02/27/2025 ***************************************************** The Missing 3rd Volume. I don't just like old records, I like history in general. Especially Biblical history. In fact when I was in High School I seriously thought about becoming a Biblical scholar as a career. But life never goes as expected and that never happened. I want to be clear, I'm just an amateur and have never had any formal education in this area, just what I've read on my own :-) ***************************************************** So anyway, I've always thought there could have been what I call the "Missing 3rd Volume". (This is just my idea, nobody else thinks this :-) So what do I mean? We have the Gospel of Luke (i.e. "Volume 1"), which is a biography of Jesus Christ, like the other Gospels. It chronicles Jesus' life especially his preaching career which is thought to be somewhere around 27-36 AD (ancient dates are frequently only approximate). The author went on to write the "Acts of the Apostles" (i.e. "Volume 2"), chronicling the history of earliest church, from the resurrection of Jesus to about 62 AD. It seems to me there should have been a "3rd Volume", chronicling the next period of time, about 64-75 AD. Why? Well, a lot of interesting things happened during that time :-) ***************************************************** Here's my summary of my imaginary "3rd Volume". First, in 64 AD, during the reign of Nero, there was the disastrous, great fire in the city of Rome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Rome Even ancient sources had a poor opinion of Nero and some say he had the fire started intentionally to clear a large area for a new palace he wanted to build. In any event it's the origin for the famous slam, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned", which is applied to people who do nothing during a crisis. Some said he played on his lyre/harp and sang songs and did nothing while the fire burned. Anyway, he claimed that Christians had started the fire and began the first official Roman persecution of the Christian church. “[Nero] often lit his garden parties with the burning carcasses of Christian human torches”. Nero's Torches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero%27s_Torches ***************************************************** "Quo vadis?" ("Where are you going?") Peter was in Rome at this time and decided to get out while the getting was good. According to legend, Jesus appeared to Peter who asked him "Quo vadis?" To which Jesus answered, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quo_vadis%3F Peter returned to Rome and is martyred - he asked to be crucified upside down as he felt he wasn't worthy to be crucified the way Jesus was. ***************************************************** Paul is also in Rome at this time and is also martyred. Paul holds the legal status of being a Roman citizen and so is exempt from crucifixion - legend says he was beheaded instead. ***************************************************** Let's zip over to Jerusalem. James "the brother of the Lord" is the head of the Christian church in Jerusalem and is referred to as an important leader in "Acts" and in Galatians 1:19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_brother_of_Jesus In 62 AD, he gets in a tiff with the Jewish Temple High Priest, who orders him to be stoned to death - which he is. (An alternate account says it was in 69 AD and the Priest had thugs throw him off the pinnacle of the Temple and then club him to death.) ***************************************************** First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War The Jews basically never liked being part of the Roman Empire and revolted in 66 AD. They have some success but in 70 AD the Romans sent a Legion under the future emperor Titus to crush them. I'm brushing over a lot of history here, but basically the Romans retake Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. Jerusalem's Christians fled to Pella before the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_to_Pella It seems to me, the New Testament is a little vague on whether Christianity is just a new and improved form Judaism or a completely new religion. But after the flight to Pella, the Jews were not happy that the Christians bailed out on them and this seems to have been the final, definitive split between the two religions. ***************************************************** Qumran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran On the northwest corner of the Dead Sea was what I would describe as a sort of Jewish monastery/religious community. With the Romans bearing down, they hid their Biblical and other religious scrolls in caves in the surrounding hills. They planned to return and get them later, after the Romans left. That never happened and these scrolls were later discovered in 1947-1956 and constitute the famous "Dead Sea Scrolls" you've probably heard of. Of course an ancient author of my 3rd Volume wouldn't have known that last part - just that the Romans destroyed Qumran. ***************************************************** Masada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Masada King Herod the Great built a palace on a mountain/hill top at a place called Masada, also on the Dead Sea. About 1,000 Jewish rebels took it over as a last resort to hold off the Romans 72-73 AD. The Romans spent months in the hot desert sun building an earthen ramp so they could move a siege engine up to it's walls to attack it. When the Jews realized the end was near, they committed mass suicide to deny the Romans from taking them prisoner. ***************************************************** So in summary, my imaginary "3rd Volume" would have chronicled: The first major persecution of Christianity, the martyrdom of the three top Christian leaders of their time (or of all time), the definitive split between Christianity and Judaism and the failed Jewish rebellion. But alas - no such 3rd volume has ever been found :-) ***************************************************** Stay Jazzed! --Tom Swezey --