SHEPHERD — Stephen Missick, a resident of Shepherd and pastor of King of Saints in Cleveland, has recently published his new book entitled “The Further Acts of the Apostles according to Abdias of Babylon, Disciple of Jesus Christ.”
The book tells the inspirational, exciting, and dramatic stories of the 12 Apostles as found in the ancient sources.
The book is now available at Amazon.
“Many people who read the Book of the Acts of the Apostles are left with a curiosity about what happened to the T12welve Apostles. Several accounts of their lives have survived in the writings of ancient historians and the Early Church Fathers,” Dr. Missick said.
One of the ancient accounts of the lives of the 12 Apostles is the Apostolic History attributed to Abdias of Babylon, who, according to the tradition, was one of the 72 Disciples of Jesus. Luke’s Gospel mentions the 12 Apostles in Luke 6:13, he mentions the 72 in Luke 10:1. Abdias is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Obadiah,” which means, “Servant of God.”
“Oddly enough, Abdias of Babylon hasn’t been translated into English, although it is oven viewed as one of the most ancient and authoritative accounts of the lives of the Twelve Apostles,” Missick said. “I had to reconstruct the text from long quotations found in medieval texts and descriptions found in New Testament Apocrypha.”
Stephen Missick also illustrated the book with over 40 drawings.
“I believe that we are in desperate need of spiritual renewal, and one of the ways to seek it, is in the lives and testimonies of the men who Jesus chose and entrusted his message with after the crucifixion,” he said.
Dr. Stephen Andrew Missick is an ordained minister of the Gospel. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from Sam Houston State University, and a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He earned a doctorate from Houston Graduate School of Theology.
He served as a soldier in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003 to 2004. He served as a Chaplain in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2009 to 2010.
He served for four years as a Chaplain on the border mission (Operation Guardian Support, Operation Secure Texas, Operation Lionheart, and Operation Lone Star) from 2018-2020.
He is the author of several books, which includes, “The Saint Jude Thaddeus Storybook,” “The Ennead,” and “The Language of Jesus: Introducing Aramaic,” among others.
