1.17 Hugo Méndez - The Gospel of John

1.18 Teresa Morgan - Roman Faith and Christian Faith

In this interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Teresa Morgan (Oxford) about her landmark book Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (2015). ⁠WATCH INTERVIEW HERE⁠ [https://youtu.be/5lGWh7s87rk] We explore how the Greek word pistis and Latin fides — both rooted in the concept of trust — were used across the ancient Mediterranean world, and how early Christians gradually transformed this everyday language into the rich, complex concept of "faith" we have today. Topics range from Augustine's influential (but limiting) definition of faith, to Paul's "cascade of trust," to the Council of Nicaea's pivotal shift toward propositional belief. Enjoy! Dr. Morgan's books (affiliate links)📖 Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches [https://amzn.to/4wH4wab] (Oxford University Press, 2015)📖 Trust in Atonement - God, Creation, an Reconciliation [https://amzn.to/4eV2P2x] (Eerdmans, 2024

1.17 Hugo Méndez - The Gospel of John

For John, Jesus divine. And makes his followers divineWhat does the Gospel of John actually claim about Jesus — and about everyone else? WATCH INTERVIEW HERE [https://youtu.be/ejf07CjGGV4] In this conversation, I sit down with Dr. Hugo Mendez (UNC Chapel Hill) to talk about his new book The Gospel of John: A New History (Oxford University Press), and the result is one of the most genuinely surprising readings of John I've encountered.Most readers know John as the gospel that "makes Jesus divine." That's half the story. The other half — the one Mendez argues we've been missing for centuries — is that John's Jesus extends that same divinity to his followers. The logos becomes flesh, yes. But the logos also draws human beings into oneness with God, gives them the glory he had with the Father, and even tells them in John 10, "you are gods."We get into:- Why John is almost certainly the work of a single author (and where chapter 21 gives itself away as a later addition)- How John knew and creatively reworked Mark, Matthew, and Luke — the Lazarus story is a wild example- John's Philonic logos theology and why it isn't yet 4th-century Trinitarian thought- The deification of believers — what scholars have missed about John 10 and John 17- Mendez's argument that humans in John may also be angelified (John 1:51 and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man)- Why Mendez calls John the first apocryphal gospel — and how it pioneered the eyewitness-claim playbook later used by Thomas, Mary, and the Protevangelium of James- The Beloved Disciple as a literary device, not John son of Zebedee- How the Johannine epistles and even Revelation may belong to a wider tradition of works imitating the Gospel of John. Dr. Mendez's books (affiliate links)📘 The Gospel of John: A New History (Oxford University Press, 2025) [https://amzn.to/3PxNEC1] 📘 The Epistles of John: Origins, Authorship, Purpose (Cambridge University Press, 2026) [https://amzn.to/3QZK8kf]

1.16 Bart Ehrman - Jesus' Revolutionary Teaching

Bart Ehrman — one of the world's leading New Testament scholars and a self-described agnostic — makes a surprising argument: the West owes more to Jesus than it realizes. Not for salvation. Not for atonement. For something hiding in plain sight. ⁠Watch This Instead⁠ [https://youtu.be/ymsdXLIplIM] 📖 Love Thy Stranger by Bart Ehrman [https://amzn.to/4sINoh4 ]: (Affiliate Link)🎙️ Bart Ehrman's channel [https://www.youtube.com/@bartdehrman]: In this conversation we explore Ehrman's new book Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West — and the historical case that Jesus invented something the ancient Greco-Roman world simply didn't have: the idea that you should care for strangers, enemies, and the poor not because it benefits you, but because they're human.We also uncover one of the most striking ironies in the history of religion: Jesus almost certainly got crucified for teaching that God forgives freely — no sacrifice required. His followers then turned his death into the very mechanism he was arguing against.In this conversation:- Why C.S. Lewis's universal morality argument doesn't hold up- What the Greco-Roman world actually believed about the poor- How Jesus radicalized Jewish ethics through apocalypticism- Why Jesus taught forgiveness — and Paul taught atonement- How Basil of Caesarea institutionalized altruism into hospitals and orphanages- Why an atheist scholar is saying thank you to Jesus

1.15 Markus Vinzent - Was a Resurrection a Fringe Early Christian Belief?

What if the resurrection wasn't the foundation of early Christianity — and most early Christians never even heard of it? Watch This Instead! [https://youtu.be/IZbjupZ-FoM] That's exactly what New Testament scholar and historian Professor Marcus Vinzent argues in his groundbreaking research on Christ's resurrection in early Christianity. And in this conversation, he changed my mind. In this interview, Professor Vinzent walks through the stunning evidence that resurrection belief was not a universal early Christian belief — but a Pauline belief that slowly spread through the Christian movement and eventually became central to the faith we know today.We discuss: - Why major early Christian texts like the Didache and Shepherd of Hermas never mention the resurrection - How Marcion of Sinope may have introduced Paul's letters — and resurrection belief — into mainstream Christianity - Why the canonical gospels may have been written later than scholars assume - How theology shaped the resurrection stories, not the other way around - What "docetism" actually reveals about early Christian controversy If you've ever wondered where the resurrection story came from, why the gospel accounts contradict each other, or what early Christians actually believed — this conversation is for you. More From Markus Vinzent Get the book! Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity [https://amzn.to/4sKZxCY] (affiliate link) Follow Markus & Team on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Patristica Markus' Academia Page [https://kcl.academia.edu/MarkusVinzent]

1.14 Tucker Ferda - Did Jesus predict his second coming?

Did Jesus actually predict his own second coming — or did the early church invent it? I sat down with Dr. Tucker Ferda (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) to talk about his book "Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins" — and what I found was one of the most honest and challenging historical arguments I've encountered. Watch this interview instead [https://youtu.be/vaUD0SMDNzU ] 📖 Tucker's Book: Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins [https://amzn.to/4l7qEoY] (Affiliate Link)🎓 Tucker's Faculty Page [https://www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/people/tucker-s-ferda]: 📄 Academia.edu [https://pts.academia.edu/TuckerFerda ]: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  📱 FOLLOW FOR MORE  - YouTube: @cjcornthwaite  - Instagram: @cjcornthwaite - Website: ⁠⁠⁠cjcornthwaite.com⁠⁠⁠ [http://cjcornthwaite.com] - Email: cjcornthwaite@proton.me 🎙️ FOOTNOTE FAMOUS Conversations with the world’s top scholars of the Bible and Christian origins.  🔗⁠⁠⁠https://www.footnotefamous.com/⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.footnotefamous.com/] SUPPORT THE CHANNEL Patreon - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/FootnoteFamous⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.patreon.com/FootnoteFamous]  YouTube Memberships - ⁠⁠⁠C. J. Cornthwaite - YouTube⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@cjcornthwaite/join] Book a 1:1 Conversation With Me: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.cjcornthwaite.com/book-online⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.cjcornthwaite.com/book-online]  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━