Laying Out the Fleece

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-89
Author(s):  
Kelly J. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Near East ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Different Cultures

Chapter 3 approaches Gideon’s story in three different ways: the role of divine signs in the ancient Near East; the portrait of Gideon as a hesitant solider in need of divine assurance in the biblical stories of Judg 6:36–40, 7:1–8, and 7:9–15; and the ways that early Christian exegetes interpreted Gideon’s requests for divine assurance. The chapter continues to trace how masculinity is constructed in different cultures, including the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity, where men were encouraged to fight spiritual battles rather than physical battles. These interpretations serve as a powerful reminder that masculinity is always “in crisis,” tending toward transformation and change, depending on cultural context.

scholarly journals Diakonos and prostatis: Women’s patronage in Early Christianity

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Osiek
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
House Churches ◽  
Patronage System

In spite of numerous studies on the patronage system in Mediterranean antiquity, little attention has been paid to either how the patronage of women was part of the system or how it differed. In fact, there is substantial evidence for women’s exercise of both public and private patronage to women and men in the Greco-Roman world, by both elites and sub-elites. This information must then be applied to early Christian texts to infer how women’s patronage functioned in early house churches and Christian life.

Sin in the New Testament

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Siker
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Message

This book examines what the different New Testament writings have to say about sin within the broader historical and theological contexts of first-century Christianity. These contexts include both the immediate world of Judaism out of which early Christianity emerged, as well as the larger Greco-Roman world into which Christianity quickly spread as an increasingly Gentile religious movement. The Jewish sacrificial system associated with the Jerusalem Temple was important for dealing with human sin, and early Christians appropriated the language and imagery of sacrifice in describing the salvific importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Greco-Roman understandings of sin as error or ignorance played an important role in the spreading of the Christian message to the Gentile world. The book details the distinctive portraits of sin in each of the canonical Gospels in relation to the life and ministry of Jesus. Beyond the Gospels the book develops how the letters of Paul and other early Christian writers address the reality of sin, again primarily in relation to the revelatory ministry of Jesus.

scholarly journals Ritual, Memory and Writing in Early Christianity

2011 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
RISTO URO
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Printed Books ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Individual Memory ◽  
Religious Teaching ◽  
Christian Literature

The article examines ways in which the views of biblical scholars as to the transmission of early Christian traditions, especially the Jesus traditions, have been revolutionized by so-called orality/literacy studies since Werner Kelber’s seminal The Oral and the Written Gospel (1983). In the 2000s, an important turn in the study of orality and literacy in early Christianity took place with the discovery of memory. This has given rise to a focus on theories of collective memory and more recently on the cognitive aspects of individual memory, producing fresh new insights into the close intertwining of orality and literacy in ancient literary activity. The last part of the article brings up the role of ritual in the transmission of early Christian traditions, an aspect that has received less attention in the discussion. For purposes of further analysis, three perspectives on the role of ritual in the study of orality and textuality in early Christianity are highlighted and elaborated. The first underscores the need for a fresh analysis of the numerous liturgical passages in the New Testament identified by the generation of form critics. The second focuses on oral-aural (‘liturgical’) aspects of early Christian literature as part of the larger phenomenon of Greco-Roman literary culture, in which literacy was defined by public performance and recitation to a degree that differs substantially from the modern use of printed books. The last perspective highlights the important question of ritual’s capacity to function as an instrument of religious teaching and doctrinal consolidation.

