Conversion In Antiquity

Shows how the canonical Nativity Gospels can easily be harmonized. And how the Blessed Virgin Mary may have anointed Jesus' head in Bethany, as consent to his sacrificial death in Jerusalem. This last issue is elaborated further and stronger in my later article "The Virgin Mary anointed her Son the Christ and for burial in Bethany - Coredemptrix" https://www.academia.edu/26377098/The_Virgin_Mary_anointed_her_Son_the_Christ_and_for_burial_in_Bethany_Coredemptrix .

Over the past fifty years, archaeological excavations in Israel have unearthed about half a dozen ancient synagogues that were in use at different points in time between the first century BCE through the outbreak of the Bar-Kochba rebellion early in the second century of the Common Era.  In close proximity to each of these synagogues, a mikveh (ritual bath) has been discovered.  In contrast, no mikvaot have been discovered adjacent to any of the dozens of later synagogues that have been excavated and studied, with only one or two possible exceptions. 
At this point it is impossible to determine exactly when mikvaot ceased to be built in connection with synagogues, as the archaeological record reports very little about synagogues of the late second - early third century CE.  From an archaeological perspective, it is clear that at least from the second half of the third century, synagogues began to be built without regard for proximity to mikvaot.
Talmudic sources make no mention of a requirement to build mikvaot adjacent to synagogues. To date, no satisfactory explanation has been given for the evident connection between the synagogue and the mikveh in the early period, and the disappearance of such a connection in later periods of synagogue history. The objective of this paper is to present and explore a possible interpretation of this puzzling phenomenon.
  During the Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, a rabbinical enactment was in effect requiring mikveh ablutions prior to engagement in Torah study and prayer for individuals who had experienced seminal emission. Careful study of the Talmudic sources reveals that this enactment was nullified early in the Amoraic Period, sometime during the second quarter of the third century CE.
It would appear that the mikvaot built adjacent to the earlier synagogues were intended for this precise function, serving visitors to the synagogue who required ritual ablutions prior to Torah study and prayer.  Once the rabbinical enactment regarding these ablutions was nullified, there was no longer need for such mikvaot, and hence the absence of mikvaot in proximity to the later synagogues.

Within the classicising mindset of many Late Antique Gallo-Roman writers, we witness examples of the learned minority appropriating the right to represent the alleged historical memories of the majority’s pagan past. Distrust towards demotic morality and civilizational aptitude – never very far from being uttered aloud by the Imperial elites – are explicitly commented upon in the fifth-century Gallic play Querolus. Ausonius’ confidence within his textual universe in constructing the personal memories of his slave girl Bissula and the Gallic pagi alike can be compared to the received Lucanic topoi of dark Celtic groves, and to the development of these stock scenes in the episcopal gesta of the Merovingian Gaul. The vicarious creation of memories for the silent majority by the learned minority (with its mixture of Christian identity and a thorough knowledge of the classics) is not limited to narrative genres. An intriguing paratextual space for the construction of demotic religiosities is framed by the already-mentioned ecclesiastical writings and the scholia to Lucan and Juvenal, all pointing to creative re-imagining of the divinities worshipped by Gallic vulgus (implied to be changeless in an almost colonialist sense). The Gallic cult of Diana as a literary artefact is a particular case in point.

Introduction to Messianic Judaism provides a description of what the Messianic Jewish community looks like today at its center and on its margins. The first section of the book traces the ecclesial contours of the community, providing a socio-historical and theological snapshot of the community's origins, where it is presently and where it is heading. Alongside these chapters, the book also includes a number of essays on biblical and theological issues central to the identity of Messianic Judaism. The twelve contributors to the first part of the book are recognized leaders in the Messianic Jewish community. They work with various organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council, Tikkun International, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Israel College of the Bible and the New School for Jewish Studies. Fourteen scholars from a wide spectrum of Christian backgrounds have written essays for the second part of the book. Their participation signals a growing academic and ecclesial interest in Messianic Judaism. Since the 1970s, a sea change has taken place in New Testament studies that has far-reaching implications for how the church evaluates Messianic Judaism. A broad reassessment of the New Testament writers’ view of Judaism has occurred since the publication of E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), and this reevaluation continues unabated. The contributors to the second part of Introduction to Messianic Judaism draw from this recent scholarship and demonstrate how post-supersessionist interpretation of the New Testament results in readings of the biblical text that are consistent with Messianic Judaism. The final section of the book is written by Joel Willitts who provides a summary and synthesis of the essays, explaining how they shed light on the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of Messianic Judaism.

