scholarly journals Utilitas rei publicae contra misericordiam. Justinian’s Criminal Legislation in Borys Łapicki’s View

2019 ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Bożena Czech-Jezierska

Borys Łapicki (1889–1974) was a Roman law scholar whose works contained many references to the correlations between Roman law and ethics. The article provides an overview of B. Łapicki’s writings and discusses his views on the concept of misericordia and on the influence of that concept on Emperor Justinian’s criminal legislation. A definite and clear-cut thesis emerges from this analysis. Borys Łapicki declares that although Justinian was an emperor who considered himself and was considered to be the great defender of the Christian faith, his legislation was influenced by the principle of utilitas rei publicae, rather than by Christian misericordia and by the humanitarian principles of the New Testament ethics. This is particularly evident in his criminal legislation. This leads B. Łapicki to conclude that it was “not Christianity that influenced Justinian, but on the contrary, he exercised his influence on Christianity so that it could serve his political purposes.”

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-298
Author(s):  
Judith M. Lieu

In Roman Faith and Christian Faith Teresa Morgan brings a classicist’s sensitivities to a subject that lies at the heart of the New Testament but that is often taken as self-evident. This article engages in a conversation with its insights, with particular reference to the Johannine literature. It suggests that more nuancing might be needed, not least from a recognition of the demands of the genre of the gospel, but also finds much to provoke further reflection.


1963 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 294
Author(s):  
A. E. Raubitschek ◽  
A. N. Sherwin-White

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Goede

This article aims to construct the rights and duties of slave- owners in antiquity as part of the socio-historical context of the New Testament. In order to achieve this aim, the primary sources referring to Greek, Roman and Jewish law of slavery will first be described. Three aspects of the law of slavery, namely legal definitions of freedom and slavery, the legal status of slaves, and the rights of slave-owners are investigated in Greek, Roman and Jewish law. Relevant texts from these sources are then identified, analysed and interpreted. The re- sults of this process of analysis and interpretation are used to construct the legal context within which the exhortations directed at slave-owners in the New Testament should be read. We submit that Jewish law provided a sound alternative legal and religious context to the writers of the New Testament addressing Christian slave-owners. This alternative context functioned as a counterweight to the strict legal contexts pro- vided by Greek and Roman law.


1989 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-298
Author(s):  
Joel Marcus

“While Pride and Prejudice is certainly not a primary source for reconstructing the world of the New Testament, the vivid way in which it takes us into one person's crisis of perception can, I believe, allow us to enter imaginatively into the crisis of first-century people on their way to Christian faith.”


2019 ◽  
Vol 112 (04) ◽  
pp. 517-540
Author(s):  
Yakir Paz

AbstractIn a famous story in b. Šabb. 116a–b, Imma Shalom and her brother, Rabban Gamaliel, present to a philosopher a dispute concerning the inheritance of the daughter. The judge, having being bribed by Imma Shalom, rules in her favor, against the ruling of the Torah of Moses, arguing that the latter has been abrogated and replaced by the “Torah of the Gospel,” which states that “the son and the daughter inherit equally.” After being bribed by Rabban Gamaliel, the philosopher recants, citing Matt 5:17, where Jesus reaffirms the validity of the Mosaic Law.This article argues that the “Torah of the Gospel” actually refers to The Syro-Roman Lawbook, and that the story is constructed as a response to a radical and new legal supersessionist argument brought forth in this book which is directly linked to the Roman law of equal inheritance. This is the first clear evidence we have that, alongside the New Testament, the Babylonian rabbis also read and engaged directly with Christian books of their time written in Syriac. This has major ramifications on the way we perceive the textual culture of the Babylonian rabbis and their intellectual interactions with East Syrians.


Author(s):  
Savio Abreu

This chapter is an elucidation of the process of identity formation among the Catholic Charismatics and the neo-Pentecostals, both at the corporate and the individual levels, with the recreation of the New Testament Church (NTC) as the guiding motif. The process of identity formation for the neo-Pentecostals involves marking clear-cut boundaries with Catholicism and Hinduism, the two dominant religious traditions in Goa. Assuming the identity of the NTC involves appropriating the dualistic spiritual worldview of the early Church and defining their mission as saving the lost, the lost being Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, and all others who are not Born-Again Christians. The identity of the neo-Pentecostals is closely linked with their idea of the mission to include urgent, aggressive proselytization and numerical expansion.


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