Month: February 2022

Procopius was a Greek-Byzantine historian. He wrote a portrayal of emperor Justinian who was recognized the most well-known Byzantine emperor. Thankfully this account has survived today because this is actually the most accurate account of Justinian that we have today.

Procopius begins with Justinian’s physical characteristics which aren’t that bad. Then he goes on to his personality, not a very nice guy if you ask me. When he became emperor he made a lot of changes to the government, the laws, the political offices, etc. He turned everything upside down. However, he had one major goal, and that was to unify Africa, Italy, Spain, Gaul and Britain with orthodox Christianity.

The person Procopius ultimately says Justinian was was a cruel person, but he had goals and ambitions to help serve his people with. For example, to unite different areas with orthodox Christianity.

According to Mark’s gospel, what was the main issue dividing Jesus from the leaders of Israel? The gospel of Mark is one of the four Gospels of the Bible. It is also the shortest. According to Wikipedia, “The Gospel according to Mark, also called the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, burial, and the discovery of his empty tomb.” According to Britannica, “Mark’s Gospel stresses the deeds, strength, and determination of Jesus in overcoming evil forces and defying the power of imperial Rome. Mark also emphasizes the Passion, predicting it as early as chapter 8 and devoting the final third of his Gospel (11–16) to the last week of Jesus’ life.”

According to Mark’s gospel, what was main issue dividing Jesus from the leaders of Israel? This main issue is envious fear which came from the leaders. The Israelite leaders had power over things that the Israelites do not have power over which made them powerful. However, after they saw what Jesus could do with the power He had (walk on water, heal blind, lame, paralyzed, sick, power over nature, power over demons, etc.), they became jealous and envious of His power, but they also grew fearful of His power. They thought He could destroy them in a second, which of course He could do, but it was not his plan. That is one of the reasons why they worked so hard to get people to kill him.

Because of Jesus’ power and authority, He attracted very large crowds wherever He went. Some of them came miles just to see him. These people began to recognize Jesus as their leader instead of the Israelite leaders. The idea of the Israelite leaders losing their power was very daunting and scary to them.

This power and authority that Jesus had that was given to him by God He gave to his disciples so that they could go spread the Gospel . This can be seen in Matthew 28:16-20 which is called the Great Commission. It says,

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Israelite leaders saw this as a sign that Jesus was trying to expand his authority which they thought was a greater threat to their authority. The Israelite leaders saw Christ’s teaching’s as a threat to their authority when it was supposed to purify their society.

There were many reasons that divided Jesus from the leaders of Israel, and envious fear was one of them.

Who was the Venerable Bede, and why was he significant? The Venerable Bede (also called Saint Bede the Venerable) was, according to The British Library, “one of the greatest scholars of the Anglo-Saxon period. He produced a large number of works on subjects as varied as science, music, poetry and biblical commentary, but he is most famous for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, one of our best-written sources for early English history”. Why was he significant? Let me tell you. He was one of the most important people of the middle ages because he was a great teacher and writer of his time. He is considered to be the most important scholar of his time by many historians.

The process by which Christianity was spread in England. According to BBC, “We tend to associate the arrival of Christianity in Britain with the mission of Augustine in 597 AD. … It began when Roman artisans and traders arriving in Britain spread the story of Jesus along with stories of their Pagan deities.”

How important were the miracles in the book’s account of Jesus’ early ministry? Last week, my lessons in English were based on the book of Mark and the ministry of Jesus. Here is a little about the book of Mark.

Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels in the Bible. The Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The word “Gospel” in Greek literally means “good news”. This means that the Gospels were meant to bring good news to people. It is said that it is the earliest of the four Gospels, recording from the time of Jesus’ birth, to the time of his ascension.

Miracles were very important in the life and ministry of Jesus. He did not use them just because he was nice (and he was nice). He used them to preform certain ideas in the minds of people. And the miracles did not just impact the people of that era and time. They also impacted people throughout history, today, and even in the future. One of these miracles can be found in Mark 1:23-28,

23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.

