Disclaimer: Some links jump to outside sites for further information on the Bible, interpretations, the canon, translations, manuscripts, resources, and other perspectives. Links do not constitute an endorsement by the Women's Division of the information on other web sites. External web sites offer us diverse perspectives; afford us an opportunity to compare them to United Methodist positions; and, encourage us to critically analyze the issues raised by The Bible: the Book that Bridges the Millennia web pages.
Arch of Constantine (Rome, 315).
Basilica of Constantine. The Roman barrel vault reaches its highest expression in the Basilica of Constantine. Begun by Maxentius in 306-310, the building was completed by Constantine in 312-337.
Ephraim Icon Gallery. Five icons of Ephraim.
Ecclesiastical Architecture from the Catholic Encyclopia. A long article of the history of church architecture. Includes information about the basilica in the time of Constantine.
Hagia Sophia was an early basilica erected by Constantine at 325 and restored many times since then. The name of the church symbolized the second divine attribute of the Holy Trinity. Sophia, which means "Holy Wisdom", was a name given to Christ by 4th century theologians. The original church was destroyed in 404 AD. Emperor Theodosius II built a new church in 415 AD. During the rebellion of Monophysites in 532, Hagia Sophia was destroyed. Emperor Justinian built a third church, finished in 537. When the Islamic Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, the church was converted into a mosque. Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum in 1935.
Hagia Sophia, 537 by Procopius (c.490/507-c.560s): An account of the rebuilding of the Church of Holy Wisdom by Emperor Justinian (with graphics of Justinian and Hagia Sophia).
Fourth Century Architecture After Constantine I (337-400). Architectural drawings of what the original Hagia Sophia probably looked like. Scroll down to the middle of the page.
Hagia Sophia. Though a travel promotional site, lots historical background and photos of the contemporary Hagia Sophia are here. Detailed explanations of art are included too.
Istanbul. An article and photographs about Istanbul (formerly Constantinople and Byzantium). Hagia Sophia is included.
Milvian (Mulvian) Bridge. Constantine won the Battle of Milvian (Mulvian) Bridge in 313.
Christian Catacombs: History. With the Edict of Milan, Christians were no longer persecuted. Nevertheless, the catacombs continued to function as regular cemeteries until the beginning of the fifth century. "The Christian Catacombs in Rome" is a multilingual site, offered in ten different languages, including Spanish and Korean.
Coptic Art. An introduction to the Coptic art of Egypt.
The Early Byzantine Period: The 'First Golden Age' of Byzantium, 324730 (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Historical resources, art, teacher resources, timeline. An excellent site.
Early Christian Art. Photos of Early Christian art and architecture produced between the 3rd and 7th centuries for the Christian church. Until the Edict of Milan (313), by which Emperor Constantine the Great made Christianity one of the Roman Empire's state religions, Christian art was restricted to the decoration of the hidden places of worship, such as catacombs and meeting houses called titulae.
Early Christian Art. Photos and information about Christian art in the 4th and 5th centuries.
Gozzoli's Augustine. In 1465, Benozzo Gozzoli completed a cycle of 17 scenes from the life of Augustine which surround the choir of the Church of Saint Augustine in San Gimignano, Italy. Ten of the frescoes are reproduced on this web site.
Roman Emperors (117 - 476) A visual compendium of sculptures of almost all of the Roman emperors with pictures of other related art, a timeline, links to background information and books about the emperors.
Augustine is best known today as author of Confessions. Lots of information and resources about this famous African scholar who had tremendous impact on Medieval thought.
Augustine the African by James J. O'Donnell.
The Nicene Creed, adopted in 325 by the Council of Nicea (UMW Resource).
Creeds and Confessions. Links to lots of them, from ancient to modern ones.
Alexandria during the Roman Empire. A short history of this city.
The School of Alexandria by Maxine Clarke Beach (UMW Resource). Until the time of Constantine, Alexandria blossomed as the second city of the Roman Empire, after Rome itself. Its interpretive approach to the Bible was allegorical.
The School of Alexandria. The school of Alexandria was undoubtedly the earliest important institution of theological learning in Christian antiquity. It was a college in which many other disciplines were studied from the humanities, science and mathematics; but its main discipline was religion.
