Bible Backgrounds/Church History 2012

Today we're going to go through the life and times of John, but before I do that, before I go through the life and times of John, you have on the handout that I just distributed, it's a one-page supplement. This is about Purim. This is a slide that we've put out before, but it's the first slide in the one-page handout that you've got on Purim.

Reason for bringing that up, right about here in Old Testament history, about 470 B.C., and you'll see different dates, I've seen as early as 483 and as late as 465, but about 470 B.C. is the account of Esther in the Bible. Interesting, it's the one Bible book that does not have the name of God in it. But, the book of Esther and the account of how Esther was used by God to preserve the people of Israel. Haman, who was an influential man with the king of Persia, was trying to essentially pull off a holocaust, a mass destruction of the Jews, and Esther was instrumental in cutting that off and stopping that. So, that being the case, here is the Jewish calendar, and what you'll find, the Star of David, by the way, as far as we know, none of the biblical Jews ever saw it or knew what it was.

That's more recent production, but nonetheless, it's there. We have the black ring there, which is our calendar, which is based on largely Roman names and backgrounds. But this is the Jewish calendar, and so as you go around the year, the first holiday starting in our calendar year is Purim.

And Purim is based on the Book of Esther. The Jews will celebrate it this next Wednesday at sundown to Thursday at sundown. And interestingly enough, Hanukkah and Purim are not a part of the Mosaic annual calendar. They are two additional holidays. Purim was from the Book of Esther, so that's late Old Testament. And Hanukkah was from between the Testaments, about 165 BC, and Hanukkah is mentioned in John 10, 22, and 23. Purim is from the whole book of Esther. So anyway, sundown Wednesday, March 7th, the sundown Thursday, March 8th, will be Purim this year. Is it always on the 8th?

No, and here's the thing, because my point here, Israel had a lunar calendar, and I think that's what your handout also says. You might say it's a loony calendar because what they did was they would have 12 lunar calendar months, but because that doesn't match up with the solar years, what they would do is throw in an extra month every once in a while to correct it. And so that's one reason why you'll have Hanukkah at different times and Purim at different times compared to our calendar. We have a calendar that we have to still do little tweaks like we just had one leap year, right? And occasionally they do some odd adjustments to the time, even when they switch the time over. We have basically though a solar calendar, this is a lunar calendar, and that's what the Jews operate with. Because they make the correction throwing an extra month in once in a while, you'll find where their calendar and our calendar line up changes.

So they have Purim that they'll be celebrating and it's something like Mardi Gras or Halloween in its appearance and the way they celebrate it. All right, so anyway, I think you'll find that interesting. What I will try to do is as we go through the year, because we'll be proceeding throughout the calendar year, I'll try to point out the Jewish feasts and festivals that are coming up. I'll keep you current on that.

All right, we are here in the Book of Acts. This should be your handout, which I think is three pages and a one-page supplement. We went last week to Book of Acts, and now we're going to the life of John. I'm going to start earlier in John's personal history. Let's take a look. So this is the life of John.

John was probably born around 10 AD, probably one of the younger disciples, and may even have been, during the time of Christ's ministry, in his teens during that time. And here is the chronology of New Testament books, which I believe you have as a last page item. And one of the things that I'll note is that the Gospels we have here in terms of their time, but the date given actually fits somewhat later in here. So those dates given are put here from the standpoint that it covers the life of Christ. Now, one word on some of the dates. A lot of the dates are approximate.

You can imagine Matthew and Mark and Luke and John. They didn't say, and this was written in 40 AD, right? Because nobody knew there was such a thing as a BC or AD. So we don't have that to go by. We have other clues as to date. My own inclination is to believe that the Gospels were probably written on the earlier end of the range. closer to the original time, but anyway.

Next, here. James and John were the sons of Zebedee, and we'll see in, I believe it's next week's message about that. They had a fishing business in Galilee and they were prominent. What do I mean by prominent? One is, we'll see that their mother went and asked for special placement of James and John. with Jesus, and we'll find out about that.

John had some unique insights into and influence among the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus. Only John writes about Nicodemus, who was one of the Sanhedrin, one of the upper crust of the Jewish religious order. Joseph of Arimathea he also writes about. In addition to that, John has several different places where he gives insight into even meetings of the Sanhedrin that none of the other Gospels give.

