scholarly journals Figurative Images in the Early Christian Funeral Paintings of Chersonese

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 38-54
Author(s):  
Irina Anatol’evna Zavadskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Artistic Tradition

The paintings of the 11 early Christian burial vaults of Chersonese uncovering the image of the Garden of Eden fully correspond to the traditions of the Late Antique art. There figurative images are very rare, and not all of them have been interpreted properly. Single man’s figures preserved in the painting of three vaults (of the years 1853/1905, 1909 and in the vault on N. I. Tur’s land) are of particular interest for the determination of the time and ways of penetration of this artistic tradition into early Christian Chersonese. A comparative analysis of funeral paintings from different regions of the Eastern Roman Empire makes it possible to determine the function of the mentioned images of men in the painting of these tombs and to explain their origin in early Christian burials. According to the fragments that survived, all three figures of young men are very similar in dress and posture. Probably, they all held a burning candle in the hands, the image of which survived only in the vault of the year 1909. These images are comparable to the figures of servants from a number of tombs discovered in the Balkans, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Levant. The young men from Chersonese are most close to the images of male servants from the tombs in Bulgaria and Serbia. From the analogies given in this paper there are reasons to interpret the figures of young men in the three vaults of Chersonese as images of servants. Figures of servants were widespread in ancient art and also in Christian burials to the end of the fourth century. Most likely, these figures appeared in the paintings of Chersonese under the influence of the Eastern Balkan artistic tradition.

Amulets and the Ritual Efficacy of Christian Symbols

2019 ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Rangar H. Cline
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Insight Into

Although “magical” amulets are often overlooked in studies of early Christian material culture, they provide unique insight into the lives of early Christians. The high number of amulets that survive from antiquity, their presence in domestic and mortuary archaeological contexts, and frequent discussions of amulets in Late Antique literary sources indicate that they constituted an integral part of the fabric of religious life for early Christians. The appearance of Christian symbols on amulets, beginning in the second century and occurring with increasing frequency in the fourth century and afterward, reveals the increasing perception of Christian symbols as ritually potent among Christians and others in the Roman Empire. The forms, texts, and images on amulets reveal the fears and hopes that occupied the daily lives of early Christians, when amulets designed for ritual efficacy if not orthodoxy were believed to provide a defense against forces that would harm body and soul.

The Early Christian Archaeology of the Balkans

2019 ◽  
pp. 536-556
Author(s):  
William Bowden
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
New Religion

Textual sources attest to the early spread of Christianity across the Balkan region, and archaeological evidence demonstrates how the new religion transformed the built environment and material culture of the area in Late Antiquity, although dating and analysis of these buildings have tended to focus on stylistic and typological approaches. Prior to the late fourth century archaeological evidence of Christianity is mainly found in funerary contexts, but in the fifth and sixth centuries the urban and rural landscapes were transformed by the construction of Christian architecture, including the monumentalization of martyrs’ graves at towns such as Salona and the creation of major episcopal centers at provincial capitals such as Stobi and Nicopolis. These churches were funded by multiple individuals, evidenced by inscriptions that reference ecclesiastical and lay donors of both sexes. The location and design of many of the churches also reflect the increasingly militarized nature of the Late Antique Balkans.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Otto
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Text Production ◽  
Church Father ◽  
Intellectual Formation ◽  
The Relationship

Between the second and the sixteenth centuries CE, references to the Jewish exegete Philo of Alexandria occur exclusively in texts written by Christians. David T. Runia has described this phenomenon as the adoption of Philo by Christians as an “honorary Church Father.” Drawing on the work of Jonathan Z. Smith and recent investigations of the “Parting of the Ways” of early Christianity and Judaism, this study argues that early Christian invocations of Philo reveal ongoing efforts to define the relationship between Jewishness and Christianness, their areas of overlap and points of divergence. The introduction situates invocations of Philo within the wider context of early Christian writing about Jews and Jewishness. It considers how Philo and his early Christian readers participated in the larger world of Greco-Roman philosophical schools, text production, and the ethical and intellectual formation (paideia) of elite young men in the Roman Empire.

