Church History

I grew up and was baptised ( and confirmed on the same day ) in the Congregational Church¹ which contributes mightily to my person-centered², non-conformist, and reformist ways, bordering on Christian Anarcho-Pacifism³.

Then in 1958 our family joined the exodus to the suburbs and moved to Brooklyn Center, MN where we eventually joined ( as charter members ) an Augustana Mission congregation named Lutheran Church of the Master. Pastor Paul Swedberg was ( and, in a sense, still is ) my pastor ( though currently I consider my home church to be the Community of St. Martin, which worships in a Mennonite Church building in the Seward Community of southeast Minneapolis and used to operate St. Martin’s Table [ a vegetarian restaurant and bookstore, 2001 Riverside Ave, Minneapolis, MN ] as an outreach center for peacemaking and justice seeking on the University of Minnesota West Bank Campus [ sadly, the restaurant closed { after 25+ years } on Friday, December 17, 2010 ] ).  Of many guidances from Pastor Swedberg, the one that had the most influence upon me was his suggestion to attend the Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) in Minneapolis.  I graduated from the two year General Bible course in 1965 and was Vice President of the class.  That was one of the most accepting and supportive communities in which I have ever participated.

After mentioning that I served in ( and have never recovered from ) the Vietnam Era service ( as a Communication Technician in the U. S. Naval Security Group ), I jump ahead to the early 1980’s and the other most accepting and supportive community in which it has been my good fortune to have been able to be a participant - Dorea Peace Community, Turtle Lake, WI.  My family was only there for two years, but in a real sense, it was where I lived my life!

I was on loan from the Community of St. Martin for about two years as caretaker for a 76 year old Alzheimer’s patient.  And, before his death, on February 28, 2011, I used to share church time between Living Word Christian Center ( pastored by Lynne and Mac Hammond ), Lutheran Church of the Master ( pastored by Morris Vaagenes, Bud Bonn, and Bud Nelson [ Pastor Paul Swedberg, Emeritus ] ), and North Heights Lutheran Church ( both the Arden Hills and Roseville campuses ).  Since his death I have been, again, "waiting for Godot" - like Lucky in his soliloquy ( towards the end of Act 1 [ text ], [ video ] . . . ); cf. Albert Camus' The Myth of Sysyphus and the ancient Egyptian story of Setne Khamwas and Si-Osire ( Setne II ), who visited the underworld seeing people “plaiting ropes [on one end] while donkeys were chewing them up [on the other end].”⁴  Perhaps, future plans ( see below ) . . . .

Future plans are to officially sign on as a Third Order Lutheran Franciscan Associate ( application made and "in process" ) and become a volunteer or staff person at Holden Village in Chelan, WA.

The viability of the latter plan mentioned in the previous paragraph has been set back considerably with the announcement of the Holden Mine Remediation Project by the U. S. Forest Service ( and associated agencies ).

Change is the only constant but you will always have the poor with you!  And so the times currently have me residing as a resident at Joseph's Chateau ( a VA Medical Foster Home Care Program home in Plymouth, MN. )  Think globally . . . act locally . . . love universally . . . . Yes!

¹ Linden Hills Congregational Church ( Pastor Stan Conover ), 4200 Upton Ave S, in the Lake Harriet district of southwest Minneapolis, MN ( now Linden Hills Congregational United Church of Christ ).  ↑

⁴ Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature:  A Book of Readings, Volume III:  The Late Period [Berkeley, CA.:  University of California Press, 1980], pp. 138-151.  ↑

Prayer History

This is really where it is at for me.  Having graduated from the richness of the LBI experience, you cannot help but want to return thanksgiving.  And so, beginning with the directives for prayer in Martin Luther’s “A Simple Way to Pray, for a Good Friend” ( written in 1535 CE; the “good friend” was his barber ):

• Concentration
  
  
  • “Don’t take too much upon yourself lest the spirit should get tired.
    It is sufficient to grasp one part of a Bible verse, or even half, a part
    from which can strike a spark in your heart. For the soul can think
    more in one moment than the tongue can speak in ten hours and
    the pen can write in ten days.”
    
    
• Sequence
  
  
• Heart Ready
  
  
  • A garland of four twisted strands:
    
    
    1. What is the teaching / meaning ( of the Word ) for me?
       
       
    2. What prayer of thanksgiving does this prompt?
       
       
    3. What confession or lament does it invoke?
       
       
    4. What is the prayer petition?¹

and some intervening thoughts upon and responses to:

1. the phrase “praying for Judas” ( cf. Coptic Gospel of Judas here and here ); and
   
   
2. Peter's upside-down crucifixion prayer ( cf. Acts of Peter, 39 ),

And now, may the peace of Jesus' Spirit go with you, wherever you are sent; may his Spirit guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm, bring you home rejoicing, at the wonders shown you; may his Spirit bring you home rejoicing, once again.

This is your time.

This is your dance.

Live every moment.

