The feast day of James the Just (Brother of our Lord) was the other day on August 23. I have not posted much about James, which I need to correct. So with this post, I want to take a look at the “Second Apocalypse of James” which is found in the Nag Hammadi library. This …
Author Archives: bP
September 8: Feast of the Descent of Holy Sophia
Last year I posted around this time the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, which takes place on September 8. However there is another feast day on September 8 and that belongs to the Gnostic tradition, which is of that of the Descent of the Holy Sophia. Now I do not plan on comparing …
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Cyril of Alexandria on tollhouses
I’m going back to the tollhouse subject with this post and I want to go to the Church side (rather than Gnostic) to see what is stated there. There are numerous writings on tollhouses and just so you know, tollhouses are widely debated within the Orthodox community with some writings regarding them still appearing from …
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
August 4 (as well as October 22) commemorates the “Seven Sleepers of Ephesus” in the Orthodox church. What is the story of these sleepers? And why are they also in the Quran? The names of the youths varies, depending on the traditions/translations, but according to the OCA’s page (link HERE), their names were Maximilian, Iamblicus, …
Who was Saint Veronica?
July 12 is the feast day for Saint Veronica. But who is she? She is best known as the woman who wipes the face of Jesus during the sixth station of the cross. This particular event did not happen in the gospels but has been a part of the western tradition. So where does this …
Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
June 24 is the feast day of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, a tradition celebrated throughout Christendom. Take note that most feast days are about the death/falling asleep of a saint, but John the Baptist, along with the Theotokos, are two saints that also have nativity feast days. John actually has quite a …
The History of the Death of the Virgin Mary as told by Saint John
Today I bring you another Ethiopian tale, this time another version of the Dormition narrative. If you are familiar with this story, you’ll see some of the same aspects in this text. This was originally published by my favorite 19th/20th century scholar, E. A. Wallis Budge. I find it truly amazing the amount of work …
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Toll houses in the Gospel of Mary
The Gospel of Mary is probably the most famous non-Nag Hammadi library text out there. Despite it not being complete, an interesting teaching arises from this text. I am going to solely focus on the toll houses presented in this story. If you did not catch my previous blog entry about toll houses (click HERE), …
The Annunciation, through the lens of Islam and non-Canonical Texts
With the feast of the Annunciation coming up on March 25, I wanted to do a quick post regarding the Annunciation, but present it from the Islamic point of view, particularly how it is portrayed in the Quran, as well as non-canonical Christian texts. When I read through the Quran a few years ago, I …
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Toll Houses in the (Coptic) Apocalypse of Paul
Over the past few months, I’ve been gathering sources on Toll Houses. This is an Orthodox concept regarding souls after they leave the body and their ascent into heaven. Now let it be said, this is not a mainstream belief in modern Orthodoxy. There is much debate in it, but the concept does exist, and …
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