And one more thing, remember when Peter wanted to get into the courtyard where he later denied Christ? Peter would not be allowed in. You know who got him in? John. John had the influence and he had the name recognition that he could get Peter in where Peter couldn't get in on his own. So John was a person of great influence.

Some have even suspected that he might have been a Levite or had some priestly connection. So, at any rate, in the Gospel of John you'll see some unique insights into the Sanhedrin and John's influence there. John wrote some very unique things about the Last Supper and the hours before Christ was crucified. Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the Gospel of John contain some things that are not included elsewhere. Chapter 17 as well.

John wrote about identification with Christ. He didn't explain it like Paul did. Paul explained identification with Christ. But John wrote about it, and one of the things that John talked about with regards to identification is intimacy, spiritual intimacy. And one more thing, knowing. First John. Oh, there's another thing about John.

John often wrote why he wrote the book. These are written that you might believe, and that believing you might have life through His name. Or, 1 John, this is written so that you may know that you are in Him. So, John often wrote why he wrote Revelation. He says, I wrote it because I was commanded to.

Now, here is Christ's view from the cross, painted by James Tissot. a Swiss painter. So here's Jesus looking down from the cross and what you'll see is there's John in the picture. Because remember at one point Jesus puts John and Mary together and says you're responsible for her, right? That was the assignment.

Now, so here's John and Peter running to see the empty tomb. John had some unique connections there. Here's John and Peter in the book of Acts, early, with the lame man at the temple. Remember, Peter said, I don't have any gold or silver, but here's what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. So John was there with Peter.

Now, we're moving ahead to the period about 64 to 70 AD, very tumultuous times for the Jews and for the Church. And here's why. Paul writes his last New Testament letter, 2 Timothy, during this time period. He says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. And that's towards the end of his life. It's the last letter that we possess. It doesn't mean it's the last letter. It may be. It's the last one we possess. And he says, I'm just about done, guys. Just about done.

In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only me, but all who have loved His appearing." Are you eligible for that crown of righteousness? Yes, you are. And what is it? What's the qualification? When you walk through heaven's gates, it's loving His appearing. Looking for His appearing gets an eternal crown. That's cool, right?

Now, Peter finishes his last New Testament letter with, "...you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men, and fall from your own steadfastness." I have there a picture, this is what is not absolute certainly, but is very likely, strong likelihood, Peter's house in Capernaum. They have it covered, but this is some of the floor area and some of the the walls remain. He says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Peter's last words that we have possession of.

Though Christians endured persecution from the Jews in earlier decades, and that was all the way from the apostles initially and the Apostle Paul, By the middle 60s, the source of the persecution had shifted to the Romans. The Romans went through, over that and subsequent centuries, about ten waves of persecution. This is the first one. Tacitus, writing basically towards the end of John's life or shortly thereafter, wrote of the Christians in Rome under Nero.

In perishing, they were additionally made into sporks. They were killed by dogs by having the hives of beasts attached to them. Or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and they were used as nighttime lamps. This is a Roman historian, not a Christian.

The Zealot and Sicarii groups in Israel, Simon the Zealot, one of the disciples, right? The Sicarii groups were even more extreme, and what happened is the Zealots got more extreme over time as well. They reached a peak of anti-Roman fervor so that by 66 AD outright rebellion against the Romans had begun. Antonia Fortress, which is on the north side of the Temple Mount area, was where there was a Roman fort.

This was where Pilate sentenced Jesus. This is where Jesus was beaten. This is where they pulled the Apostle Paul when he got there in Jerusalem and got into trouble. They pulled him because there was a stairway that went from the temple courtyard into that fortress. They pulled Paul into that fortress and so that fortress was held by the Romans.

The Jews attacked it and actually slaughtered all the Romans. there in the temple. So for a time, they had freedom from the Romans, but for a time. Now, by 70 AD, the Romans had crushed the rebellion, totally demolishing the temple in Jerusalem. They brought in 12 legions of soldiers from as far away as Britain to smash the Israeli rebellion. And this is an artist painting of the Roman army attacking Jerusalem. Basically, here is the temple area, here is the fires that they set. So, anyway, that's the depiction. Now, three things got terminated or ended when the Romans finally demolished Jerusalem, and I'll make that four even. First of all, the Romans tore the temple apart.

