Odds and Ends

 Twelfth Friday after Penteeost

First, let me respond to Glenn's comment about the Protevangelion of James. There is a huge amount of apocryphal Christian literature from the second century. Most of these documents were written under the name of an Apostle or someone else who knew Jesus during His lifetime on earth. None of them were actually written by the Apostle in whose name they were written. Virtually all the Apostles have gospels attributed to them. Attributing a writing to someone else was common in early Judaism and early Christianity. Scholars refer to the large body of such Jewish literature as Pseudepigrapha; the almost as large a body of Christian literature, as New Testament Apocrypha. Roman Catholics give more historical credence to much of this literature than Protestants do. 

Even a lot of Protestants give credence to a few stories or sayings in this literature. The most commonly accepted one is the story of Peter's death. Peter was to be executed by crucifixion in Rome during the time of the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Nero. The story is that Peter, feeling unworthy of being executed in the same manner as his Lord, requested and was granted to be crucified upside down.

This story is nowhere in the Bible. It is found in the second century apocryphal book, The Acts of Peter. We do know historically that Nero did persecute Christians in 64-65 AD and that he did have hundreds of them crucified. We know this not only from Christian sources but also from Roman sources, particularly the late first and early second century Roman historian Tacitus. We know with a fair degree of certainty that both Peter and Paul were executed during this persecution. Our earliest source for this is 1 Clement, written 80-90 A.D. That Peter was crucified is highly probable. The legend of Peter's upside down crucifixion may or may not be historical. So it is with much NT Apocrypha. 

The Protevangelion of James was not written by James. Most, or perhaps all, of it is not historical. I rather think that the names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, and a few other things in it are historical. Glenn is right that we know very little about Mary before the birth stories in Matthew and Luke.

Second, let me respond to Chris's question about the Elon "Fightin' Christians" dropping that nickname. Elon was founded in 1889 by a Protestant denomination called The Christian Church. I'm not sure when they got the team name "Fightin' Christians," but my impression was that it was soon after the founding. The Christian Church was eventually absorbed through a couple of mergers into the United Church of Christ in 1954. Elon kept the name "Fightin' Christians." Elon has maintained a very loose affiliation with the United Church of Christ ever since. The connection is so loose that the vast majority of students and alums don't even know of it. The affiliation is not mention in any of Elon's literature. Elon receives no money from the UCC. Elon has no Chapel but does have a Chaplain. It does use the United Church of Christ church across the street for Baccalaureate service and a few other things. 

In the late 1980's the Chaplain, Rev. Richard McBride, began to make a very strong case for a team name change. The case included the following points:

• Fighting is not what Christians should be known for.
• Elon had a number of Jewish faculty and students, and many of no religion at all.
• The name "Fightin' Christians" had become a detriment for student and faculty recruitment. 

The faculty (including me) voted overwhelming for a name change. A committee, which included Richard, was authorized to come up with a new name. The name chosen was the Phoenix. That name was chosen because of an event in Elon's history. In 1926 there was a terrible fire that destroyed the campus. It took a couple of years but Elon arose from its ashes and began anew. It grew from a single building then to what is a major university now. 

You know the way it is with me. Ask a simple question and you get a very long, detailed answer. Back to the Bible tomorrow with Peter's speech in Acts 3:11-26.

Faithfully,

Christian