scholarly journals Wearing the Cosmos: The High Priestly Attire in Josephus’ Judean Antiquities

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Joabson Xavier Pena
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Exodus Narrative ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Vivid Description

Abstract In his recounting of the Exodus narrative of the making of the priestly vestments in Judean Antiquities 3.151-180, 184-187, Josephus provides a vivid description of the high priest’s wardrobe, including its cosmological connotations. This article shows that Josephus uses cosmological motifs in his recounting of the high priestly attire in order to convey a message to his intended audience in Rome. Josephus adds his own accents to the biblical narrative to convince his public that the high priest’s fine clothing functions as a statement that the Judean God is not a national deity with restricted power, but the Highest God, who is the only creator, maintainer, and supreme ruler of the universe. Seen from this perspective, we observe Josephus in dialogue with a well-established Greco-Roman clothing imagery tradition that portrays gods and mortals in symbolic garments to enhance their far-reaching power or authority.

scholarly journals About Distinction Between Conditions of the World Before and After the Fallin Works of Russian Theologians and Religious Thinkers XIX - Early XX Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-48
Author(s):  
Николай Серебряков
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Entire Universe ◽  
Entire Cosmos ◽  
The Universe

В статье рассматриваются мнения русских богословов и религиозных философов XIX - начала ХХ в. о характере и масштабах влияния грехопадения первых людей на состояние всего мира. Показано, что для русского богословия указанного периода характерно признание катастрофического влияния грехопадения по отношению ко всему мирозданию. Это влияние объясняется теснейшей связью человека со всем космосом. Однако эта очевидная богословская истина практически не была учтена в естественнонаучно-апологетической литературе этого периода при обсуждении проблемы соотнесения библейского повествования о творении мира и человека с научными данными. Более того, в начале ХХ в. появляются представления, что грехопадение в объективном плане никак не повлияло на состояние мира, а только изменило человека и его взгляд на мир. Лишь в русской религиозно-философской литературе начала ХХ в. идея о теснейшей связи человека и космоса нашла свой отклик, и на основании этой идеи была дана критическая оценка способности естественных наук проникнуть в мир до события грехопадения. The article describes the views of the Russian theologians and religious philosophers of XIX - early XX centuries about a character and scales of influence of the fall on a condition of the world. We show that the Russian theology of this period recognizes the catastrophic influence of the fall on the entire universe. This influence is due to the close connection of man with the entire cosmos. However, this obvious theological truth was practically ignored in the discussion of the problem of the correlation of the biblical narrative about the creation of the world and man and scientific data in the natural science and apologetic literature in this period. Moreover, at the beginning of the ХХ century there are ideas that the fall in objective terms did not affect the state of the world, but that it changed only the nature of a man and man's view of the world. Only in the Russian religious philosophical literature at the beginning of the XX century the idea about the closest connection of a man and the universe got the response. On the basis of this idea religious philosophers gave a critical assessment of the ability of sciences to get into the world prior to the fall.

The Literary Genre and Purpose of Justin's Second Apology: A Critical Review with Insights from Ancient Epistolography

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Runar M. Thorsteinsson
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Christian Teaching ◽  
Justin Martyr ◽  
Exact Relationship

The Apologies of Justin Martyr are among our most important sources for the state and development of early Christianity in the second century. In the Apologies, Justin, who is often said to have initiated the first serious dialogue between Christianity and Greco-Roman philosophy, attempts to define and explain to the outside world what the Christian teaching and way of life are, and what they are not. Because of this normative tenor of the writings, modern readers sometimes tend to approach their content as more-or-less timeless articulations that are only vaguely connected to the historical circumstances in which they were written. But as with most writings from antiquity, the content of Justin's Apologies, including questions of theology, philosophy, and ethics, is intimately bound to their historical context, as recent scholarship on Justin has shown very well. However, the historical questions of the literary genre, intended audience, occasion, and purpose of the Apologies are still debated among scholars, including the question of the exact relationship between the First and the Second Apology. To critically deal with these questions, all of which are interrelated, is of utmost importance for our understanding of Justin Martyr and his writings, and thus of second-century Christianity in general.

The Stoic Philosopher Posidonius

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
John A. Jillions
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Greek Philosopher ◽  
C 50 ◽  
The Universe

Posidonius of Apamea (c. 135–c. 50/51 BCE) was the thinker most influential in shaping the religious Stoicism that dominated the Greco-Roman world in the first century CE. He was a Greek philosopher teaching in Rome, and a mark of his influence was that his student Cicero later felt obliged to write a number of extended works debunking the thought of his teacher. Posidonius’s views were largely shaped by his reading of Plato (and to some extent Aristotle). His central affirmation is that communion and “sympathy” between the divine and created worlds is constant and permanent. This “cosmic sympathy” meant that any movement in one part of the universe affected others, like touching a cosmic mobile, thus making it possible to read divine signs in nature. Likewise, a spiritual force in every human soul—one’s daimon, like the famous daimon of Socrates—makes possible communion with the divine in numerous ways, especially through dreams.

Exodus III 19B and the Interpretation of Biblical Narrative

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-300
Author(s):  
Peter Addinall
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Basic Theme ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Exodus Narrative

AbstractGod tells Moses that the king of Egypt will not let the Hebrews go, not even by a mighty hand. It is, however, a basic theme of the Exodus narrative that the king of Egypt is in fact compelled to let the Hebrews go by the mighty hand of Yahweh. From ancient times to the present commentators and translators have in general either eliminated the contradiction by re-writing the text or adopting a forced interpretation of it. A different but by no means novel approach to the text removes the contradiction and at the same time poses a challenge to much generally accepted analysis of biblical narrative.

Structures in the Universe by Exact Methods

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Bolejko ◽  
Andrzej Krasinski ◽  
Charles Hellaby ◽  
Marie-Noelle Celerier
Keyword(s):  
Exact Methods ◽  
The Universe

The Riddle of the Universe at the Close of the Nineteenth Century

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel ◽  
Joseph McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Universe
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