Leave nothing to chance.

. . .

Embrace the mystery of all you can be.

. . .

This is your time.

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² In order to understand its significance, the reference to "person-centered" requires links to both Carl Rogers' On Becoming A Person and Robert K. Greenleaf's The Servant as Leader.

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³

See the wikipedia article on Christian Anarchism, the wikiquote article on Christian Anarchism, an Anarchist Reading List, the works of Joseph Chilton Pearce, Conservative Christian Anarchist, and two recent books:  1)  Tolsoy's Political Thought:  Christian Anarcho Pacifist Iconoclasm - Then and Now and 2)  The Political World of Bob Dylan:  Freedom and Justice, Power and Sin ( Cf. this American Conservative article and more specific to our era of never-ending war [ 19 years 10 months in Afghanistan ] with its attendant deceptions, dishonesty, untruths, hateful speech, alternative facts, and reductive curating, the "Romans 13" WWW site ).

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¹ For example, the online readings for today from Common Prayer.

As Ghandi once said, “Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement.  Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.”

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² “A society that is not subjected to tyrannical laws has many customs and types of information; it contains groups, arts, crafts, sciences with different professional commitments; actions in such a society are fitting or inappropriate, good or bad, acceptable or out of touch depending on the circumstances in which they are performed; these change with time, they are not always codified or written down, which means that behavior cannot be ruled by an algorithm of general concepts - the individuals themselves must decide or, to put it differently, they must treat their surroundings in an inventive way, producing new responses to new phenomena.”  Paul Feyerabend, Conquest of Abundance:  A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being; Bert Terpstra, Ed. [ Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. 258 - 259 ]. 

From the “appreciative systems” perspective, in our human experience we notice particular aspects of our situation, discriminating them in particular ways, and measuring them against particular standards for comparison.  One could say that these aspects are organized into a system which for the individual is “appreciative” and that taking individual appreciative systems together in a social setting, form an “appreciated world.”  In addition, those “appreciative aspects” both condition our new experiences and at the same time are modified by the new experiences.  The impact of this “circularity” is disguised because the primary standard for comparison - our "myth of science" based culture - concentrates on linear causal chains and goal setting / seeking.  One can unmask the primary standard by replacing it with concepts from the larger science of systems.  For example, system feedback models in which personal, institutional, or cultural activity consists in maintaining desired relationships and attempting to escape undesired relationships.



In summary, the “appreciative process” is a cyclical one which looks like this:  Our previous experiences have created for us certain “standards” or “norms”, usually “tacit” ( and also, at a more general level, “values”, more general concepts of what is humanly good and bad ); the standards, norms and / or values lead to readiness to notice only certain features of our situations, they determine what “facts” are relevant; the facts noticed are evaluated against the norms in a process which leads to our taking regulatory action to modify the norms or standards, so that future experiences will be evaluated differently.

Colonel John Boyd, USAF, a military strategist, developed what he named the OODA ( Observe, Orient, Decide, Act ) loop as part of the "Command and Control Process," which reminds me a bit of Vicker's "appreciative systems" concept.  It applies not only to military strategy, but also, litigaton, business, and law enforcement ( to name just a few entities ).  Take a look at the figure below ( and compare Frans Osinga's "Science, Strategy and War:  The Strategic Theory of John Boyd" for deep background [ especially, the bibliographies ]; see also the Wikipdedia article on the OODA Loop ):



Of course, you'll want to compare both of these to the PDCA ( Plan, Do, Check, Act ) cycle ( or Shewhart Cycle ) in business and public service for operational continuity planning ( see, for example, the QI [ Quality Improvement ] flow chart of the East London portion of the National Health Service in Great Britian ).

In an attempt to place the man, Jesus, in his social milieu (approximately 4 BCE - 28 CE), compare the following graphic from Dr. Sheila E. McGinn's "Social Classes in Agrarian Societies" ( part of the "Readings" for her Introduction to the Greek [ New ] Testament course at John Carroll University ) which portrays social stratification with reference to Gerhard Lenski's model of social stratification summarized by John Dominic Crossan in his The Historical Jesus:  The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant [ San Francisco, CA.:  HarperCollins, 1991 ], pp. 45-46; cf. Crossan's Jesus:  A Revolutionary Biography [ New York, NY.:  HarperCollins, 1994 ] pp. 24-25, 55-58 ):

