Christians have celebrated Easter for thousands of years. Learn more about the first Easter. The first Easter was a very exciting day. The apostle Paul tells us what happened in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8: “I told you the most important part of the message exactly as it was told to… Read More

How should we understand the role of women in Mark’s Gospel? Check out one view on this subject. by Seong Hee Kim, PhD. Postcolonial feminist biblical interpretation is a new brand of hermeneutics that brings into feminist biblical studies the postcolonial theory of thinkers like Edward Said, Homi Bhabha,… Read More

They weren’t priests, but they weren’t commoners. So who were the Pharisees and what was their role in Jewish life? Find out here. By Jesus’ day, it was common for Jewish people to meet in private homes for worship and to study the Scriptures. This practice… Read More

They were the rebels of Palestine. Read about who they were and what they believed in. The Maccabees, as discussed earlier, insisted that the Jewish people have their own king. They were defeated when the Romans took over the land in 63 B.C. Later attempts to win freedom and… Read More

In ancient Rome, social class was everything. It determined a person’s rights, privileges and opportunities. The Roman Empire had a class structure based on wealth, birth, and citizenship. At the very top of Roman society was the emperor, who was considered the empire’s “first citizen.” Some emperors even… Read More

Two things never change – death and taxes. The Roman Empire was not an exception. Read about what taxes financed and who collected taxes in the Roman Empire. Though many peoples and cultures contributed to the cultural life in Palestine in Jesus’ day, the Romans were by far… Read More

The Roman Empire used local rulers to maintain order in the regions they conquered. Find out who these leaders were and what authority they had. Roman policy was to respect local customs and the laws of the peoples they ruled. They let local people form councils to control local… Read More

Peter fished. Matthew was a tax collector. Find out what other jobs were available in New Testament times. The Bible describes a wide range of cultures and lifestyles. The time from Abraham to the time of the early church spans a period of about two thousand years. How people… Read More

There are more copies of Bibles than any other book in the world. Read about how the Bible was passed down to us through countless generations over thousands of years. The Bible is like a small library that contains many books written by many authors. The word “Bible”… Read More

He is the most influential figure in history. Find out what the New Testament has to say about his life, death, and kingdom. “Jesus Christ” is a name that combines “Jesus,” the Greek form of a Hebrew name meaning “Yahweh (the Lord) will save” (Joshua), with “Christ,” the… Read More