Recruitment, Conquest, and Conflict. Strategies in Judaism, Early Christianity, and the Greco-Roman World (Emory Studies in Early Christianity 6)

Emory Studies in Early Christianity General Editor Vernon K. Robbins

Associate Editor David B. Gowler, Chow an College Editorial Board William A. Beardslee, Emory University; Emeritus Peder Borgen, University of Trondheim, Norway Sharyn E. Dowd, Lexington Theological Seminary John G. Gager, Princeton University Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Princeton Theological Seminary Richard B. Hays, Duke Divinity School Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University Cover Design by Gina M. Tansley (adapted from Rick A. Robbins, Mixed Media 1981)

The cover design introduces an environment for disciplined creativity. The seven squares superimposed over one another represent multiple arenas for programmatic research, analysis, and interpretation. The area in the center, common to all the arenas, is like the area that provides the unity for a volume in the series. The small square in the center of the squares denotes a paragraph, page, or other unit of text. The two lines that extend out from the small square, perpendicular to one another, create an opening to territory not covered by any of the multiple squares. These lines have the potential to create yet another square of the same or different size that would be a new arena for research, analysis, and interpretation.

Recruitment, Conquest, and Conflict Strategies in Judaism, Early Christianity, and the Greco-Roman World

edited by Peder Borgen Vernon K. Robbins David B. Gowler

SCHOLARS PRESS Atlanta, Georgia

EMORY STUDIES IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Recruitment, Conquest, and Conflict Strategies in Judaism, Early Christianity, and the Greco-Roman World edited by Peder Borgen Vernon K. Robbins David B. Gowler Copyright © 1998 Emory University All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Scholars Press, P.O. Box 15399, Atlanta, GA 30333-0399, USA. Grateful acknowledgment is given to the Office of the Secretary of the University, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Emory College, and the Department of Religion.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Recruitment, conquest, and conflict : strategies in Judaism, early Christianity, and the Greco-Roman world / edited by Peder Borgen, Vernon K. Robbins, David B. Gowler. p. cm. -I Emory studies in early Christianity i vol. 6) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7885-0526-2 (alk. paper) 1. Evangelistic work-His tory-Early church, ca. 30-600. 2. Conversion-History of doctrines-Early church, ca. 30-600. 3. Proselytes and proselyting, Jewish-History-To 1500. I. Borgen, Peder. II. Robbins, Vernon K. (Vernon Kay), 1939III. Gowler, David E., 1958. IV. Series. BR195.E9R43 1998 291.4'2-dc21 98-32322 CIP

Published by Scholars Press for Emory University Volumes I-III in. the series published by Peter Lang Publishing

In memary of Isabella Lewis, who made publication of this volume possible with a gift in honor of Clay Lewis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Vernon K. Robbins and David B. Gowler

Mission, Conquest, and Conversion in the Medite"anean World 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The Hellenistic Offentlichkeit: Philosophy as a Social Force in the Greco-Roman World Troels Engberg-Pedersen

15

Expansion and Recruitment among Hellenistic Religions: The Case of Mithraism D. E. Aune

39

Proselytes, Conquest, and Mission Peder Borgen

57

Paul and the Beginning of Christian Conversion Alan F. Segal

79

Jesus Before Culture Graydon F. Srryder

113

Conflict in Judaism and Christianity 6.

7.

Conquest and Social Conflict in Galilee Richard Horsley

129

Once More - The Hellenists, Hebrews, and Stephen: Conflicts and Conflict-Management in Acts 6-7 Torrey Seland

169

8.

9.

10.

Judaism, the Circumcision of Gentiles, and Apocalyptic Hope: Another Look at Galatians 1 and 2 Paula Fredriksen

209

A Response to Fredriksen's "Judaism, the Circumcision of Gentiles, and Apocalyptic Hope: Another Look at Galatians 1 and 2" Peder Borgen

245

Expansion and Conflict: The Rhetoric of Hebrew Bible Citations in Galatians 3 Kjell Arne Morland

251

Strategies of Social Formation in Early Christianity

11.

12.

13.

14.

PiJases in the Social Formation of Early Christianity: From Faction to Sect - A Social Scientific Perspective John H. Elliott

273

Election, Obedience, and Eschatology: Deuteronomy 30:2-14 in Romans 9-11 and the Writings of Philo Per Jarle Bekken

315

The Role of the Congregation as a Family within the Context of Recruitment and Conflict in the Early Church Karl Olav Sandnes

333

Family-Like Care and Solidarity as a Pattern of Social Control in the Ancient Church ~vindlVorderval

Emory Studies in Early Christianity volumes

347

357

INTRODUCTION

Vernon K. Robbins and David B. Gowler The inspiration for this volume arose from conversations between Peder Borgen and Vernon Robbins early in this decade. In the 1980s, Borgen was instrumental in obtaining a series of appointments of Fulbright scholars at the University of Trondheim. These appointments accelerated an exchange of scholarly dialogues between Norway and the United States that began to reverberate between both of these countries. The meeting of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas at the University of Trondheim in 1985, followed by its meeting at Emory University in Atlanta the next year, gave rise to further scholarly exchange and dialogue at these two institutions and between Borgen and Robbins in particular. As a result of these conversations, during March 17-19, 1991, Emory University hosted an initial joint conference of Scandinavian and American scholars. Then, August 3-5, 1992, the University of Trondheim hosted a symposium. Both meetings were entitled "Recruitment, Conquest, and Conflict in Judaism, Early Christianity, and the Greco-Roman World." One of the results of these exchanges was the introduction of Kjell Arne Morland to Vernon Robbins, which led to the publication of the 1995 volume, The Rhetoric of Curse in Galatians, in the series Emory Studies in Early Christianity. We are pleased that the current volume also appears in the same series and as Peder Borgen is serving as president of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas that features his presidential address, "Two Philonic Prayers and Their Contexts. An AnalySis of Who is Heir of Divine Things 24-29 and Against Flaccus 170-75." Peder Borgen's extensive work in the corpus of Philo of Alexandria expanded to a series of young scholars in Scandinavia during the 1980s. His influence, for example, is especially evident in the essays by Torrey Seland, Kjell Arne Morland, and Per Jarle Bekken in this volume. The broad context of the work of these scholars has been to ask how far Jews and Christians participated in widespread Mediterranean political practices, social structures, ideologies, and symbols, and the various ways in which they developed their own distinctive convictions and practices within this broader setting. During thus period, Robbins entered the dialogue with Borgen at a critical point. Robbins, like many New Testament scholars, clearly understood the Jewish context of the New Testament writings. From 1968 to 1984, however, Robbins taught in the Department of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign which led him to further insights about the

2

RECRUIIMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

nature of New Testament texts in the context of the Mediterranean world. His writings began to illustrate how New Testament texts merge Jewish literary and social conventions with Hellenistic-Roman ones. Robbins's interest in Hellenistic-Roman texts does not diminish his view of the importance of Jewish texts, but he recognizes that other literary and cultural conventions pervaded the Mediterranean area and that New Testament texts also partake in this larger Mediterranean culture.! In this context, then, the dialogue between Borgen and Robbins continued to progress, especially when Robbins was a Fulbright Scholar during 1983-84 at the University of Trondheim. 2 In the meantime, the work of Borgen and his students continued, and questions began to arise about strategies of recruitment, issues of identification, and modes of conflict between various kinds of Jews and Christians during the New Testament period. These discussions began to evoke a series of additional questions concerning strategies of recruitment and attraction in Judaism and Christianity: Did strategies of recruitment and attraction in Judaism and Christianity have anything to do with Greek and Roman political policies, philosophical traditions and groups, and with Hellenistic-Roman religions? Did eschatological, apocalyptic, or mystical Jewish traditions in any way provide an ideological framework for recruitment and conformity? Did Judaism and Christianity gain participants in their community traditions through rhetorical persuasion, educational nurture, social force, ideological conquest, transformation of cultural symbols, all of the preceding, or few of the preceding? Out of these questions - ones vigorously explored by Borgen and his students - arises the context for this collection of essays. So, in reality, the genesis for this book was the energetic work of Peder Borgen in particular and his students in general. We, as co-editors of this volume with Peder Borgen, are pleased to offer this collection of essays as a tribute to his pioneering work in New Testament studies, in honor of his continuing influence on the discipline, and in celebration of our friendship.

Structure of the Volume The ordering and placement of the essays in this volume inherently evolved out of the multiplicity of views expressed in them. The first section sets the stage with a series of programmatic essays in which the authors pursue, from their own distinctive points of view, major issues involved in strategies of lSee the further explanation by David B. Gowler in Robbins 1994:1-36. 2Robbins initially presented his article, "Rhetorical Argument about Lamps and Light in Early Christian Gospels," in honor of Peder Borgen. See Robbins 1987; 1994:200217.

ROBBINS AND GOWLER: INTRODUCTION 3 mission, conquest, and conversion in the Mediterranean World. Some of these authors disagree significantly with one another, and, by conscious design, there is no attempt to lessen or smooth over those disagreements. The second section focuses more directly on conflict in Judaism and Christianity. The essays here deal, for example, with questions about conflicts within Judaism itself and between Judaism and other groups and religions in the Mediterranean world. The issues discussed in other essays, however, extend to conflicts between Judaism and Christianity and then within Christianity itself. The third section concerns scholarly assessment and discussion of strategies of social formation in early Christianity. One of the issues here is the terminology of faction, sect, and cult; another is the use of the Hebrew Bible in a context of social change; and still another is the use of concepts like family and friendship in early Christianity.

Mission, Conquest, and Conversion in the Mediterranean World The first section begins with an essay by Troels Engberg-Pedersen that proposes that philosophical schools at the beginning of the Hellenistic period - the Academy, the Lyceum, Epicureanism, and Stoicism - did not have an explicit strategy of recruitment. They formulated, however, a conception of philosophy as integral to the social fabric of life, and the high level of discussion of this concept in the public realm created what Engberg-Pedersen calls the Ojfentlichkeit, which perhaps may be translated "the public face," of Hellenistic and Roman society. The theory and practice of psychagogy, as developed and applied by philosophers like Philodemus, Seneca, Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, and Epictetus during the later Hellenistic and Roman periods, built the earlier influential and prominent philosophical discourse into something akin to the missionary practices of a person like the apostle Paul. The key to the influence of the philosophical schools, according to Engberg-Pedersen, lies in their formulation of "systems of philosophical principles or sets of belief one could subscribe to no matter how, when, and where one lived." This means that philosophy is perceived to be a 7ixv1], a realm of technical knowledge rather than mere belief. In the realms of ethics and politics, then, the philosophers were the ones who had the expert knowledge - the ones who knew. In modern terms, Engberg-Pedersen suggests, this means that philosophy became an ideological phenomenon, an "understanding" related to other social and material phenomena.

4

RECRu/IMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Engberg-Pedersen distinguishes the ethico-political public sphere of philosophy from the sphere of 7rOlLOeLOl, the central concept on which Isocrates hung his educational project. Stoicism and Epicureanism, the two dominant earlier philosophies, did not need to recruit since they already belonged to a public sphere with strong, direct influence on the dominant ethical and political discourse of the time. Implicit in this argument is a presupposition that explicit recruitment occurs among philosophicallyoriented groups only when they are actually or perceptually excluded from dominant ethical and political discourse. David E. Aune explores Mithraism, which originated during the last half of the first century CEo Some scholars, like Franz Cumont, have described Mithraism within a Christian model of understanding, using terms like church, conversion, apostle, and preaching, and many have considered it to be the major rival of Christianity during II-III CEo Aune examines the extant data used to describe Mithraism and concludes that there is no evidence for strategies of recruitment similar to Christianity, nor was Mithraism a significant rival of Christianity during II-III CEo Peder Borgen proposes that the matrix of Christian mission was the Jewish notions of proselytism, eschatology, and conquest. Jewish proselytism featured religious, ethical, and social conversion. Christianity held a similar view of religious and ethical conversion. Gentiles had to convert from the worship of many gods to the one true and living God, and they were to lead a life that produced the virtues of the spirit. The strongest form of active Jewish outreach was military conquest, where gentiles either had to be circumcised and follow Jewish laws or leave the territory. Christians practiced a peaceful form of conquest in the new eschatological era when all nations were to be reached. Military imagery, however, could be used to understand Paul and other missionaries as soldiers. The book of Revelation, in particular, uses military imagery to present militant messianism. 3 Alan Segal's perspective for understanding Jewish and Christian conversion differs considerably from Borgen's. Segal is interested in the different way in which Jews and Christians define conversion. For Jews, he argues, there was a period of learning followed by a change of identity based on oath and ritual. For Christianity, in contrast, conversion was based on Jewish mysticism. Segal uses Gershom Scholem's analysis of Jewish mysticism, which suggests that Jewish Merkabah mysticism grew out of apocalypticism, which is the tail-end of the prophetic movement. Central to this mysticism 3Borgen does'not indicate what the relation of his view might be to Aune's analysis, because he does not discuss the nature of Christian mission during II-III CE when Mithraism flourished within the Roman army. Mithraism became a dominant religion within the Roman army, and its imagery emerged from military ranks and practices.

ROBBINS AND GOWLER: INTRODUCTION 5 was a desire to go to heaven and see what was there, and this was possible for some people not only at death but during their lifetime on earth. Reading 2 Corinthians 12:1-9 as Paul's pseudepigraphical account of his own mystical experience and 2 Corinthians 3 as an account of the process of transformation available to a Christian, Segal argues that Paul equates the human form of God (the Kavod) with the form of Christ in the heavens. Christians behold the glory of the Lord and are transformed into his image. The experience of knowing Christ is to be allowed into the intimate presence of the Lord. In Segal's view, Paul fights against both the conversion to Judaism model (learning followed by oath and ritual) and the Jewish model of the resident sojourner (gentiles following certain basic laws to find acceptability among Jews) with a conception of conversion based on spiritual metamorphosis. Followers of Paul changed Paul's own experience of transformation into a conversion ritual especially for gentiles without adherence to the law. Paul, then, searches for a new definition of community based on internal states, confirmed by baptism and the Lord's Supper, and later Christianity builds upon this new definition. As Segal continues, he argues for an evolution of models of conversion in Christianity and a history of the concept of universalism in Christianity parallel to this evolution. In Segal's view, some Christians adopted a view of some Jews that gentiles could not be saved as gentiles - in other words, they had to be circumcised and follow Jewish practices. Other Christians, basing their views on Paul's mystical conversion, argued that faith was the means for inclusion in the community. For these Christians, the issue of the righteous gentile outside the believing community became an unimportant issue. In contrast, Rabbinic Judaism, concerned that introducing gentiles into their midst would endanger Jewish communities, favored the view that salvation of righteous gentiles, without conversion, was part of God's plan. The counterpart of this perspective was a view that conversion meant a decision to join a beleaguered minority through an extensive system of ritual requirements. Righteous gentiles should have all the benefits promised to Israel, but they should not be considered to be members of the elect community unless they lived according to the extensive rituals of the community. Graydon Snyder investigates those rare, interesting cases in the New Testament where the authors not only do not castigate those who do not understand the Gospel as they have presented it, but where they protect or even praise those who have not necessarily understood. This leads Snyder to ask if and how we can trace popular conversion to Christianity prior to its emergence as the dominant culture and to suggest that important evidence may be gleaned from non-literary sources as well as from literary ones.

6

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Christianity took on a particular cultural form based on a symbol system rooted in the Mediterranean traditions of the first four centuries of our era. Much of that earliest Christian culture was true to the original pre-cultural Jesus tradition. But canonical development in the Mediterranean world was not historically necessary, and Snyder muses about whether it is possible to repeat the assimilation process in cultures without going through the Mediterranean original. He suggests that there is a possibility that Christian missions could advance in this way and a Christianity produced which had none of the Mediterranean characteristics except for its preservation of the pre-cultural impulse (the Jesus tradition). And Snyder cautions us not to forget the "precultural" Jesus traditions and communities "below the level of canon." Perhaps, unlike Marcion, we - and others from non-Mediterranean cultures may be successful. Conflict in Judaism and Christianity The second section begins with an essay by Richard Horsley in which he argues that, in Galilee, the nature of conflict is not Judaism versus Hellenism but rulers versus ruled, taxers versus taxed, city versus village, and official versus popular tradition. The relationship of Galilee to Judea, therefore, involves a fundamental structural social conflict compounded by regional and historical differences. Neither temple nor Torah is central to life in Galilee, but basic covenantal commandments to God are. While the populace of Galilee shares this basic covenantal perspective with the populace of Judea, conflict arises as a result of the Jerusalem high priests' use of that perspective for their own interests. Pharisees in the Galilee are not local people in charge of synagogues, as often thought. Rather, they are representatives of the economic and political interests of the high priesthood in Jerusalem in the name of guardians of the Torah. Torrey Seland examines the issue of non-conformity and the inevitable conflicts that occur when one group and its representatives overstep the limits of "tolerance" of another social group. Seland offers a model that encompasses various actions of conflict management. When Acts describes, for example, various measures of accommodation, manipulation, or official discipline that fail to bring Stephen back within acceptable boundaries, vigilante actions occur. Vigilantism (or "establishment violence"), therefore, ultimately is a means of social control, and Seland concludes that Stephen's death is best characterized as an example of establishment violence. Establishment violence involves acts or threats of coercion in violation of the formal boundaries of an established sociopolitical order, but they are actually intended by the violators to defend that order from "perversion." Such

ROBBINS AND GOWLER: INTRODUCTION 7 vigilantism occurs when a regime is unwilling or unable to take counteractions against "deviants" such as Stephen, so defenders of the social order justify "illegitimate coercion" against those deviants. Seland contends that Philo advocated zeal otic establishment violence (in the tradition of Phinehas) against specific deviances from the Torah that challenged monotheism (apostasy, seduction by false prophets, and perjury). So vigilante actions against non-conformers to the Torah in the Judaism of the first century CE not only shed light on conflicts and competitive strategies between Judaism and Christianity, but, for Seland, constitute one element of this text's "historical plausibility." Paula Fredriksen builds the argument in her essay on a view similar to the one discussed in Segal's essay, namely that Gentiles would be "included" in God's salvation at the end of time without "converting" to Judaism. Fredriksen argues that circumcision is the sine qua non of conversion to Judaism. There was no need for Gentiles to be circumcised to be included in the ekklesia, and this was not a difficulty in Jerusalem. The difficulty arose in the Diaspora where the majority of the popUlation was Jewish but, nevertheless, a mixture of various kinds of peoples. In these communities, Jews needed protection from Rome, and the message of a Messiah who was crucified as a politically dangerous person was a dangerous one in these contexts. In Galatia, "false brethren" had decided that the delay of the coming of the Kingdom was being caused by the growing unreadiness of Israel. Their answer was to inaugu!ate something awkward and new: Jewish mission to the Gentiles. James had not required circumcision of Gentiles, nor had other early Christians. Paul was angry that Peter was "passive aggressive" about this - by not confronting these false brethren, he was allowing them to "compel" Gentiles to be circumcised. Peder Borgen responds to Fredriksen with an assertion that in some Jewish circles circumcision was not "the" requirement for entering the Jewish community but was one of the commandments to be obeyed upon receiving the status of a Jew. Moreover, when stressing the use of circumcision as an entrance requirement, Fredriksen, in his view, overlooks the most aggressive mode of Jewish proselytism: conquest in which they compelled the local popUlations to accept circumcision and foHow the ancestral laws or to leave the land that had been conquered. Thus, he suggests, Fredriksen makes a major mistake when she claims that "all" Jews presupposed that circumcision was "the" requirement for conversion. Borgen argues that while some will have held this view, others did not. In addition, there are sources which demonstrate that at least some Jews were expecting an eschatological conversion of gentiles to Judaism in the end time.

