Hellenistic philosophy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sedley
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The World ◽  
Philosophical Movement ◽  
Hellenistic Philosophy

The Hellenistic schools dominated the Greco-Roman world from c.300 bc to the mid first century bc, making it an era of great philosophical brilliance. The principal doctrinal philosophies were Stoicism and Epicureanism, but this was also the age in which scepticism emerged as a philosophical movement. The central issues of debate were the nature and origin of the world, the means to attaining truth and the ethical goal.

scholarly journals The Book of Revelation: Hope in Dark Times

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Francis J. Moloney
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
First Century ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The World ◽  
Book Of Daniel

Contemporary analysis of the world that produced the Book of Revelation suggests that Patmos was not a penal settlement, and there is little evidence that Domitian systematically persecuted Christians. The Emperor Cult was widely practiced, but Christians were not being persecuted for lack of participation. The document makes much of God’s victory in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the slain and standing Lamb (Rev 5:6). The “saints” were not persecuted Asian Christians but, under the influence of the Book of Daniel, John’s presentation of those from Israel’s sacred history who lived by the Word of God and accepted the messianic witness of the prophets (8:3–4; 11:18; 13:7, 10; 14:12; 16:6; 17:6; 18:20, 24; 19:8; 20:6, 9). They already have life, the application of the saving effects of the slain and risen lamb “from the foundation of the world” (13:8). John addresses late first-century Asian Christians, presenting the model of these “saints,” offering them hope as they are tempted by the allure of the Greco-Roman world and its mores. He invites them into the life and light of the New Jerusalem, the Christian church (22:1–5).

Theories and Facts: the Early Gothic Migrations

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Roman History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Contact Zones ◽  
Narrow Channels ◽  
The Past ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Frontiers ◽  
The Impact

The most salient fact about the Gothic migrations is that they forcefully underscore how old theories never die. They linger to play upon the intellect for generations until they seem to constitute facts themselves. The study of the migrations tempts the unwary with marvelous sagas and apparently straightforward accounts of trusted ancient authors. Even if we follow Odysseus' lead, and with our ears carefully plugged with scientific beeswax, rivet our eyes to the narrow channels of fact, the old theories still beckon; after all, Roman history is in part a series of thrusts and counterthrusts along the northern peripheries of the Greco-Roman world, in need of explanation then as now. The origins of the migrants and invaders of the Roman frontiers was a question appropriate to Tacitus in the late first century A.D. and to countless others across the centuries. All too often the questioners were far removed from the contact zones and looked down upon a simple battlefield of “we and they.” Such self-proclaimed Valkyries chose sides for their own reasons, usually preconditioned and often totally unrelated to the struggles below. This essay traces the evolution of the theoretical and factual elements of the early Gothic migrations and concludes with a personal sketch drawn in light of recent studies of the Roman frontier and insights from other areas, especially comparative anthropology.The historiography of the early Gothic migrations is a classic example of the impact of contemporary attitudes, problems, and methodologies on the study of the past. So meager is the evidence that is likens to a broken kaleidoscope in which the few remaining pieces can be jostled easily from place to place.

scholarly journals The Catalogs of Vices and Virtues in the Pauline Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
José David Padilla
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Virtuous Life

It was common to find in the writings of the different Greco-Roman philosophical schools of the first century certain catalogs of two or more vices and virtues. They were used to teach that a virtuous life ensured well-being and health while encouraging their disciples to abandon their vicious life leading to ruin. These catalogs influenced the composition of moral catalogs in the New Testament, especially in the letters written or attributed to Paul. Their catalogs were used as a rhetorical tool where the moral teachings of Christianity were developed and taught. According to the divine plan in Christ Jesus, good acts or virtues were considered divinely inspired because they helped the growth of the human person. On the other hand, bad actions or vices were seen as unworthy or sinful because they go against God’s plan and as a sign of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Thus, the catalogs of vices and virtues invited conversion and invited us to wait for the day when God will make all evil and corruption disappear from the world when love (agape), the Christian virtue per excellence, would be the norm for all.

Sin in the New Testament

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Siker
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Message

This book examines what the different New Testament writings have to say about sin within the broader historical and theological contexts of first-century Christianity. These contexts include both the immediate world of Judaism out of which early Christianity emerged, as well as the larger Greco-Roman world into which Christianity quickly spread as an increasingly Gentile religious movement. The Jewish sacrificial system associated with the Jerusalem Temple was important for dealing with human sin, and early Christians appropriated the language and imagery of sacrifice in describing the salvific importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Greco-Roman understandings of sin as error or ignorance played an important role in the spreading of the Christian message to the Gentile world. The book details the distinctive portraits of sin in each of the canonical Gospels in relation to the life and ministry of Jesus. Beyond the Gospels the book develops how the letters of Paul and other early Christian writers address the reality of sin, again primarily in relation to the revelatory ministry of Jesus.