³ See Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture [ Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press, 2012 ], Chapter 2, Part 1, “The New Testament as Witness”, pp. 47 - 54 ( BS1186.3.H39 2012 ).  Cf. “The Hebrew Bible . . . ought not to be confused with the Christian Bible, which is founded upon it, but which amounts to a very severe revision of the Bible of the Jews. . . .  Christians call the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament, or Covenant, in order to supersede it with their New Testament, a work that remains altogether unacceptable to Jews, who do not regard their Covenant as Old and therefore superseded.  I myself suggest that Jewish critics and readers might speak of their Scriptures as the Original Testament, and the Christians work as the Belated Testament, for that, after all, is what it is, a revisionary work that attempts to replace a book, Torah, with a man, Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed as the Messiah of the House of David by Christian believers.”  Harold Bloom, The Book of J; [ New York:  Grove Weidenfeld, 1990, p.3 ]; cf. his “ ‘Before Moses Was, I Am’:  The Original and the Belated Testaments,” in Notebooks in Cultural Analysis:  An Annual Review I, Norman F. Cantor, Ed. [ Durham, North Carolina:  Duke University Press, 1984, p.3 ], Jack Miles, “The Order of the Canon and the Course of God's Life” in his God:  A Biography; [ New York:  Vintage Books, 1995, pp. 15 - 16 ], James A. Sanders, "'Spinning' the Bible:  How Judaism and Christianity Shape the Canon Differently," Bible Review 14:3, ( June, 1998 ), pp. 23-29, 44-45.

⁴ In either case, the Masoretic Text ( with “Miqra” meaning “that which is read” ).

⁵ The path or way that one walks - guided by the laws from the Torah, the rabbis, and long-standing customs.

⁶ Telling or illustrating, e. g. the Pesach Seder Haggadah.

⁷ Palestinian and Babylonian, with primary references to the Babylonian.

⁸ A topical presentation of the Jewish Oral Torah consisting of six sections divided into 63 tractates with rabbinic discussion ( Hillel, Shammai, Gamli'el, and Akiva are among the well-known rabbis whose contributions are included ); compiled circa 189 CE by Y'hudah HaNasi ( Judah the Prince ).  See the citation for "Mishnah" in the Jewish Encyclopedia for more details.

⁹ "Additions" or "supplements" to the Mishna; according to tradition, redacted by Rabbis Hiya ( around the same time as Y'hudah HaNasi ) and Oshiah ( a student of Hiya [ who died circa 350 CE ] ), with a manuscript history beginning in the late 13th through 15th centuries CE ).  Boraithoth "outsiders," secondary, non-academical additions appearing after the death of Judah the Prince.  See the Brief General Introduction to the Babylonian Talmud and the citation for the Aramaic ( link ) in the Jewish Encyclopedia for more details.

¹⁰ Wide ranging commentary on the Mishna tractates by rabbis from the 3rd to 5th centuries CE.  See the citation for "Gemara" in the Jewish Encyclopedia for more details.

¹¹ Buddhism, Christianity ( including its American Civil Religious form ), and Islam ( although I have some acquaintance with the other seven, living religions [ Hinduism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism, and Sikhism ], I confess that I am myopic in not paying as much heed to their teachings because they are directed more to "other" special groups of people or countries [ see Selwyn Gurney Champion and Dorothy Short, compilers.  The World's Great Religions:  An Anthology of Sacred Texts { Mineola, N. Y.:  Dover Publications, 2003 }, 336 pages.  BL 70.R43 2003 ] ).

¹² Some combination of the Catholic, Orthodox ( including Anglican, Bulgarian, Ethiopian, Greek, and Russian ), apocryphal, deutero-cannonical, and extra-cannonical literatures ( and the so-called “pseudepigraphic” literatures [ including Arabic, Armenian, Romanian, Slovanic, and Syriac Peshitta literatures, and the “lost books of the Bible” and “forgotten books of Eden” ] ) - the basic selection criteria is summarized by Hedley Frederick David Sparks in the “Preface” to his The Apocryphal Old Testament, ( Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 1984 ), p. xv, where he writes, “Our single criterion for inclusion has been whether or not any particular item is attributed to ( or is primarily concerned with the history or activities of ) an Old [ and I'll add “New” ] Testament character ( or characters ).  And we have tried to include all the more important and interesting items that satisfy this criterion, irrespective of date, and irrespective, too, of whether or not a convincing claim can be put forward on behalf of any one of them for a respectable Jewish [ and I'll add "Christian" and "Jewish-Christian" ] pedigree.” ( In addition, with the growth of understanding of the diversity of the early Judeo-Christian period since the works edited by Robert Henry Charles [ The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, with introductions and critical and explanatory notes to the several books, Volume 1:  Apocrypha { Oxford, England:  Clarendon Press, 1913 }, Volume 2:  Pseudepigrapha [ Oxford, England:  Clarendon Press, 1913 ] and Montague Rhodes James [ The Apocryphal New Testament, being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses, with other narratives and fragments { Oxford, England:  Clarendon Press, 1924 } ], and even after some of the earlier works [ 1972 - 1991 ] of James H. Charlesworth, and the later works of Wilhelm Schneemelcher [ New Testament Apocrypha, Revised Edition, Volume 1:  Gospels and Related Writings { Louisville, KY.:  Westminster Press, 1990 }, Volume 2:  Writings Relating to the Apostles; Apocalyptic and Related Subjects { Louisville, KY.: John Knox Press, 1992 } ], the textual tradition of the vast majority of these documents is either “Christian”, or “Jewish”, or “Jewish-Christian.”  Cf. Samuel Sandmel's instructive article from the 1960s [ the Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, December 27, 1961 ]:  "Parallelomania," Journal of Biblical Literature 81 [ 1962 ]:  1 - 13 ), and Walter Bauer's, "On the Problem of Jewish Christianity," Appendix 1, pp. 241-245, in his, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, 2nd ed., Robert A. Kraft and Gerhard Kroebel, translators [ Philadelphia, PA.: Fortress Press, 1971 ].

