Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions

While the author cannot speak for churches of Christ, common among them are unique ways of understanding sacred scripture, believed to have been written by apostles and prophets of the Lord before the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.) and circulated among the early Christian communities (e.g. A letter called First Clement in about 95 A.D., refers to at least ten New Testament books), then collected as a volume by the self-identified Christian community of the second century A.D. or earlier, e.g. the list of Marcion (140 A.D.)

Also see MEANING THERAPY here
https://issuu.com/collegeofmentalhealth/docs/meaning_therapy3

Yuz Asaf, Budistler ve Hindularca ‘Bodhisattva’ veya ‘İssa’ adıyla tanınan, peygamberliğini M.Ö. 100′de Hindistan’da ilan eden meçhul bir kişiliktir. Bu meçhul peygamberin etrafında kopartılan fırtınalar Keşmir’de, Hz. Isa Efsanesi’nin konusunu oluşturuyor.

İslam ve Hıristiyan kaynaklarında 14-29 yaşları arasında nerede olduğu bilinmeyen Hz. Isa Budist midir?
Hıristiyanlık Budizm, Budizm Yahudi kaynaklı mıdır?

Hz. İsa’nın çarmıhtan kurtulduktan sonra Türkiye – İran – Afganistan üzerinden Hindistan’a geldiği, isim değiştirerek Yuz Asaf adını aldığı ve 120 yaşına kadar dinini tebliğe devam ettiği doğru mudur?

Buda’nıın işaretiyle, beklenen Lama düşüncesinde bebekken korunmaya alınan, beyaz tenli olduğu için adı ‘Bagwa Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara’ konulan İssa, Hz. İsa mıdır?

Hindu kutsal kitapları ve Vedalar’da, İssa’dan nasıl bahsediliyor ve bu kitaplarda yer alan son peygamber Hz. Muhammed’in ‘Kalki Avatar’ adıyla son kurtarıcı olarak tanımlanması neden gizleniyor?

Hıristiyanlığın ve İslam’ın Batı’da yayılmasından sonra Hindistan ve Orta Doğu arasında ki benzer isimler nelerdir?

Kayıp 10 İsrail kavminin izini Afganistan ve Hindistan’da bulan Yahudiler, Yuz Asaf’a neden sahip çıkıyor?

Yuz Asaf’ı Hz. İsa olarak lanse eden ve Mesihliğin kendisine geçtiğini varsayan Ahmediye-Kadıyani mezhebi kurucusu Gulam Ahmed, İngiliz İstihbaratı’nın ajanı mıydı?

Bütün bu ilginç soruların cevaplarını bulacağınız Keşmir’de Hz. İsa Efsanesi, Hz. İsa’ya atfedilen söz konusu iddialarla ilgili geniş bir perspektif sunuyor.

An overview of the variety of textual differences that exist between the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus and the book in modern critical editions, thereby offering a window into the book's early readership. There is also a YouTube link to the lecture version of this paper, which was recently delivered at Samford University for their Holley Hull Lecture Series: https://vimeo.com/878444925/a35492dd8b?share=copy&fbclid=IwAR10Iu7HKuAjjcEcDdxgfT7XKqe2F6W6Bwb1cVHafNO0Yz6g4VhsIhXHMz4

Who are the 'Four Luminaries' of Sethian-Barbeloite Gnosticism anyways? They're not always 'Sethian.' Rather, Daveithe, and Eleleth were relatively popular angelic names in Greek and Coptic magical and angelological texts. The presence of one of these names in a Nag Hammadi text - such as the Hypostasis of the Archons - is not necessarily indicative of 'Sethian' character.

