Context Of Early Christianity Research Articles

The Good Shepherd: Image, Meaning, and Power

The Good Shepherd: Image, Meaning, and Power

Israël, Jésus et les apôtres : summa memoriae christiana

AbstractThis article aims at describing the Lukan project by applying – in the wake of other scholars – social memory theories to Luke’s double work. In particular, it argues that the type of memory and its criteria defined by Jan Assmann on the basis of the Deuteronomy can help explain the nature of the narrative composed by the auctor ad Theophilum as well as its originality in an early Christian context marked by a proliferation of books and other traditions of the origins of the Church (cf. Luke 1:1a.2.4).

Four Criteria for Identifying the Socially Marginal in the Social Context of Early Christianity Reflected in the New Testament

Four Criteria for Identifying the Socially Marginal in the Social Context of Early Christianity Reflected in the New Testament

Moni Iudeorum: an enigmatic early place-name for St David's

Moni Iudeorum is recorded in Annales Cambriae as St David's place of death. The first element of this place-name may be identified with Middle Welsh Mynyw, modern St David's. Its second is obscure but has traditionally been interpreted as referring to the early Irish population group the Déisi, attesting early Irish settlement in south-west Wales. However, this interpretation rests only on a scribal emendation when others are equally, if not more, plausible. This paper reassesses the evidence, proposes a new, more minor, emendation, Moniu Deorum '*Moniu of the Gods', and examines this within a wider early Christian context.

Feminisms and Challenges to Institutionalized Philosophy of Religion

For my invited contribution to this special issue of Religions on “Feminisms and the Study of ‘Religions,’” I focus on philosophy of religion and contestations over its relevance to the academic field of Religious Studies. I amplify some feminist philosophers’ voices—especially Pamela Sue Anderson—in corroboration with recent calls from Religious Studies scholars to diversify philosophy of religions in the direction of locating it properly within the current state of Religious Studies. I want to do this by thinking through two proposals in productive tension: first, any philosophy of religions worthy of the name is intrinsically feminist; second, any philosophy of religions worthy of the name is intrinsically traditional. I want to use the productive tension between these two to illuminate ways calls for broadening the field can be enhanced when such calls are seen as both feminist and traditional. I proceed as follows. First, I note three instances of explicitly feminist work in philosophy of religions that do not suffer from the same narrowness as so-called “traditional” philosophy of religion. Religious Studies critics of philosophy of religion overstate the case in claiming feminist philosophy of religion is too narrow. Second, I develop a useful distinction between the concepts of “tradition” and “institution” to locate forces of oppression more precisely in dynamics of institutionalization so that we might rehabilitate tradition as a resource for combating institutionalized oppressiveness. I do this in response to the hegemony of current philosophers of religion who claim to speak about “the traditional god.” And third, I briefly coordinate four topics in religions from diverse feminist perspectives to help refine paths of inquiry for future philosophy of religions that is both feminist and traditional. My hope is that these clarify a philosophy of religions renewed through feminisms—moving from fringe to normative topics in institutionalized philosophy of religion, maintaining focus on actually existing human beings rather than hypothetically existing transcendent entities. I turn our attention to technical issues surrounding the status of mae chis, Buddhist laity who seek monastic recognition in Theravada. I turn our attention to struggles over fitting criteria for leadership between Mary Magdalene and Peter in early Christian contexts. I have us listen to Muslim women who seek to speak for themselves, many of whom describe Muhammad as a feminist. I have us listen to Anderson’s criticism of arguments about the (non)existence of a god and her promotion of human yearning as guided by regulative ideals as a pointed challenge to institutionalized philosophy of religion. In all these ways and more, feminist challenges to institutionalized philosophy of religion further contribute to diversifying field.