The remains of the temple got shoved off the temple mount, and, matter of fact, archaeologists have dug that up, and a few of the stones from that demolition are actually still visible. They left them in a place where you can see where those stones are. They found some of the signs that warn the Gentiles, don't come in here, right? One and a half of those were found among the rubble. Nonetheless, Other things happened aside from the temple being demolished and of course the end of the sacrifices and all that.

No more Sadducees. Sadducees died out as a group of the people with this destruction of Jerusalem. Why? Because the Sadducees were all around Jerusalem and hung around Jerusalem and they hung around the temple and so when you wiped that group out, you wiped out the Sadducees.

One other thing, remember we talked last week about the court of Hillel and the court of Shammai? The court of Shammai was wiped out. No more court of Shammai. So what you had after this 70 AD event where the Romans demolished Jerusalem, what you had was the court of Hillel remaining, the only one, and you had the Sadducees wiped out and the Essenes wiped out. But the Pharisees continued. That's why several years ago when I got together with an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, his introduction to me was, we are the Pharisees. Isn't that interesting? One more thing.

Way back in Genesis, if you recall, here's Jacob and Esau born as twins, right? And Esau first and then Jacob. So far as we know, the descendants of Esau ended with this, because the remaining descendants of Esau came into Jerusalem to help join the Jews in the battle against the Romans. But because they were wiped out, that was the last of the descendants of Esau.

It doesn't mean that there aren't any, it's just that there aren't any that are identifiable. If there are any, they don't know it, and we don't know it. So, at the end of those things, now we're going to look at what happened to the Apostles, and that's the next stretch here.

We know what happened to Judas, of course, and he ended his life. He never, you know, lived to the time of the Church in Acts 2. We know what happened to James, the brother of John. One of the things we've mentioned is James was the first one to die, John was the last. So the two brothers were kind of like bookends of the Apostles. James the first to die, John the last, so far as we know.

John 21, 18 and 19 Our Lord says this of Peter's death, but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this he said signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. So what does stretching out your hands mean? He would be crucified and that's the tradition has it that he was crucified upside down. He would not be crucified as our Lord was.

Outside of the New Testament, the reliability of the record goes down. So that's one thing. As we go through these, just keep in mind that this isn't inspired scripture. In some cases, there are several different traditions and they conflict. So the reliability of the record varies even from one apostle to the next. That being the case, however, Here's Peter.

Some scholars dispute that Peter ever went to Rome. We have a written account that says he was crucified there upside down under Nero. This was this tumultuous time that we talked about. Paul is thought by many scholars to have gone to Spain, because Romans 15 has some implications on that. But the extra-biblical accounts have his life ending in Rome, beheaded about the same time as Peter. This is the Mamertine prison, which according to tradition is the prison where Paul spent his last days.

And the way you entered that prison was to fall, they drop you through a hole in the roof. They just plonk, that's it. Marilyn? Can you go back one slide? Is that, Peter, is there Rome? There is one tradition, a written account, that says he was crucified in Rome upside down. Yes, that's right. That's one of the reasons why I also say that there's varying reliability among these extra-biblical accounts. Some dispute whether he ever went to Rome. No, not that I'm aware of. but that he ever went to Rome is disputed.

Yes? So if you were crucified upside down, you wouldn't die from suffocation, would you? Well, the difficulty is it is a horrible way to die, because you are not going to die fast. You can starve to death, or they have to attack you. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be awful. Being crucified this way places various kinds of stresses on the shoulders and on the chest that you don't have being crucified the other way. So you're going to die slower this way.

Now, here is Andrew, who is Peter's brother. Traditions have Andrew travel and spread the gospel in Scythia, up here north of the Black Sea. Asia Minor, which is of course now the west end of Turkey, and finally to Greece, where he is reported to have been crucified in Greece. So that's Andrew Peter's brother. Thomas, the doubter, eventually ended up not doubting, saying, my Lord and my God, when he examined the wounds in Christ's side. Thomas' doubts did come to an end. He is reported to have preached the gospel and taught in the area east of Syria.

In other words, what we have there is the Parthian Empire. You see that outlined in red. The Parthian Empire. And to India, going to the Madras area of India. The written records have them going to Madras and the people who are Christians in that area, and I've talked with one or two of them, say so as well. Isn't that interesting? So, all the way to India. Oh, one other thing.

