Corpus-Paul

["Runar M. Thorsteinsson" <Runar.Thorsteinsson AT teol.lu.se>]

John Dickson wrote:

> I remain open to the possibility that 'temple robbing/sacrilege' in Rom 2:22
> alludes to a rumour such as that found in Antiquities 18.81-84. As many of
> you will know, Josephus here refers to some self-styled rabbis in Rome forty
> years before Paul taking off with expensive gifts intended for the Jerusalem
> temple. The rumour may have been well known in Rome (and to Paul) long
> before Josephus retold it.

Note, however, that the main concern of Ant. 18.81-84 is really not "temple
robbery", but the deception and rip-off conducted by "a complete scoundrel"
against a high-ranking Roman matron (a proselyte), whose husband was a
consular and a friend of emperor Tiberius.
(Note also, in that light, that Josephus does not speak of this incidence as
an act of hierosylein; neither the verb nor its cognates occur in the text.)

Regards,
Runar

-- 
Runar M. Thorsteinsson, Ph.D.

Centre for Theology and Religious Studies
Lund University, Sweden
http://www.teol.lu.se/nt/forskning/thorsteinsson.html