scholarly journals ‘I am not strong to dig and I am afraid to beg’: Social status and status concern in the parable of the Dishonest Steward (Lk 16:1–9)

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Ndekha
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Roman World ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Context ◽  
Shame Culture ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interpretative Framework

This article offers a reading of the parable of the Dishonest Steward from the perspective of Greco-Roman status concern. It observes that the parable has a long and complicated history of interpretation. The different approaches in the reading of the parable reveal the unresolved quest in scholarship to establish a reading of the parable that takes into account both the steward’s act of generosity towards his master’s debtors and the praise that follows this action. This article proposes the Greco-Roman status concern as a framework for understanding the meaning of the parable in its original context. Status concern was the spirit of tenacity in maintaining one’s status and honour against all odds characteristic of Greco-Roman honour and shame culture. The article argues that when the parable is read within its literary context, it reveals that at the heart of Jesus’ message in the parable is the theme of persistence as an attribute of authentic discipleship. This understanding of the parable resonates with the entrenched Greco-Roman spirit of status concern. The interpretation would also have been relevant to Luke’s Greco-Roman auditors living on the periphery of the Greco-Roman culture with the constant pressures to conform to the ethos of the larger social context. The steward’s resolve to maintain his status even in the most difficult circumstances provided a paradigm for those Christ-followers to remain steadfast in the faith against all odds.Contribution: The article presents an alternative interpretation of the parable of the Dishonest Steward. By proposing status concern as an interpretative framework, it offers both new insights into the socio-economic and socio-cultural realities of Luke’s world and the continuing evidence of the contribution of Greco-Roman world to the development of the New Testament texts.

Philosophers, Scribes, Rhetors … and Paul? The Educational Background of the New Testament

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Riley Estep
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
History Of

Of increasing interest to New Testament scholars is the educational background of Paul and the early Christians. As evangelical educators, such studies also engage our understanding of the Biblical and historical basis of Christian education. This article endeavors to ascertain the early Christian community's, and particularly Paul's, assessment of education in first-century A.D. Greco-Roman culture as one dimension of the interactions between the early Christian community and its culture. It will (1) provide a brief review of passages in the New Testament that reflect or interact with the educational community of the first-century A.D., (2) Conjecture Paul's assessment of education in Greco-Roman culture, with which early Christians interacted, (3) Itemize implications of Paul's opinion on Greco-Roman education for our understanding on the formation and history of Christian education, and finally (4) Address the need for further study of the subject.

Figurines

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Material Concept ◽  
As If

This book concerns figurines from cultures that have no direct links with each other. It explores the category of the figurine as a key material concept in the art history of antiquity through comparative juxtaposition of papers drawn from Chinese, pre-Columbian, and Greco-Roman culture. It extends the study of figurines beyond prehistory into ancient art-historical contexts. At stake are issues of figuration and anthropomorphism, miniaturization and portability, one-off production and replication, substitution and scale. Crucially, figurines are objects of handling by their users as well as their makers—so that, as touchable objects, they engage the viewer in different ways from flat art. Unlike the voyeuristic relationship of viewing a neatly framed pictorial narrative, as if from the outside, the viewer as handler is always potentially and without protection within the narrative of figurines. This is why they have had potential for a potent, even animated, agency in relation to those who use them.

New Testament

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wheeler-Reed
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
New Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Pastoral Epistles ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Thessalonians 1 ◽  
The New Testament

This chapter maintains that two ideologies concerning marriage and sex pervade the New Testament writings. One ideology codifies a narrative that argues against marriage, and perhaps, sexual intercourse, and the other retains the basic cultural values of the upper classes of the Greco-Roman world. These two ideologies are termed “profamily” and “antifamily.” The chapter proceeds in a chronological fashion starting with 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, and Mark. It concludes by examining Matthew, Luke, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla.