Why would the apostles be inclined to go to Parthia? Because you'll find several of them that do. What was one of the common languages spoken among the Jews in Israel? Aramaic was commonly spoken and that language was still spoken in Parthia. So they could go to Parthia, and that was also a place where there were a number of Jews that didn't come back from the Babylonian exile. And so they could go to the Jews there and tell them about the Christ, and tell them about the Messiah, and already know the language, and already be able to relate to, hey, these people are Jews, just like us.

Here's Philip. Tradition tells us that Philip was instrumental in the salvation of the wife of the Roman proconsul in the city of Herapolis, who retaliated by having him cruelly put to death. Very interesting. Here's Herapolis, here's the theater, where by the way they still have some dramatic and musical performances. The nation's gate there in Hierapolis and the mineral baths, which is where the hot water came from, that went across the valley to Laodicea.

What's interesting is just in the last recent months, an archaeologist claims to have found Phillips 2 and this, he says, is it. A lot of these archaeological discoveries, I kind of prefer to have the dust settled because there's always things to be checked out and is the claim valid, etc. But anyway, as it is, I'll tell you that much. So this is what he claims is Phillips 2.

Here's Matthew, author of the gospel by his name, also called Levi, reportedly preached the gospel in Parthia, again, because of the ability for them to go to Jews who already knew how to speak Aramaic, just like they already did, so it was natural, and then went to Ethiopia, where he is reported to have been preaching the gospel while they drove wooden stakes into his body until he died. Bartholomew is credited with spreading the gospel to India, Armenia, Arabia, and Ethiopia.

Accounts of his death vary, Armenia being one of the locations. So this is one where there's conflicting or differing locations where his life has ended. And so again, less reliability in the account, at least so far as location is concerned. James, one of the few by that name in the New Testament, went to Syria and is reported by Josephus to have been stoned or clubbed to death. James, the son of Alphaeus, that's different by the way from James, Jesus' brother.

Josephus also wrote about him and said he was killed in Jerusalem, I think it was about 62 AD. Simon the Zealot, noted in scripture for his part in the Zealots, it said he had been killed in Parthia for refusing the sacrifice of the Parthian sun god. But again, he went to Parthia, that being a natural because of the Aramaic language and the Jewish population that was there. Matthias is not mentioned either before or after his selection in Acts, but he is said to have gone with Andrew and also with Matthew to Ethiopia, but burned to death.

Questions or comments? That's the accounts of the various apostles. Alright, let's go on to the next one. One of the things, this is the Colosseum in Rome. This was constructed 72 to 80 AD. Christians being killed there was actually something that didn't start until later. Initially it was not the main action and attraction for the Romans. The reason for that little animated picture up front is they actually had a sun and weather cover over the top of the Coliseum.

Can you imagine that? I mean, even today, a lot of our larger stadiums don't have that. It could hold about 50,000 people. And what you see here, this is the remaining structure now. It's a nighttime shot. Here is the area, here's where the seats were, and then the floor is now long since rotten out, and so they've cleaned that all up. Here's a shot looking inside here.

There was a labyrinth down below of different passageways and holding places for gladiators and animals and all sorts of things, so it was really quite a complex underneath. And then they had all the things up top. They would have animals and gladiators come up from the floor by drop-down and openable gates. Interestingly enough, there was a major industry of bringing in fresh sand and hauling out the old stuff because it got so bloody. This is inside the Colosseum. Of course, this shows a bunch of Christians crouching. That did not actually happen until later. done initially during New Testament times.

So here's John, the Apostle John, as far as we know, the only Apostle to have lived his life out and died a natural death. That even seems to be a miracle. An extra-biblical account said that under Domitian, he was boiled in oil, only it didn't work, didn't kill him. And so he lived through it, and so Domitian then had no choice but to just put him in exile on the Isle of Patmos because the attempt to kill him was unsuccessful. Which is why he would be on Patmos.

Now, one of the things, remember Jesus had John and Mary connected up for John to take care of Mary as she got older. Why would Jesus be responsible for that? He was the oldest son and so that would have been his responsibility and obviously that was going to end. He was seeing his last hours as a human being like ourselves and so he made the assignment, John take care of her.

Why wouldn't the other brothers of Christ be suitable? At that point in time, The other brothers of Jesus were not believers, that's part one. And part two is they were going to be very active in, actually when they became believers, very active in the church and even under great threat. But John actually, here is the tradition, this is according to tradition Mary's house in Ephesus. Again, tradition. Tradition says that he cared for Jesus' mother Mary, who was last mentioned in the New Testament in Acts chapter 1.

