Maronite Meditations

Joseph Azize
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Maronite Meditations is a regular podcast harvesting the wealth of the legacy and contemplative tradition of the Maronite, Syriac, Catholic Church, an ancient Eastern church, with the Apostolic succession, which traces its faith back to our Lord himself.

  1. −8 h

    Maronite Meditation 79: What is the Q hypothesis in NT studies?

    The arguments given for the Q hypothesis (that Ss Matthew and Luke used a document which St Mark probably did not have) is not so firmly grounded as assumed. Certainly, I would say, the case for Q has to be made out with strong arguments as to why Matthew or Luke cannot have had the other’s Gospel. If that was so, there is no need for the Q hypothesis. But as we shall see, there are in fact several deep assumptions beneath Q: namely, that there are too many contradictions and divergences amongMatthew and Luke for one to have had the other. And beneath much of the informal contemporary Bible studies establishment is the profound assumption, indeed, the dogmatically held act of faith, that there cannot have been any true prophecies, or any miracles. To maintain this, they have to separate the evangelists from first-hand knowledge of the life of Christ. They have todowngrade the evangelists from inspired writers, bringing a higher level of truth into this world: men illuminated and illuminating, into pamphleteers, making idiosyncratic and wilful changes to the texts available to them, to present as historically based a ministry and teaching which they themselves knew to be their own creative production. I have put this bluntly, but I do not believe unfairly.

    19 min

  2. 1 juli

    Maronite Meditation 78: Are the Gospels "Anonymous" documents?

    Many academics assert that the names of the Gospels are not originals, and the evangelists were anonymous. I suggest this goes far beyond the evidence. The Gospels were produced in a specific historical context: the early Church. They are the documents of the early Church, in a very real sense. I am not even sure that contemporary ideas of anonymity apply here: the Gospels were written within the doors of the church, so to speak. What the Gospels record is the message of Our Lord, not of any one human being, no matter how eminent, and the Church realised that multipleperspectives were needed, just as different perspectives on a landscape may enable us to see what we would miss if we only had one vantage position.

    16 min

  3. 24 juni

    Maronite Meditations 77: Ehrman on NT communities

    Prof Bart Ehrman dogmatically states as a fact that the books of the New Testament were written “to different communities …” We have recently seen that some, at least, of the evidence presented for this theory could be described as “quiteweak.” But many of the epistles were anciently known as the catholic epistles, that is, the letters written to all churches. We examine and critique some of Ehrman's contentions.

    16 min

  4. 17 juni

    Maronite Meditations 76: The "Johannine Community" Part 2

    We continue last week's critique of Ashton's argument that there was a "Johannine community" for which the Gospel was written (as opposed to for all Christians." We explore, along the way, the "fallacy of the fatal possibility," the invalid argument that a thesis must be wrong because another thesis could be right.

    19 min

  5. 10 juni

    Maronite Meditation: Episode 75, Was there a "Johannine Community"?

    We consider a question which most people may not realise is contentious: the assertion that the Gospel of St John was theproduct of a so-called “Johannine Community.” I consider what the late John Ashton said about it in the second edition of his Understanding the Fourth Gospel, because there he self-consciously attempted to rise to recent challenges against that theory. In my treatment, I am aiming to not so much to positively establish that there was not a Johannine community, but – more modestly – that the reasons offered for it by John Ashton are inadequate, and that the idea of the community is so vagueas to be useless. The notes are here: https://www.fryuhanna.com/2026/05/12/maronite-meditation-75-what-is-this-about-a-johannine-community/

    16 min

  6. 3 juni

    Maronite Meditation 74: Internal Evidence of the Authorship of the Fourth Gospel

    For the lecture notes: https://www.fryuhanna.com/2026/05/05/maronite-meditation-74-internal-evidence-for-the-authorship-of-the-gospel-according-to-st-john/ We continue with our examination of how the late George Beasley-Murray handled the authorship of the Gospel of St John. Last week we saw what he made of the external evidence, that is, the testimony of ancient writers about St John and the Fourth Gospel. We saw how impressive that line of authority was, yet, Beasley-Murray rejected their unanimous witness that St John was the author of that Gospel, and also the Beloved Disciple mentioned in it. I further provided my reasons for saying that Beasley-Murray’s rejection was baseless.Now we shall look at why, on the basis of the internal evidence of the Gospel, that is, what we learn from the terms of the Gospel itself, he concludes that St John had no connection with either the Gospel or the beloved disciple. These arguments do not appear, I suggest, to be any sounder than the earlier ones. We may accept that St John was indeed the evangelist of the Gospel which bears his name, and was the beloved disiple.

    19 min

  7. 27 maj

    Maronite Meditation 73: External Evidence that St John Wrote his Gospel

    For the lecture notes: https://www.fryuhanna.com/2026/04/29/maronite-meditation-73-did-st-john-write-his-gospel-external-evidence/ We shall begin to examine the evidence around the authorship of the Gospel of St John. We now take one manageable portion, an argument made by George Beasley-Murray, who wrote the commentary for this Gospel in the “Word Biblical Commentary” series in 1991. From what I can see, the titles in this series form part of what I have called the “Bible studies establishment.” Beasley-Murray wrote: “While this testimony in the churches to the authorship of the Fourth Gospel by the apostle John appears impressive, it becomes evident on examination that it is marked by unwarranted elaborations and confusion concerning those of whom it speaks.”

    15 min

  8. 20 maj

    Maronite Meditation 72: Do We Know what the Earliest Book in the New Testament Is?

    The lecture notes are at: https://www.fryuhanna.com/2026/04/22/maronite-meditation-72-the-date-of-the-epistle-of-st-jude/ It is often asserted that the very earliest Books of the New Testament are the letters of Saint Paul, and in particular either his first Epistle to the Thessalonians or his Epistle to the Galatians. This inclines towards a purported reconstruction of an evolving Christianity, which resembles a Protestant Christianity, whereas a hierarchical Church preaching Jesus, fully divine and fully human, and the system of sacraments, is seen as a late development. I suggest that there is no reason whatsoever to assert the chronological primacy of St Paul’s epistles as confidently as is done, and to take one concrete example, I shall suggest thatthere is no reason to date the first letter to the Thessalonians or that to the Galatians before the Epistle of Saint Jude.

    14 min
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Om

Maronite Meditations is a regular podcast harvesting the wealth of the legacy and contemplative tradition of the Maronite, Syriac, Catholic Church, an ancient Eastern church, with the Apostolic succession, which traces its faith back to our Lord himself.

Information

  • Skapad av
    Joseph Azize
  • Aktiva år
    2025 - 2026
  • Avsnitt
    80
  • Åldersgräns
    Barnvänligt
  • Copyright
    © Joseph Azize
  • Programmets webbplats
    Maronite Meditations

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