Faced with a world which desensitizes about the person, works and purposes of Satan, cries for a new world order and rampant violations of the word of God this work is intended to refocus attention on the second coming of Jesus, and  God’s vengeance on the sin, deception and lies of Satan.  The world has accepted Satan as a condition of normal, so-called, modern life; life and the Godly as nonsense and abnormal The word of God is being perverted, misquoted and defaced by adept Satanist who hides behind church robes, national leaders and corporate management. Christians must have confidence in their salvation, and the truth of the word of God which is summed up in Jesus Sermon on the Mount of Olives: “The sign of the second coming of Jesus, and of the end of the world.”
Dake’s structure of theology is definitely dispensational.
He recognized 9 distinct dispensations in Scripture.
1. Dispensation of God’s rule in eternity past.
2. Dispensation of Innocence.
3. Dispensation of Conscience.
4. Dispensation of Human Government.
5. Dispensation of Promise.
6. Dispensation of Law.
7. Dispensation of Grace.
8. Dispensation of Divine Government.
9. Dispensation of God’s rule in eternity future.











Table of Contents
Chapter One:                Unfulfilled Prophecy: When and Duration
Chapter two:                  Who
Chapter Three:              Where
Chapter Four:                Who
Chapter Five:                  Who?
Chapter Six:                    When and by which signs? Deception! Rumors.
Chapter Seven:              Travail of Israel
Chapter Eight:                The sign of the actual start of The Tribulation
Chapter Nine:                Flesh vs. Spirit
Chapter Ten:                  Birth Pains
Chapter Eleven:              Mid-Tribulation
Chapter  Twelve:            Time
Chapter Thirteen:          Sign of His second coming
Chapter Fourteen:          Abomination of desolation
Chapter Fifteen:              Babylon
Chapter Sixteen:            Structural Planetary Topographical changes
Chapter Seventeen:        When/Time
Chapter Eighteen:          Duration
Chapter Nineteen:          Katabole vs. Themelioo
Chapter Twenty:            Mid-Tribulation
Chapter: Twenty One:  The remnant
Chapter: Twenty Two:  Satan’s Work
Chapter: Twenty Three: Discernment
Chapter: Twenty Four:  Soul, Spirit and Body
Chapter: Twenty Five:  A Supernatural Day
Chapter: Twenty Six:    Spirit of Devils
Chapter: Twenty Seven: Marriage Supper of the Lamb

The evidence surveyed in this paper indicates that Paul took great care in his letters to differentiate between Jesus-believing Jews and Gentiles for the purpose of mutual blessing. Moreover, Paul (like the Jerusalem apostles) formulated a universal rule that the circumcised should remain circumcised (i.e. practicing Jews), and that the uncircumcised should remain uncircumcised in keeping with their respective callings from God.

The relation between Mark and John, the Bi-Optic Gospels, is one of the most difficult and most important subjects in biblical studies. Upon correct inferences of this set of intratraditional and intertraditional relationships many other judgments falter or stand. Seeking to make an advance over monodimensional source- and redaction-critical theories, an overall theory of Markan-Johannine interfluentiality identifies at least six stages in the developments within and between these two traditions, seeking to make the best sense of their textual similarities and differences. Along the way, several advances are argued over prevalent critical approaches, leading to an assessment of John’s relation to Mark as being interfluential in the oral stages of their traditions, augmentive and corrective to Mark in John’s first edition as “the second gospel”, and harmonizing - in that the final edition of John tends to reconcile itself with the other Markan Gospels. As the final Markan interpolation includes Johannine content, interfluentiality indeed continues. In service to an overall theory of interfluentiality stands Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of polyvalent dialogism, applicable to historical narratives as well as fictive ones, wherein answerability within the cognitive experience of authors seeks to reconcile disparities between life and art. In that sense, an ongoing history of dialectical engagement between these bi-optic renderings of Jesus’ ministry inform also a broader understanding of John’s distinctive relations to the Lukan, Q, and Matthean traditions, and most importantly to their common subject: Jesus.

This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same. By taking this stance, the dissertation challenges the view found in many recent studies on Late Roman masculinity that a Christian ideal of manliness based on extreme ascetic virtues and pacifism had superseded militarism and courage as the dominant component of hegemonic masculine ideology.

Paper deals with the reality of the situation when royalty ruled the world, and when no one but royals were allowed to write under penalty of death. Thus, a 'closed'  or controlled environment with the created illusion of freedom & the unification of royalty to preserve that status quo.