8

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Kjell Arne Morland, taking a position closer to Borgen's than Fredriksen's, contends that Paul's letter to the Galatians is an interesting example of emerging Christian .. conquest" discussed against the background of both recruitment and conflict. Two Christian missionary groups compete for the same group of converts. The mission of Paul in Galatia recruited many converts with Gentile backgrounds, and a conflict arose with opponents who sought to impose circumcision on Gentile converts. The letter is an attempt to resolve the conflict by persuading the Galatians to choose his teaching and to reject his opponents and their teaching. Morland argues that Paul's citations from the Hebrew Bible give important clues for reconstructing some main elements of the conflict, especially if they are recognized as clear reflections of disputes according to Hellenistic rhetorical status legales - which concerns controversial interpretations of written documents. Four kinds of such disputes can be distinguished: They could be related to the will behind the words in a law, to contradictory laws, to ambiguous expressions, or to reasoning from analogy. Galatians 3 is an illuminating example of a conflict where the focus concerned the role of the Jewish law with conventional patterns of persuasion and interpretation of the authoritative Hebrew Bible. Paul's use of the Hellenistic status legales in his discussion, which gave his argument an unmistakable flavor of a lawsuit, underscores the seriousness of the conflict - as does his use of a curse upon his opponents. It was a conflict of how to perceive the work of Christ, with ramifications for how the effects of Christ's death and resurrection should, if at all, be harmonized with the concern for the Jewish law and national identity. For Paul, according to Morland, the true gospel of Christ hinges on which position one takes.

Strategies of Social Formation in Early Christianity The third section begins with an essay by John H. Elliott in which he argues that a combination of the terms sect andfaction is the most satisfactory means for social-scientific analysis to describe early Christianity. In his view, Christianity began as a Jewish faction which eventually transformed into a deviant Jewish sect. Troeltsch had argued that earliest Christianity was not a sect and that the rise of Christianity was a religious and not a social phenomenon. Troeltsch distinguished between the church, the sects, and mysticism. Sects emerged only in opposition to the church as an established institution. Thus sectarianism is a medieval phenomenon, and Christianity as a sect of Judaism is not a matter of discussion. Weber used Troeltsch's categories, but analyzed sectarian forms of Judaism during the post-exilic period and their relation to early Christianity.

ROBBINS AND GOWLER: INTRODUCTION 9 Elliott argues that the category sect involves social and ideological dissociation which is not typical of any of the Jewish coalitions during Jesus' lifetime. For him, "all conflicting Palestinian coalitions, including the Jesus faction, remain inseparable parts of and· ideologically bound to the ethnos of Israel." However, "within a generation of Jesus' death, the Jewish messianic faction centered in Jesus of Nazareth eventually began to assume the character of a Jewish sect." Rodney Stark recently has argued that early Christianity is best described as a "cult," which is a new faith. Elliott considers this point of view to be helpful from the perspective of Greco-Roman society, which viewed Christianity more as a foreign eastern cult than an embodiment of Jewish traditions. Per J arle Bekken' s essay addresses other broad social issues in the investigation of early Christianity. Interpreters have reached no consensus about Paul's view of the law, his view of salvation history with respect to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, Paul's perplexing use of the Hebrew Bible, and many other questions. Bekken thus attempts to clarify some of these issues by means of comparative analysis of texts selected from Philo in order to demonstrate that Paul's exposition of Deut ~0:12-14 can be placed within the framework of Jewish exegetical study and method. Paul's exposition of Deut 30:12-14 is at the center of Paul's attempt to broaden the significance of the law from what he perceived to be a too narrowly-defined understanding. Paul believed that the religious change involved in the Christ event necessitated a social change as well. To begin with, the connection between election, covenant, and law is a fundamental and persistent theme of Jewish self-understanding and identity. The law functioned as a boundary marker for Israel's distinctiveness as a nation. In Romans 10 Paul speaks against many of the assumptions held by his Jewish contemporaries. Paul was concerned, at least to a certain extent, that the covenant promise and law had become too closely identified with ethnic Israel, which was set apart by such boundary-defining practices as keeping the Sabbath, 'circumcision, and food laws. Paul wants to redraw those boundaries by reclaiming what he considers to be the "proper meaning" of the covenant as witnessed by Deut 30:11-14. Bekken's analysis of Philo's use of Deut 30:11-14 makes it quite clear tI).at Paul is using a text that i:esonates with a Diaspora Jewish_audience. But, as a Christian, Paul is convinced that the eschatological effect of Christ was to bring God's purpose to a new stage where belonging to the "people of God" was no longer to be defined by national or ritual boundaries, but as a righteousness from faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is the obedience the law now calls for. It is no longer Jew versus Greek (Romans 10:12); it is those who call on the name of the Lord versus those who do not (cf. Romans 9:13,25, .26; 10:2).

10

RECRUlTMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Paul redraws boundaries to argue that the promise of God is now available - free from ethnic constraints because of the Christ event - to Gentiles. It is no longer the ritual of circumcision, for example, that signifies inclusion in the people of God, but the confession found in Romans 10:9: "Jesus is Lord." In this regard, Paul's use of Deut 30:12-14 is at the center of his attempt to explain the transformation of the people of God from a national Jewish community into a "cross-national" community. Paul used categories that were common and understandable in contemporary Judaism in order to argue his point that God had switched the roles of Jews and Gentiles in the program of election that offers salvation to the world. Karl Olav Sandnes addresses yet another social dynamic in early Christianity by proposing that a significant part of successful recruitment by early Christianity was its forming of an inviting and welcoming fellowship that was "family-like." Against what he considers to be an over-emphasis on conversion into Christianity to compensate socially for personal distress or dissatisfaction with life, he emphasizes that when people embraced the Christian faith and joined the movement they were regularly brought into conflict with their families. In this context, he emphasizes a theory of conversion based on sociology of knowledge rather than social compensation. Sandnes asserts that it is important to keep on taking conversion seriously. Faith remains in the context of a community, antl conversion persists when the social setting of a person's life is a family-like congregation. In this setting, people find "significant others," and the relationships resemble the setting of primary socialization in the upbringing of children within a family. Using Luke's summary of Christian fellowship in Acts 2:42-47 as a case study, Sandnes explores how early Christian fellowship was associated with private houses, how they intermingled household language with friendship by spending a lot of time together and eating together, and how they practiced generalized reciprocity - exchanging resources with one another without expectation of return. This leads to a conclusion, against some interpreters, that a distinction between family and friend should not be emphasized for early Christianity. 0yvind Norderval responds to Sandnes by supplementing his information from Acts with information from writings during the Patristic era. In the Acts of the Martyrs, new converts exhibit the priority they give to their relationships with their Christian brothers and sisters over their blood family. He observes an absence of references to theological perspectives on Christians as family, and he proposes that Sandnes glorifies the family-like fellowship and harmony of early Christian communities. The early church also exhibits regulation of Christian fellowship: If Christians did not care for and love each other as a normative demand, they could be punished or expelled from

ROBBINS AND GOWLER: INTRODUCTION 11 the community. Christians were to understand themselves as an eschatological family waiting for the parousia, and during this time they were to live with love towards God and one's neighbor in singleness of heart. This implied a denial of private life for life in a community where the heart was held to be totally public to the gaze of God and God's angels. Focusing on urban Christianity, Norderval emphasizes the necessity for the early Christian communities to develop habitual and resilient norms so they could function as a strong moral force in Mediterranean society. Thus, Christian life was a matter of living an "over-controlled love." Falling short of these norms meant punishment not only by the Christian community, but by God. Pointing to the portrayal of Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira in New Testament writings, as well as instances in the letters of Paul, Norderval further supports this approach of over-controlled love with data from second century Christian writings. An additional feature within Christianity to support this system was the rise of the monarchic episcopate, the bishop as the head of the Christian family. Bishops not only cared for the spiritual needs of the congregation but controlled the finances of the church.

Conclusion The early Christian era, in fact the entire Hellenistic era, was an age of active polyglossia, that is, a time when different national languages were interacting within the same cultural systems. Scattered throughout the entire Mediterranean were cities, settlements, and other areas where several cultures and languages directly "cohabited," and they interwove with each other in distinctive patterns (Bakhtin:64).4 The texts and discourses considered in the essays of this volume - including New Testament narratives - germinated and flourished in these fields of active polyglossia. They are dialogues that actively engage a wide range of different cultures, societies, and peoples. Furthermore, we would argue that any text is a rejoinder, an active participant in social dialogue, whose style and content are influenced by its interrelationship with other rejoinders in the greater social dialogues. All such "social languages" are specific points of view on the world, and each is characterized by its own meanings and values. As such, they may be juxtaposed to one another, mutually supplement one another, and/or contnidict 4Bakhtin, a trained classicist, observed that: "Where languages and cultures interanimated each other, language became something entirely different, its very nature changed: in place of a single unitary sealed-off Ptolemaic world of language, there appeared the open Galilean world of many languages, mutually animating each other" (65).

12

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

each other as they interrelate dialogically. They struggle and evolve, as do the essays in this volume, in an environment of social heteroglossia. As these social languages cohabit with one another, some deliberately intensify the differences between themselves and other social languages and oppose them in apparently unresolvable dialogues (Bakhtin:291-292). The significance of any discourse must be understood, therefore, in the context of other discourses on the same theme - a context made up of numerous and often contradictory opinions, points of view, and value judgments. An active understanding, one which assimilates any discourse under consideration and strives to understand it, establishes a series of complex interrelationships - in consonances and dissonances, with centripetal and centrifugal forces - with the discourse and enriches it with new elements. It is in this dialogical relationship of various points of view, conceptual horizons, and systems, that social languages come to interact with each other (Bakhtin:282). The title of this volume assumes the fact that discourse is a social phenomenon, and that there are no neutral words. No narrative is created in a literary, cultural, social, or historical vacuum, and no discourse is created ex niliilo. New Testament narratives, for example, were created and preserved in conversations with their cultural environments, and they partake, vigorously at times, in that dialogical social discourse. Speakers do not utilize pristine words - "untainted" and straight out of a dictionary - but rather those words have already existed in the mouths of others and thus already partially belong to others - each word "tastes" therefore of the contexts in which it has lived its socially-charged life in previous speakers' personal, cultural, social, and ideological contexts. It is from those places that one must take the words and attempt to make them one's own. What therefore may first appear to be "original" utterances are actually rejoinders in a greater dialogue, incorporating, in different ways, the words of others. So language is never a neutral medium that passes freely and easily into a new conceptual system; it is a difficult, complex, and often conflictual process. In the processes which are described in these essays, differing groups partake in the heteroglossia of the ancient Mediterranean world and actively orient themselves amidst that heteroglossia. They move in and occupy a position for themselves within, against, and in concert with other groups and their social languages (cf. Bakhtin:293-295). Such is the nature of groups; such is the nature of societies; such is the nature of language. Such is the nature of the essays in this volume. . The editors offer this volume to the scholarly community in the hope of advancing a discussion that has many sides, many deep commitments, and many points where bitter disagreements are natural. The social, cultural,

ROBBINS AND GOWLER: INTRODUCTION 13 ideological, and religious environments in which people live are the foundational treasure troves of their lives. On the one hand, then, it is natural for people to expand the realm of their environment through aggressive, peaceful, subtle, or understated ways so that other people might become participants in it. On the other hand, it is natural for people to be offended when people from some other environment compel them to change or successfully win members of their community over to a new and different environment. These processes will continue as long as there is human society, since the process itself is a part of building and maintaining social, cultural, ideological, and religious identity. We offer this volume as a way of encouraging meaningful discussion, dialogue, and exchange in peaceful environments of deliberation and reflection.

Works Consulted Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1981 The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Ho1quist. Austin: University of Texas Press. Robbins, Vernon K. 1987 "Rhetorical Argument about Lamps and Light in Early Christian Gospels." pp. 177-195 in Context, FestskriJt til Peder lohan Borgen, ed. Peter Wilhelm Bockman and Roald E. Kristiansen. Relieff24. Universitetet i Trondheim: Tapir. Reprinted in Robbins, 1994:200-217.

1994

New Boundaries in Old Territory: Form and Social Rhetoric in Mark, ed. and introduced by David B. Gowler. Enwry Studies in Early Christianity 3. New York, Bern, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Press, 1994.

CHAPTERl THE HEILENISTIC OFFENTUCHKEIT: PHILOSOPHY AS A SOCIAL FORCE IN THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD Troels Engberg-Pedersen Department of Biblical Exegesis Copenhagen University, Denmark

Introduction Philosophers do not, as philosophers, participate directly in social conflict. Nor do they, as philosophers, engage in military conquest. Or so we might say, reflecting both an Aristotelian and a modem conception of the discipline: Philosophy, as philosophy, is not directly concerned with practice. Still, philosophy may influence the social and historical process in a number of ways and in an intimate interplay with other causal factors. How? In a volume of essays focusing on the role of various ideologies in the Hellenistic and Roman world in relation to the themes of recruitment, conquest, and conflict, it is appropriate to ask about the social function of one such ideology - Hellenistic (and Roman) ethical and political philosophy. How does this specific ideological construct compare with the other ideologies that were around in the Hellenistic and Roman periods with respect to the themes under discussion? There are several broad issues that fall under this question. One concerns the Sitz im Leben or social situation of Greco-Roman ethical and political philosophy. What was a philosophical school? How did it recruit its members? How did philosophers relate to society in a broad sense, including political rulers, such as the Hellenistic kings? And how did these kings relate to the philosophers? What was the social status of philosophy, and what were the ways and means of philosophical influence and impact on society? Can we even speak of a sense of mission on the part of the Hellenistic philosophers? Other issues concern specific, substantive social and political problems that appear to have gathered momentum during the Hellenistic and Roman periods and are directly relevant to the themes of conflict and conquest. One is the problem of ethnicity or of the relationship between ethnic groups. How, if at all, did Greco-Roman ethical and political philosophy, which

16

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

reflected the perspective of the political rulers and of the dominant culture, tackle that problem? Another problem is that of the legitimacy of kingship and the relationship between kingship and social justice (law). This was a burning problem already at the beginning of the Hellenistic period, and it became no less important when the Hellenistic king turned into a Roman emperor. Yet another problem, which seems to have been discussed particularly in the second and first centuries BCE with the arrival of the Romans on the Greek scene, is the justification of the empire. What were the views of the philosophers on this specific issue, and did they have any influence on actual practice? In this essay, I shall concentrate on the first, more formal issue and only incidentally touch on some of the substantive ones. Nor shall I in any way attempt to provide an exhaustive account even of the formal issue. Rather, I shall focus on the beginning of the Hellenistic period and the main philosophical schools that were founded or flourishing at that time: the Academy, the Lyceum, Epicureanism, and Stoicism. This will leave out whole movements, like those represented by Cynics, Neo-Pythagoreans, and philosophicallyminded sophists of the Roman imperial period like Dio Chrysostom, as well as later developments within the philosophical schools proper - both of which might be thought to imply a more direct engagement with society than one finds in the earlier, more strictly technical philosophical schools. There is some truth in this. Indeed, if one wants specific analogies to the missionary practice of early Christianity - the apostle Paul, for example - the place to find it is in the theory and practice of psychagogy as developed and applied by "philosophers" in the later Hellenistic and Roman periods - for example, Philodemus, Seneca, Dio Chrys9stom, Plutarch, and Epictetus.! I have a good reason, however, for focusing on the earlier period. I shall argue that behind the later developments lay an overall conception of the status and role of philosophy as a distinctive element in the social fabric, a conception which was formulated at the beginning of the Hellenistic period (with Plato and Aristotle as essential forerunners) when the schools were founded and when their relationship with the wider society was first defined. This conception stayed in place all through the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In the highly mixed bag of ideologies that characterize these periods, this conception defines, and was taken by those living at the time to define, the specific construct of Greek and Roman "philosophy." It is important to get a clear grasp of its main contours. I shall argue that by the beginning of the Hellenistic period, philosophy had gained such a social status and played

IThe importance of this has been shown by Abraham J. Malherbe writings, most persuasively perhaps in Malherbe 1986.

in a number of

ENGBERG-PEDERSEN: HELLENISTIC OFFENTLICHKEIT 17 such a social role that a level of public discourse had been created which, for want of a better word and with recent precedence, we may term the Offentlichkeit of Hellenistic and Roman society. The later developments of psychagogic theory and practice and the discussions of the substantive issues all took place within and presupposed that distinct level of discourse.

