Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture


Book Description

In "Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture," Stanley Porter and Andrew Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through the use of Greco-Roman materials and literary forms. Each essay moves forward the current understanding of how primitive Christianity situated itself in relation to evolving Hellenistic culture. Some essays focus on configuring the social context for the origins of the Jesus movement and beyond, while others assess the literary relation between early Christian and Greco-Roman texts.




Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism


Book Description

In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms.




Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism


Book Description

In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms. Each essay moves forward the current understanding of how primitive Christianity situated itself in relation to evolving Greco-Roman Jewish culture. Some essays focus on configuring the social context for the origins of the Jesus movement and beyond, while others assess the literary relation between early Christian and Hellenistic Jewish texts.




Christian Origins and the New Testament in the Greco-Roman Context


Book Description

This volume, the inaugural volume in Claremont's series on the New Testament and Christian Origins, celebrates the distinguished career of Dr. Dennis R. MacDonald. As students and scholars of the New Testament will know, MacDonald almost single- handedly established the discipline of Mimesis Criticism. However, MacDonald's scholarly achievements far exceed his role in establishing that emerging discipline within New Testament studies. MacDonald's scholarship and interests range widely over the entire discipline of Christian origins. His work has striven above all to situate the New Testament within the historical, social and literary contexts of the Greco-Roman world.The scholars -both junior and senior-in this volume participate in MacDonald's quest to locate the New Testament texts within their proper historical framework. The essays in this volume range from the Hebrew origins of the New Testament to Platonic influence on the New Testament, from Homeric imitation to the semantic domain of James, and from fresh readings of Mark to revisionist histories of Paul. There is something here for everyone. The essays are original, the arguments fresh and the language crisp. Every student of the New Testament will want to spend time with this wide-ranging celebration of MacDonald's intellectual prowess and academic career.




Among the Gentiles


Book Description

Presenting a fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences concerning ultimate power.




The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era


Book Description

James S. Jeffers provides an informative tour of the various facets of the Roman world--class and status, family and community, work and leisure, religion and organization, city and country, law and government, death and taxes, and the events of Roman history.




Christ’s Enthronement at God’s Right Hand and Its Greco-Roman Cultural Context


Book Description

Given the dearth of non-messianic interpretations of Psalm 110:1 in non-Christian Second Temple Jewish texts, why did it become such a widely used messianic prooftext in the New Testament and early Christianity? Previous attempts to answer this question have focused on why the earliest Christians first began to use Ps 110:1. The result is that these proposals do not provide an adequate explanation for why first century Christians living in the Greek East employed the verse and also applied it to Jesus’s exaltation. I contend that two Greco-Roman politico-religious practices, royal and imperial temple and throne sharing—which were cross-cultural rewards that Greco-Roman communities bestowed on beneficent, pious, and divinely approved rulers—contributed to the widespread use of Ps 110:1 in earliest Christianity. This means that the earliest Christians interpreted Jesus’s heavenly session as messianic and thus political, as well as religious, in nature.




Christianity in the Greco-Roman World


Book Description

Background becomes foreground in Moyer Hubbard's creative introduction to the social and historical setting for the letters of the Apostle Paul to churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Hubbard begins each major section with a brief narrative featuring a fictional character in one of the great cities of that era. Then he elaborates on various aspects of the cultural setting related to each particular vignette, discussing the implications of those venues for understanding Paul's letters and applying their message to our lives today. Addressing a wide array of cultural and traditional issues, Hubbard discusses: • religion and superstition • education, philosophy, and oratory • urban society • households and family life in the Greco-Roman world This work is based on the premise that the better one understands the historical and social context in which the New Testament (and Paul's letters) was written, the better one will understand the writings of the New Testament themselves. Passages become clearer, metaphors deciphered, and images sharpened. Teachers, students, and laypeople alike will appreciate Hubbard's unique, illuminating, and well-researched approach to the world of the early church.




Christian Origins


Book Description

Dealing with a time when "Christians" were moving towards separation from the movement's Jewish origins, this inaugural volume of A People's History of Christianity tells "the people's story" by gathering together evidence from the New Testament texts, archaeology, and other contemporary sources. Of particular interest to the distinguished group of scholar-contributors are the often overlooked aspects of the earliest "Christian" consciousness: How, for example, did they manage to negotiate allegiances to two social groups? How did they deal with crucial issues of wealth and poverty? What about the participation of slaves and women in these communities? How did living in the shadow of the Roman Empire color their religious experience and economic values? With Horsley, contributors include: Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, Allen Dwight Callahan, Warren Carter, Neil Elliott, Steven J. Friesen, William R. Herzog II, Clarice J. Martin, Carolyn Osiek, Raymond Pickett, Barbara R. Rossing, Antoinette Clark Wire.




Hellenization Revisited


Book Description

This volume focuses on the role of Judaism, particularly that of Philo, and of Gnosticism, as two important forces shaping the response of early Christianity to the Hellenistic Greco-Roman culture of its time. The sections which examine Hellenistic Judaism investigate themes from Greek philosophy, like 'reason controlling the passions, ' which are also crucial in shaping Philo's perception of the feminine. The manner in which Jewish authors of this period attempt to synthesize Old Testament with Greek philosophical themes like creation/cosmology receives specific treatment. Essays dealing with Gnosticism re-examine themes from Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle in Gnostic documents, but also look at the role of Hellenistic Judaism with its interests in Sophia. Co-published with the Institute for Christian Studies