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This paper interprets the concept of δοῦλος in 1 Timothy 6:1-2 in the context of socio-economic slavery in Nigeria. Using the liberation hermeneutics approach, the paper argues that the concept of δοῦλος in 1 Timothy 6:1-2 is a typical reflection of injustice and oppression to the person or group being socio-economically exploited. The resonance of the text with the Ibibio narrative of socio-economic slavery in Nigeria is the similarity of treatments accorded the δοῦλος in domestic and economic affairs in first-century Greco-Roman setting. Drawing on existing literature and the text in view, it interrogates the meaning of δοῦλος in a Greco-Roman setting and the status accorded the δοῦλος in the original and contemporary socio-economic settings of the study. The result shows that δοῦλος is interpreted to mean slavery. It recommends that the Church and state should put resources together to carry out economic and educational empowerment for the youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can Majority World Christian leaders apply the Bible to their cultural settings if their seminary textbooks are all Western-focused? The newly released An Asian Introduction to the New Testament offers a thoroughly Asian way of reading and applying the Bible, as one of the book's contributors explains in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ad Diognetum includes exhortations to become an imitator of God by acting generously toward neighbors in positions of economic need (10.4–6). This mimesis is not a general Christian ethic, but rather involves a "philanthropic" form of generosity in which wealthier people (like Diognetus) imitate God's royal benevolence in benefitting less wealthy people. This is supported by the presence in Diogn. 7–10 of elements of Hellenistic kingship ideology, in which a king imitates divine generosity. Further, the material that appears just before the paraenetic passage about generosity (10.4–6) involves a recognition of God's provision through creation (10.2) and the material that immediately follows the passage on generosity indicates that the imitation of divine benefaction will make Christian persecution intelligible to Diognetus (10.7–8), and both of these themes appear in a number of other early Christian texts in connection with a "philanthropic" notion of generosity. So, Diogn. 10.2–8 as a whole deals with the implications of Christianity for people of means. Unlike typical Greco-Roman discourse on generosity, Ad Diognetum does not call upon benefactors to assess potential recipients' worthiness of charity and help. Unlike typical "philanthropic" Christian writings, the payoff for generosity does not involve redemptive rewards, but rather confers benefits intelligible to a secular audience. Thus, our analysis of Ad Diognetum contributes to our understanding of the diversity of early Christian discourse about pious giving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the representation of Zaccheus in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 19.1–10). The literary character, who is described as "short of stature" is interpreted in light of ancient Greco-Roman discourses on dwarfs and dwarfism. The article shows that Luke draws on a number of cultural notions about non-normative bodies in general and short people in particular in this episode. Zaccheus is a tax collector (and thus a collaborator with the Roman occupying forces) who behaves in an undignified and comical manner, in his attempt to see Jesus in the crowd. The story draws on the ancient literary trope of the dwarf as a comic figure. In addition to the comic effect that Zaccheus's height is intended to elicit, there is also a moral aspect to his stature. According to ancient physiognomic ideas, looks revealed a person's morality. Hence, Zaccheus's bad morality, suggested by his position as a tax collector, is undergirded by his height. However, Luke flips the readers' expectations when he subverts the literary tropes in the ending: the ostracized person is included in the in-group, and the physiognomic logic is thus thwarted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I provide a new outlook on how to assess the social health of the community to which the Letter to the Hebrews was directed. I challenge the general assumption that the community was on the brink of abandonment by comparing the text with the documentary data produced by the associations of the Greco-Roman world. While these associations reveal that the critical measure of communal health is absenteeism, Hebrews shows very little concern with attendance (with the possible exception of Heb 10:24-25). The Hebrews community, though struggling with unknown difficulties, was relatively healthy because it at least consisted of members who were both present in attendance and likely to heed the exhortations found in the overall speech. It was both implausible and unnecessary for the Hebrews community to penalize its absent members financially; its leadership structure and ability to offer incentives and warnings were sufficiently compelling to motivate attendance. I propose and apply four methodological steps for how to use documentary texts to interpret literary writings with the hopes that these steps can stimulate further methodological reflection and provide guidance for future research that seeks to utilize epigraphical and papyrological data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luke 24:36-43 is widely regarded as an apologetic text with the evidence of Jesus's hands, feet, and eating countering the disciples' initial thought that he is merely a spirit (πνεῦμα). Most interpretations see this accusation as a clue to identifying a specific opponent behind the text, variously identified as