Yes, Dan? So that would then indicate that Joseph had left the scene by the time... Yes. As a matter of fact, the implication being that the last time we see Joseph was when Jesus was, remember, age 12, and there was the account there in the temple. That's the last time that we see him.

It may also explain why Jesus didn't move away from Nazareth until he had reached about age 30 to start his ministry, right? So that would explain that, that he had, as the oldest son, to take responsibility for his mother and the other siblings until they got older.

Here's the traditional home, a little larger picture there. John is said to have spent his last years in Ephesus, except for a time of exile on the island of Patmos, under the reign of Emperor Domitian. Here is a modern view from the cave which is traditionally where John was exiled from the island of Patmos. Here is the island of Patmos, modern scene here, and there was a cave there, and that was according to tradition, the cave that John stayed in while he was exiled.

John wrote in simple, consistent Greek. Interestingly, the Apostle Paul puts together compound words and long sentences. Sometimes the Apostle Paul has compound words with as many as four parts, and he would write complex sentences, long sentences. So far as I understand, Ephesians 1, verses 3-14 in the Greek is all one sentence. Now, Revelation shows some evidence of John's age. In a few cases, the sentence structure is a little rough. But in general, he wrote simple. He didn't use compound words unless he has to. And he tended to write fairly consistently.

Yes, Dan? So that would kind of indicate that being a fisherman, he probably didn't have the level of education Here is the thing. John may well have been quite educated, but did not have the same background as the Apostle Paul, who had more experience in dealing with the Gentiles, being from Tarsus, right? more experience in dealing with the Gentiles, and Paul's background included more different ethnic groups and probably more languages, and I would say probably a higher level of sophistication in Greek. Paul writes to Titus about the people at Crete and quotes a Cretan philosopher. from several centuries before. That's a fair level of sophistication when, other than a brief stop, we don't know that he ever went there.

Revelation is a prophetic masterpiece. We went through a one-year study just a couple years back in the book of Revelation. A prophetic masterpiece, a phenomenal piece of work. That towards the end of John's life. The book of Revelation is drawn 70% from the Old Testament. So people look at Revelation and say, man, what is this crazy book? But the reality is, more than two-thirds of it is straight out of the Old Testament. So if you're wondering, what does this mean, you go to the Old Testament passages for more than two-thirds of it to find out exactly what he meant. It's drawn straight from the Old Testament, in great part.

John showed a fine awareness of local historical detail, and we'll be going through that later in our study. Like when he wrote to Laodicea, he talked to them about, you know, the lukewarm water. Well, it's because Hierapolis, who showed pictures of Hierapolis, provided the hot water for Laodicea, but it came through a six mile long pipe. And by the time it got to Laodicea, it was no longer hot. It was lukewarm, right? He told them, you're blind and naked.

Well, they had a special eye salve that they sold in Laodicea. And the eye salve was made from this mineral deposit from the water. And they would mix it up with olive oil. And so when they talk about being blind, they were the people famous for having this eye salve that keeps you from being blind. And then, he says, and you're naked. And they were famous for having a special kind of dark wool that was well known throughout the Roman Empire. So all the things that John mentions are specific to the location and the culture and the history.

And we'll see that as we go through the seven cities of Revelation. Now, Jeremiah was written by a group, and it was written down on a scroll. I presume that Isaiah must have been written on a scroll as well, because they found it in the temple. Were these scrolls ever collected all in one place, or were they in the temple, or would have John had access to all of these scrolls at one time? Here's the deal. The scrolls were actually fairly expensive. But yes, they would have complete scrolls.

In the smaller synagogues, they may only have a smaller assortment of the books, but in larger cities, in places of study, certainly in Jerusalem and at the Temple, they would have copies of the entire set. The Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, which is part of a reclusive group, the Essenes, at least most scholars believe that. And there they have multiple copies, for example, of Isaiah among the Dead Sea Scrolls. So there would be places and outlying areas, there would be major cities and towns where they would have copies of that.

You would wonder, here's John in Ephesus, where would he have access to these scrolls, right? Well, guess what? Remember one of the things we saw before is about 2,000 Jewish families had moved to the area around Ephesus a couple centuries before. And so there was a significant Jewish population in that area and a place where they would get copies of the scrolls.