This literature ( drawn from a variety of internet sources [ if you come upon a broken link { links last checked via the W3C Link Validator on May 31, 2012 }, then let me know by email ] ), then, may include:

• in relation to the Old Testament:
  
  
• Additions to Esther
  ( as Alphabetical "Chapters" to the text in the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition [2011], see "Introduction")
• Apocalypse of Adam
• Apocalypse of Ezra [ Second Esdras { Ezra }, Third Esdras { ( Ezra )in the Slavonic Bible}, Forth Esdras { ( Ezra ) in the Vulgate } ] ¹³
• Armenian Penitence of Adam [ Georgian Book of Adam, Greek Apocalypse of Moses, Life of Adam and Eve, Revelation of Moses ]
• Assumption of Moses [ Testament of Moses ]
• Bell and the Dragon
• Book of Jubilees
• The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest [ The Book of the Palaces, The Revelation of Metatron, Third Enoch ]
• The Book of the Palaces [ The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest, The Revelation of Metatron, Third Enoch ]
• The Book of the Secrets of Enoch [ Second Enoch, Slavonic Book of Enoch ]
• Book of Wisdom [ Wisdom, Wisdom of Solomon ]
• The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
• Ecclesiasticus [ Sirach, Wisdom of Ben Sira, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach ]
• Epistle of Jeremy [ Letter of Jeremiah, Sixth Chapter of the First Book of Baruch ]
• Ethiopian Maccabees [ First, Second, and Third Meqabyan { translated into English just recently ( 2008 ) } ]
• Ethiopic Book of Enoch [ First Enoch ]
• Ezra [ First Esdras { Third Esdras in the Vulgate } ] ¹³
• First Book of Baruch
• Second Baruch [ Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch and Letter of Baruch to the Nine and One-Half Tribes ]
• Third Baruch [Greek Apocalypse of Baruch ]
• Fourth Baruch [ Paralipomena of Jeremiah ]
• First Enoch [ Ethiopic Book of Enoch ]
• Second Enoch [ The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Slavonic Book of Enoch ]
• Third Enoch [ The Book of the Palaces, The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest, The Revelation of Metatron ]
• First Esdras [ Ezra { Third Esdras in the Vulgate } ] ¹³
• Second Esdras [Ezra] [ Third Esdras { in the Slavonic Bible }, Forth Esdras { ( Ezra ) in the Vulgate}, also known as the Apocalypse of Ezra ] ¹³
• Third Esdras ( in the Slavonic Bible ) [ Second Esdras { Ezra }, Forth Esdras ( Ezra ) in the Vulgate, also known as the Apocalypse of Ezra ] ¹³
• Third Esdras ( in the Vulgate ) [ First Esdras, Ezra ] ¹³
• Fourth Esdras ( [ Ezra ] in the Vulgate ) [ Second Esdras { Ezra }, Third Esdras { in the Slavonic Bible }, also known as the Apocalypse of Ezra ] ¹³
• First Maccabees
• Second Maccabees
• Third Maccabees
• Fourth Maccabees
• First Meqabyan [ Ethiopian Maccabees { translated into English just recently ( 2008 ) } ]
• Second Meqabyan [ Ethiopian Maccabees { translated into English just recently ( 2008 ) } ]
• Third Meqabyan [ Ethiopian Maccabees { translated into English just recently ( 2008 ) } ]
• Fourth Baruch [ Paralipomena of Jeremiah ]
• Fourth Esdras ([Ezra] in the Vulgate) [ Second Esdras { Ezra }, Third Esdras { in the Slavonic Bible }, also known as the Apocalypse of Ezra ] ¹³
• Fourth Maccabees
• Greek Apocalypse of Baruch [ Third Baruch ]
• Georgian Book of Adam [ Armenian Penitence of Adam, Greek Apocalypse of Moses, Life of Adam and Eve, Revelation of Moses ]
• Greek Apocalypse of Moses [ Armenian Penitence of Adam, Georgian Book of Adam, Life of Adam and Eve, Revelation of Moses ]
• Judith
• Letter of Aristeas [ Letter to Philocrates ]
• Letter of Baruch to the Nine and One-Half Tribes [ Second Baruch, Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch ]
• Letter of Jeremiah [ Epistle of Jeremy, Sixth Chapter of the First Book of Baruch ]
• Letter to Philocrates [ Letter of Aristeas ]
• Life of Adam and Eve [ Greek Apocalypse { or Revelation } of Moses, Armenian Penitence of Adam, Georgian Book of Adam ]
• Martyrdom, Vision, and Ascension of Isaiah
• Paralipomena of Jeremiah [ Fourth Baruch ]
• Prayer of Azariah [ Song of the Three Holy Children ]
  ( verses 23 - 90 added to Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel in the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition [ 2011 ] )
• Prayer of Manasseh
• Psalm 151
• Psalm 152
• Psalm 153
• Psalm 154
• Psalm 155
• Psalms of Solomon
• The Revelation of Metatron [ The Book of the Palaces, The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest, Third Enoch ]
• Revelation of Moses [ Armenian Penitence of Adam, Georgian Book of Adam, Greek Apocalypse of Moses, Life of Adam and Eve ]
• Second Baruch [ Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch and Letter of Baruch to the Nine and One-Half Tribes ]
• Second Enoch [ The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Slavonic Book of Enoch ]
• Second Esdras [Ezra] [ Third Esdras { in the Slavonic Bible }, Forth Esdras { ( Ezra ) in the Vulgate }, also known as the Apocalypse of Ezra } ] ¹³
• Second Maccabees
• Second Meqabyan [ Ethiopian Maccabees { translated into English just recently ( 2008 ) } ]
• Sibylline Oracles
• Sirach [ Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Ben Sira, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach ]
• Sixth Chapter of the First Book of Baruch [ Epistle of Jeremy, Letter of Jeremiah ]
• Slavonic Book of Enoch [ Second Enoch, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch ]
• Song of the Three Holy Children [ Prayer of Azariah ]
  ( verses 23 - 90 added to Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel in the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition [ 2011 ] )
• Susanna
• Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch [ Second Baruch and Letter of Baruch to the Nine and One-Half Tribes ]
• Testament of Adam
• Testament of Moses [ Assumption of Moses ]
• Testaments of the Twelve Patricarchs
• Third Baruch [ Greek Apocalypse of Baruch ]
• Third Esdras ( in the Slavonic Bible ) [ Second Esdras { Ezra }, Forth Esdras ( Ezra ) in the Vulgate, also known as the Apocalypse of Ezra } ] ¹³
• Third Esdras ( in the Vulgate ) [ First Esdras, Ezra ] ¹³
• Third Maccabees
• Third Meqabyan [ Ethiopian Maccabees { translated into English just recently ( 2008 ) } ]
• Tobit
• Wisdom [ Book of Wisdom, Wisdom of Solomon ]
• Wisdom of Ben Sira [ Ecclesiasticus, Sirach, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach ]
• Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach [ Ecclesiasticus, Sirach, Wisdom of Ben Sira ]
• Wisdom of Solomon [ Wisdom, Book of Wisdom ]

