The Lives of Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanus

The Lives of Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanus
Author: John Rufus (Bishop of Maiuma)
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2008
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 1589832000

The context of the history of Georgia from the fourth to the sixth centuries -- Christianity and monasticism in Georgia in the fourth and fifth centuries -- Peter's genealogy in the life of Peter the Iberian : hagiographic ancestry -- The history of the christological controversies and their context in Palestine from the fourth to the sixth centuries -- Monasticism in fifth-century Palestine -- On the death of Theodosius -- The anti-chalcedonian defeat in Palestine -- Authorship -- John Rufus -- Rhetoric and genre in the life of Peter the Iberian -- Text-critical overview -- Versions and original text -- Synopsis of the Vita Petri Iberi and the De obitu Theodosii -- Outline of the Vita Petri Iberi -- Outline of the De obitu Theodosii -- Genealogical tables of the families of Peter the Iberian and Zuzo -- Chronological timeline -- Texts and translations -- Life of Peter the Iberian -- On the death of Theodosius.

John Rufus

John Rufus
Author: John Rufus (Bishop of Maiuma)
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008
Genre: Monasticism and religious orders
ISBN: 9789004146860

This book makes available for the first time in English important works by the anti-Chalcedonian historian and biographer John Rufus on Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and Abba Romanus, three key figures of the Christian history of Palestine in the fifth and early sixth centuries C.E. The work offers a new critical edition of the Syriac text; the first-ever published English translation; a substantial introduction to Palestinian monasticism, the christological controversies of the time, and the life and writings of John Rufus; and ample annotations to a Syriac text whose Greek original is no longer available. By providing access to the Christian landscape (literally and metaphorically) in late antique and early Byzantine times, this volume offers a valuable counterbalance from a minority perspective to the biographical and historical writings of the Chalcedonian apologist Cyril of Scythopolis. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes

The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes
Author: Stephen H. Rapp Jr
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317016718

Georgian literary sources for Late Antiquity are commonly held to be later productions devoid of historical value. As a result, scholarship outside the Republic of Georgia has privileged Graeco-Roman and even Armenian narratives. However, when investigated within the dual contexts of a regional literary canon and the active participation of Caucasia’s diverse peoples in the Iranian Commonwealth, early Georgian texts emerge as a rich repository of late antique attitudes and outlooks. Georgian hagiographical and historiographical compositions open a unique window onto a northern part of the Sasanian world that, while sharing striking affinities with the Iranian heartland, was home to vibrant, cosmopolitan cultures that developed along their own trajectories. In these sources, precise and accurate information about the core of the Sasanian Empire-and before it, Parthia and Achaemenid Persia-is sparse; yet the thorough structuring of wider Caucasian society along Iranian and especially hybrid Iranic lines is altogether evident. Scrutiny of these texts reveals, inter alia, that the Old Georgian language is saturated with words drawn from Parthian and Middle Persian, a trait shared with Classical Armenian; that Caucasian society, like its Iranian counterpart, was dominated by powerful aristocratic houses, many of whose origins can be traced to Iran itself; and that the conception of kingship in the eastern Georgian realm of K’art’li (Iberia), even centuries after the royal family’s Christianisation in the 320s and 330s, was closely aligned with Arsacid and especially Sasanian models. There is also a literary dimension to the Irano-Caucasian nexus, aspects of which this volume exposes for the first time. The oldest surviving specimens of Georgian historiography exhibit intriguing parallels to the lost Sasanian Xwadāy-nāmag, The Book of Kings, one of the precursors to Ferdowsī’s Shāhnāma. As tangible products of the dense cross-cultural web drawing the re

"Let the Little Children Come to Me"

Author: Cornelia B. Horn
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2009
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0813216745

Providing a wealth of detail about childhood and family structure, this book explores the hidden lives of children at the origins of Christianity. "Let the Little Children Come to Me" pays careful attention to the impact of gender, class, and slave status on children's lives.

A History of Codex Bezae’s Text in the Gospel of Mark

A History of Codex Bezae’s Text in the Gospel of Mark
Author: Peter E. Lorenz
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 1029
Release: 2021-11-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110746867

As the principal Greek witness of the so-called "Western" tradition of the gospels and Acts, Codex Bezae’s enigmatic text in parallel Greek and Latin columns presents a persistent problem of New Testament textual criticism. The present study challenges the traditional view that this text represents a vivid retelling of the canonical narratives cited by ancient writers from Justin Martyr to Marcion and translated early into Syriac and Latin.

Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity

Burial and Memorial in Late Antiquity
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 554
Release: 2024-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 900468798X

Burial and Memorial explores funerary and commemorative archaeology, A.D. 284–650, across the late antique world. This first volume includes an overview of research, and papers exploring bioarchaeology, mortuary rituals, mausolea, and funerary landscapes. It considers the sacralisation of tombs, the movements of relics, and the political significance of cemeteries. The nature and fate of statue monuments is explored, as memorials to individuals. Authors also compare the destruction or preservation of tombs in relation to other buildings. Finally, the city itself is considered as a place of collective memory, where meanings were long maintained, via a study of spoliation.

Death of the Desert

Death of the Desert
Author: Christine Luckritz Marquis
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2022-03-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0812298233

In the late fourth century, the world of Christianity was torn apart by debate over the teachings of the third-century theologian Origen and his positions on the incorporeality of God. In the year 400, Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria convened a council declaring Origen's later followers as heretics. Shortly thereafter, Theophilus banished the so-called Tall Brothers, four Origenist monks who led monastic communities in the western Egyptian desert, along with hundreds of their brethren. In some accounts, Theophilus leads a violent group of drunken youths and enslaved Ethiopians in sacking and desecrating the monastery; in others, he justly exercises his episcopal duties. In some versions, Theophilus' violent actions effectively bring the Golden Age of desert monasticism to an end; in others, he has shown proper respect for the desert fathers, whose life of asceticism is subsequently destroyed by bands of barbarian marauders. For some, the desert came to be inextricably connected to violence and trauma, while for others, it became a site of nostalgic recollection. Which of these narratives subsequent generations believed depended in good part on the sources they were reading. In Death of the Desert, Christine Luckritz Marquis offers a fresh examination of this critical juncture in Christian history and brings into dialogue narrative strands that have largely been separated in the scholarly tradition. She takes the violence perpetrated by Theophilus as a turning point for desert monasticism and considers how monks became involved in acts of violence and how that violence came back to haunt them. More broadly, her careful attention to the dynamic relations between memory practices, the rhetorical constructions of place, racialized discourse, and language and deeds of violence speak to us in our own time.

The Samaritans

The Samaritans
Author: Reinhard Pummer
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802867685

Most people associate the term "Samaritan" exclusively with the New Testament stories about the Good Samaritan and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Very few are aware that a small community of about 750 Samaritans still lives today in Palestine and Israel; they view themselves as the true Israelites, having resided in their birthplace for thousands of years and preserving unchanged the revelation given to Moses in the Torah. Reinhard Pummer, one of the world's foremost experts on Samaritanism, offers in this book a comprehensive introduction to the people identified as Samaritans in both biblical and nonbiblical sources. Besides analyzing the literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources, he examines the Samaritans' history, their geographical distribution, their version of the Pentateuch, their rituals and customs, and their situation today.

The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity

The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity
Author: Caillan Davenport
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2024-01-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0192865234

The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity examines the Roman imperial court as a social and political institution in both the Principate and Late Antiquity. By analysing these two periods, which are usually treated separately in studies of the Roman court, it considers continuities, changes, and connections in the six hundred years between the reigns of Augustus and Justinian. Thirteen case studies are presented. Some take a thematic approach, analysing specific aspects such as the appointment of jurists, the role of guard units, or stories told about the court, over several centuries. Others concentrate on specific periods, individuals, or office holders, like the role of women and generals in the fifth century AD, while paying attention to their wider historical significance. The volume concludes with a chapter placing the evolution of the Roman imperial court in comparative perspective using insights from scholarship on other Eurasian monarchical courts. It shows that the long-term transformation of the Roman imperial court did not follow a straightforward and linear course, but came about as the result of negotiation, experimentation, and adaptation.

The Rich and the Pure

The Rich and the Pure
Author: Daniel Caner
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520381599

A portrait of history’s first complex Christian society as seen through the lens of Christian philanthropy and gift giving As the Roman Empire broke down in western Europe, its prosperity moved decisively eastward, to what is now known as the Byzantine Empire. Here was born history’s first truly affluent, multifaceted Christian society. One of the ideals used to unite the diverse millions of people living in this vast realm was the Christianized ideal of philanthrōpia. In this sweeping cultural and social history, Daniel Caner shows how philanthropy required living up to Jesus’s injunction to “Give to all who ask of you,” by offering mercy and/or material aid to every human being, regardless of their origin or status. Caner shows how Christian philanthropy became articulated through distinct religious ideals of giving that helped define proper social relations among the rich, the poor, and “the pure” (Christian holy people), resulting in new and enduring social expectations. In tracking the evolution of Christian giving over three centuries, he brings to the fore the concerns of the peoples of Early Byzantium, from the countryside to the lower levels of urban society to the imperial elites, as well as the hierarchical relationships that arose among them. The Rich and the Pure offers nothing less than a portrait of the whole of early Byzantine society.