By Mark Morgan | Jesus
Have you ever done anything completely unexpected, unplanned, sudden, extreme? Something that others would think crazy or irrational – and perhaps your husband, your wife or your parents might agree with those others! Let’s look at some people who did that sort of thing because Jesus called them to follow him.
By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jesus
Several books and letters in the Bible report Jesus’ interaction with many different people after his resurrection. However, since no one record includes all of the information, we need a harmony of Bible records of appearances of the resurrected Jesus.
The Bible passages which record events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, the subsequent 40 days during which he met with his disciples and his ascension are as follows:
Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection are discussed in another article (Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection), but the current article tries to put the records of the appearances before Jesus ascension in chronological order.
The gospel records can be interleaved with some effort and many have attempted to do so. Here is another attempt. Determining exactly when some of the events took place during the 40 days in which Jesus met with them is impossible. Some of the gospel records summarise these events or some of these events, in a paragraph or two, so the harmonisation of these passages is simply guesswork.
The harmonisation is most easily shown in a table format and is best viewed on a screen that is wider than it is high.
The Bible text in this harmony of Bible records of appearances of the resurrected Jesus is taken from the World English Bible (WEB) which has been released into the public domain.
By Mark Morgan | Jesus
Early on the Sunday morning following his crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead – to the dismay of his enemies and the complete surprise of his friends! Each of the four gospels records different details of that morning and the forty days that followed, leading finally to his ascension. Putting those records together into one coherent narrative is not easy, but I hope to present a harmony of the gospels for this time in another newsletter. For the time being, we’ll just look at the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection.
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Jesus
In the last two years we have all become familiar with calls to wash our hands frequently. With COVID-19 leaving its mark all over the world, we are all encouraged to be vaccinated, but also to use soap, hand sanitiser and disinfectants. How does our response to COVID-19 compare with cleansing and washing in Bible times?
Many people have observed that the Law of Moses concentrates heavily on cleanliness and frequently mentions washing – yet it is not the only part of the Bible where this is true.
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In many of the events recorded in the Bible, details are written in more than one place. For example, details of the reign of many kings are recorded in both Kings and Chronicles and sometimes in one or more prophets also.
When we are writing Bible-based fiction, we always want to make sure that our stories match the details given in the Bible and sometimes that requires the harmonisation of more than one record. Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jesus
We are given quite a bit of detail surrounding the birth of Jesus and his early life in the gospels of Matthew (Matthew 1:18-2:23) and Luke (Luke 2:1-52), but there is little overlap in the details given. Putting the two together as a parallel record can help us understand when various events took place.Continue reading