Marcion, docetism, Greco-Roman necromancy practices, or Paul's view of the resurrection in 1 Cor 15. This article critiques the trend in "mirror reading" the passage and proposes that Luke 24:36-43 is better understood as participating in the debates and ambiguous language about the afterlife in ancient Judaism. This claim is supported by three arguments. First, the supposedly unique use of πνεῦμα as a "ghost" in this passage has parallels in Jewish and Christian literature. This use is also supported by Luke-Acts' wider agreement with the LXX and Judaism on the use of πνεῦμα. Second, the passage's rhetorical structure addresses a constellation of objections to the resurrection of Jesus rather than a single issue. Finally, the wider literary context shows that Luke's understanding of the resurrection of Jesus is conceived as part of an intra-Jewish debate. The article concludes that Luke 24:36-43 is not constructed to refute a specific opponent but attempts to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus amid the diversity of beliefs about the afterlife in ancient Judaism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets up a dialogue between two bodies of ancient texts, i.e. Jewish wisdom literature and Greco-Roman didactic of the Hellenistic period, with an awareness of the scholarly and interpretive communities that have studied, taught and transformed these bodies of texts from antiquity until the present. The article does not claim direct influence or cross-pollination across intellectual, religious or social communities in the Hellenistic period. Instead, the article suggests four discrete frameworks for thinking about comparative antiquity: creation, the law, the sage and literary form. The comparative model proposed here intends to create the conditions for noticing parallels and kindred concepts. However, the article resists the temptation to repeat earlier scholarly arguments for dependency or priority of influence. Instead, the essay demonstrates remarkable alignments, suggestively similar developments, and synergies. Perhaps, the ideal first reader for this article is none other than Philo of Alexandria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul was a man of three cultures and "three heads." He assimilates important elements of the Greek, the Jewish and the Roman environments. Paul appears to be more than an apostle; he reveals himself to be a great master of minds and hearts. In his mission into the Greco-Roman world, he uses many elements of the Hellenistic culture in order to achieve his evangelizing goals. This article intends to highlight the importance of language, concepts and other elements of Greek-Roman culture in the Pauline theology and anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In many fin de siècle medical and literary texts, Christianity is understood not as a religion of the soul but as a cultural background which favors the production of discourses on the body and its pleasures. A reading of Christian allusions in C.P. Cavafy's writings in this intertextual context sheds new light on the role of religion in his work by uncovering a strong connection between Christianity and modes of enjoyment. This is true especially in poems that bear the traces of the transition from the Greco-Roman world to that of Christianity. The enjoyment sustaining the Christian dialectic between fleshly obsession and guilt can be traced back to the patristic texts on which Cavafy relied for poetic material. But the strong affects (disgust, fear, terror) that are associated with and even generated by Christianity in a number of his texts ("Salome," "Julian at the Mysteries," "Terror," "Myris") suggest that Cavafy places Christian enjoyment in a critical perspective. The same affects mark the intersection between Christianity and sexuality in the work of Arthur Rimbaud, who—despite his very different ironic poetics—offers a parallel to Cavafy's rewriting of the body through rather than in spite of the Christian legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a methodological shift away from setting Paul's usage of the group designator ἐκκλησία against the backdrop of the LXX corpus and the Greek δῆμoς assemblies and toward understanding Christ-followers' adoption of the title in light of naming conventions in Greco-Roman associations. Assessing naming patterns in associations and exploring possible connections between titles and behaviors leads to the new possibility that association titles, including Paul's, generally connote little more than the ideal of cohesiveness among members and corporate identity. Previous arguments that ἐκκλησία represented for Paul political subversion, continuity with Judean ethnicity, or conscious modeling on civic ἐκκλησίαι are deemed especially unlikely. Paul did not explicitly attribute such connotations to the title nor did association titles generally reflect political orientation or ethnic identity. The possibility of Pauline innovation necessarily remains, but it should not be assumed a priori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Number of carriers of most ancient layers of European polyphonic traditions, apart from their own history and traditional culture, show links to the peoples of classical times. Similarly, their languages show even older possible linguistic roots. This is the case, among others, for Svans and other regions of Georgia, for Farsheroti and Epirotas in Balkans, and for the Sardinians: all these peoples are known for their rich traditions of vocal polyphony. Polyphonic practices prior to Classic World are credited by “triple" instruments (launeddas) from the Sardinian folklore in times of Roma foundation. We have identified a new source about this instrument, which fills the huge gap of 1500 years between the first and second