The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism
Author: John Granger Cook
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 414
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Publisher Description
Author: John Granger Cook
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 414
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Publisher Description
Author: John Granger Cook
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 424
ISBN-13: 9783161484742
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →According to the available evidence not many pagans knew the Greek Bible (Septuagint) before the advent of Christianity. Those pagans who later became aware of Christian texts were among the first, according to the surviving data, to seriously explore the Septuagint. They found the Bible to be difficult reading. The pagans who reacted to biblical texts include Celsus (II C.E.), Porphyry (III C.E.), and Julian the Apostate (IV C.E.). These authors thought that if they could refute one of the primary foundations of Christianity, namely its use or interpretation of the Septuagint, then the new religion would perhaps crumble. John Granger Cook analyzes these pagans' voice and elaborates on its importance, since it shows how Septuagint texts appeared in the eyes of Greco-Roman intellectuals. Theirs was not an abstract interest, however, because they knew that Christianity posed a grave danger to some of their dearest beliefs, self-understanding, and way of life.
Author: Luke Timothy Johnson
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780300168105
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →An acclaimed scholar presents a bold new interpretation of the relationship between Greco-Roman religion and Christianity. The question of Christianity's relation to the other religions of the world is more pertinent and difficult today than ever before. While Christianity's historical failure to appreciate or actively engage Judaism is notorious, Christianity's even more shoddy record with respect to "pagan" religions is less understood. Christians have inherited a virtually unanimous theological tradition that thinks of paganism in terms of demonic possession, and of Christian missions as a rescue operation that saves pagans from inherently evil practices. In undertaking this 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. In the tradition of William James's Variety of Religious Experience, he identifies four distinct ways of being religious: religion as participation in benefits, as moral transformation, as transcending the world, and as stabilizing the world. Using these criteria as the basis for his exploration of Christianity and paganism, Johnson finds multiple points of similarity in religious sensibility. Christianity's failure to adequately come to grips with its first pagan neighbors, Johnson asserts, inhibits any effort to engage positively with adherents of various world religions. This thoughtful and passionate study should help break down the walls between Christianity and other religious traditions.
Author: David Edward Aune
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2012-03-20
Total Pages: 233
ISBN-13: 9004226311
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Focusing on a strength of the faculty of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, this volume is a collection of nine essays by an international group of scholars who have used texts from the Greco-Roman world to illuminate various aspects of the New Testament.
Author: Lynn Allan Kauppi
Publisher: A&C Black
Published: 2006-10-24
Total Pages: 193
ISBN-13: 0567080978
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Where and why does Luke include references in Acts to Graeco-Roman gods and religious practices? How do these explicit and implicit mentions relate to other literature, inscriptions and artifacts from the same period? Through a close and informative reading of seven key texts in Acts, Kauppi analyses the appearances of Graeco-Roman.
Author: Charles Edgar Pratt
Publisher:
Published: 2011-06-01
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781258041908
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Craig A. Evans
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-02-24
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 0567703290
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Greco-Roman religions and superstitions, and early Christianity's engagement with them, are explored in 12 unique studies. The beliefs and fears with regard to demons (or daimons), their origins, and threatening behavior are examined, both in their pagan and Judaeo-Christian contexts. These new studies look at the Greco-Roman heroic gods, how they faced death, and how James and John, the “sons of Thunder,” may well have been viewed in some circles as the equivalent of the “sons of Zeus”, Castor and Pollux. The contributors also explore Roman omens, especially as they relate to Rome's legendary founder Romulus and what light they shed on the omens that accompany the birth and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Particular focus is placed upon Paul, binding spells, women and hymns of exaltation, along with atheism in late antiquity, with special consideration of the charlatan Alexander. Finally, there is a re-visitation of the confusion, misinformation and legends surrounding the discovery of the Qumran caves, including fear of jinn. This book provides invaluable resources for precisely how early Christians interacted with different ideas and traditions around gods and spirits - both benevolent and malevolent - in the Greco-Roman world.
Author: Jeremiah J. Johnston
Publisher: Baker Books
Published: 2023-03-14
Total Pages: 172
ISBN-13: 1493440721
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →He is risen indeed! Here are the best reasons why it's true! Culture is doing its best to convince the world there is nothing special about Jesus. And many Christians never get beyond a Sunday school understanding of their own faith. As a result, Christianity's most important historical fact--the resurrection--is often the most misunderstood, relegated to Easter and funeral services, creating a powerless Christianity. In Body of Proof, acclaimed apologist and scholar Dr. Jeremiah Johnston sets out to show why Jesus' victory over death is central to a believer's faith. Straightforward, accessible, and practical, this book examines the latest archaeological and textual findings and presents seven tangible, fresh reasons to believe Jesus really rose from the dead--and why it matters today as the foundation of our hope in the face of suffering and grief. When you fully understand the implications of the resurrection, you will begin to understand the power of Christ in you. This changes everything. "A creative masterpiece of persuasive evidence for the pivotal event of human history."--LEE STROBEL, New York Times bestselling author and founding director of the Lee Strobel Center at Colorado Christian University "Body of Proof is a book every pastor should teach and every believer should read."--DR. JACK GRAHAM, senior pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church
Author: David Lloyd Dusenbury
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2023-01-01
Total Pages: 231
ISBN-13: 019769618X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Why was Jesus, who said "I judge no one," put to death for a political crime? Of course, this is a historical question--but it is not only historical. Jesus's life became a philosophical theme in the first centuries of our era, when "pagan" and Christian philosophers clashed over the meaning of his sayings and the significance of his death. Modern philosophers, too, such as Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche, have tried to retrace the arc of Jesus's life and death. I Judge No One is a philosophical reading of the four memoirs, or "gospels," that were fashioned by early Christ-believers and collected in the New Testament. It offers original ways of seeing a deeply enigmatic figure who calls himself the Son of Man. David Lloyd Dusenbury suggests that Jesus offered his contemporaries a scandalous double claim. First, that human judgements are pervasive and deceptive; and second, that even divine laws can only be fulfilled in the human experience of love. Though his life led inexorably to a grim political death, what Jesus's sayings revealed--and still reveal--is that our highest desires lie beyond the political.
Author: Mark Sheridan
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2014-12-03
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13: 0830897003
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Mark Sheridan, an expert in early Christianity, explores how ancient Christian theologians interpreted Scripture in order to address the problem of attributing human characteristics and emotions to God.