Summary Acts 13:7 mentions “the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God” (NRSV here and hereafter). In other words, an elite Gentile, the highest civilian official of Cyprus, is interested in (proto-)Christianity. The character “John whose other name was Mark” of Jerusalem has…
Month: November 2019
Breaking bread in the Roman world: The panis quadratus
What does “breaking bread” mean in ancient texts (Mark 14:22, Acts 2:42, 2:46, etc.)? Look at one of the contemporary types of bread, the panis quadratus. The top is scored into equal sections. Usually there are eight sections, but an image from Pompeii shows a candidate for office distributing larger breads with 12 sections. The…