known representations of the instrument. The earliest known launedda comes from Ittiry (8th C. BC). The second appears 1000 years later, found source is drawn from Francesco di Ficoroni. The next source comes from 600 years later, from the Pict monks of Ireland and Scotland (9th C. AD), being the last of all known sources (all together 14), an illustration from Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th C.). After this moment, the instrument disappears again from the registers until today. There are no historical literary references to launeddas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few years ago, researching the Greco-Roman musical instruments, we were struck by the surprising absence of specialized monographs devoted to some polyphonic musical instruments that were present before the 2nd century BC: bagpipes, launeddas, and polyphonic double aulos. Other polyphonic instruments, pandouras and organs were well studied, starting from more than 50 years ago. For our study we gathered ethnomusicological comparative data from several European archaic populations, and scrutinized available documental sources, both literary and iconographical. The detailed analyses of this material, in Manuel Lafarga' doctoral thesis, and recent publications, allows us to assert that the presence of chords and multiphonic practices is beyond any doubts. This paper presents a brief selection of the most critical iconographic and literary sources, in order to identify the presence of polyphonic practices, an aesthetic capacity which had been long neglected in musicological studies from the of Camerata Bardi' times, in obvious disagreement with the available sources about Greco-Roman artistic, technical, and scientific achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osiris and Sarapis find their common origin in the funeral field. The articulation between the two gods has been demonstrated through another osirian form, Osiris-Apis. However, the two gods are not separated from each other following the cultural context of evocation. According to the bilingual funeral documentation of Greco-Roman Egypt, they appear jointly: Osiris can be pictured and listed, Sarapis only called. From these specific sources, it is possible to understand the link between Osiris and Sarapis, in particular through their divine sovereignty. This royal function is particularly linked with the osirian rites of Khoiak, the celebration of the divine burial of Osiris, and the renewal of his sovereign power over the world. Nevertheless, if "King Osiris" and " Lord Sarapis" are jointly present and can reach each other through some common ways, the relationships established between them in Coptos, Abydos and Terenouthis, appear as factors of separation. The living and the dead wished to reach the eternity, following Osiris' example, or requested the divine justice; but using Egyptian or Greek vocabulary, they could not unite them. Osiris and Sarapis are jointly present, but always separated, because their cultural expressions reveal two dynamics opposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luke in the preface of his Gospel says that he is going to write ‘in an orderly account’ (Lk 1:3). However, scholars have no consensus about the kind of order Luke is seeking. Many believe that Luke writes as a historian. Because Greco-Roman historians seem to have a practice to indicate in their prefaces the writing methodologies of their writings, this article aims to ascertain Luke’s writing order through a comparison of Luke’s two prefaces with those in the writings of the Greco-Roman historians. This article proposes that Luke most likely adopts the common writing methodologies of the Greco-Roman historians and writes in chronological order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anger, courage, and philanthropia--three important elements of Greco-Roman civic life--figure prominently in the book of Joseph and Aseneth and help us uncover the book's message. One view within Greco-Roman culture valorized manly anger--at least where appropriate--and manly courage, but, according to Joseph and Aseneth, Jews instead privileged the emotion of pity and the related virtue of philanthropia. The author strategically developed his plot around the experiences of a female convert, whose views on anger, courage, and philanthropia highlight both the distinctiveness and subversiveness of the Jewish position. His message served an important polemical goal, one which highlighted the premium that Jews place on philanthropia and challenged contemporary accusations of Jewish misanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fifth-century (B.C.E.) Athens the aristocratic class observed banquet protocols that separated the supper from the drinking party, with a group libation and paean to close the meal, followed by a wine-mixing ritual and more group libations to begin the symposium. It has been proposed in recent decades that this format was also typical of banqueting in the Greco-Roman world. Yet an examination of a wide range of evidence suggests that observance of Attic protocols at home banquets in the Roman era may have been more the preference of elites associated with the Second Sophistic than a custom of the wider public. Wine service in particular seems to have varied in actual practice, and group libations and the group paean appear to have been far less common than has been supposed. Revealingly, although Christian teachers expressed positions on consumption of meat offered to idols, no early Christian writer instructs believers about what to do when confronted with a ceremonial libation or paean at a dinner party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul's denial that he intends to shame his readers in 1 Cor 4:14 is puzzling. The catalog of