Castration for the Kingdom and Avoiding the αἰτία of Adultery (Matthew 19:10–12)

The difficulties raised by the form and content of Matthew's eunuch pericope (19:10–12) have provoked unfavorable evaluations. In this article, I offer a new reading of this passage that makes sense of some of its problems. My approach is rooted in the broader narrative and rhetoric of Matthew's Gospel in particular. In section I, I focus on the disciples' response (19:10) to Jesus's teaching on divorce and remarriage (19:3–9), arguing that ἡ αἰτία τοῦ νθρώπου μετὰ τῆς γυναικός in 19:10a should be translated as "the charge against the man with his wife," referring to the charge of adultery in 19:9. In section II, I demonstrate that multiple elements in 19:3–12 inextricably link the eunuch passage to Jesus's call to self-dismemberment (5:29–30 and context). Matthew's eunuch metaphor is a rhetorical device exhorting would-be disciples who have illegitimately divorced their wives to "cut off" (figuratively) what causes them to stumble (i.e., their male organ), lest they commit adultery in remarriage (cf 5:29–30). Thus, Matthew's "eunuchs" function literarily as exemplars of those who make extraordinary sacrifices in this age (i.e., a spouse and children) so that they might obtain immeasurably more in the kingdom of heaven. Section III provides corroborative support for this reading from the broader Second Temple Jewish and early Christian contexts. I conclude by showing how the Latin translation of this passage likely led to what I argue is the pervasive misreading of 19:10(–12) that we have today.

Je li rimska Certisija bila caput viarum? / Was Roman Certissia a caput viarum?

There was a settlement on the south-Pannonian road Siscia – Cibalae (modern-day Sisak and Vinkovci) that was in the Roman travel documents from the 2 centuries (Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia, Itinerarium Antonini, Tabul a Peutingeriana, Ravennatis anonymi Cosmographia) recorded under various names: Κέρτισσα, Cirtisa, Cirtisia, Certis, Certisia. On a fragmentary marble inscription from the 2nd – 7th nd half of the 4th - early 5 centuries, the form Certissia was inscribed. The find spot unfortunately remains unknown, but the closest candidate is the site of Štrbinci near Đakovo in NE Croatia. The inscription reads: [--- a]ccede ad Certissia[m ---]/[---] memor cupias [---]/[---] est caput v[iarum ---] ili v[iae? ---] / ----- A possible translation goes: … come to Certissia and, remembering, make a wish … here is a caput viarum or caput viae. th A mention of the administrative status of Certissia, which would support an official caput viarum there (the point from which distances were measured) is missing from the written documents. On the other hand, the Antoine Itinerary supplies an invaluable piece of information, that namely, it was exactly in Certissia that a road branched off from the main route Emona – Sirmium (modern-day Ljubljana / Slovenia and Sremska Mitrovica / Serbia) towards Dalmatia and its capital Salonae (modern-day Solin on the eastern Adriatic coast). This means that Certissia was at least a crossroads, if not exactly a caput viarum. It was exactly on the basis of this fact that I ventured the restoration caput v(iarum) or caput v(iae) in my previous discussions of the abovementioned inscription. It was extensively discussed in an early Christian context (Migotti 2012). On the contrary, in this paper the stress is put on the nature of the inscription and the arguments in favour of the restoration caput viarum. This was provoked by the fact that, while the presumption of the public inscription, as well as the reading, restoration and interpretation of the Certissia inscription, were accepted in Croatian archaeology, they were rejected in some foreign scholarly circles, who decided that the inscription was in fact en epitaph, and the restoration caput viarum incorrect. However, the idea of an epitaph should be refused on a couple of grounds. The first one is the lack of convincing parallels even among early Christian epitaphs conveying itinerary data. Secondly, the Certissia inscription starts with the praise to the town, addressed to the passer-by, with no mention of the deceased in the first part of the inscription, while such mention should figure most oddly in the reminder of the text. Accordingly, the inscription should have been public, most probably related to a building of an unknown kind. Furthermore, at least two arguments corroborate the possibility of the restitution caput viarum, the first being the administrative status of Certissia. Although capita viarum were in most cases larger towns of some importance, this was not a sine qua non, as in Late Antiquity even smaller civitates, such as Certissia must have been, could have assumed such role. Another argument is the fact that one of the roads that led from Salonae towards the inner of the province of Dalmatia ended in Servitium (modern-day Gradiška, Bosnia and Herzegovina) on the right bank of the River Sava. It has been supposed that this road, before reaching the Sava, split in two directions: westwards to Servitium and eastwards to Urbate (unidentified place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, possibly Srbac). The latter place was the point at which the road from Certissia to the River Sava ended. Therefore, while Salonae was a caput viarum for the routes within the province of Dalmatia, Certissia could have performed such role for a Pannonian extension of one of Dolabella’s Dalmatian roads.