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maijastina Kahlos
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Roman

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity reconsiders the religious history of the late Roman Empire, focusing on the shifting position of dissenting religious groups. The groups under consideration are non-Christians (‘pagans’) and deviant Christians (‘heretics’). The period from the mid-fourth century until the mid-fifth century CE witnessed a significant transformation of late Roman society and a gradual shift from the world of polytheistic religions into the Christian Empire. This book demonstrates that the narrative is much more nuanced than the simple Christian triumph over the classical world. It looks at everyday life, economic aspects, day-to-day practices, and conflicts of interest in the relations of religious groups. The book addresses two aspects: rhetoric and realities, and consequently delves into the interplay between the manifest ideologies and daily life found in late antique sources. We perceive constant flux between moderation and coercion that marked the relations of religious groups, both majorities and minorities, as well as the imperial government and religious communities. Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity is a detailed analysis of selected themes and a close reading of selected texts, tracing key elements and developments in the treatment of dissident religious groups. The book focuses on specific themes, such as the limits of imperial legislation and ecclesiastical control, the end of sacrifices, and the label of magic. It also examines the ways in which dissident religious groups were construed as religious outsiders in late Roman society.

The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Shepard Kraemer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Mediterranean Population ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
The Mediterranean

The alliance of the Roman Empire with the emerging orthodox Christian church in the early fourth century had profound consequences for the large population of Greek- (and Latin-)speaking Jews living across the Mediterranean diaspora. No known writings survive from diaspora Jews. Their experiences must be gleaned from unreliable accounts of Christian bishops and historiographers, surviving laws, and limited material evidence—synagogue sites, inscriptions, a few papyrus documents. Long neglected by historians, the diaspora population, together with its distinctive cultural forms, appears in decline by the early seventh century. This book explores why. In part, diaspora Jews suffered from disasters that affected the whole late antique Mediterranean population—continuing warfare, earthquakes, and plague. But, like all other non-orthodox Christians, Jews were subject to extensive pressures to become orthodox Christian, which increased over time. Late Roman laws, sometimes drafted by Christian lobbyists, imposed legal disabilities on Jews that were relieved if they became Christians. Fueled by malicious sermons of Christian bishops, Christian mobs attacked synagogues and sometimes Jews themselves. Significantly, Jews retained many of their earlier legal rights while other non-orthodox Christians lost theirs. In response, some Jews became Christians, voluntarily or under duress. Some probably emigrated to escape orthodox Christian pressures. Some leveraged political and social networks to their advantage. Some violently resisted their Christian antagonists. Jews may occasionally have entertained the possibility of divine messianic intervention or embraced forms of Jewish practice that constructed tighter social boundaries around them—an increased use of Hebrew, and heightened interest, perhaps, in rabbinic practices.

Defining the Boundaries of Orthodoxy: Eunomius in the Anti-Jewish Polemic of his Cappadocian Opponents

2007 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-723
Author(s):  
Christine Shepardson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Christian Leaders

Scholars have long recognized that the theological arguments of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa against their opponent Eunomius helped to shape the development of Christian orthodoxy, and thus Christian self-definition, in the late fourth-century Roman Empire. The cultural and theological significance of the strong anti-Judaizing rhetoric contained within these Cappadocian authors’ anti-Eunomian treatises, however, remains largely unexamined. Recent scholarship has demonstrated the critical role of anti-Judaizing rhetoric in the arguments that early Christian leaders Athanasius of Alexandria and Ephrem of Nisibis used against “Arian” Christian opponents in the middle of the fourth century, and the implications of this rhetoric for understanding early Christian-Jewish and intra-Christian relations. Scholars have yet to recognize, however, that anti-Judaizing rhetoric similarly helped to define the terms and consequences of the anti-Eunomian arguments made by Basil, Gregory, and Gregory in the decades that followed. The anti-Judaizing rhetoric of their texts attests to the continuing advantages that these leaders gained by rhetorically associating their Christian opponents with Jews. By claiming that Eunomius and his followers were too Jewish in their beliefs to be Christian, and too Christian in their behaviors to be Jewish, Basil, Gregory, and Gregory deployed anti-Judaizing rhetoric to argue that Eunomians were significantly inferior to both true Christians and Jews. The Cappadocians’ strategic comparisons with Jews and Judaism rhetorically distanced their Eunomian opponents from Christianity and thus strengthened the Cappadocians’ own claims to represent Christian orthodoxy.