In the Confessions, after telling the audience about his internal struggle with desires, Augustine relates the famous tolle lege incident in a garden in Milan where Augustine happened to read a codex of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. With regard to the act of consulting a sacred book, Augustine appears to follow a venerable tradition in late antiquity, in which these words tolle lege chanted by children indicate a procedure of the oracle. Augustine also recorded the conversation he had with a knowledgeable physician, Vindicianus, earlier in the Confessions (4.3.5-6) where they discussed how astrological predictions often turned out to be correct. Vindicianus pointed out the prediction drawn from the consultation of a book of poetry. Yet, remarkably, although he concluded that the true predictions by astrologers were produced not by skill but by chance (‘non arte sed sorte’), Augustine’s attitude was not simply negative. Not only in the Confessions, but in some works (e.g. De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus 45.2: Epistula 55.37), he was concerned about a source of inspiration for the oratorical process that had played such a crucial role in his conversion. Why did Augustine think about this kind of oracle? How did he follow the custom in late antiquity? In this paper I shall argue the significance and impact of this phenomenon in the thought of Augustine.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

In his classic monograph Conversion. The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (1933), Arthur Darby Nock proposes an influential assessment of conversion in Antiquity. He identifies conversion as a specific feature of ancient Christianity and regards conversions to philosophy as exceptions within the pagan world. This paper collects and studies statements and accounts of ‘conversion to philosophy’ and seeks to establish their communicative and social functions. It, then, asks how Christian conversion narratives relate to the concept of ‘conversion to phi- losophy’, taking Cyprian of Carthage’s account of his conversion in Ad Donatum as an example. The paper argues that conversion narratives support the self-presentation as a philosopher or as a Christian and, furthermore, play an important role in the debate about the realisation of a philosophical or a Christian life.

On how Luke's and the Acts' Eleven weren't the (twelve minus one) Galilean apostles, but the teetotal Rechabite officers of the Temple prison (nethinim). At Pentecost Simon Peter "stood up with the Eleven" (Ac 2,14), obviously not the Twelve minus Judas Iscariot. In Lu 24 Jesus appeared risen to "the Eleven" (Lu 24,9.33).

The evidence surveyed in this paper indicates that Paul took great care in his letters to differentiate between Jesus-believing Jews and Gentiles for the purpose of mutual blessing. Moreover, Paul (like the Jerusalem apostles) formulated a universal rule that the circumcised should remain circumcised (i.e. practicing Jews), and that the uncircumcised should remain uncircumcised in keeping with their respective callings from God.

This article examines a ḥadīth text that illustrates the complicated interactions between Christian and Islamic sacred spaces in the early period of Islamic rule in the Near East. In this narrative, the Prophet Muḥammad gives a group of Arabs instructions for how to convert a church into a mosque, telling them to use his ablution water for cleansing and repurposing the Christian space for Muslim worship. Contextualizing this narrative in terms of early Muslim-Christian relations, as well as late antique Christian religious texts and practices, my analysis compares this story with Christian traditions regarding the collection and usage of contact relics from holy persons and places. I argue that this story offers an example of early Islamic texts' engagement with, and adaptation of, Christian literary themes and ritual practices in order to validate early Islamic religious claims.