Neutestamentlicher Kanon, christliche Apokryphen und antik-christliche „Erinnerungskulturen”

Is Christianity a ‘religion of (canonical) books or a ‘religion of memories’? What role did the books that would eventually become canonical play in various early Christian contexts? This article explores the history of the canon, especially in relation to early Christian ‘landscapes’ and ‘places of memory’. The role of ‘canonical’ and so-called ‘apocryphal’ writings in the construction and development of these ‘places of memory’ is discussed. It is argued that instead of labelling the latter works ‘apocryphal’, it would be better to call them ‘useful for the church’.

Mystical holiness in Mark’s Gospel

The article discusses holiness as a theme in the Gospel of Mark from the perspective of biblical spirituality. It first establishes the framework within which holiness is understood by discussing holiness in spirituality, in the early Christian context of Mark and in terms of Mark’s focus on the identity of Jesus. The article then focuses on holiness in terms of the human pole in the divine– human relationship by investigating how holiness is about awe and fear before Jesus as the mystery of God’s kingdom (Mk. 4:11). It then analyses holiness in terms of the divine pole in the divine–human relationship by investigating Jesus as the Holy One of God. It concludes with an analysis of Jesus’ reaffirmation, interiorisation, radicalisation and embodiment of holiness and of Mark’s mystagogical approach to holiness within the lived experience of his community.

Harton's "Orthodoxy and heresy in early Christian contexts: Reconsidering the Bauer thesis" (Book Review)

Harton's "Orthodoxy and heresy in early Christian contexts: Reconsidering the Bauer thesis" (Book Review)

Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christian Contexts: Reconsidering the Bauer Thesis. Edited by Paul A.Hertog. Pp. xii, 282. Eugene, OR,Pickwick PUBLICations, 2015, £21.00.

Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christian Contexts: Reconsidering the Bauer Thesis. Edited by Paul A.Hertog. Pp. xii, 282. Eugene, OR,Pickwick PUBLICations, 2015, £21.00.

Book Review: Greco-Roman & Hellenistic Jewish Context of Early Christianity: Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts (eds), Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture: Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament: Christian Origins and Hellenistic Jewish: Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament

Book Review: Greco-Roman & Hellenistic Jewish Context of Early Christianity: Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts (eds), Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture: Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament: Christian Origins and Hellenistic Jewish: Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament

Trajectories of scripture transmission: The case of Amos 5:25–27 in Acts 7:42–43

It is the intention of this study to explore the trajectory of the transmission and reception of three elements from Amos 5:25–27 through the stages of its history in ancient religious literature. Four stages in its trajectory are explored, namely in the Amos Masoretic Text (MT), the quotations from the Jewish Damascus Scroll sect, the Jewish-Hellenistic context of the Septuagint (LXX) Amos, and the Early Christian context of Stephen’s speech by Luke in Acts 7:42–43. The astral Mesopotamian deities of Amos MT changed to symbols which now stood for the law, the congregation, the prophets and the interpreter of the law in the sectarian context of the Damascus scroll. The LXX, in turn, understood these to be ‘the tent of Moloch’ and the ‘star of your god Raiphan’. This version is used in Acts 7, but whereas the LXX shows traces of a connection with the Heaven-and-Sun god, particularly with the planet Saturn, Luke now places the same elements within the context of the exodus narrative in Stephen’s speech. The investigation shows how the mutation of scripture becomes clear in the trajectory of its transmission and how it is constantly being reinterpreted to be relevant within the context of its time.

