Piety/Godliness in Early Christianity and the Roman World

By the beginning of the 1st century ce, piety/godliness (Greek: εὐσέβεια; Latin: pietas) came to entail the dutiful fulfilment of one’s obligations to one’s household, homeland, and gods. It could also describe one’s respectful attitude toward and treatment of the dead, guests, hosts, and supplicants as well as describe keeping an oath. Numerous studies on the use of piety in the New Testament have been concerned about identifying the cultural backgrounds that influenced the biblical authors’ deployment of the term and whether such use retains its Greek and Roman meanings, derives from Hellenistic Judaism, or reflects a “Christianization” of the term to encapsulate the complete Christian life, including both proper belief and practice. Outside of the field of biblical studies, philologists in classics have studied the evolution and use of the term εὐσέβεια and its cognates in ancient Greek literature, where the term had significant purchase in philosophical literature. The Latin virtue of pietas gains significant prominence in political discourse near the dusk of the Roman Republic and at the dawn of the Roman Empire with the publication of Virgil’s Aeneid and Augustus’s restoration of priesthoods and temples. Although the term εὐσέβεια and its cognates occur in Acts and 2 Peter, the majority of attention to the significance of this term in early Christian literature has centered around its meaning and function in the canonical Letters to Timothy and Titus, also known as the Pastoral Epistles. In particular, scholars have been concerned about whether the use of the term in the Pastorals reflects the respective author’s accommodation to Greek society (and thus a further development away from the earliest/more authentic/Pauline articulations of the Christian faith) or rather reflects enculturation within Hellenistic Jewish thought. Neither the historical Jesus nor Paul in his undisputed letters describe the ideal Christian life in terms of piety—thus it remains a fascinating topic to consider the social and political implications of early Christians utilizing this terminology which held significant cultural capital and prestige in its Greek and Roman cultural contexts.

Transfiguracja – Piękna złośnica Jacques’a Rivette’a w świetle mimo-sekularnej myśli o filmie i mediach światłowodowych

The essay is an interpretation of the film by Jacques Rivette La Belle Noiseuse (1991) within the context of post-secular studies. The sketch is inspired primarily by the writings of Martin Heidegger and Jean-Luc Nancy, and it also corresponds with the Bible and biblical studies. The author describes the creative process shown in the film as an act of salvation which occurs between the painter and his model. The hiding of the resulting image is understood here in relation to the passion, cross and burial of Jesus which brings the hope for a liberated life and “the new creation”. The film is made in a very consistent way, which opens up the perspective of crossing the world of images, paintings and classical films (the world of stage), towards the art of mutual respect (the world of interface). Rivette’s work contains a multitude of relevant observations and indications regarding psychology, religion and culture, but it also reveals the possibility of a new way of thinking about film and the media, close to Nancy’s post-metaphysical thought.

Konversi di Kalangan Orang Percaya: Analisis Biblika Kata “Murtad” Menurut Ibrani 3:12

ABSTRAKKeputusan untuk mengikut Yesus sebagai Tuhan dan Juruselamat seharusnya sudah final bagi setiap orang percaya. Tentunya ada banyak tantangan dalam kehidupan seseorang dalam mengikut Yesus dan ini yang disebut sebagai proses kehidupan. Proses kehidupan bisa terjadi dalam keluarga, pekerjaan, jodoh, masa depan, studi, lingkungan, dll. Setiap orang percaya diharapkan menang menghadapi segala tantangan dan tetap setia dalam mengikut Yesus. Namun dalam kenyataannya, banyak di antara umat Kristen yang katanya sudah mengaku menerima Yesus, setia dalam ibadah, bahkan terlibat aktif dalam pelayanan di gereja lokal, tiba-tiba menyatakan diri menyangkal Yesus Kristus, serta tidak lagi menjadi bagian orang Kristen, dan akhirnya berpindah kepada keyakinan lain. Kemurtadan terjadi karena beberapa aspek yang sebetulnya tidak fundamental dalam kehidupan. Hal ini kiranya menjadi perhatian khusus, supaya setiap orang percaya dapat teguh dalam imannya kepada Yesus Kristus. Artikel ini menggunakan metode deskritif kualitatif berdasarkan kajian pustaka, dengan studi biblika atas Ibrani 3:12. Tujuan penulisan antara lain: Pertama, setiap orang percaya mengerti betul serta memahami bahwa mengikuti Yesus harus setia sampai akhir hidup. Kedua, mengerti secara jelas apa makna dari murtad dan tidak melakukannya. Ketiga, gereja-gereja dapat secara serius mengajarkan tentang kesungguhan dalam mengikut Yesus, sehingga murtad tidak banyak terjadi di antara orang Kristen. Temuan yang dikaji adalah sebuah pemahaman tentang kata konversi (“murtad”), dan ditutup dengan pesan agar kita senantiasa menjaga iman yang teguh dalam Yesus Kristus. ABSTRACTThe decision to follow Jesus as The Lord and The Savior should be final for every believer. There can be many challenges in the life of Jesus’s followers and this is called the process of life. The process of life can occur in family, work, mate, future, study and environment. Every believer is expected to overcome in the face of all challenges and always follow Jesus. But in reality, many Christians who claim to have accepted Jesus and be faithful in worship, and are even involved in various ministry, suddenly decide to deny Jesus Christ and become apostates and are no longer part of Christians, and eventually convert to other beliefs. Apostasy occurs because of some aspects that are not fundamental in life. This is a special concern, so that every believer can keep a firm faith in his/her accompaniment to Jesus Christ. This writing uses a descriptive method research based on relevant literature, and supported by biblical studies of Letters to Hebrew 3:12. The goal here is that trough this article: First, every believer fully understands that following Jesus must be faithful to the end of life. Second, he/she clearly understands what apostasy means and not do it. Third, the church can teach about why one shall be serious in following Jesus, so that apostasies do not occur much among Christian believers. The findings here include understanding the meaning of conversion word (“apostate”), and a few messages for believers on how to maintain a strong life in Jesus Christ.

