Sorry for the lack of updates in the past two months. Real life gets in the way sometimes. With this post, I am bringing forth a collection of sayings from John the Baptist (Yuhana) from the Mandaean holy book, the “Ginza Rabba”. These are taken from the English translated version by Prof. Dr. Qais Mughashghash …
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Another full Coptic tale for you with this post! This particular text is titled “An Encomium on Saint John the Baptist, by Saint John Chrysostom.” Now was this actually written by John Chrysostom? I have read online that it’s more likely a “pseudo-” attribution. I will leave that up to you, the reader, to decide …
Here is an interesting tidbit regarding John the Baptist speaking of wanting a wife (and obtaining one, then having children) and on his own death; from the Mandaean tradition. This comes from the G.R.S. Meade book “Gnostic John the Baptizer”, which takes from the Mandaean Book of John, and I have included it in full …
On February 24 and 25 in the Orthodox tradition there are two feast days about discovering the head of John the Baptist (commemorating two different dates, and there is a third feast day for another finding later in the year; the head kept getting lost!). The head of John the Baptist is quite the fascinating …
Today is the feast day of Theophany, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John. I present you with a different take on this event. This post, as well as more coming up, will feature Mandaean writings relating to John the Baptist. Mandaeism is the only “gnostic” religion to survive since antiquity without any downtime …
Those who study Christian history have heard of the Jewish historian, Flavius Jospheus and his mentions of John the Baptist, Jesus and James (brother of Jesus). I have read the Jesus and James mentions before, but I must admit, I never really read the John quotation. While reading through G. R. S. Mead’s Gnostic John …
This is going to be my last “John” entry for awhile but this is a really interesting story. Some years back, an English translation of the “Evangelikon”, which accompanied a text titled the “Levitikon”, was published. What is this you ask? It is an alternate version of the Gospel of John. The manuscript was reportedly …
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Being that June 24 is the feast day (nativity, as his death feast day is later) of John the Baptist, I wanted to bring light to this story found in the New Testament Apocrypha Volume 3 edited by Tony Burke. This interesting text makes it’s modern English translation debut thanks to Tony Burke and Sarah …
Continue reading “The Martyrdom of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist”
Culmination of Wisdom