St. Athanasius (Catholic Encyclopedia). Bishop of Alexandria; Confessor and Doctor of the Church. In his lifetime, he earned the characteristic title of "Father of Orthodoxy."
Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of St. Antony (Vita S. Antoni, written between 356 and 362). The complete text (180K).
Origen of Alexandria by Maxine Clarke Beach (UMW Resource).
Origen’s writings were some of the most influential in the early church. He developed more fully Philo’s and Clement’s ideas of allegorical interpretation, understanding three levels of interpretation within a text that corresponded to three aspects of the human being.
Mesopotamian Scholasticism: A History of the Christian Theological School in the Syrian Orient. Historical background about the Schools of Antioch, Edessa, and Nisibis.
The School of Antioch by Maxine Clarke Beach (UMW Resource). In the fourth and fifth centuries a rival school arose in Antioch to challenge the Alexandrian insistence on allegorical interpretation. The most famous representative of the School of Antioch was John Chrysostom.
John Chrysostom. English translations of his Homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul, Matthew. See also Letter to a Young Widow, Against Marcionites and Manicheans, and even more volumes of material by him on the Ante-Nicene Fathers web site.
A Bird's Eye View of the Syriac Language and Literature by Edip Aydin. Poetry has always been very prominent within Syriac literature. Notable poets of the School of Edessa are Jacob of Serugh and Narsai. In 489, the emperor Zeno had closed the school, which was forced to move to safety within the Persian Empire to the town of Nisibis. Jacob and Narsai produced fine verse homilies mainly on biblical themes.
Mesopotamian Scholasticism: A History of the Christian Theological School in the Syrian Orient. Historical background about the Schools of Antioch, Edessa, and Nisibis.
The Syrian Orthodox Church: A Brief Overview. A few Christian denominations can claim the antiquity of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, whose foundation can be traced back to the very dawn of Christianity. It justifiably prides itself as being one of the earliest established apostolic churches, if not the oldest.
Biography of Ephraim (Mor Ephrem) from the Syrian Orthodox Church with icons of him.
The Influence of Saint Ephraim of Syria special issue of Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. The journal contains the following papers: Andrew Palmer, "A Single Human Being Divided in Himself: Ephraim the Syrian, the Man in the Middle"; Hannah Hunt, "The tears of the sinful woman: A theology of redemption in Saint Ephraim and his Followers"; David Taylor, "St. Ephraim's Influence On The Greeks"; Sidney Griffith, "A Spiritual Father for the Whole Church"; Alain Desreumaux, "Saint Ephraim in Christian Palestinian Aramaic"; Zaga Gavrilovic, "Saint Ephraim's Thought and Imagery as an Inspiration to Byzantine Artists"; Jane Stevenson, "Saint Ephraim in Seventh-Century Canterbury"; Gordon Wakefield, "John Wesley and Saint Ephraim."
Ephrem (Ecole Glossary). Ephrem (Ephraim) of Edessa wrote prose commentaries on the Old Testament and on the Epistles of St. Paul. He annotated the Greek-Syriac Diatessaron..
John Wesley and Ephraim Syrus by Gordon Wakefield. John Wesley called Ephraim "the man of a broken heart." Wesley's devotion to Ephraim was one of his links with the Cappadocian Fathers, which influenced his idea of perfection.
St. Ephraem (Catholic Encyclopedia). Born at Nisibis, then under Roman rule, early in the fourth century. in 363, he and most Christians left Nisibis to escape the persecution under Persian rule. Ephraem went with his people first to Beit-Garbaya and finally to Edessa.
St. Ephrem the Syrian Library, includes an icon of Ephraim and links to lots of resources.
Three homilies and the Nisibene Hymns by Ephraim the Syrian. See also Orations
An Epiphany of Mystical Symbols: Jacob of Sarug's Mêmrâ 109 on Abraham and His Types by Richard E. McCarron. Jacob of Sarug (Serugh) is a central figure of Syriac literature who is remembered as a master commentator on scripture. Jacob united the Ephraemian tradition with the Alexandrian tradition in the exegetical domain: finding Christ throughout the Bible.
