Quick Reads
Specific scriptural questions answered briefly — under five minutes each. Where in the Bible is X? Where did the Apostles teach Y? Here's the verse, the context, and how the early Church read it.
Matthew 13:55 names four 'brothers' of Jesus — and critics use it against Mary's perpetual virginity. The answer is in the same Gospel, just at the crucifixion.
Anyone who has loved an animal has wondered. The answer most often given today — 'no, animals don't have souls' — is actually not what Scripture says. A Byzantine Catholic look at what the Bible actually teaches about the animal world.
We live surrounded by decay and treat it as natural. But most of human civilization — and most of our own bodies — is organized to fight it. And when something doesn't decay, we instinctively recoil. What if our deepest assumption has it backwards?
The distinctive Eastern Cross has three bars instead of one. Each is anchored directly in the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion — and the slanted bottom bar carries one of the most theologically rich images in Christian iconography.
A bare cross is everywhere — even in religions that aren't Christian. The crucifix differentiates Christianity by making the central scandal of the Gospel visible: Christ, on the cross.
Confession to a priest sounds like a Catholic invention — but it has explicit New Testament roots. Christ instituted it on the evening of the Resurrection. Paul named it. James commanded it.
Chastity is a virtue — the right ordering of desire — asked of the married and the unmarried alike. Where does Scripture teach it? The thread runs from the oldest books through Christ's own words to the apostles.
Most Christians point to tradition when asked where the sign of the cross is in Scripture. But the practice has older biblical roots than most readers realize — beginning with the Hebrew letter tav in Ezekiel 9.