Palaeographic estimates of the date of P.Bodmer II, the well preserved Greek papyrus codex of the Gospel of John, have ranged from the early second century to the first half of the third century. There are, however, equally convincing palaeographic parallels among papyri securely dated to as late as the fourth century. This article surveys the palaeographic evidence and argues that the range of possible dates assigned to P.Bodmer II on the basis of palaeography needs to be broadened to include the fourth century. Furthermore, a serious consideration of a date at the later end of that broadened spectrum of palaeographic possibilities helps to explain both the place of P.Bodmer II in relation to other Bodmer papyri and several aspects of the codicology of P.Bodmer II.

Revisions to the Greek NT in NA28 are restricted to the Catholic Epistles—the product of the Münster Institute’s ongoing work on the Editio critica maior. The text of the rest of the NT remains unaltered. The updated manuscript data, however, spans the apparatus of the entire NT and signals a new day for its textual history. The revised correctors of the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus make the point. The proposed revisions have direct and far-reaching implications for the book’s textual history. Corrections once placed in the fourth through sixth centuries now occupy the seventh. The changes appear slight, even inconsequential—“touch ups” in support of the task of reconstruction. The clarification and re-dating of the correctors, though, represent a material shift with instant repercussions. The inclusion of new and additional witnesses—alongside of and in juxtaposition to the corrections—further portend altered textual alignments and disclose forgotten chapters in the history of textual criticism. The clarity of the new data also facilitates an examination of their limitations and unclutters the landscape for renewed textual research. The stage is set for a reappraisal of the Apocalypse’s textual history.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

Introduction to Messianic Judaism provides a description of what the Messianic Jewish community looks like today at its center and on its margins. The first section of the book traces the ecclesial contours of the community, providing a socio-historical and theological snapshot of the community's origins, where it is presently and where it is heading. Alongside these chapters, the book also includes a number of essays on biblical and theological issues central to the identity of Messianic Judaism. The twelve contributors to the first part of the book are recognized leaders in the Messianic Jewish community. They work with various organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council, Tikkun International, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Israel College of the Bible and the New School for Jewish Studies. Fourteen scholars from a wide spectrum of Christian backgrounds have written essays for the second part of the book. Their participation signals a growing academic and ecclesial interest in Messianic Judaism. Since the 1970s, a sea change has taken place in New Testament studies that has far-reaching implications for how the church evaluates Messianic Judaism. A broad reassessment of the New Testament writers’ view of Judaism has occurred since the publication of E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), and this reevaluation continues unabated. The contributors to the second part of Introduction to Messianic Judaism draw from this recent scholarship and demonstrate how post-supersessionist interpretation of the New Testament results in readings of the biblical text that are consistent with Messianic Judaism. The final section of the book is written by Joel Willitts who provides a summary and synthesis of the essays, explaining how they shed light on the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of Messianic Judaism.

Intensive concern for the proper observance of the Levitical purity laws was characteristic of various Jewish groups living in Judea during the late Second Temple period. The purity laws, concentrated in the Priestly Code (mostly in Lev 11–15 and Num 19), describe numerous sources of ritual impurity (e.g. dead swarming creatures, male and female genital discharges, human corpses etc.), venues whereby impurity is transferred from one object or person to another, and methods for purifying people, clothing and vessels that have become impure. Rigorous interest in the Levitical purity laws is evidenced in the literature of the period, including the Biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and the works of Josephus Flavius. Continued interest in ritual purity law, at least within the rabbinic academy, is evidenced by the copious early rabbinic literature devoted to the topic; these laws are the focus of an entire order of the Mishnah and Tosefta (Ṭeharot; lit., “Purities”), and are the topic of many rabbinic pericopes interspersed throughout the Talmudic literature of the Roman and Early Byzantine periods.

