Greco-Roman Context Research Articles

Paul and the Giants of Philosophy: Reading the Apostle in the Greco-Roman Context. Edited by Joseph R. Dodson and David E. Briones

Paul and the Giants of Philosophy: Reading the Apostle in the Greco-Roman Context. Edited by Joseph R. Dodson and David E. Briones

Language Change in the Wake of Empire: Syriac in Its Greco-Roman Context. By Aaron Michael Butts

Language Change in the Wake of Empire: Syriac in Its Greco-Roman Context. By Aaron Michael Butts. Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic, vol. 11. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016. Pp. xvii + 292. $59.50.

Anthropology and New Testament Theology

Anthropology and New Testament Theology

The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and the Concept of a Library

Editors Sidnie White Crawford and Cecilia Wassen have assembled an excellent collection of studies that address an important topic. In their introduction (pp. 1–3), the editors note that since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls many scholars have spoken of “library,” while others are not so sure, speaking instead of “collection” or simply “scrolls.” How this question is answered will have implications for how the Scrolls are interpreted and perhaps also for the question of canon.The book under review is divided into five parts. In part 1, “General Studies,” we have Devorah Dimant, “The Library of Qumran in Recent Scholarship” (pp. 7–14), and Årstein Justnes, “On Being a ‘Librarian’: Labels, Categories, and Classifications” (pp. 15–29). In part 2, “The Greco-Roman Context,” are essays by Monica Berti, “Greek and Roman Libraries in the Hellenistic Age” (pp. 33–54), Corrado Martone, “The Qumran ‘Library’ and Other Ancient Libraries: Elements for a Comparison” (pp. 55–77), and Ian Werrett, “Is Qumran a Library?” (pp. 78 –105).In part 3, “The Collection as a Whole and the Question of a Library,” we have Sidnie White Crawford, “The Qumran Collection as a Scribal Library” (pp. 109–31), Stephen Reed, “The Linguistic Diversity of the Texts Found at Qumran” (pp. 132–54), Mladen Popovic, “The Ancient ‘Library’ of Qumran between Urban and Rural Culture” (pp. 155–67), and Stephen Pfann, “The Ancient ‘Library’ or ‘Libraries’ of Qumran: The Specter of Cave 1Q” (pp. 168–213). In part 4, “Collections within the Collection: Specific Evidence for a Library?” we have Helen R. Jacobus, “Calendars in the Qumran Collection” (pp. 217–43), and Daniel A. Machiela, “The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls: Coherence and Context in the Library at Qumran” (pp. 244–58). Finally, in part 5 “Implications for the Identification of the Qumran Collection as a Library,” we have an essay by Armin Lange, “The Qumran Library in Context: The Canonical History and Textual Standardization of the Hebrew Bible in Light of the Qumran Library” (pp. 261–79).All of the studies make useful contributions. Dimant argues that even the so-called sectarian writings at Qumran should no longer be viewed as reflecting a narrow group. Justnes cautions against importing our modern categories when we label and catalog the texts of Qumran. I found the essays by Berti, Martone, and Werrett especially interesting. They compare the Qumran library to the libraries of the Greco-Roman world (and Martone even reaches back to the ancient Near East). Berti discusses the political motives behind the development of royal libraries at major centers such as Alexandria and Antioch on the Orontes. Werrett concludes that Qumran fulfills most of the criteria that have been developed for identifying a library. Accordingly, he finds that it is “both historically and grammatically appropriate to describe the scrolls from Qumran as the remains of a Jewish library” (p. 105). In an especially insightful essay, Crawford suggests that the library of Qumran reflects the interests of an elite group of scribes and may have served as an archive, that is, a repository of records. She concludes that it is best to use the label “library with archive” in describing the Qumran Scrolls (p. 131).Reed ponders the possible implications of the multilingual character of Qumran’s library, which has texts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. We should not assume that everyone at Qumran could read all three languages. Popovic suspects the Qumran library probably originated in 100–50 BC and, if so, would have reflected Hellenistic patterns, not Roman or Herodian patterns, of book collection. In a lengthy and learned study, Pfann inquires into the mere chance that Cave 1 was the first cave to be discovered. What if other caves had been found first? How might we today look at the entire collection? Jacobus throws the discussion of Qumran calendrical texts into a new light when she raises interesting hermeneutical questions about how some of the calendars would have been interpreted by the residents. Machiela supports the view that the Aramaic texts should be interpreted as a “distinctive subgroup.” Lange agrees that the scrolls constitute a library, but he finds that “neither the canon of the Hebrew Bible nor its proto-Masoretic standard text developed as a consequence of the Hellenistic religious reform and the Maccabean wars” (p. 279).The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran concludes with a lengthy bibliography and several indexes. This outstanding collection of studies will serve well both biblical scholars and classicists who are interested in book culture in late antiquity.

