Thoughtful writing on faith, constitutional principles, military service, and community from Garrett Ham.https://garrettham.com/en-ushttps://garrettham.com/justin-martyr-first-apology-conversion/https://garrettham.com/justin-martyr-first-apology-conversion/A sophomore apologetics assignment on Justin Martyr's First Apology cost me the church I was raised in. What chapter 66 says about the Eucharist.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/matthew-13-44-52-hidden-treasure-pearl/https://garrettham.com/matthew-13-44-52-hidden-treasure-pearl/A Catholic exegesis of Matthew 13:44–52: the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, the dragnet, and the scribe who brings out the new and the old.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/didache/https://garrettham.com/didache/The Didache may be older than the last books of the New Testament, yet no Bible ever carried it. What the earliest church order says, and why it was left out.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/john-macarthur-critical-assessment/https://garrettham.com/john-macarthur-critical-assessment/A former evangelical's comprehensive assessment of John MacArthur: the scholarship claimed for him, his documented exegetical errors, and his record.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/epistle-of-barnabas/https://garrettham.com/epistle-of-barnabas/Quoted as Scripture in Alexandria and bound into Codex Sinaiticus, the Epistle of Barnabas bore an apostle's name—yet the New Testament closed without it. Why.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/1-clement/https://garrettham.com/1-clement/1 Clement was read as Scripture at Corinth and bound into Codex Alexandrinus. How the letter came so close to the New Testament, and why the Church left it out.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/matthew-13-24-43-parable-of-the-weeds/https://garrettham.com/matthew-13-24-43-parable-of-the-weeds/A Catholic exegesis of Matthew 13:24–43: the parables of the weeds, mustard seed, and leaven, the Psalm 78 citation, and Augustine’s corpus permixtum.Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-marcellinus-twenty-ninth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-marcellinus-twenty-ninth-pope/Marcellinus, the twenty-ninth pope (296–304), was accused of sacrificing to idols, erased from Rome's oldest calendars, and defended by a council that never met.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-marcellus-i-thirtieth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-marcellus-i-thirtieth-pope/Marcellus I, the thirtieth pope (308–309), rebuilt Rome's Church after the Great Persecution and was exiled by Maxentius for making the lapsed do penance.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-miltiades-thirty-second-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-miltiades-thirty-second-pope/Miltiades, the thirty-second pope (311–314), lived from the last persecution into Constantine's peace, received the Lateran, and judged the first Donatist trial.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-caius-twenty-eighth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-caius-twenty-eighth-pope/Caius, or Gaius, the twenty-eighth pope (283–296), governed in the long peace before Diocletian's storm—a confessor, not a martyr, whose gravestone survives.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-eusebius-thirty-first-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-eusebius-thirty-first-pope/Eusebius, the thirty-first pope (309 or 310), reigned four months before the emperor Maxentius exiled him—and his rival Heraclius—over the fate of the lapsed.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-eutychian-twenty-seventh-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-eutychian-twenty-seventh-pope/Eutychian, the twenty-seventh pope (275–283): a reign Eusebius counts in months and Rome in years, legends of beans and buried martyrs, and one true stone.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/1-john/https://garrettham.com/1-john/The First Letter of John gives us “God is love,” the antichrists, and the Bible’s most famous fake verse. A Catholic reads 1 John and its road into the canon.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/philemon/https://garrettham.com/philemon/The Letter to Philemon: Paul, the runaway slave Onesimus, and 'no longer a slave but a brother.' A Catholic look at slavery, Paul's shortest letter, and canon.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-anterus-nineteenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-anterus-nineteenth-pope/Anterus is the nineteenth pope (235–236): a forty-day reign, probably the first pope laid in the Crypt of the Popes, and a broken Greek epitaph that calls him bishop, not martyr.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-callixtus-i-sixteenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-callixtus-i-sixteenth-pope/Callixtus I is the sixteenth pope (c. 217–222): a former slave, convict, and cemetery administrator whose policy of readmitting grave sinners after penance scandalized the rigorists—and won.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-cornelius-twenty-first-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-cornelius-twenty-first-pope/Cornelius, the twenty-first pope (251–253), faced the rigorist antipope Novatian—and staked the Church's authority on its power to forgive the lapsed after penance.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-dionysius-twenty-fifth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-dionysius-twenty-fifth-pope/Dionysius, the twenty-fifth pope (259–268): the first pope not venerated as a martyr, who rebuilt Rome after persecution and defined the Trinity before Nicaea.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-eleutherius-thirteenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-eleutherius-thirteenth-pope/Eleutherius is the thirteenth pope (c. 175–189)—the deacon who became pope, correspondent of the martyrs of Lyons, and the pope a medieval legend made converter of Britain.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-fabian-twentieth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-fabian-twentieth-pope/Fabian is the twentieth pope (236–250): a layman chosen when a dove settled on his head, the organizer of Christian Rome, and the first pope whose martyrdom is documented history.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-felix-i-twenty-sixth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-felix-i-twenty-sixth-pope/Felix I is the twenty-sixth pope (269–274): a martyr's crown he never earned and a famous letter on Christ he never wrote—both forgeries over one solid fact.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-lucius-i-twenty-second-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-lucius-i-twenty-second-pope/Lucius I is the twenty-second pope (253–254): an eight-month reign spent partly in exile, and a confessor the oldest Roman calendar declines to call a martyr.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-pontian-eighteenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-pontian-eighteenth-pope/Pontian is the eighteenth pope (230–235): the first pope to abdicate, exiled with Hippolytus to the mines of Sardinia—where pope and antipope were reconciled.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-sixtus-ii-twenty-fourth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-sixtus-ii-twenty-fourth-pope/Sixtus II, the twenty-fourth pope (257–258): the peacemaker who healed the rebaptism schism, then died under Valerian's sword—a martyrdom Rome wrote down.