After Jesus before Christianity

Monday, November 22, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

This discussion begins a four-month series on a book, After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements, authored by the Westar Institutes Christianity Seminar and edited by Erin Vearncombe, Brandon Scott, and Hal Taussig.  This four-part series begins with an overview framing six new discoveries of the past ten years concerning these first two centuries.   These new discoveries are:

1. Resistance to the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1-20)
2. Practicing Gender Bending (Acts of Paul and Thecla: 5:1-7:2 — from A New New Testament)
3. Living in Chosen Families (Acts of Paul and Thecla 29: 1-3; 40:1-43:3 — from A New New Testament)
4. Claiming to belong to Israel (Philipians 3:4-7)
5. Diverse Organizational Structures (Galatians 2:1-14)
6. Persisting Oral Traditions (Matthew 5)

Humor and Joy in Mark, Thomas, Matthew, and Luke

Monday, October 25, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

Within the gospels of Mark, Thomas, Matthew, and Luke is a large set of pithy sayings whose primary meanings are humor and joy.  It is probable that most of these sayings existed before these gospels were written and were for generations part of oral lore. A number of these 1-5 sentence jokes, quips, hidden transcripts, teases, burlesques, aphorisms, and celebrative gestures were probably composed by Jesus, but many others by Jesus people in post-Jesus times.  And, a large number of them have lost their ancient humor, pleasure, wonder, and charm, becoming more like puzzles and piety.

Rethinking the Revelation to John

Monday, September 27, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

It is time to revisit the issues around the Revelation to John.  This last book in most (but not all) canons of the New Testament had been contested even before there was a notion of canon or New Testament.  It was contested in a number of the pre-canonical lists of books to be read, including by the likes of Martin Luther 1300 years later.  In the 21^st century the basic meanings of the Revelation to John are strongly disputed.  Most of the manuscripts have major differences and many are quite late.

This study will examine the two major (and very different) ways of interpreting this text.

1. A prediction of some future catastrophe of the world or universe, and
2. An unfulfilled prediction of the destruction of the Roman empire in the early centuries of the Common Era

The Thunder: Perfect Mind: One of the Most Heralded Nag Hammadi Documents

Monday, August 23, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

Although not particularly noticed by scholars or religious groups, The Thunder: Perfect Mind has become one of the most engaging recently discovered early Christ texts. It was found in the Nag Hammadi jar with 51 other Christ-related ancient documents in 1945 in the Egyptian desert. The document’s recent notoriety has come mainly via world-wide artistic attention.  Thunder is one of ten ancient texts added to A New New Testament. It features a divine, mostly female, first-person voice which embodies a vulnerable—yet powerful—presence. The full text of The Thunder:  Perfect Mind can be found here (James M. Robinson’s translation), here, and in A New New Testament.

The Mother, Eve, and Norea Among the Christ People

Monday, July 26, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The person of Eve (sometimes named or associated with ‘the Mother,’ ‘Wisdom-Sophia,’ or ‘Providence-Pronoia,) was a strong persona in the first several centuries of the Common Era. Unlike in later and present Christianity, Eve was often known especially among both the Christ People and the people of Israel as the mother of humanity, and was often in this dimension a powerful salvific figure for all time. Our Bible and Beyond Discussions study for July 26 examines her in important and relatively newly rediscovered Christ People documents of the first through third centuries.  Among these Christ People documents are “The Secret Revelation to John,” (sometimes called “The Apocryphon of John”), “The Reality of the Rulers” (sometimes called “The Hypostasis of the Archons“) and “On the Origin of the World”. Click here to access more information on the texts we’ll be using during the discussion.

Violence in the Letter of Peter to Philip

Monday, June 28, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The little-known document, The “Letter of Peter to Philip,” was found at Nag Hammadi—along  with 51 other more-or-less Jesus-or-Christ-related texts, and it’s turning out to be one of the most eloquent Christ-related treatments of intense Roman imperial violence. This text focuses on the central role Roman violence plays in the entire Mediterranean basin throughout the second century. In “Peter to Philip,” the Christ people ‘ambassadors’ (traditionally transliterated as apostles’) cry out to God and Jesus Christ for help against the Roman rulers who are threatening to kill them just as they killed Jesus. And the author of “Peter to Philip” lays out a five-point program to resist and make headway against Roman violence. This makes “Peter to Philip” perhaps the most articulate Christ movement of the first two centuries devoted to non-violent action.

The Life of Polycarp’s Death

Monday, May 24, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

Perhaps the most evocative, and garbled martyr stories of early Christ people and/or early Christians are the ones about Polycarp.  We threw ourselves into the several available versions of the “Martyrdom of Polycarp” to see how the stories elaborate themselves and their meanings of ‘his’ ‘martyrdom.’  Most stories of Polycarp have him being killed by Roman rulers in his old age, after having been a successful leader of a Christ group of the second century in Smyrna. Although much of the literature has anchored his actual life as well as an alleged orthodoxy in the second century, many scholars now place the earliest stories about him no earlier than the third century.

