Category: Come Follow Me

Billions of people celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but did you know that scholars aren’t sure when Jesus was born? The best evidence suggests the Nativity occurred in 5 B.C., but competing theories span several years. Much of the confusion traces back to a 6th-century monk named Dionysius, who skipped “Year 0” and jumped straight from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. when creating the modern calendar. Another complicating factor is the precise dating of key historical events, such as the death of Herod and the journey of the Magi. This article walks through leading theories about when Jesus was actually born and explains the 4th-century origins of December 25 as a Christian holiday.

The New Testament offers only a few details about how Jesus’s apostles died. Most of what we “know” comes from early Christian writings and later legends—some historically grounded, others clearly mythical. Unlike the Old Testament’s detailed treatment of prophetic deaths, these stories reflect the theology and historical uncertainty of early Christianity. Here’s a concise summary of each apostle’s traditional fate, noting where it occurred, what’s historically probable, and how we know.

The Pharisees were a group of people at the time of Christ with a set of beliefs recognizable by outsiders. However, exactly what those beliefs were remains a hotly debated question. Scholars have begun to agree upon several common characteristics of Pharisees, can clearly distinguish them from Sadducees, and often note that the sect receives unfair treatment in the gospels. In this interview, New Testament scholar Thomas Wayment discusses what scholars currently think about who the Pharisees were.