The Schools in Actual Life

We speak of the Hellenistic philosophical schools as schools, but it is important to be clear about how this should be understood. They were "schools" in one of the modern senses of this term, that is, as what the Greeks themselves called cli,peaeLI;: systems of philosophical principles or sets of belief that one could subscribe to no matter how, when, and where one lived. 2 Were they also schools in the sense of physical institutions that one might frequent in order to obtain higher education and with a clearly defined and generally recognized social status? In some ways yes; in others no. Let us start with the negative answer. Weare best informed about the period when the schools were set up: the Academy, the Lyceum, and Epicurus's Garden. Most of the relevant material comes from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, not least due to the fact that he has preserved a number of wills, of which those by Theopbrastus and Epicurus are particularly important (Diog. Laert. 5.5157; 10.16-21).3 1. The schools were essentially private. They were set up by individuals. Where there was any property involved (as in the case of the Academy,4 2For this sense cf. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (henceforth Diog. Laert.) 6.103, where just before setting forth the "doctrines" that Cynics hold in common (TC:i KOtPV apeUKOJlTOI OIVTOL~) Diogenes wonders whether "that philosophy," i. e. Cynicism, is in fact a OIrpSUt~ and not, as some people claim, a "way of [setting up one's] life" (8PUTOIUL~ {ltOU, derived from eptuT7jp.t, setting up an institution). 3The ensuing account follows Lynch, chapters 2 and 3. The term school itself is tricky. On one hand, we must use it for describing the various forms of higher education that developed in Athens in the 4th century BCE (otherwise we will get no grip on what was going on). On the other hand, we must do our utmost not to bring in our own connotations when using the term. Even Lynch succumbs from time to time. Thus, for example, he transmits a report given by Diogenes Laertius (2.62) to the effect that Aeschines the Socratic "did not venture to set up a school because of the great reputation of Plato and Aristippos; but Aeschines did take in pupils for hire" (51). What the text means is probably that Aeschines did not venture to give public lectures in the manner of the sophists (CToqnCTTSVStP); instead he took private pupils, i.e. (presumably) set up a school. 4Plato apparently both made use of the public gymnasium named the Academy and also had a small estate (XWpt&op) nearby, where he, Xenocrates, and Polemo lived and taught (compare Diog. Laert. 3.7 with Plutarch, On Exile 603B).

18

RECRUIIMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

the Lyceum,S and Epicurus's school6 ), it was private property. Similarly, members of the family of the leaders of the school were often engaged in the school work in one way or another. 7 In most cases (though not that of Epicurus) the schools were attached to a gymnasium (the Academy and the Lyceum) or to another equally public place (the Stoics taught in the Stoa Poikile at the central agora), which meant (i) that they had some official status and (ii) that at least part of what went on in them was open to the pUblic. In the case of the Lyceum, some kind of official grant seems to have been made by Demetrius of Phaleron, but the school remained (officially andin fact) private. 2. There probably was some kind of curriculum, but it will basically have been very informal and presumably through and through individual. The same goes for the length of time that students will have spent at the school. There were of course no examinations and no degrees. In some cases (e.g., that of Epicurus, if we can extrapolate from his remarks about the wise man, Diog. Laert. 10.120) students paid a fee. In others apparently not, but they would evidently have to provide for their own livelihood. 8 3. The institutional structure will have been informal too. One person was the leader of the school, who was appointed either by his predecessor or by vote. But there are no indications of any formalized structure apart from that. 9 SBut only from the time of Theophrastus, to whom Demetrius of Phaleron donated a piece of land (a Kij7rO
28

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

These statements may in fact reflect the ideology of the Roman empire rather than anything earlier. 19 But a slightly more complex picture of the development seems preferable. On the one hand it is probably true that Epicurus himself did not in fact think of his wisdom as having a place outside the framework of the Greek 7fOALC;, and so Long and Sedley are probably right in claiming that "the world for which Epicurus devised his own social prescriptions continues to be that of the Greek 7fOALC;" (Long and Sedley: 1.136). On the other hand it seems likely, from the whole approach to ethical and political issues that Epicurus shares with the Stoics, that we should see the later development precisely as a development of something that was already implicit in the original system. 20

Cases of Interaction with Society Suppose, then, that I am right in seeing Hellenistic philosophy (at least Stoicism and Epicureanism) as directly relevant to life in the 7fOALC;, though also as having its essence in formulating a critique of that life and in guarding (and in the Epicurean case even developing) a distance from it. If we now tum from theory to practice, how did the Hellenistic philosophers interact with society? A few examples will show the wide range of such interaction. If we look first at Stoicism, there is a story about Zeno having been invited to the Macedonian court by Antigonus Gonatas (Zeno did not go, but sent Persaeus).21 There is also a similar story about Cleanthes having been invited to go to the Alexandrian court (he did not go either, but sent Sphaerus; Erskine: 97-99). Then there is the possibility that Sphaerus played a role as adviser to the Spartan Kings Agis and Cleomenes in their attempt to introduce radical change in Sparta around 230 BCE.22 And there is a similar possibility that the Stoic Blossius played a role in the Gracchan revolution 19This is suggested by Long and Sedley:2.143. 20Thus the picture of the development will be the same as in the case of Stoicism discussed above. The whole issue of universalism in ancient thought from Homer to the end of the Roman empire is discussed by H. C. Baldry. Baldry may be right that "the notion of mankind as an aggregate, the sum-total of individual human beings spread over all the various countries of the inhabited world - mankind, in fact, viewed geographically" (Baldry's emphasis, 167) is a fairly late idea, with which middle and late Hellenistic geographers and historians like Eratosthenes, Polybius, and Posidonius "enriched the philosophic concept of mankind" (189). But even though he discusses, for example, Zeno's Republic extensively, he hardly pays sufficient attention to the normative universalism that it contains. 21See the discussion in Erskine:79-84. 22Por a discussion, see Erskine, chapter 6.

ENGBERG-PEDERSEN: HELLENISTIC OPPENTLICHKEIT 29 100 years later in Rome. 23 There are also the well-known cases of Stoic opposition to autocratic rule in Rome: Cato Minor, Brutus, Helvidius PrlSCUS, and (in his own way) Seneca. These are examples of Stoics who in one way or another argued for social change. But there were also Stoics who rather argued for a status quo of society. One of these was Panaetius, who was political adviser to Scipio Aemilianus, another his Roman spokesman (in ethics and politics) Cicero. Even here, however, it seems clear that the normative content of Stoicism did play some role in mitigating political conservatism. In addition to acting as political advisers, philosophers also served as political ambassadors. Famous is the Athenian embassy to Rome in 155 BCE of three philosophers (in fact three heads of schools), an Academic (Cameades), a Stoic (Diogenes of Babylon), and a Peripatetic (Critolaus). And Panaetius, whose father had been one of three ambassadors from Rhodes to Rome in 169 BCE, himself served as co-ambassador with Scipio on an official travel of his to the East. Another indication that philosophy was taken seriously by contemporary society is the fact that philosophers were quite often expelled from the cities. Admittedly, they shared this fate with astrologers, magicians, and representatives of non-accepted religions, but since nobody would probably criticize the philosophers for associating with dark powers, it will precisely be their political views that made them dangerous. How, then, about the Epicureans? Did they also interact in practice with society in a such a way that the picture I am sketching of the social location of the Hellenistic philosophies can be maintained? We already know Epicurus's ambivalent theoretical attitude towards participation in social and political life. And we certainly cannot point to any line of Epicurean philosophers who took direct part in politics in the way the Stoics did. Compared to the Stoics, Epicureans did live "unknown" in this respect. Still, there are indications that Epicureanism also maintained the relationship with society that we should expect from the statements that we noted earlier about how the Epicurean wise man will live. Thus, if we consider the so-called Epicurean revival in the late Roman republic, we find good examples of Epicurean "house-philosophers," i.e., philosophers who had taken up a position as assistant educators, men of letters, and so forth to a Roman nobleman. Philodemus is the most famous, an Epicurean whom Cicero feels required to flatter as a highly cultured person (1fep1fOALT1]r;) even when he is attacking Philodemus's patron C. Calpumius Piso (Against Piso 70; cf. On Ends 2.119). But here Romans of high status 23S ee

Erskine, chapter 7.

30

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

were only continuing the tradition of the Hellenistic kings. Thus there is inscriptional proof that in the first half of the 2nd century BCE an Epicurean philosopher named Philonides spent some time at the courts of Antioch of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his successor Demetrius I Soter. This Philonides is said to have turned Epiphanes into an adherent of the school and to have been busy collecting and ordering the letters of Epicurus and his immediate followers, possibly for the library of the Seleucids in Antioch - at least he is said to have gone up to the court "bringing with him a whole throng of philologists. "24 It is true, and important, that we do not find Epicureans giving explicit political advice to a ruler. 25 But the fact remains that Epicureanism too belongs squarely within the sphere of ethico-political public discourse in terms of which the upper layers of Greco-Roman society defined themselves.

Epicureanism Before concluding, I insert a few remarks specifically about Epicureanism. As already noted, Epicureanism has often been interpreted in a way that removes it entirely from the sphere of ethico-political public discourse, the existence of which I am trying to establish. A few elements in Epicurean practice that probably lie behind this interpretation should be explicitly mentioned. They all turn on the exclusivist, often almost private, character of the Epicurean school. Thus, for example, Epicurus took steps in his will to ensure that his birthday was solemnly celebrated each year, a custom that Cicero ridiculed (On Ends 2.101-103) as unworthy of a philosopher. Is this not a clear sign that Epicureanism is something other than a philosophy, perhaps even a religion and a highly exclusivist one? Can one still say that it belongs in the sphere of ethico-political public discourse? In Epicurus's will, however, this is but one of a number of occasions for celebration that is mentioned, for example, the meeting held every month on the twentieth to commemorate Metrodorus and Epicurus himself in accordance with a custom which was already in practice when Epicurus was alive. Clearly what we are witnessing is the institutionalization of symposia for a group of philosophical friends, with the added element that they (or at least some of them) were living together in the same house as a family - in fact, as we saw, the group

24The reports on Philonides are discussed by H. Usener. 2sAnd DeWitt's suggestion (1954a:334) that we should see Philonides behind Epiphanes's supposed policy in relation to the Jews is fanciful.

ENGBERG-PEDERSEN: HElLENISTIC OFFENTLICHKEIT 31 seems to have sprung from Epicurus' s own family proper. It is difficult to see that there is anything especially exclusivist about this, something intrinsicaily opposed to the 7rOAU; that harbored the school. What, then, about the oft-mentioned oath that Epicureans were supposed to take to Epicurus? Is this not an indication of a radical opposition to the surrounding society, of an attitude clearly evincing that Epicureans were supposed to have opted out of society? The supposed oath is really a pledge, about which we know no more than that Philodemus refers to a pledge of some Epicureans (when and where is not clear) that "we will obey Epicurus, in accordance with whom we have chosen to live. "26 The word that I have translated as "chosen" comes from the Greek verb underlying the official word for a "school" (arpeuL~), and so it seems appropriate to quote what Long and Sedley say about any of the Hellenistic schools: "School loyalty meant loyalty to the founder of the sect . . . and it is in that light that the degree of intellectual independence within each school must be viewed" (their emphasis, 1.5). No doubt (as Long and Sedley also note) Epicurus had left relatively few issues to his successors for genuinely open debate, and so the late 2nd century CE Platonist Numenius can say that "Epicurus's school resembles a true city-state of sorts, with very little disagreement and having one shared mind and one opinion, for which reason they were and are and apparently will continue to be zealous disciples" (pr 24 des Places). But again it is not clear that this should be understood as being intrinsically out of character in a philosophical school with the social location that I have ascribed to them. But is there not an element of preaching about Epicureanism that does not remove it from the level of proper philosophical public discourse, the level of ethical and political deliberation? It is true that Epicurus himself says that "the wise man will be a dogmatist and not a mere sceptic" (Diog. Laert. 10.120), but the Stoics too were dogmatists, and the point seems rather to be an intra-philosophical one. But what, then, about Epicurus's stated resolve "to issue the kind of oracle that would benefit all men, even if not a soul should understand him" (Vatican Sayings 29, DeWitt's translation, 1954a:27-28)? Is this not an indication of his "missionary zeal" (De Witt 1954a:28)? No, for in its effect, at least, this is a pure mistranslation. What Epicurus is saying is that even if what he says when he is doing ¢UuwAo,¥La (Epicurus's term for solid philosophy) should appear just as opaque to the many as the sayings of an oracle - and so they would not understand it - he would prefer speaking his mind openly to assenting to the false opinions of the many and so being 26Philodemus, On Frank Criticism fro 45,8-11 Olivieri.

32

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

praised by them. Epicurus was zealous on behalf of the truth - but not especially with the aim of convincing the many. In fact another Vatican Saying (52, Long and Sedley: 22F5) that uses the interesting term "proclaim" (wT/p(rrreLv) displays a similarly detached attitude toward the faulty beliefs of the many: Friendship dances round the whole world proclaiming to us all that we wake up and congratulate each other (on our happiness). Here friendship is said to be dancing round the world - hardly the proper word for one who is earnestly pressing on with his message to make as many as possible join his creed. At most, Epicurus is expressing his satisfaction that the joyful message is spreading - as it were by itself. What about his letters to his friends? Are they not a missionary tool of the first importance, virtually proving his missionary zeal? There is an interesting passage in Plutarch's small treatise on Epicurus's injunction to "Live unknown" in which Plutarch slyly objects to Epicurus that if his injunction is aimed at people who are doing good, then Epicurus is telling the famous Theban general Epameinondas not to be a general, he is telling Lycurgus not to create laws, and so forth - and in fact you are telling yourself not to "write to your friends in Asia, not to enlist recruits from Egypt, not to guard over the youth of Lampsacus, and not to circulate books to every man and every woman in which you advertise your wisdom" (On Living Unknown 1128F-1129A). The argument is, of course, that these are things that Epicurus had in fact done, and so he is inconsistent in claiming that one should live unknown. It is not clear in every detail what Plutarch is referring to. The letters to his friends in Asia are probably letters to groups of Epicureans like the one Epicurus left in Lampsacus when he moved to Athens. But if they had anything like the character of the three letters contained in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers Book X, they will have been semi-official and so also meant for publication. The reference to the enlisting of recruits in Egypt is unclear as is that to "guarding over" the youth of Lampsacus. But the final reference to Epicurus's circulation of books to the general public in which he advertised his wisdom is clear enough - and revealing. We can say: Either Epicurus wrote, for example, letters to his friends which were strictly private and hence addressed to specific people who were in fact Epicurus's friends (later, then, these letters may have been collected by devout Epicureans like Philonides) or else, as Plutarch implies, he wrote works for publication (including probably "letters to his friends," which were also meant for publication). In the first case, we cannot ascribe to Epicurus any missionary purpose. In the latter case, which is apparently the correct one, at least according to Plutarch, what Epicurus did was just what any philosoIJher (or rhetor, or sophist) did: publish" in order to advertise his wis-

ENGBERG-PEDERSEN: HELLENISTIC OFFENTLICHKEIT 33 dom" (e7rLOeLKPUiJ.iPo~ TTJP uocp[OlP). The fact, therefore, that Epicurus wrote "letters to his friends" (and we have some of them) goes no way toward showing that there was any special missionary urge to Epicureanism as compared with the other philosophical schools. On the contrary, what the Plutarch passage shows (quite against Plutarch's intent) is that the interpretation of the injunction to live unknown which underlies Plutarch's specious argument (supposedly showing that Epicurus was inconsistent) is false. To "live unknown" in the sense intended by Epicurus does not in any way imply that one does not participate in the normal activities, with respect to advertising one's views, of a Hellenistic philosophical school,21 And these were essentially public. 28

Conclusions I have argued that philosophy at the beginning of the Hellenistic period was held in high esteem socially and was very much in the educated public eye as holding out the hope for expert, technical knowledge about how human beings should live, both individually and socially. I have also argued that in spite of clear and important differences on a number of philosophically crucial points, the two most obvious protagonists on the philosophical scene, Stoicism and Epicureanism, also had a number of points in common which made them fit for playing the role of candidates for supplying that knowledge. Finally, I have argued that again in spite of real differences between Stoicism and Epicureanism in the actual role played by the two philosophies in society, there is no reason to interpret Epicureanism in such a way that it does not belong within the sphere of ethico-political public discourse. On the contrary, there is every reason to insist that it belongs precisely there. The upshot for the questions about the Sitz im Leben of Greco-Roman ethical and political philosophy from which I started is the following. At the beginning of the Hellenistic period a socially supported sphere of ethicopolitical discourse had come into being which provided the framework for the social functioning of the philosophers. It was by participating in this sphere 21Moreover, Plutarch's interpretation probably stems from his desire to denigrate the Epicurean school by presenting it as if it were meant to be some kind of clandestine society. 28It is instructive to contrast this character of Epicurus' s letters with the character of the Pauline letters. The latter have no doubt taken over very many characteristics of Greek and Roman public communication, but even though some of Paul's letters were clearly designed for more readerships than one, they were not intended as public communication in the way I am suggesting Epicurus's letters were. Paul did not participate (directly) in the sphere of ethico-political discourse that I have identified.

