Corpus-Paul

[Craig de Vos <csdevos AT trinity.unimelb.edu.au>]

 At 9:49 AM -0400 on 14/8/99, you wrote:
> Dear Craig,
>
> My work on Cabirus and that of Bob Jewett are sharply different and should
> not be confused.  If you read my article carefully it has learned much
> from Hemberg.  It would be useful to know where you think I go beyond the
> evidence?
>
> Karl Donfried

Karl,
I was not meaning to suggest that your work and that of Bob Jewett's should be equated. Indeed, there is a quantum difference between the two. Generally speaking, yours was much more cautious. And having briefly reread your paper you certainly do not rely on Witt's work to the extent that Jewett does. But like Witt and Jewett you follow Edson in arguing for Kabirus as the chief god in the city from the Flavian period. I think that is overstretching the evidence. When I examined Thessalonian coins, contrary to Edson's claim, I found that Dionysus, Kairus, Zeus and the Dioscuri were all prominent. Furthermore, although we might argue that the Dioscuri and the Samothracian Kabeiroi were frequently identified, that doesn't mean that Kabirus and the Kabeiroi or the Dioscuri were. Indeed, you still hold open the possibility of a connection between the Thessalonian and Samothracian cults (pp339-40). The fact that there were some connections between the two locations and that some Thessalonians were initiated into the Samothracian cult does not mean that the two cults can be identified. Then having established this somewhat tenuous link (pp340-1) you extrapolate from the Samothracian cult to what the Thessalonian cult must have been like. Again, I think this goes beyond the evidence, since it is all premised on a connection between the Thessalonian Kabirus cult and the Samothracian Kabeiroi cult. (You also rely on Clement of Alexandria for some details (p338) -- something that is fraught with danger)

To put my concern another way (and perhaps to bring this discussion back for the rest of the list), surely we would not want to argue that because there was a Christian "cult" in Jerusalem and one in Corinth then they obviously shared the same beliefs and practices and ideology. At least I hope we would not suggest that! Furthermore, I don't think we can assume that the Isis cult (or any other for that matter) necessarily involved the same practices, beliefs and ideology in each place it was found. How much more would this not be the case for two cults who do not even share the same deity. 

Craig 



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Dr. Craig S. de Vos			       
Bromby Lecturer in New Testament	        
Trinity College Theological School	        
Royal Parade			        
Parkville VIC 3052			        
Australia				        
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csdevos AT trinity.unimelb.edu.au
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