And he was also called an elder or something too, wasn't he? So he had access to higher level worship areas. Yeah, I mean John was highly regarded and as he got older we have some other extra biblical accounts about John, which if we have time I'll go over that.

Here's the symbolism, and Revelation is Jewish. People read it and they say, what on earth is this crazy thing here? Jesus is going around with a five foot sword hanging out of his mouth, and eyes that are on fire, and hair like wool. I mean, you put that together and try to draw that, and it looks like, wow, this is a freak. But, here's the thing, we tend to look at it with a Greek mindset, where we say, what does it look like? The Jewish understanding was, what does it mean?

The five foot sword coming out of his mouth was a barbarian battle sword, a ramphaya. And it wasn't the short Roman sword which was used for close in battle. This was for hacking flesh. This was for huge judgment. And so Jesus is described as having the sword coming out of his mouth all the way up to the second coming, but not afterwards. Why? It's because he comes in judgment and it talks about his great ability to carry out the judgment with the word of his mouth.

He doesn't go out there and start swinging a sword or shooting ray guns at people. He speaks as it happens. That's why the sword comes out of his mouth. And by the way, the sword out of the mouth figure is out of Isaiah. So, what does it look like? What does it mean? And that's key in Jewish understanding.

It's just in the same way that Jewish poetry and songs, they rhyme meanings, not sounds. We sing our songs, and if you notice, we rhyme the sounds, right? They didn't do that with the Jews. They rhymed meanings, not sounds. Because for the Jews, it's the meaning that counts, not what does it look like or what does it sound like. OK, so in the Jewish culture, the symbol is not what the symbol looks like, but what the symbol means. So he didn't intend to write this where we put the composite of what does it look like together, and we go, wow, that's freaky, right? But it's because John was writing what it means, not what it looks like.

OK, did the apostles take the gospel to China? Bible story depictions have been found in the Eastern Han Dynasty, tombstones in China dating from 86 AD, according to China's Professor Wang Lui-Han. By the way, this is nativity scenes. These are nativity scenes, including coming here with gifts. So, that's what that is. And the other things, and this is just one from the tombstones, the other things even go back to the Garden of Eden, showing Adam and Eve and the tree and all that. So, going through the Old Testament books all the way up to the time of the Nativity, that's what's presented on these tombstones. Bible stories all the way up to and including the birth and death of Christ.

So, we've gone through a quick sweep of the life of John up to the death of John. John writing the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, about 95, and dying about a year after that. Some of the dating of that is because several of the people writing after the time of John, recorded things about the end of his life. Here are a couple of accounts about John that are interesting.

One account was that when John was old, they would say, John is going to speak, and so they would help John up to the front of the church, and he would get up there with some help, and he'd stand up in front of everybody, and he would say, love one another, and then they'd help him sit down. Another account, however, goes like this, that there was a young man, and he had become a believer, and so John told the pastor at his church, you make sure that you teach this boy, you teach this young man.

And the pastor didn't pay attention to what John said. So later John came and asked the guy, what happened to that guy? Did you teach him? And the pastor said, no I didn't. Where is he? He's leading a group of thugs out on the road and they go out and steal from people. And John said, where is he?

And so the guy told him, The pastor told him. And so the story goes that John went out and ran back and forth on that section of road until this group came and attacked him. And then he started telling the young man who was leading the group of thugs, he says, you need to be told about the Bible and about all the things that Jesus did. And so the man left the group of thugs and then John taught him.

So, anyway, a couple of interesting extra-biblical stories. They're not from scripture, again they don't have the same level of reliability, but interesting nonetheless. And may in fact be true, those both sound feasible in terms of what took place. So, we've covered the life of John here.

This is one you don't have in your handout set, but what it is is a map. It doesn't include outlying areas like India and Parthia, but a map showing some of the places around the Roman Empire where Christianity had spread by the year 100. There were other areas as well, areas, for example, of India and Parthia, off to the east, and other areas off the map here down to Ethiopia that aren't included. different ones that are a part of the Roman Empire, shown on this map here. Here is the map of the Roman Empire.

