The Sybilline Oracles and the Sibyl(s) have come up now and then on PaleoJudaica. Some posts are here and links, and here, here, here, and here. And recently (and occasionally earlier) on the ancient Hermetic literature here (cf. here) and Renaissance Hemeticism here.
The late-antique Christian writer Lactantius collected some fascinating ancient traditions about both.
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This post provides a guide for reading sequentally through ethnographic passages from Diodoros of Sicily’s Library of History (ca. 36 BCE) on this website: ...Diodorus (Diodoros) preserves some material from what I call the Greek Fantasy Babylon tradition. For examples from Diodorus himself, see here and (quoting Ctesias) here.
Diodorus also gives an account of the Maccabean Revolt.
And for more on him and his work, see here and links plus here.
For more on Philip Harland's blog, see here and links and here.
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For PaleoJudaica posts on the Testament of Solomon, see here and links and here. Perhaps also here. The Testament of Solomon is a late-antique Christian work that knows material from the New Testament, but which also is familiar with Jewish traditions. I view the Christian contribution as considerably more than "limited Christian edits."
For more on Philip Harland's blog, see here and links and here.
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This post is a useful introduction to the traditions about Jannes and Jambres. It includes translations of substantial fragments of the ancient book about them.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
With the publication of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, More Noncanonical Scriptures, we have considerably more information the about the Book of Jannes and Jambres, with translations of new fragments of the Greek text and of a recently discovered Ethiopic translation. An additional manuscript of a complete copy of the Ethiopic version was discovered just too late for us to include a full translation. But Ted Erho has provided an appendix with a preliminary summary of the contents of the manuscript.
I hinted at this discovery here, but was unable to say more at the time.
Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.
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This post is aimed at providing a guide for reading sequentally through ethnographic passages dealing with peoples other than Greeks or Italians in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. Books 3-6 are focussed primarily on geography and peoples, but there are other ethnographically important sections as well:includes that famous passage on the Essenes.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
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This is a guide for reading ethnographic passages in Josephos (Flavius Josephus) on this website roughly sequentially:For more on the Ethnic Relations and Migrations blog, see here and here and links.
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This is a guide to ethnographic passages from Alexander Polyhistor’s (early to mid-first century BCE) works on this website, as well as a separate outline of noteworthy passages from his ethnographic works generally. All fragments or citations of his works (F#) are from FGrHist 273 (link to FGrHist).
The first-century BCE historian Alexander Polyhistor compiled an impressive collection of quotations and information from earlier, now lost, works. Unfortunately, his works are lost too. They only survive in quotations from later authors. Still, what is left preserves much of interest.
These include passages on ancient Israel and ancient Judaism, as well as an excerpt from the Babyloniaca, a compendium of Babylonian religious traditions written in Greek by Berossus, an early Hellenistic, Babylonian-Chaldean priest of Bel.
For more on the Ethnic Relations and Migrations blog, see here and here and links.
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This post is a guide for reading sequentally through ethnographic passages in Strabo of Amaseia’s Geography (early first century CE):Includes passages on the Judeans, the Phoenicians, the Assyrians/Babylonians, the Egyptians, and many more.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
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This post provides a guide for reading through ethnographic passages in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, a novelistic story about the figure of Clement (second-fifth centuries CE): ...Includes a passage on Jewish wisdom from a late-antique Jewish-Christian perspective.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
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Includes some substantial passages on the Judeans.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Includes a section with some of Dio's passages on the Judeans.
For more on this blog, see here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
This is a guide for reading ethnographic passages on this website from Philo of Alexandria (early first century CE): ...The purpose of the Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World Blog, run by Philip Harland, Maia Kotrosits, and collaborators, "is to collect, organize, and make public resources for the reconstruction of ethnic relations and ethnographic culture in the ancient Mediterranean and near eastern worlds (fifth century BCE-sixth century CE)." I link to it occasionally, most recently here. I should do so more often. It's a great resource.
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Some recent posts that deal with matters of interest to PaleoJudaica are as follows, more recent ones first.
Persians: Acts of Archelaos on Mani’s foreignness (early fourth century CE)
Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians: Julius Africanus on competitive chronologies (ca. 222 CE)
Persians: Irenaeus on Marcus the Valentinian Magian (late second century CE)
Judeans: Reliefs on the Arch for Titus depicting temple treasures and defeat (late first century CE)
Persians: Heresy-hunters on Simon Magus and other Magians (second-third centuries CE)
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“Ethnographic culture,” as we intend it, moves beyond the idea of “ethnography” as a Greek and Roman literary genre describing non-Greek and non-Roman peoples (“barbarians”). Instead, ethnographic culture refers to the ways in which the classification and description of “other peoples” was an active imagination that played out in large-scale and small-scale ways across societies, in local social interactions, and in connection with diasporic communities of immigrants. Judeans (Jews) and Jesus adherents (Christians) were very much a part of this larger sphere of ethnic encounters, so they have a place here too as instances of minorities (see especially categories 1 and 5).There are many posts on matters of interest to PaleoJudaica.This website then combines literary, epigraphic, and visual data in order to aid students and researchers in a fuller understanding of ethnographic culture. It also facilitates the reconstruction of minoritized ethnic groups spread across time (from the fifth century BCE to the sixth century CE) and geography (across the Mediterranean and near east).
