Randy Ingermanson

First-Century Jerusalem Fiction

First-Century Jerusalem Fiction

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Randy Ingermanson’s Blog

James and John, the Wild and Crazy Disciples of Jesus

by In: Disciples of Jesus

On the surface, two of the most famous disciples of Jesus sound wild and crazy. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, appear to have had serious impulse-control issues (although they weren’t the only disciples to leap before they looked). There’s a story in the gospels about that time James and John got ridiculously ambitious, infuriating the other disciples. But the craziest story about James and John tells how they once volunteered to commit mass murder.  We’ll look at these stories in detail, and then ask what Jesus saw in James and John. People aren’t always what they seem on …

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Peter and John, the Dynamic Duo Disciples

by In: Disciples of Jesus

The Twelve disciples of Jesus often argued about which of them would be the greatest. But Jesus tried to turn that question inside out. He taught that the greatest leader would be the greatest servant.  Two of the Twelve did eventually stand out from the pack. Peter and John appear together frequently in the New Testament documents. Let’s work backwards through the stories to see where they fit in to the leadership of the Jesus community. Stories About Peter and John Sometime in the late 40s or early 50s, the apostle Paul wrote the book of Galatians. In it, he …

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Andrew, the Coolest Disciple of Jesus

by In: Disciples of Jesus

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, is one of the less-known disciples of Jesus. But that doesn’t mean he was unimportant. He played a key role in three stories about Jesus, including one of the most famous stories. By some strange coincidence, all three of those stories are in the gospel of John. In the other gospels, Andrew doesn’t get much air time, and in fact, he comes across as a bit player.  How Mark, Matthew, and Luke Treat Andrew Mark is the earliest gospel, and it names the twelve disciples in a very strange order. Peter is listed first, …

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The Mysterious Disciple Jesus Loved

by In: Jesus of Nazareth

The gospel of John refers several times to “the disciple Jesus loved.” But this gospel never tells us exactly who this disciple is. And no other book of the Bible gives us any direct evidence about this disciple’s identity.  You’ve probably heard many times that it’s “obvious” that the Beloved Disciple was John the son of Zebedee, one of the Twelve. But many biblical scholars think that it’s not really obvious at all. They’ve suggested a number of other options.  The problem is that there isn’t any consensus on this question among scholars. In this blog post, we’ll look at …

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Jesus and “The Jews”

by In: Jesus and Politics

The gospel of John tells a lot of stories about Jesus and his run-ins with a group of people that are usually translated into English as “the Jews.” Who were these people, “the Jews?” And what was their beef with Jesus?  This is a tough question, and a number of answers have been suggested by biblical scholars. The Greek term is Ioudaioi, a plural word. The singular version is Ioudaios. So what does this word mean?  That depends on the context. The word was used by different authors in various ways, so it has quite a wide range of meanings. …

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How We Know Jesus Existed

by In: Jesus of Nazareth

You might think that everybody at least agrees that Jesus of Nazareth existed. Because we have quite a lot of evidence for that, right? But a surprising number of people in the US actually think Jesus never existed, that he’s all a myth. Let’s be clear that they’re not claiming the resurrection of Jesus is a myth. They claim there wasn’t even a crucifixion of Jesus. They claim there wasn’t a Jesus to crucify. Many of them claim that Nazareth itself wasn’t populated at the time of Jesus.  There’s a term for these people. They’re called “Jesus mythicists.”  What the …

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Jesus and Politics

by In: New Testament History

If you aren’t careful, you might think Jesus never had anything to say about politics. Make a list of all the hot issues in American politics. Guns, immigration, minimum wage, LGBTQ, abortion, voter fraud/voter suppression, inflation, and on and on. Jesus didn’t say a word about any of them. But that should be no surprise, because Jewish politics in the first century had nothing to do with any of those things. Jewish politics in the first century was concerned with exactly one thing—the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Caesar The issue was that Rome began its occupation of Palestine …

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Jesus on the Mount of Olives

by In: Jesus and Jerusalem

Palm Sunday celebrates the beginning of the week in which Jesus made his final visit to Jerusalem.  Take a look at the map of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives shown below, which I drew for my novel Son of Mary. I’ve added three arrows to mark important points along the path Jesus followed: Jesus came up the Jericho Road from the east and passed by the villages of Bethphage and Bethany. I’ve added a red arrow at the location of a modern-day lookout point, just across from the modern 7 Arches Hotel. This is a very popular tourist site, …

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Jesus and the Aqueduct Pilate Built

by In: Jesus and Jerusalem

Pontius Pilate was the governor of the Roman province of Judea from AD 26 to 36. He’s famous for presiding over the trial of Jesus of Nazareth and sending Jesus to the cross. We don’t have a huge amount of information on Pilate, but there’s a famous story that shows what kind of a man he was. You can read the story yourself in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus, in his book Antiquities of the Jews 18:60-62, and also in his earlier work Wars of the Jews 2:175-177. The story begins with Pilate looking rather good. He offered …

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How Jesus Celebrated Christmas

by In: Jesus and Holidays

It might seem absurd to talk about Jesus celebrating Christmas. You can easily think of a long list of Christmas-type things we do now that Jesus never did. Certainly, he never hung up his stocking on the chimney on Christmas Eve. He never wrapped presents and put them under the Christmas tree. He never sang Christmas carols. He never listened to Handel’s Messiah. He never sat down to a turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce meal with his family.  But the point of Christmas is that it celebrates the birth of Jesus and reflects on what he did for mankind. …

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