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Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, better know as Phiny the Younger, was governor of the Roman province of Bithynia and Pontus. During the reign of the emperor Trajan, Phiny wrote to the emperor asking for instructions on how to deal with Christians. The letter is usually date around A.D. 111 or 112. See Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction To The Ancient Evidence, by Robert E. Van Voorst, p. 28.


Letters 10.96-97
"It is my practice, my lord, to refer ...

Mara was a Stoic philosopher who wrote a letter to his son (also named Sarapion) while in prison. The letter was was written from the Roman province of Syria in the Syriac language. Mara wrote this letter in order to encourage his son to pursue wisdom.

The letter has been dated any where between A.D. 73 to the third century. A number scholars date it to just after A.D. 73 but many feel that a date of the second half of the second century is best. If it is dated to the last half ...

I have decided to post the historical references to Jesus and Christianity outside the New Testament. I will post them chronologically. The work cited here is Antiquities of the Jews (ca A.D. 94).

There are at least three important citations in the works of Titus Flavius Josephus concerning the New Testament.

(1) John the Baptist
Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he ...

Basically there are two interpretations for 1 Pet. 3:19-20: (1) the spirits are O.T. saints to whom Jesus preached, (2) the spirits are fallen angels/spirits/demons.

There are four reason why I do not believe that the spirits are O.T. saints to whom Jesus preached.

(1) Spirits in the N.T. refer to nonhuman beings and not disembodied human being. The word spirit is used for angels, demons, God, and the Holy Spirit.

(2) The spirits are imprisoned. There ...

A word study can be very helpful in understanding how a word is used. The Greek noun hypokritēs (ὑποκριτής) is the word from which we get our English word hypocrite. The interesting fact about hypokritēs is that is was the Greek word for an actor. Now keep in mind that Greek actors in ancient times would wear masks. In other words, actors pretended to be someone else, someone they were not, and in order to help them convince others they ...