“And Now for Something Completely Different”: A “Pythonic” Reading of Pentecost?

AbstractJack Levison’s discussion of spirit filling in Acts, although highly inventive, ultimately lacks cogency. His attempt to view the episode of the slave girl possessed of a “pythonic spirit” as paradigmatic for understanding the experience of the believers at Pentecost fails because of a misreading of the Acts 16 text and a misrepresentation of Luke’s interests with respect to the Hellenistic religious context of early Christianity. Levison’s reading of the Pentecost event is similarly flawed by the importation of unwarranted parallels from the Hellenistic religious environment. Positively, the study points to the need for further research on the subject of ecstasy in the New Testament.

Four Perspectives on “Old Russia” (Rus′)

Four Perspectives on “Old Russia” (Rus′) Francis Butler (bio) Aleksei Karpov, Vladimir Sviatoi [Saint Vladimir]. 2nd ed., corr. and exp. 454 pp., illus. Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 2004. ISBN 5235027426. A. F. Litvina and F. B. Uspenskii, Vybor imeni u russkikh kniazei v X–XVI vv.: Dinasticheskaia istoriia skvoz′ prizmu antroponimiki [Name Choice among Princes of Rus′ from the 10th through the 16th Centuries: Dynastic History through the Prism of Anthroponymics]. 740 pp., genealogical charts. Moscow: Indrik, 2006. ISBN 5857593395. Andrzej Poppe, Christian Russia in the Making. xiv + 362 pp. Birmingham, VT: Ashgate Variorum, 2007. ISBN-13 978-0754659112. $144.95. Jonathan Shepard, ed., The Expansion of Orthodox Europe. 532 pp. Birmingham, VT: Ashgate Variorum, 2007. ISBN-13 978-0754659204. $175.00. Contemporary English lacks satisfactory terms to denote the regions that have since become Belarus′, Russia, and Ukraine and to denote the peoples that inhabited these regions before the development of the Russian empire. The standard “Russia” or even “Old Russia” may (however wrongly) bring to a nonspecialist’s mind a region ruled from Moscow or St. Petersburg, whereas the earliest major political center in these territories was Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine. Many scholars now prefer to make the distinction between “Russia” and “Rus′” that exists in contemporary standard Russian, though this distinction may baffle the uninitiated.1 For this reason I have used the [End Page 291] inaccurate “Old Russia” (albeit in quotation marks) in the title of this review and supplied the more accurate “Rus′” in parentheses. The first term is directed towards the uninitiated (and a few of the initiated who refuse to adopt “Rus′”); the second is intended to inform the initiated that I am aware of the terminological difficulty. (In a similar fashion, Andrzej Poppe has entitled his book Christian Russia in the Making but has tended to prefer “Rus′” in the articles that the book contains.) Adjectives present a further problem: if “Rus′” is not “Old Russia,” then how can its language be “Old Russian” or its territory be “Russian”? Here scholars divide, with some preferring “Rusian” or “Rus′ian” (forms that have no equivalent in modern Russian) and some preferring “East Slavic,” a term that may (among other things) gloss over the significance of Scandinavian culture in Rus′. In spite of such problems, I shall here take the latter option. Publication on the history of Rus′ is off to a good start as the first decade of the 21st century ends. The four books reviewed here reflect two trends within that broader pattern. Two of them, collections of mostly previously published articles in English, are both linked to a strong tradition of scholarship that has existed outside the Soviet Union and Russia in the latter half of the 20th century; the appearance of the other two reflects scholarly and cultural developments within post-Soviet Russia.2 The Expansion of Orthodox Europe, edited by Jonathan Shepard, is a collection of articles, almost all reprinted, dealing with what Dimitri Obolensky has called “the Byzantine Commonwealth.”3 Yet Shepard has deliberately and wisely forgone recovering the ground covered by Obolensky; instead he has chosen some studies of phenomena in the Orthodox lands that have largely been ignored and some that approach frequently studied phenomena from unusual perspectives.4 Although some of the articles date to several decades [End Page 292] ago (one as far back as 1949), more than half were first published between 1990 and 2004. Because of the breadth of the collection, this review will focus on 9 (out of 22) articles that relate largely or exclusively to East Slavic territory. Two of these articles deal with trade between Byzantium and the East Slavs; one provides a wonderful synthetic discussion of the nature and boundaries of Rus′; three discuss relations between the East Slavs and the Mongols; two focus on intellectual developments in Byzantium and among the Slavs (South and East) in the 14th and 15th centuries; and one attempts to fit East Slavic hagiography into a broader early Christian context. Two closely related studies by the late Thomas S. Noonan and his energetic protégé Roman K. Kovalev point to what were probably only some aspects of the almost unexamined commercial...