Luke, Didache, and Prayer of Thanksgiving: It Began with Meals

Monday, April 26, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

This discussion studies meal-based gatherings of the first two hundred years of Christ communities. The three very different early texts are studied: Gospel of Luke 23:13-32; the Prayer of Thanksgiving from the Nag Hammadi Library; and a set of prayers from The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache). These meals were joyous and very conversational gatherings with wide mixes of religious practices and theological directions. The study of these three texts helps point to the very meal-based practice of the first two centuries of Christ people gatherings and the early lack of the later church-based liturgical and mass-related ‘worship services.’  Click here to open a document with all the texts we used in the discussion.

Light and Fragrance in the Gospel of Truth

Monday, March 22, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Gospel of Truth—written sometime in the second century—is almost certainly the most lush and sensuous of early Christ literature. Often this 6500 word document overwhelms the ordinary reader with too much goodness, light, love, and body, but in this hour-long study Dr. Hal Taussig focuses on just 13 verses, so participants will be able to take in the general character of the larger text. Listen to the archival recording of the ascent into this rollercoaster of tenderness.  The text utilized in this discussion is the Gospel of Truth 17:10-16; 19:1-6 (Versification from A New New Testament).

Jesus Sophia in the Bible

Monday, February 22, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

This Bible and Beyond Discussion looked at the figure of Jesus Sophia.  A quick overview of the divine female figure Wisdom/Sophia in Proverbs, the Book of Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus was followed by the figure of Jesus Sophia in Matthew, Luke, John, and I Corinthians. Overlaps of Jesus and Sophia in the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Truth, and the Secret Revelation of John were examined.  Gender bending, gender pluralism, and divine-human figures provided backdrops for understanding the intersections of Wisdom, Jesus, and Sophia in ancient literature and contemporary theology and spirituality. These three texts were helpful: Proverbs 8; Book of Wisdom (or, Wisdom of Solomon) chapters 10-12 ; and Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach) chapter 1.

Stories of Jesus’s Resurrection, Especially Gospel of Peter

Monday, January 25, 2021
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Gospel of Peter has a story of the resurrection of Jesus like no other.  The story starts in ways that are like some of the stories in the Bible.  And then it veers wildly with intense metaphor that opens up completely new interpretations.  In our study of this text, we consider seriously why this resurrection may be the oldest and the first one.  At the same time we explore how—once a veil is lifted—it is quite important for the way we read other resurrection texts in the biblical gospels, the letters of Paul, and the Gospel of Mary. This study of this nine-verse-text in the Gospel of Peter is not primarily interested in “whether the resurrection really happened.”  Rather, our primary approach is to help think about the meanings of resurrections of Jesus.  The portion of the fragmented Gospel of Peter under consideration is chapters 9 and 10 or verses 35-42. These are available on the Gospels.net or Early Christian Writings websites.

The Gospel of Mary

Monday, December 28, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Gospel of Mary is a document whose attractiveness is still on the rise since its discovery about 120 years ago.  This discussion focuses directly on the character of the Gospel of Mary and whether it makes a difference for the principle challenges and opportunities of our day.  How does it engage readers spiritually?  Does this ancient document’s very explicit and poignant participation in current gender and sexuality discussions make a difference?  How does the Gospel of Mary compare to biblical texts in contemporary relevance?  Participants discuss their own opinions about whether the Gospel of Mary matters. Listeners might be interested in reading December’s Bible and Beyond post on the Gospel of Mary, Seven Stunning Gifts from the Gospel of Mary.  You can find the text for the session here: Mary of Magdala; Gospels.net; Early Christian Writings.

Jesus’s Beginnings in the Gospel of John

Monday, November 23, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Gospel of John is one of four gospels in the Christian Bible.  It is strikingly different than the other three, in that it contains almost none of the teachings in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.  The character of Jesus is quite different, as are most of the stories.  This is in many ways a cosmic set of beginnings, and is only somewhat of a story.  It is based in two different story-like persona: the figure of the Word or Logos from ancient Greek philosophy and the figure of Wisdom or Sophia from Hebrew wisdom literature.  John 1 calls forth questions, insights, and images of how everything begins.

