Wizard battles and demon circles revealed in newly translated Christian texts

[Judi Lynn]

By Owen Jarus - Live Science Contributor 8 hours ago



The texts describing the wizard battle are from the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Egypt.
This image shows the shrine of St. Macarius in the monastery.
(Image: © Danita Delimont / Alamy)

Have you ever heard the story of a wizard battle that supposedly took place when an early church was constructed? Or how about the story of a border guard who defied King Herod's orders and spared Jesus' life? Scholars have now translated these and other "apocryphal" Christian texts (stories not told in the canonical bible) into English for the first time.

More than 300 Christian apocryphal texts are known to exist, Tony Burke, a professor of early Christianity at York University in Toronto, Canada, wrote in the book he edited "New Testament Apocrypha More Noncanonical Scriptures (Volume 2)" (Eerdmans, 2020). "Apocryphal texts were integral to the spiritual lives of Christians long after the apparent closing of the canon and that the calls to avoid and even destroy such literature were not always effective" wrote Burke.

Ancient Christians often debated which texts told the truth about Jesus and which did not. By the end of the fourth century the church had 'canonized' the texts which they thought were accurate and included them in the bible.



One of the newly translated texts tells of a wizard battle that took place at the ancient city of
Philippi, in Greece. Shown here, the ruins of Philippi . (Image credit: Shutterstock)

One of the newly translated texts tells of a battle against 'diabolical' wizards who are trying to destroy an ancient church being built as a dedication to the Virgin Mary in the city of Philippi in Greece.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/translated-christian-texts-wizards-demons.html?utm_source=notification

[soothsayer]

1. Interesting

[Vogon_Glory]

2. I suspect that the apocryphal story about the border guard

Who let Jesus, Mary, and Joseph slip past the Judea border into Egypt would gladden neither the heart of Stephen Miller nor the white supremacists who support Donald ztrump were it to gain a bigger audience today.

So the Bible is “literal and inerrant”?

Hmmm...

[wnylib]

3. Oh, my. Illegal border crossing.

Literal and inerrant wouldn't apply to apochryphal stories. Actually, I wouldn't apply it to the canonical books, either, although it is the official position of many churches, though not all of them.