Follow on Google News News By Tag Industry News News By Place Country(s) Industry News
Follow on Google News | This Christian text you've never heard of, The Shepherd of Hermas, barely mentions Jesus!Esoteric texts that required deeper philosophical knowledge, like the Gospel of Truth or Gospel of Judas, may have been ideal for some Christians
By: The Conversation People usually think about the Bible as a book with a fixed number of texts within its pages: 24 books in the Jewish version of the Bible; 66 for Protestants; Writings that didn't make it into the Bible, on the other hand, are often called "apocrypha," Just because a text was deemed apocryphal, however, does not mean that it was unpopular or lacked influence. Many texts that are treated as unimportant or unbiblical today were considered central at one time. As a scholar of early Christianity, some of my research centers on what was once an extremely well-read text, but one that most people today have never heard of: The Shepherd of Hermas. Enslaved to God The Shepherd of Hermas was written sometime between 70–140 C.E. and takes place on the road between Rome and Naples. Hermas, who is presented as the text's author and narrator, has various encounters with two divine figures called the Church and the Shepherd, who give him commandments and visions that he is instructed to share with other believers. The Shepherd is a sizable text – 114 chapters long – and substantial portions describe a vision of a tower under construction. The tower represents the church itself, in the sense of all Jesus' followers, built out of stones that represent different types of believers. Some fit right in, others must be reshaped or recolored, and some are rejected altogether. For example, stones representing rich people or businessmen are urged to repent, while hospitable people are portrayed as properly shaped. http://youtu.be/ https://www.kemetianchurchofkrsts.net/ https://theconversation.com/ End
|
|