The Relationship of ‘The Odes of Solomon’ to Jesus

Date: Monday, October 26, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

This Monday Textual Study introduces a moving and fascinating set of documents, closely connected to Jesus, from the first and second centuries.  While the documents, discovered for the first time in the early 20^th century, are capable of deepening our understanding, they also promise to be wildly confusing.  Despite being called ‘The Odes of Solomon,’ implying directly that the songs (odes) are from King Solomon of Israel about a thousand years before Jesus, many of the songs in this text (if not all of them) are clearly about Jesus.  Both carbon dating and historical examination indicate that the songs are from the early years of the Christ people in the first centuries CE. One of the strangest riddles and some of the most beautiful poems are at hand as we study five of them. Click here to access a page with translations of odes 16, 36, 19, and 8.

Israel Everywhere: Clement II

Date: Monday, September 28, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Second Letter of Clement is not quite a letter, and it is probably not from any known early Christ movement leader. It is, however, a very revealing communication of some kind that articulates a particularly clear and ordinary set of thoughts about a community’s working on who they are. Their relationships to each other and to God and Jesus are especially important. The Second Letter is quite a precious early writing in that it shows clearly how it belongs thoroughly to greater Israel, even while being devoted to Jesus. It cites and quotes extensively both teachings of Jesus (some of which we do not know from any other writing) and writings from major works of the people of Israel.  Most scholars think it is from probably from approximately the middle of the second century.  Here’s a pdf of the text available on the web.  We’ll be working on its overview.

Thecla, Paul, Jesus, and Family

Date: Monday, August 24, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Acts of Paul and Thecla is the primary early document that introduces the life of Thecla from her teen years to her death of old age. She is portrayed as an occasional colleague and follower of Paul in the role of teacher and healer. Later manuscripts of the fourth through seventh century elaborate on these roles, but some of them also portray her as a martyr. However, the earliest version of The Acts of Paul and Thecla explicitly picture her as never having submitted to a Roman death. This study will also continue with these themes, but we will also look substantially into the very experimental role she played in challenging traditional family values.  This dimension of our study will look especially into how her opposition to traditional family parallels and enhances the seven different sayings of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Thomas that oppose conventional family.

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (the Didache)

Date: Monday, July 27, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

Thought of by many as the first community handbook written for communities of Christ and Jesus peoples, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles has a fairly complicated organization and set of teachings. One of the most fascinating dimensions of this document is how many of the teachings are found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke as from Jesus himself. But in The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles these teachings are not attributed to Jesus at all. Study of this text then raises key questions about whether to consider Jesus as an important teacher.  Or, was the content what mattered, at least as much as who said it? One might  think that the title of this document as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” indicates that all the teachings were meant to be understand as having been taught not by Jesus, but by twelve apostles, but the title is almost certainly a secondary and later title.

Gender Creativity and Problems in the Gospel of Thomas

Date: Monday, June 22, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Gospel of Thomas (GThomas) is full of gender issues. This has mostly to do with the fascinating creativity of the Gospel of Thomas in general and also specifically its approaches to gender. One of the most challenging and promising parts of GThomas’ gendering is how fluid and flexible it is. Jesus himself in the Gospel of Thomas is not singly gendered, and is pictured more than once like the female divine Wisdom/Sophia. However in the last saying of Jesus in GThomas (114), both Jesus and Peter appear more than slightly dismissive of women. A close look at its whole teaches us much about the complexities of gender in the ancient Mediterranean world and our own.

Creativity in and Rejection of Hebrews

Date: Monday, June 1, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The creative metaphors for life in Jesus Christ in the Letter to the Hebrews are some of the most imaginative to come out of the first two centuries. But Hebrews has been mostly ignored by official Christendom. In a real way, it has been treated as if it were never really discovered, even though it was eventually included in the traditional New Testament. It extensively reworks Hebrew scriptures — often combining it with Greek philosophy — and introduces an entirely new concept of Jesus simultaneously as priest and sacrifice, and invents an entirely new lineage for Jesus. For its creativity alone, Hebrews deserves to share the limelight with those books that have only recently been discovered as parts of the larger family of early Christ people texts.

Norea: Key Dimension of God’s Fullness and/or Eve’s First Daughter

Date: Monday, April 27, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

On April 27 we investigated one of the most hidden and fascinating female divine characters of Christ texts in the second century.  This figure is Norea, who is found in a number of first through third century texts, but perhaps best known in two works of the famous Nag Hammadi jar of 52 early Christ texts found in the Egyptian desert in 1945.  We focused on this divine figure in the Nag Hammadi documents “The Thought of Norea” and “The Reality of the Rulers” (sometimes titled “The Hypostasis of the Archons”). Norea is a powerful female character in both texts, which complement what we know about her but do not give a completely matching picture.  Our study depended substantially on the scholarship of Professor Celene Lillie and Professor Birger Pearson.

Read more about the texts here.

