The orthodox view of Christianity is that Jesus preached the same doctrine to all men—there was no inner circle of “initiates” with special knowledge, as in Gnosticism and the mystery religions. The ...

In the summer of 1958, Morton Smith, a newly hired Columbia University historian, traveled to an ancient monastery outside Jerusalem. In its library, he found what he said was a lost gospel. His ...

The gospel of Mark is the second to appear in the New Testament, but most scholars now agree that it was composed first. While the work is attributed to "Mark," we will probably never know the ...

A Saint (Mark?) Reading, a painting by Bartolomeo Vivarini at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, circa 1470 (Wikimedia Commons). Why does Jesus rebuke Peter, admonishing him to “Get behind me, Satan”?

For centuries, the Bible has served as the central sacred text of Christianity. But some ancient writings left out of the official canon continue to raise eyebrows and intrigue scholars. One of the ...

The focal point of the Liturgy of the Word is the proclamation of the Gospel. Its importance is highlighted by the acclamation about which we wrote last week. Only one who is ordained can read the Go ...