34

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

that philosophers would recruit pupils to their schools and also attract adherents for their views among those who had not frequented the school. And it was in the same way that philosophers would also have a more direct political impact on political rulers, who often would not, and probably could not quite, neglect the ethical and political views of the philosophers. This was an indirect way of social functioning, as opposed to a more direct concern about recruitment, mission, and social engineering. But it was no less effective for that - due, precisely, to the social force of the newly created Offentlichkeit. This is not to say that the impact of philosophy on political life will necessarily have been very great. That whole issue is at once extremely important and extremely difficult to decide in any precise and verifiable way. But it would also be foolish to deny that Hellenistic philosophy may in fact have had considerable influence. If my attempt to identify a special sphere of ethico-political public discourse has been successful, then the impact must have been considerable, though not necessarily directly so. For then Hellenistic philosophy is even to be defined in terms of its relationship with that social institution which had the strongest cultural power, in Greece itself and wherever Greeks came into contact with foreigners, whether in the East or in the West. That institution is the Greek 7rOAL7BLOI in all its many forms. Even when, as became so importantly the case in the Hellenistic period, the form of rule was not, at the highest level at least, that of the 7rOAL7BLOI, but one of kingship, the institution of the 7rOAL7BLOI (one might even say of "constitutional" rule) remained in force, both in fact (in the many cities which were still constitutionally governed, though not with an independent foreign policy) and also in theory in the constant preoccupation of Greeks and Romans with constitutional rule even when the ruler was a monarch.

A Final Test I shall end by illustrating the last point through referring to the famous report given by Philostratus in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana (5.27-40) of a set of conversations with three intellectuals that the Roman emperor Vespasian is supposed to have had in Alexandria immediately after he had possessed himself of the throne. Vespasian's conversation partners were Apollonius himself (the neo-Pythagorean sage) and two philosophers (as they are called): Euphrates and Dio Chrysostom - the same Dio whose whole life and career are so very germane to this essay.

ENGBERG-PEDERSEN: HELLENISTIC OFFENTLICHKEIT 35 It is a striking story, almost certainly fictive and highly romantic. Vespasian arrives in Alexandria and seeks out Apollonius in order to get his blessing, as it were, for his new kingship. He gets it - but also the advice to observe the mean as king. For God himself has defined equity (laOT7]r;;) as consisting in the mean (lleaOT7]r;;, 28). Vespasian next declares that he wishes to state to Apollonius his justification (a1fOAo,},La) for assuming royal power, in the hope that Apollonius will then justify his actions to others. Vespasian's justification is that he himself constantly behaved soberly and moderately, whereas Roman emperors before him have been lacking precisely on this point, even Claudius who (as we have been told in chap. 27) went astray in spite of having a reputation for being fond of culture in all its forms (29). Apollonius again gives him the gods' blessing (30). On the next day, however, Apollonius introduces the two philosophers to Vespasian (31). Vespasian states that he has already justified his acts to Apollonius. Today, he says turning to Dio, he wishes for them to "philosophize together" concerning the decisions he has made, in order that his "general policy should be both as noble as possible and salutary to mankind." Apollonius replies on behalf of the others and formulates the problem: how a sovereign ought to rule. First Euphrates recommends in a long speech that Vespasian should restore the Roman republic by putting an end to monarchy and giving democracy (TO TOU 0111l0V KpaTOr;;) to the Romans (33). Next Dio supports this. He welcomes the idea of democracy, but adds: I fear lest the servility to which these successive tyrannies [i.e. those of the previous emperors] have reduced the Romans will render any change difficult to effect; I doubt if they are able to comport themselves as free men or even to lift their eyes to a democracy, any more than people who have been kept in the dark are able to look on a sudden blaze of light.

Dio therefore recommends Vespasian "to give the people of Rome the right to choose their own polity and, if they choose a democracy, to allow it them." Vespasian is not pleased. Fortunately, Apollonius comes to the rescue and argues for the monarchy that Vespasian has already assumed. After all, "the government of one man, if it provides all round for the welfare of the community, is democracy" (35)! The point should be clear. Even at such a late date as the second half of the second century CE (for the time of Philostratus's writing), rulers needed philosophers to give them legitimacy, and the terms of the debate were exactly the same as 500 years earlier, going right back in fact to Herodotus, whose famous debate about the kind of rule to be followed in Persia Philostratus is obviously using for his own purposes. It is difficult to find a

36

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

more eloquent testimony to the prestige of "philosophy" in ancient society in the period we have been considering. Again the question may be raised whether this is not mere windowdressing, the aim of which on Vespasian's part would only be (if the story were true at all) to obtain some kind of legitimacy for his usurpation of power. It certainly also is window-dressing. But that, in a way, only serves to emphasize that there was this sphere of ethico-political public discourse, which even a soldier and autocrat like Vespasian would do well not to ignore. A modem analogue, which is obviously also historically connected with what I have been talking about, is the need felt even in dictatorships for some kind of constitutional backing in the form of elections, parliaments, and the like. Nobody will have any illusions about their real power, but it would also be foolish to deny that there is something here with more influence than none whatever. That phenomenon, together with the modem sphere of public discourse which supports it, is derived historically from the sphere of ethicopolitical public discourse that I have identified. It is because Hellenistic philosophy was part of that sphere that the philosophers had no special sense of mission and no special idea of strategies for recruitment. And it is for the same reason that they could contribute to solving social and political conflicts in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods without engaging directly in social engineering. They already belonged at a level of public discourse where they would be influential just by participating in that discourse. 29

Works Cited Baldry, H. C. 1965 The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Dewitt, N. W. 1936 "Organization and Procedure in Epicurean Groups." CP 31:205-211. 1954a Epicurus and his Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 1954b St. Paul and Epicurus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. Dihle, A. 1986

"Philosophie - Fachwissenschaft - Allgemeinbildung." pp. 185-231 in Aspects de la philosophie hellenistique. Fondation Hardt 32. Ed. H. Flashar, O. Gigon. Vandoeuvres-Geneve.

29This essay was written for a conference at Emory University in 1991. Shortly after the conference, the author consented to have it published. As time went by, he secretly hoped that nothing would come of this. The essay is published here in the hope that it will stimulate more comprehensive work to develop and consolidate the perspective that it offers on' the social role of philosophy in the Greco-Roman world.

ENGBERG-PEDERSEN: HELLENISTIC OFFENTLICHKEIT 37 Erskine, Andrew 1990 The Hellenistic Stoa: Political Thought and Action. London: Duckworth. Frischer, Bernard 1982 The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California. Gigante, M. 1969

"Philodeme: Sur la liberte de parole." Association Guillaume Bude. Actes du Ville Congres. Paris.

Habermas, Jiirgen 1962 Strukturwandel der Offentlich.keit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der burgerlichen Gesellschaft. Neuwied: H. Luchterhand. Long, A. A., and D. N. Sedley 1987 The Hellenistic Philosophers. 2 Vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Lynch, J. P. 1972 Aristotle's School: A Study of a Greek Educational Institution. Berkeley: University of California. Malherbe, Abraham J. 1986 Moral Exhortation: A Greco-Roman Sourcebook. Library of Early Christianity 4. Ed. Wayne Meeks. Philadelphia: Westminster. Meeks, Wayne A. 1983 The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven: Yale University. Mikkola, E. 1954

Usener, H. 1901

Isokrates: Seine Anschauungen im Lichte Seiner Schriften. Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae. Ser. B. Tom. 89. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemia. "Philonides." Rheinisches Museum 56: 145-148.

CHAPI'ER2

EXPANSION AND RECRUITMENT AMONG HEllENISTIC RELIGIONS: THE CASE OF MITHRAISM D. E. Aune Loyola University of Chicago

Introduction Within the context of a symposium on the subject of recruitment, conquest, and conflict of religious cults and philosophical schools in the Hellenistic world, it is appropriate to inquire into the factors which might account for the apparently enormous appeal and success of Mithraism during the period of its initial appearance in the late first century CE to its decline in the fourth century. Of all the mystery cults with eastern origins (or eastern pretensions) which penetrated the Roman Empire, the massive evidence for the pervasive presence of Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire suggests that it was the most popular and influential of such private cults. A focus on Mithraism is also appropriate in view of the increasing scholarly interest in Mithraism evident during the last twenty years. Franz Cumont, the founder of the modem scientific study of Mithraism, regarded his work on Mithraism as a contribution to the issue of the success of Christianity in the Roman empire. In his magnum opus on Mithraism, he focused on the subject of the dissemination of the cult in a chapter entitled "La propagation dans l'Empire Romain" (1896-99:1.242-77). Despite the mass of material evidence for Mithraism, the paucity of literary evidence means that there is a great deal that archaeological sites and artifacts cannot reveal about Mithraism. According to Cumont (1956a:39-40): Despite their frequency, the epigraphic texts and sculptured monuments throw but very imperfect light on the local history of Mithraism. It is impossible for us to follow the detailed steps in advancement, to distinguish the concurrent influences exercised by the different churches [eglises], to draw up a picture of the work of conversion, pursuing its course from city to city and province to province. All that we can do is to indicate in large outlines in what countries the new faith was propagated and who were in general the champions [apotres] that advocated [prechee] it.

Though somewhat obscured by the English translation, the French text makes

40

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

it abundantly clear that Cumont has conceptualized Mithraism based on a Christian model, a fact revealed by the presence of such terms as "eglises," "conversion," "apotres," and "pr~chee" (Simon:461). Cumont, of course, was not the only scholar to exaggerate the similarities between Christianity and ancient Mediterranean mystery cults. 1 It is nevertheless important, particularly in enterprises which are inherently comparative, such as the present International Symposium, to avoid skewing the evidence by analyzing each religious cult or philosophical school in its own right and to avoid imposing on it an alien conceptual framework. It is quite possible that despite the fact that both Christianity and Mithraism are categorized as "religions," they have functioned in very different ways for their respective adherents. Mithraism exhibits a number of phenomenological similarities with other ancient mystery cults. (1) The focus of the cult was a seven-staged initiation ritual based on the depiction and perhaps recitation of a mythical narrative involving certain vicissitudes in the life of the hero. (2) Like other mystery cults, but unlike Judaism and Christianity, Mithraism was not exclusivistic but rather syncretistic. Yet Mithraism differed from other cults in several significant ways (Nock 1937:108-113): (1) Women were usually excluded from the cult (Vermaseren 1963:162-65),2 perhaps because women were regularly excluded from most collegia tenuiorum (a possible social model for most Mithraic groups), though they were usually included in most mystery cults. (2) Moral requirements appear to have been demanded of initiants (though evidence for this is slimp (3) No initiants appear to have been Iranian (i.e. no Iranian names occur in inscriptions); only a few survivals of the Iranian language are reflected in inscriptions; there are no known links between Mithraic cults and Persia, the supposed place of its origin (La Piana: 183203). Unlike many mystery cults, Mithraism was not primarily constituted by members of a particular ethnic group; and so Mithraism had neither an IThis was accompanied by the tendency to minimize the differences between the various mystery cults, for example, by supposing that the dubious category of the dying and rising god was the central myth of all mystery cults. The weaknesses of this category have been exposed by Smith (521-527). 2The only text in which women are specifically mentioned is in Porphyry De abstinentia 4.16 (quoting Pallas): "Thus they [the Mithraists] called the initiates who had been fully admitted into their Mysteries 'lions,' women 'hyenas,' and the underlings 'ravens. '" Gordon (1980:57-62) argues that this passage does not support the inclusion of some women in the cult, but rather, Mithraists used the designation "hyena" of women because of its negative associations. 3porphyry De antra nympharum 15 (trans. Arethusa): "So in the Lion mysteries, when honey is poured instead of water for purification on the hands of the initiates, they are exhorted to keep them pure from everything distressing, harmful, and loathsome. "

AUNE: THE CASE OF MITHRAISM 41 ethnic homeland nor a diaspora population. (4) There was no professional Mithraic priesthood. (5) Mithraism had its own distinctive cosmogony and eschatology. (6) Again unlike other mystery cults Mithraism had many of the features of a secret society in which the members (exclusively male) had strong mutual ties. There are a number of important questions about Mithraism which are relevant for the present Symposium: (1) What was the basis for the apparently widespread appeal of Mithraism? (2) Given the limited size of the mithraea which have been excavated, how large were local Mithraic groupS?4 (3) What factors account for the iconographic and architectural similarities which characterized Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire? (4) What were the major means used to propagate Mithraism? (5) Was Mithraism really a serious competitor of Christianity, or is that simply a modern supposition of scholars (Simon:457-78; Brandon 1954-55:107-114)?

The Evidence for Mithraism The evidence for Mithraism is primarily archaeological, iconographical, and epigraphical. The little literary evidence there is falls into three broad classifications: 5 (1) Sympathetic interpretations by Neoplatonic authors (Numenius and Cronius, both preserved in Porphyry). (2) Occasional notices about Mithraism found in Greco-Roman writers. (3) The name Mithras is occasionally included in invocations in magical procedures. 6 (4) Largely unsympathetic notices in Christian literature beginning with Justin Martyr in the mid-second century CE. 7 4No one knows how many members of a Mithraic collegium would gather at one time in a mithraeum, though it is generally thought that the size of a mithraeum must have some relationship to the number of initiants who belonged to the local group. The earliest mithraeum at Dura was a room about 15 x 17 meters. SMost of the references to Mithraism in ancient literature have been collected by Geden. 6The "great god Helios Mithras" is addressed once in the so-called "Mithras Liturgy," i.e. PGM IV.475-834, line 482. A typical syncretistic invocation occurs in PGM V.4: "Zeus, Helios, Mithra, Sarapis, unconquered one [aniketa] , Meliouchos, Melikertes, Meligenetor"; invictus and insuperabilis, the Latin equivalents of aniketos ("unconquerable, victorious"), are frequently found in dedicatory inscriptions to Mithras. The divine names Meliouchos, Helios, and Mithra also occur in the same context in PGM III.99-100, while Helios Mithra is mentioned in PGM III.462. "Mithreu Mithra" occurs in an isolated manner in the midst of a sequence of voces magicae in Ostracon 2.8 (preisendanz: 2. 233). 7Justin 1 Apol. 66.4; Dial. 70.1; 78.6; Tertullian De bapt. 5; De cor. 15; Adv. Marc. 1.13; De praescr. haer. 40; Apol. 8; Origen Contra Celsum 1.9; 6.21; Commodian Instructiones 1.13; Ambrosiaster Quaest. vet. et nov. test. 114; Firmicus Maternus De errore 4, 20; Gregory Nazianzus Or. 4.70; 39.5; Ad Nemesium 7.265ff.; Jerome Ep. 107;

42

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

One of the earlier notices occurs in Plutarch (Pompey 24.5; LCL trans.), who, while narrating Pompey's defeat of the Cilician pirates during a threemonth campaign in 67 BCE, observed that these same pirates had plundered many famous religious sites between Greece and the western coast of Asia Minor: They also offered strange sacrifices of their own at Olympus [located in southwest Asia Minor] and celebrated there certain secret rites, among which those of Mithras continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them.

Most of the literary evidence concerning Mithraism in Christian authors occurs in apologetic contexts (Colpe:29-43; Freudenberger:579-92; Metzger 1945:225-33; Rossi: 17-29). Justin (1 Apology 66.4; see also Tertullian De praescriptione haereticorum 40), after describing the Christian Eucharist, observes: This also the wicked demons in imitation handed down as something to be done in the mysteries of Mithra; for bread and a cup of water are brought out in their secret rites of initiation, with certain invocations which you either know or can learn.

Perhaps the surprising feature is the fact that Justin claims to be aware of secret Mithraic practices and sees them as diabolical imitations of Christian practices. When he claims that "you either know or can learn [1} 87rLanJla(Js 1} J.l.a(JsLv O(ivaa(Js]" of the secret Mithraic rites, he is referring to those to whom he addressed his apology, the emperor Antoninus Pius, together with his sons Verissimus and Lucius (1 Apol. 1.1). Mithraism was one among many rivals of Christianity, though the fact that Justin refers to it just three times (1 Apol. 66.4; Dial. 70.1; 78.6) suggests that he does not regard it as posing a serious threat. Of course, when Justin composed this work (ca. 155 CE), Mithraism had not yet reached the peak of its popularity, though he wrote in Rome which was perhaps the most important center of the cult. The paucity of references in Christian authors to the real or potential threat of Mithraism suggests that the burden of proof is on those who would argue that Mithraism was in fact a dangerous rival to Christianity . While it is an exaggeration to claim that Mithraism was one of the most dangerous rivals of Christianity (Nilson 2.669), the degree of rivalry certainly varied greatly from place to place. One of the settings within which Mithraism and Christianity met with relative frequency was that of the Roman army itself, for from 170 CE on, there is increasing evidence for the Adv. Jov. 1.7; 2.14; Comm. in Amos 5.9-10; Socrates Hist. eccl. 3.2-3; Sozomen Hist. eccl.5.7.

