Posts Tagged ‘Rome’
History of Martin Luther: Part 2 – Breakthrough
HISTORY OF MARTIN LUTHER: PART 2 — BREAKTHROUGH In Martin Luther’s introduction to the 95 Theses which he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Church 500 years ago on October 31, 1517, he begins: Out of love for the truth, and the desire to bring it to light… Truth had been supremely important to…
Read MoreHistory of 2010: Start of a New Decade?
HISTORY OF 2010: A NEW DECADE? As the chronometer clicks over from 2009 to 2010, many are heralding the end of one decade and the beginning of another, regaling the best and worst at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Except that it isn’t. Clicking over to 2010 does mark the…
Read MoreHistory of Santa Lucia
HISTORY OF LUCIADAGEN In Sweden, December 13 is Luciadagen, St. Lucia’s Day, or in English, St. Lucy. It is the beginning of their holiday season. The Lutheran Danes and Norwegians also celebrate this day. St. Lucia was a young woman who lived in first century Rome. She was a Christian who would not give up…
Read MoreHistory of the Players
What happened to our players AFTER the events in the Easter story?
Read MoreHistory of Good Friday
GOOD FRIDAY For centuries, pilgrims have walked the Via Dolorosa, “the way of sorrow” in Jerusalem, following the path Jesus took from the judgment seat of Pilate at the Antonia in the eastern part of the city immediately north of the Temple through several “stations of the Cross” to the ultimate location at the Church…
Read MoreHistory of the Sanhedrin
SANHEDRIN The Greek word sunedrion, translated “council” is referred to in the New Testament as “the Great Law-Court”, “the Court of Seventy-One”, and “the rulers and elders and scribes”. It was the supreme theocratic court of the Jews and reflected the local autonomy which the Greek and Roman powers granted the Jewish nation. Its origin…
Read MoreHistory of Herod Antipas
HEROD ANTIPAS Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great (whom we met in the Christmas story) and Malthake. After his father’s death in 4 B.C. he was made tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea in Trans-Jordan. Like his father, he was a lover of great and artistic architectural works, and built the beautiful Tiberias…
Read MoreHistory of Pontius Pilate
PONTIUS PILATE His name provides two valuable clues to his background and ancestry. The family name, Pontius was that of a prominent clan among the Samnites, hill cousins of the Latin Romans. They had almost conquered Rome in several fierce wars. The Pontii were of noble blood, but when Rome finally absorbed the Samnites, their…
Read MoreHistorical Climate of Easter
HISTORICAL CLIMATE OF EASTER What was the historical climate surrounding the last week of the life of Jesus of Nazareth? This man born to die, not just in the normal sense, but in some special sense, entered Jerusalem amidst a torrent of political, social and economic turbulence. The events in Palestine at this time are…
Read MoreHistory of Palm Sunday
PALM SUNDAY The week we now call Holy Week, started with Palm Sunday. Why was this week so important that three of the gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) devote a full third of their contents to reporting this week, and The Fourth Gospel (John) dedicates its entire last half? Jerusalem, which had a normal…
Read MoreHistory of Christmas: Augustus
HISTORY OF CAESAR AUGUSTUS Perhaps it is fitting that our last article on the History of Christmas should be about the first person mentioned in St. Luke’s story of the first Christmas. He was neither Palestinian, nor Jew, nor shepherd, nor wise man. He was in fact, 1500 miles away, the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.…
Read MoreHistory of the Players
SO WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO OLD… You may be asking yourself, “Self,” you ask, “where are they now?” and well you might ask. What happened to our players AFTER the events in the Easter story? HEROD ANTIPAS You may remember that I had said Antipas‘ taking to wife his brother’s wife Herodias led to his…
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