Putting on the New Self

AbstractThis article argues that the principal background against which the clothing metaphor in Eph 4:22, 24 would have been understood by the letter’s original hearers is that of the theater, within which changes of costume signalled changes of identity, character, or fate. After a brief survey of recent scholarly commentaries (which pay surprisingly little attention to the possibility of a theatrical background to the metaphor in these verses) it highlights instances of similar expressions within Greco-Roman theatrical contexts, both literal and metaphorical, discusses the relevant aspects of ancient dramatic theory and practice, and explores the implications of this reading for theological interpretation of Ephesians.

Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash by Richard Hidary

Reviewed by: Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash by Richard Hidary Matthew Goldstone Richard Hidary. Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 335 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000163 One might (erroneously) have assumed that previous scholarship had thoroughly investigated the impact of Greco-Roman culture on rabbinic literature. But, as Richard Hidary writes in his Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash, "while rhetorical criticism has been [End Page 210] generously and fruitfully applied to the New Testament … rabbinic literature has received relatively little attention in this regard" (18). Indeed, Hidary's masterful study of the impact of Sophistic rhetoric on the rabbis charts new territory for understanding rabbinic literature in its Greco-Roman context and propels the field forward to engage with more nuanced questions. Hidary sets the stage for his argument by describing the reach of the Second Sophistic in the ancient world and the structure of rhetorical argumentation as depicted in various Greco-Roman handbooks. Guided by a basic project of demonstrating the rabbinic use of Sophistic rhetorical structures and techniques, Hidary's literary readings often reveal important cultural and epistemological insights. The first chapter maps out how some of the basic forms of rabbinic derashot, such as the proem, the later yelamdenu form, and even the Mishnah's outline for the Passover seder, align with structural elements of Greek oration, including narration, exordium, and partition. The subsequent two chapters move to the Yerushalmi and the Bavli, and reinforce the initial claim of the pervasive impact of the Sophistic rhetorical tradition. A more precise comparison appears in chapter 4, in which Hidary correlates tannaitic midrashim and the Bavli with the progymnasmata (Greek primers) and controversiae (more elaborate declamations). With chapter 5 Hidary begins to shift his trajectory by discussing rabbinic hermeneutical principles against the backdrop of Greek rhetoric and then evaluating how the rabbis recognized the limitations of some of these devices. This transition paves the way for chapters 6 and 7, which focus on the role of legal actors in earthly and divine courtrooms. Hidary identifies two major judicial approaches: adversarial, which involves advocates and a somewhat passive judge, and inquisitorial, which revolves around the decision of the presiding judicial authority. Aligning these two models with the epistemological subjectivity of the rhetorical tradition and the quest for objective truth in the philosophical tradition, Hidary depicts the rabbis as navigating a medial position that allows for some advocacy in terrestrial courts but centralizes decision making in the hands of judges who are sufficiently knowledgeable to discern the truth. When it comes to the heavenly court, however, rhetorical techniques become a necessary path for avoiding truth when it would result in overly strict justice. Summarizing his literary and philosophical arguments, in the conclusion to this work Hidary compares rabbinic usage of classical rhetoric to the ways in which early Christianity engaged with this tradition. Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric advances the field on two interconnected fronts. First, Hidary proffers a sustained argument for reading all of rabbinic literature through the lens of rhetoric, reframing rabbinic hermeneutics as a fusion of midrashic exegesis and rhetorical style. This dual lens sharpens the contours of rabbinic participation in ambient trends of literary production and highlights the unusual application of rhetorical modes of argumentation to scriptural interpretation. Secondly, building on his previous work on talmudic legal pluralism, in the present work Hidary provides a creative and sophisticated approach to mapping the rabbinic pursuit of truth onto Greek jurisprudential models. By identifying the ways through which idealized rabbinic court procedure operates both within adversarial and inquisitorial modes, while drawing a distinction between the [End Page 211] terrestrial and celestial pursuits of truth, Hidary charts new territory for understanding how the rabbis conceptualized the intersection between law and truth. Hidary's grasp of Sophistic rhetorical traditions and the breadth of other parallels brought to bear in his analysis contribute to a well-rounded presentation of the evidence and a lucid thesis. Written in an eloquent style and offering concrete and accessible examples, Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric is a welcome addition for...