( see also the Dead Sea Scrolls )


• in relation to the New Testament:
  
  
• Acts of Andrew ( full abstract )
• Acts of Barnabas
• Acts of John
• Acts of Paul ( fragmentary and treated separately [ most recent Syriac manuscript shows that this work originally included the "Acts of Paul and Thecla," "Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul," "Third Epistle to the Corinthians," and the "Martyrdom of Paul" ] )
• Acts of Paul and Thecla ( treated separately [ most recent Syriac manuscript shows that this work was originally included in the "Acts of Paul," along with the "Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul," "Third Epistle to the Corinthians," and the "Martyrdom of Paul" ] )
• Acts of Peter
• Acts of Peter and Andrew
• Acts of Peter and Paul
• Acts of Peter and the Twelve
• Acts of Philip
• Acts of Pilate [ Gospel of Pilate; also see "Acts of Pontius Pilate" ( below ), "Acts of Peter and Paul" ( above ), and "Gospel of Nicodemus" below ]
• Acts of Pontius Pilate [ Gospel of Pilate; also see "Acts of Pilate," "Acts of Peter and Paul" ( above ), and "Gospel of Nicodemus" below ]
• Acts of the Martyrs ( no specific document[ s ] found )
• Acts of Thomas
• The Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca
• Apocalypse of Paul
• Apocalypse of Peter
• Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
• Apocalypse of Stephen [ Revelation of Stephen ]
• Apocalypse of Thomas [ Revelation of Thomas ]
• Apocryphon of James [ Coptic Secret Book of James ]
• Apostolic Constitutions [ Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Canons of the Apostles ]
• The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior [ Syriac Infancy Gospel ]
• Armenian Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul [ originally part of the Acts of Paul, see above ]
• The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior [ a redaction of the Infancy Gospel of James, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and "Flight into Egypt" { Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Infancy Gospel of Matthew } ]
• Book of Nepos [ Refutation of the Allegorisers ] ( no text located )
• Canons of the Apostles [ Apostolic Constitutions, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles ]
• Cave of Treasures [ The Treasures ]
• Clement's First Epistle to the Corinthians
• Clementina [ Clementine literature, Clementine Romance, Homilies, Kerygmata Petrou ( reconstructed Preachings of Peter ), Pseudo-Clementine Writings, Recognitions ]
• Clementine literature [ Clementina, Clementine Romance, Homilies, Kerygmata Petrou ( reconstructed Preachings of Peter ), Pseudo-Clementine Writings, Recognitions ]
• Clementine Homilies [Clementina, Clementine literature, Clementine Romance, Kerygmata Petrou ( reconstructed Preachings of Peter ), Pseudo-Clementine Writings, Recognitions ]
• Clementine Recognitions [ Clementina, Clementine literature, Clementine Romance, Homilies, Kerygmata Petrou ( reconstructed Preachings of Peter ), Pseudo-Clementine Writings ]
• Clementine Romance [ Clementina, Clementine literature, Homilies, Kerygmata Petrou ( reconstructed Preachings of Peter ), Pseudo-Clementine Writings, Recognitions ]
• Constitutions of the Holy Apostles [ Apostolic Constitutions, Canons of the Apostles ]
• The Coptic Book of the Resurrection of Christ ( by St. Bartholomew )
• Coptic Dialogue of the Savior
• Coptic Gospel According to Mary Magdalene [ Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 ]
• Coptic Gospel of Judas
• Coptic Gospel of Thomas
• Coptic Secret Book of James [ Apocryphon of James ]
• Descent of Mary ( nothing online see excerpt in Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, Revised Edition, Volume 1:  Gospels and Related Writings [Louisville, KY.: Westminster Press, 1990], pp. 395 - 396)
• The Diatessaron
• The Didache [ The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles ]
• Encratites
• Epistle of ( a disciple ) to Diognetus
• Epistle of Barnabas
• Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians
• Epistle of Ignatius to the Smymaeans
• Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians
• Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
• Epistle of the Apostles [ Gospel of the Apostles ]
• Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul ( fragmentary and treated separately [ most recent Syriac manuscript shows that this work originally included the "Acts of Paul," "Acts of Paul and Thecla," "Third Epistle to the Corinthians," and the "Martyrdom of Paul" ] )
• Epistle to the Laodiceans ( in the name of Paul )
• The Epistula Apostolorum
• First Apocalypse of James [ First Revelation of James ]
• Second Apocalypse of James [ Second Revelation of James ]
