Memory In Jewish Pagan And Christian Societies Of The Graeco Roman World

The ten studies in this book explore the phenomenon of public memory in societies of the Graeco-Roman period. Mendels begins with a concise discussion of the historical canon that emerged in Late Antiquity and brought with it the (distorted) memory of ancient history in Western culture. The following nine chapters each focus on a different source of collective memory in order to demonstrate the patchy and incomplete associations ancient societies had with their past, including discussions of Plato’s Politeia, a site of memory of the early church, and the dichotomy existing between the reality of the land of Israel in the Second Temple period and memories of it.Throughout the book, Mendels shows that since the societies of Antiquity had associations with only bits and pieces of their past, these associations could be slippery and problematic, constantly changing, multiplying and submerging. Memories, true and false, oral and inscribed, provide good evidence for this fluidity.

In the period of Roman domination there were communities of Jews, some still in Palestine, some dispersed in and around the Roman Empire; they had to face at first the world-wide power of the pagan Romans and later on the emergence of Christianity as an Empire-wide religion. How they coped with these dramatic changes and how they influenced the new forms of religious life that emerged in this period provide the main themes of The Jews Among Pagans and Christians. Essays by the leading scholars in the field together with the introduction by the editors, offer new approaches to understanding the role of Judaism and the pattern of religious interaction characteristic of the period.

The studies in this volume examine the unique communal patterns among Jews and Christians within Roman civic culture and their diverse responses to shared challenges under Imperial rule.

The book addresses critical issues of the formation and development of Jewish identity in the late Second Temple period. How could Jewish identity be defined? What about the status of women and the image of 'others'? And what about its ongoing influence in early Christianity?

Judith Lieu's study explores how a sense of being a Christian was shaped within the setting of the Jewish and Graeco-Roman world. By exploring this theme she reveals what made early Christianity so distinctive and separate.

This landmark handbook, written by distinguished Pauline scholars, and first published in 2003, remains the first and only work to offer lucid and insightful examinations of Paul and his world in such depth. Together the two volumes that constitute the handbook in its much revised form provide a comprehensive reference resource for new testament scholars looking to understand the classical world in which Paul lived and work. Each chapter provides an overview of a particular social convention, literary of rhetorical topos, social practice, or cultural mores of the world in which Paul and his audiences were at home. In addition, the sections use carefully chosen examples to demonstrate how particularly features of Greco-Roman culture shed light on Paul's letters and on his readers' possible perception of them. For the new edition all the contributions have been fully revised to take into account the last ten years of methodological change and the helpful chapter bibliographies fully updated. Wholly new chapters cover such issues as Paul and Memory, Paul's Economics, honor and shame in Paul's writings and the Greek novel.

Volume 15 2019 This is the fifteenth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. As they appear, the hard-copy editions replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the larger picture of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.

Human beings seek meaning and purpose. To do so, we tell stories about the past, which we call history, and stories about what will occur in the future, constructed from memory and imagination. History is not a subject we study, but one we live. History is our medium, as water is to fish. No period of antiquity is more informative and influential for Western civilization than the Greco-Roman, the period from the time of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Roman Empire, an age that saw the emergence of Judaism and Christianity--twin traditions shaped against the background of pagan dominance. The meeting between Jew and Greek, Christian and pagan, revolutionized the ancient world. It represented a crucial moment in the history of Western society, when politics, economics, culture, and religion took a new turn. In time, these separate streams mingled and merged, forming the single and ever-widening current that gave birth to modernity. Moving against the stream of religious exclusivism, this book does not seek to further the cause of one particular religious perspective, but rather to gain insight on how ancient pagans, Jews, and Christians interacted with one another. This study advances contemporary attempts at dialogue and cooperation, enabling people of differing agendas to focus their energy on finding solutions to problems plaguing our planet. Response to the Other has much to offer specialists and non-specialists alike. This work can be used as a study guide, the questions at the end of each chapter suitable for individual or group use.