Archaeology, Greco-Roman

Greco-Roman archaeology is an indispensable source of scholarship for biblical scholars. Those who work in a largely textual discipline benefit from conversation with archaeologists to situate literary data within its historical material contexts. Greco-Roman archaeology can also provide insight into the economic, social, political, and religious lives of persons in the ancient world, including marginalized persons whose lives are often obscured by elite literary material. Lastly, Greco-Roman archaeology and biblical studies have intertwined histories and entanglements with colonialism, and comparative work helps to uncover those legacies, especially where they are still operative in the present. While biblical scholars might long for evidence that directly connects to specific individuals in the earliest Christ communities (and thus to the texts of the New Testament), archaeological evidence most often provides evidence for context and not positivist truth claims. Biblical scholars looking, for example, for a particular building where Paul might have slept or where the first Christ communities may have met will be disappointed by the archaeological evidence. Though this evidence is rich and diverse and specific, it does not tell us about the particular individuals biblical scholars so often seek. In other words, the questions biblical scholars ask of Greco-Roman archaeology are often unanswerable. A better use of Greco-Roman archaeology is to guide biblical scholars in asking better questions and learning about the social, economic, and material context from which texts and communities emerge.

Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Theology and His Commentary on the Book of Psalms

This is a brief commentary of the Spanish bilingual edition of Aquinas’ Commentary to the Book of Psalms, by Carlos Casanova and Enrique Alarcón, with the outstanding introductions to each of its four volumes. It deals with the relevance of Biblical studies for the understanding of Aquinas’ theological work, the hermeneutical tools used by Aquinas when commenting the Book of Psalms, the contemporary representatives of the school of Biblical Thomism and the main lessons a reader could draw from Aquinas’ reading of the Book of Psalms.

David Tuesday Adamo's Academic Context: Nigerian Biblical Studies Navigating between African Interpretive Concerns and Western Scholarly Traditions

The essay focuses on some aspects of Nigerian biblical studies, that is, Prof David Tuesday Adamo's immediate academic context. The core question of the essay is how the balance between African interpretive concerns and Western scholarly traditions has developed over the last four decades in the Nigerian guild of critical biblical studies. First, the 1980s were characterised by a more or less Western dominance but it saw the beginning of an institutionally and hermeneutically self-conscious Nigerian biblical studies. Second, the early 2020s are still characterised by Western dominance but it sees an increasing interest for interpretive concerns as those voiced by Nigerian biblical scholars. Professor Adamo has been part of the Nigerian guild of biblical studies throughout these four decades and his academic publications serve as an illustration of the material.

Professor David Tuesday Adamo's Biblical Scholarship on Women: Reflections from an African-South African Mosadi

One of the prolific writers in the discipline of African Biblical Hermeneutics is the Nigerian Old Testament (OT) scholar, Professor Tuesday David Adamo. In his tireless efforts to unlock the OT reality for African contexts, persuaded by his commitment to decolonise the subject of Biblical Studies, Adamo has made successful efforts to reflect on the African presence in the Old Testament. The present study seeks to engage Adamo's concept of African Biblical hermeneutics in order to investigate whether the author sufficiently discussed the theme of gender in his discourses. This research attempts to respond to the following two main questions in view of Adamo's discourses: (1) In Adamo's concerted effort of confirming the presence of Africa and Africans in the Hebrew Bible, does the woman question feature? (2) If so, how does Adamo navigate the question?