The Crosses of Pompeii

The Crosses of Pompeii PDF Author: Bruce W. Longenecker
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506410413
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Through a twist of fate, the eruption that destroyed Pompeii in 79 CE also preserved a wealth of evidence about the town, buried for centuries in volcanic ash. Since the town’s excavations in the eighteenth century, archaeologists have disputed the evidence that might attest the presence of Christians in Pompeii before the eruption. Now, Bruce W. Longenecker reviews that evidence, in comparison with other possible evidence of first-century Christian presence elsewhere, and reaches the conclusion that there were indeed Christians living in the doomed town. Illustrated with maps, charts, photographs, and line drawings depicting artifacts from the town, The Crosses of Pompeii presents an elegant case for their presence. Longenecker’s arguments require dramatic changes to our understanding of the early history of Christianity.

The Cross before Constantine

The Cross before Constantine PDF Author: Bruce W. Longenecker
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506400361
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Upending a longstanding consensus, Bruce W. Longenecker presents a wide variety of material artifacts to illustrate that Christians made use of the cross as a visual symbol of their faith long before Constantine appropriated it to consolidate his power in the fourth century. Constantine did not invent the cross as a symbol of Christian faith; for an impressive number of Christians before Constantine’s reign, the cross served as a visual symbol of commitment to a living deity in a dangerous world.

The Cross

The Cross PDF Author: Robin M. Jensen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674088808
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The cross stirs intense feelings among Christians as well as non-Christians. Robin Jensen takes readers on an intellectual and spiritual journey through the two-thousand-year evolution of the cross as an idea and an artifact, illuminating the controversies—along with the forms of devotion—this central symbol of Christianity inspires. Jesus’s death on the cross posed a dilemma for Saint Paul and the early Church fathers. Crucifixion was a humiliating form of execution reserved for slaves and criminals. How could their messiah and savior have been subjected to such an ignominious death? Wrestling with this paradox, they reimagined the cross as a triumphant expression of Christ’s sacrificial love and miraculous resurrection. Over time, the symbol’s transformation raised myriad doctrinal questions, particularly about the crucifix—the cross with the figure of Christ—and whether it should emphasize Jesus’s suffering or his glorification. How should Jesus’s body be depicted: alive or dead, naked or dressed? Should it be shown at all? Jensen’s wide-ranging study focuses on the cross in painting and literature, the quest for the “true cross” in Jerusalem, and the symbol’s role in conflicts from the Crusades to wars of colonial conquest. The Cross also reveals how Jews and Muslims viewed the most sacred of all Christian emblems and explains its role in public life in the West today.

Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, Issue 4.1

Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, Issue 4.1 PDF Author: Daniel S. Diffey
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532692927
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies (JBTS) is an academic journal focused on the fields of Bible and Theology from an inter-denominational point of view. The journal is comprised of an editorial board of scholars that represent several academic institutions throughout the world. JBTS is concerned with presenting high-level original scholarship in an approachable way. Academic journals are often written by scholars for other scholars. They are technical in nature, assuming a robust knowledge of the field. There are fewer journals that seek to introduce biblical and theological scholarship that is also accessible to students. JBTS seeks to provide high-level scholarship and research to both scholars and students, which results in original scholarship that is readable and accessible. As an inter-denominational journal JBTS is broadly evangelical. We accept contributions in all theological disciplines from any evangelical perspective. In particular, we encourage articles and book reviews within the fields of Old Testament, New Testament, Biblical Theology, Church History, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology, Philosophical Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics.

