Reconstructing Ancient Corinth

One of my interests is Roman-era Ancient Corinth.  Christoph, here at uni, recently pointed out to me a cool tool that helps recreate and visualise ancient (or modern) sites.  I had a quick go with the Temple of Apollo from Ancient Corinth…

First, I set a plan of the ancient city as the base of the reconstruction:

Second, I made a quick reconstruction of the Apollo temple, using the “blueprint” on the map to get the dimensions and features vaguely right (I wasn’t attempting to be exact or complete) :

Third, I was able to view the reconstructed temple from any perspective, and imagine how it might have looked in relation to other parts of the city:

Here’s what this site looks like in reality, at the present time…  The temple of Apollo is at the top left:

And the best thing is that this software is free – it’s “Google Sketch Up” – and obviously there are way more features than I’ve noticed in the few minutes I’ve spent trying it out.  Cool, huh?

Menorah Mania!

The Israel Antiquities Authority reports about an engraving of a menorah in a newly discovered Second-Temple era synagogue:

According to the excavation director, Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “We are dealing with an exciting and unique find. This is the first time that a menorah decoration has been discovered from the days when the SecondTemple was still standing. This is the first menorah to be discovered in a Jewish context and that dates to the Second Temple period/beginning of the Early Roman period. We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue that was uncovered joins just six other synagogues in the world that are known to date to the SecondTemple period”.

This is quite interesting – providing one indication of what the Temple menorah looked like.  Another important late-first-century source can be seen below, as explained by yours truly, wearing a silly hat.

And below is a re-creation of the Temple’s menorah in Jerusalem, set ominously against the background of the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is presently situated:

h/t: Jim West

The Lamest Museum in the World

My place – on top of the piano.  Most items: Cheap, broken, or counterfeit.  Mind you, I only charge £9.95 entrance (concessions: £9.50)*

*price includes tour of “Aquaworld”, featuring Poppy and Totty, the amaaaazing goldfish

UPDATE: But suddenly, a new contender…

Feeling generous? Buy me a curse

Amazingly, a 1st-2nd century lead curse tablet (from Roman Britain, I assume) is on sale on ebay.  I would LOVE it.  Unfortunately it’s £500… but on the bright side, free postage!

A number of these have been found in Corinth.  A person would write a curse against another individual in the name of a god, often specifying complaints or preferred punishments, and then bury the lead tablet in the ground at a specific site.  At Corinth it was the site of the cult of Demeter and Persephone.  Perhaps this background of cursing-in-the-name-of-a-god helps explain Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians, “No one speaking by the Spirit of God can say, ‘Jesus, Curse!’” (Bruce Winter’s suggestion)

This one looks like it has quite clear writing – although I assume that when the ebay ad says “demonic script” it actually means “demotic script”!

Excavations of Roman Britain

I’ve just returned from a trip to the north of England, where I saw some of the evidence of Britain’s Roman past…

Here is Hadrian’s wall – built by Hadrian to indicate the border of the Roman empire:

Here is a bath at Vindolanda, where archaeological excavations are still in full swing:

This is a grain-storage building at Housesteads, a major Roman fort along Hadrian’s wall:

And finally, here are the (ancient) public toilets at Housesteads – these are not as good as the ancient toilets at Beth She’an, but they still recall a marvellous time in history when relieving oneself was a communal affair… the soldiers would sit around the edges and engage in intelligent conversation while holding a sponge on a stick, ready to give themselves a well-aimed scrub at the appropriate time…

The Gabriel Revelation and Jewish Expectations

I’m doing a lot of thinking about pre-Christian Jewish considerations of afterlife/immortality/resurrection at the moment.  There was clearly a variety of  beliefs about post-mortal vindication in early Judasim, and I’ve reluctantly decided to look into the so-called “Gabriel Revelation” to see if that adds anything. 

I’ve always wondered: Why did Jesus and Paul think that the Scriptures predicted a resurrection on the third day???  I just don’t think that the hints in Hosea etc are sufficient – I think there must have been some sort of traditional development that employed the idea of vindication/judgement/climax after “three days”… and perhaps the Gabriel Revelation provides some evidence that this sort of motif was in use just prior to Jesus – which would be a pleasingly enlightening find!

