Clement cites examples drawn both from the Bible and from his own time to illustrate the danger of desintegration facing Corinths Christian community. Wilson) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to 3rd A.D.) : Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 7 (trans. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 5-6 "The Martyrdom of St. Paul and Condemnation of St. Peter" by Giovani Caraglio A technical comment regarding Clements Letter to the Corinthians: As far as I remember (also from Earl Dohertys texts), the expressions put to death (in most righteous pillars [of the Church] have been persecuted and put to death) and suffered martyrdom under the prefects do not correspond to the Greek text (which gives no indication of violent deaths). Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) Of course, we can conclude that we all do. RebuildingtheFoundations.org does not receive any personally identifiable information from the search bar below. His preaching of repentance only reached his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law. ", "I find your blog most interesting and appreciate your ongoing effort to keep to the evidence for the issues discussed! Around the year 95 AD, a letter was written by the Church of Rome to the Church at Corinth that is attributed to Saint Clement. God proved for over a thousand years of working with Israel that we humans are prone neither to repentance doing good. The two narrative lines look too similar to be independent of one another. The trope of the jealous spouse delating his wife to Roman authorities inthe city of Rome is also found in the writings of Justin Martyr who was probably writing in the mid-second century. The DANAIDS are the 50 daughters of Danaus 1 who married the sons of Aegyptus 1, and murdered their husbands (except one) on their wedding night. Previous myth: Idas and Marpessa | Next myth: The tragic myth of Niobe. So much for the late legend of Peter being crucified, let alone crucified upside down. Shaw, on the other hand, chooses to provisionally accept the genuineness of the passage. ", Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. Its the best! ", Nonnus, Dionysiaca 44. But then when explaining whom Nero scapegoatedTacitusenters the realm of anachronism. Indeed, the Danaides were punished for this after their death with a horrible and eternal torment. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. But how could the legend arise that Nero was the first to persecute the Christians? I will gloss over the details of Shawsarguments for the above and move on to the account by the Roman historian Tacitus of Neros persecution of the Christians in the wake of the Great Fire ofRome in 64 C.E. It reflects well on you. Jim Evans God has always forgiven those who repent (Ps. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. [Shaw in fact introduces him as Pseudo-Clement.] (There have been dubious attempts to force some of these writers into supposedly alluding to such an event.). Afterwards, they remarried by choosing their mates in footraces (or their father bestowed them to the victors of the athletic contest[2]). At the same time a Nero myth was maturingamong the lower classes. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) . In any case, Bowersocks unease is well founded. The Roman satirist Juvenal, another contemporary, wrote in the same vein of the Jews. "'As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the sinner, but rather his repentance' [Ezek. Lactantius wrote accounts of the wrongful persecutions of Christians by Roman rulers yet he omits any mention of a fire in the time of Nero. ", "Fantastic. The infants were exposed, but a neatherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethos (Zethus) and the other Amphion . It might help to read my story of discovering the true purpose of the atonement at https://www.rebuildingthefoundations.org/faith-and-works-story.html in the Scriptures and the early fathers. Crossans Jesus and the Violence of Scripture (SPCK 2015), a passage re Nero, not because I support either of these writers in their views of HJ but because it rang a bell regarding the transmission of the (divine?) cf. In the Gospel of John there was a prophecy that Peter would meet an undesirable fate and it seemed appropriate that he should die by crucifixion as hadJesus. ", "Thanks much for this book review. I also have a rough draft of what will be the Rebuilding the Foundations book. Further, Tacituss friend Pliny also described Christians in the same terms (the same words), seeing them as a plague spreading throughout the countryside of his province. This great massacre was unbelievable, even for the bloody ancient Greek myths. The story of Danaides begins with the rivalry between the twin sons of Belus, the king of Egypt. The Danaids - or the Danaides; also called Belides after their grandfather - were the fifty daughters of Danaus, one of the two twin sons of king Belus of Egypt and the Naiad Anchinoe. Lynceus killed Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers and he and Hypermnestra started the Danaid Dynasty of rulers in Argos. 2:12). Yes, I had read Hurtados piece but my post was too long for me to include reference to what he had said. When he wrote these words, he firmly believed (I believe) that there was good evidence that linked these events in a single coherent narrative. Envy has alienated wives from their husbands, and changed that saying of our father Adam, "This is now bone of my . who had already confessed) a very large number were convicted, less on the charge of having set the fire than because of their hatred of humankind. The purpose of the current article is to address a question to which scholars devoted considerable thought: the identity of the Christian women whom Clement of Rome called Danads and Dircae in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. 