In his extant letters and speeches, Emperor Constantine often referred to God. However, these references were seldom theological elaborations on the concept of God. Instead, they were usually limited to the use of certain ambiguous titles of God. Accordingly, this article examines the emperor’s concept of God with the help of the so-called title-theology. Arguably, Constantine’s understanding of God developed from inclusive “pagan” henotheism to a qualified Christian monotheism, yet so that it retained the promise of accommodating various views of God. Vagueness in theological matters served the purpose of establishing the widest possible religious consensus in the Roman Empire. At the same time, this calculated vagueness also enabled different interpretations of Constantine’s theological utterances and perhaps contributed indirectly to the Trinitarian controversies within the Christian church. A comparison between Constantine’s concepts of God and that of Nicaea shows both a significant agreement and the existence of different underlying incentives.

In the first century CE Jewish identity was defined in a context of significant religious diversity. This presents those who read Paul’s Letters with a problem: how to locate Paul’s thought within the complicated matrices of Jewish intellectual traditions of this period. This study locates Paul within the matrix of Jewish messianic thought between the second century BCE and the first ccentury CE by comparing conceptual elements of messianic traditions in the Parables of Enoch and the undisputed Letters of Paul. Comparative analysis of the nature and functions of the messiah figures in the Parables and the Letters of Paul demonstrates a remarkable combination of shared elements, indicating that Paul was familiar with the Enochic messiah traditions. The extraordinary combination of shared elements is so striking as to preclude the possibility that the Parables and Paul constituted independent developments. The evidence indicates that Paul developed his concept of the Kyrios out of the Enochic Son of Man traditions, or that Paul was at least influenced by these traditions.

Ritual baths (miqwa’ot) built adjacent to winepresses and olive-presses have been unearthed at about twenty sites dating to the Second Temple period, most of them in Judea and the environs of Jerusalem. While much has been written in recent years on the form and function of ancient ritual baths in general, little scholarly attention has been paid to miqwa’ot found in agricultural contexts.
The presence of these miqwa’ot suggests that the ritual purity of the wine and olive oil processed in these installations was of particular importance. The fact that these ritual baths were situated adjacent to winepresses and olive-presses suggests that agricultural laborers made use of these miqwa’ot immediately prior to commencing work in these installations, a practice which accords with the Pharisaic concept of tevul yom. These finds thus provide rare archaeological evidence for the observance of ritual purity laws based on the Pharisaic system of halakhah.

Purity is a cultural construct that had a central role in the forming and the development of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean. This volume analyzes concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the main cultures of Antiquity, and discusses from a comparative perspective their parallel developments and transformations. The perspective adopted is both synchronic and diachronic; the comparative approach takes into account points of contact and mutual influences, but also includes major transcultural trends. A number of renowned specialists contribute a large variety of perspectives and approaches, combining archaeology, epigraphy and social history; in addition, particular attention is given to concepts of purity in ancient Israel and early Judaism as a ‘test-case’ of sorts. Through its extensive coverage, the volume contributes decisively to the present discussion about the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world.

En el marco del próximo Sínodo de Obispos, que tratará sobre la “nueva evange¬lización”, el presente artículo se propone reflexionar sobre algunos aspectos de la “primera evange¬lización”. Comienza subrayando la novedad que esta supuso en el mundo antiguo. En segundo lugar, precisa la diversa perspectiva que presuponen las principales fuen¬tes: la visión participante de las cartas de Pablo y la más distan¬ciada del libro de los Hechos. En tercer lugar se trata de precisar, con ayuda de estudios del campo de la Psicología y la Sociología, los factores que determinan el pro¬ceso de conversión. Por último, se describen algunos rasgos de la pri¬mera misión cristiana, insistiendo en el papel que en ella desempeñó la casa como lugar de acogida y como medio de acceso a diversas redes sociales.