Of late, the literary sources have been supplemented by a plethora of archaeological finds which provide evidence for the centrality of ritual purity observance in the daily lives of Jews in Judea during the Roman period. Chief amongst these finds are stepped water installations which served as ritual baths (miqwāʾôt) for the purificatory immersion of ritually impure people, clothing and vessels. Another important archaeological phenomenon which indicates observance of ritual purity laws is the widespread use of chalkstone vessels, as stone was regarded to be a material impervious to ritual impurity. Additionally, a marked absence of imported pottery at most Jewish sites throughout the Early Roman period has been explained by numerous scholars as a reflection of concern over the ritual impurity of ceramic vessels produced outside the borders of the Land of Israel.

It has been proposed that references to Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Philip represent a possible context for an early gospel fragment in which Jesus refers to her as ‘My wife’. It will be argued here that Mary’s relationship to Jesus in Philip is determined by her role as privileged recipient of revelation, not by her marital status. More significant in accounting for the Jesus’ Wife fragment is the Gospel of Thomas, which the author appears to have known in precisely the text-form represented by the one surviving Coptic exemplar.

The Book of Revelation has been something of an outlier within parts of the Christian tradition, as evidenced, among other things, by its peculiar canon-ical reception. As regards the earliest period of transmission, however, the Greek text of Revelation is relatively well attested. In this vein, the present study seeks to examine the relevant Greek materials from late antique Egypt, and thus elucidate the earliest textual and material transmission of this book. The manuscripts in question will be surveyed with a particular focus on their distinctive features such as book formats and scribal practices, as well as textual characteristics, followed by reflections on their socio-historical significance.

"The Enochic Son of Man and Pauline Christology"

A comparative analysis of the Messiah in the Book of the Parables of Enoch and the Letters of Paul, this study locates one aspect of Paul’s thought, his christology, in the context of Jewish intellectual traditions of the first century BCE and the first century CE. Conceptual elements of messianic traditions are identified in these documents by examining the nature and functions of the divine figure and the nature and functions of the messiah figure. This has implications for understanding divine and human agency and the relationships between mediatorial figures and the one God in Jewish literature from the Second Temple period. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the Book of the Parables and the Letters of Paul share specific conceptual elements of messianic traditions. The combination of shared elements is so striking as to preclude the possibility that the Book of the Parables and the Letters of Paul constituted independent, parallel developments. The evidence indicates that Paul was familiar with the conceptual elements of the Enochic messiah, and that Paul developed his concept of Jesus as the Kyrios out of the Son of Man traditions in the Book of the Parables of Enoch. This study argues that at least one facet of Paul’s thought, his christology, was heavily influenced by Enochic Son of Man traditions.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

Early Christian Gospels: their Production and Transmission greatly increases our understanding of the historical circumstances in which early (i.e., c. 150 to the early fourth century) canonical and non-canonical gospels were produced and transmitted. Prior analysis of non-canonical gospels in relation to the canonical gospels has usually been conducted solely from a theological perspective. In addition, early gospels are often treated simply as texts printed in a critical edition. In the process, their essential nature, the fact that they are ancient manuscripts with individual characteristics, has been overlooked. By comparing canonical and non-canonical gospels holistically—in terms of their codicology (or, in a few cases, ‘voluminology’), production characteristics, scribal tendencies, and textual transmission—Early Christian Gospels represents a major advance in methodology. Its conclusions are compelling, not only by virtue of the exhaustive comparison, but also because several lines of analysis coalesce to confirm the overall findings of the book. (See http://www.gonnelli.it/uk/papyrologica-florentina/vol-47-early-christian-gospels-their-production-.asp)

Neotestamentica 41:1 (2007): 6-41. This essay builds on the works of Harnack, Barrett, Kaesemann and others in exploring the Johannine-Matthean dialectic over church structure and governance in the late first-century situation of the early church. In dealing with Diotrephes (3 John 9-10) and his kin, John's presentation of Jesus' promise to lead the community of faith in unity by means of the Holy Spirit--available to all seeks to restore a more primitive and egalitarian model of leadership, arguably closer to the views of the charismatic Jesus than later institutionalizing developments.