AUNE: 11IE CASE OF MI11IRAISM 43

presence of Christian soldiers in the Roman legions (Harnack:65-104; Hunter: 87-94). Commodian (perhaps a third cent. CE African Christian) alludes to Mithraism when he compares wayward Christians to deserters: "Do not wander long as a soldier through the caves of wild beasts" (lnstructiones 52). Most of the evidence for Mithraism is of an archaeological nature, including mithraea together with artistic representations and inscriptions. The earliest evidence for the famous Mithraic tauraetone (Mithras slaying the bull), however, is found in a literary source, the Roman poet Statius (80 CE) who refers to "Mithra as beneath the rocks of the Persian cave he presses back the horns that resist his control" (Thebais 1.717ff.). According to Vermaseren, no Mithraic monument can be dated earlier than the end of the first century CEo In his view, the earliest datable monument of Mithraism is a statue from Rome of Mithras slaying the bull (CIMRM 593),8 with an inscription (CIMRM 594) which mentions T. Claudius Livianus, who may be identical with the commander of the Praetorian guard of the same name under the emperor Trajan, 98-117 CE (Vermaseren 1963:29-30). A Mithraic monument from Moesia Inferior, not far from the mouth of the Danube (from Novae/Steklen), can be dated to 100 CE (CIMRM 2268, 2269) and hence may be even older than CIMRM 593-594 (Gordon 1975:1.231; de Laet 1949:204; Beskow 1980:2-3).9 One of the earliest Mithraic monuments in the Danube is the altar of C. Sacidius Barbarus (CIMRM 1718) from Carnuntum in Pannonia, which dates to either the 70's-80's or 105-114 CE (Daniels:2.250-251). The Mithraic altar dedicated by L. Valerius Fuscus in Moesia Inferior must be placed between 71 and 162 CE (CIMRM 2286). By the late second century, however, there is an abundance of archeological evidence indicating that Mithraism had spread from one corner of the Roman empire to the other. While there is an enormous amount of archaeological evidence, including hundreds of very short inscriptions but only a few extensive inscriptions, particularly those from the Santa Prisca Mithraeum in Rome which date from the late second century CE (Vermaseren and Van Essen:187-240; Betz:6280),10 and an extraordinarily rich iconography, there is a paucity of literary 8The abbreviation CIMRM refers to Vennaseren 1956-60. 9Per Beskow 1980:2-3; R. L. Gordon 1975: 1.231. 10The visible lines of this inscription are as follows: IFecunda telZus cuncta qua generat Pales. "Fertile earth, through which Pales procreates everything. " 4Fons concluse petris qui geminos aluisti nectarefratres. "Rock-bound spring that fed the twin-brothers with nectar. " 7Hunc quem aur[ei]s humeris portavit more iuvencum. "This young bull which he carried on his wonderful shoulders according to his will . "

44

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

evidence. Apart from the disputed "Mithras Liturgy" identified by Albrecht Dieterich, and the problematic "Hymn to King Helios [=Mithras]," by Julian (Oration 4), there are no literary texts produced by adherents to Mithras which provide us with any information about the Mysteries of Mithras. One of the major problems of modem research into Mithraism is the way in which the literary evidence is used to interpret the archaeological evidence. Literary evidence has been used to suggest that Mithraism was introduced in Rome ca. 66 CE during the reign of Nero by Tiridates.1 1 Yet Tiridates appears to have been an adherent of a traditional form of Iranian religion, since nothing in the text is distinctive of the Mithraic mysteries.

Characteristics of Mithraism Ancient sources describe the cult of Mithras as "the mysteries of Mithras. "12 Those initiated into the cult were not designated by a particular name, though occasionally they are called "Persians," since Mithraism was widely believed by both outsiders and insiders to have originated in Iran and to have been founded by Zoroaster. Atque perlata humeris t[ujU m[ajxima divum. "And to the end 1 have borne the orders of the gods on my shoulders." 10Dulci[ija suntfi[cataj avium [sjed cura gubemat. "Sweet are the livers of the birds, but care reigns. " 1Ipi[e] r[ejb[ujs renatum dulcibus atque creatum. "Him (or that) who (or which) is piously reborn and created by sweet things." 12Nubila per ritum ducatis tempora cuncti. "You must sustain clouded times together through the rite." 13Primus et hic aries astrictius ordine currit. "Here too the ram runs in front, more strictly in line. " 14Et nos servasti etemali sanguinefuso. "And you saved us after having shed the eternal blood. " lS[Oflfero ut . . a. ? numina magna Mithre. "I bring offerings in order that the great powers of Mithras are shown. " 16Accipe thuricremos pater accipe sancte Leones, 17Per quos thuradamus per quos consumimur ipsi. "Receive, holy Father, receive the incense-burning lions, through whom we offer incense, through whom we ourselves are consumed. " 18Nama leonibus novis et multis annis "Hail to the Lions for many and new years. " llCassius Dio 63.10; Ps.-Callisthenes 2.14.5 (ed. Kroll); Pliny Hist. nat. 30.16.7; Suetonius Nero 13; see also Cumont 1933:145-54. 12P1utarch Pomp. 24.5 (ai Tali MUipav 1"ll)o..eTai); Eunapius Vitae soph. 476 (~ MdJp£aKe re)o..ire); Justin 1 Apol. 66.4 and Dial. 70.1 (ra rali MUipa p.vCTTr/p£a); Dial. 78.6 (ra MUipa p.vCTTr/p£a); Origen Contra Celsum 6.22 (~ Tau MUipav 1"8A87e). 9

AUNE: THE CASE OF MITHRAISM 45

The cult of Mithras worshipped in artificial cavern-like structures called mithraea, usually located below ground level.!3 According to Porphyry (De antro nympharum 6; Bidez-Cumont, 2.29), the Mithraic cave was an "image of the cosmos" (eiKW/I TOU KO(JP.OV):14 Similarly, the Persians call the place a cave where they introduce an initiate to the mysteries, revealing to him the path by which souls descend and go back again. For Eubulus tells us that Zoroaster was the first to dedicate a natural cave in honour of Mithras, the creator and father of all; it was located in the mountains and had flowers and springs. This cave bore for him the image of the Cosmos which Mithras had created, and the things which the cave contained, by their proportionate arrangement, provided symbols of the elements and climates of the Cosmos.

Thus far the judgment of archaeology is that the earliest mithraea were constructed ca. 140-50 CEo Mithraea were relatively small, seating no more than about fifty people. They average about 15 meters in length (the longest is the Mithraeum at Marino which is nearly 30 meters long). Mithraea were frequently constructed on an east-west axis with the entrance on the west; probably Mithras was worshipp~d as the sun god. The archeological remains of fifty-eight Mithraic sanctuaries have been identified, of which twenty-five are located in Italy, including seven in Rome (Coarelli lists forty actual or possible sites for Roman mithraea),l~ and fourteen or fifteen in Ostia (Laeuchli; White:48). Remains of mitlU:aea in the eastern Mediterranean are rare. In Roman Syria only three mithraea have been identified: Sidon (where artifacts suggest the presence of a mithraeum, though the actual mithraeum itself has not been located), Dura-Europos and Caesarea Maritima (Beck 1984:2013-2017; Hopfe:2214-2235).!6 None have been discovered in Egypt, Anatolia (Beck 1984:2018-2020), or Greece, though a dedicatory inscription suggests the presence of one on Andros (Beck 1984:2047-2048). In some instances there is archaeological evidence for the decline and expansion of individual mithraea, such as in the case of the Aventine Mithraeum. The two stages of construction of the Santa Prisca Mithraeum indicate the growth and expansion of the membership (White: 169-170). In virtually every Mithraeum there was an artistic representation (commonly a fresco or I3The earliest Dura mithraeum, used for the forty years between 168 and ca. 210 CE, is an important exception; the reconstructed mithraeum was built as a vaulted spelaeum. 14Justin (Dial. 70.1) also mentions that Mithraic initiations took place in a cave, which he regards as an imitation of the place of the birth of Christ. See also Gervers:57999. On mithraea as imaging the cosmos, see Gordon 1976:119-65. lSCoarelli (76-77) suggests that there may have been 680 to 690 mithraea in Rome. 16The Sidon mithraeum may be dated 389/390 CE; the Dura-Europas mithraeum went through three phases of construction: (1) It was originally founded in 168 CE in a private home, (2) it was rebuilt and enlarged, ca. 210 CE, (3) and it was again enlarged, ca. 240 CEo The Caesarea Maritima mithraeum may be dated late first to late third century CEo

46

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

stone relief) of the tauroctony or "bull-slaying" scene. The fact that more than five hundred representations of this scene have been discovered makes the central significance which it had for the cult abundantly clear. In this scene, Mithras is depicted as using one knee for leverage on the back of a bull while pulling his snout back with his left hand and plunging a short sword into its heart with his right hand. The central focus of the cult was the preparation for astral salvation which would be realized upon death when the soul would ascend through the seven planetary spheres to the place of its origin. Origen has preserved one version of the Mithraic conception of the ascent of the soul which he attributes to Celsus (Contra Celsum 6.22; trans. Chadwick): These truths are obscurely represented by the teaching of the Persians and by the mystery of Mithras which is of Persian origin. For in the latter there is a symbol of the two orbits in heaven, the one being that of the fixed stars and the other that assigned to the planets, and of the soul's passage through these. The symbol is this. There is a ladder with seven gates and at its top an eighth gate. The first of the gates is of lead, the second of tin, the third of bronze, the fourth of iron, the fifth of an alloy, the sixth of silver, and the seventh of gold. They associate the first with Kronos (Saturn), taking lead to refer to the slowness of the star; the second with Aphrodite (Venus), comparing her with the brightness and softness of tin; the third with Zeus (Jupiter), as the gate that has a bronze base and which is rum; the fourth with Hermes (Mercury), for both iron and Hermes are reliable for all works and make money and are hard-working; the fifth with Ares (Mars), the gate which as a result of the mixture is uneven and varied in quality; the sixth with the Moon as the silver gate and the seventh with the Sun as the golden gate, these metals resembling their colours.

Though doubts have been expressed concerning whether or not Origen is accurately reproducing Mithraic theology (the planetary order is not typical of Mithraism, but reverses the planetary order of the days of the week),17 it is widely held that the ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres was central to Mithraism (Merkelbach 1985:235-244), though this view has recently been criticized. Further, it is clear from the correlation of the grades with certain planets (in the Felicissimus Mithraeum and the Santa Prisca Mithraeum), that the seven grade initiation structure was in some sense a guide through the planets, a via salutis. One of the more recent issues which has emerged hinges on the question of whether this ascent of the souls occurs only after death (Cumont 1956a:143-144), or whether it was experienced by the initiate while still alive (Gordon 1980:38-39; Beck 1988:77-82). The heavenly ascent prescribed in the "Mithras Liturgy" (PGM IV.475-834) is experienced by a living adept. Robert Turcan has argued that the notion of postmortem ascent is Neoplatonic and Gnostic but not found in any of the 17The essential accuracy of Origen's account is argued by Beck 1988:73-85.

AUNE: THE CASE OF MITHRAlSM 47 ancient mystery cults including Mithraism (Turcan 1982:173-91). Further, he regards Origen's account as garbled, and the real significance of the correlation of Mithraic grades with planets is seen not in terms of a spatial celestial journey, but rather as a metaphor of a temporal journey through seven successive world ages (Turcan 1975:44-61). While conclusive evidence for either view is lacking in the sources, it appears likely that the ritual experience of ascent served as an anticipation of the final postmortem ascent of the soul (Merkelbach 1965:219-257, esp. 250). The most significant part of Mithraism was the ritual of initiation which was superintended by a pater (i.e., an initiant who had achieved the seventh and highest grade of initiation). Members of the cult were initiated into seven ascending levels or grades of initiation, each of which had the protection of a planetary god (Vermaseren 1963:138-153): (1) corax, "raven" (Mercury), (2) nymphus, "bride" (Venus) or cryphius,18 (3) miles, "soldier" (Mars), (4) leo, "lion" (Jupiter), (5) Perses, "Persian" (Moon), (6) heliodromus, "courier of the sun" (Sun), and (7) pater, "father" (Saturn).19 In inscriptions and graffiti, pater is mentioned most frequently (114 times in CIMRM), then leo (35 times), following by corax (8 times), miles (8 times), Perses (5 times), nymphus or cryphius (5 times), heliodromus (2 times). The planetary order used in Mithraism, however, does not represent any other known way of ordering the planets in ancient astronomy or astrology (Saturn, Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, i.e., moving from heaven to earth). Therefore the planetary order is probably part of the secret lore of the cult concealed from all but initiants. Further, these seven grades of initiation, preserved in literary setting only in Jerome (Ep. 107),20 are found in the graffiti of the Mithraeum of Felicissimus at Ostia (CIMRM 299), in the mosaic pavement of the Santa Prisca Mithraeum in Rome (CIMRM 480),21 and in graffiti (omitting only Heliodromus) at the Mithraeum at Dura (CIMRM 63), where the seven steps in the third mithraeum probably represent the seven grades. Yet it cannot be assumed that Mithraism everywhere in the ancient world used the same order, though the iconographical homogeneity of the cult throughout the Roman Empire is generally quite remarkable. 22 18According to Vermaseren (1963:139-140), following C. W. Vollgraff, the chryphii are "the hidden ones," i.e., youths not yet received as official members of the cult. 19A1l seven Mithraic grades were known only from Jerome Ep. 107 until confirmed by the discovery of the mosaic pavement of the Mithraeum of Felicissimus in Ostia (ClMRM 299) and the graffiti of the S. Prisca Mithraeum (CIMRM 480); see Beck 1988:1-4, and Vermaseren and van Essen 1965:155-58. 20The terms for the seven grades preserved by Jerome are corax, cryphius, miles, leo, Perses, heliodromus, pater. 21CIMRM 480 is corrected in Vermaseren and van Essen: 1965:155-158. 22Beskow (1978:11-12) argues that the seven-grade system originated in Syria and moved from there to Rome.

48

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Mithraic initiation scenes have been preserved in both frescoes in the Santa Prisca (CIMRM 480-84), Capua (CIMRM 187-97) (Vermaseren 1971:24-48 and plates XXI-XXVIII), and Dura (CIMRM 42), and the reverse of the Konjic relief from Dalmatia (CIMRM 1896). The pater, enthroned and dressed in a costume reminiscent of Mithras, presided at initiation ceremonies (CIMRM 480; Vermaseren and van Essen 1965:155). In these ceremonies, it is possible that the initiates wore masks representing the grade they had achieved (Cumont 1956a:152-154),23 though this is far from certain (Gordon 1980:69, n. 1).24 A text in Ambrosiaster (Quaest. 114) suggests the mimetic character of such ceremonies: Their [initiants'] eyes are blindfolded that they may not refuse to be foully abused; some moreover beat their wings together as birds do, and croak like ravens, and others roar like lions; and yet others are pushed across ditches IIlled with water: their hands have previously been tied with the intestines of a chicken, and then somebody comes up and cuts these intestines (he calls himself their "liberator").

Tertullian mentioned another aspect of Mithraic initiation (De corona 15.3): Blush, ye fellow-soldiers of his, henceforth not to be condemned even by him, but by some soldier of Mithras, who, at his initiation in the gloomy cavern, in the camp, it may well be said, of darkness, when at the sword's point a crown is presented to him, as though in mimicry of martyrdom, and thereupon put upon his head, is admonished to resist and cast it off, and if you like, transfer it to his shoulder, saying that Mithras is his crown.

The Origins of Mithraism The problem of the origins of Mithraism is one of the more hotly debated issues among concerned scholars, and one which has several aspects. One major aspect of the problem of origins is concerned with the issue of whether or not Mithraism is a modified, westernized form of Iranian religion. This is a hermeneutical as well as an historical issue, for Cumont and many others have interpreted the largely mute Mithraic iconography in the light of Iranian and Indian texts. A second major aspect of the problem of origins is concerned with the center or centers where the mysteries of Mithras took on distinctive Roman features and from which the cult was disseminated to other parts of the Roman world.

23CIMRM 1896 depicts human figures with the head of a raven and a lion; CIMRM 42 and 397 depict human figures with the heads of ravens. 24Gordon's skepticism is in part confirmed by the drinking cup from Trier (CIMRM 988), where Mithras and Sol dine in the presence of several animal figures: a lion, a raven, a serpent, and a cock.