afflictions in 4:8-13, with its sarcasm, appears designed to shame. Moreover, Paul explicitly writes in two other places (6:5; 15:34) that he intends to shame them. Through an exegetical investigation of 4:14 within the larger context of 1 Corinthians 1-4 and a comparison of Paul's rhetoric of shame with other Greco-Roman moralists, this article argues that Paul does intend to shame his readers in 4:14. More importantly, 4:14 functions as the paradigm for understanding Paul's rhetoric of shame in 1 Corinthians, a rhetoric in which Paul uses shame as a pedagogical tool for transforming the minds of his readers into the mind of Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the themes of persuasion and force in Greco-Roman political thought and their appropriation in 4 Maccabees. I argue that among Greco-Roman political writers, stretching from Plato to Plutarch, the problem of balancing persuasion and force and their relationship to civic virtues cut to the heart of the varied constitutional theories and proposals. While persuasion was preferred in ideal situations, force was recognized to be an important corollary for the masses (§1). Turning to 4 Maccabees, a good example of the Jewish appropriation of the dominant political philosophy, I demonstrate that the political persuasion/force dynamic is foundational both to the philosophical prologue and the martyr narrative (§2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portrayals of figures of the Israelite narrative are used in 4 Maccabees 1:1-3:18 to discuss the philosophical nature of Judaism. To illustrate the intellectual cultural milieu of the composition, we analyse the notion of (a) ancient philosophy as a way of life and (b) commentary as an intellectual exercise which are part of the author's lifestyle. He introduces skills of life management into the lives of past figures to promote his notion of virtue. The author (re)casts familiar stories as descriptions of situations in which characters are challenged both rationally and emotionally; thus, he provides the audience with an opportunity for spiritual exercise by means of identification with these characters. This mélange of philosophical and scriptural practice shows that the principles of 4 Maccabees cannot be reduced to either Greek philosophy or Jewish law. Rather, they constitute a philosophical lifestyle which is aligned with both divine law and lived experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on an analysis of horror texts associated with post-modernism era to Greco-Roman time. Topics discussed include analysis of diferent horror fiction approaches from different literature such as Greek novels; illustration of horror prevalence with dissemination of enlightenment values along with several macabre events; and depiction of different issues through horror fiction such as social criticism.

Far from indicating that "Luke" had to investigate all the traditions before he could write them up as an historian, 7tccpv]xo/\.oi)9y]x6Ti in Luke 1:3 means almost the opposite. Luke is already credentialed to write because, having entered into Christian tradition as tradent and interpreter from some time in the past, he is fully qualified to write "as one who has a thoroughly informed familiarity with all the events from the top." This study represents the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the possible meanings of 7iapaxoXoi>9£w in the classical and Greco-Roman periods based on an extensive sweep of all the many senses and referents in lsj and b d a g. The perfect participle placards one trained in a tradition and not the judicious labors of an historian's research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author responds to the criticism by Iverson for the article titled "Oral Fixation and New Testament Studies" on the origin and use of texts in early Christian circles. Topics discussed include discipline and movement, interplay of texts and orality in Greco-Roman Period, minority and social diversity.

This study surveys the numerous and diverse powers and authorities to which the gospel is addressed in Luke-Acts, including major Jewish institutions and officials, Herodian rulers, Roman military officers, Greco-Roman officials, diverse officials, and pagan cults and supernatural powers. Well over half the references to authorities in Luke-Acts occur nowhere else in the New Testament. The frequent and diverse references to powers defend Christianity in a preliminary and obvious way from charges of political sedition. In a broader and more important way, however, they redefine power itself according to the standard of the gospel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the similarities among the Greco-Roman story of Tomyris, the biblical story of Judith, and the Arabic stories of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra and the cousin of an epic folk hero Jalila. It explains that the stories deal with wine, blood, and revenge, where the women in the stories play important roles.

The article presents a report from an October 15-16, 2015 conference in New York City on ancient Greek and Roman rituals surrounding money. Topics of presentations delivered include the excavation of British troves of Roman coins, coins found during the archaeological excavation of the Latin colony of Fregellae in Italy, and research on illustrations of the reverse sides of ancient coins.

An essay on the hesitancy of human being to kill other human being is presented. It examines inhibitions and belief influenced by cultures and historical eras, including the Hebrew Bible, the Greco-Roman and medieval Europe, that control people from performing lethal violence. Also mentioned is its morality in premodern beliefs wherein it is suggested that defying the killing leads to violence to oneself.