Raised on Christian Milk: Food and the Formation of the Soul in Early Christianity by John David Penniman

Reviewed by: Raised on Christian Milk: Food and the Formation of the Soul in Early Christianity by John David Penniman R. Alan Streett john david penniman, Raised on Christian Milk: Food and the Formation of the Soul in Early Christianity (Synkrisis; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017). Pp. xvii + 328. $85. Raised on Christian Milk is a revision of Penniman's doctoral dissertation (Fordham University, 2015, supervised by Benjamin Dunning) and, as such, is aimed at a scholarly audience. Comprising an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion, the book examines how early Christians received, interpreted, and appropriated the apostle Paul's admonition in 1 Cor 3:1-3, particularly his words, "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food" (NRSV). Penniman limits his conversation partners to Philo, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine of Hippo. His interaction with each is full and rich, if not exhaustive. The introduction lays the foundation of the book. Starting with Feuerbach's dictum "Man is what he eats" (p. 1), P. explores how eating well is the basis for human formation and group identity. For instance, eating kosher/clean foods was an identity marker of God's people. Likewise, in the Roman Empire, what one ate and where one sat at a formal meal (deipnon) determined one's status. Hence, humans become what they eat. By using the language of food, the apostle Paul likewise draws a relationship between nourishment and identity formation. But for Paul "food" is more than a mere metaphor; it is a symbol of reality (p. 19). He believes church members feed on actual food, albeit spiritual in nature. To use Tertullian's description of Emperor Severus's son Caracalla: he was "raised on Christian milk" (p. 9). In chap. 1, P. examines the complex history of food within the ancient and early Greco-Roman context, interacting primarily with Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Since human consumption takes place in a cultural setting, both biology and sociology play a significant role in human development. In the Roman imperial era, breast milk was considered a crucial part of locating one's place in the Roman Imperium (p. 50). The breast from which one ate—elite, slave, citizen, poor—determined one's status. A mother's breast and her milk were deemed the source and means of a child's initial nourishment and potential development—physical, sociological, intellectual, and psychological. Chapter 2 finds P. in conversation with his interlocutors in order to gain insight into how early Jewish and Christian communities viewed spiritual food as a source of strength. He moves from Philo, a hellenized Jew, whose life spanned the late Republic and early empire to the apostle Paul, the Pharisee turned Christ-follower, who spoke of milk as a dynamic symbol of spiritual immaturity. But P. is not concerned with the meaning of Paul's words in the text, as much as he is with how they were received by the early church. In chap. 3, P. interacts with Irenaeus and Clement. The former used breast-feeding as symbolic of spiritual nourishment for believers while living in the world. The milk of the Word sustained them in their journey through life. Clement, on the other hand, believed a child born into the world grew into manhood through acts of disobedience and had to be born again, that is, to revert to infancy and innocence. Then the newborn Christian looked to the milk of the Word to sustain him throughout his Christian life (p. 94). Clement also saw spiritual "breast-feeding" as a means of combating Gnosticism. [End Page 140] In chap. 4, the reader discovers that Origen divided Christian food into three categories—milk, vegetables, and meat—representing three stages of maturity. These tiers were fixed, and believers within each category remained there. Origen designed curriculum to support those within each respective group. Hence, food was apportioned to the capacity of the soul. For Origen, breast-feeding was nourishment for infants only, a stark contrast with Irenaeus and Clement. In chap. 5, P. discusses Gregory of Nyssa's treatise on Saint Basil, which he used to show that...

