Roman Imperial Culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 256-276
Author(s):  
Davina C. Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Imperial Culture ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Imperial Ideology

This chapter discusses several aspects of Roman imperial culture that offer resonances with the study of the New Testament. Herein several gendered and sexualized tropes of Roman imperial ideology, which serve to discursively naturalize power relationships and differences in hierarchy, are considered. These include the impenetrable manliness of the Roman emperor, the link between military conquest and sexual violence and feminization of conquered barbarian “others,” and the characterization of the Roman Empire as an endlessly fertile family. Special attention is given to the rhetorical and representational dimensions of Roman imperial culture, and particular emphasis is afforded to visual representation. Finally, the article considers several areas wherein the intersection of gender, sexuality, Roman imperial culture, and the study of the New Testament might further be explored.

scholarly journals The figure of Jesus Christ in the context of religious studies

2003 ◽  
pp. 146-157
Author(s):  
Pavlo Yuriyovych Pavlenko
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Bruno Bauer

The study of the origins of the Christian religion has always been one of the most difficult problems. This is due, first of all, to the almost complete absence of specific historical evidence of early Christianity and of its founder, which in turn led to the emergence of the so-called "mythological theory" according to which Christianity emerged "spontaneously" in Palestine and is unknown in any way. F. Engels, who borrowed from Bruno Bauer the date of writing the Book of the Annunciation of John the Theologian, the last book of the New Testament canon, played a significant role in the formation of such views. In accepting this date, understanding of Christianity as a "spontaneous" phenomenon, initially representing the movement of the underprivileged masses of the Roman Empire, played a role. In this sense, any "spontaneity" automatically excluded the historicity of virtually all evangelical characters (according to Engels, all of them are nothing but mythological images). If neither Jesus nor his apostles existed, then the gospel narrative of Christ evolved from the myth of Christ as God to the myth of Jesus as God-man.

The Emperor and the Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry O. Maier
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Imperial Cult ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Augustan Era ◽  
Religious Devotion

The chapter discusses the Roman emperor, the administration of the empire, and the imperial cult. It defines the terms “imperium,” and “imperator” and their changing definitions in the Augustan era. It considers the empire as a network of roads, laws, trading partners, and ethnicities, and also the ways religion traveled and spread through these networks through the actions of religious entrepreneurs. It discusses diaspora urban Judaism and its integration within the empire. It presents the division of the empire into senatorial and imperial provinces and their administration of law, along with the collection of taxes through provincial officials and tax farmers. It treats civic patronage by elected officials in the form of liturgies in return for honors. The imperial cult as religious devotion and a ritualized means of communication between the emperor and provincial elites and the high frequency of imperial language and imagery in the New Testament are discussed.

Anti-Imperial Rhetoric in the New Testament

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Diehl
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Interpretive Methods ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Common ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Common Era

The first of a series of three articles, this essay introduces current scholarship concerned with the use of anti-imperial rhetoric in the New Testament Gospels and the book of Acts. In the first century of the Common Era, if the powerful Roman Emperor was considered a god, what did that mean for the earliest Christians who committed loyalty to ‘another’ God? Was it necessary for the NT authors to employ subversive language, words and symbols, to conceal their true meanings from the imperial authorities in their communications to the first Christian communities? The answers to such key questions can give us a clearer picture of the culture, society and setting in which the NT was written. The purpose of this complex study is to observe how current biblical scholarship views anti-imperial rhetoric and anti-emperor implications found in the NT, assuming such rhetoric exists at all. This initial article reviews recent scholarship with respect to the background of the Roman Empire, current interpretive methods and research concerning anti-imperial rhetoric found in the NT Gospels and Acts.

scholarly journals Geweld in die Nuwe Testament en die Romeinse Ryk: Ambivalensie, andersheid, agentskap

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Punt
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
First Century ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Mixed Messages ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

Violence in the New Testament and the Roman Empire: Ambivalence, othering, agency The various ways in and degrees to which the New Testament is associated with peace, or the end or absence of violence, have often been argued or at least assumed. In contrast more recently, some studies have also argued that the New Testament documents endured and tolerated, but at times also incited and sanctioned violence – positions accompanied by various theories that have been offered to explain the prevalence of Biblical violence. The ambivalence of the New Testament texts regarding violence, particularly their virtually concurrent rejection and condoning of violence, mirrors the ambivalence of the New Testament’s imperial setting. And, the agency regarding violence is situated variously by and through the documents addressing various socio-historical contexts in the agonistic first century CE, with the one common factor being the ubiquitous presence of the Roman Empire. It is argued that greater consideration for the impact of the imperial setting on the New Testament positions regarding violence provides an important starting point for and valuable insight in understanding the mixed messages (and accompanying tensions) of the New Testament concerning violence.

scholarly journals Empire as material setting and heuristic grid for New Testament interpretation: Comments on the value of postcolonial criticism

2010 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Punt
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Postcolonial Criticism ◽  
Religious Aspects ◽  
Discursive Power ◽  
Material Setting

Using postcolonial analysis to account for the Roman Empire’s pervasive presence in and influence on early Jesus-follower communities (early Christians), as depicted in New Testament texts, is both evident (given its usefulness for analysing situations of unequal power relationships) and complicated. The complications are due partly to the material and conceptual potential and constraints inherent in postcolonial biblical studies, as well as to the complexities involved in dealing with empire and imperialism. The study of the Roman Empire, as far as its impact on early Christianity and (in this article) on the letters of Paul is concerned, requires attention to Empire’s material manifestation, ideological support for Empire, and religious aspects – issues that are identified and briefly discussed. Empire can be understood in many different ways, but it was also constantly constructed and negotiated by both the powerful and the subjugated and therefore attention is required for its possible reach, uses and the purposeful application of discursive power in New Testament texts that were contemporary with Empire.

Semantic Voids, New Testament Translation, and Anachronism

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 315-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Eyl
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
God's People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Studies ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
Consistent Problem

This essay addresses the problem of theologically-inflected English translation choices of the New Testament, and how those translations come to bear in theologically disinterested scholarship on Christian beginnings. As a case study I examine the ubiquitous rendering ofekklesiaas “church” in Paul’s letters. I argue that Paul was not referring to Christian churches, but to the “day of theekklesia” in the Septuagint, when God’s people gathered at Sinai/Horeb. Paul is not making Christians out of pagans; he is making quasi-Judeans out of gentiles. Renderingekklesiaas “church” inscribes Christian essentialism into Paul’s letters, and masks what Paul is actually doing with this word. The bridging of Greek-to-English semantic voids on the part of translators and New Testament scholars is a consistent problem that frustrates advancements in Pauline studies, and in studies of the religions of the Roman Empire more generally.

scholarly journals The Early Church’s Position on Law and the State.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-63
Author(s):  
Matija Stojanović
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Legal System ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament

This article will try to uncover the stance which the early Christian Church held on the legal system of the Roman Empire, in an attempt to reconstruct a stance which could apply to legal systems in general. The sources which we drew upon while writing this paper were primarily those from the New Testament, beginning with the Four Gospels and continuing with the Acts of the Apostoles and the Epistoles, and, secondarily, the works of the Holy Fathers and different Martyrologies through which we reconstructed the manner in which the Christian faith was demonstrated during the ages of persecutions. The article tries to highlight a common stance which can be identified in all these sources and goes on to elaborate how it relates to legal order in general.

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