Having entered the Christmas season, we ask those who find the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center beneficial to them to help us continue our work with a generous financial gift as you are able. As an incentive, we are offering the following booklet.

In 1909 the German philosopher Arthur Drews wrote a book called "The Myth of Christ", which New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has called "arguably the most influential mythicist book ever produced," arguing that Jesus Christ never existed and was simply a myth influenced by more ancient myths. The reason this book was so influential was because Vladimir Lenin read it and was convinced that Jesus never existed, thus justifying his actions in promoting atheism and suppressing the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the ideologues of the Third Reich would go on to implement the views of Drews to create a new "Aryan religion," viewing Jesus as an Aryan figure fighting against Jewish materialism. 

Due to the tremendous influence of this book in his time, George Florovsky viewed the arguments presented therein as very weak and easily refutable, which led him to write a refutation of this text which was published in Russian by the YMCA Press in Paris in 1929. This apologetic brochure titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ" was one of the first texts of his published to promote his Neopatristic Synthesis, bringing the patristic heritage to modern historical and cultural conditions. With the revival of these views among some in our time, this text is as relevant today as it was when it was written. 

Never before published in English, it is now available for anyone who donates at least $20 to the Mystagogy Resource Center upon request (please specify in your donation that you want the book). Thank you.



February 28, 2017

Holy Apostles Nymphas and Eubulus of the Seventy

Sts. Nymphas and Eubulus the Apostles (Feast Day - February 28)

Verses

The two apostles of Christ were planted by Christ,
Eubulus and Nymphas together being associated with Christ.

The Holy Apostles Nymphas and Eubulus were disciples of the Apostle Paul.

Nymphas is mentioned by Paul in his epistle to the Colossians (4:15): "Greet Nymphas and the church that meets in his house."

He was a Christian resident in Laodicea, to whom Paul sends salutations in the epistle which he wrote from Rome to the Church in Colosse, the latter city being only a very few miles distant from Laodicea. Indeed, so near were they, that Paul directs that the Epistle to the Colossians be read also in Laodicea. Nymphas was a person of outstanding worth and importance in the Church of Laodicea, for he had granted the use of his dwelling-house for the ordinary weekly meetings of the Church. The Apostle's salutation is a 3-fold one to the brethren that are in Laodicea, that is to the whole of the Christian community in that city, and to Nymphas, and to the church in his house. This fact, that the church met there, also shows that Nymphas was a person of some means, for a very small house could not have accommodated the Christian men and women who gathered together on the first day of every week for the purposes of Christian worship. This fact proves him to be a person both of Christian character and of generous feeling.

Eubulus is mentioned in the Second Epistle to Timothy (4:21): "Eubulus greets you."

He was one of the members of the Church in Rome at the time of Paul's second imprisonment in that city. The Apostle mentions how, at his first answer to the charges brought against him at the emperor's tribunal, the Roman Christians as a whole proved disloyal to him "no one took my part, but all forsook me" (2 Timothy 4:16). In these circumstances when the desertion of Paul by the Christians in Rome was so disheartening, it is pleasing to find that there were some among them who were true, and Eubulus was one of these. Paul therefore in writing the last of all his epistles sends to Timothy a greeting from Eubulus. Nothing more is known in regard to Eubulus. As his name is Greek, which means "prudent" or "good counselor", he was probably a Gentile by birth.

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