Firmicus Maternus: the Error of the Pagan Religions

Firmicus Maternus: the Error of the Pagan Religions

Author: Julius Firmicus Maternus

Publisher: The Newman Press

Published: 1970

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 9780809100392

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A distinguished and literate convert, as well as a former astrologer, Firmicus Maternus called for the ferocious and brutal destruction of paganism by the state. Addressing the brothers, emperors Constantius and Constans, this work was written no later than 350. +


Hellenistic Astrology

Hellenistic Astrology

Author: Chris Brennan

Publisher: Amor Fati Publications

Published: 2017-02-10

Total Pages: 698

ISBN-13: 0998588903

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Hellenistic astrology is a tradition of horoscopic astrology that was practiced in the Mediterranean region from approximately the first century BCE until the seventh century CE. It is the source of many of the modern traditions of astrology that still flourish around the world today, although it is only recently that many of the surviving texts of this tradition have become available again for astrologers to study. Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune is one of the first comprehensive surveys of this tradition in modern times. The book covers the history, philosophy, and techniques of ancient astrology, with a special focus on demonstrating how many of the fundamental concepts underlying the practice of western astrology originated during the Hellenistic period.


A Zeal for God Not According to Knowledge

A Zeal for God Not According to Knowledge

Author: Eric Snow

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2005-03

Total Pages: 686

ISBN-13: 0595343090

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Are the Jewish arguments against belief in Jesus as mankind's Savior any good? Is Jesus Christ the promised Messiah of the Old Testament's prophecies? Is Christianity derived from ancient Roman or Greek pagan mystery religions? Is the New Testament historically reliable? Was Jesus of Nazareth God according to the New Testament? Did Gnosticism influence Christianity? Since some 185,000 Americans have converted to Judaism according to a 1990 survey, the arguments of such groups as Jews for Judaism against Christianity can't be dismissed lightly. Using solid scholarship and rigorous logic, A Zeal For God Not According to Knowledge defends Christianity against the arguments of its Jewish critics, such as Samuel Levine, Michoel Drazin, Tovia Singer, and Hyam Maccoby. This book demonstrates that the New Testament is historically reliable, denies that Christian doctrines and sacraments can be derived from pagan beliefs and practices, shows that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah based on the Old Testament's prophecies, and proves that the New Testament teaches the Deity of Christ. This book is intended for both Christians perplexed by the arguments of Jewish friends, coworkers, and relatives, and Jews interested in objectively considering the claims of Christianity while searching for spiritual truth about whether Jesus is their Messiah also.


Harlot or Holy Woman?

Harlot or Holy Woman?

Author: Phyllis A. Bird

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2020-01-16

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1646020189

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Harlot or Holy Woman? presents an exhaustive study of qedešah, a Hebrew word meaning “consecrated woman” but rendered “prostitute” or “sacred prostitute” in Bible translations. Reexamining biblical and extrabiblical texts, Phyllis A. Bird questions how qedešah came to be associated with prostitution and offers an alternative explanation of the term, one that suggests a wider participation for women as religious specialists in Israel’s early cultic practice. Bird’s study reviews all the texts from classical antiquity cited as sources for an institution of “sacred prostitution,” alongside a comprehensive analysis of the cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia containing the cognate qadištu and Ugaritic texts containing the masculine cognate qdš. Through these texts, Bird presents a portrait of women dedicated to a deity, engaged in a variety of activities from cultic ritual to wet-nursing, and sharing a common generic name with the qedešah of ancient Israel. In the final chapter she returns to biblical texts, reexamining them in light of the new evidence from the ancient Near East. Considering alternative models for constructing women’s religious roles in ancient Israel, this wholly original study offers new interpretations of key texts and raises questions about the nature of Israelite religion as practiced outside the royal cult and central sanctuary.