Narsai the Great was became the rector of the Edessan school (437-459). In the controversy between the Nestorians and the Monophysites, he sided with the Nestorians. After Narsai and his Nestorians colleagues were expelled from Edessa, they founded the Nestorian school of Nisibis. An English translation of Narsai's short poem An "Exposition of The Mysteries" is included. It emphasizes that Jesus Christ did some things as man, others as God (Nestorian heresy).
Early Christian Authorities. Early Christians, both orthodox and heretic, are included if he or it gives important evidence on the development of the canon of the New Testament before 400 CE, when the first complete manuscripts of the Vulgate were issued.
Encyclopedia of Early Church Leaders. Produced by the University of Evansville, this site lists resources and articles on early church leaders.
Fathers of the Church. Writings of the early church fathers from the Wesley Center, Northwest Nazarene College.
Guide to Early Church Documents. This index created by the Institute for Christian Leadership gives a lot of information on the New Testament Canon; writings of the Apostolic Fathers; Patristic Texts; Creeds; and many other documents.
St. Pachomius Library. Orthodox patristic texts, liturgical documents, and saints' lives of all eras available without charge on the Net. Some of these are part of the St. Pachomius Library; the rest are at other sites.
Writings of the Early Church Fathers. The Early Church Fathers is a 38-volume collection of writings on the web from the first 800 years of the Church. This collection is divided into three series, Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Series I, and Nicene and Post-Nicene Series II.
Constantine I (The Great). Constantine is one of the best known of the Roman Emperors (A. D. 306-337). Some important events of his reign included the the Edict of Milan, which ended the persecution of Christians and made their worship legal, the battle of the Milvian Bridge, and the completion of the political and economic reforms begun under Diocletian. Constantine was also important for his role at the Council of Nicaea.
The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine by Eusebius of Caesarea. From Volume I, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, ed. P. Schaff and H. Wace, (Edinburgh: repr. Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1955)
Writing in Egypt under Greek and Roman Rule by Peter van Minnen. A history of writings and information about manuscripts (papyrus) that are available. Photos of manuscripts are included too from the Papyrus home page, Duke University.
Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370-415). Hypatia of Alexandria was the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics. According to one report, Hypatia was brutally murdered by the Nitrian monks who were a fanatical sect of Christians who were supporters of Cyril of Alexandria. See also Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician, Astronomer, and Philosopher
Augustine and Some Principal Heresies by Maxine Clarke Beach (UMW Resource)
The Gnostic Society Library. This site explores Jewish and Christian Apocryphal material, the Peudepigrapha, Gnostic writings, writings against the Gnostics by the Church Fathers, and much more.
Interactive Ancient Mediterranean IAM is an on-line atlas of the ancient Mediterranean world designed to serve the needs and interests of students and teachers in high school, community college and university courses in classics, ancient history, geography, archaeology and related fields.
Map of the Kingdom of Osroene (Beth-Esro), 132 B.C. - 244 A.D. Osrhoëne was a buffer state between the Roman and Parthian Empires. Its capital was Edessa (Urfa, Urhoy).
The Roman Empire. This map shows the extent of the Roman Empire at three times in history: at the death of Caesar (44 B.C.E.), at the death of Augustus (14 C.E.), and at the death of Marcus Aurelius (180 C.E.). The gains are cumulative: this means that Aurelius' empire included the areas that were in Caesar's and Augustus' realm, not just the areas colored red.
Byzantium Through The Ages (Metropolitan Museum of Art). A Timeline with examples of art.
Church History Timeline (Eastern Orthodox perspective)
Church History Timeline: First Century through Fifteenth Century (Roman Catholic perspective)
Ecole Chronology Initiative (Early Church History Database)
The Russian Orthodox Church to 1450
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"Lots of Links to Biblical Resources" has been compiled by the Rev. Nancy A. Carter, Ph.D. Please send suggestions and corrections to her at ncarter@gbgm-umc.org. Dr. Carter has an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she won the Hitchcock Award in Church History. Her Ph.D. is in literary studies (literature and theology) from American University in Washington, D.C. She has authored books for church laity including Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: Who Do You Say That I Am?, a spiritual growth study for United Methodist Women written with Bishop Leontine T. C. Kelly.