• First Revelation of James [ First Apocalypse of James ]
• Second Revelation of James [ Second Apocalypse of James ]
• The Fourteen Epistles between Seneca the Younger and Paul
• Gospel of Apellis [ Apelles or Appelles ] ( lost )
• Gospel of Bardesanes ( lost )
• Gospel of Basilides ( lost, but fragments quoted in early Christian writers )
• Gospel of Cerinthus ( lost, but suggested in early Christian writers )
• Gospel of James [ Infancy Gospel of James, Protoevangelium of James ]
• Gospel of Mani ( lost )
• Gospel of Marcion [ Gospel of the Lord ] ( restoration from Tertillian's Adversus Marcionem, "Against the Marcionites" in Epiphanes' Panarion [ Section 42 ], with gaps filled by the Gospel of Luke )
• Gospel of Nicodemus [ Acts of Pontius Pilate, Gospel of Pilate; also see "Acts of Pilate" and "Acts of Peter and Paul" above ]
• Gospel of Peter
• Gospel of Pilate [ Acts of Pontius Pilate, Gospel of Pilate; also see "Acts of Pilate" and "Acts of Peter and Paul" above ]
• Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew [ a redaction of the Infancy Gospel of James, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and "Flight into Egypt" { The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior, Infancy Gospel of Matthew } ]
• Gospel of the Apostles [ Epistle of the Apostles ]
• Gospel of the Ebionites ( quotations from Epiphanius )
• Gospel of the Egyptians
• Gospel of the Hebrews
• Gospel of the Lord [ Gospel of Marcion ] ( restoration from Tertillian's Adversus Marcionem, "Against the Marcianites" in Epiphanes' Panarion ( Section 42 ), with gaps filled by the Gospel of Luke )
• Gospel of the Nativity of Mary
• Gospel of the Nazareans [ The Jewish Gospel ]
• Gospel of the Savior [ Vision of the Savior, Papyrus Berolinensis 22220 { because fragmented and a number of orderings are possible, there is nothing available on the internet ( see Charles W.Hedrick and Paul A. Mirecki, Editors, Gospel of the Savior:  A New Ancient Gospel [ Sonoma, CA:  Polebridge Press, 2004 ], and Bart D. Ehrmann, Editor, Lost Scriptures:  Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament [ Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 2003 ] for translations ) } ]
• Gospel of Thomas ( Greek fragments )
• Gospel ( Questions ) of St. Bartholomew
• Greek Gospel According to Mary Magdalene (fragments - Rylands 463, Oxyrhynchus 3525 [In addition, see Karen L. King "The Gospel of Mary" in Miller, Robert J., editor, The Complete Gospels:  Annotated Scholars Version, Revised and Expanded Edition {San Francisco, CA.:  HarperCollins, 1994}, pp. 357 - 366, BS 2553.S24 1994; her translation of the Coptic {Egyptian} text gives preference to these two Greek fragments; cf. the different nuances in Bart D. Ehrman's "The Gospel of Mary" in Ehrman, Bart D., editor, Lost Scriptures:  Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament {Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 2003}, pp. 35 - 37, which utilizes the translation of George MacRae and Richard McLaren Wilson in Robinson, James M., The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 3rd ed. [Leiden, Netherlands:  Brill, 1988], pp. 524 - 527]; and, of the many books available on Mary Magdalene, some of questionable value, see more recently, Ms. King's The Gospel of Mary of Magdala:  Jesus and the First Woman Apostle [Santa Rosa, CA.:  Polebridge Press, 2003], 231 pages, BT 1392.G652K56 2003 (pages 3 - 12 of that book available here); as well as Ann Graham Brock, Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle:  The Struggle for Authority Harvard Theological Studies, Volume 51 [Cambridge, MA.:  Harvard Divinity School, 2003], 235 pages, BS 2485.B73 2003, Jane Schaberg, The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene:  Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament [New York, NY.:  Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 2002], 382 pages, BS 2485.S34 2002, and, an earlier work, Susan Hasking, Mary Magdalene:  Myth and Metaphor [New York, NY.:  Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1993], 503 pages, BS 2485.H27 1993.
• History of Joseph the Carpenter
• Infancy Gospel of James [Gospel of James, Protoevangelium of James]
• Infancy Gospel of Matthew [a redaction of the Infancy Gospel of James, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and "Flight into Egypt" {The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew}]
• Infancy Gospel of Thomas [which later was combined with the Infancy Gospel of James and "Flight into Egypt" and named The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior {Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Infancy Gospel of Matthew}]
• The Jewish Gospel [Gospel of the Nazareans]
