Download or read book Traditions of the Magi written by Albert F. de Jong and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-08-27 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full treatment of the Greek and Latin references to Zoroastrianism since the pioneering works of Benveniste, Bidez & Cumont, and Clemen. It focuses on the possibilities offered by the classical reports on Zoroastrianism to reconstruct the history of that faith. The book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with introductory problems concerning ancient religious ethnography and current views of the history of Zoroastrianism. The second section consists of commentaries on five selected passages. The third section offers a thematical overview of the materials and their relevance for the history of Iranian religions. Apart from offering introductions to a wide range of debates and topics in Classics and Iranian studies, the book aims to illustrate the diversity of beliefs and practices in ancient Zoroastrianism.

Download or read book The Roman Near East 31 B C A D 337 written by Fergus Millar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Augustus to Constantine, the Roman Empire in the Near East expanded step by step, southward to the Red Sea and eastward across the Euphrates to the Tigris. In a remarkable work of interpretive history, Fergus Millar shows us this world as it was forged into the Roman provinces of Syria, Judaea, Arabia, and Mesopotamia. His book conveys the magnificent sweep of history as well as the rich diversity of peoples, religions, and languages that intermingle in the Roman Near East. Against this complex backdrop, Millar explores questions of cultural and religious identity and ethnicity--as aspects of daily life in the classical world and as part of the larger issues they raise. As Millar traces the advance of Roman control, he gives a lucid picture of Rome's policies and governance over its far-flung empire. He introduces us to major regions of the area and their contrasting communities, bringing out the different strands of culture, communal identity, language, and religious belief in each. The Roman Near East makes it possible to see rabbinic Judaism, early Christianity, and eventually the origins of Islam against the matrix of societies in which they were formed. Millar's evidence permits us to assess whether the Near East is best seen as a regional variant of Graeco-Roman culture or as in some true sense oriental. A masterful treatment of a complex period and world, distilling a vast amount of literary, documentary, artistic, and archaeological evidence--always reflecting new findings--this book is sure to become the standard source for anyone interested in the Roman Empire or the history of the Near East.

Download or read book Pentadic Redaction in the Manichaean Kephalaia written by Timothy Pettipiece and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-03-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discovered in 1929, the Manichaean Kephalaia have opened up an important window on the early development of Manichaean doctrine. This study identifies a significant redactional tendency whereby the compilers of the text sought to clarify ambiguities in “canonical” Manichaean tradition by means of five-part numerical series. This discovery challenges the conventional wisdom of Manichaean scholarship, which has long maintained that, since Mani recorded his own teachings in a series of what later became canonical writings, Manichaean doctrines were transmitted relatively unchanged from the master to successive generations of disciples. Since this assumption is now called into question, it now becomes necessary to re-evaluate received notions about the shape of both the Manichaean “canon” and “tradition.”

Download or read book The Spirit World in the Letters of Paul the Apostle written by Guy Williams and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2009-09-16 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guy Williams beleuchtet die Rolle der Geistwesen in den echten paulinischen Briefen. Entgegen der weit verbreiteten Ansicht, Geister und spirituelle Wesen seien für Paulus unbedeutend und trivial gewesen, vertritt Williams die These, dass diese inhärente Merkmale der Briefe darstellten. Die Berücksichtigung ihres historischen und kulturellen Hintergrundes zeigt, dass die Vorstellung von den »Einwohnern der paulinischen Geistwelt«, den Engeln, Dämonen, Kräften und Satan, denen des allgemeinen Gedankenguts entspricht.Schließlich bezieht Williams die Ergebnisse seiner Untersuchung auf drei Bereiche: Paulus Christologie, seine Soteriologie und seine Vorstellung von Gemeinschaft. Sein Ansatz erlaubt einen frischen Blick auf Ort und Bedeutung von spirituellen Wesen bei Paulus, nicht im Sinne einer neuen Doktrin, aber als allgemeines und kulturelles Idiom der paulinischen Texte.

Download or read book Demonstrative Proof in Defence of God written by Nils Arne Pedersen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first extensive study of a major Patristic work, showing its importance for the history of Church and theology, Manichaean studies and the use of ancient philosophy. It includes a critical text and translation of central passages.

