New Testament: Gospels – Episodes 22 & 23

Episode Twenty-two and Episode Twenty-three in the revised and expanded version of the AIC Bible Study Video series, New Testament: Gospels, were uploaded to the AIC’s YouTube channel and Podbean channel this morning.

Thomas-Incredulity_XIV_C_Russian
The Incredulity of Thomas.   Icon in tempera and gilt on panel, 14th C. A.D., Monastery of the Metamorphosis, Meteora, Greece.  The icon was lost for centuries and was rediscovered in the early 1960s A.D.  There are several versions of the same scene currently available but with disputes over dates and location.  Some sources claim this version is a later Russian Orthodox copy.    Public Domain.

In order to finish the revisions in the series before year end, I decided to “double up” and complete two each week.  Both of this week’s premiers are about Unique Content in the Gospel of St. Luke, with Episode Twenty-two on Jesus’ discourses on Spiritual Light and the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Episode Twenty-three on His moral discourses.  The featured illustration is from the latter episode (in the context of “O You of little faith” Luke 12:28b).

Watch Episode Twenty-two.      Listen to Podcast of Episode Twenty-two

Watch Episode Twenty-three.    Listen to Podcast of Episode Twenty-three

The two remaining episodes on the Gospel of St. Luke will be completed and uploaded during the week of October 14th.

The first two episodes on the Gospel of St. John (Episodes Twenty-six and Twenty-seven) are nearly complete and, barring any technical glitches, should be available for upload during the week of October 21st.  I have completed the revisions of all the remaining slides and scripts in the series and hope to release two episodes per week with a goal of getting the whole series uploaded before Christmas.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  May God bless you in all that you do in His Name!  Amen.  Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

New Testament: Gospels – Episode Twenty-one

Harley 2799  f 173vI’m pleased to announce the uploading for another revised episode, Episode Twenty-one in the AIC Bible Study Video series, The New Testament: Gospels.  Content is Part 2 of 6 in Unique Content in the Gospel of St. Luke, including Sending the Return of the Seventy and Jesus’ encounter with Mary and Martha at Bethany.

This week’s featured illustration is a miniature illumination in gold and colored inks on parchment of St. Luke writing his Gospel from the Arnstein Bible, produced at Arnstein, Germany around 1172 A.D. from Ms. Harley 2799, Folio 173bv, British Library, London, England.  The image has to be shown quite small because the original image is also very small.  Any larger and the image would break up and the sheen on the gold would be reduced.  It was originally housed at the Monastery of St. Mary and St. Nicholas and was sold to Edward Harley in 1720/21.  The scribe’s name was Lunandus, a monk at the monastery.

Watch the video.        Listen to the Podcast version.

This uplink brings me very close to completing the rebuild of the episodes on St. Luke’s Gospel.  I have recorded and edited Episode Twenty-two and expect to upload it plus Episode Twenty-three during the week of October 7th, with the final two episodes coming the week of October 14th.  All the slides and text for all the episodes (26 to 45) on the Gospel of St. John are complete, but no episodes have yet been recorded.   These final episodes include many more examples of Church art that are rarely seen in public, including a Gospel book written in Germany between 778 and 820 A.D. at the start of the Carolingian era that began with the coronation at Rome of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in 800 A.D.

As always, thank you for your interest and support.  Please consider subscribing by clicking the Follow Anglican Internet Church legend in the righthand column.  You will receive a link to each new posting.

 

 

New Testament: Gospels – Episode Six

Peter-Fish-coin-AugustinTunger-1486-PCA
St. Peter Paying the Temple Tax, illumination in colored inks on paper, Augustin Tumbler, Facetias Latinae et Germanicae (literally, Amusing Things), Konstanz, Germany, 1486 A.D. Codex HB V 24a. Public Domain (Wikipedia Commons).  Perspective correction applied.

Episode Six, the final episode focused on the Gospel of St. Matthew, in the AIC Bible Study Video series, New Testament: Gospels, is now online in video and podcast versions.  This completes the rebuild of the St. Matthew portion of the Bible Study Videos, making them consistent with current videos in all series and also adding many examples of historic Church art from many sources.  Episode Six includes selected examples of unique content and quotations, including the long form of the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes, plus the “kingdom” parables, and, as shown in the illustration, the curious miracle of the coin in the fish at Capernaum (Matt. 17:24-29).

Watch the Video       Listen to the Podcast

In the next episode, Episode Seven, I focus on the Gospel of St. Mark with an introduction to its history, authorship, time frame, language, intended audience and style, plus the beginning of my discussion of St. Mark’s themes, starting the Jesus as Servant of the Father.

As always, thank you for your interest and support, which enables the production of these videos free-of-charge, on-demand, through links from this Web Site.

May God bless you in all that you do in his name! Amen.  Glory be to God for all things! Amen.