A systematic method for estimating the populations of Greek and Roman settlements

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 301-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Hanson ◽  
S. G. Ortman
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Urban Population ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
History Of ◽  
Urbanization Rate

The last few years have seen a growing interest in the urbanism of the Greek and Roman world. This has led to a consensus of sorts about some of its vital statistics, such as the sizes of the populations of the most important settlements and the size of the overall urban population, the urbanization rate (i.e., the share of individuals that lived in urban, rather than rural, contexts), and the total population. A good example comes from W. Scheidel in the Cambridge economic history of the Greco-Roman world. According to him, it is likely that c.1.5 million people lived in the 5 largest cities of the Greco-Roman world by the 2nd c. A.D. These included Rome, which is usually agreed to have had a population of about 1 million; Alexandria, which might have had c.500,000; Antioch, which could have had at least 150,000; and Carthage and Ephesus (Scheidel does not give explicit figures for those).

scholarly journals City of Dog

2020 ◽  
pp. 009614422091013
Author(s):  
Sam Ottewill-Soulsby
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
The City

To be fully human in the Greco-Roman world was to be a member of a city. This is unsurprising as cities were the building blocks of Greek and Roman culture and society. The urban landscape of post-Roman Western Europe looked dramatically different, with smaller, less economically diverse cities which played a smaller role in administration. Despite this, Greco-Roman ideas of humans as city-beings remained influential. This article explores this by investigating early medieval descriptions of cynocephali, which sought to determine whether the dog-headed men were human or not. Accounts of the cynocephali that presented them as human showed them living in urban settlements, whereas in reports of non-human cynocephali there are no cities. In exploring interactions between cynocephali and urban settings through ethnographic portrayals and hagiography, this article traces the lingering importance of the city for concepts of humanity.

The Legal Policy and Reforms of Hadrian

1934 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Pringsheim
Keyword(s):  
Small Towns ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
The South ◽  
Legal Policy ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Frontier Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Roman Administration

The reign of Hadrian marks the beginning of a new epoch in Roman administration and in the history of Roman Law. Hadrian's visit to Britain is immortalised by the Wall which he built from Tyne to Solway. Its construction is characteristic of the Emperor's willingness to renounce further conquests and even to abandon land which had been Roman. The Wall marked the limit of the districts which he was prepared to retain and administer. It followed, not the shortest and easiest route, but a line beyond the fortified area whence a look-out could be kept over the barbarians outside, and its object was the completion and definition of the fortified frontier region whereby it became easier to civilise and to pacify the country which lay to the south. Hadrian's aim was to bring order and peace to the land bounded by the new frontiers of the Roman world. Thus Hadrian may be sharply contrasted with his predecessor Trajan, the soldier on the throne, who owed his elevation to his successful wars in the Rhine region, and who as Emperor extended the frontiers of the Empire on the lower Danube and in the East. On Hadrian's accession the Empire was more powerful than ever before or afterwards, but its financial and military resources were strained to the utmost, and indeed frequently had been overstrained. The small peasant owners and small towns, sources of Roman culture and prosperity, had begun to suffer and disappear.

The Gospel of Mark, Orality Studies and Performance Criticism

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 350-393
Author(s):  
Pieter J.J. Botha
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of Mark ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Jesus Movement ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Performance Criticism ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Performance Events ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Orality/aurality is recognised by a growing number of scholars as a significant aspect of the context of New Testament texts. As part of the exploration of the oral features of New Testament texts some are turning to Greco-Roman storytelling and oratory, informed by performance studies. A selection of these explorations are discussed to introduce scholarship that attempts to identify various elements of performance events in the early church as a basis for re-thinking our ways of studying and our interpretations of the New Testament writings in their original context. The obstacles to such efforts are considerable, but some significant gains have been made. Focusing on research on the Gospel of Mark, this discussion shows how performance critical studies allow new insights into the origins of the Gospels, leading to interesting new and meaningful perspectives on the history of the early Jesus movement with specific attention to the role telling and presenting the Markan story played.

Lead pollution and the Roman economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 354-364
Author(s):  
Damian Pavlyshyn ◽  
Iain Johnstone ◽  
Richard Saller
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Somatic Energy

More than a decade ago, the Oxford Roman Economy Project (OXREP)1 and the Cambridge economic history of the Greco-Roman world put the question of the performance of the Roman economy at the center of historical debate, prompting a flood of books and articles attempting to assess the degree of growth in the economy.2 The issue is of sufficient importance that it has figured in the narratives of economists analyzing the impact of institutional frameworks on the potential for growth.3 As the debate has continued, there has been some convergence: most historians would agree that there was some Smithian growth as evidenced by urbanization and trade, while acknowledging that production remained predominantly agricultural and based primarily on somatic energy (i.e., human and animal).4 This is, of course, a very broad framework that does not differentiate the Roman empire from other complex pre-industrial societies. The challenge is to refine the analysis in order to put content into the broad description of “modest though significant growth”5 and to offer a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the economy.

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