Salvation in Acts 16: Meaning and missional implication derived from the sociohistorical method

In Acts 16:17, a slave girl proclaims: ‘these men are the servants of the Most High God who have come to show a way of salvation!’ The Philippian jailer in Acts 16:30 asks, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ What do they have in common regarding their understanding of the meaning of salvation? How is it similar or different from the understanding of salvation in Africa? Are these in line with the salvation narrative aim of Luke in Acts 16? Through the sociohistorical method, this paper explores the Greco-Roman context of the slave girl and the jailer. In this process, a contextual similarity between the Greco-Roman context and the African context is identified and the impact of these contexts on the understanding of the meaning of salvation is examined. Placed in conversation with the Lukan meaning of salvation in the passage, an alternative meaning of salvation emerges, along with implications for the Greco-Roman and African contexts.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article shows interdisciplinarity by an engagement with a theological concept through the utilisation of the sociohistorical method in generating meaning and understanding of a New Testament text. It navigates the disciplines of New Testament, Biblical Studies, Mission and Apologetics.

Glaube: Das Verständnis des Glaubens im frühen Christentum und in seiner jüdischen und hellenistisch-römischen Umwelt

Glaube: Das Verständnis des Glaubens im frühen Christentum und in seiner jüdischen und hellenistisch-römischen Umwelt

Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity: Collected Essays I

In this, the first of three volumes of collected essays, Jan N. Bremmer, who views himself first of all as an ancient historian, brings together his essays focusing on Christianity in the first two centuries. His goal is to situate Christianity in time and place and thereby deepen understanding.After 18 pages of prolegomena, including the table of contents, the main body of the volume is divided into four sections: (1) “Aspects of Early Christianity” (93 pages), (2) “Studies in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and Pseudo-Clementines” (171 pages), (3) “Apocalypses and Tours of Hell” (79 pages), and (4) “The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas” (121 pages). This is followed by 32 pages of acknowledgements and indexes. Because these are collected essays, there is no bibliography.How does one summarize, much less evaluate, a volume of this sort? Fortunately, Bremmer assists the reviewer with clear and descriptive chapter titles. Thus, in the first section (“Aspects of Early Christianity”) one finds: “Why Did Jesus’ Followers Call Themselves ‘Christians’?” “The Social and Religious Capital of the Early Christians,” “Why Did Early Christianity Attract Upper-Class Women?” “Pauper or Patroness: The Widow in the Early Christian Church,” “Peregrinus’ Christian Career,” and “The Domestication of Early Christian Prophecy.” Clearly, there is an interest in women in early Christianity and an interest in topics that carry from the first into the second century in a Greco-Roman context.The second section (“Apocryphal Acts and Pseudo-Clementines”) is equally interesting, although in this case one more or less starts in the second century: “Women in the Acts of John,” “Man, Magic, and Martyrdom in the Acts of Andrew,” “Aspects of the Acts of Peter: Women, Magic, Place and Date,” “Magic, Martyrdom and Women’s Liberation in the Acts of Paul and Thecla,” “The Acts of Thomas: Place, Date and Women,” “Conversion in the Oldest Apocryphal Acts,” “Magic in the Apocryphal Acts,” “The Apocryphal Acts: Authors, Place, Time and Readership,” “Pseudo-Clementines: Texts, Dates, Places, Authors and Magic,” and “Apion and Anoubion in the Homilies.” Here, the themes of women and magic come to the fore but by no means are Bremer’s exclusive interests.The third section (“Apocalypses and Tours of Hell”) includes “The Apocalypse of Peter: Greek or Jewish?” “The Apocalypse of Peter: Place, Date and Punishments,” “Christian Hell: From the Apocalypse of Peter to the Apocalypse of Paul,” “Tours of Hell: Greek, Jewish, Roman and Early Christian,” and “Descents to Hell and Ascents to Heaven in Apocalyptic Literature.” In essence, Bremmer follows Bauckham in seeing Greek roots to the Jewish origins of Christian thought on hell.The final section (“Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas”) Bremmer places in the third century: “Perpetua and her Diary: Authenticity, Family and Visions,” “Felicitas: The Martyrdom of a Young African Woman,” “The Motivation of Martyrs: Perpetua and the Palestinians,” “Passio Perpetuae 2, 16 and 17,” “The Vision of Saturus in the Passio Perpetuae,” and “Contextualizing Heaven in Third-Century North Africa.” While the literature is different, one again sees themes similar to the preceding sections, for example, the interest in heaven (and hell), women, and martyrdom.While one can clearly see that references to biblical literature, including the NT predominate in the first section, the whole development of the trajectories of theological and experiential Christianity with its interaction with Jewish roots and its Greco-Roman context is relevant to examining early Christianity within the context of its reception history. Bremmer writes clearly and well. The work is fascinating in many respects, even if it is essays rather than an examination of a single text or theme.

