Summary In this post I speculate that the origin of the early Christian saint “Veronica” was the real-life Berenice, Judean princess and mistress/fiancée to Titus Flavius. I suggest that in the 80s CE, after Titus’s death, Berenice became a member of the Roman congregation of …
Read MoreEveryone was gnostic until “Jesus of Nazareth”
Richard Carrier wrote an interesting post on August 31, 2020 called Gnosticism Didn’t Exist (Say What Now?). “Gnosticism was never actually a thing. It was an invention of modern scholars; an interpretive category, it turns out, that refers to no actual thing that existed in …
Read MoreWhat was the origin of Mark’s congregation?
This post presents my thoughts about the pre-Markan history of his 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 are consistent with the picture I paint in The …
Read More