AUNE: THE CASE OF MITHRAISM 49 Franz Cumont thought that Mithraism originated in Persia during the second millennium BCE, and that it gradually moved west into Mesopotamia by the fourteenth century (where it picked up Semitic elements), and by the first century CE it was found in Syria and Asia Minor where it was adopted by the Romans. Cumont also argued that Mithraism was essentially Zoroastrianism transplanted to the West with certain transformations. During the last twenty years, however, there has been a shift, and there is now a tendency to understand Mithraism in terms of the astronomical and astrological traditions of the Mediterranean world (Gordon 1975:1.215-248). While for Cumont the tauroctony depicted an Iranian myth and represented the struggle between the forces of good and evil in a cosmic dualism, more recently there has been a growing recognition that this central icon of Mithraism was a star map (Beck 1977:1-17; Beck 1988; Insler:519-520; Speidel; Ulansey).2S While Cumont and many scholars influenced by him have emphasized the continuities with Zoroastrianism in Roman Mithraism (Cumont 1956b:135-149; Cumont 1956a:1-32),26 this view has come under increasing criticism in recent scholarship (Wikander; Gordon 1975:1.215248). R. L. Gordon has persuasively argued that Roman Mithraism should be investigated as a western religious phenomenon whose development and social structure should be understood in terms of its own inscriptions, iconography, and monuments, without regard for hypothetical Iranian roots (Gordon 1972:92-121). There are some obvious "Persian" features of Mithraism. The more obvious include the name of the god Mithras itself (very similar to the Iranian "Mitra" or "Mithra," but which the Greeks spelled Mithres), including his association with light and the sun and his Persian wardrobe, the use of the Persian words "nama" (meaning "homage, reverence," used to invoke gods and preserved in Mithraic liturgical language like "amen" or "hallelujah" in Christianity), "nabarzes" (CIMRM 501, 1790, 2029; cf. 380, 915; 2153 [all of which have the abbreviation N]); perhaps meaning either invictus, "unconquerable, victorious" (Cumont 1956a:142143; Colpe 1975:2.392),27 or "high or great male" (Schwartz: 2.422-423) , the names "Cautes" and "Cautopates, "28 and the designation of the fifth grade of initiation as "Perses," or "Persian." Further, a number of ancients refer to 251n many respects the most unsatisfactory of these studies is that of Ulansey; see the critique of his work by Swerdlow. 26The Iranian origins of Mithraism were forcefully argued by Widengren. 27Note the connection between nabarzes and the titles of Mithras in CIMRM 1790 (Pannonia): "Invicto Mythrae Nabarze," CIMRM 2029 (Dacia): "Nabarze Deo," CIMRM 2153 (Dacia): "S(oli) i(nvicto) N(abarze) M(ithrae)." 28The names "Cautes" and "Cautopates" appear to be Iranian, although there is no agreement regarding their derivation or meaning; for a survey of previous discussion and a new proposal, see Schwartz (2.406-423).

50

RECRUI1MENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

the Mysteries of Mithras as Persian. 29 The significance of these Persian features should not be exaggerated. Until the discoveries of the mithraea at Dura Europos (CIMRM 34-70) and Caesarea Maritima, there were no known mithraea in Syria-Palestine. The Mithraism reflected in the three phases of the Dura Mithraeum in western Mithraism does not, as one might expect, exhibit a syncretistic combination of both eastern and western features. The Mithraism of Dura was brought first by a numerus of Palmyrene archers, an auxiliary unit of the Roman army,30 and second by Roman soldiers led by Antonius Valentinus, a centurio princeps, ca. 210 CE (CIMRM 53), not Parthians. 31 The cult founded by the Palmyrene auxiliaries, however, exhibits no Semitic elements and appears to have reflected the Palmyrene adoption of Roman Mithraism from the foundation of the cult. While evidence for Mithraism has been found only within the borders of the Roman Empire, the archaeological sites and artifacts are far from evenly distributed. In the Roman provinces of Gaul, the structural remains of just seven mithraea have been identified, together with more than eighty Mithraic inscriptions, sculptures, monuments and representations on pottery (Walters). In Spain, even less evidence for the presence of Mithraism has been discovered (Garcia y Bellido). The paucity of mithraea in the western Roman provinces suggests not only that Mithraism was not practiced in the west on a wide scale, but also that it .was not carried from the east to the west in a developed form (Daniels:2.272). Anatolia has often been regarded as the place where Mithraism took on the distinctive features of a mystery cult under the influence of Persian magi from Mesopotamia (Cumont 1956a:11-12; Hopfe:2232-33). The kingdom of Commagene, lying between eastern Anatolia and western Mesopotamia, has been widely regarded as a likely center for the development of the mysteries of Mithras (Cumont 1956a:151-153). Antiochus I (first cent. BCE), the king of Commagene, founded a syncretistic cult in which he combined Greek with Iranian traditions; three deities named in inscriptions are Zeus-Oromasdes, Apollo-Mithra-Helios-Hermes, and Artagnes-Herakles-Ares. Yet nothing specifically connected to the mysteries of Mithras has yet been found in either

29Statius Thebais 1. 717ff.; Origen Contra Celsum 6.21; Firmicus Matemus De errore profanarum religionum 4. 30'J'he evidence is provided by a Palmyrene inscription dated 168 CE (CIMRM 39) which names Ethpeni (a Palmyrene name) as qrparTryoq; of the archers in Dura. Another dedication on the base of a relief, this one written in Greek, names Zenobius or Eiaeibas (another Palmyrene name) as the qrpaTT/",{oq; of the archers, and can be dated to 171 CE (CIMRN 42). . 31Against the extremely speculative proposal by Speidel.

AUNE: THE CASE OF Ml11lRAISM 51 archaeological excavations or inscriptions (Duchesne-Guillemin 1978: 187199). Per Beskow has emphasized the special features found in Mithraic inscriptions in Pannonia and Syria and the connections between those regions and Rome (Beskow 1978:9-12). From Pannonia and Syria, Beskow then traces a link to the two provinces of Inferior Moesia and Superior Moesia, on the eastern part of the Danube, where he believes that the earliest known Mithraic monument has been found, dating to ca. 100 CE (CIMRM 2269). From here a more primitive form of the cult radiated west along the Danube and east through Palmyrene soldiers to Syria (Beskow 1978:12). More speculatively, Beskow then proposes that the Mysteries of Mithras were brought to Novae by the soldiers of Zegio 1 Italica upon their return from the Bosporan kingdom in the Crimea (Beskow 1978:12-18).

The Expansion of Mithraism

While the rapid expansion of Mithraism throughout the Roman world during the second and third centuries CE is documented by archaeological remains, little is actually known of the way or ways in which the cult was propagated so successfully. There are a number of important issues which must be considered in this connection, including the region which appears to have been the major center for the dissemination of Mithraism, the areas in which it found most of its adherents, and the social types who were responsible for the propagation of the cult. Epigraphical evidence indicates that members of the cult were soldiers and high military officials in the Roman army, procurators and other state bureaucrats, merchants and slaves (women were systematically excluded). Cumont believed that Mithraism did not affect the Greek world, but was transmitted to the Latin world when Rome annexed a number of eastern kingdoms and the eventual placement of various legions along the frontier formed by the Euphrates river (Cumont 1956a:35-36). Scholars remain in general agreement that the principle means for the propagation of Mithraism was the Roman army (Cumont 1896-99:1.246263). Cumont emphasized the presence of easterners in the army, such as the extraordinary representation of men from Commagene, where Mithraism, he claimed, had deep roots (Cumont 1896-99:1.247). In the eastern Mediterranean, there were a number of urban areas with large concentrations of Roman soldiers. These included Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, and DuraEuropos. Mithraism was particularly popular with Roman soldiers from the second to the fourth centuries CEo Worshipers of Mithras were also found among Roman civilians, parti-

52

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

cularly customs officials, especially slaves of the portorium (the system of indirect taxation in the Roman empire). However, the connection between Mithraism and the portorium is almost exclusively limited to a single customs district, the publicum portorium Illyrici, which covered nearly all the Danubian provinces (Beskow 1980:1-18). Three mithraea have been excavated in Poetovio in Pannonia, where the administrative center of the pUblicum portorium Illyrici was 10cated.32 Mithraea I, abandoned toward the end of the second century, and II, constructed toward the end of the second century (Beskow 1980:6), were used by customs officials (Mithraeum I: CIMRM 1490, 1491, 1493, 1497, 1501, 1503, 1507; Mithraeum II: 1529, 1533), while Mithraeum III was used by solders before the middle of the third century CEo

Conclusions In light of the above discussion, we can reach at least four conclusions: 1. Roman Mithraism cannot be regarded as a western transformation of an eastern mystery cult, but on the basis of the present state of the evidence must be considered an indigenous western religious phenomenon which retained only relatively superficial ties to Persia and Zoroastrianism. 2. The similarities between Roman Mithraism and early Christianity, as well as the conflict and competition which supposedly existed between the two religious systems, have been exaggerated by Franz Cumont and by many subsequent students of Mithraism. The paucity of references to Mithraism by early Christian writers suggests that they did not consider the cult to be a major rival to Christianity, a fact which suggests that Mithraism was never a great popular religion in the Roman world. 3. The exclusion of women from the Mithraic cult means that th~ household played no role whatsoever in the social character of Mithraism: Even though both Christianity and Mithraism are conceptualized in modern terms as "religions," the central role of households and house churches in early Christianity suggests that these two cults functioned in very different ways for their respective adherents. 4. It is still true that, despite the extensive (but mute) archaeological evidence, little is known of the way(s) in which the cult was propagated so successfully, though speculation is possible. Mithraism was a highly special-

32Mithraeurn I (CIMRM 1487-1508), Mithraeum II (CIMRM 1509-1577), and Mithraeurn III (CIMRM 1578-1612), with indications of a possible Mithraeurn IV (CIMRM 1613-1618).

AUNE: THE CASE OF MITHRAISM 53 ized fraternal cult of Roman soldiers and civil servants, located primarily on the frontiers of the Roman empire and in Rome itself, which was an eclectic combination of a variety of astrological lore, secret rites, ancient myths, and grades of initiation in a way uniquely suited to frontier life. The costs of the mithraea and the artwork used to decorate them were borne by those high military officials, state bureaucrats, and merchants who were sufficiently wealthy to finance such projects. The inscriptions suggest that those who expended such wealth functioned as patrons and pate res who exerted authority over Mithraic groups of member-clients. Given this time-honored Roman social system, the expansion of local Mithraic cults must have occurred through the personal contacts of the patrons and clients with those among their friends and acquaintances who might be interested in the religious and fraternal benefits of becoming associated with such collegia tenuiorum.

Works Consulted Beck, Roger 1977 "Cautes and Cautopates: Some Astronomical Considerations." JMS 2: 117. 1984 "Mithraism since Franz Cumont." pp. 2002-15 in ANRW n, 17.4. 1988 Planetary Gods and Planetary Orders in the Mysteries of Mithras. EPRO 109. Leiden: Brill. Beskow, Per 1978 "The Routes of Early Mithraism." pp. 7-18 in Etudes Mithriaques: Actes du Deuxieme Congres International. Ed. Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. Acta Iranica 17. Tehran and Liege: Bibliotheque Pahlavi. 1980 "The Portorium and the Mysteries of Mithras." JMS 3: 1-18. Betz, H. D. 1968

"The Mithras Inscriptions of Santa Prisca and the New Testament." NovT 10:62-80.

Bidez, Joseph and Franz Cumont 1938 Les mages hellenises: Zoroastre, Ostanes et Hystaspe d'apres la tradition grecque. 2 Vols. Paris: Societe d'editions "Les Belles lettres." Brandon, S. G. F. 1954-55 "Mithraism and Its Challenge to Christianity." Hibbert Journal 53: 107-14. Chadwick, Henry (ed. and trans.) 1953 Origen: Contra Celsum: Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Coarelli, F. 1979

"Topografia mitriaca di Roma (con una carta)." pp. 69-79 in Mysteria Mithrae: Proceedings of the International Seminar on the Religio-

54

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT Historical Character of ROTTUln Mithraism with Particular Reference to ROTTUln and Ostian Sources. Ed. Ugo Bianchi. Leiden: Brill.

Colpe, Carsten 1975 "Mithra-Verehrung, Mithras-Kult und die Existenz iranischer Mysterien." pp. 378-405 in Mithraic Studies, Vol 2. Ed. John R. Hinnells. Manchester: Manchester University. Cumont, Franz 1896-99 Textes et monuments figures relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra. 2 Vols. Brussels: H. Lamertin. 1956a The Mysteries of Mithra. Second edition. New York: Dover. 1956b Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. New York: Dover. Daniels, C. M. 1975 "The Role of the Roman Army in the Spread of Mithraism. " pp. 249-74 in Mithraic Studies, Vol 2. Ed. John Hinnells. Manchester: Manchester University. Dieterich, Albrecht 1910 Eine Mithrasliturgie. Second edition. Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner. Garcia Y Bellido, A. 1967 Les religions orientales dans l'Espagne romaine. Leiden: Brill. Geden, A. S. 1990 Mithraic Sources in English. Hastings: Chthonios Books. Gervers, M. 1979

"The Iconography of the Cave in Christian and Mithraic Tradition." 579-99 in Mysteria Mithrae. Ed. Ugo Bianchi. Leiden: Brill.

pp.

Gordon, R. L. 1972 "Mithraism and Roman Society. Social Factors in the Explanation of Religion Change in the Roman Empire." Religion 2:92-121. 1975 "Cumont and the Doctrines of Mithraism. " pp. 215-48 in Mithraic Studies, Vol I. Ed. John R. Hinnells. Manchester: Manchester University. 1976 "The Sacred Geography of a Mithraeum: The Example of Sette Sfere." JMS 1:119-65. 1980 "Reality, Evocation and Boundary in the Mysteries of Mithras." JMS 3:19-99. Harnack, Adolf 1981 Militia Christi: The Christian Religion and the Military in the First Three Centuries. Philadelphia: Fortress. Hopfe, Lewis M. 1990 "Mithraism in Syria."

pp.

2214-35 inANRWII, 18.4.

AUNE: THE CASE OF MITHRAlSM 55 Hunter, David G. "A Decade of Research on Early Christians and Military Service." RSR 1992 18:87-94. Insler, Stanley 1978 "A New Interpretation of the Bull-Slaying Motif." pp. 519-38 in Homnw.ges ii Maarten 1. Vermaseren, Vol 1. Leiden: Brill. de Laet, S. J. Portorium: etude sur l'organisation doullaniere chez les Ronw.ins. Brugge: 1949 Rijksuniv. te Gent. Laeuchli, Samuel (ed.) 1967 Mithraism in Ostia. Evanston: Garrett Biblical Institute. Merke1bach, Reinhold 1965 "Die Kosmogonie der Mithrasmysterien." Eranos Iahrbuch 34:219-57. Mithras. Konigstein: Anton Hain. 1985 Nilsson, Martin P. 1961 Geschichte der griechischen Religion, Vol 2: Die hellenistische und romische Zeit. Second edition. Miinchen: Beck. Nock, Arthur Darby "The Genius of Mithraism." IRS 27: 108-13. 1937 Preisendanz, Karl 1973-74 Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die griechischen Zauberpapyri. Second edition. Stuttgart: Teubner. Schwartz, Martin 1975 "Cautes and Cautopates, the Mithraic Torchbearers." pp. 406-23 in Mithraic Studies, Vol 2. Ed. John R. Hinnells. Manchester: Manchester University. Simon, Marcel 1978 "Mithra, Rival du Christ?" Iranica 17. Leiden: Brill.

pp.

457-78 in Etudes Mithriaques. Acta

Smith, Jonathan z. 1987 "Dying and Rising Gods." pp. 521-27 in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol 4. New York:. Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan. Speidel, Michael 1978 "Parthia and the Mithraism of the Roman Army." pp. 479-83 in Etudes mithriaques: Actes du Deuxieme Congres International. Ed. Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. Acta Iranica 17. Tehran and Liege: Bib1iotheque Pahlavi.

56

RECRUIIMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Turcan, Robert 1975 Mithras Platonicus. Leiden: Brill. 1982 "Salut mithriaque et soteriologie neoplatonicienne." pp. 173-91 in La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' Impero Romano. Ed. U. Bianchi and M. J. Vennaseren. Leiden: Brill. Ulansey, David 1987 "Mithraic Studies: A Paradigm Shift?" RSR 13:104-10. Vennaseren, Maarten 1956-60 Corpus Inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae. 2 vols. 1Jle Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 1963 Mithras, the Secret God. London: Chatto & Windus. 1971 Mithraica I: The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere. EPRO 16. Leiden: Brill. Vennaseren, Maarten J. and C. C. Van Essen 1965 Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Prisca. Leiden: Brill. Walters, V. J. 1974

The Cult of Mithras in the Roman Provinces of Gaul. EPRO 41. Leiden: Brill.

White, L. Michael 1990 Building God's House in the Roman World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. Widengren, Geo 1965 "The Mithraic Mysteries in the Graeco-Roman World with Special Regard to Their Iranian Background." pp. 433-55 in La Persia e il mondo grecoroman. Rome: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. Wikander, Stig 1951 Etudes sur les mysteres de Mithra. Lund: Almqvist & Wiksel.

CHAPI'ER3 PROSELYTES, CONQUEST, AND MISSION Peder Borgen The University of Trondheim

Introduction

The terms mlsszon and proselytism are used in a variety of ways. Some would list them together under the concept of religious propaganda to be seen as part of the dynamic and competitive thrusts of the many religions and philosophies in the pluralistic Greco-Roman world (Fiorenza; cf. Schwartz). To others "mission" is a broad and inclusive term which comprises the various ways of actively recruiting and integrating new members in a group, thus also Jewish proselytism (Moore, Kuhn and Stegemann, Jeremias, Georgi, etc.). Again according to others, the two terms are to be seen as contrary to each other: proselytism, from the Greek term 7rpOai(Av7oOaus". lSux Ti; on OUK BK 'InUTS"'C; CtAA' WC; B~ BPI''''''

. . . but Israel who pursued the law of righteousness, did not attain the law. Why not? Because (it sought to attain the law) not from faith, but as if (it could be attained) from the regulations.