This article explores the definition of the NT "autographs" as articulated in various inerrancy doctrinal statements. It begins by sketching the history of the doctrine of the inerrancy of the "autographs," followed by some modern criticisms of the doctrine. Greco-Roman composition and publication practices are surveyed by investigating three figures from the beginning of the Roman imperial age through to its height: Cicero, Pliny the Younger, and Galen. Four extant examples of ancient papyrus "autographs" are examined, illustrating the draft and rewriting stages of composition. After analyzing Greco-Roman publication, a definition is proposed: in reference to the NT, the  "autograph," as often discussed in biblical inerrancy doctrinal statements, should be defined as the completed authorial work which was released by the author for circulation and copying, not earlier draft versions or layers of composition.

The adoption of the codex for literature in the Roman world was one of the most significant developments in the history of the book, yet remains poorly understood. Physical evidence seems to contradict literary evidence from Martial's epigrams. Near-total adoption of the codex for early Christian works, even as the book roll dominated non-Christian book forms
in the first centuries of our era, has led to endless speculation about possible ideological motives for adoption. What has been unquestioned is the importance of Christian scribes in the surge of adoption from 300 C.E. onward. This article reexamines the foundation of many theories, the timeline for non-Christian adoption sketched by Roberts and Skeat in their study, The Birth of the Codex, and reevaluates it through the lens of "diffusion of innovations theory" in order to reconcile the evidence and elevate practical considerations once and for all over ideological motives.

The following text is a response sent to an email dispatched to me by the Chairman of the exiled Oromo Parliamentarians who struggle for the Independence and Self-determination of the 5 millennia long Kushitic Ethiopian Nation of the Oromos.
The Hamitic - Kushitic Oromo Nation - due to criminal, inhuman and evil persecution conceived by the colonial powers (France, England and America) and executed by the colonially promoted barbaric and incestuous pseudo-Christian Abyssinians - lost their kingdoms and were engulfed within the Cemetery of Nations Fake Ethiopia, which consists in the world's most tyrannical realm and the location of the world's more abhorrent, more enduring, and more multifaceted genocides. There are more than 45 million Oromos in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) and Kenya today, despite the notorious and pathetic falsehood propagated by Wikipedia.
The present text enumerates all the major points of historical distortion and falsification carried out and diffused by the colonial academia, mass media, and diplomats, as well as by their local agents and criminal executioners, i.e. the barbaric, incestuous and Anti-Christian tribes of Amhara and Tigray (: the Abyssinians), who usurped the fair name of Ethiopia, which historically denotes the land of North Sudan and the Kushitic Nation that prospered there either in the Antiquity or in the Christian Era. Both, the Oromos and the Arabic-speaking (but not Arab) populations of Northern-Central Sudan are the descendants of Ancient Sudan's (i.e. Ancient Ethiopia's) Kushitic populations.
Representative photographic documentation was herewith added to the text in order to better illustrate the topic.

Refutation of historical forgeries propagated by European colonials and incestuous Abyssinians
First published here:
https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/kushitic-oromos-ancestry-in-ethiopia-ancient-sudan-semitic-amharas-tigrays-abyssinians-ancestry-in-yemen/

"This study examines the figure of Joseph and his experiences at home and in Potiphar’s house as construed in several early Syriac sources. In the first four chapters I introduce the main sources used in the study. In the course of these chapters I identify new Syriac works on Joseph, fill a major lacuna in an influential early work, and provide a fuller textual history and authorship analysis for other Syriac Joseph texts.
The eight chapters which form the heart of this study are based on a thorough inventory of the reception of Genesis 37 and 39 in these sources (a sample of the inventory is included as an appendix). Each chapter aims to contribute to our understanding of how the biblical narrative was absorbed and reworked in the Syriac tradition, and thereby to further demonstrate the value of these largely neglected sources to a study of the pre-modern reception of this narrative. Of no less importance, however, is the contribution these chapters make to our understanding of the interrelationships between the Syriac sources. It is in this respect that this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of Syriac literature per se, in particular to our understanding of Narsai’s literary heritage."

