Curated playlist
People in the Gospel of Matthew
- JesusJesus left no writings of his own. Almost everything known about him comes from accounts by others.
- MosesMichelangelo's statue of Moses has horns because of a mistranslation. A Latin Bible turned ray of light into horned.
- John the ApostleJohn the Apostle, tradition says, was the only one of the Twelve who died peacefully.
- Mary, mother of JesusMary, mother of Jesus, is named more often in the Quran than any other woman. The Quran mentions her 50 times.
- Saint PeterSaint Peter denied knowing Jesus three times on the night Jesus was arrested. Later, he three times said he loved him.
- SatanIn the Hebrew Bible, Satan began as a heavenly prosecutor working for God. He later became the Western symbol of evil.
- Judas IscariotIn the Gospel of Nicodemus, a roasting chicken crowed and Judas ran to hang himself.
- Biblical MagiThe Biblical Magi are the foreign visitors who, in Christian tradition, bring gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus. They are also called the Three Wise Men, the Three Kings and the Three Magi. Their whole story rests on a…
- Mary MagdaleneThe English word maudlin, meaning sickeningly sentimental, comes from the way painters showed Mary Magdalene weeping. The woman behind that word left no writings of her own. She is never mentioned in any of the letters of Paul or in the…
- Pontius PilatePontius Pilate is the only person, apart from Jesus and Mary, whose name is spoken aloud in the Christian creeds. The Nicene Creed says that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered death and was buried. The Apostles Creed uses…
- Saint JosephSaint Joseph, the husband of Mary and the legal father of Jesus, shares his name with the most common place name in the world. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency identifies that name as the Spanish form, San Jose. Yet the man…
- Andrew the ApostleAndrew the Apostle was one of the Twelve chosen by Jesus, yet his most visible legacy is a pattern of color. The white diagonal cross on a blue field that flies over Scotland carries his name. The same cross sits inside the Union Flag, on…
- John the BaptistJohn the Baptist is the only saint whose birth and death are both commemorated in the Roman martyrology. He was a Jewish preacher who worked along the Jordan River in the early first century AD, and he is thought to have been born around 6…
- ElijahEvery Saturday evening, as the Sabbath ends, Jewish families perform the Havdalah ceremony and sing a plea for Elijah to arrive. The hymn goes: "Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah from Gilead. Let him come quickly, in our day…
- Herod the GreatHerod the Great, king of Judea, inspired a joke from the Roman emperor Augustus that was still being retold around 400 CE. The writer Macrobius recorded it. Augustus heard that Herod had ordered his own son killed, and he remarked, "It is…