 

The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase – Episode Tw0

LP-Title1-smallEpisode Two (of two) in The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase is now available in both video and podcast forms.   The focus in Episode Two is on the fourth, fifth and sixth petitions; the Doxology (in St. Matthew’s version); and a general summary of the series.  The discussion of the Doxology includes a presentation on the two most likely ways the Doxology found its way into St. Matthew’s Gospel.  The illustrations include art from the 9th through the early 21st Centuries.  The episode runs just over 21 minutes.       Watch the video      Listen to the Podcast Continue reading “The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase – Episode Tw0”

The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase – Episode One

LP-Title3bEpisode One in the much-delayed AIC teaching video series, The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase is now available on our You Tube channel and also in a podcast version.  The title slide includes James Tissot’s late 19th C. depiction of Jesus teaching the Disciples in charcoal, graphite and watercolor on gray wove paper, from the Life of Christ at the Brooklyn Museum. Continue reading “The Lord’s Prayer: Phrase-by-phrase – Episode One”

Twenty-second Sunday After Trinity and Episode Twenty-eight in Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation

River of Life and Tree of Life, Bamberg Apocalypse, early 11th C.  Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany.
River of Life and Tree of Life, Bamberg Apocalypse, early 11th C. Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany.

I can hardly believe it is already near the end of the week, but it has been a productive week.  I’ve completed the final episode in Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation.  Episode Twenty-eight is focused on Chapter 22.  The key illustration is River of Life and Tree of Life from the Bamberg Apocalypse. Continue reading “Twenty-second Sunday After Trinity and Episode Twenty-eight in Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation”

Revelation: Episode 26 (Parts 1 & 2) & Twentieth Sunday After Trinity

Folio 51, Binding and Loosing of the Beast.  Bamberg Apocalypse (early 11th C.).  Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany
Folio 51, Binding and Loosing of the Beast. Bamberg Apocalypse (early 11th C.). Bamberg State Library, Bamberg, Germany

After a rocky start to the week (hip joint problems) I got back on track (literally and figuratively) by midweek.  This week’s installment of the Revelation series video required a change of plan.  Owing to the length, I had to split the Episode into two parts.  Part 1 is Revelation 20:1-6, St. John’s poetic introduction.  Part 2 is verses 7 through 21.   The illustration is Binding and Loosing of the Beast from the Bamberg Apocalypse.

Watch Episode 26 (Part 1)    Listen to the Podcast version

Watch Episode 26 (Part 2)     Listen to the Podcast version

Continue reading “Revelation: Episode 26 (Parts 1 & 2) & Twentieth Sunday After Trinity”

Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity and Episode 25 in Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation

BambergApocalypseFolio048vRiderOnWhiteHorseAndBirdsOfPreyThis has been a terrific week!  The rainy weather finally abated and the sun came out and the temperature went up.  Early in the week, shut-in owing to the stormy weather, I completed and uploaded Episode Twenty-five in Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation.   Continue reading “Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity and Episode 25 in Revelation: An Idealist Interpretation”

Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

Quite a busy week, starting with a heart catheterization on Tuesday.  I am thankful and glad to report that the test found no new blockages in my heart and no obstruction in the stent which was installed in 2013.  The most convincing theory of the moment is that my symptoms were the result of stress, lack of exercise and lack of sleep, etc.  Consequently, lifestyle changes have already been made, including regular exercise, including at least 30 minutes of walking, and regular massages at my chiropractor’s office.

There will be no new episodes in our Bible Study series on Revelation this week.  I hope to complete work on Episode 23, focused on Revelation 18, before the end of next week.  All the slides are done, as is the sound recording.  I have to coordinate the pictures and sound, tedious, time-consuming work for which had neither time nor energy for this week!  Thanks for your patience.

I am presently at work on the final Chapter of Revelation and hope to have all the episodes completed before the middle of October.

Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain, opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, James Tissot, late 19th C. Public domain by the Brooklyn Museum
Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain, opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, James Tissot, late 19th C. Public domain by the Brooklyn Museum

I did complete and upload to the AIC Web Site and Facebook my Podcast Homily for Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity.  The Gospel reading covers the Raising of the Son of the Widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17).  The only illustration I know of is the lovely watercolor from the Life of Christ series by James Tissot at the Brooklyn Museum.

Listen to the Podcast Homily

First Sunday After Easter

Corkie and I got back from our first trip in the Volvo XC90 AWD late yesterday.  This morning I put together a short Podcast Homily for the First Sunday After Easter based on the prayer book readings from 1 John 5:4-12 and John 20:19-23.  LIsten to the Podcast

John-RohanMaster-15thCThese two readings are both highly-spiritual, in which St. John shares his first hand experience as a Disciple and his own passionate understanding of the importance of the Christian virtue of Love (from the Greek, agape) and the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son (or the Word in the Gospel of St. John).  In his epistle he once again indulgences in a preference for stressing the importance of the symbolic number 3.  Three stands for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as for the three baptism-like symbols in his narrative:  the spirit, the water and the blood.  As he did in his Gospel account, he speaks of the Holy Spirit as witness of the Truth, meaning the Christian belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that through Him only can salvation be obtained.  In his Gospel, he frequently uses the comparison between Truth and Falsehood.  For those moderns who give advice on the need for inclusiveness, St. John offers unwanted stress upon the certainty that there is only one path to the Father:

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

How much clearer can an Epistle be?

The Gospel account is unique in many ways.  It offers details of the appearance in the Upper Room, safely locked against possilbe intrusion by hostile Jews, including the granting to the faithful of the Peace of God, access by His breath to the Holy Spirit, and later, after the end of the reading, the comments of a skeptical Thomas, as well as providing the Scriptural basis for the Sacrament of Confession/Penance.  As I note in the Podcast Homily, the granting of the sacrament providing Absolution and Remission of sins is yet another example of God’s unqualified love, Agape, for His Creation.