La mosaïque funéraire d’Orphée de Jérusalem est la dernière représentation mythologique du chantre parmi les dix-sept exemples connus des mosaïques de l’Est de la Méditerranée de l’Antiquité. Nous ne connaissons que six mosaïques funéraires avec l’image du musicien thrace dans l’art funéraire antique. La mosaïque d’Orphée placée dans une tombe chrétienne au VIe siècle (l’époque de Justinien ?), devait répondre aux attentes des chrétiens pour lesquelles elle a été exécutée. Nous sommes loin (environ 160 ans après l’interdiction des cultes païens) de l’époque ou la réaction païenne s’exprimait dans l’art et il ne s'agit certainement pas ici de ce phénomène de contestation. Selon l’opinion de l’auteur, le personnage mythologique d’Orphée avait un sens universel dans un contexte funéraire à l’époque romaine qui perdurera longtemps à l’époque de l’Antiquité tardive. L’idée d’Orphée est liée d’une part avec celle d’un homme malheureux pleurant la perte de sa bien aimée Eurydice. D’autre part, le jeu de mots, si souvent pratiqué par les Anciens dans le langage courant ainsi que dans l’iconographie (par exemple des mosaïques d’Apamée interprétées par J. et J.-Ch. Balty) et dans les textes pourrait bien expliquer le sens universel de l’image du chantre dans le contexte funéraire. En grec, « orphanos » signifie une personne privée de son père, de sa mère ou de ses enfants, et « Orpheus » Orphée. Le chantre mythologique exprime dans un contexte funéraire, le deuil et la tristesse de la personne privée de l’être le plus cher. Il est probable que le jeu de mots, a la fois graphique et textuel, sous-entendu, s’est établie dans l’image mythologique du Centaure et du Pan. Nous savons que le Chrisme accompagne la majorité des tombes chrétiennes au Ve et VIe siècles. Sous le nom du Centaure Chiron [XIPO(N)] nous pouvons lire « XiPo » et sous le nom de Pan nous lisons le « Pantokrator ». Derrière la représentation graphique du Centaure Chiron et de Pan nous pouvons donc lire « Christo to Pantokrator ». Cette formule correspond bien à l’ambiance de paix crée par Orphée, sa musique et la formule chrétienne de paix en Christ ou en Dieu adressée à deux jeunes femmes mortes et enterrées dans la chapelle funéraire de Jérusalem. L’image d’Orphée est ici utilisée d’une façon inoffensive face à la religion chrétienne et ses dogmes. See also a pdf of M.T. Olszewski, The Orpheus Funerary Mosaic from Jerusalem in the Archaeological Museum at Istanbul, in: the 11TH INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON ANCIENT MOSAICS OCTOBER 16TH – 20TH, 2009, BURSA TURKEY: M. Şahin (ed. by), Mosaics of Turkey and Parallel Developments in the Rest of the Ancient and Medieval World: Questions of Iconography, Style and Technique from the Beginnings of Mosaic until the Late Byzantine Era, Bursa 2011 (2012), pp. 655-664.

This volume examines 1 Corinthians 1-4 within first-century politics, demonstrating the significance of Corinth's constitution to the interpretation of Paul's letter. Bradley J. Bitner shows that Paul carefully considered the Roman colonial context of Corinth, which underlay numerous ecclesial conflicts. Roman politics, however, cannot account for the entire shape of Paul's response. Bridging the Hellenism-Judaism divide that has characterised much of Pauline scholarship, Bitner argues that Paul also appropriated Jewish-biblical notions of covenant. Epigraphical and papyrological evidence indicates that his chosen content and manner are best understood with reference to an ecclesial politeia informed by a distinctively Christ-centred political theology. This emerges as a 'politics of thanksgiving' in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 and as a 'politics of construction' in 3:5-4:5, where Paul redirects gratitude and glory to God in Christ. This innovative account of Paul's political theology offers fresh insight into his pastoral strategy among nascent Gentile-Jewish assemblies.