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How Old Was Jesus When He Died? A Fresh Look At The Historical Clues

...the other apostles also, and heard the same account from them, and bear testimony to this statement. He argued that the line in John 8:57: Then the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ …would only make sense if Jesus were already in his forties (or at the very least, close to that age). If Jesus had been just thirty, Irenaeus reasons, they would have said, “You are not yet forty” (Adv. Hae. 2.22.5). Although it’s a minority view in the early church, John Chrysostom also appears to agree with Irenaeus. In the fourth century, commenting on verse 57 in his Homily 55 on the Gospel of John, Chrysostom makes a...

Fact-Checking the Viral Post Connecting Human Anatomy and the Bible

...), the 12 apostles (Matthew 10:1–4), and the 12 gates and foundations of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). But there’s no biblical connection between rib count and these symbolic twelves. This is a case of poetic association, not design woven into our bones. The only real mention of ribs in Scripture is when Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs in Genesis 2:21–22, which has often led to the teaching in some churches that men have one less rib than women (contradicting this new claim)! 3. “The vagus nerve runs from your brain to your heart and gut. It calms storms inside the body. It looks just like a cross.” The vagus nerve is re...

Before The Pumpkins: Faith In The Flames

...Picture the scene: the year is somewhere around 155–160, Polycarp has just been arrested and brought to the city. The crowd roared in the stadium. The smell of sweat and fear mingled with the dust of Smyrna’s arena. And in the centre of it all stood an old man — calm, unflinching, his face marked with years of faith. The Roman proconsul urged him again: “Swear by the fortune of Caesar. Curse Christ, and I will release you.” Polycarp looked him in the eye and replied with a defiant response that has echoed down the ages, Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? Those words hav...

Before the Pumpkins: The Barbecued Deacon

...like the apostles before him, was soon to drink from the same cup as his Lord. Among his closest companions was Deacon Lawrence, entrusted with overseeing the Church’s treasury and distributing alms to the poor. The Acts of St Lawrence tell us that when Sixtus was arrested and led to execution, Lawrence ran after him, crying out that he would not be left behind. Where are you going, father, without your son? Where are you going, priest, without your deacon? You never used to offer sacrifice without me as your minister! To which Sixtus replied: My son, I’m not leaving you. Greater trials are waiting for you. In three days you’ll follow me. Sixtus was...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part One)

...I know that "Conditional Immortality" is quite a divisive topic, and one you may have come across before (sometimes referred to as “Annihilationism”); and have been told outright that it’s “heresy” or false, or that it’s an emotional argument people want to believe because it ‘sounds nicer’ than the doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Or maybe you’ve never even heard of this before and you didn’t realise there were alternative interpretations and views on hell. If you are new to this, in brief it means that “the wicked” will be removed from existence after judgement and finite torment, rather than living forever in torment. Any...

Lent: Day 9 - Ignatius to the Philadelphians

..., and the apostles, and the Church”. Christ is now the way, and only way, to God the Father and as such they old ways of Judaism are no longer in effect. He emphasises this even more by pointing out that, “the Gospel possesses something transcendent [above the former dispensation]” and that is: “the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ” along with his death and resurrection. The “prophets announced Him, but the Gospel is the perfection of immortality” and so, why would we need anything more? Judaism pointed the way to the Gospel and to the Messiah, but now that his appearance has been made known, the old is superseded by the new. As the writer of...