Hello, it's Me!

A

Adrian Mole

Member
Messages
23
Reaction score
17
Points
3
Hello, good folks of this Interfaith forum!

My name is Adrian; I am a Christian (not attached to any particular denomination) but I have huge respect for those who follow other faiths - my wife is a Buddhist and I have no desire to make her a Christian. (If she has a 'spiritual' issue, I encourage her to seek advice from Buddhist monks.) To me, there is one 'mountain' that represents the ultimate Truth and Ideal Goal of our lives; there are many paths up this mountain but it's best to stick to one for the duration, even though we can (and should) help those who stumble or fall but who are following other paths.

Since I have (part) retired, much of much time is spent working on a collection of ancient Biblical and related texts - it's fascinating, for me, to study the various representations and to see how the texts and religious ideas have evolved over time. Many 'purists' dismiss versions of the Hebrew Bible written in other languages (the main one being the Old Greek translation, frequently referred to as the Septuagint), and others discount 'Deuterocanonical', 'Apocryphal', and 'Pseudepigraphal' books (such as Ben Sira, Jubilees and The Testament of Abraham) ... but these works, though not necessarily as 'sacred' as the core canon, provide fascinating insights into the thinking of the communities whence they came.

I hope that I can both contribute to this forum and gain valuable new perspectives from it.
 
Adrian Mole said:
Hello, good folks of this Interfaith forum!

My name is Adrian; I am a Christian (not attached to any particular denomination) but I have huge respect for those who follow other faiths - my wife is a Buddhist and I have no desire to make her a Christian. (If she has a 'spiritual' issue, I encourage her to seek advice from Buddhist monks.) To me, there is one 'mountain' that represents the ultimate Truth and Ideal Goal of our lives; there are many paths up this mountain but it's best to stick to one for the duration, even though we can (and should) help those who stumble or fall but who are following other paths.

Since I have (part) retired, much of much time is spent working on a collection of ancient Biblical and related texts - it's fascinating, for me, to study the various representations and to see how the texts and religious ideas have evolved over time. Many 'purists' dismiss versions of the Hebrew Bible written in other languages (the main one being the Old Greek translation, frequently referred to as the Septuagint), and others discount 'Deuterocanonical', 'Apocryphal', and 'Pseudepigraphal' books (such as Ben Sira, Jubilees and The Testament of Abraham) ... but these works, though not necessarily as 'sacred' as the core canon, provide fascinating insights into the thinking of the communities whence they came.

I hope that I can both contribute to this forum and gain valuable new perspectives from it.
Click to expand...
Hi. :)
 
Welcome to the forums, and good to see someone with an interest in the non-canonical writings. This website originally hosted the biggest collection of Christian apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's room to improve that now. :)
 
iBrian said:
Welcome to the forums, and good to see someone with an interest in the non-canonical writings. This website originally hosted the biggest collection of Christian apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's room to improve that now. :)
Click to expand...
Hi, and thanks for the welcome. It was your collection of Christian Apocrypha that hooked me into this forum! A nice collection but most certainly in need of an update. Give me a week or two to get the 'feel' of the site and its membership, and maybe I'll get back to you with some ideas about how we could collaborate to get your collection (and mine) improved.
 
Adrian Mole said:
Hi, and thanks for the welcome. It was your collection of Christian Apocrypha that hooked me into this forum! A nice collection but most certainly in need of an update. Give me a week or two to get the 'feel' of the site and its membership, and maybe I'll get back to you with some ideas about how we could collaborate to get your collection (and mine) improved.
Click to expand...
Rock on!
 
iBrian said:
Welcome to the forums, and good to see someone with an interest in the non-canonical writings. This website originally hosted the biggest collection of Christian apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's room to improve that now. :)
Click to expand...
Hi,

I just noticed that you have already given the home page for your Christian Apocrypha a very decent makeover - nice job! When I was browsing, I came across the "Secret Gospel of Mark" (I had heard about it, before, but have so far disregarded it in my collection). But your notes have made me think again.

I posted a reply to one of Thomas' posts about it, but maybe that wasn't the proper place. Remember, I'm new, here. I would appreciate your input on the discussion.
 
Adrian Mole said:
I just noticed that you have already given the home page for your Christian Apocrypha a very decent makeover - nice job! When I was browsing, I came across the "Secret Gospel of Mark" (I had heard about it, before, but have so far disregarded it in my collection). But your notes have made me think again.
Click to expand...
There's some webdev going on at the moment, so it keeps switching between an older developed theme - which isn't mobile friendly - and more recent one that is mobile-friendly but less developed!
 
