. But was resurrected every time. The legend is more developed in the Persian version of al-Tabari, wherein he resurrects the dead, makes trees sprout, & pillars bear flowers.

After 1 of his deaths, the world is covered by darkness, which is lifted only when he’s resurrected. He’s able to convert the queen, but she’s put to death. Then he prays to God to allow him to die, which is granted.

Al-Tah’labi says that George was from Palestine & lived in the times of some disciples of Jesus. He was killed many times by the king of Mosul, & resurrected each time. When the king tried to starve him, he touched a piece of dry wood brought by a woman & turned it green, with varieties of fruits & veggies growing from it. After his 4th death, the city was burnt along with him.

English soldiers under Richard the Lionheart invoked St. George at the Siege of Acre. They brought his “cult” back to Britain, where he replaced Edward the Confessor as the nation’s primary patron because he represented “active” chivalry rather than “passive” monasticism.

In 1348, King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter (the oldest and highest order of chivalry in England), putting it under the patronage of St. George. The current British monarch, King Charles III, is the head of the order today.

In the General Roman Calendar, George’s feast day is on April 23. In the Tridentine calendar of 1568, it was given the rank of “Semi double.” In Pope Pius XII’s calendar, the rand was reduced to “Simple.” In Pope Paul VI’s 1969 revision, it appears as an “optional memorial.”

In some countries, like England, the rank is higher. It’s a Solemnity (Roman Catholic) or Feast (Church of England): if it falls between Palm Sunday & the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it’s transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter.

The Russian Orthodox Church also celebrates 2 additional feasts in honor of St. George. One is on November 3, commemorating the consecration of a cathedral dedicated to him in Lydda during the reign of Constantine the Great (305-337). When the church was consecrated, George’s relics were transferred there. The other feast day is on November 26 for a church dedicated to him in Kyiv (or Kiev, Ukraine), circa 1054.

In Bulgaria, St. George’s Day is celebrated on May 6. It’s customary to slaughter & roast a lamb. George’s Day is also a public holiday.

In Serbia & Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates St. George on May 6. It’s a common slava (patron saint day) among ethnic Serbs.

In Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria calls St. George the “Prince of Martyrs.” They celebrate his martyrdom on the 23rd of Paremhat of the Coptic Calendar (equal to May 1). The Copts also celebrate the consecration of the 1st church dedicated to him on the 7th of the month of Hatour of the Coptic calendar (equal to November 17).

George is the patron saint of England. His cross forms the national flag of England. By the 14th century, he was declared both the patron saint & protector of the British royal family. He’s also the patron saint of Georgia (the country), Ethiopia, Iberia, Russia, & Bulgaria.

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Hellmouth / Against the Grain / Red Lights / Apostles

https://grpunkflyers.notopia.dev/flyers/1260/

Hesychasm

This comes from the Greek hesychia, meaning “stillness” or “quiet.” This is the theological backbone of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It focuses on the pursuit of theosis – divine union with God. At its core, Hesychasm is a tradition of prayer that seeks to find God through inner silence & the cessation of all thoughts.

The “engine” of Hesychasm is the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” (We think that even if you aren’t religious/spiritual, we’ve all prayed this prayer before!) Unlike Western meditation, which often involves visualizing scenes from the Bible, Hesychasm is apophatic (negative).

The goal is to strip away images, concepts, & intellectual chatter to reach a state of “pure prayer.” Practitioners (known as Hesychasts) aim to move the prayer from the lips to the mind, & finally, into the heart.

In the 14th century, certain techniques were popularized to help the mind. These include:

• Breath Control:
  • Syncing the prayer with the rhythm of breathing.
• Posture:
  • Sitting for long periods with the chin resting on the chest, eyes fixed on the “place of the heart.”
• The Goal:
  • To achieve a state where the prayer becomes “unceasing,” continuing even while the monk sleeps or works.

The history of Hesychasm is defined by a massive 14th century intellectual “cage match.” On one side, Gregory Palamas, a monk from Mount Athos. On the other side, Barlaam of Calabria, a Western-influenced scholar who thought the monks were essentially deluding themselves with “belly-button gazing.”

Barlaam argued that God is absolutely transcendent & unknowable. Therefore, any claim to “see” God was impossible or heretical. Palamas countered with a distinction that saved Eastern mysticism: The Essence vs The Energies.

The Divine Essence:

God’s inner nature, which remains forever hidden & inaccessible to any created being.

The Divine Energies:

God’s “activities” or “operations” (like Love, Grace, & Light) that permeate the world & can be directly experienced by humans.

Palamas argued that when the Apostles saw Jesus glowing on Mount Tabor (the Transfiguration), they weren’t seeing a metaphor. They were seeing the Uncreated Light of God’s Energies. Hesychasts claim through intense prayer, they too can see this Taboric Light.

Palamas wasn’t just a “cloud-dweller.” He was a brilliant aristocrat who gave a promising career at the Byzantine imperial county to become a monk. When Barlaam attacked the monks’ practices as “superstitious,” Palamas wrote the Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts. He bridged the gap between the experiential “feeling” of the monks & the rigorous theology of the Church.

Palamas was even imprisoned for a time during a civil war. But he was eventually vindicated.

In 1351, his theology was officially adopted by the Orthodox Church. To this day, the Second Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to him. He’s the reason Eastern Orthodoxy views God not as a distant object of study. But as a personal presence to be participated in.

For centuries, Hesychasm was mainly confined to monasteries like Mount Athos. In 1782, a massive anthology called the Philokalia (“Love of the Beautiful”) was published. It collected the writings of the desert fathers & Hesychast masters from the 4th to the 15th centuries.