• Kerygma Petri [The Preaching of Peter] (quotations from Clement [approving] and Origen [disapproving])
• Life of John the Baptist (nothing online, see excerpt in Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, Revised Edition, Volume 1:  Gospels and Related Writings [Louisville, KY.: Westminster Press, 1990], pp. 467 - 469)
• Liturgy of St. James [Vaticanus graecus 2282]
• Marcionism
• Martyrdom of Paul, nothing online; see “The Martyrdom of Paul” in Lewis, Agnes Smith, translator, The Mythological Acts of the Apostles:  Translated From an Arabic MS in the Convent of Deyr-Es_Suria, and from MSS in the Convent of St Catherine on Mount Sinai and in the Vatican Library (reprint of the 1904 edition) [Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press, 2011], pp. 217-222; originally part of the Acts of Paul, see above]
• Montanism
• Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 [Coptic Gospel According to Mary Magdalene]
• Papyrus Berolinensis 22220 [Gospel of the Savior, Vision of the Savior, {because fragmented and a number of orderings are possible, there is nothing available on the internet (see Charles W.Hedrick and Paul A. Mirecki, Editors, Gospel of the Savior:  A New Ancient Gospel [Sonoma, CA:  Polebridge Press, 2004], and Bart D. Ehrmann, Editor, Lost Scriptures:  Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament [Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 2003] for translations)}]
• Papyrus Egerton 2 [The Unknown Gospel]
• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840
• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1224
• The Pastor of Hermas [The Shepherd, The Shepherd of Hermas]
• Penitence of Origen (no text located)
• Physiologus (Middle English translation and commentary)
• Prayer of Paul
• The Preaching of Peter [Kerygma Petri] (quotations from Clement [approving] and Origen [disapproving])
• Protoevangelium of James [Gospel of James, Infancy Gospel of James]
• Pseudo-Clementine Writings [Clementina, Clementine literature, Clementine Romance, Homilies, Kerygmata Petrou (reconstructed Preachings of Peter), Recognitions]
• Pseudo-Titus (nothing online; see Otero, Aurelio de Santos "The Pseudo-Titus Epistle" in Schneemelcher, Wilhelm, editor New Testament Apocrypha:  Writings Relating to the Apostles; Apocalypses and Related Subjects, Volume Two [Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003], pp. 53-74.  BS 2832.S3 2003)
• Refutation of the Allegorisers [Book of Nepos] (no text located)
• Revelation of Stephen [Apocalypse of Stephen]
• Revelation of Thomas [Apocalypse of Thomas]
• Sayings Gospel Q [hypothetical - four reconstructions (cf. the other "Sayings Gospels" - Coptic Gospel of Thomas, Greek Gospel of Thomas [fragments], Coptic Secret Book of James [Apocryphon of James], Coptic Dialogue of the Savior, Coptic Gospel According to Mary Magdalene [Papyrus Berolinensis 8502], Greek Gospel According to Mary Magdalene [fragments - Rylands 463, Oxyrhynchus 3525] - and, most recently, John S. Kloppenborg, Ed., The Sayings Gospel Q in Greek and English with Parallels from the Gospels of Mark and Thomas [Minneapolis:  Fortress Press, 2002]),
• Second Apocalypse of James [Second Revelation of James]
• Second Revelation of James [Second Apocalypse of James]
• Second Epistle to the Corinthians (attributed to Clement)
• Secret Gospel of Mark
• Sentences of Sextus
• The Shepherd [The Pastor of Hermas, The Shepherd of Hermas]
• The Shepherd of Hermas [The Pastor of Hermas, The Shepherd]
• Signs Gospel (hypothetical - no text found online; cf. most recently, Tom Thatcher, Ed., What We Have Heard From the Beginning:  The Past, Present, and Future of Johanine Studies [Waco:  Baylor University Press, 2007])
• Syriac Infancy Gospel [The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior]
• The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles [The Didache]
• The Treasures [Cave of Treasures]
• Third Epistle to the Corinthians [cf. the “Letter of Peter to James” and its “Reception” as part of the preface to the “Homilies of Clement” {see references to the "Clementine" literatures above}; originally part of the Acts of Paul, see above]
• The Unknown Gospel [Papyrus Egerton 2]
• Vaticanus graecus 2282 [Liturgy of St. James]
• Vision of the Savior, [Gospel of the Savior, Papyrus Berolinensis 22220 {because fragmented and a number of orderings are possible, there is nothing available on the internet (see Charles W.Hedrick and Paul A. Mirecki, Editors, Gospel of the Savior:  A New Ancient Gospel [Sonoma, CA:  Polebridge Press, 2004], and Bart D. Ehrmann, Editor, Lost Scriptures:  Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament [Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 2003] for translations)}]