Download or read book Jewish Law and Early Christian Identity written by Yifat Monnickendam and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ephrem, one of the earliest Syriac Christian writers, lived on the eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire during the fourth century. Although he wrote polemical works against Jews and pagans, and identified with post-Nicene Christianity, his writings are also replete with parallels with Jewish traditions and he is the leading figure in an ongoing debate about the Jewish character of Syriac Christianity. This book focuses on early ideas about betrothal, marriage, and sexual relations, including their theological and legal implications, and positions Ephrem at a precise intersection between his Semitic origin and his Christian commitment. Alongside his adoption of customs and legal stances drawn from his Greco-Roman and Christian surroundings, Ephrem sometimes reveals unique legal concepts which are closer to early Palestinian, sectarian positions than to the Roman or Jewish worlds. The book therefore explains naturalistic legal thought in Christian literature and sheds light on the rise of Syriac Christianity.

Download or read book Gender and Purity in the Protevangelium of James written by Lily C. Vuong and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Protevangelium of James is arguably the earliest surviving source that exhibits profound interest in Mary, the mother of Jesus. Although frequently cited for later Christian reflections about Mary, gender, and virginity and its influence on popular Christian art, music, and literature, it is not well known outside academic circles and is rarely studied for its own sake. Lily C. Vuong offers a sustained analysis of the text's narrative and literary features in order to explore the portrayal and characterization of Mary through a focus on the theme of purity. By tracing the various ways purity is described and presented in the text, the author contributes to discussions on early Jewish and Christian ideas about purity, representations of women in the ancient world, the early history of Mariology, and the place of non-canonical writings in the history of biblical interpretation.

Download or read book Between Medieval Men written by David Clark and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-26 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between Medieval Men is a radical new study of same-sex relations (both erotic and non-erotic) in the Anglo-Saxon period. David Clark's nuanced approach to gender and sexuality seeks to step outside modern cultural assumptions in order to explore the diversity and complexity that he shows to be characteristic of the period.

Download or read book The Founder of Manichaeism written by Iain Gardner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new critical look at Mani's life to establish a proper historical foundation for the study of this fascinating thinker.

Download or read book Jews Christians and the Roman Empire written by Natalie B. Dohrmann and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume revisits issues of empire from the perspective of Jews, Christians, and other Romans in the third to sixth centuries. Through case studies, the contributors bring Jewish perspectives to bear on longstanding debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity.

Download or read book Edessa the Blessed City written by J. B. Segal and published by Oxford : Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1970 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Roman Edessa written by Steven K. Ross and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2000-10-26 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roman Edessa offers a comprehensive and erudite analysis of the ancient city of Edessa (modern day Urfa, Turkey), which constituted a remarkable amalgam of the East and the West. Among the areas explored are: * the cultural life and antecedents of Edessa * Edessene religion * the extent of the Hellenization at Edessa before the advent of Christianity * the myth of an exchange of letters between a King Abgar and Jesus.

Download or read book Bardaisan of Edessa written by H. J. W. Drijvers and published by Studia Semitica Neerlandica. This book was released on 1966 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Die christlichen Lehrer im zweiten Jahrhundert written by Ulrich Neymeyr and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Greco Buddhist Relations in the Hellenistic Far East written by Olga Kubica and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-04-14 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of the relationship between the Greeks and Buddhist communities in ancient Bactria and Northwest India, from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Indo-Greek kingdom circa 10 AD. The main thesis of this book is the assumption that, despite the presence of mutual relationships and interactions between the Greeks and Buddhist inhabitants of the Hellenistic Far East, the phenomenon known conventionally as "Greco-Buddhism" never truly occurred. The individual chapters of this book provide an analysis of the main sources for Greco-Buddhist relations, mainly textual, but also archaeological and numismatic. The methods of philological and historical research are used in combination with postcolonial approaches to the study of the Greeks in India drawing from sociological research on ethnicity and intercultural relations. It is a rich source of information for anyone interested in Greco-Buddhist relations and is a great starting point for further research in this area. This volume is a valuable resource for students and scholars working on the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, both classicists and those working on early Indian history, as well as those working on cultural exchange in the Hellenistic world.

Download or read book Edessa the Blessed City written by J. B. Segal and published by Oxford : Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1970 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Surprises of the Christian Way written by David W. Shenk and published by Herald Press (VA). This book was released on 2000 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After 2,000 years, the gospel continues to surprise if only we let it. David W. Shenk's goal in Surprises of the Christian Way is to do precisely that: to enable, not only long-time Christians, but also seekers wondering why the gospel matters, to be surprised anew by the fresh and amazing power of Christian faith to transform lives.Written in simple and anecdotal style, this book invites all readers to enter the teachings and stories of the Bible and make them their own. Readers from a wide variety of cultures will find themselves entering and learning from each other's stories of faith as well as the search for belief in Christ.