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-soter-twelfth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-soter-twelfth-pope/Soter is the twelfth pope (c. 166–175), known almost entirely through a letter from Corinth praising Roman charity. His own letter was read at Sunday worship—then lost.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-stephen-i-twenty-third-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-stephen-i-twenty-third-pope/Stephen I is the twenty-third pope (254–257): the rebaptism war with Cyprian, the first surviving papal appeal to the succession of Peter, and a martyrdom the earliest records do not support.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-urban-i-seventeenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-urban-i-seventeenth-pope/Urban I is the seventeenth pope (c. 222–230). Almost nothing certain is known of his reign—the vivid life is legend—and even his grave is disputed between two catacombs.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-victor-i-fourteenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-victor-i-fourteenth-pope/Victor I is the fourteenth pope (c. 189–199)—the African who threatened to cut off the churches of Asia over Easter, cut off Theodotus the cobbler for heresy, and marks the papacy's turn to command.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/saint-zephyrinus-fifteenth-pope/https://garrettham.com/saint-zephyrinus-fifteenth-pope/Zephyrinus is the fifteenth pope (c. 199–217), known chiefly through the hostile pen of Hippolytus. His clumsy formulas on the Trinity ended up in Denzinger's collection of the Church's dogmatic declarations.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/1-timothy/https://garrettham.com/1-timothy/1 Timothy built the Church's offices — bishops, deacons, the pillar of truth. A Catholic look at church order, the authorship debate, and its road to canon.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/2-timothy/https://garrettham.com/2-timothy/2 Timothy is Paul's farewell: 'all Scripture is inspired,' guard the deposit, the good fight. A Catholic look at inspiration, authorship, and the road to canon.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/titus/https://garrettham.com/titus/The Letter to Titus: church order on Crete, 'our great God and savior,' the bath of rebirth. A Catholic look at grace, authorship, and its road to canon.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/2-thessalonians/https://garrettham.com/2-thessalonians/2 Thessalonians warns against a forged letter — and is itself one of Paul's disputed letters. A Catholic look at the man of lawlessness and the restrainer.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-colossians/https://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-colossians/Paul never saw Colossae and an earthquake soon wrecked it—yet its letter was never doubted, and it spawned a forged 'Laodiceans' that haunted the Bible for centuries.Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-ephesians/https://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-ephesians/Ephesians was never doubted—yet its address may be a blank, Marcion called it 'Laodiceans,' and modern critics doubt Paul. A Catholic reads its road through the canon.Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-philippians/https://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-philippians/Philippians was never doubted—yet Polycarp spoke of 'letters,' critics cut it in three, and its hymn built Christology. A Catholic reads its road through the canon.Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/1-corinthians/https://garrettham.com/1-corinthians/A Catholic on 1 Corinthians — the quarrelsome church whose letter preserves the oldest creed and the earliest Eucharist in the New Testament, and its road into the canon.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/2-corinthians/https://garrettham.com/2-corinthians/A Catholic on 2 Corinthians — Paul's most personal letter, its power-in-weakness gospel, and the integrity debate behind a book the Church never doubted.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-galatians/https://garrettham.com/epistle-to-the-galatians/Galatians was never doubted—yet Marcion put it first, the church fought over it, and Luther called it his own. A Catholic reads its road through the canon.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/3-john/https://garrettham.com/3-john/The Third Letter of John is the shortest book in the Bible, never names Jesus, and records a real first-century church quarrel over hospitality. A Catholic reads Gaius, Diotrephes, and its long road into the canon.Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/acts-of-paul/https://garrettham.com/acts-of-paul/A presbyter in Asia forged the Acts of Paul 'out of love for Paul'—and was deposed for it. How the book gave the Church Thecla, the baptized lion, and 3 Corinthians, and why it was still left out of the canon.Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/gospel-of-john/https://garrettham.com/gospel-of-john/John's is the highest Christology in the New Testament — the Gospel the Gnostics loved and a few of the orthodox feared. A Catholic examines its authorship, the Alogi, and its path to the canon.Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/1-thessalonians/https://garrettham.com/1-thessalonians/1 Thessalonians is most likely the oldest surviving Christian writing. A Catholic examines its date, the parousia, the misread “rapture,” and its path into the New Testament canon.Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/book-of-acts/https://garrettham.com/book-of-acts/Luke's second volume tells how the Church went from an upper room in Jerusalem to the heart of Rome. A Catholic examines the authorship, the 'we' passages, the historicity debates, and the path of Acts to the canon.Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/book-of-revelation/https://garrettham.com/book-of-revelation/A Catholic reading of Revelation: who wrote it and when, why the Christian East nearly rejected it, and the four ways Christians have read its visions.Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/gospel-of-luke/https://garrettham.com/gospel-of-luke/Luke, the Gentile physician and companion of Paul, wrote the longest Gospel — and the one Marcion tried to hijack. A Catholic examines its authorship, sources, theology, and path to the canon.Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/book-of-romans/https://garrettham.com/book-of-romans/A Catholic on the Book of Romans — the one letter no critic could deny, the most tangled text in the New Testament, and why it stands first among Paul's letters.Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/gospel-of-the-hebrews/https://garrettham.com/gospel-of-the-hebrews/The Gospel of the Hebrews survives only in scraps quoted by the Fathers — the risen Christ appearing to James, the Holy Spirit called his mother. A Catholic reads the fragments and asks why it never entered the New Testament.Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://garrettham.com/1-peter/https://garrettham.com/1-peter/The First Letter of Peter is the one catholic epistle the early Church never doubted. A Catholic reads its author, its ‘Babylon,’ its theology of suffering, and the riddle of the spirits in prison.Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT