Book Description

This Festschrift dedicated to S. Scott Bartchy comes on the occasion of his retirement from the Department of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. This volume contains seventeen essays contributed by Professor Bartchy's esteemed colleagues, associates, friends, and former graduate students. Beginning with his groundbreaking work on Greco-Roman slavery, Bartchy's teaching and research have been marked both by his use of social-scientific methods for studying the New Testament and by an interest in the social history of early Christianity, including the role of women in the early Christian assemblies, the Christian critique of traditional views of male honor, and the practice of table fellowship and its implications for Christian social relations. To honor Bartchy's legacy, the editors thought it appropriate to organize this collection according to the relational categories suggested by Galatians 3:28. Each essay pertains, therefore, to the social dynamics between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and freeborn, or males and females in the early church and beyond. The volume's subtitle reflects Scott's many accomplishments as a jazz musician and sounds a note of unity in diversity that characterizes the diverse perspectives and themes found in the essays of this volume.