School Buildings in Mediterranean Antiquity: Notes on the Provenance of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

2020 ◽  
pp. 0142064X2096265
Author(s):  
Jonah Bissell
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
School Buildings ◽  
Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Infancy Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Ancient Education

The provenance of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) remains an open question to scholars of early Christianity. Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor have been proffered as the most likely settings of origin (with the latter two favored especially in recent years). The educational scenes in IGT may provide helpful hints of the text’s original setting. Paul Foster, however, in comparing the details of such scenes with depictions of education in literary sources, concludes that they offer no features suggestive of a particular setting of origin. However, comparison of such scenes with material depictions of ancient education may provide more geographical precision. A reexamination of the text’s educational scenes vis-à-vis material-cultural evidence suggests that Egypt should be reconsidered as a viable setting of origin for IGT.

Depictions of Children in the Apocryphal Infancy Gospels

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Burke
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Nous Pouvons ◽  
Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
John The Baptist ◽  
Children And Childhood ◽  
Infancy Gospel Of Thomas

The apocryphal infancy gospels (such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Protoevangelium of James) seem at first look to be ideal sources for the study of children and childhood in Early Christianity. They all feature depictions of Jesus as an infant and/or a child; some tell similar tales of other eminent Christian figures, such as Mary of Nazareth and John the Baptist. Few of these texts, however, can be considered “early” texts (i.e., 2nd–3rd centuries) and even those we can confidently date to this period are of limited value for the study of children. One text remains useful for this endeavor: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. And in recent years, several scholars have looked seriously at the gospel for what it can tell us about the experiences of children in antiquity. Yet, even this text must be approached with caution for it has more to say about how adults of the time wanted children to be than what they truly were. Les évangiles de l’enfance apocryphes (comme l’Évangile de l’enfance selon Thomas et le Protévangile de Jacques) semblent à première vue comme des sources idéales pour l’étude des enfants et l’enfance au début du christianisme. Ils ont tous des représentations de Jésus comme un bébé et / ou un enfant, certains racontent des histoires similaires des autres éminentes figures chrétiennes, comme Marie de Nazareth et Jean le Baptiste. Peu de ces textes, cependant, peuvent être considérés tôt (par exemple, 2–3e siècles) et même ceux que nous pouvons en toute confiance dater à cette période sont d’une valeur limitée pour l’étude des enfants. Un texte reste utile pour cette tâche : l’Évangile de l’enfance selon Thomas. Et ces dernières années, plusieurs chercheurs se sont penchés sérieusement sur l’évangile pour ce qu’il peut nous dire au sujet des expériences des enfants dans l’antiquité. Pourtant, même ce texte doit être abordé avec prudence car il a plus à dire sur les attentes des adultes de l’époque aux enfants que ce qu’ils étaient vraiment.

scholarly journals Die Familie des Gargilius Martialis. Lokale Gesellschaft und militär im römischen Nordafrika

2017 ◽  
pp. 463-512
Author(s):  
Peter Herz
Keyword(s):  
Asia Minor ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Local Phenomenon ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Historical Tradition

The main intention of my paper is to show that the careful interpretation of inscriptions may help us in our understanding of certain historical situation usually treated only superficially by the classical (literary) sources. To achieve such an aim it is necessary to understand such testimonia not as isolated exempla but as parts of much broader historical tradition. I tried to achieve this by integrating the epigraphic sources from other parts of the empire (e.g. Asia Minor) in my study. As a first result we can say that the weakening of the imperial authority in not a local phenomenon of Roman Mauretania, but a phenomenon found in many other regions of the empire. Without the existence of strong local authorities that could act in the place of the emperors the whole empire might have collapsed. The emergence of separate empires (e.g. the imperium Galliarum of Postumus or the regnum Palmyrenorum) may be understood as another facette of this time.  

The Anti-Arian Campaigns of Hilary of Poitiers and the “Liber Contra Auxentium”

1992 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel H. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
The West ◽  
De Trinitate ◽  
Hilary Of Poitiers ◽  
Constantius Ii

Few historians of early Christianity would dissent from the view that Hilary of Poitiers was the west's most able and articulate anti-Arian apologist of the 360s. In the course of this bishop's exile in Asia Minor (356–360) and return to the west, there is evidence of a substantial literary activity, most of which was circulated soon after his death and survives to the present day. Works such as his letters to the emperor Constantius II, expecially the so-called In Constantium, his collected dossier against Valens and Ursacius, and his theological treatises De synodis and De trinitate, attained for this once obscure bishop from Gaul a position of preeminence in the minds of the next generation of anti-Arians.

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