Monday, April 20, 2026

It is the 20th of April 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A very happy Monday to you- I had a few mental drafts of where this show was going to go before I received an email in regards to this past weekend’s show that seemed ripe for a quick jumping of the queue- it’s relevant- and it’s a question (or series of questions) from Toby, currently at Marquette- the Jesuit college in Milwaukee. In Milwaukee, they have a statue of Fonzie right there on the lake. Many, many years ago, I took a picture with it and tweeted it to have the real Fonzie reply…

 

Toby, who is like Fonzie, very cool, wrote to me to suggest that my weekend show on early Christian singing could have benefited from a little of the Syriac tradition- yes, yes, yes! I read somewhere recently that Syriac Christianity was the “third lung” of the early church. That’s weird- you have 1 or 2 or 4- but the point being that traditionally folks have spoken of the “two lungs” of Christianity- Eastern and Western- but there is this third tradition- Aramaic speaking Christians out of Jerusalem make their way to Edessa and Mesopotamia- Syriac is the language that develops, very close to Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.

 

The school is in Edessa, which produces folks like Ephraim the Syrian- we’ve done a show on him before- he’s writing very early hymns and texts on spirituality that are going to have more of a Jewish-Christian feel, as opposed to the Greek-Christian synthesis which would come to occupy much of the attention of the church.

 

Toby’s email reminding me of the significance of the Syriac tradition was coupled with two, seemingly unrelated questions- but I think I see the through line. He asked about the “Odes of Solomon,” a text recently discovered with heavy Jewish influences- and while it was written for a distinctly Christian audience, Jesus isn’t mentioned, this was a text for Jewish Christians- remember that the distinction between congregations only happens later. Christians were a “sect” within Judaism- early Christian stuff- like the Odes should sound very Jewish.

 

And then Toby slides from the Odes to the question, asked in his church history class- about the use of Greek philosophy and whether or not Christianity “needs” it. Here’s the link- your faith could look very Greek or very Jewish- it would depend on your context. The Syriac tradition, with its Aramaic and tradition coming out of Jerusalem, is going to sound very Jewish (and this is significant for worship!) Whereas if your church is developing somewhere else in the Roman Empire, which is thoroughly “Hellenized” or “Greeked out,” your church leaders might have more conversations about the “persons” of the trinity, the “hypostasis,” and the like.

 

Throughout church history, we’ve had arguments about the church being too dependent on Jewish or Greek influence- well, that makes sense because these are the waters that much of the church is born into. Ours is an incarnational faith- it s comes into the neighborhood- it takes on local flesh and custom- and oftentimes this is in certain philosophical contexts and preconceived ideas. And in some places they map onto each other beautifully- like Jesus being the eternal logos- great with Greek thought! But other times, Christianity is more fleshly and focused on the stuff instead of the ideas- and it’s going to run into conflict. I think the main takeaway is to see any system, philosophy, etc., of the world as a possible handmaiden, or “aid,” to the faith that can be employed when it helps and discarded when it doesn’t.

 

Toby- thanks for highlighting the Syriac tradition- and for the email that got me thinking and back in the Odes of Solomon- check it out online- fascinating Christian lit with a second temple vibe.

 

You can send me your questions at danv@1517.org.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and 1 Peter 1:

23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All people are like grass,
 and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,

25  but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 20th of April 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows that “jumping the shark” was originally a Fonzie bit on Happy Days- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who is happy the American Nightmare took care of business and kicked that one guy out of the business… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.