Some PaleoJudacia posts on Professor Harland's books and websites are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
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Group Survival in the Ancient MediterraneanMore on Philip Harland's work is here and links.
Rethinking Material Conditions in the Landscape of Jews and ChristiansBy: Philip A. Harland, Richard Last
Published: 04-16-2020
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 240
ISBN: 9780567657480
Imprint: T&T Clark
Illustrations: 17 bw illus
Dimensions: 6 1/8" x 9 1/4"
List price:$115.00
Online price: $80.50
Save $34.50 (30%)About Group Survival in the Ancient Mediterranean
Philip A. Harland and Richard Last consider the economics of early Christian group life within its social, cultural and economic contexts, by drawing on extensive epigraphic and archaeological evidence. In exploring the informal associations, immigrant groups, and guilds that dotted the world of the early Christians, Harland and Last provide fresh perspective on the question of how Christian assemblies and Judean/Jewish gatherings gained necessary resources to pursue their social, religious, and additional aims. By considering both neglected archaeological discoveries and literary evidence, the authors analyse financial and material aspects of group life, both sources of income and various areas of expenditure. Harland and Last then turn to the use of material resources for mutual support of members in various groups, including the importance of burial and the practice of interest-free loans. Christian and Judean evidence is explored throughout this book, culminating in a discussion of texts detailing the internal financial life of Christian assemblies as seen in first and second century sources, including Paul, the Didache, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian. In shedding new light on early Christian financial organisation, this volume aids further understanding of how some Christian groups survived and developed in the Greco-Roman world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Scribal Practices and Social Structures among Jesus Adherents
Essays in Honour of John S. Kloppenborg
Series:
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 285
Editors: Arnal W.E., Ascough R.S., Derrenbacker Jr. R.A., Harland P.A.
cover
Year: 2016
ISBN: 978-90-429-3391-0
Pages: XXIV-630 p.
Price: 115 EURO
Summary:
Building on the influential efforts of John S. Kloppenborg to integrate our understanding of Christian origins more closely and carefully within its cultural matrix, this volume explores two main phenomena of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity: scribes and scribalism, on the one hand, and voluntary associations, especially as evidenced in honorific and other inscriptions, on the other. In part one, nineteen essays by both established and younger scholars explore ancient scribalism, bureaucracy, literacy, and book production, with a view to drawing innovative new conclusions about a range of ancient Christian writings, including the gospels, Q, the Gospel of Thomas and other Nag Hammadi writings, the Letter of James, and apocalyptic literature, as well as insights into the synoptic problem and memory theory. Part two offers nine articles drawing on papyrological and epigraphic evidence to illuminate group behaviors and the concrete dynamics of smaller social bodies in the Hellenistic and Roman world, with several of the papers explicitly applying this analysis to the ekklesiai established by Paul. The essays in this section contribute to a more detailed understanding of ancient voluntary associations, and along with them, a richer picture of ancient values, economics, politics, and clothing.
Welcome to the companion site to Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook (= AGRW).Philip adds in an e-mail:
Using tools in the right sidebar, you can browse or search a growing online database of inscriptions and papyri about associations, immigrant groups, and guilds in the ancient Mediterranean, including many documents that do not appear in the book (marked with an asterisk*).
The plan is to have more translations and photos contributed to this website by scholarly experts around the world with coordination by Richard S. Ascough, Philip A. Harland, and John S. Kloppenborg ...
Basically, users of the site can browse through hundreds of inscriptions (450 so far) involving guilds, immigrant groups, and other associations in the ancient Mediterranean. The user can browse by geography and by topics (including gods). There is also a feature I called "selected exhibits" on (hopefully) interesting topics to a general reader (with about 10 inscriptions in each exhibit). There are many documents with English translations, and the user can choose to view just those (in selected exhibits). One of the selected exhibits is for Judeans in the diaspora. The plan is to continue to expand the websitewith more inscriptions relating to these groups.This looks like a very useful resource.
Philip A. Harland, ed. Travel and Religion in Antiquity. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011. xii + 289 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-55458-222-8.Philip Harland runs the blog Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean. An earlier review of this book is noted here.