Readings in Late Antiquity

Readings in Late Antiquity

Author: Michael Maas

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9780415159876

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This volume seeks to make accessible to students a multiplicity of texts which illuminate the history, culture, medicine, philosophy, religion and peoples of late antiquity.


Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 9004440143

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This book fills a gap in the study of mystery cults in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Focusing on the visual language surrounding these cults, it aims to understand how images depict mysteries in different cults: Dionysus, Mithras, Mother of the Gods, and Isiac cults.


Religion and Female Body in Ancient Judaism and Its Environments

Religion and Female Body in Ancient Judaism and Its Environments

Author: Géza G. Xeravits

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-04-24

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 3110410125

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The volume publishes papers read at the ninth International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, Budapest, 2012. The title of the conference and the issuing volume covers an, on the one hand, extremely important and, on the other hand, regrettably neglected aspect particularly of the ancient Jewish and Christian traditions. Traditional manifestations of both Judaism and Christianity are predominantly masculine theological constructions. Despite their harsh masculine orientation, however, neither Judaism nor Christianity lacks elaboration on the female principle. When an ancient author chooses female imagery in order to make his message more emphatic, the female body as such forms an integral part of their metaphors. The contributions in this volume explore this phenomenon within the literature of early Judaism, and within its broad environments.


Recent Trends and Findings in Latin Linguistics

Recent Trends and Findings in Latin Linguistics

Author: Concepción Cabrillana

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-05-20

Total Pages: 724

ISBN-13: 3110722119

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These volumes contain a selection of contributions first presented at the 21st International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, held in Santiago de Compostela (2022). They cover essential topics in Latin linguistics from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. The first volume includes papers on Latin Syntax and Semantics, Latin Syntax and Pragmatics, Greek-Latin language, and Digital Linguistics. The contributions report on the latest research into very relevant issues in specific areas such as definiteness, casual syntax, sentence structure, word order, etc.; in addition, the most recent methodological advances using a variety of databases, a key tool in contemporary research, are presented. The second volume includes papers on Semantics and Lexicography, Etymology, Discourse strategies, and a special section devoted to the analysis of Conversation and Dialogue. The contributions report on the latest research into highly relevant issues in specific areas such as nominal and adjectival lexicology from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspectives, the use of Greek words as a vehicle for the expression of philosophical concepts, the choice and rendering of various linguistic strategies in direct and indirect discourse, etc. A particularly innovative section deals with various aspects of conversational language in a number of text types, as well as the use of different devices that contribute to the expression of (im)politeness by participants in the speech act. A knowledge of the work collected in these volumes is essential for all those involved in research in the field of Latin linguistics.


Deconstructing Jesus

Deconstructing Jesus

Author: Robert M. Price

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2009-09-25

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1615921206

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After more than a century of New Testament scholarship, it has become clear that the Jesus of the gospels is a fictive amalgam, reflecting the hopes and beliefs of the early Christian community and revealing very little about the historical Jesus. Over the millennia since the beginning of Christianity various congregations, from fundamentalist to liberal, have tended to produce a Jesus figurehead that functions as a symbolic cloak for their specific theological agendas. Through extensive research and fresh textual insights Robert M. Price paves the way for a new reconstruction of Christian origins. Moving beyond the work of Burton L. Mack and John Dominic Crossan on Jesus movements and Christ cults, which shows how the various Jesus figures may have amalgamated into the patchwork savior of Christian faith, Price takes an innovative approach. He links the work of F.C. Baur, Walter Bauer, Helmut Koester, and James M. Robinson with that of early Christ-myth theorists-two camps of biblical analysis that have never communicated. Arguing that perhaps Jesus never existed as a historical figure, Price maintains an agnostic stance, while putting many puzzles and scholarly debates in a new light. He also incorporates neglected parallels from Islam, the Baha'i Faith, and Buddhism. Deconstructing Jesus provides a valuable bridge between New Testament scholarship and early freethinkers in a refreshing cross-fertilization of perspectives.