This paper argues that Phil 2:6 is best understood within the context of Greco-Roman political discourse, which is concerned, above all, with the sustainment of fnendship and the elimination of greed. In Phil 2:6, Paul depicts Christ as one who refuses to overreach，but instead honors the equality between him and God. To have more than an equal share is an act of greed. To honor equality is an act of fidendship. Philippians 2:6 thus depicts Christ as advocating firiendship against greed. Paul's depiction of Christ fits well into the overall argument of Paul's Letter to the Philippians, through which he intends to promote friendship and concord against greed and stasis ("internal conflict"）. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops 'magic' as a category useful for describing local forms of an institutional or 'great' tradition (using the classic terminology of Robert Redfield): ritual acts, symbols and materials, and constructions of local ritual expertise to interpret elements of a great tradition. Ultimately the paper contributes to the historical relationship between (centralized expressions of) 'religion' and 'magic' (as some quality or dimension of ritual). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the identity discourse involving Christians in the Latin West and Greek East during the Roman Empire. Topics covered include the real conflicts between the adherents of Christian religion and pagans in the Roman Empire as well as the similarities in the beliefs of Christians and non-Christians. Also mentioned are the discrepancies in the culture of the western and eastern part of the empire and the conflicts between the people in Rome, Italy and some German ethnic groups.

The article provides accounts of country estates provided in ancient Greek literature, as well as considering representations of country life in the art of ancient Greece. Writings of authors including Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. Estates owned by Xenophon, the Athenian statesman and general Cimon, Corinthian general Timoleon, and the soldier-king of Sparta, Agesilaus II. Topics considered include the planting of trees, the stabling of horses and hounds, and hunting.

The article focuses on the development of domestic religion in early Christianity and Greco-Roman antiquity. Topics discussed include an outline of Christianity's origin, the significance of domestic religiosity in Greco-Roman, the familial identity, the practices of domestic religion, and the Christian domestic cult.

With a continuous tradition spanning more than two millennia, funerary texts from ancient Egypt offer an excellent data set for studying how compositions were composed and passed on in the ancient Near East. Clear evidence demonstrates the importance and mechanics of scribal copying in the transmission process. What remain less clear are the methods by which new compositions were created. In some cases, the accretion of scholia, commentary, and exegesis produced new versions of old texts. This is well illustrated by the continuum between Coffin Text (CT) spell 335 and Book of the Dead (BD) spell 17. In other cases, however, large collections appear in writing for the first time showing few hints at the earlier stages of their production. This is true for the Pyramid Texts (PT), whose pre-written forms can only be hypothesized. Fortunately, fragmentary steps from conception to textualization are partially preserved for a relatively little studied corpus from Roman Period Egypt, sometimes known by the title the Demotic Book of Breathing. Despite clearly representing the final stage in the PT-CT-BD tradition, scribes did not create this composition by copying from its predecessors. Instead, a new composition was crafted without direct parallel. In addition, the new text was never fixed, as fifty separate exemplars attest to a core set of formulae that could be added to, subtracted from, or rearranged at will. The variance in this corpus reflects a growing trend toward multiplicity in similar funerary manuscripts from Greco-Roman Egypt. A portion of this variance can be demonstrated to derive from an active oral tradition and it is this oral tradition, I will argue, that provided the raw material for new compositions such as the Demotic Book of Breathing. This paper will therefore address how textual traditions began by looking at the very end of funerary literature in ancient Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses religious mysteries and modern conversion studies in which the author explores religious conversion in Christianity as well as mystery cults. The influence of D. Nock's 1933 book "Conversion" is mentioned. The author comments on the novels "The Golden Ass" and "Metamorphosis" by Apuleius, conversion in polytheism, and pluralistic societies. Greco-Roman culture is explored.