Reviewed by David Frankfurter (Boston University)
Published on H-Judaic (June, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman
Beyond Pilgrimage
Philip Harland has produced an exceptionally interesting and theoretically astute collection of essays, based on seminars of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and thoroughly in dialogue with new work like Jaś Elsner and Ian Rutherford’s Seeing the Gods (although too late for some of the participants to engage Catherine Heszer’s new Jewish Travel in Antiquity).[1] In some ways the volume follows new questions in the area of New Testament studies about itinerancy and cult migration; and yet only two of the papers in the volume address New Testament materials. The collection is far more eclectic, including discussions of Mesopotamian mythology, Nabataean ritual, and Tacitus’s interpretations of barbarian gods.
[...]
Philip A. Harland, Travel and Religion in Antiquity. Studies in Christianity and Judaism/Études sur le christianisme et le judaisme, 21. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011. Pp. xii, 289. ISBN 9781554582228. $85.00.Philip Harland is also a blogger, and another recent book by him was noted here, along with a link to his blog. And note that the "Preview" link above goes to a website for the book under review.
Reviewed by Josephine Shaya, The College of Wooster (jshaya@wooster.edu)
Preview
This interdisciplinary collection of essays tackles the complicated and significant role of travel and movement in ancient Mediterranean religions. Its chapters address issues of pilgrimage, travel narratives, ethnography, migration and occupational travel through the examination of literary, epigraphic, papyrological and archaeological sources. Focusing primarily on the eastern Mediterranean, it explores travel in the religious lives of ancient Mesopotamians, Judeans, Greeks, Romans, Nabateans, and Christians. Its chronological, geographic and methodological range is impressive and the chapters only grow stronger when seen in dialogue with one another.
[...]
Wendy J. Cotter, The Christ of the Miracle Stories: Portrait through Encounter. Peabody, MA: Baker Academic, 2010. Pp. xxvi, 293. ISBN 9780801039508. $29.99 (pb).Regarding this point:
Reviewed by Bilal Bas, Marmara University (bilalbas@hotmail.com)
Table of Contents
The book deals with the miracle stories attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic tradition. In her earlier Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook for the Study of New Testament Miracles Stories, Cotter focused on the miracles attributed to gods and heroes in Greco-Roman antiquity and the significances regularly claimed for them in order to reconstruct a backdrop against which the Jesus miracles can be placed. In this book, Cotter addresses the encounter between Jesus and the petitioner.
[...]
Marius Heemstra, The Fiscus Judaicus and the Parting of the Ways. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe, 277. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010. Pp. xi, 241. ISBN 9783161503832. €59.00 (pb).
Reviewed by Jack Gibson, Grace Brethren High School (JJG1227@yahoo.com)
Preview
In this provocative and clearly-written study, Marius Heemstra analyzes the fiscus Judaicus under Domitian and Nerva. Dealing with issues such as the dating of 1 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation, the birkat ha-minim, and the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity, he contributes to current discussion in several fields, including early imperial Roman history, early Christian history and early rabbinic Judaism. While the fiscus Judaicus has not been entirely ignored in these fields, it has largely been minimized. Heemstra seeks to correct this oversight, arguing that the administration of this tax by Domitian and Nerva exerted a profound influence upon early Judaism and Christianity, and that our understanding of the end of the first century C.E. should be altered accordingly.
[...]
Based upon his interpretation of the fiscus Judaicus under Domitian and Nerva, Heemstra examines the dating of several New Testament books. His argument for dating 1 Peter to the period of 70-85 C.E., however, is somewhat tenuous. The only reason he provides is that the author of 1 Peter uses the term “Babylon” to refer to Rome (96). Yet, it is an argument from silence that Christians would not have used such terminology at an earlier date. Jews prior to 70 C.E., and Jewish Christians in particular, had substantial reason to hide their disdain for Rome by using a codeword. Claudius’ decree in 49 C.E. would have been especially problematic for Jewish Christians, such as Paul, who were preaching to Gentiles. Combined with the expulsion of all the Jews from Rome due to a disturbance regarding Chrestus (Suetonius, Claudius, 25), which likely involved a dispute between Jews who followed Jesus and those who did not, the Jewish Christians had sufficient reason at a much earlier date than after the Jewish revolt to have disdain for Rome.The idea of Rome as Babylon is, as the reviewer notes, an obvious one in the context of late Second Temple Judaism in general, not just Judaism after the Roman destruction of the Temple. Moreover, this connection was already made, long before the New Testament, in the Qumran Pesher to Habakkuk. The pesher uses a sectarian code-word for the Romans (Kittim) in places where the original text of Habakkuk had Kasdim, "Chaldeans." "Chaldeans" is another biblical term for Babylonians, so the Qumran sectarians already thought of Rome as a stand-in for Babylon.