scholarly journals Rodzina a wiara w Passio ss. Perpetuae et Felicitatis

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 555-572
Author(s):  
Bożena Stawoska-Jundziłł

This article concerns about family thread in description of Perpetuae’s martyr­dom in 3rd century Carthage. It describes Perpetuae’s family structure, family form upper strata of Roman Africa society, but not from aristocracy. The main func­tion has father but almost equal in prestige is his daughter – Perpetua. Her hus­band was not mention text did not mention, except from the fact of being a father. Similar faint role have two living brothers. Story focus more on the youngest dead brother, that died in torment from deceased. Author suggest that Perpetua form unknown reason have advantage in prestige above her pagan father, implements, from her martyrdom, plan for salvation all of her family. This “altruistic” plan is to shorten posthumous torments for not baptise brother and to end members of family dilemma, torn between new religion and tradition. It makes Perpetua, a heroic person, that sacrifice upbringing of her child for the sake of rest family. This text’s meaning is rather exceptional for the early Christian literature and it definitely exclude authorship from Tertullian because of his view on women.

Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein

This book examines the meanings of purification practices and purity concepts in early Christian culture, as articulated and formed by Greek Christian authors of the first three centuries, from Paul to Origen. Concepts of purity and defilement were pivotal for understanding human nature, sin, history, and ritual in early Christianity. In parallel, major Christian practices, such as baptism, abstinence from food or sexual activity, were all understood, felt, and shaped as instances of purification. Two broad motivations, at some tension with each other, formed the basis of Christian purity discourse. The first was substantive: the creation and maintenance of anthropologies and ritual theories coherent with the theological principles of the new religion. The second was polemic: construction of Christian identity by laying claim to true purity while marking purity practices and beliefs of others (Jews, pagans, or “heretics”) as false. The book traces the interplay of these factors through a close reading of second- and third-century Christian Greek authors discussing dietary laws, death defilement, sexuality, and baptism, on the background of Greco-Roman and Jewish purity discourses. There are three central arguments. First, purity and defilement were central concepts for understanding Christian cultures of the second and third centuries. Second, Christianities developed their own conceptions and practices of purity and purification, distinct from those of contemporary and earlier Jewish and pagan cultures, though decisively influenced by them. Third, concepts and practices of purity and defilement were shifting and contentious, an arena for boundary-marking between Christians and others and between different Christian groups.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Otto

As an allegorical interpreter who perceived some of the spiritual teachings embedded in the Hebrew scriptures, Philo did not match the image of the stereotypical Jew constructed by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius. Neither, however, did he fulfill their criteria to be considered a legitimate Christian. This chapter argues that Philo functions in early Christian writings as neither a Christian nor a Jew but is situated in between these two increasingly differentiated identities. Acting as a third term in the equation, Philo the “Pythagorean,” the “predecessor,” and the “Hebrew,” mediates between the categories of Christian and Jew while ensuring that the two identities remain rhetorically and conceptually distinct. An epilogue briefly traces the varying depictions of Philo in later Christian literature, including accounts of his baptism by the apostle John and his transformation into Philo Judaeus, Philo the Jew.


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