Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age
Antonia Tripolitis
Language: English
Pages: 175
ISBN: 080284913X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Based on the most reliable and up-to-date research on the ancient world, this volume is valuable both as a general guide to ancient Western religion and as essential background reading for the study of early Christianity.
political reasons such as the Bacchanalian conspiracy that was suppressed by the Roman senate in 186 It did not matter what people believed or how they lived, as long as they stayed within the law. This meant acknowledging and paying homage to the state gods and to the emperor by participating in the state rites and ceremonies. Refusal to do so indicated disrespect for the empire and the divine powers that protected it and indifference for the welfare of the general public. The Romans 1 1 were
irreconcilable differences between the words and deeds of the superior God and those of the Creator God. 3 3 Although he did not accept the Old Testament as a Christian Scripture, Marcion considered it an important and reliable historical account of the history of mankind, and in particular of the Jewish race. Concerning the New Testament, Marcion accepted the Epistles of Paul (but not the Pastorals and Hebrews) and the Gospel of Luke. He believed that of all the apostles, only Paul understood
power to grow and to decrease. 71 When he reached the seventh sphere, Man wished to break through the bounds of their orbits and looked down into Physis, the lower nature. Nature, when it saw that Man possessed all the energy of the ruling powers, the seven planets, and the form of God, smiled at him with love. Man, in turn, saw his reflection in the lower nature or matter, became enamored of it, descended into it, and became incarnated. 72 67. Corp. herm. 1.10-11. 68. Corp. herm. 1.12-13; c f-
of a blessed afterlife through knowledge of one's origin, identity, and destiny. Old and new cults, religious philosophies, and the religions of the time — Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism — attempted to fulfill this need. There was also a strong tendency toward the belief in a single deity. This was evident in Judaism, which claimed that the national god, Yahweh, was the god of all, and in the cults, where the various divine names — Isis, Cybele, Mithras, or others — were designations of
systematization of, 5 , 1 0 4 - 1 5 , 1 4 7 ; deceitfulness, 138 worship, 96-97 Decius, 104 Christians: as atheists, 101; before Christ, 103 deiknoumena, (Origen), 109 21 Demeter cult, 3 , 1 7 - 2 1 , 27, 29 Christology, 142 Demetrius, 107 church, 96 demiurge, 15, 4 2 , 1 2 3 , 1 3 7 - 3 8 , 1 4 4 church fathers, 73 Democritus of Abdera, 39 Cicero, 21 demonology, 70n.15 Cilicia, 47 Destiny, 1 3 7 , 1 3 9 , 1 4 0 , 1 4 1 circumcision, 93 Diaspora Judaism, 3, 61-66, 85-86,145