Many Jesuses or Just One? (Part II)

Date: Monday, March 23, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

When we compare the Jesus in the Gospel of Mark with the Jesus in the Gospel of John, we notice many major differences. So many, in fact, that it raises the question of whether this is even the same Jesus! In our last discussion (February 2020) we also carefully considered the Jesus portrayed the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Truth. The astonishing variety and diversity in these Jesus portraits was even more surprising and interesting. In this follow-up discussion we expand the conversation to include a number of other early Christ documents: four or five documents written by Paul of Tarsus; the Gospel of Mary; the Letter of Peter to Philip; the Secret Revelation of John; and the canonical Revelation to John.

Many Jesuses?

Monday, February 24, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

With more and more different documents about Jesus discovered, a certain kind of question is being asked more frequently. The question goes something like this, “Since Jesus seems quite different and quite attractive and meaningful in many texts, can we think about one Jesus? Or would it help to think of different Jesuses?”  How many Jesuses are there? How do we account for such different Jesuses between the likes of the Letter to the Ephesians, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Thomas? What advantages and disadvantages are there to one, several, or many Jesuses? Good examples of the texts used in this study are available on the gospels.net website, and Early Christian Writings.

Parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas

Monday, January 27, 2020
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

Like many other canonical and extra-canonical documents from the first and second centuries, the Gospel of Thomas contains a number of parables.  Gospel of Thomas has more or less three kinds of parables: those with almost exact parallels with Matthew, Mark, or Luke; those with similar story-lines to canonical gospels but with strikingly different meanings; and those that have little or no similarities to canonical gospels.  This Monday Textual study examines the Gospel of Thomas parables from several different angles.

Good examples are available on the gospels.net website, and Early Christian Writings.

First Revelation of James

Monday, December 30, 2019
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The First Revelation of James (also called the First Apocalypse of James) comes from the very important discovery in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, where two Egyptian farmers found a large jar in the desert with 52 (mostly Jesus-related) documents, many of which had not been know before.  This is a story and teaching between Jesus and James, which focuses on what to do with the violent attacks on people by the Roman Empire.  James and the Lord talk at some length about the reputation that the Jesus movement welcomes women. Indeed in this document Jesus seems to be known for his association with four women leaders. Find the text for the First Revelation of James (or, The First Apocalypse of James) on the Early Christian Writings website here.

The  Gospel of Mark

Monday, November 25, 2019
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The Gospel of Mark rarely gets studied for itself. But it deserves to be taken seriously for the creative and very different picture it draws of the person of Jesus and for its thorough-going challenge to Roman imperial hegemony.  These dimensions of Mark have much to offer 21^st century spiritual and social strategies, especially in its inventive options to Christian orthodoxy. One of the recent interests in Mark are its resistance and responses to (especially) violence through its comical, flexible, and complicated identity constructions. The verses discussed:  1:1–15; 2:1–12; 4:1–14, 26–32; 5:1–43; 6:1–16; 7:14–15; 8:22–38; 9:1–8; 10:13–27; 11:1–25; 12:38–44; 13:1–13; 14:1–9, 53–65; 15:1–47; 16:1–8

The Wisdom of Solomon: A First Century Divine Female

Monday, October 28, 2019
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Presenter: Hal Taussig

One of the earliest lists of important books in the Christ movements (the Muratorian fragment) lists “The Wisdom of Solomon” along with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, thirteen letters of Paul, and two letters of John.  The most fascinating dimension of The Wisdom of Solomon on such a list of well-known early writings about Jesus is that the word ‘Jesus’ does not occur in The Wisdom of Solomon. The Wisdom of Solomon is now considered to have been an important writing for the hundreds of thousands people of Israel in first century Egypt. Find the text in The New Jerusalem Bible and The Oxford Annotated, or find it here on the web.  Specific verses discussed: 6:12–17; 7:7–17; 7:22–30; 8:1–18; 9:9–11; 10:1–21; and 11:1–26.

The Thunder, Perfect Mind II
Vulnerable Divinity: An Innovative Approach to God in the 21st Century from an Early Christ Movement

Monday, September 23, 2019
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Presenter: Hal Taussig

The recently discovered “The Thunder: Perfect Mind” from the second or third century introduces a full-blown picture of a vulnerable God that for may help make sense of Divinity for 21^st century people seeking a new way of thinking about God.  Here is a key sentence from this recently discovered document: “I am she who exists in all fear and in trembling boldness.”

Read the text here,

The Acts of Paul and Thecla

Monday, August 26, 2019
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

The text is available here, here, and here.  This discussion concentrates on Thecla’s freedom and leadership, especially the ways her gender and sexuality is far more than what has often been considered “virginity” and/or “celibacy.”

The Thunder: Perfect Mind

Monday, July 22, 2019
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Presenter: Hal Taussig

Click here for the text we’ll be using in this discussion. University of Pennsylvania professor Andrew Lamas calls The Thunder: Perfect Mind “one of the ten most important documents in history.”  Replay the discussion on YouTube (right).  Audio starts after the introductory text.