scholarly journals Constructing the rights and duties of slave-owners as socio-historic context of the New Testament

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Goede

This article aims to construct the rights and duties of slave- owners in antiquity as part of the socio-historical context of the New Testament. In order to achieve this aim, the primary sources referring to Greek, Roman and Jewish law of slavery will first be described. Three aspects of the law of slavery, namely legal definitions of freedom and slavery, the legal status of slaves, and the rights of slave-owners are investigated in Greek, Roman and Jewish law. Relevant texts from these sources are then identified, analysed and interpreted. The re- sults of this process of analysis and interpretation are used to construct the legal context within which the exhortations directed at slave-owners in the New Testament should be read. We submit that Jewish law provided a sound alternative legal and religious context to the writers of the New Testament addressing Christian slave-owners. This alternative context functioned as a counterweight to the strict legal contexts pro- vided by Greek and Roman law.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-687
Author(s):  
Maciej Tomasz Kubala

The article analyses the issues in question by means of a method used in the legal sciences which in the Polish methodology is called “the historical and legal method.” It involves presentation and analysis of selected legal institutions and of their evolution in time. The following issues—identified across the pages of the Gospel—are analysed in this article: political and systemic context of evangelical events (section 1), the role of censuses in the implementation of Roman administrative and systemic principles (section 2), Roman tax law in the context of tax burdens resting on residents of Judea (section 3) and the Roman judicial procedure in the context of the trial of Jesus (section 4). In the summary the author answers the research question asked in the introduction: to what degree does the historical and legal significance of selected institutions of Roman law, inspired by the description of these institutions in canonical gospels of the New Testament, determine the contemporary understanding of the gospels themselves?


Author(s):  
Дмитрий Евгеньевич Афиногенов

Трактат 1 из сборника «Амфилохии» св. патр. Фотия на примере истолкования конкретных мест из Библии объясняет методологию библейской экзегезы вообще. Во внимание должен приниматься не только богословский или исторический контекст, но также чисто филологические аспекты: семантика, интонация, языковой узус Нового Завета и Септуагинты, возможные разночтения и т. д. Патриарх убеждён, что при правильном пользовании этим инструментарием можно объяснить все кажущиеся противоречащими высказывания Св. Писания таким образом, что они окажутся в полном согласии друг с другом. The first treatise from «Amphilochia» by the St. Patriarch Photios expounds the general principles of the biblical exegesis on a specific example of certain passages from the Bible. It is not just the theological or historical context that has to be taken into consideration, but also purely philological aspects, such as semantics, intonation, the language usage of the New Testament and Septuagint, possible variant readings etc. The Patriarch is convinced, that the correct application of these tools makes it possible to perfectly harmonize all seemingly contradictory statements of the Scriptures.


2001 ◽  
Vol 57 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan C. Thom

The religio-historic background of the New Testament: Commentary on a recent publication. The religiohistoric background of the NT is of cardinal importance for its interpretation; however, it is far from easy for New Testament scholars to attain a thorough knowledge of this background. What is needed is not only a broad, general orientation, but also first-hand interaction with texts in which Graeco-Roman religious traditions themselves appear and are expressed. But available introductions are either too general or do not offer a satisfactory theoretical framework for understanding textual materials within context. Hans-Josef Klauck's recent introduction to the religio-historical context of the  NT, by presenting not only an "external", theoretical but also an "intemal" perspective emanating from close interaction with the ancient texts themselves, satisfies to an exceptional degree the requirements mentioned above.


1967 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Gundry

The Epistle of I Peter has occupied a rather large place in recent critical studies of the New Testament. E. G. Selwyn has advanced the view that the epistle draws from four primary sources: a liturgical document, a persecution fragment, a primitive Christian catechism, andverba Christi. E. Lohse prefers to think that the early church had a common stock oforalparaenetic tradition, from which the epistolary writers drew. F. W. Beare has popularized in English the liturgical-homiletical hypothesis widely accepted in Europe, namely, that the major part of I Peter (i. 3–iv. 11) is the transcription of a baptismal liturgy-homily, transformed into an epistle by the addition of i. 1 f. and iv. 12–v. 14. The view has been carefully worked out by F. L. Cross, but has encountered increasing resistance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-160
Author(s):  
Dean Simpson

This article is a word study that analyses and interprets how Erasmus uses the adjective evangelicus, -a, -um in his New Testament Paraphrases. The development of the idiom ‘gospel-blank’ (evangelicus + noun) is analyzed diachronically; the phrases denoting gospel things are divided into six semantic categories. The study shows, on the one hand, that there is a general consistency in how evangelicus is used, the most common pairings predominating in most Paraphrases on the Epistles and Gospels, while, on the other, there is some broadening and lowering of the nouns with which evangelicus is joined, moving from the Paraphrases on the Epistles to the Gospel Paraphrases. Erasmus’ changing attitude to the project of paraphrasing the New Testament provides biographical and historical context in which to place the study’s findings. The study concludes by highlighting the New Testament Paraphrases as Erasmus’ humanistic response to worsening divisions in the early 1520s.


Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Schiffman

This study examines a number of specific examples of halakhic (Jewish legal) matters discussed in the New Testament that are also dealt with in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This paper compares and contrasts the rulings of these two traditions, as well as the Pharisaic views, showing that the Jewish legal views of the Gospels are for the most part lenient views to the left of those of the Pharisees, whereas those of the Dead Sea Scrolls represent a stricter view, to the right of the Pharisaic views. Ultimately, in the halakhic debate of the first century ce, the self-understanding of the earliest Christians was very different from that of the sect of the Dead Sea Scrolls.


1963 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 294
Author(s):  
A. E. Raubitschek ◽  
A. N. Sherwin-White

Author(s):  
Susan Hylen

This book presents and interprets evidence for women’s lives in the social context of the New Testament. Some of the evidence from this period of Roman history suggests that women’s roles were sharply restricted. Other evidence shows women taking on leadership roles, managing property, and the like. Previous interpreters have often argued that the two kinds of evidence describe different groups or arenas where women’s activity was either forbidden or allowed. However, this book argues that the evidence points to complex gender norms that were sometimes in tension. The culture widely recognized modesty, submission to men, and silence as virtues of women. Yet society also encouraged women to contribute to the economic well-being of their families and to serve as patrons of individuals, groups, and cities. The chapters of the book address the virtues of women, their legal status, wealth, patronage, occupations, and speech. Each chapter explores the way the New Testament writings emerge out of and reflect this complex set of social expectations for women.


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