Maybe the Nativity doesn't look quite like we think it does
Every year at Christmas time there are attempts to equate Joseph, Mary, and Jesus’ flight from Bethlehem to Egypt to the plight of illegal immigrants—claiming that they too would have been “undocumented” and therefore turned away at the border. While Read More …
Dura Europos was a Greek, then Parthian, then Roman city on the western bank of the Euphrates River approximately 310 miles northwest of the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon on the Tigris. It was founded around 300 BCE by Seleucus I Read More …
One of the most intriguing questions surrounding the narrative in Matthew 2 is how and why any celestial observer, anywhere in the world, at any time, could or would make a connection between celestial signs and the birth of a Read More …
(34) My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. (35) Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: (36) His seed shall endure forever, and his Read More …
September 11, 3 BCE (1 Tishri AM 3759): In Revelation 12:1, “…a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars…” is a celestial sign combining (from the evening Read More …
Herod’s father, Antipater II, was assassinated by a political enemy, to which Herod responded in kind. His brother Phasael’s death is shrouded in mystery—did he commit suicide or was he murdered while in Parthian custody? During his career, Herod “executed” Read More …
It has been my theory for years that the route the Magi took followed the Euphrates Road (parallel to the river) northwest from the Parthian capital at Ctesiphon to the fortress city of Dura, and then turned west across the Read More …
Surena, also known as Rustaham Suren, was a Parthian general during the first century BCE. He is best known for defeating the Romans, under the command of triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE. According Read More …
I recently read an article that pushed back at the idea that Jesus was not born on December 25th. The article claimed to “prove” that Jesus was in fact born of December 25th. Sadly, the article contained a lot of Read More …
German-American sinologist (expert in Chinese studies) Friedrich Hirth (b.1845-d.1927), wrote China and the Roman Orient: Researches into Their Ancient and Medieval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records in 1885. In his book, he cites The Records of the Grand Read More …