For Class

    Although it is generally accepted that Paul wrote most of the epistles, there are still questions surrounding the authorship of several letters. The six in question are 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians. For this blog, I want to focus solely on 2 Thessalonians and try to uncover who wrote this letter and why this letter was even included.    1 Thessalonians was written by the apostle Paul to a church in Thessalonica with the intention of encouraging them in their new-found Christianity and guiding them onto the correct path. "Rather than a correction of any doctrinal or behavioral error, then, 1 Thessalonians is a hortatory letter of friendship with the goal of guiding the readers in the development of Christian character. (Akerlund 20)". The newly converted Christians in Thessalonica were under extreme persecution and ostracism from the Roman society and, in today's terms, would have been considered "alternati

                                                                   While putting my Matthew blog together, I hit brick wall after brick wall. To be completely honest, the end result of my research on this blog topic is, partially, supposition. However, the facts that I did find, are truly fascinating.       To begin, we must first delve into a quick background of Herod Archelaus. Archelaus was the first son of Herod the Great and the principal heir  to the throne of Judea. After the,  possibly very gruesome , death of his father, Archelaus had to travel to Rome to defend his birthright. His brothers, Antipas and Philip, both made equal claims to the Judean throne. Emperor Augustus, however, recognized that he should receive the largest portion of the inheritance, but he did not go as far as to name him king. Instead, Archelaus had to settle for the lesser title of ethnarch, which is equal to the governor of a specific region. This emphasized his dependence on the Roman Empire