Greek and Roman Slaving in Comparative Ancient Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jursa ◽  
Sven Tost
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
The State ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Institutional Sector ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Traditional Image

This chapter surveys the evidence for dependent labour in the Ancient Near East, particularly in the state or institutional sector of the economy, comparing the findings to pertinent institutions and structures known from the Graeco-Roman world. There is a focus on diachronic change within the Ancient Near East, where the role of dependent labour evolved significantly over time. The chapter highlights similarities as well as differences and points to some pathways for causation. The ‘traditional’ image (often associated with views expressed by Moses Finley) of the Ancient Near East as being characterized by a labour regime relying nearly exclusively on compelled dependent (but not slave) labour and thus being fundamentally different from ‘the’ Graeco-Roman world is nuanced considerably.

scholarly journals Pilgrimage and Festivals

2018 ◽  
pp. 301-318
Author(s):  
Laura Feldt
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Near East ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Available P ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Theoretical Approaches

This chapter discusses key theoretical approaches to pilgrimage and festivals and surveys the most prominent types in the ancient Mediterranean ritual world. The first section discusses the cross-disciplinary, definitional problems and argues in favour of broad concepts as a sine qua non for cross-cultural discussion and comparison. It outlines key approaches from the 1970s until today, reflects on comparable cultural practices, and suggests directions for theoretical development from the aesthetics of religion, spatiality theory, cognitive theory, and theories of fantastic narratives. The second section surveys key forms of pilgrimage and festivals from the ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman world, and turns to Hebrew Bible and Jewish forms of pilgrimage and festivals. Finally, the chapter discusses early Christian types of pilgrimage from travel to places associated with the life of Christ, to travel to living saints and ascetics, and to relics, icons and images. For each area, the chapter touches upon categorization and the types of sources available.

Taxation in the Greco-Roman World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Kaye
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman

This article surveys taxation in the Hellenistic kingdoms of Asia Minor in the Near East, focusing on the Seleukid Empire and the Attalids of Pergamon. It argues that the study of Hellenistic systems and habits of taxation can tell us much about the distribution of sovereignty in these composite, multiscalar kingdoms. The negotiation of fiscal rights and privileges in these kingdoms drew cities, kings, courtiers, priests, and soldiers into frequent, even ritualized interactions. The article discusses taxation’s role in the competition over territory and resources, both interstate and internal, while also highlighting the role of taxation in the articulation of each state’s sovereignty claims on communities and individuals. Key sources are reviewed, both epigraphic and archaeological, including cuneiform documents from Hellenistic Babylonia and Greek inscriptions from Asia Minor (Anatolia) and Coele-Syria (Levant).

The Anonymity of the New Testament History Books: A Stylistic Device in the Context of Greco-Roman and Ancient Near Eastern Literature

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-142
Author(s):  
Armin Baum
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Prophetic Literature ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Books ◽  
Stylistic Device

AbstractThe anonymity of the NT historical books should not be regarded as peculiar to early Christian literature nor should it be interpreted in the context of Greco-Roman historiography. The striking fact that the NT Gospels and Acts do not mention their authors' names has its literary counterpart in the anonymity of the OT history books, whereas OT anonymity itself is rooted in the literary conventions of the Ancient Near East. Just as in the OT, where the authors of books that belonged to the genre of wisdom and prophetic literature were usually named while historical works were written anonymously, only the NT letters and the Apocalypse were published under their authors' names while the narrative literature of the NT remained anonymous. The authorial intent of the Gospels' anonymity can also be deduced from its ancient Near Eastern and OT background. Unlike the Greek or Roman historian who, among other things, wanted to earn praise and glory for his literary achievements from both his contemporaries and posterity, the history writer in the Ancient Near East sought to disappear as much as possible behind the material he presented and to become its invisible mouthpiece. By adopting the stylistic device of anonymity from OT historiography the Evangelists of the NT implied that they regarded themselves as comparatively insignificant mediators of a subject matter that deserved the full attention of the readers. The anonymity of the Gospels is thus rooted in a deep conviction concerning the ultimate priority of their subject matter.

The Use of Glossaries by the Translators of the Septuagint

Textus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Sarah Yardney
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Word Lists

Abstract This article proposes that the Septuagint translators made and used limited Hebrew-Greek glossaries. While these documents are not extant, this proposal explains the perplexing inconsistency of lexemic knowledge in the Septuagint of Samuel, and suggests a possible resolution to the scholarly debate regarding the translators’ use of the Pentateuch as a lexicon. Evidence of bilingual word lists from the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world supports the plausibility of the Septuagint translators having such tools as well.

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