These words designate the problem of Israel, that is, its conception of the law.. Israel missed the nature of the law. Israel has failed to attain the eschaton because she tried to attain the law as if it could be reached by the regulations of the law. The law could be reached only on the basis of faith. Thus, 9:31-32 also implies a dialectic of the law which Paul needs to explain. The inauguration of the eschatological age implied a transformation of the law. In Rom 10, we can find that Paul explains this dialectic conception of the law on the basis of its transformation in light of Christ. In this chapter, Paul makes his point that the failure to make the response of faith to Christ is the main factor which explains the exclusion of the main body of the Jewish nation from the company of those who are being saved. Paul starts from the fact that the Jews have not been wrong to seek to establish their righteousness, but they have not taken into account the consequences of the eschatological Christ-event with respect to the law. For "Christ is the reAOr; of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (10:4). It is not necessary to decide between the claims of abolition or goal to be the meaning of reAOr; in this context. Surely both meanings are implied. In Rom 1O:5ff, he proceeds to prove this thesis from scripture. In a corresponding way to Philo, Paul interprets Deut 30:12-14 eschatologically in terms of the law. In Praem. 79-98, Philo interpreted Deut 30:12-14 in terms of the law within the eschatological perspective of blessing for the Jewish nation. The realization of the eschatological blessing was conditioned upon total obedience to the Law of Moses which encompassed words, thoughts, and deeds. In a similar way, Paul refers to this principle of the law, which states that for the law to be the means of salvation it is necessary that it should be kept. The underly-

322

RECRUIIMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

ing principle of the Law of Moses is that "the doers of the law will attain salvation" (Rom 2:13). This is expressed by quoting Lev 18:5 as scriptural support for the statement of the righteousness of the law in Rom 10:5: MwiiO'1j~ -ya.p -ypacpBL r1JP &KClILOuVP1JP Ti]P BK TOU pop.ou OTt apBpw7roe; NO'BTClI£ 8P ClIUTOL~.

0

7rOL~O'ClIe; ClIUTa.

Moses writes that the one who does (0 7rOL1jO'ClI~) them [sc. the regulations (Ttl! 7rpoO'Ta-yp.ClITClI) and statutes (Ttl! KPLP.ClITClI) of the law] shall live by them.

This concept of righteou'sness and the law maintained by the main body of Israel is, in light of the eschatological age inaugurated by Christ, inappropriate for the new concept of righteousness by faith and the law. When 9:31-32 is read with 10:4-5, the following picture emerges: Israel pursues the law in its narrowest sense as the law based on regulations of the Sinai code which need to be done. Now, by the inauguration of the eschatological age, this law is abolished by Christ. In this sense, Christ is the end of the law. In this way, Israel is not updated with the religio-historical situation. Christ's coming requires a different way of obtaining righteousness and that is faith, not a life according to the principle of the Law of Moses. So he then produces, in 10:6-10, a new understanding of righteousness and the law which holds good in the new dispensation by an exegetical paraphrase of Deut 30:12-14. This paraphrase has the form of an interpretative rendering of the text (Rom 10:6-8), followed by a further elaboration of the interpretation in the form of a conditional clause (10:9) and a rationale (10:10; the words from the Old Testament are underlined): 10:6: iJ O£ 8K 7rLO'TBW~ OLKClILOO'UP1J OUTWe; ">-.8-YBL, Mi] B!7rlle; 8P apClI/3~O'BTClIL Bi~ TOP OUPCllPOP; TOUT' BO'TtP XPLO'TOP KClITClI-YCll-YBLP:

10:7:

;J, Tie;

KClITClI/3~O'BTClIL Bie; r1JP a/3uuO'op; TOUT'

rn KClIPOLfAoc;; is used 15 times. The distinction between family and friend, which a modem reader will assume, should not be emphasized. Luke is patterning the Christian fellowship on the ideal of family and friendship relationships in antiquity. Sharing between family and friends was, in antiquity, supposed to take place among people of equal standing. The literature on friendship emphasizes that "friendship is equality" (Cicero, De Officiis 1.56 and 58; Dio Chrysostom, Orat. 17:9-10; Aristotle, Nic.Eth. VIII.5:5). Friendship marked the exchange of resources among equals; it was a sharing kept within social boundaries. According to Luke, the sharing among the Christians is taking place among people of unequal standing. The whole perspective of Luke-Acts is that of crossing boundaries, social as well as ethnic. This is the proper context for interpreting Luke's use of friendship and family traditions. The sharing between friends of equal standing Luke extends across social boundaries as a challenge for people of different status and race to live a sharing life together.

Luke and Common Family Concepts in Antiquity The interpretation of Luke's saying about common property and sharing has been dominated by the quest for the historical reliability of this piece of SThe text is quoted from C. E. Lutz, Musonius Rufus: "The Roman Socrates." Yale Classical Studies 10, New Haven: Yale University; London: Oxford University, 1947.

342

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

information: was this really carried out? It is obvious that Luke's "having all things in common" is not a simple description of the social situation as it could be observed. On the other hand, this saying should not be neglected in a historical consideration either. Just as in antiquity in general, Luke's saying refers to an ideal that aimed at being translated into action, but which was also based upon a life pattern that was partly experienced in the family in antiquity as well as among Christians. This assertion calls for some substantiation. I will here restrict myself to briefly mentioning how the pagan satirist, Lucian of Samosata (150 CE), saw the Christian fellowship from outside. In his writing, The Passing of Peregrinus, he presents in his typical satirical way, the Christians' sharing and caring for the converted charlatan Peregrinus while in prison (Peregr. 11-13). He makes it quite clear to his readers that this sharing life-style was based upon the Christians' conviction of forming a fellowship of brothers and sisters, and therefore considered all their resources as common property (a1rcXPTWP KOLPcX). Lucian points out that in describing the Christians' caring for Peregrinus, he is presenting the way these people usually acted towards each other. This made it easy for people like Peregrinus to exploit this fellowship. In Lucian's presentation of the Christian fellowship we recognize one element from Luke's summary, the proverbial saying of how family-members live together. Seen from the perspective of Lucian, this is not an idealized saying, but a saying about how the Christian fellowship looked to him as an outsider. 6 Looking at it from the outside, he links their sharing to the concept of brotherhood. There is not the slightest hint of criticism or ridicule in this. What he ridicules is the naivete with which they practiced this concept (Sandnes 1994:171-175). Concluding our observations on Luke's summary, we have seen that those who embraced the Christian faith joined a family-like fellowship. Luke makes this clear by mentioning households as the social setting of this fellowship, and also by presenting basic elements of its life-style with the help of common concepts of family and friendship relationships in antiquity. Just as with the ancient world's model of how family life should be, Luke's summary stands on the borderline between ideal and experience.

6In his response to my paper at the Trondheim Symposium, 0yvind Norderval rightly pointed out that Christians providing for the prisoners was not only a matter of altruism. It was a means of keeping a vulnerable group together, vis-a-vis society, in general as well; see Brown: 26 1-262. This boundary-making aspect is found in the closing of Lucian's presentation of the Christians' caring for Peregrinus: fInally he was expelled from the community.

SANDNES: TIlE ROLE OF TIlE CONGREGATION AS A FAMILY 343 The Success of the Family-Like Congregation

We have pointed out that for a number of converts their conversion caused difficulties within their families; some were even abandoned and suffered loss of this basic unit. It is reasonable to assume that this situation stimulated the communities to fulfill the needs of some of their converts. On the other hand, we have seen that, at least according to Luke, converts joined a familylike group. They were welcomed by a fellowship aiming at a family-like lifestyle. In a household-based church it is likely that recent converts found new primary "intluencers" or "significant others." The domestic setting of Early Christianity made it possible to build personal relationships on which the convert depended. In other words, the converts joined a fellowship with the potential to ameliorate their situation, and to satisfy some of their losses in terms of family. These two observations should now be brought together with the help of Berger and Luckmann's theory on conversion. According to their theory, the crucial point for keeping to the conversion and making it a lasting attitude, is a linkage between conversion, or convert, and a family-like group. If Luke's summary is compared to descriptions of family-life in antiquity, this link is clearly found. The role of the congregation, within the context of family conflicts caused by conversion itself, was to practice a familylike life-style and to welcome all converts into it, thereby forming an extended and new kind of family. The growth and development of Early Christianity might be an indication that they really succeeded in this.

Works Consulted If not stated otherwise, all texts from antiquity are referred to according to the editions of

Loeb Classical Library. von Allmen, Daniel

1981

La Famille de Dieu, La Symbolique Familiale dans Ie Paulinism. OBO 4l. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Banks, Robert J.

1980

Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Historical Setting. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann

1972

The Sodal Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sodology of Knowledge. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

344

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

Bomer, Franz 1957 Untersuchungen tiber die Religion der Sklaven in Griechenland und Rom I. Abhandlungen Geistes- u. sozialwissenschaftl. Klasse Nr. 7, Mainz, Wiesbaden: Verlag der Akademie d. Wissenschaften u.d. Literatur. Branick, Vincent P. 1989 The House Church in the Writings of Paul. Zacchaeus Studies: New Testament. Wilmington: Glazier. Brown, Peter "Late Antiquity." pp. 239-311 in A History of Private Life, Voll: From 1987 Pagan Rome to Byzontinum. Ed. Paul Veyne. Trans. A. Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University. Coyle, J. Kevin 1981 "Empire and Eschaton: The Early Church and the Question of Domestic Relationships." Eglise et Theologie 12:35-94. Croix, Geoffrey E. M. de Ste. 1974 "Why were the Early Christians Persecuted?" pp. 210-49 in Studies in Ancient Society. Ed. M. Finley. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Dirlmeier, Franz 1931 Philos and Philia im vorhellenistischen Griechentum. Miinchen: Salesian. OfIIzin. (Diss.) Elliott, John H. 1981 A Homefor the Homeless: A Sociological Exegesis of 1 Peter, Its Situation and Strategy. Philadelphia: Fortress. Fiorenza, E. Schiiss1er 1983 .In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. New York: Crossroads. 1983b '''You are not to be Called Father': Early Christian History in a Feminist Perspective." pp. 394-417 in The Bible and Liberation: Political and Social Henneneutics. Ed. Norman K. Gottwald. New York: Orbis Books. Fox, Robin Lane 1987 Pagans and Christians. New York: Alfred A. Knoph. Gielen, Marlis 1990 Tradition und Theologie neutestamentlicher Haustafelethik, Ein Beitrag zur Frage einer christlichen Auseinandersetzung mit geselischaJtlichen Nonnen. BBB 75. Frankfurt an Main: Anton Hein. von Harnack, Adolf 1972 The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. Gloucester: Peter Smith.

SANDNES: TIlE ROLE OF THE CONGREGATION AS A FAMILY 345 Holmberg, Bengt , 1990 Sociology and the New Testament: An Appraisal, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, Klauck, Hans J, 1981 Hausgemeinde und Hauskirche imfrUhen Christentum, SBS 103, Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1992 Gemeinde zwischen Haus und Stadt, Kirche bei Paulus, Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, Kraemer, Ross S, 1980 "The Conversion of Women to Ascetic Forms of Christianity," Signs 6:298-307. Lutz, C. E. 1947

Musonius Rufus: "The Roman Socrates." Yale Classical Studies 10. New Haven: Yale University; London: Oxford University.

Meeks, Wayne A. 1983 The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven, London: Yale University. Mitchell, Alan C. 1992 "The Social Function of Friendship in Acts 2:44-47 and 4:32-7." JBL 111 :255-72. Nock, Arthur D. 1933 Conversion: The Old and Nf?W in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo . Oxford: Oxford University. Pesch, Rudolf 1986 Die Apostelgeschichte (Apg 1-12). EKK 5. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Benziger/Neukirchener. Sahlins, Marshall 1974 Stone Age Economics. New York: Tavistock. Sandnes, Karl O. 1988 " ... 'et liv som vinner respekt,' Et sentralt perspektiv pa 1 Tim 2:1115." Tidsskriftfor Teologi og Kirke 59:97-108. 1991 "'Legemet og lemmene' hos Paulus, Belyst ved antikke tekster om Philadelphia." Tidsskrift for Teologi og Kirke 62: 17-26. 1994 A New Family: Conversion and Ecclesiology in the Early Church, with Cross-Cultural Comparisons. Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity 9. Frankfurt an Main, Bern, New York, Paris: Peter Lang. Schafer, Klaus 1989 Gemeinde als 'Bruderschaft', Ein Beitrag zum Kirchenverstiindnis des Paulus. EHH XXIII/333. Frankfurt an Main, Bern, New York, Paris: Peter Lang.

346

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

SyIjanen, Seppo 1987 In Search of Meaning and Identity: Conversion to Christianity in Pakistani Muslim Culture. Vammala: The Finnish Society for Missiology and Ecumenism. Verner, David C. 1983 The Household of God: The Social World of the Pastoral Epistles. SBLDS 71. Chicago: Scholars. Wachsmuth, Dietrich 1980 "Aspekte des antiken mediterranen Hauskults." Numen 27:34-75. Wilhelm, Friedrich "Die Oeconomica der Neupythagoreer Bryson, Kallikratidas, Periktione, 1915 Phintys." Rheinisches Museum.fUr Philologie 70: 161-223.

CHAYfER14 FAMILY-LIKE CARE AND SOLIDARITY AS A PATTERN OF SOCIAL CONTROL IN THE ANCIENT CHURCH

(!Jyvind Norderval Universitet i Tromsf?J

Introduction I have been given the task to be the respondent to the paper of Karl Olav Sandnes, a task I undertake with pleasure because his paper takes important and interesting questions about the Early Church into consideration. I intend to fulfill my task by following two Jines: I shall, in part, discuss the general features of the family-concept and partly I shall also - since Sandnes mainly is analyzing the traditions found in Acts, and my field basically is the patristic period of the Ancient Church - add some further perspectives to those found in his paper. I agree with Sandnes in his statement that the family-like fellowship of the Christian congregations played an important role in early Christianity, both as a general pattern of the Christian ethos and as an important element in recruitment by giving people who had cut the family ties, a family-like care. There are a lot of texts from the post-apostolic era until Constantine that partly confirm his thesis. Unfortunately, however, we don't know so very much about the house churches and the development of their liturgical and daily use, neither through archaeology nor through texts (see Klauck). One may presuppose, that when the number of the church members increased and the liturgy developed, it was impossible for the whole congregation to meet in an ordinary private house. There must then have been built special rooms reserved for the cult in bigger private houses, and later on entire houses must have been rebuilt solely for cultic use. This change may have occurred as early as the second century. But the agape, separated from the eucharist, still played an important role in private househoids for some time. However, in a specific group of texts we find important literary sources for the understanding of Christianity as a religious and social fellowship characterized by a family-like solidarity: in the acts of the martyrs. They give a clear picture of social conflicts and of Christian solidarity, for example, the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas: The young Perpetua who wanted to be

348

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

baptized and join the Christian fellowship was arrested together with some other Christians. While they were under arrest her father, out of love for her, was trying to persuade her and shake her resolution, confronting her with her family ties: "I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian," she said to him. And her father was so angered by the word Christian that he moved towards her as though he would pluck out her eyes. But he left it at that and departed, the story tells, vanquished along with his diabolical arguments. Perpetua then gave thanks to the Lord that she was separated from her father, and she was comforted by his absence. But her father came back and overwhelmed her with his sorrow. He started tearing the hairs from his beard and threw them on the ground; he then threw himself on the ground and began to curse his old age and to say such words as would move all creation. But the young Christian woman only remarks that she felt sorry for her father's unhappy old age (Passio Sanctorum Perpetuae et Felicitatis 3 ff. and 9; Musurillo:l08, 116). In the Martyrdom of Saint Pion ius we hear about a young woman, Sabina, who was bound and cast out on a mountain by her pagan mistress, but here she received sustenance secretly from the Christian brethren who tried to free her from her social ties, and she moved into the house of a fellow Christian (Musurillo:146). We hear about Christians who tried to take care of their fellow Christians in prison, often showing a remarkable courage. They bribed the soldiers to allow their brothers and sisters in the Lord to move to a better part of the prison (Passio Sanctarum Perpertuae et Felicitatis; Musurillo:108). In the Martyrdom of Montanus and Lucius it is said that it was easier to endure the torments through the consolation of their visiting fellow Christians: "We were comforted by the visits of our brethren. The consolation and the joy of the day removed all the agony we endured at night" (Passio Sanctorum Montani et Lucii; Musurillo:216). Some were arrested when bringing food to the confessors and brought to the judges as traitors (Eusebius, De mart. Palest. 10; Lawlor and Oulton:376). Children born in prison were brought up by Christian women (Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis 15; Musurillo: 124). Christian men acted like fathers and protectors, and showed themselves, as it were, as guardians or patrons of destitute orphans and unprotected widows and the outcast poor and sick (Eusebius, De mart. Palest. 11; Lawlor and Oulton:390-391). In another martyr story the author triumphantly ridicules the Roman authorities on account of the brotherly solidarity among the Christians: Well, now pagans, do you still believe that Christians, for whom awaits the joy of eternal light, feel the torments of prison or shrink from the dungeons of this world? . .. Go seek out for their torture some secret and hidden spot, the grim terrors of a murky cave, the very home of darkness: still no place is loathsome for those who trust in God, no hour is gloomy. Dedicated as they are to God the Father, their

FAMILY-LIKE CARE AND SOLIDARITY 349 brothers care for them by day, and Christ by night as well (Passio Sanctorum Mariani et Iacobi 6; Musurillo:200).

