Jews have been translating the Bible, primarily for other Jews, for more than 2,300 years. Some of these versions have themselves become the subject of intense study within Judaism, while others have sustained a decidedly less favorable reception from Jewish authorities. Although only a few of them have been accorded a status equal to the Hebrew original, almost all Jewish versions reflect the contexts in which their often accomplished translators worked. Many of them were also influential in...

The Syriac particle LAM has been assumed to be a marker of direct speech by grammarians and linguists. Several scholars has traced its history to an infinitive of the verb to say in Aramaic. In this talk I will take a fresh look at the function of the particle in Syriac texts of various genres and periods and its possible etymology. The results will shock and amaze you, and will serve as a reminder of what happens when one does not read ancient texts carefully. Na'ama Pat-El is an Assistant...

According to Second Maccabees, during the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean era, a man could not even admit that he was a Ioudaios. Dr. Collins will explore precisely what a loudaios was and what exactly, then, a person could not admit to be. More specifically he will examine how the Torah of Moses came to be definitive for Judean identity in the Second Temple period, and the shifting ways in which the Torah’s significance was understood. John Collins is Holmes Professor of...

Dr. Yarbro Collins will begin with Paul’s attitude toward women prophets in 1 Corinthians, then trace the evidence for prophetic practices in the late first and throughout the second century, investigating the participation of women and the responses it engendered. She will continue with a discussion of the “Montanist” movement and the significant leadership of women in it and will conclude with a discussion of the opposition to this “New Prophecy.” Adela Yarbro Collins is Buckingham...

The generation of Romans who came of age after the tetrarchic and Constantinian administrative reforms entered a world in which governmental positions were far more numerous and lucrative than ever before. The Roman educational system opened the doors to these opportunities and socialized students to take best advantage of them by developing social networks. In the 360s, 370s, and early 380s, however, we begin to see a movement in which educated elites turn against both their education and...

This lecture examines the Revelation of the Magi, an apocryphal Christian text preserved in Syriac and ostensibly narrated by the Magi of Matthew's Gospel, with a focus on understanding better the unusual phenomena described in this document. After providing a brief overview of this little-known text, it will assess how likely it is that the visionary experiences of the Magi in this writing actually represent the lived experiences of some early Christians, a methodological challenge familiar...

This paper will take as a point of departure the ongoing work at the site of Polis-Chrysochous (ancient Arsinoë) on the western side of Cyprus where a team has worked to document both the architecture of one of two Early Christian basilicas and an associated assemblage of Late Roman ceramics. The architecture and assemblage from this site demonstrates the connections between the city of Arsinoë and other sites on Cyprus as well as southern Anatolia. At first glance, these links may appear an...

Explore the origins, daily life, religion, and language of the Philistines, a cosmopolitan people who occupied the great Mediterranean seaport of Ashkelon for nearly six hundred years, until its destruction and their exile by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 604 B.C. In twenty-five seasons of excavations, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon has uncovered much new evidence about the mysterious Philistines, including a rare example of one of the ancient marketplaces that linked land...

The arch of Constantine has long puzzled scholars trying to trace the religious development of the first Christian emperor. Dedicated just three years after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the arch shows no trace of the Christian inspiration said to have led to Constantine's victory by Eusebius and Lactantius. Lenski argues that the arch's inscription represents not a Christian but a pagan interpretation of the victory put forward by the Roman Senate, adding further...

Guest Lecturer Margaret Mitchell. In an infamous passage in his Letter to the Galatians (2:11-14), Paul called out Peter as a 'hypocrite.' This passage, especially when read in light of Paul's own appeal to himself as 'all things to all people' in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, was to cause deep trouble for later Christian interpreters, who sought to defend their movement against charges from outsiders that it had a cracked and unstable foundation in dual 'hypocrites.' This lecture will introduce...

Although classical Israelite religion has very little to say about demons and other evil forces, but popular religion took it for granted that evil demons existed, haunting desert ruins and sometimes preying on people. In the late Persian and Hellenistic periods (4th—2nd centuries BCE) speculation about these types of figures proliferates. Incantations against demons, protective amulets, and practices of exorcism are all attested. Mythic accounts of the origin of evil spirits are developed,...

Eusebius was born ca. 300 C.E. in the Syriac city of Edessa where, according to his biographers, he received his first training in biblical interpretation. He later studied with the other Eusebius in Caesarea and settled in Antioch, in the wake of the Council of Nicaea, before becoming bishop, around 340, of the Syrian city of Emesa (present-day Homs). His Commentary on Genesis, written in Greek but preserved in its entirety only in an Armenian translation, reflects much of his personal life...