history
Historical analysis of religious developments, events, and theological movements relevant to apologetics.
Jewish Traditions about the Afterlife Paid Members Public
Kaddish Prayer (c. Second Temple Period, before 70 CE): The earliest form, known as the “Half Kaddish”, dates back to the Second Temple period. The Mourner’s Kaddish is a Jewish prayer traditionally recited for eleven months after a loved one’s death and on the death anniversary (yahrzeit). It
QURAN MSS & CARBON DATING Paid Members Public
I will be quoting from renowned Islamic scholar and Mariologist Stephen J. Shoemaker’s Creating the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Study, published by University of California Press, Oakland, California 2022, Chapter 3, Radiocarbon Dating and the Origins of the Qur’an. Shoemaker demonstrates why carbon dating is inexact and
DIVINE NAME, SAMARITANS & ZEUS Paid Members Public
In this post I will share some of the issues surrounding the Divine Name that appears over 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible, and which is represented by four Hebrew Consonants yod he waw he (YHWH). Scholars typically refer to these consonants as the Tetragrammaton (“four letters”). Some experts
PLINY & CHRIST’S DEITY Paid Members Public
In this post I will quote an ancient non-Christian witness, specifically from a pagan governor, which testifies to the fact of Christians gathering on a specific day of the week to worship Christ as God by singing hymns to him. The source that I am about cite also mentions
SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY & THE QURAN Paid Members Public
In this post I am going to provide evidence that the Quran has been heavily influenced by, and even fashioned after the Christological debates which took place among Syriac speaking Christians. I will prove that the very language of the Quran has been shape by the theological vocabulary and expressions
THE UNCREATED CREATED QURAN Paid Members Public
In this post I will be quoting from an online Muslim Q&A site, which asserts that the Arabic Quran recited by Muslims and written down is created. These authors/scholars state that the Quran as the speech of Allah is not identical to that which is in the
SHIAS ON THE CORRUPT QURAN Paid Members Public
In this post, I cite specific narrations from the Al-Kafi collection, considered by Shia to be one of their most authoritative sources on ahadith, in respect to the corruption of the Quran. According to this Shiah work, the Quran initially contained 17,000 verses and was “revealed” in one
JAY SMITH & THE EXTANT MSS FOR ISLAM Paid Members Public
The following info is taken from Jay Smith’s refutation to Muhammadan Farid’s lies and misinformation regarding the dates of the early sirah and ahadith sources, which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaUJ8Y1NNas&t=38s Jay Smith introduces for the first time the