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  • From: Edgar Krentz <ekrentz AT lstc.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Jewish origins of apostle
  • Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:08:42 -0800

Title: [corpus-paul] Re: Jewish origins of apostle
At 11:15 PM -0600 12/11/01, Jill and Dale Walker wrote:
I suppose after I say what I'm about to say, the answer to Stephen's
question is still no, but it got me to thinking...

If the most spectacular structure you ever saw in your life was
an imperial temple, and it bore an inscription listing Augustus's
virtues, and particularly all the money he gave away, that would
be a kind of proclamation.

If you saw an imperial statue with a dolphin or some other
iconography linking the emperor to one of the gods, or a coin
with a star next to the emperor's bust, the mythological
associations being made between emperor and the gods would
also be a kind of proclamation.

If you attended imperial games and sat in on the panegyric
competition and listened to speaker after speaker offer a speech
in praise of the emperor, that too would be a kind of proclamation.
Dale Walker

Dale, without taking a position on this whole matter, let me remind you that there is an imperial temple in Ancyra [modern Ankara] with the text of Augustus' autobiographical Res Gestae inscription on its walls in both Greek and Latin.

This is certainly propaganda; but it is scarcely evangelism. If one reads Simon Price, Rituals of Power, one learns about the popularity of Roman ruler cult in Asia Minor. In fact, apart from Judaism and early Christianity, it was very popular and scarcely required evangelism for its propagation. The famous calendar inscription from Priene and Claudius "Letter to the Alexandrians" testify to its popularity. The first altar to any Roman was to Julius Caesar in Lugdunum [Lyon] in Gaul.

I am not writing this to support Eli's argument, since evangelism is difficulty to document re ruler cult.

Ed Krentz

-- 
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Edgar Krentz
Christ Seminary--Seminex Professor of New Testament, Emeritus
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 East 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615
Tel: 773-256-0773; home phone 773-947-8105
e-mail: ekrentz AT lstc.edu
home e-mail: ekrentz AT earthlink.net
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GERASKO D' AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS
"I grow old, constantly learning many things." [Solon of Athens]
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