The idea of becoming an individual in the context of early Christianity

1997 ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Pavlo Pavlenko
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Different Parts

The last centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, the first centuries after that, were enveloped in the history of mankind as a period of the total crisis and the decline of the Greco-Roman civilization, a crisis that covered virtually all spheres of the social life of the Roman world and which, as ever before, experienced almost every one, whether he is a slave or a free citizen, a small merchant or a big slave or an aristocrat. As a reaction to the crisis, in various parts of the empire the civil wars and the slavery uprising erupt in different parts of the empire. Under such conditions of life, the world around itself no longer seemed to man to be self-sufficient, harmonious, stable, "good" and warded by a cohort of traditional deities. Yes, and the gods themselves were now turned out to be incapable, unable to change the unceasing flow of fatal doom.

Discovering the Characteristics of Collegia—Collegia Sodalicia and Collegia Tenuiorum in 1 Corinthians 8, 10 and 15

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oh-Young Kwon
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Dead

AbstractIn 1 Corinthians 8, 10 and 15 Paul appears to argue against some of the Corinthian Christians who would have regarded their Christian community as analogous to a sort of voluntary collegia in the first century Greco-Roman world. Some characteristics of the collegia are exhibited in these chapters. Especially 8:1-13 and 10:1-22 contains the characteristics of collegia sodalicia, while 15:29 comprises those of collegia tenuiorum. This finding provides an alternative to the current scholarly interpretation of the Pauline description of the Corinthians’ eating food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor 8:1-13 and 10:1-22) and of their engagement in baptism for (or on behalf of) the dead (1 Cor 15:29).

The Gospel According to Luke (I–IX)

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Fitzmyer , S. J.
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good News ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Book Of Acts

In this first of two volumes on the Gospel According to Luke, Joseph A. Fitzmyer provides an exhaustive introduction, a definitive new translation, and extensive notes and commentary on Luke’s Gospel. Fitzmyer brings to the task his mastery of ancient and modern languages, his encyclopedic knowledge of the sources, and his intimate acquaintance with the questions and issues occasioned by the third Synoptic Gospel. Luke’s unique literary and linguistic features, its relation to the other Gospels and the book of Acts, and its distinctive theological slant are discussed in detail by the author. The Jesus of Luke’s Gospel speaks to the Greco-Roman world of first-century Christians, giving the followers of Jesus a reason for remaining faithful. Fitzmyer’s exposition of this Gospel helps modern-day Christians hear the Good News afresh.

The Stoic Philosopher Posidonius

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
John A. Jillions
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Greek Philosopher ◽  
C 50 ◽  
The Universe

Posidonius of Apamea (c. 135–c. 50/51 BCE) was the thinker most influential in shaping the religious Stoicism that dominated the Greco-Roman world in the first century CE. He was a Greek philosopher teaching in Rome, and a mark of his influence was that his student Cicero later felt obliged to write a number of extended works debunking the thought of his teacher. Posidonius’s views were largely shaped by his reading of Plato (and to some extent Aristotle). His central affirmation is that communion and “sympathy” between the divine and created worlds is constant and permanent. This “cosmic sympathy” meant that any movement in one part of the universe affected others, like touching a cosmic mobile, thus making it possible to read divine signs in nature. Likewise, a spiritual force in every human soul—one’s daimon, like the famous daimon of Socrates—makes possible communion with the divine in numerous ways, especially through dreams.

Slavery

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Byron
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Vital Part ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religious Text ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Accepted Part ◽  
Insight Into

Slavery was an accepted part of the world in which the biblical authors lived and wrote. It was a vital part of the empires in the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman West. The Hebrew Bible condones slavery, contains laws regulating it, and even uses it as a metaphor to describe God’s relationship with Israel. The New Testament, entrenched in the Greco-Roman world, accepts the fact of slavery, commands slaves to obey their masters, and even recounts the return of a slave to his master. But as attitudes began to change and abolitionism became a motivating force, biblicists were challenged to reexamine the Bible in light of the new worldview. The Bible was used both to support and to condemn slavery. More recently, the descendants of former slaves have asked how the Bible, used to subjugate their ancestors, can still be a valuable religious text. These shifts in attitude have led to a reevaluation of how slavery is studied. Scholars have moved away from legal definitions of slavery, which view the institution from the owner’s perspective, to sociological definitions that provide insight into how the institution was experienced by the enslaved.

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