But oh dear… Israel Knohl really seems to draw some silly conclusions from this possibility in this Time article:

This, in turn,[that is, the possibility that Judaism had begun to explore the idea of a three-day resurrection before Jesus was born] undermines one of the strongest literary arguments employed by Christians over centuries to support the historicity of the Resurrection (in which they believe on faith): the specificity and novelty of the idea that the Messiah would die on a Friday and rise on a Sunday. Who could make such stuff up? But, as Knohl told TIME, maybe the Christians had a model to work from. The idea of a “dying and rising messiah appears in some Jewish texts, but until now, everyone thought that was the impact of Christianity on Judaism,” he says. “But for the first time, we have proof that it was the other way around. The concept was there before Jesus.” If so, he goes on, “this should shake our basic view of Christianity. … What happens in the New Testament [could have been] adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

Since when is the novelty of a three-day resurrection “one of the strongest literary arguments employed by Christians over centuries to support the historicity of the Resurrection”?  On the contrary – I would say that the intended credibility of the early Christian message depended on previously existing Jewish traditions of expected vindication.  But despite his misdirected apologetic approach, I have decided to buy Knohl’s book, just on the off-chance the text of the Gabriel Revelation itself helps illuminate the world of the 1st century BCE just a little more… we will see…

Easter Sunday: Resurrection in Corinth

Paul, believe it or not, would agree completely with Plato, when Plato says in Phaedrus 246c:

All together it is called a living being: soul and body together.  It is designated as mortal; it is not for any reason to be considered immortal.

That is, for Paul as for Plato, human beings (including Christians) are emphatically mortal, not immortal.  But whereas Plato thinks that this is the case because the immortal soul has become weighed down by the mortal body, Paul thinks that humans are not immortal because they are not God, and belong to Adam’s fallen race.  This is an important lesson for the Corinthians to learn – given that they seem to assume they have already entered into immortality:

⁵⁰ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood [elsewhere, Paul's term for "humans"] cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

For Paul, Christians are presently mortal… but when Christ appears and raises the dead, they will share the immortality that is rightly his:

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

    ⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
       Where, O death, is your sting?”

    ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christians of the early centuries responded to this hope by facing their churches toward the East, where the Lord was expected to return… and they buried their dead in the same way.  Here is a Christian woman, buried in Nemea (near Corinth) in the 6th century.  Her head is raised on a pillow and she is facing the East, awaiting resurrection and immortality when her Lord returns:

⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

This brings our little series on the world of 1 Corinthians to a close.

Good Friday: Death in Corinth

1 Corinthians 15…

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

“Death” is the one topic in 1 Corinthians 15 that is more prevalent than “resurrection”…  It seems that the Christians in Corinth were “mortiphobic”, acting as though they had already entered into immortality and had no need to bear crosses in the present.  But Paul insists that the one prerequisite for resurrection is death, which casts its shadow over the Christian life in the shape of the cross.

And death in Corinth, as elsewhere, was not an attractive prospect.

Pausanius, 2.2.4: And as one goes up to Corinth, there are tombs along the road.

Heroes reclining at a funeral in Corinth:

“…My blessed wife died the eleventh day before the Kalends of September”:

These touching grave stones from Athens show the utter grief associated with death – Notice the downcast faces, the longing for connection with the living, and the loss of the treasures of this life:

Sirach 41:1-3; Septuagint

O death [ō thanate], how bitter is the thought of you to a person [anthrōpō] living at peace among their possessions, to one who is free of distractions and blessed [euodoumenō] in all things, and still strong [ischuonti] enough to partake in food!

O death, how good your judgement [krima] is to the person who is needy [epideomenō] and who lacks strength; to the one who is in old age, and is beset by all sorts of distractions, and who despairs, and who has lost endurance [hupomonēn].

Do not fear the judgement of death: Remember those who have come before you, and those who will come later: This is the judgement of the Lord on all flesh [pasē sarki].

Tomorrow – Easter Saturday: Silence…

On the night he was betrayed

And so, on the eve of Good Friday (on which day this blog turns one year old), we come to the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and the Corinthian failure to understand it:

²⁰ So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, ²¹ for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. ²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

    ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

How, in Paul’s view, were the Corinthians failing to participate in the Lord’s Supper?  In a way parallel to every other issue in chs.8-14 of 1 Corinthians: They were exercising Christian knowledge/freedom/rights/experiences in a spirit of autonomous rivalry rather than in a spirit of love… they were failing to see that participation in Christ means participation in Christ’s body, the church.

The image of the “body” for a mutually contributing group was not new with Paul – it was used by others, especially as an image of a properly functioning city.  Plato, you’ll recall, parallels a properly functioning person with a properly functioning city, in which each member plays its appropriate role.  Maximus of Tyre, just after the time of Paul, writes:

Oration 15.4-5: But a city is something brought together by the joint work [sunergatōn] of all.  The use of the body [sōmatos] is similar, which itself has many parts [polumerēs] and many requirements [poludeēs], and is preserved [sōzetai] by the joint aim of the parts [merōn] toward the corporation of the whole: Feet carry, hands work, eyes see, ears hear, and so on, lest I speak pedantically.  But if the Phrygian story-maker wanted to compose a myth in which the foot, being fed up with the rest of the body [sōmati], gave up, due to weariness, carrying and lifting such a heavy load, and pursued leisure and rest; or if the molars, because of grinding and producing food for such a crowd, grew angry, and, being asked, refused to give attention to their proper work – if these things happened at once, what other than the destruction of the person would ensue in the myth?  This sort of thing is indeed what happens with regard to the political fellowship [tēn koinōnian tēn politikēn]!