51:16-17; Ezek. Dirke was originally the wife of King Lykos (Lycus) of Thebes who, as punishment for the mistreatment of her niece Antiope, was tied to a wild bull and torn limb from limb. Jim Evans, Strasser hoped to replace the Programme of 1920. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. Greeka? He then returns to the events of Neros time. Candida Moss has established the Christian penchant for claiming imaginary persecutions and per the Great Fire of Rome 64 CE and persecution of Christians, the thinness of the evidence on all aspects of it is quite striking (Shaw, 2015). Thus Shaws contention, as Bowersock puts it, that Tacituss version of the fire derives from a fiction, Christian or otherwise, that was devised and disseminated at some point between 64 and the time when he was writing, more than five decades later, fails to take into account the silence of three long centuries (including in all Roman historians as well). The Roman church needs reminding, too. But if Tacitus was picking up on an initial development of that myth in the interval between Nero in 64 CE and himself (writing only a decade or so into the 2nd century), it is virtually impossible to believe that Christians themselves would not have picked up on this development (they would hardly have remained ignorant of it for so long) and embraced it as a prime example of the establishments persecution of their new faith. Often enough punishments that in some way mimicked the crime were imposed. He himself loathed Nero. 6:14). ", Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 75 ff (trans. Shaw, a classicist, demonstrates a critical approachthat is all too seldom encountered among ancient historians and theologians who refuse to face the questionable quality of their primarysources. Whether it happened by chance or by a malicious act of the emperor is uncertain. Shepherds reared her sons as their own, and called one Zetos (Zethus) and the other Amphion . The two brothers had regular rivalries over their kingdoms and where trying one to get the other's land. The gods Athena and Hermes purified them at the command of Zeus. On account of jealousy women, when they had been persecuted as Danaids and Dircae, and had suffered cruel and unholy insults, safely reached the goal in the race of faith and received a noble reward, feeble though they were in body. . Christian Interpolation in Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae (c. 94 C.E.). This may be a new way of thinking for a lot of you. However, Shaw stresses the importance of recognising the passage is the only source for the involvement of Christians with the fire and their persecution in its aftermath.. He certainly knew of the Great Fire. Then the author of the letters of Seneca to Paul enlarged the legend in its primitive form, brought it into agreement with the ideas of this time, and gave it a political turn. This oversight has been corrected. pp. The Death of Peter and Paul. . And Dohertys point about the failure to reference Tacituss passage until very late, too Id like to assess it carefully against the alternative proposed by Shaw. The result is a few phrases in a single passage testifying to the Neronian persecution of Christians because of the fire of Rome and it is constructed fromanachronisms. Both these chapters make it clear that God wants everyone to partake of repentance, but in this sentence, Clement only includes God's beloved. Note what Arthur Drews said in The Roman Witneses; Tacitus in The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus:, Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Co. (c1912) , Finally, there is the complete silence of profane writers and the vagueness of the Christian writers on the matter; the latter only gradually come to make a definite statement of a general persecution of the Christians under Nero, whereas at first they make Nero put to death only Peter and Paul. They recognized their mother and slew Lykos, but Dirke they tied to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called Dirke after her. The myth of Danaides is the story of fifty women who commit a horrible wrongdoing: guided by their father, they all kill their husbands on their wedding night! (The latter is a phenomenon which Tertullian is one of the earliest to focus on, yet without appealing to any Great Fire controversy. Again, there is no connection with Nero or with the Fire. 57 (trans. ", "Vridar is consistently thought-provoking, well-informed, and asking the right questions. The minute he stepped off the ship, he went to Gelanoras, the king of the town, and demanded to be given the throne, for he was the rightful heir, as descendent of Io. Prior to this episode the letter notes in very general terms that. . Up until the time of Tacitus this expression had been used of an ethnic group to refer to the Jews. can be read possibly as Phileas (Phileam) according to Mauricius Schmidt in his annotations of Hyginus, Last edited on 27 December 2022, at 03:05, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, "Interleaved Greek and English text (translation by Gillian Newing)". It is very possible that this was the house of St. Clement himself. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The expressions of Sulpicius agree, in part, almost word for word with those of Tacitus. Greek text available from the same website, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danades&oldid=1129780773, Archedice, along with her sister Helice and two others, chosen by lot by the rest, had founded the temple of Lindian, This page was last edited on 27 December 2022, at 03:05. The video says that Nero, by law, had to act and burned a bunch of Christians at the stake. DIRKE (Dirce) was the Naiad-nymph of the spring of Dirke near Thebes in Boiotia (central Greece). . And to those who were dying mockeries were added. Christians and Jews by the Fourth Century. Covered with the hides of wild animals they perished by being torn to pieces by dogs or, fixed to stakes (or, crosses) they were set afire in the darkening evening as a form of night lighting. And given that the penalties imposed upon these Christians in the days of Nero were associated with a mishmash of other legal restrictions and not with the Fire, wecan accept that Suetonius knew nothing of Christians being singled out for dire punishment because of the Fire. 1.800.803.0118info@crossroadsinitiative.com. ], suffered (capital) punishment in the reign of Tiberius through the agency of the procurator Pontius Pilatus. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they dont have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. Such modest modernizings occur outside of this particular passage, however, and so are typical of the writer. Just to count the grand houses, the apartment blocks, and the temples that had been destroyed would be very difficult. (p. 231), Allen, N.P.L. Welcome to the season where the only song we sing for fourweeks isO Come, O Come, Emmanuel! Abstract of a recently published article by Princeton University Professor of Classics, Brent D. Shaw: Brent D. Shaw (2015). Paul says that he went throughout the world preaching that the Gentiles should repent and turn to God, doing works suitable for repentance" (Acts 26:20). All Rights Reserved. | About Us Paul's warning to the Ephesian elders that evil men would rise up and draw men to themselves was a warning every church must heed (Acts. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. ", "By the way, my thanks to Neil for an ongoing superb job of exposing Jims review for what it is: a farcical and none too effective exercise in mythicism assassination, nothing to do with rational, let alone unbiased, scholarship. Excavations revealed that the medieval Church, built in the 12th century, actually was built on top of a 4th century Church which was in turn built over a house church going back to the first century. It is very unlikely that in 50s and 50sC.E. At first those who confessed were taken away for punishment; subsequently others who were denounced by others were rounded up. They were the first executions of Christians performed at the behest of the Roman state. This conclusion is based on subsequent Christian writings, in particular that of Lactantius. According to Hurtado: The entirety of his focus in condemning Nero concentrates on the preaching of Peter and Paul at Rome and the effects of their ideas in the city. My I quote, without being accused of irrelevant trolling, from A.N. We must not forget what a close connection there is between this narrative and the whole of Christian history, and what interest religious education and the Church have in preventing any doubt from being cast on it.. But in fact all I do, or you do, is to fish among the childish memories. Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism (JGRChJ). lol) MY VIEWPOINT ON RACISM IS, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Tacitus and Suetonius speak elsewhere of the Jews as representinga pernicious religion, of expulsions of Jews from Rome, of corrupt practices coming from the east, including Judea. Danaus' brother Aegyptus had fifty children as well; in his case, all of them were male. 33:11]; adding, moreover, this gracious declaration, 'Repent, O house of Israel, of your iniquity'" [Ezek. I am skeptical of any persecution alleged to early Christians, especially when the historicity of the first persecution under Nero, hinges on the preposterous reference to Pontius Pilates execution of someone called Christus (Allen, 2015). You may copy, but not sell this information. available online @ http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/14213, Your email address will not be published. - Letter to the Corinthians, ch. Nor does Acts 18:1-3 help the cause, for its reference to Jews expelled from Rome who joined Paul in Corinth does not suggest that they were Christians when they left Rome. 18:20-30). ", "Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . And for him the issue was settled and there is no record that he ever persecuted the Christians again. Mirbt, n.33. The first unequivocal mention of the Neronian persecution in connection with the burning of Rome is found in the forged correspondence of Seneca and the apostle Paul, which belongs to the fourth century. ", "Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . There are intelligent, thoughtful comments and commenters regularly offering productive discussion. certain women who were spectacularly executed, dressed up as Danaids and Dircae. ", "For an excellent example of generally high-quality scholarship by someone who isnt a biblical studies professor, see Neil Godfreys work posted on the website vridar.org. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. . When she was with child, and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus at Sikyon (Sicyon) and was married to him. However, this torture would never stop because the basin had holes all over it and water would run out. Shaw argues that the famous story of Nero burning and in other ways torturing Christians as punishment for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 C.E. This document is the earliest Christian writing besides the New Testament documents. Cf. The names of the Danades was complete but with new entries and some alteration in the spellings. 57 (trans.
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