This is a condensed version of an earlier post. We have to start with Flavia’s connection to the Judean ethnic group, Princess Berenice. In the 80s, Berenice, in exile in Rome, very likely attended the pre-Papal Roman congregation. It was the best alternative to Pharisaical synagogues. (My suggestion is plausible because the Papal Roman congregation…
Category: Mark’s congregation
My scenario for Mark explains official orthodox history
I have previously written about the real history of Mark’s congregation in Rome. In my book, and here and here. Here I explain how that real history explains several assertions and silences in the official orthodox history of the early church. To review, my scenario is that Mark’s congregation in Rome was founded by Alexandrian…
Origin of the Catacombs of Domitilla
Flavia Domitilla donated the use of her family catacombs on her suburban property. It already hosted an above-ground cemetery. (Two of her household staff were buried above-ground.*) Although Flavia Domitilla’s nuclear and extended family disappears from history after 95 CE, the Roman congregation continued to use the donated Catacombs of Domitilla for many centuries, evolving…
Berenice was a mentor to Flavia Domitilla
In an earlier post, I identified the Judean princess Berenice as the original of Saint Veronica. In orthodox tradition, early on “Veronica” was identified with Rome. (In actuality, that meant she was identified with the congregation of proto-Christians in Rome that included Mark, Flavia Domitilla, and later the popes.) I etymologically connected “Veronica” with “Berenice.”…
The origin of Saint Veronica: Berenice, Judean princess
Summary In this post I speculate that the origin of Saint Veronica was the real-life Berenice, Judean princess and mistress/fiancée to Titus Flavius Vespasianus. I suggest that in the 80s CE, after Titus’s death, Berenice participated somehow in the Roman congregation of Mark and Flavia Domitilla. I suggest that for many decades after Berenice’s death,…
What was the origin of Mark’s congregation?
This post presents my thoughts about the origin of the Roman congregation. It’s entirely top-of-my-head speculation, but of interest—I hope—because I’ve spent several years immersed in the Gospel of Mark and its adjacent texts. My thoughts on the origin of Mark’s congregation are consistent with the picture I paint in The Two Gospels of Mark:…