Juden, Christen und Vereine im Römischen Reich. By Benedikt Eckhardt and Clemens Leonhard with a contribution from Philip A. Harland

Abstract

This book is a collection of 11 essays, the first an extended introduction, with a conclusion and sectional summaries, broadly on the matter of Greco-Roman associations, and the extent to which these associations might cast light on early Christian and Jewish communities. Whereas this might appear to provide a thematic unity to the volume, it is hard ultimately to see how the volume hangs together; this critical note being sounded, we should note that the essays are of a very high standard. An introductory chapter (Eckhardt and Leonhard) sets out the agenda, in which the distinctions between associations are played up. The point, which will be repeated, is that whatever the points of contact between associations there is a limit on the heuristic value which attaches to the comparison. Might an association of linen workers in Smyrna cast light on early Christian congregations? Or an Athenian Dionysiac association? In the second essay Eckhardt explores the legal status and view of associations and Christian groups, concluding that neither Christians themselves, or the Roman authorities, saw Christian groups as associations. This involves a close exegesis in particular of what Pliny states, or rather what was stated to Pliny, among other authors, and a close examination of what Pliny means by hetaeria. One is impressed by the learning, but little wiser. As Eckhardt concludes, in his following essay (the third) on the question of the synagogue as an association, much depends on what one is trying to discover, in particular as the synagogue, and its relationship to society and to the legal apparatus of the Empire, is something of a moving target.