When a brother or sister had been executed they recalled the memory of the faith and the contest of the martyrs (Passio Sanctorum Martyrum Fructuosi Episcopi, Auguri et Eulogi Diaconorum 6; MusuriIIo:182). In the night they hastened to the place of execution to gather the bodies or the ashes of the martyrs (Musurillo:182). But we also hear about the brotherly responsibility and care among those in prison. They consoled each other (Passio Sanctorum Martyrum Fructuosi Episcopi, Auguri et Eulogi Diaconorum 4; Musurillo:180) and often helped those who were sentenced on their way to the place of execution. They were consoled by talking about what was going to happen to them (Passio Sanctorum Montani et Lucii 6; Musurillo:218). We are told that some preferred to fast before their martyrdom and thus provided their friends with food (Passio Sanctorum Montani et Lucii 21,12; Musurillo:218). One martyr might encourage the other: The one denied that the final death-blow hurt in order that the other, who was about to die, might be filled with more courage since he would not fear the slightest sense of pain in the final blow (Passio Sanctorum Montani et Lucii 21,5; MusuriIIo:234). In the Martyrs of Lyon we read about the old witness Blandina and a boy of fifteen named Ponticus. They both went through harsh torments. Ponticus was encouraged by his sister in Christ so that even the pagans realized that she urged him on and strengthened him. After nobly enduring every torment, he gave up his spirit. Blandina was the last of all: Like a noble mother encouraging her children, she sent them before her in triumph to God, and then, after duplicating in her own body all her children's sufferings, she hastened to rejoin them (1,55; Musurillo:78). Martyrdom was not only seen as a witness before God, but also as an act of Christian solidarity and brotherly consolation: In the Martyrdom of Saints Marian and James the author tells that he was bound to the two martyrs not only by their common sharing of the mystery of their faith, but also by the fact that they had lived together in a family spirit. The author says that the two wanted to communicate to their fellow Christian"s through him. It was not without reason that in their close intimacy they laid upon him this task. They had shared a common life in the times of peace and in the period of persecution they lived in unbroken affection. The task of the author was to give witness to ordinary men who constituted God's people so that they might be given strength in the test of their faith by the sufferings of those who had gone before them (Passio Sanctorum Mariani et Iacobi 1 ; Musurillo:194). We also hear about the love and tenderness which the martyrs showed to their Christian brothers: Though they could have built up the faith of their

350

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

fellows without saying a word, by the mere example of their dedicated courage, still they made more extensive provisions for the perseverance of their brothers by giving them salutary exhortations (Passio Sanctorum Mariani et Iacobi 3; Musurillo:198). A young brother might say to his fellow prisoners before being executed: "My dearest brothers, hasten with all eagerness, with as much courage as you can, that it may be given you to see the Lord, and that he may reward you" (Acta Maximiliani 3; Musurillo:248). The Christian love is the concrete care for the brethren: Honour love above all things; for it alone respects the bond of brotherhood by obeying God's law. For the invisible God is revered in our brother whom we see. Our God and holy Saviour declared to be brothers not those who shared a common nature, but rather those who were bound together in faith by good deeds and who fulflll the will of our Father who is in heaven (Musurillo:358).

In many texts it is clearly underlined that the death of the martyrs did strengthen the unity among the Christian brothers and sisters.! In spite of the fact that these texts are meant to be read as moral exhortations, they must represent a glimpse of a real Christian solidarity in times of persecution. So far, we have seen how the acts of the martyrs describe relations between Christians using family terminology. This strengthens Sandnes's main thesis. But there there are two problems with Sandnes's arguments. On one hand the paper lacks references to theological perspectives among the early Christians on these questions. Is it possible to understand practice without the basic theory? And on the other hand, I have the impression that Sandnes glorifies this family-like fellowship and its harmony. To what extent did the brotherly and family-like care playa role in early Christianity? Was the brotherly love and unity the only impression that people outside the Church got of the ethos within it? And was the brotherhood always and exclusively caused by Christian altruism? In fact, this very important critical question to the ancient Christian sources has recently been posed by Peter Brown (1987).2 According to Brown, Christian solidarity in the Early Church reflects a regulation of the Christian fellowship as an independent, but vulnerable social and religious group within a Jewish as well as a pagan context (260-61). This is part of very early ecclesiastical legislation. Christian care and love was a normative demand. The breaking of this basic rule had drastic consequences: punishment or expulsion. IE.g., Passio Sanctorum Martyrum Fructuosi Episcopi, Auguri et Eulogi Diaconorum 4,2: "Consolatus igitur fratemitatem; ingressi sunt ad salutem, digni et in ipso martyrio felices qui sanctarum scriptuarum fructum ex promissione sentirent. " 2Conceming the term singleness of heart see also Brown 1988:35-37, 40, 69, 127, 358-359.

FAMILY-LIKE CARE AND SOLIDARITY 351 In this perspective I therefore find Sandnes's reading of De Morte Peregrini of the pagan satirist Lucianos somewhat failing. He only refers to the first part of the text, where Lucianos tells about the imprisoned charlatan Peregrinus, and his Christian brethren bringing him goods and food to such an extent that he became a wealthy man. But Sandnes does not mention the rest of the story, where a very important point is to be found. After being released from prison Peregrinus was expelled from the Christian fellowship. The congregation realized that Peregrinus was a crook (De morte Peregrini 16).3 Here we see the core of the self-understanding of the early Christian Church as a religious group: The ideal was to fulfill the commandment of love towards God and one's neighbor in singleness of heart. But to be singlehearted in solidarity doesn't only reflect an altruistic attitude. It also implied a denial of private life. Those who failed to live in this fellowship cut themselves off from the fellowship with God and their Christian brethren. Or as Peter Brown puts it: "Shielded by negative privacy from the eyes of men, the heart was held to be totally public to the gaze of God and his angels" (1987:254). In the first century this view was based on the belief that God in his kingdom would put away the doubleness of heart which dominates the present world, and that this inner fellowship was to be anticipated within the Church as the true and living Israel. 4 The Church was the eschatological family, waiting for the parousia, and solidarity towards other institutions or groups was (or had to be) cut off. In this context the private person was totally dependent on the demands of the religious community. We realize this already in the sayings of Jesus that envisage a break with family ties among his adherents if necessary (e.g., Mt 10:35, 37; 15:5-6; Mk 7: 12; 19:29; Lk 12:53). We realize it positively in Paul's vision of the one body of Christ across social differences (Rom 10: 12). This was the ideal. The Church faced many social and moral problems because of the social mixture among JBut Sandnes is right in stressing the picture that Lucianos gives of the social care among the Christian "insiders." Lucianos gives a good example of their demand for solidarity: "The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death, and even willingly give themselves into custody, most of them. Furthermore their first -lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another, after they have transgressed once and for all by denying the Greek gods, by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws. Therefore they despise all things indiscriminately and consider them common property, receiving such teaching by [force of] tradition without any defmite evidence" (De TTWrte Peregrini 13; see Frend:175-177). 4The term brother in the Christian context was inherited from Judaism, originally characterizing the Jewish socio-religious fellowship. We see traces of this in Acts where the Jews are called "brothers": Acts 2:29,37; 3:17; 7:2; 13:15,26; 13:38 et al.

352

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT

its members. We may only read the letters of Paul to understand that. The early Church of the cities did not mainly consist of the many poor and the few rich. It mainly recruited among the middle class, a class which in the pagan society represented a segment of different values. For them solidarity was not a matter of course. I think that Peter Brown is right by saying: . . . the Christian churches in the cities depended oli. respectable and well-to-do households, members of which might welcome certain rituals of undifferentiated solidarity. But life in an urban environment, ... could not be based upon ... high moments. If singleness of heart was to survive in the Christian churches and be seen to survive before a suspicious pagan world on the relentlessly public stage of everyday life in the city, it could survive only if caught in the fIxture of a group life consciously structured according to habitual and resilient norms (1985:259-260).

It was by this inner firmness that Christianity becaJ;lle a moral force in the pagan world. The ideals were not new either in the Jewish or in the Graeco-Roman world, but the Christians really made a new social group with strong emphasis on these ideals of solidarity, at the same time confronting many tensions within the Church. This resulted in the demand for a strong moral discipline in a,ll fields of life in a tight knit group, in matters of economy, ~exuality, marriage, household and so on. It was a controlled life, a controlled solidarity, and I dare say, an over-controlled love. This was necessary in order to keep out undesirable immoral tendencies and to knit together this socially mixed and vulnerable group. The demands for almsgiving to the poor, for instance, were a good way of keeping them within the fellowship and to protect them from pagan creditors and employees (Brown 1987:261). These major perspectives on the need for an inner solidarity within the Church as a vulnerable social group got a further metaphysical basis through the belief in God's judgment. If you break the solidarity you will not only be punished by the congregation, but worse, by God himself. They who fell became socially homeless; their social ties were once again cut. This was a dimension of the Christian ethos that the pagan world must have observed. This dimension is a double perspective already present in the writings of the New Testament - both the exhortation to solidarity and the punishment of social disobedience. One of the explanations of Judas' betrayal in the gospels is explained by his behavior incompatible with group solidarity. He was a thief who used to enrich himself by stealing from the common funds of the group, and at the end he enriched himself through betraying Jesus. He was found not to be a real member of the fellowship, and consequently he was expelled. We recognize the same pattern in the story about Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5: 1-11. They lied concerning the amount of money which they brought to the church, and according to Acts, they both fell dead to the floor.

FAMILY-LIKE CARE AND SOLIDARITY 353 We also find these perspectives in the letters of Paul, where he is struggling against different manifestations of behavior lacking in solidarity.5 We find them in the acts of the martyrs, such as in the Martyrs of Lyon: They were tormented with doubts about their confession of Christ; and it was not because they were afraid of the torments that might be applied, but it was with a view to the final outcome, fearing that some might fall away, and thus violate group solidarity (12; Musurillo:64). Again aDd again we read about martyrs who refuse to sacrifice: They know that the price of a sacrifice will be the judgment of God. 6 A very interesting and important text in this context is the Shepherd of Hermas, dating from the first part of the second century. The Shepherd is one of the very early texts reflecting the possibility of penance after baptism, and the whole writing is based on the understanding of the congregation as a family-like community. Hermas describes a congregation in confusion and social decomposition. The Church of Rome was supported by rich and influential patrons with contacts to the pagan society, and this provided them protection and prestige. These rich influential Christians had a double loyalty, towards their mighty friends and business-contacts and towards the Church. Hermas had not only witnessed the doubleness of heart and the greed of these men, but also the double-hearted dealings among priests and prophets. In his visions he points out the family-like solidarity: Your seed, Hennas, have set God at naught, and have blasphemed the Lord, and have betrayed their parents in great wickedness, and they are all called betrayers of parents, and their betrayal has not gifted them, but they have added to their sins wanton deeds and piled up wickedness ... (6,2ff). They who have evil designs in their hearts bring upon themselves death and captivity, especially, those who obtain this world for themselves, and glory in their wealth . . . (1,8). SSee, for example, 1 Cor where Paul criticizes the abuse of the Holy Communion in an unsolidary way by filling oneself without respect for the brother and sister in Christ: "Haven't you got your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or would you rather despise the church of God and put to shame the people who are in need ? . .. It follows that if anyone eats the Lord's bread and drink from his cup in a way that dishonors him, he is guilty of sin against the Lord's body and blood" (11:22,27). See also Phil 2:3-4, 12, where Paul underlines the need for oneness in the community: "Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from cheap desire to boast, but be humble towards one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look for one another's interests, not just for your own . . .. Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation." See also Rom 15:1-2: "We who are strong in the faith ought to help the weak to carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves. Instead, we should all please our brothers for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith. " 6See, for example, Passio beati Phileae episcopi de civitate Thmui: "Culcianus dixit: Sacrifa iam. Phileas respondit: Non sacrifico. Culcianus dixit: Animae hic curam facimus? Phileas respondit: Animae et corporis (2,3) ... Culcianus dixit: lam sacrifa. Phielas respondit: Non sacrifico. Animae meae parco" (4,1-2).

354

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT But it is not for this that God is angry with you, but in order that you should convert your family, which has sinned against the Lord, and against you, their parents. But you are indulgent, and do not correct your family, but have allowed them to be corrupt. For this reason the Lord is angry with you, but he will heal all the past evils in your family, for because of their sins and wickedness have you been corrupted of the things of daily life . . .. But make these words known to all your children. After you have made known these words to them, which the Master commanded me to reveal to you, all the sins, which they have fonnerly committed shall be forgiven to all the saints who have sinned up to this day, if they repent with their whole heart ... (3,1-2). You who work righteousness must remain steadfast and be not double minded. But, Hennas, no longer bear a grudge against your children, nor neglect your sister, that they may be cleansed from their fonner sins" (7,1).

The threat which Hermas holds up is the everlasting wrath of God (6,48; see also Brown 1987:258-259). Another important perspective in this context is the development of the Christian ministry, especially the episcopate. In the New Testament the word father, in its theological sense, is mainly reserved for God, though Paul can call himself the father of those who had been converted through him. Neither do we find a clearly developed concept of ministry. Several elected persons lead by the Spirit cared for the administration of the congregations. From the beginning of the second century there is a new tendency to be seen: The rise of the monarchic episcopate, which is also defined within the conceptual frame of a family. Ignatius describes the bishop in patron-like language: I know that your bishop obtained the ministry, which makes for the common good, neither from himself nor through men, nor for vain-glory, but in the love of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1,1). See that you all follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbyters as if they were Apostles. And reverence the deacons as the command of God. It is not lawful neither to baptize nor to hold an agape without the bishop. It is good to know God and the bishop (Smym. VII-IX).

But the bishop did not only take the care of the spiritual needs of the congregation, he also controlled the finances of the Church. In numerous ways the episcopate had inherited much from secular high-rank offices and secular patronage. Through unity the Church could benefit from the blessings of both God and the bishop. Cyprian in the third century is an example of this: He criticized his adversary Felicissimus who had taken money from the funds of the Church and given to the needy without the knowledge of the bishop, with the consequence that Felicissimus got the position of a patron (Cyprian, Epist. LII,2). Cyprian was also against the old tradition that confessors and martyrs could let the lapsi, those who had fallen and renounced their faith during the persecutions, into the fellowship of the Church again,

FAMILY-LIKE CARE AND SOLIDARITY 355

because through this they occupied a position of power in the Church. The bishop should, according to Cyprian, be in charge of the penance (Epist. XV,1; XVI,2; IV,4). The bishop, therefore, was to control both the way into the Church and to decide to whom financial help should be given. The Church as a social and spiritual group developed along these lines until the time of Constantine. This does not imply that the tight, family-like solidarity disappeared during this period, but the bishop made the arrangements and delegated the responsibility. The growth of the Church during the first three centuries, of course, weakened the conception of the Church as a family-like fellowship when the number of believers increased, and the congregations - especially in the cities - became bigger and even more complex than before. The Church of Luke was not the same as the Church in the late third century. But the main characteristics of the Christian understanding of the Church as a fellowship and brotherhood of solidarity remained. The decisive break occurs through the peace between the Church and the Roman Empire, and the favor which the Church experienced during the reign of Constantine and his successors. Of course we find the nomenclature in the texts after 311, the Christians still entitle themselves brothers and sisters, and we still see the demand of Christian love and responsibility. All classes of people met in Church, but the magnificent basilicas were not a suitable place for the making of a tight knit fellowship. The climate was another one: A Christian confession was not socially dangerous any more. Still the people who were well off gave alms to the poor, but more and more we see that rich people do this to get influence as patrons and welldoers. Yet some of the old ideals survived, though in a new setting - the ascetic movement. The ascetics established a subcultural ethos within the Church and within a Christian state as the Church formerly had been a subculture vis it vis the heathen Graeco-Roman society. Thus, in my response I have tried to show that the family-like solidarity was not only a matter of altruism in the early Church, but more important: It was a necessary demand in order to hold together the Church as a socially mixed and vulnerable group.

356

RECRUITMENT, CONQUEST, AND CONFLICT Works Consulted

If not stated otherwise, all texts from Antiquity are referred to according to the editions of Loeb Classical Library.

Brown, Peter "Late Antiquity." pp. 235-311 in A History of Private Life, Voll: From 1987 Pagan Rome to Byzantium. Ed. Paul Veyne. Cambridge: Harvard University. The Body and Society. Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early 1988 Christianity. New York: Columbia University. Frend, W. H. c. 1984 The Rise of Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress. Klauck, H. 1. 1981 Hausgemeinde und Hauskirche imfrUhen Christentum. SBS 103. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk. Lawlor, H. 1. and 1. E. L. Oulton 1954 Eusebius: Bishop of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History and the Martyrs of Palestine, Voll. London: SPCK. Musurillo, Herbert 1972 The Acts of the Christian Martyrs: Introduction, Texts and Translations. Oxford: Clarendon.

EMORY STUDIES IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Vernon K. Robbins, General Editor David B. Gowler, Associate Editor

Volumes in this series investigate early Christian literature in the context of Mediterranean literature, religion, society, and culture. The authors use interdisciplinary methods informed by social, rhetorical, literary, and anthropological approaches to move beyond limits within traditional literaryhistorical investigations. The studies presuppose that Christianity began as a Jewish movement in various geographical, political, economic, and social locations in the Greco-Roman world.

*1. David B. Gowler, Host, Guest, Enemy and Friend: Pharisees in Luke and Acts, 1991.

Portraits of the

*2. H. Wayne Merritt, In Word and Deed: Moral Integrity in Paul, 1993. *3. Vernon K. Robbins, New Boundaries in Old Territory: Form and Social Rhetoric in Mark, 1994. Ed. and introduced by David B. Gowler. *4. Jan Botha, Subject to Whose Authority? Multiple Readings of Romans 13, 1994. 5.

Kjell Arne Morland, The Rhetoric of Curse in Galatians: Paul Confronts a Different Gospel, 1995.

6.

Eds. Peder Borgen, Vernon K. Robbins, and David B. Gowler, Recruitment, Conquest and Conflict: Strategies in Judaism, Early Christianity and the Greco-Roman World, 1998.

The first three volumes were published by and are available from Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 100016708; (212) 647~7700; FAX (212) 647-7707; customer service (800) 7705264, (212) 647-7706. Internet: www.peterlang.com All subsequent editions are available through Scholars Press.