Models and perspectives concerning the identity of Jesus as healer

This study reviews various perspectives into the identity of Jesus as healer. There are two main perspectives – those that approach the identity of Jesus as healer from a theological perspective focusing on his personhood as messiah and those that use social scientific perspectives from sociology, psychology and anthropology. This study does not aim to evaluate or direct the reader towards a conclusion of Jesus’ identity, but only to review various perspectives. Based on analogies from Zimbabwe and comparative insights from the Mediterranean context from which the memory of Jesus survived, it is plausible that the identity of Jesus as healer should be found from the larger Greco-Roman context. Furthermore, given the various healers that existed during Jesus time both within the Jewish and Greco-Roman villages, the explanation of Jesus as healer is plausible from the various social scientific perspectives discussed.

CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL, HIERARCHICAL AND EGALITARIAN: SOCIAL-POLITICAL USES OF THE CONCEPT OF “HOME” IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

The cognitive linguist George Lakoff has argued that in the human brain two concepts of the family are mapped onto two contrasting political concepts, which reveal two kinds of systemic morality: a hierarchical, strict and disciplining father morality of conservatives on the one hand, and an egalitarian, nurturing parent morality of progressives or liberals on the other. Taking Lakoff’s thesis as point of departure, I offer a critical comparison of social-political uses of the concept of “home” in the early Roman Empire and Pauline Christianity. For this case study I engage primarily with the work of John Dominic Crossan, a prominent scholar of early Christianity within its Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. Although “home” does not constitute the focus of his analysis, a close reading of his oeuvre does allow us to identify and highlight this as a crucial theme in his work. The focus will be on the patriarchal home under Greco-Roman imperial conditions as model of the imperial system, the Pauline egalitarian concept of the Christian home and house churches, and the deutero-Pauline return to the imperial model. By comparing these case studies from another epoch and another culture, thevalidity of Lakoff’s thesis will be tested and our understanding of the concepts “liberal” and “conservative” will be enriched.

Language Change in the Wake of Empire: Syriac in its Greco-Roman Context by Aaron Michael Butts

Butts is careful to avoid clumsy generalizations, however, pointing out that there was a continuum of knowledge of Greek among people whose native language was (37). [...]Butts discusses how the Greek loanwords in Syriac can give us an insight into the Greek of late antique Syria and Mesopotamia. The process of borrowing a Greek noun (five cases, three genders, and two numbers), into Syriac (two genders, two numbers, and three states), often results in a variety of forms even for the same noun, thus suggesting that borrowing occurred multiple times and in different ways.

“Wretch I Am!” Eve’s Tragic Speech-in-Character in Romans 7:7–25

Despite the myriad approaches to the identity of the “I” in Rom 7:7–25, there is one aspect of the passage that has not been considered: its similarity to the tragic Greek laments. I offer a new perspective on the identity of the “wretched man”—rather, the “wretched woman”—in Rom 7:7–25, contending, based on generic and intertraditional arguments, that Eve, not Adam, is the individual identified in Paul’s speech-in-character in this chapter. Paul has recast Eve in the role of the female lamenter who bemoans her tragic condition. In this way, he has uniquely fused Second Temple Jewish traditions about Eve with tragic traditions that were prevalent in his Greco-Roman context. I argue that Paul evokes Gen 3 in Rom 7 but that the intertextual themes and lexemes concern Eve, not Adam. A comparison of Rom 7 with portrayals of Eve from Paul’s Second Temple Jewish context shows that Paul is evoking an established tradition about Eve. Finally, I argue that Paul has recast Eve in the role of the tragic, lamenting woman to serve a pedagogical function in the unfolding argument of Rom 5–8. The constituent aspects of her character fit the Aristotelian model of the ideal tragic figure who provokes fear and pity in the audience’s mind and ultimately effects a cathartic release of these emotions.