This book sparked a massive revival. In Russia, it was translated into Slavic (The Dobrotolyubie), fueling the “Elder” (Starets) tradition seen in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. In the 19th century, a tiny book called The Way of a Pilgrim (about a wandering Russian peasant practicing the “Jesus Prayer”) became an international sensation introducing the “Jesus Prayer” to millions of non-Orthodox Christians.

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Irenaeus

Irenaeus of Lyons (circa 130-202 AD) is 1 of the most important theologians of the 2nd century. He’s often called the “Father of Catholic Theology.” He served as a crucial bridge between the era of the Apostles & the developed institutional Church of the later Roman Empire.

He was born in Smyrna (modern-day Turkey). He was a student of Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of John the Apostle. This connection to an actual eyewitness of Jesus gave Irenaeus a unique statue. In an era where secret teachings were being whispered in various sects, Irenaeus could claim a direct, public, & verifiable line of “transmission” back to the source.

Around 177 AD, he traveled to Lugdunum (Lyons, in modern-day France) to serve as a priest. Eventually, he became the bishop after his predecessor, Pothinus, was martyred.

Irenaeus’ legacy is defined by his battle against Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a diverse movement that threatened to dismantle early Christianity. Generally, Gnostics believed:

• The material world was evil, created by a lesser, bumbling deity (Demiurge).
• Salvation came through secret, esoteric knowledge (gnosis).
• Jesus didn’t have a physical body (Docetism), as matter was inherently corrupt.

Irenaeus saw this as a total rejection of the Hebrew scriptures & the reality of the Incarnation. To counter this, he wrote his 5-volume masterpiece, “Against Heresies” (Adversus Haereses). Irenaeus’ theology’s centerpiece is the concept of Recapitulation. He argued that Jesus “summed up” all of humanity in Himself.

Just as the 1st Adam failed at the Tree of Knowledge, Jesus (the “new Adam”) succeeded on the tree of the Cross. Irenaeus taught that Jesus went through every stage of mortal human life (infancy, youth, & adulthood) to “sanctify” & “undo” the corruption introduced at each stage of the Fall.

Before Irenaeus’ time, there wasn’t the New Testament as we know it today. Different groups/sects used different, & various, gospels. This is where we get the infamous banned books of the Bible. Irenaeus was the 1st major figure to argue for the Four-Fold Gospel.

He insisted that there could be no more, & no fewer, than 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John), using a poetic justification: just as there are 4 zones of the world (or 4 corners) & 4 principal winds, the Church had to have 4 “pillars” of the Gospel. By doing this, he helped stabilize the core of the Christian Bible.

To fight the Gnostic claim of secret traditions, Irenaeus proposed 2 tests of “Truth”:

• The Rule of Faith:
  • A summary of essential beliefs (a forerunner of the Apostles’ Creed) that all true churches held in common.
• Apostolic Succession:
  • Irenaeus argued that if Jesus had secret knowledge, he would’ve given it to the bishops he appointed.

Irenaeus’ most profound contribution to theology is the concept of Recapitulation (anakephalaiosis). Using the math of his day, he sought to “sum up” the entire human experience through Christ.

To counter his Gnostic opponents, Irenaeus significantly develops Paul’s presentation of Christ as the Last Adam. Irenaeus’ presentation of Christ as the New Adam is based on Paul’s Christ-Adam parallel in Romans 5:12-21.

But also dervies significantly from the Johannine presentation of Adam-Christ typology. Irenaeus uses this parallel to demonstrate that Christ truly took human flesh. Irenaeus considered it important to emphasize this point because he understands the failure to recognize Christ’s full humanity links the various strains of Gnosticism together, as seen in his statement that “according to the opinion of no one of the heretics was the Word of God made flesh.”

Irenaeus believes that unless the Word became flesh, humans weren’t fully redeemed. He explains that by becoming man, Christ restored humanity to bring in the image & likeness of God, which they’d lost in the Fall of Man.

Just as Adam was the original head of humanity through whom all sinned, Christ is the new head of humanity who fulfills Adam’s role in the Economy of Salvation. The Economy of Salvation (a.k.a. Divine Economy) is that part of divine revelation in the Roman Catholic tradition that deals with God’s creation & management of the world, particularly his plan of salvation accomplished through the Church. Irenaeus calls this process of restoring humanity: Recapitulation.

Irenaeus emphasizes the importance of Christ’s reversal of Adam’s actions. Through His obedience, Christ undoes Adam’s disobedience. Irenaeus presents the Passion as the climax of Christ’s obedience, emphasizing how this obedience on the tree of the Cross undoes the disobedience that occurred through a tree.

Irenaeus’ interpretation of Paul’s discussion of Christ as the New Adam is significant because it helped develop the recapitulation theory of atonement.

Irenaeus took part in the Quartodeciman Controversy. When Victor I of Rome tried to force a universal practice of fasting until Easter to supersede the Jewish practice & prevent Christians from partaking of the Passover, Polycrates who led the Churches of Anatolia continued to hold old traditions of the paschal feast. For this reason Victor I wanted to excommunicate Polycrates & his supporters. But this was a step too far for Irenaeus & other bishops.

Tradition holds that he was martyred around 202 AD during the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus. Thought historical records of his death are sparse compared to his writings.

In 2022, Pope Francis officially declared him a “Doctor of Unity” (Doctor Unitatis), acknowledging his role in bridging the Eastern & Western theological traditions.

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Please join us tonight as we continue our series exploring reactions to Jesus in Acts 13! Are we “in” or do we just think we are? https://youtube.com/live/Ci3qqDOSkY4

#Acts #Apostles #Christianity #Belief #Jesus