Adrian Mole said:
Hi, and thanks for the welcome. It was your collection of Christian Apocrypha that hooked me into this forum! A nice collection but most certainly in need of an update. Give me a week or two to get the 'feel' of the site and its membership, and maybe I'll get back to you with some ideas about how we could collaborate to get your collection (and mine) improved.
Click to expand...
As a follow-up, I noticed that you have included the (Pseudo-) Sibylline Oracles among the Christian Apocrypha - your choice, of course, but this work is generally included among the 'OT' pseudepigrapha (a similar argument can be made for the "Odes of Solomon," which although are seemingly OT, are quite clearly of Christian Composition). Also, on the Syb. Or., the 'jump' from 8 to 11 is also present in the Greek text that I have used (from the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha - a reliable source) which jumps from Ηʹ to ΙΑʹ.
 
iBrian said:
There's some webdev going on at the moment, so it keeps switching between an older developed theme - which isn't mobile friendly - and more recent one that is mobile-friendly but less developed!
Click to expand...
But Brian (I hope it's OK to drop your 'prefix') - we really need to work on your collection. I'm not saying this in any judgemental way, or as a competitor, but as a (potential) friend. From what I have seen (and I haven't thoroughly read your entire content!), you have, essentially, copy/pasted content (warts and all) from other websites, without indicating the source ... that's plagiarism, plain and simple: you are claiming, with your added "Copyright interfaith.org 2025" footer, that it is your work (which it is not). Also, you have copied all the errors on the original source websites ... is this what this forum wants?

Let's get a new thread opened up (would be better coming from a veteran user than from a rookie like me) to discuss moving forward with the collection this site presents. I am (was?) planning a significant update around the middle of October, but I can post an intermediate update maybe even tomorrow (past beer o'clock, where I am, so not today). I don't just want to plug my site (it's always going to be a very low hit site); I'm looking for people/communities who can help me improve its content ... and the folks I've come across, here, seem ideal candidates. And (of course), you would be welcome to use any text you glean/extract from my site on yours, and I have already added a (provisional) acknowledgement of this community's help. But we can talk details in the new thread ...

Just for info, here's a link to my site (in its current format): The TheoDoor Project Website Make of it what you will, but I can change the layout/format/arrangement, if that's what this community desires.
 
It's OK, most of the works were copyright free - those that weren't I sought express permission for. It was all compiled more than 20 years ago and hasn't been touched since. It was always intended as a starter resource. :)
 
iBrian said:
It's OK, most of the works were copyright free - those that weren't I sought express permission for. It was all compiled more than 20 years ago and hasn't been touched since. It was always intended as a starter resource. :)
Click to expand...
Aaah! 20 years ago ... when I still had a future: 😄
 
Adrian Mole said:
Aaah! 20 years ago ... when I still had a future: 😄
Click to expand...
And when the Internet was a very different place! No Wikipedia, just the DMOZ directory for special interests. :)

So, yes, I had to scrounge around for what I could find then, but I'm sure hhe collection could easily be improved these days.
 
I had theveil.net running twenty years ago – and was hunting high and low for online resources.
 
I somehow missed the boat 20 years ago, despite being online a lot and researching religion - I was on Beliefnet a lot when it was diverse- but somehow I missed this site until about 10 years ago, but for some reason I either didn't know about the forum or couldn't access it until 3 or 4 years ago. Boy I would have liked to have been part of I/O discussions years ago!
 
TheLightWithin said:
What is theveil.net?
Click to expand...
A pet project. The veil, obvs, named for the rended veil in Scripture.

Screenshot 2025-09-23 at 12.43.06.png
 
On my hard-drive ... that's it.

We had a member here, @Cino, who very kindly made server space for me, but unfortunately I was very remiss in following it up, so nothing came of it. However, having said that, I'm not sure if there'a any value of posting it live today, as scholarship and my understanding has move on somewhat since those days ...
 
Thomas said:
On my hard-drive ... that's it.

We had a member here, @Cino, who very kindly made server space for me, but unfortunately I was very remiss in following it up, so nothing came of it. However, having said that, I'm not sure if there'a any value of posting it live today, as scholarship and my understanding has move on somewhat since those days ...
Click to expand...
So, is it time to open up a thread about updating the Interfaith collection of 'Christian' apocrypha? I'm loathe to start it myself (yet) because I'm still working to get many/most of the books listed in the existing collection somehow, somewhere, in my table. I've added a lot of 'placeholder' entries but they're all up for discussion. Remember, I'm a 'new boy in town', so I'll take guidance from the 'firm' about how to approach this.

But, generally, I'm not looking for any sort of 'full synchronization' - iBrian has his way of doing things, and his way of grouping the books, and I have mine. All I'm saying is that (as iBrian has admitted), the collection here needs an update and you all (he) are welcome to use any text(s) from my website. It may also be useful for folks here to add links to my 'parallel/annotated' versions, where such exist - they seem to go down well with those who come across them. (Here's an example - my 'version' of The Didache.)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top