Late Antique Christian Law in the Eastern Roman Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifat Monnickendam
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Biblical Commentary ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Legal Sociology

To date, early Christian sources have drawn the scholarly attention of theologians, scholars of biblical commentary, and historians, but not of legal historians, presumably because such sources do not offer sufficiently substantial material for legal historical research. Nevertheless, a few studies have blended legal history and late antique Christianity, and an analysis of these studies shows they are based on a “centralist,” or “formalist–positivist,” conceptualization of law. In this paper I review the scholarship of legal traditions in the eastern Roman Empire— namely, Roman law and Greek legal traditions, the halakha in rabbinic literature, and the halakhic traditions in Qumranic literature and in the New Testament—and contextualize it within developments in legal theory and legal sociology and anthropology (that is, the rise of legal pluralism). This review shows that developments in legal theory, in legal sociology and anthropology, and in legal history of the late antique world are producing new paradigms and models in the study of late antique legal history. These new models, together with new methods in reading early Christian non-legal texts of the eastern Roman Empire, can be utilized in the study of early Christianity, thereby opening gateways to the study of its legal traditions and revealing independent legal traditions that have remained hidden to date.

scholarly journals Did the Rabbis Believe in Agreus Pan? Rabbinic Relationships with Roman Power, Culture, and Religion inGenesis Rabbah63

2018 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-450
Author(s):  
Moshe Simon-Shoshan
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article presents a reading of the story of the Patriarch's meeting with the Emperor Diocletian as it appears in the late antique midrashic compilation,Genesis Rabbah. The story encapsulates the complexity of the relationship between the rabbis and Roman political, cultural and religious hegemony, showing the rabbis as both in eternal conflict with the Roman Empire and its culture and, yet, in many ways, very Roman themselves. In the second half of the article, I argue that this story presents a unique perspective on rabbinic views of both “demons” and the Olympian gods themselves. I conclude by comparing and contrasting these views with the approaches of early Christian thinkers.

The Comparative Study of “Scholasticism” in Late Antique Mesopotamia: Rabbis and East Syrians

AJS Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam H. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of

Now is an appropriate time to reconsider the historiographical benefit that a comparative study of the East Syrian (“Nestorian”) schools and the Babylonian rabbinic academies may offer. This is attributable both to the recent, rapid increase in scholarship on Jewish–Christian relations in the Roman Empire and late antiquity more broadly, and to the return by some scholars of rabbinic Judaism to the issues of a scholarly exchange of the late 1970s and early 1980s about the nature of rabbinic academic institutionalization. Furthermore, over the past twenty years, scholars of classics, Greek and Roman history, and late antiquity have significantly added to the bibliography on the transmission of knowledge—in lay person's terms, education—in the Greco-Roman and early Christian worlds. Schools continue to be an intense topic of conversation, and my own recent work on the School of Nisibis and the East Syrian schools in general suggests that the transformations and innovations of late antiquity also occurred in the Sasanian Empire, at a great distance from the centers of classical learning, such as Athens, Alexandria, and Antioch. The recently reexamined East Syrian sources may help push the conversation about rabbinic academic institutionalization forward. However, the significance of this issue is not simply attributable to its bearing on the social and institutional history of rabbinic institutions. Such inquiry may also reflect on how we understand the Babylonian Talmud and on the difficult redaction history of its constituent parts. Furthermore, I hope that the discussion offered herein will contribute to the ongoing analysis of the late antique creation and formalization of cultures of learning, which were transmitted, in turn, into the Eastern (i.e., Islamic and “Oriental” Christian and Jewish) and Western Middle Ages within their corresponding communities.

scholarly journals Late Antique Cultures of Breath: Politics and the Holy Spirit

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Difference ◽  
The Universe

AbstractUsing sources from the fourth century CE, Thomas E. Hunt analyses how people imagined breath in late antiquity. Breathing was a way to mark out and understand human difference in the complex social world of the late Roman Empire. In this context, a person’s breath was used to judge the quality of their social relationships. Breath also held cosmic import, for when a person drew in air they participated in the wider structure of the universe. Christian writers described the inner life of God by referring to these models of breath and breathing. In this essay, Hunt shows how social and theological accounts of breathy relation reinforced each other.

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