Did Emperor Constantine create the Bible? Constantine at the Council of Nicaea, AI rendition from gencraft.com Culturally speaking, certain myths have more staying power than the others. The historical myth that the Vikings wore horned helmets comes to mind. Every movie, every TV show, and every other cultural reference to Vikings seems to depict helmets with long, pointy horns. The point of origin of that story is still disputed. However, what seemed to give some credibility to the idea was the discovery of two horned helmets in southern Scandinavia in 1942. The idea has become a mainstay of modern pop-history since then but most credible scholarship on the two helmets has dated them to a civilization that inhabited northern Europe a millennium or two before the Vikings. In the same stream of pop-history as the horned Viking myth is the very widespread misconception that the Roman Emperor Constantine was the man responsible with the creation of the Bible. It turns out that this i...
1 Peter: A Lesson in Suffering 8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9 NRSV Suffering is an incredibly difficult subject to cover in New Testament studies. This is because of a translation issue that has caused many interpretative troubles to many English-speaking Christians throughout the years. The word “suffering” can cause much confusion in the minds of modern readers [1] because of the tendency to link it to a wide array of difficult circumstances that are in many ways dissimilar. New Testament scholars such as Davids have tried to solve the issue of definition by starting with a biblical definition of what it might mean to suffer. This, again, proves difficult because the Bible describes many different circumstances as “suffering”. To avoid ...