On Earth as in Heaven

On Earth as in Heaven PDF Author: David Clark
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506414397
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Convinced that we can no longer have direct, unmediated access to the sense of Jesus’s prayer but must account for the history of its “effects,” David Clark seeks to trace the meaning of one of Christianity’s most repeated, and thus most “effective” texts through the early centuries of the faith. Clark begins by arguing that the prayer’s original context was in a revival of Jewish prayer, then sets it in the literary context of Gospels that, he argues, represented Jesus as recapitulating Israel’s testing in the wilderness in his own temptation. He then traces the prayer’s meaning within the narratives of Matthew and Luke and in the Didache, then examines the first full commentary on the prayer, that of Tertullian in the third century ce. Clark attends to the evolution of ideas and themes embodied in the prayer and of the understanding of prayer itself across epic transitions, from Judaism to the teaching of Jesus, from Jesus to the Gospels, and from the Gospels to earliest self-consciously “catholic” Christianity. This is an engaging narrative of the history behind and reception of the Lord’s Prayer; it illustrates how a text’s reception may help us explore and understand the multivalent meaning of the text itself.

The Lost Gospel

The Lost Gospel PDF Author: Simcha Jacobovici
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1605987298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 754

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Book Description
Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century. And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus’ social, family, and political life.The Lost Gospel takes the reader on an unparalleled historical adventure through a paradigm shifting manuscript. What the authors eventually discover is as astounding as it is surprising: the confirmation of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene; the names of their two children; the towering presence of Mary Magdalene; a previously unknown plot on Jesus’ life (thirteen years prior to the crucifixion); an assassination attempt against Mary Magdalene and their children; Jesus’ connection to political figures at the highest level of the Roman Empire; and a religious movement that antedates that of Paul—the Church of Mary Magdalene.Part historical detective story, part modern adventure, The Lost Gospel reveals secrets that have been hiding in plain sight for millennia.

The Village in Antiquity and the Rise of Early Christianity

The Village in Antiquity and the Rise of Early Christianity PDF Author: Alan Cadwallader
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567695980
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
A complete geographical and thematic overview of the village in an antiquity and its role in the rise of Christianity. The volume begins with a “state-of-question” introduction by Thomas Robinson, assessing the interrelation of the village and city with the rise of early Christianity. Alan Cadwallader then articulates a methodology for future New Testament studies on this topic, employing a series of case studies to illustrate the methodological issues raised. From there contributors explore three areas of village life in different geographical areas, by means of a series of studies, written by experts in each discipline. They discuss the ancient near east (Egypt and Israel), mainland and Isthmian Greece, Asia Minor, and the Italian Peninsula. This geographic focus sheds light upon the villages associated with the biblical cities (Israel; Corinth; Galatia; Ephesus; Philippi; Thessalonica; Rome), including potential insights into the rural nature of the churches located there. A final section of thematic studies explores central issues of local village life (indigenous and imperial cults, funerary culture, and agricultural and economic life).

Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World

Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World PDF Author: John Granger Cook
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 3161560019
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 589

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Book Description
John Granger Cook traces the use of the penalty by the Romans until its probable abolition by Constantine. Rabbinic and legal sources are not neglected. The material contributes to the understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus and has implications for the theologies of the cross in the New Testament. Images and photographs are included in this volume.

Early Christianity in Pompeian Light

Early Christianity in Pompeian Light PDF Author: Bruce W. Longenecker
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 150641897X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Scholars of early Christianity are awakening to the potential of Pompeii’s treasures for casting light on the settings and situations that were commonplace and conventional for the first urban Christians. The uncovered world of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., allows us to peer back in time, capturing a heightened sense of what life was like on the ground in the first century – the very time when the early Jesus-movement was beginning to find its feet. In light of the Vesuvian material remains, historians are beginning to ask fresh questions of early Christian texts and perceive new contours, nuances, and subtleties within the situations those texts address. The essays of this book explore different dimensions of Pompeii’s potential to refine our lenses for interpreting the texts and situations of early Christianity. The contributors to this book (including Carolyn Osiek, David Balch, Peter Oakes, Bruce Longenecker, and others) demonstrate that it is an exciting time to explore the interface between the Vesuvian contexts and the early Jesus-movement.

The Roman Street

The Roman Street PDF Author: Jeremy Hartnett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107105706
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
In this book, Jeremy Hartnett explores the role of the ancient Roman street as the primary venue for social performance and political negotiations.