RELG 330 - History of Christianity
Course Notes
Chapter 5
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Page 49 - Names of people illustrated from inscriptions
The "Pilate inscription" was discovered in Caesarea Maritima, where Pontius Pilate had his main headquarters. It mentions Pilate as Prefect (governor) of the Roman province of Judea, and was part of the dedication of a building, probably to the Emperor Tiberius
The "Pilate Ring" is a copper ring that was discovered in the Herodium (a fortress palace built by Herod the Great). The lettering can be translated as "Pilate's", and may have been used by an official to seal documents, rather than being worn by Pilate himself.
The "Gallio Inscription" was found in Delphi. It attests to the governorship of Gallio, the official who presided over a trial of Paul
The "Erastus Inscription" in Corinth is evidence that there was a person named Erastus in Corinth, who was a leader of the community and was wealthy enough to finance public works such as road building. However, there is no proof that this is the same person as the leader mentioned in Romans 16:23.
Page 49 - the Dead Sea Scrolls date from the time of Jesus. They were produced by a community of Essenes (a Jewish sect which did not agree with either the Pharisees or the Sadducees). There was a community of Essenes living at Qumran near Jericho, at the north-eastern edge of the Dead Sea. When the first war with the Roman occupation forces broke out in AD 66 the Essenes hid their library of religious writings in caves near Qumran.
The Essenes left (or were killed or deported) and were not able to return to Qumran, so the scrolls remained hidden until the twentieth century. They were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd boy,
and are now kept in a special museum in Jerusalem.
They include parts of all the Books of the Old Testament except for the Book of Esther, and also other manuscripts such as rules for the community and their own sectarian scriptures. They date to before AD 70, and include the earliest extant copies of the Hebrew Scriptures. As such, they are important evidence for the text of the Old Testament.
Page 49 - Masada is a mountain fortress and palace built by Herod the Great on the coast of the Dead Sea. During the First Jewish War against the Romans (AD 66-70) a group of Jewish Zealots captured the stronghold, and continued to resist even after the Fall of Jerusalem. Eventually the Romans built a wall and army camps around the whole of the mountain, and besieged Masada for several years. The Zealots held out until the Romans started to use Jewish prisoners to build a ramp up the mountain. Rather than kill their fellow-Jews or fall prisoners to the Romans the Zealots killed their own women and children, then drew lots to kill one another or commit suicide. The only survivors were two women and some children who hid when the killings began.
The Israeli armed forces hold their swearing-in ceremonies for new soldiers after a night-time climb to the top of Masada, with the oath "Masada shall not fall again"
Page 50 - The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
is built over what is believed to be the place where Jesus' body was placed; it has spread to cover the rock believed to be Calvary. It is shared by a number of Christian Churches, who are quite jealous about keeping their privileges. For example, The Ethiopian Church is allowed a side chapel and the roof of the main building, and one of the Coptic Churches is allowed a tiny chapel at the rear of the Edicule (the place believed to be the cave where Jesus' body lay).
Page 50 - The Tombs of the Kings is a burial cave in Jerusalem. At one time it was thought that they were the tombs of the Kings of Judah, and then they were associated with the royal house of Adiabene. A recent theory is that they were built for Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great. They have a large ornate porch, but the entrance itself is small and was closed by a rolling stone.
The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem is a rock-cut tomb set in an enclosed garden.
It is situated outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been maintained by a non-denominational Protestant trust since 1894, and is intended to convey a feeling for what the burial place of Jesus might have looked like.
Page 50 - The Christian Chapel in Herculaneum - the town of Herculaneum was buried in volcanic lava and mud when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. Archaeological excavation of the site began in 1738, and has continued intermittently up to the present. In 1938 the "House of the Bicentary" was excavated (so called because the year was the bicentennial of the start of excavation at Herculaneum). The wall of an upstairs room had the outline of a cross, with a wooden chest or cupboard before it. The room has been dismantled, but the cross still shows on the wall.
Pages 50-51 - Sator squares from Pompeii and elsewhere. "Magic Squares" with the Sator-Rotas inscription, which may or may not be Christian, have been found in the ruins of Pompeii, in Dura-Europos, in Britain, and in other places of the Roman Empire.
Page 51 - The Rylands Fragment is a small piece of papyrus containing parts of the text of John's Gospel. It is known to scholars as the "John Rylands Fragment P52" because it is housed in the John Rylands Museum in Manchester, England. "P" indicates that it is papyrus, rather than vellum or other material, "52" is its identification number
Page 52 - the catacombs of Rome - although they are widely known as the Catacombs in Rome, they were not actually "in" Rome, because no-one could be buried inside the city. The catacombs were just outside Rome, and were tunnels and underground burial places excavated by Christians, Jews, and others in the soft tufa rock (a form of limestone).
Romans usually cremated their dead, but built above-ground memorials to them along the main roads just outside the city. There was a ban on burying the dead within the city of Rome.
So the Jews, and later the Christians, who did not practice cremation due to their understanding of the "resurrection of the body", had to make burial places outside the city.
The ground and rock outside Rome is soft enough that it could be quarried easily, so Jews and Christians began to dig tunnels and burial chambers underground for their dead. Very soon, the Christian burials outnumbered the Jewish and pagan ones. Most of the Christians were poor, and could not afford more elaborate burial places.
The early burials were simple - the corpse was wrapped in white cloths and was laid without a coffin in a burial niche. As time went on, and more and more bodies were laid in the catacombs, they began to be regarded as a holy place, with bodies "sleeping" until Christ should come and raise them from the dead.
The entrances were often hidden, so that Christians could use the catacombs as places to hide during persecution. The Christians decorated the catacombs with pictures and inscriptions, and held special services in them to commemorate the deaths of the martyrs, but it appears that they did not hold regular worship services in them.
Page 54 - Alexamenos worships his God refers to what is known as the "Alexamenos Grafitto", which was scratched in the plaster on the wall of a room in a boys' training school near the Palatine Hill in Rome.
It probably dates to ca. AD 200. The inscription is in Greek, and can be translated as "Alexamenos worships God". Alexamenos was evidently mocked for being a Christian. Another grafitto, in a mixture of Latin and Greek, was in an adjacent room; it read "Alexamenos is faithful"
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