¹³ The books associated with the scribe Ezra are titled differently in different versions of the Bible.  The following table summarizes the various names:

The Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church follow the naming convention of the Vulgate.  Likewise, the Vulgate enumeration is often used by modern scholars, who nevertheless use the name Ezra to avoid confusion with the Greek and Slavonic enumerations:  1 Ezra (Ezra), 2 Ezra (Nehemiah), 3 Ezra (Esdras A´ / 1 Esdras), 4 Ezra (chapters 3-14 of 4 Esdras), 5 Ezra (chapters 1-2 of 4 Esdras) and 6 Ezra (chapters 15-16 of 4 Esdras).

Original Witnessing as Literature

Belated Witnessing as Literature

¹⁴ All of which contribute to my experience of the man Jesus (called “the Christ” or “the Anointed / Chosen / Righteous One” - the disciples celebrated the past and pointed to Jesus, Jesus celebrated the "eternal now"¹⁵ and pointed to God!).

¹⁵ Cf. Paul Tillich's The Eternal Now [New York:  Scribner, 1963], Nicholas Thomas Wright's Surprised by Hope:  Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church [New York:  HarperCollins, 2008] from which this quote is taken (p. 192), “The whole point of what Jesus was up to was that he was doing close up, in the present, what he was promising long-term in the future.  And what he was promising for that future and doing in the present was not saving souls for a disembodied eternity but rescuing people from the corruption and decay of the way the world presently is so they could enjoy, already in the present, that renewal of creation which is God's ultimate purpose - and so they could thus become colleagues and partners in that large project”, and Mark L. Taylor The Executed God:  The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America [Minneapolis:  Augsburg Fortress, 2001] from which this quote is taken (p. 8), “Jesus died the victim of executioners with imperial power.  There is an inescapable opposition between the life and death of Jesus, and imperial power.  To embrace and love the executed God is to be in resistance to empire.  To be a follower of the executed Jesus of Nazareth is to venture down a road without having a place in the system of imperial control.”

Jesus said, when asked by a religious scholar, “Which is most important of all of the commandments?”:  “The first in importance is ‘Listen, Israel:  The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’  And here is the second:  ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’  There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”

¹⁶ Cf. Job 13:15 (especially the Amplified Version, Classic Edition).  Morning most often finds me praying this prayer and other prayers (from the book Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals [Grand Rapids, MI.:  Zondervan, 2010]) where I am currently enjoying retirement as a resident of White Pines Senior Living, Advanced Memory Care in Mendota Heights, MN).  Of course, you are welcomed to pray through the hours online at Common Prayer, Universalis, or the Daily Office at Mission of St. Clare.

Announcing a new project - Praying through the Prophets - utilizing the complete series (eight books) of John Calvin's prayers on each of the prophets:  Jeremiah (and Lamentations), Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obidiah, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai, and Zechariah and Malachi - and in just a $6.99 Kindle edition.  It looks like reading through - a daily portion from a particular prophet - and praying (modernizing) John Calvin's prayer on that portion as prepartation for our own time of prayer.  Let me know if you would like to join in . . . .