Recent scholars focus mainly on Paul's use of 'brothers (and sisters)' or 'brother (and sister)' in Greco-Roman epistolary conventions and cultural backdrops. However, Jewish dimensions (particularly ethnic dimensions) of Paul's sibling language still remain unexplored in current scholarship. Furthermore, scholars have not drawn much attention to how Jewish letter writers use sibling terms in their letters. This article offers a new interpretation on Paul's sibling language in light of its Jewish usage. We should note that Jewish letter writers did not address their Gentile letter recipients as 'brother(s)'. However, Paul did call his recipients 'brothers'. It is unlikely that Paul employed sibling language without being aware of its common Jewish usage. The author proposes that Paul's sibling language is used in the context of an ethnic insider designation (shared ethnicity), and that ascribing the title of brother to believers including Gentiles signals the re-definition of the family of Abraham. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attribute of (in)visibility of a reckoned divine being is one that is not discussed often; it is one of the more obscure attributes of deities and not an easy subject to embark upon. Not much data is available on this subject, and the available information often seems contradictory. This article investigates briefly the references concerning the (in)visibility of the gods in the Greco-Roman world as well as the (in)visibility of God in Hellenistic Judaism. In order to gain more clarity, the investigation examines what the 'seeing' of the god(s) comprises in the mythology of Homer, the philosophers, the mystery religions and Hellenistic Gnosticism. In Hellenistic Judaism the focus will be on Philo as the ideal exponent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variably sequenced tripartite noun phrase, παιδες, παρθένοι, and γυναικες, is shown to be a coordinated noun series signifying "girls, virgins, and women," not, as hitherto interpreted, παιδες; as "male youths" or as "boy and girl children" plus "virgins and women." Further, "virgins" in this phrase is primarily an age designation meaning "emergent adolescent or virgin-aged girls." The tripartite phrase is thus female-specific, and it reflects the three life stages of underage girlhood, emergent adolescent "virginhood" (or maidenhood), and womanhood as a sexually active wifehood and procreative motherhood. In relation to female groups, the tripartite phrase refers to females of mixed ages from girlhood to child-bearing womanhood. Although important in itself for raising the social visibility of girls and women in antiquity, this semantic argument also brings forth important new evidence from the orator Hyperides, the Peripatetic Clearchus, the historian Diodorus, and the Roman imperial-era Adoulis inscription about the sexual tenor and sexually acquisitive goals of populace-ravaging warfare against underage girls, virgin-aged girls, and women. The Neoplatonist Proclus discloses the resultant social availability of underage girls, virgin-aged girls, and women to be sexually objectified and maltreated. These new insights reaffirm the value of linguistics and philology as powerful tools of socio-historical inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To modern scholars, the naturalistic fallacy looks out of place in Greco-Roman antiquity owing to the robust associations between nature, especially human nature, and moral norms. Yet nature was understood by ancient authors not only as a norm but also as a form of necessity. The Greco-Roman philosophical schools grappled with how to reconcile the idea that human nature is given with the idea that it is a goal to be reached. This essay looks at the Stoic concept of oikeiōsis as one strategy for effecting such a reconciliation. Drawing on natural history, these Stoic sources used examples of animal behavior to illustrate a process whereby nature "entrusts" all animals, including humans, with the care of their own survival. Nature is thus both what is given to the animal and what the animal achieves in a powerful but also problematic synthesis here called the "naturalistic fantasy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread assumption in Acts' scholarship that the Ethiopian eunuch is an elite official who reflects Luke's larger interest in high-status individuals. Such an assumption, however, overlooks the inextricable connection between status, gender and ethnicity in the Greco-Roman world, and how the eunuch's repeated designation as ‘the eunuch’ would have affected his status in particular. This article thus problematises the depiction of the eunuch as an elite convert by contextualising the eunuch's identification as both a ‘eunuch’ (εὐνοῦχος) and an ‘Ethiopian’ (Αἰθίοψ). Overall, the eunuch is an ambiguous figure who embodies the boundary-crossing nature of the gospel itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The use of pozzolanas to improve the performance of lime mortar is usually regarded as a major contribution of the Greco-Roman civilizations to mortar technology. While this remains unquestioned; recent investigations have shown that this practice was also known in Mesoamerica before the Spanish Conquest. The mortars produced in the Maya lowlands, in particular, have been shown to contain various compounds similar to those formed as a result of the reaction between lime and pozzolanas such as volcanic ash or other siliceous and/or aluminous materials. However, until recently, petrographic studies had failed to present direct evidence that the formation of these compounds was due to the addition of pozzolanas rather than to the use of a natural hydraulic lime. The microscopic analysis of mortar samples from the archaeological site of Río Bec in southeastern Campeche provides this evidence. The identification of pyroclastic material in the form of unaltered glass shards confirms, for the first time, the use of pozzolanic materials in ancient Maya mortars. Furthermore, the analysis suggests the use of other materials that potentially acted as pozzolanas such as phytoliths and argillaceous inclusions. The purpose of this paper is to present these new data and to discuss their significance for the understanding of Maya mortar technology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]