Quest for the Historical Apostles
Quest for the Historical Apostles

Author: W. Brian Shelton

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1493413198

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The stories and contributions of the apostles provide an important entrée into church history. This comprehensive historical and literary introduction uncovers their lives and legacies, underscoring the apostles' impact on the growth of the early church. The author collects and distills the histories, legends, symbols, and iconography of the original twelve and locates figures such as Paul, Peter, and John in the broader context of the history of the apostles. He also explores the continuing story of the gospel mission and the twelve disciples beyond the New Testament.

The Search for the Twelve Apostles
The Search for the Twelve Apostles

Author: William Steuart McBirnie

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2013-03-22

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1414385358

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Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, Simon, Judas, and Matthias—what happened to the men who answered Jesus' call to follow him? What impact did they have on the world? Where did they go and what did they do after Jesus' resurrection and ascension? In these fascinating profiles, Dr. McBirnie offers readers a snapshot of the lives of each apostle. His information was compiled by traveling to places where the apostles lived and visited, by studying the Scriptures and biblical history, by listening to local traditions, and by engaging in his own original research. Picking up where the book of Acts leaves off, McBirnie brings these men to life as he explores the legends, traditions, and real lives of the Twelve as they built the foundation of Christianity.

Paul and Jesus
Paul and Jesus

Author: James D. Tabor

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-11-13

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1439134987

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In this “compulsively readable exploration of the tangled world of Christian origins” (Publishers Weekly), religious historian James Tabor illuminates the earliest years of Jesus’ teachings before Paul shaped them into the religion we know today. This fascinating examination of the earliest years of Christianity reveals how the man we call St. Paul shaped Christianity as we know it today. Historians know almost nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have—the letters of Paul—as well as other early Chris­tian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity. Tabor shows how Paul separated himself from Peter and James to introduce his own version of Christianity, which would continue to develop independently of the message that Jesus, James, and Peter preached. Paul and Jesus illuminates the fascinating period of history when Christianity was born out of Judaism.

Apostle
Apostle

Author: Tom Bissell

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2017-02-07

Total Pages: 514

ISBN-13: 030727845X

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The story of Twelve Apostles is the story of early Christianity: its competing versions of Jesus’s ministry, its countless schisms, and its ultimate evolution from an obscure Jewish sect to the global faith we know today in all its forms and permutations. In his quest to understand the underpinnings of the world’s largest religion, Tom Bissell embarks on a years-long pilgrimage to the apostles’ supposed tombs, traveling from Jerusalem and Rome to Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, India, and Kyrgyzstan. Along the way, Bissell uncovers the mysterious and often paradoxical lives of these twelve men and how their identities have taken shape over the course of two millennia. Written with empathy and a rare acumen—and often extremely funny—Apostle is an intellectual, spiritual, and personal adventure fit for believers, scholars, and wanderers alike.

The Twelve
The Twelve

Author: C. Bernard Ruffin

Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor

Published: 1998-03-06

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1612782825

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Who were the Apostles really? What happened to them after the end of the Gospel story? You'll be surprised by the wealth of detail Ruffin has dug up for each apostle - even Judas Iscariot.

The Fate of the Apostles
The Fate of the Apostles

Author: Sean McDowell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-09

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1317031903

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The Book of Martyrs by John Foxe written in the 16th century has long been the go-to source for studying the lives and martyrdom of the apostles. Whilst other scholars have written individual treatments on the more prominent apostles such as Peter, Paul, John, and James, there is little published information on the other apostles. In The Fate of the Apostles, Sean McDowell offers a comprehensive, reasoned, historical analysis of the fate of the twelve disciples of Jesus along with the apostles Paul, and James. McDowell assesses the evidence for each apostle’s martyrdom as well as determining its significance to the reliability of their testimony. The question of the fate of the apostles also gets to the heart of the reliability of the kerygma: did the apostles really believe Jesus appeared to them after his death, or did they fabricate the entire story? How reliable are the resurrection accounts? The willingness of the apostles to die for their faith is a popular argument in resurrection studies and McDowell offers insightful scholarly analysis of this argument to break new ground within the spheres of New Testament studies, Church History, and apologetics.

The Apostles After Jesus
The Apostles After Jesus

Author: David Criswell

Publisher:

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780615757780

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The book of Acts ends with the Apostle Paul sitting in prison awaiting trial. But what happened to Paul afterwards? Was he acquitted? Did Nero execute him? What of the other apostles? Early church writings contain many works of historical fiction which embellish the histories of the great apostles to such an extent that they are seen performing greater miracles than Moses, Elijah, and Jesus put together. Andrew, for example, is depicted as resurrecting "a great multitude" including children and cattle. What are we to make of such wild embellishments? Can we separate history from tradition? Dr. Criswell, best known for his Biblical Controversies series, sets out to answer that very question. Within these pages, the various histories, traditions, and legends are presented and then evaluated and debated. The reader will thus be able to make his own determinations as to what really happened to the apostles, as well as their companions including men such as Barnabas, Luke, Mark, Aquila, Barsabas, Apollos, and many others. The Apostles After Jesus also contains many maps, charts, and art to help the reader better understand the history of the disciples of Christ.

After Acts
After Acts

Author: Bryan Litfin

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2015-01-16

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0802492061

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What really happened after Acts? If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the biblical characters after Acts—from the well-known Matthew to the lesser-known Bartholomew—then this book is for you. Join Dr. Bryan Litfin as he guides you through Scripture and other ancient literature to sift fact from fiction, real-life from legend. Skillfully researched and clearly written, After Acts is as accurate as it is engaging. Gain a window into the religious milieu of the ancient and medieval church. Unearth artifacts and burial sites. Learn what really happened to your favorite characters and what you should truly remember them for. Did Paul ever make it to Spain? Was he beheaded in Rome? Is it true that Peter was crucified upside down? Was the Virgin Mary really bodily assumed into heaven? The book of Acts ends at chapter 28. But its characters lived on.

The Amazing Colossal Apostle
The Amazing Colossal Apostle

Author: Robert M. Price

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781560852162

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The story of Paul is one of irony, the New Testament depicting him at the martyrdom of Stephen holding the assassins' cloaks. Then this same Paul is transformed into the biblical archetype for someone suffering for their faith. He becomes so entrenched, it would appear that he had walked with the Christians all his life, that he was the one who defined the faith, eventually being called the "second founder of Christianity." But much of what we think we "know" about Paul comes from Sunday school stories we heard as children. The stories were didactic tales meant to keep us reverent and obedient. As adults reading the New Testament, we catch glimpses of a very different kind of disciple--a wild ascetic whom Tertullian dubbed "the second apostle of Marcion and the apostle of the heretics." What does scholarship tell us about the enigmatic thirteenth apostle who looms larger than life in the New Testament? The epistles give evidence of having been written at the end of the first century or early in the second--too late to have been Paul's actual writings. So who wrote (and rewrote) them? F. C. Baur, a nineteenth-century theologian, pointed persuasively to Simon Magus as the secret identity of "Paul." Robert M. Price, in this exciting journey of discovery, gives readers the background for a story we thought we knew.