Book Review: Early Christianity and its Competitors; The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions

Book Review: Early Christianity and its Competitors; The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions

The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions (review)

The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions (review)

The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions

Book Review| January 01 2003 The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions. Studies of the New Testament and Its WorldKlauck, Hans-Josef; McNeil, Brian Craig B. Carpenter Craig B. Carpenter Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Bulletin for Biblical Research (2003) 13 (1): 148–150. https://doi.org/10.2307/26422789 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Craig B. Carpenter; The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions. Bulletin for Biblical Research 1 January 2003; 13 (1): 148–150. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/26422789 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressBulletin for Biblical Research Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2003 by The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.2003The Pennsylvania State University Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

“Colours in Antiquity: Colour and Hue from Egypt to Byzantium”, University of Edinburgh, 10th -13th September 2001

st century there is no lack of conferences, symposia, workshops and congresses, even for relatively small fields such as archaeology, Classics and art history. Was it, therefore, sensible to participate in another conference on colour after the “Colour in Ancient Greece” conference held at Thessaloniki in 2000? I felt it certainly was. As much as the conference at Thessaloniki was overdue because of its overall theme (Brysbaert and Lindenlauf 2000: 114-115), so too was the Edinburgh conference, since it succeeded in covering a wide range of issues, geographical areas, periods of interest and methodological approaches in only four days. The conference was divided into eight sessions: Egypt, The Aegean World, Dyes and Pigments, Textiles and Cosmetics, Literature and Philosophy, Classical Art and Archaeology, Symbolism and Culture in the Greek World, and Symbolism and Culture in the Roman and Byzantine Worlds. Each session covered a variety of methodological issues and approaches and provided thorough insights into many different aspects of colour. The very accessible conference website promised an intense and interesting programme and included all abstracts. Thanks to the excellent organisation and good time keeping of all participants, the entire conference went smoothly, only brutally disrupted by the events of September 11. To give a flavour of the conference without providing a discussion of each paper, specific strands woven throughout the conference are outlined here, referring to specific papers to illustrate them. Participants shared their expertise in a variety of different ways: presentations with traditional visual aids, experimental demonstrations showing the production of different colours (and smells!) (Burke on Ruscillo’s experimental work; Greenspan) and colour schemes of Roman cookery (Grigorieva). A range of informative posters were also available for discussion during the coffee breaks (Chryssikopoulou et al.; Clarke; Cleland; Devlin et al.; Fountolakis). Across geographical and chronological boundaries we could observe that colour had a vital role to play in a variety of conceptual schemes within each society. That the meaning of colour was culture specific, and cannot just be transferred and accepted with the same meaning within another cultural context (even if contemporary), was exemplified by Harlow’s paper on the meaning of the colour white both in the Roman and in the early Christian context. Colour expressed directly or indirectly the concept of power through its meaning, whether or not it was associated with economic value. Gold as a colour and a material was the flesh of the gods and of the rulers in their afterlife in Egypt (Cashman).

The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions. Hans-Josef Klauck

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions. Hans-Josef Klauck David FrankfurterDavid Frankfurter Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 82, Number 3Jul., 2002 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/491115 Views: 6Total views on this site Copyright 2002 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.