Writing c. 112 CE from Amisos, the capital of Bithynia-Pontus, the governor Pliny the Younger identified a group of people who worshiped “Christ” and did not worship the emperor (Letters 10:96). I suggest that Pliny’s “Christians” belonged to the local ethnos-based sect that used the original letters of “Paul.” They were soon pastored by Marcion,…
Category: The world of antiquity
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…
Seleucid time-keeping was a necessary condition for apocalyptic thinking and writing
Prior to 311 BC, time was marked by local events or consulships or years since the start of a monarchy. Beginning in 311 BCE, the Seleucids began counting history going forward as “n+1,” forever and ever. Paul J. Kosmin proposes that this innovation in time-keeping was a necessary condition for the emergence of apocalyptic thinking…
What are the orantes in the catacombs?
There are orante figures depicted on the walls of the very earliest Christian catacombs of Rome. The orantes are praying females or males. (Century and number of images of orantes: first: 0, second: 5, third: 57, fourth: 92, later: 3)* What are the orantes in the catacombs? I suggest that the orantes represent people who…