But for Paul, the idea of the “body” is not simply a useful analogy; it’s central to his understanding of what a Christian is – a believer belongs to Christ, and so shares in his body – thus one can’t share in the bread which is his body, while concurrently…

…Cursing other members of the body in the name of Jesus, following the pattern of contemporary curse tablets – many of which have been found in Ancient Corinth:

³ Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus curse,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

…or placing one’s “spirituality” on display, imitating the individualistic, provocative, and status-based expressions of prayer/ritual/mystical expression common to the surrounding areas:

² For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. ³ But those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. ⁴ Those who speak in a tongue edify themselves, but those who prophesy edify the church.

Tomorrow – Good Friday: Death in Corinth

Headcoverings and Worship

¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, ¹⁵but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?

A lot of writers of this period talk about that which is “in accordance with nature” or “against nature”.  One of the ways this is used in relation to sex is to affirm a “natural” distinction between men and women, with implications for human sexuality:

Pseudo-Phocylides, Sentences 190-4: Do not transgress natural sex [eunas phuseōs] for irregular passion [Kupron athesmon]: The beasts themselves are not pleased with homosexual intercourse [arsenes eunai].  Do not let women imitate the sexual role [lechos] of men.  Do not let yourself become an uncontrollable torrent [reusēs akathekton] toward your wife.  For Eros is not a god, but a passion [pathos], destructive of all.

Josephus, Against Apion, II, 199: And what of the laws concerning marriage?  The law sees sex only as that according to nature [kata phusin] with a woman; and this for the production of children.  But that of a man with a man it abhors, and punishes with death those who partake in it.

Josephus, Against Apion, II, 273: The people of Elis and Thebes [were led to condemn] that which was against nature [tēs para phusin] and unrestrained homosexual intercourse [arrenas mixeōs].

Josephus, Against Apion, II, 275: The Greeks attributed to the gods homosexual intercourse [arenōn mixeis], and, for the same reason, marriage of brother and sister, that these might be a defence of their indulgence in unspeakable and unnatural pleasures [para phusin hēdonōn].

Gaius Musonius Rufus, Discourse 12: But of all sorts of intercourse it is the adulterous that are most unlawful [paranomōtatai], and of these, none is more immoderate than that of men with men [arrenas tois arresin], because such a reckless thing is against nature [para phusin].

It seems that Paul is keen to preserve cultural expressions of the “natural” distinction between men and women, “on account of the angels”…. What the??  Bruce Winter suggests that perhaps “angelos” here refers to “messengers” – i.e. spies sent by the newly vigorous Roman Imperial cult, to check on potentially illegal political meetings.  Thus, Paul would be saying that, in order not to raise the suspicions of the Roman watchers, the standard practice of wives having their heads covered should be preserved.  It does appear that “angelos” is sometimes used in a similar way in this period – as a human messenger:

Epictetus, 3.22.23: It is necessary for the true Cynic to know that he is a messenger [angelos] from God, sent to the people to show them about the things that are good and the things that are bad.

Epictetus, 3.22.69: [The Cynic ought to be] the messenger [angelon] and spy [kataskopon] and herald [kēruka] of the gods.

It is clear from the archaeological evidence that from Greek to Roman times, women (including wives of emperors) were presented as having hair that was tied up or covered.  Headcoverings are especially evident in grave stones, where the women were obviously intended to be presented as pious wives:

But of course in 1 Corinthians, the issue is not just that women should maintain cultural expressions of marital fidelity, but that this should specifically occur within the context of worship.  Why would it be especially tempting for women to remove the signs of marital fidelity in the context of prayer and prophecy?  Perhaps one direction to explore is the possibility that expressions of female-led spirituality – such as that occurring in Eleusis – were admired by liberated Roman wives in Corinth: In Eleusis, all of the worship was led by women, who represented the goddesses Demeter and Persephone.  In this role, freedom and fertility appear to have been celebrated:

 

In this same context, there are statues of (male) emperors, depicted with their heads covered – as was the custom of Roman worship.  The first two pictures are from Eleusis, the third is from Corinth:

If these sorts of male and female expressions of Greco-Roman worship were being imitated in the Christian church at Corinth, it was presumably communicating both an unhelpful adoption of (status-based) pagan religiosity, and an unhelpful provocation of cultural acceptability.

Tomorrow: The Lord’s Supper in Corinth; Friday: Death in Corinth; Sunday: The resurrection of the dead