One of the key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism is the practice of prayer to saints in heaven, which encouraged in Catholicism but absent in Protestantism. My question is, **according to Catholic teaching, when did this practice begin?** I can find many resources from Catholic sources arguing that it ancient Christians prayed to the saints, pushing the beginning back at least to the late 1st or early 2nd century. How much older they believe "at least" means is not clear. For instance, this article at Catholic Answers has a lengthy collection of quotes from the Fathers, the earliest of which cited is Shephard of Hermas. However, it doesn't say when this practice actually began. They give a Biblical argument for its legitimacy, but nowhere claim that any of the Biblical figures *actually did* pray to deceased saints in heaven. So, I can think of several possibilities for the origin that are consistent with that: * It was first practiced by the early church shortly after the Apostles. * It was first practiced by the Apostles after the ascension of Christ, as an inference from his teachings and revelation from the Holy Spirit. * It was explicitly affirmed by Jesus to the Apostles while he was on the earth. * It was already practiced prior to the Incarnation. The last of these is the most interesting. If it's a pre-Incarnation practice, how far back does it go? Might Noah have prayed to Seth, for instance? Or is it an intertestamental development? Or somewhere in between? *Please note I am **not** asking about any of the following:* 1. Critical perspectives on the origin of prayers to saints. (I want a Catholic perspective.) 2. The idea that the saints in heaven pray for people still on Earth. (That's something Protestants generally accept; the point of difference is whether *we* should invoke *them*, not whether they're praying for us.) 3. The theological foundations of the intercession of the saints. (I want to know when it began to *actually be practiced by the Church,* not when it could have been theoretically valid.) 4. Anything related to prayers to angels. (I'm specifically asking about prayer to human beings in heaven.) 5. Prayers on behalf of the deceased, such as 2nd Maccabees 12:42-46. (There's a significant difference between praying *to* and praying *for* the deceased—in the former case the living are communicating directly with the dead while in the latter they are not.)

I understand that most scholars think that book of Daniel is a forgery and definitely not written in the 6th century BC and not written by Daniel. What strikes me is why Christians traditionally think that the book was written by Daniel ? In the book itself, first 1-6 chapters, it's written in 3rd person and not 1st which definitely don't mean at all that book was written by Daniel. For sure, 7-12 sometimes talk about in 1st person but what solid argument does this give that book was written by Daniel ? Would you be able to shed lights about why Christians think that it was written by Daniel ? what's their reasoning ?

## Background The character of Satan appears very different in the New Testament as compared to the Hebrew Bible. Some of the apparent stark differences appear below: --- - **The idea that the snake in the garden was Satan** Revelation 12:9; 20:2 identify Satan as an "ancient serpent". Later Christians linked this allusion with the snake from Genesis. On the other hand, the Hebrew bible **never** identifies the snake as anything more than an animal, and certainly never teaches that Satan was disguised as or possessing a snake. --- - **The idea that Satan rules the world as god** Satan is called “the god of this age” in 2 Corinthians 4:4: > In their case **the god of this world** has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing clearly the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. and “the prince of this world” in John 12:31: > Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out The Hebrew Bible no where supports the idea of a supernatural being besides YHVH ruling the world. It repeatedly says that YHVH will not share His power and dominion of the world with another: > I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols - Isaiah 42:8 --- - **The idea that Satan is a fallen angel working against God** The NT portrays Satan as a fallen angel in Luke 10:18, and portrays him as working at odds against God's plans of spreading the gospel in 1 Thessalonians 2:18. The Hebrew bible contains no references to 'Satan' falling from heaven or working against God's plans and it portrays Satan as one of many 'sons of God' who remains in God's presence in heaven and in fact does God's commands in Job 1:6-22. ## Question How do Protestants explain these differences? Why is Satan taught to be the "god of this world/age" in the New Testament while this theology is absent in the Hebrew Bible?

At John 2:14-16 (NRSVCE) we read: > In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” We see Jesus adopting a lenient approach towards sellers of doves *vis-a-vis* those selling sheep and cattle. Is it because His parents had offered doves at the time of His own presentation to the Temple (Luke 2:24)? What do the teachings of Catholic Church reveal on the said 'differential treatment' of Jesus towards various merchants ?

I understand that Sadducees were upper-class wealthy men who made up the Jewish aristocracy. Pharisees came from all economic classes but were distinguished by their rigid adherence to behaviour as interpreted from the Torah. They were prominent during the time of Jesus, but when did these two groups first arise, and which came first? Perhaps the Old Testament can shed light on this; for example do they go back to the time of Moses, or perhaps to the time of Zadok the priest? What is the origin of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

In War 1.650ff, Josephus describes a confrontation between the Herod and the people over a statue of an eagle that he had put up over the entrance to the temple. What was the significance of this eagle? The eagle was a complex symbol in the ancient world. It was a Greek symbol of Zeus (an Egyptian religious symbol before that), appeared on lots of Ptolemaic coins and might have been a sort of dynastic symbol, but also a symbol of the Roman Empire. The eagle appears in relief on lots of temples of the time, but Josephus' description makes it sound like the eagle is fully 3D (rather than a relief), like those on the treasury at Petra. Why did Herod put up the eagle? It is the only animal representation we have evidence of in Herod's temple (or at any time in the Second Temple). He knew it would make the people mad, so what was he after? I'm interested in historical arguments based in academically credible source material.

Do we possess any evidence that Jews sometimes worshipped other gods (like they had often done before being taken away into captivity) after the second temple was rebuilt and before it was destroyed?