Order and (dis)order in the first Christian century
Subtitle: a general survey of attitudes
By: by F. Gerald Downing
Series: Supplements to Novum Testamentum -- volume 151; Supplements to Novum Testamentum -- v. 151.
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Lieden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 395
ISBN-13: 9789004251755; 9789004255814
Subjects: Primitive and early church; Law (Theology); Bible; Biblical teaching; Church polity; Christianity and culture; Theology; Historia; Early church; Kristendom och kultur; Church history; History; Order; Fornkyrkan
Description: Articulate first century Mediterranean society, Jewish and Christian included, expressly favoured harmonious order in society, in individuals, in communication, and in thought. Its common basis was the patriarchal family, the rule of law, rational self-control, and rational thought. Yet there was also resistance to oppressive and unjust order in all spheres; and while law could be held educative, yet there were substantial first century critiques of law, not just Paul's, and awareness that judicial procedures could be chaotic and biased. Strands of such dissidence appear in Jesus and in Paul, with significant relevance for any understanding of the early Christian movement(s) and contemporary Judaism(s) in Graeco-Roman context, but also with important implications for any practical reflections and application.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-353) and index.
Table of contents: title: "Let everything be done decently and in order ([euschēmonōs kai kata taxin])" (1Cor 14.40) : unity, order and problems of diversity : A. Greeks, Romans, Jews --; title: "Let everything be done decently and in order ([euschēmonōs kai kata taxin])" (1 Cor 14.40) : unity, order and problems of diversity : B. The New Testament authors --; title: Order within : passions, divine and human : A. In the wider Graeco-Roman world --; title: Order within : passions, divine and human : B. Among late Second Temple Jews and the first Christians --; title: Order in composition: "[kathexēs soi grapsai]" (Luke 1.3) --; title: Order in thought : ambiguity, ancient semantics, and faith --; title: "All things to all people", "[tois pasin panta]" (1Cor 9.22) : (dis)order in thought : free-range reflections to engage Dio of Prusa's and Paul's implied audiences --; title: Legislation as social engineering in the New Testament world --; title: "What, then, of the law?", "[ti oun ho nomos;]" Gal. 3.19 : appraisals of law in Paul and other New Testament writers, and in the wider Graeco-Roman world --; title: Justification as acquittal? A critical examination of judicial parlance in Paul's world --; title: Disorderly court procedure : Pliny's prosecutions of Christians --; title: The Baptist's new order --; title: Dissident Jesus --; title: Disorderly Paul.