Of course, we said last week the Christian faith started in Jerusalem. It got carried to Rome, actually before the time of the Apostle Paul, but then the Apostle Paul ended up there, and then disputed, but possibly Peter as well. Finally, what we find is that Ephesus is the place where John ends up and spends his last days, so an interesting transition from Jerusalem to Rome and then to have the final center of apostolic activity be around the city of Ephesus, where again there was a minority but a significant population of Jews. Okay, and we won't be doing what happened after the New Testament era. We'll be going to pre-Fourth culture next time. Questions? Comments? Thoughts? We covered a lot of ground here. What we've done is just kind of give sweeping spots of history.

We're going to go back here and talk about the culture from the beginning of the Bible on into New Testament times. The culture differs according to Bible times, and realizing that the culture differed by time and by location, and sometimes you'd have overlapping cultures in the same area.

So we'll be looking first at pre-flood culture, and with rare exception, most of what we know comes out of the Bible. Why would we have very little left over from the culture before the flood? The flood. Yeah, the flood would essentially wipe out what culture there was.

We do have some, and I'll have some pictures as much as possible. We do have some interesting finds, like here's a rock with a hammer in it. You know, things like that. So occasionally you'll find something of that sort. But in great parts, the major evidences of culture would just basically be buried in the ground to dust. Yes? The Arabs know. Yes. Iran, Iraq, all of Syria, all those.

Where are they from? What descendants? I don't have the map in front of me, but essentially one of the things you find is that, remember from the Tower of Babel, we had groups, the Japhethites going up towards Europe. We had people from Shem staying in the Middle East and then heading east, and then you had the Hamites going into Africa. So you had that migration. There's of course no mention of the New World, but the evidence that we have is with a few exceptions, the New World was populated by people who were from Shem. going across the Bering Strait and into North America and then down into South America. That was the general migration.

To get specific to your question about the Arabs, a lot of those are various kinds of mixtures, but actually from Shem, a great many of them. This isn't true of all the Arabs, but a lot of them descended from Ishmael, Yes, and not all of them, because you go through the Genesis genealogy and there are others of that family group.

And one thing, we don't understand it because we have a general cultural background of forgiveness, although I notice they have that crazy TV show Revenge or something. One of the things we don't understand that is innate as a part of their culture in the Middle East is a culture of honor killings and revenge. In other words, to have an honor killing, to carry out revenge, is looked upon as an ethical duty. So it's created difficulties when people from that culture come here, carry out their so-called ethical duty, which they feel, this I must do, this is necessary that I do, and of course it's illegal here, right? So there's a conflict of cultures.

And by the way, part of the difficulty of having some of the law and culture carried over here So, at any rate, a lot of them are descended from Shem, just as the Jews are. I think we have our term anti-Semitic, which ultimately means dealing from Shem. But many of the people who are anti-Semitic, in our use of the term, are actually also descended from Shem. And not exclusively so, but many of them descended from Ishmael and along that line.

Yes. Real quick, how do they justify the changes in skin color? I mean, there's so many different skin colors and eye shapes. Yes, yes. What's the take on that? You know, it's real interesting. Of course, today we have the ability to study DNA specifically and and in many cases investigate things that you could never investigate before. But essentially you'll have the ability, even within people of the same genetic pool, and by that I mean they're human beings, to have lots of different variety in skin color, eye color, and that sort of thing. And occasionally, it's real interesting, occasionally it's fascinating to see different skin colors show up from parents that you would never expect it to show up from.

One recent case, it happened when Hassan was here, I showed him a picture. Here's a black couple, and they're not mulatto looking, but black, and they have a blonde, light-skinned baby. In one case, fairly recently, fraternal twins, and one's black and one's white. So while there's a general tendency among different groups to have skin colors and hair colors and whatnot, even the possibility of something that's not typical of the population occasionally showing up. But the ability to have different characteristics within one species, it's one where we forced it For example, in horses, where you've got really big Clydesdales and then these little miniature horses that aren't quite two feet tall.

Dogs would be another one. I think you had a hand up. I did. I was talking with a friend that was here to Rome, and the official tour guide there was taking him through the Colosseum. And I'm wondering if that's a common legal belief, common legal propaganda, or if this was just escalated.

To say that they were never put to death there, I'm not aware that that's the record, because I can think of certain accounts where they were. However, they were not put together, put to death there earlier. That is, in the earlier centuries it was not the case. I mean, the earlier decades of the Colosseum was not the case. It was actually only towards the latter part of the Roman Empire where that took place in a Colosseum or, you know, theater kind of environment.