Claiming Ignorance and Intimidating Witnesses: Reading John 9 in Greco-Roman Forensic Context

Claiming Ignorance and Intimidating Witnesses: Reading John 9 in Greco-Roman Forensic Context

Changes in research on Judaism in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods

This article offers an overview of what every theologian and scholar of religion should know about changes in biblical studies that have taken place concerning the past depreciation of Second Temple Judaism, the use of newly discovered sources and their implications, as well as integrative approaches to top-down (reflected beliefs, prescribed practices, textual sources) and bottom-up (intuitive beliefs, lived practices, material culture) processes. Changes in the field lead to the re-writing of the history of the Bible and of Judaean society in the Greco-Roman context. By means of this co-authored research article, we wish to demonstrate the benefit of, as well as the need for, interdisciplinary work in the study of antiquity.

Into the World of the New Testament: Greco-Roman and Jewish Texts and Contexts. By Daniel Lynwood Smith

Into the World of the New Testament: Greco-Roman and Jewish Texts and Contexts. By Daniel Lynwood Smith

Exclusion and Embrace: A Theology of Breaking Boundaries and Building Bridges Between Christianity and Buddhism in Myanmar

Theravada Buddhism is a national religion of the Burman majorities, whereas Christianity is an alienated religion of the ethnic minorities in Myanmar. Failing to embrace one another, ethnic Christians and Burman Buddhists built boundaries of mutual exclusion and hostility. This paper will argue that wrongs are on both sides — for instance, Buddhism becomes an ‘analogy’1 of Judaism in terms of its nationalistic imperialism, whereas Christianity as an analogy of Hellenism in terms of its religious supersessionism. I will employ the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion. In particular, I will explore the boundary breaking of Jesus and the bridge building of Paul in a Greco-Roman context as the contextual models for Myanmar.

Paul’s Vision at Troas(Acts 16:8-10) in the Greco-Roman Context

그리스–로마의 전설적인 트로이 전쟁을 떠올리게 하는 도시 드로아(행16:8)는 아이러니컬하게도 그동안 신약성경에서 별로 주목받지 못한 도시 중 하나였다. 본 논문은 드로아가 지닌 역사적, 문학적, 정치적 중요성을 그리스–로마 트로이 전승을 통해 연구함으로써, 드로아에서 있었던 바울의 환상(행 16:8–10)의 의미를 새롭게 밝히고자 한다. 드로아가 역사적으로 아시아와 유럽의 경계 지점이라는 점과 문화적 혹은 정치적으로 로마의 건국 뿌리라는 점은, 바울 선교의 주된 방향이 드로아 환상 이후로 그리스와 로마가 될 것임을 암시하고 있다. 또한 드로아 환상 이후로 기술된 빌립보(16장)와 데살로니가(17장) 사건들도 로마 제국과의 갈등 구조를 통해 바울의 선교적 최종 목적지가 로마임을 암시적으로 드러낸다.

Understanding Scriptural Interpretation as a Symbolic Drama in Origen’s Hermeneutics

3세기, 오리겐(Origen)은 ‘심볼론’(symbolon, 상징)이라는 용어를 그리스-로마 문화권에서 파생하고 발전하고 있던 의미론적 범위 안에서 사용한다. 동사 형태(symbollein)에서 파악할 수 있듯이, 이 용어는 원래 하나였던 개체를 나누었다가 다시 맞춰보는 일련의 내러티브를 함축하고 있다. 예를 들어, 성경을 로고스의 상징으로 보았던 오리겐은 알레고리를 이용해서 성경 본문을 성경 전체와 그리고 성경을 로고스와 연결하려 시도한다. 즉, 오리겐에게 성경해석은 성경과 로고스가 다시 연합하는 ‘상징적’ 드라마인 셈이다. 더 나아가 오리겐은 성경해석을 통해 그리스도의 몸 된 교회가 그 머리 되신 그리스도와 연합하는 또 다른 ‘상징적’ 드라마가 일어난다고 본다. 따라서 ‘심볼론’ 용어의 의미론적 발전 과정이 3세기 그리스–로마 문화권에서 살면서 성경해석을 통해 기독교 진리를 이해한 오리겐의 신학적 시도에서 중추적 역할을 했다고 볼 수 있다.