According to Thomas Nelson, “This miracle demonstrated Jesus’ power over the forces of evil. The people of Capernaum were amazed and asked, “What new doctrine is this?”” These people were really surprised and impacted. Some even thought that he could cast out demons because he himself was possessed by one, which is stupid.

Another one is Mark 2:1-12,

2 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 2 a]Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. 3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. 4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has b]power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

According to Thomas Nelson, “Jesus’ displays His power over sickness and His authority to forgive. The Pharisees questioned Jesus’ authority to forgive, but the people glorified God.” Jesus impacted a lot of people, so much even, that people wanted to kill him! Jesus can do these things because he is the Son of God.

The shift in power from the Merovingians to the Carolingians. Why did it occur, and how? These two families, the Merovingians and the Carolingians, governed the Franks, a Germanic people, who became Christians in the year 496. The Merovingian family ruled the Franks from the seventh century to the early eighth century. Over the years, the Merovingian dynasty had gone corrupt and many problems were beginning to occur. Under influence of the Merovingian family, corrupt practices were being brought into the church. Because of all these problems with the Merovingian family, the Carolingian family was handling the administrations. The Carolingian family held the place of mayor in the palace. During this corrupt time, Pepin the Short sees the need to legitimize his reign. He asks the pope, Pope Zachery the first, is it is good that the men with the power have no title and the men with the title have no power. The pope says that that is not good, so he blessed the change of dynasty from the Merovingians to the Carolingians.

What picture of Charlemagne emerges from Einhard’s biography? According to Wikipedia, “Einhard was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the Vita Karoli Magni, “one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages.”” In the biography of Einhard, Charlemagne is described as a great military leader a ruthless warrior, and a role model and idol towards his soldiers.

According to Wikipedia, “Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.” He was born on December 8, in the year 65 BC in the city or Venosa, Italy. He died on November 27, in the year 8 BC in the city of Rome, Italy. Horace wrote many good works, one of which is Odes, “The Art of Poetry”. He wrote lyric poetry, which is, according to Wikipedia, “Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.” In his works, Horace writes to the person reading it specifically and tells them things that will mentally stick to them forever. His simple concept of cause and effect is that the person should stay in the “golden mean”. According to Wikipedia, “The golden mean or golden middle way is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. It appeared in Greek thought at least as early as the Delphic maxim “nothing in excess” and emphasized in later Aristotelian philosophy.” He tells the person to expect no more and no less that the middle, which he says is healthy.

In his Odes, Horace tells us that the only major thing in the lives of man, is death. Death comes to every human being at some point. With this end from which we can never escape from, men are equal during and after our final breath. Therefor, men are equal throughout their entire lives. The amount of riches and wealth a man receives will not mean anything after that person dies. A person can work hard to obtain riches, but it does not change their position. But, you can not just not work or live in poverty, so Horace says to live the golden mean, or the medium type of life. He says to live a balanced life.

He also says to avoid disappointment. If they live in a medium life, then they will not encounter big disappointments.

He even provides the example of the ant from the Bible. Proverbs 6:6-8 says “6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

Throughout the entire book (or whatever it is called) he points towards the golden mean. He said we should live like the ant, which is a balanced lifestyle, not too much, and not too little. He also makes the point, why have a lot of gold if you are not going to take it with you if you die? The answer is, to live by the golden mean, a balanced lifestyle (or at least that is his answer).

Death is something that no one can escape from, however, Horace says that if you live in the golden mean, you will have satisfaction. What Horace calls the balanced lifestyle we call today the middle-class-lifestyle. He says that the rich and poor and everyone in-between are equal because they will all encounter death.

According to Wikipedia, “Roman civilization and history contributed greatly to the development of government, law, war, art, literature, architecture, technology, religion, and language in the Western world”. So, Rome was very significant in the history of Western civilization. Some other parts of Western civilization must have adopted some of Rome’s civilization, as in art, technology, architecture, etc. Rome was very significant.