But there are accounts, written accounts. Let me ask a question. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I mean there's all sorts of things that are perpetrated that are not true, and all sorts of things that happen that are never spoken of. And of course the idea that people think of the Colosseum, they think of Christians being put to death.

To say that it never took place I think is not quite to history. There are people who say the Holocaust never took place. I think the reality so far as any reading that I've done is that it didn't take place earlier. It didn't take place in New Testament times, but it took place later.

And it wasn't the major entertainment. That was the other thing, is the major entertainment involved fighting with animals. They did have gladiators, and the gladiator tradition was from early until late. They even would flood the Colosseum and have sea battles, as I understand it. You know, all sorts of different things happen.

I think to make the Christian persecution in the Colosseum a major thing would be a distortion. To say that it never occurred would be a distortion. To say that it occurred early in the history of the Colosseum would be a distortion. There are lots of revisions that, you know, like saying the Holocaust never took place.

That's a common particularly Muslim teaching. The Muslims teach that the first and second temples in Jerusalem never existed. And that's commonly taught and told, and the Jews are not allowed to go there anymore. You'll see them at what's called the Wailing Wall, and actually the Jews prefer to call it the Western Wall, which is the western wall of the Temple Mount. but increasingly they're not allowed to go up to the top area where the temple actually was. Even though we know the temple was there by numerous means, including the fact that all the pieces of the temple were shoved off the edge and the archaeologists cleaned up the mess in great part, leaving a few pieces of rubble.

So, yeah, unfortunately lots of revisionist history and lots of mythology gets carried around. You know, one of them we brought up in an earlier class was, you know, you hear about the high priest going into the Holy of Holies with a rope around his waist.

You ever hear about that one? Not true. And by the way, that story has gone among the Christians and the Jews. I was looking at a Jewish website where they're trying to say, no, that never happened. But nonetheless, it's gotten carried on and carried on. A piece of, you know, distortion in mythology. No basis in fact. In fact, the earliest record of it seems to show up in about the middle ages of that rumor.

And now it's going around electronically. You know, so. Yes. Yeah. That's because it seemed logical. Yeah. If you were struck down, you'd have to retrieve the body. Yeah, that's right. But the reality is they never did that. Actually, the closest we have, remember Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist? He goes in there and of course he doesn't croak and fall over dead. He comes out and can't talk. That was the hazard to him.

Other thoughts, questions? Okay. I passed around the Bible backgrounds fully loaded. Did everybody get a chance that wants to do that? What that means is that I have a whole bunch of additional material, most of which I'll try to distribute electronically. By the way, I think Steve, you signed up for that.

And are you on dial-up? Or you have higher speed internet? Yeah, I would be careful with that on dial-up because some of the files are huge. You'll be downloading for hours. Anyway, it may not work for you. You'll have to get it to you some other way. As I have it now, and I'm not done putting files into it, some of the files are 20 megabytes, which takes you forever to dial-up and download.

But it's things like atlas, bible dictionaries, historical atlases about Jerusalem and Palestine and things like that. So anyway, lots of different resources and references. And I'll from time to time send out more emails. I sent out one last night, so be looking for that if you haven't seen it. And you may want to be selective about what you download.

What's in there is usually contained in the title of the files. And please don't delete them. You can. Please don't delete them. Then nobody else can get to them. So just download them. Other questions? Comments? Yes? Do you need to download them? You don't have to download them. You don't have to do anything. But what I'm saying is you can either download them all. You can download them all. You can download... No, I'll leave them on there for months. So you'll have plenty of chance for access. And I will update it from time to time with other files. We're right now going through Bible backgrounds. When we get into church history, there are some additional files that I can put up there. Yes?

So if I copy those two flash drives and then delete them off my computer, then that affects everybody else? Well, don't delete them off of Dropbox because everybody that I sent it to has access to it, but if you delete them from there, nobody else will be able to get them back. Don't delete them from Dropbox. Do whatever you like once it's on your machine or you've got on your flash drive or something.

Okay? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you just as we study these things. There is such richness and depth in your word. And we thank you for the things that you have allowed us to have access to that give us greater understanding. And we pray as we go through our study that we would indeed understand more and more of your word, not just to fill our heads and minds, but to behold you and to know you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.