In two passages in 1 Corinthians, 6:12-20 and 10:23–11:1, Paul affords us a unique opportunity to observe the reasoning processes whereby his ethical principles are ascertained and practically applied. Both texts begin with what appears to be a quotation of a community slogan, “all things are permitted for me,” which was seemingly proffered in defense of an antinomian, libertine lifestyle (6:12; 10:23). Though this maxim was quite possibly deduced from Paul’s teaching, those espousing it in the Corinthian community apparently had failed to recognize the absolute claim of Jesus on the lives of his followers, as well as his servant ethos. In 6:12 and 10:23 Paul dialogues with and qualifies the bold assertion, and then applies the now severely conditioned “freedom to do all things” to two pertinent issues: sex with prostitutes (6:13-20) and the consumption of food offered to idols (10:24–11:1). In the ensuing matched pair of ethical enquiries, Paul, the self-professed “Apostle to the Gentiles,” shapes and defines the Christian ethic according to the two tables of the Mosaic law (possibly as mediated by the double love command of the Jesus tradition: Mark 12:29-30). In so doing, he shifts the focus from the “rights” of the autonomous individual to the duties and responsibilities inherent in the Christ-oriented community. He also thereby provides the Corinthians with a paradigmatic reasoning process for making ethical choices.

Reformed theology is a diverse movement, and has found many ways to interact with the presence of mythical stories in scripture. There is a strong tendency, however, to draw a 'line in the sand' at the historical existence of Adam because of the function that he plays in the history of the covenants - particularly the 'covenant of works'. This article problematises that line by suggesting that it is possible to build an authentically Reformed and covenantal theology without a historical Adam.

This Dissertation aims to present the diagnosis of the psychological type of Jesus given by Nietzsche in The Antichrist. According to Nietzsche, one of the theses for the solution of the problem about the genesis of Christianity is in understanding how the psychological type of the redeemer has been adulterated by the ecclesiastical Christianity. The type of Jesus is classified by Nietzsche as idiot, namely, a man who has a degenerate physiological constitution, which makes him unable to obtain a natural growth; bearing a morbid sensitivity to pain, this type finds itself unable to make contact with reality, leading him to turn over into his own interiority, opposing no resistence to the external threats. The evangelium of Jesus represents a natural and not resentful practice to décadence through the acceptance of their physiological conditioning, such practice has been corrupted by ecclesiastical Christianity as a doctrine of salvation of the soul, by which life is denied in its totality.

'Paul the "Convert"?' has three goals: to track the history of this construction of Paul from its origins in antiquity through to the present; to examine scholarly assessments of its utility; and to offer a synthetic historical account of how and why Paul acted as he did to either side of his affiliation with the Jesus movement. In various sections the chapter ex amines the fundamental contributions of Munck, Stendahl, and Dahl and those of E. P. Sanders and James Dunn; the work of Alan Segal, Daniel Boyarin, and N. T. Wright; and the proposals of Gaston, Gager, and Stowers. Finally, the chapter explores newer work ar guing that both the content and the context of Paul's mission to pagans continued to be Second Temple Judaism, inflected through the peculiar eschatology of the Jesus move ment. For this reason, the essay concludes, Paul's transformative moment is best concep tualized as his 'call'.

"The Enochic Son of Man and Pauline Christology"

A comparative analysis of the Messiah in the Book of the Parables of Enoch and the Letters of Paul, this study locates one aspect of Paul’s thought, his christology, in the context of Jewish intellectual traditions of the first century BCE and the first century CE. Conceptual elements of messianic traditions are identified in these documents by examining the nature and functions of the divine figure and the nature and functions of the messiah figure. This has implications for understanding divine and human agency and the relationships between mediatorial figures and the one God in Jewish literature from the Second Temple period. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the Book of the Parables and the Letters of Paul share specific conceptual elements of messianic traditions. The combination of shared elements is so striking as to preclude the possibility that the Book of the Parables and the Letters of Paul constituted independent, parallel developments. The evidence indicates that Paul was familiar with the conceptual elements of the Enochic messiah, and that Paul developed his concept of Jesus as the Kyrios out of the Son of Man traditions in the Book of the Parables of Enoch. This study argues that at least one facet of Paul’s thought, his christology, was heavily influenced by Enochic Son of Man traditions.