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23990 results in Ancient history

Page 922 of 1200

  • APPENDIX 6 - Miracle stories in the ancient world

  • from APPENDIXES
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 539-548

  • Summary

    Here we look at miracle stories from three traditions: Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Christian. For miracle stories in the Bible, only the references are given.

    JEWISH MIRACLE STORIES

    Miracle stories in the Hebrew Bible

    The Hebrew Bible relates a number of miracle stories that have gathered around the figure of a famous prophet. Read the following:

  • Miracles of Moses: Exodus 16:1–21; 17:1–7

  • Miracles of Elijah: 1 Kings 17

  • Miracles of Elisha: 2 Kings 4:1–5:14

    • Hanina ben Dosa

    b Berakoth 33a, 34b

    Hanina ben Dosa, a Jewish rabbi in Palestine in the first century ce, had a reputation for total righteousness. The following stories about him appear in the Babylonian Talmud, compiled in the fifth century ce. The first story was apparently created as a historicization of Genesis 3:15, Yahweh's curse on the serpent.

    Our rabbis taught: In a certain place a serpent was injuring the wives. They went and told Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa. He said to them, “Show me its hole.” They showed him its hole; he put his heel over the mouth of the hole. It came out and bit him, and the serpent died. He put it on his shoulder and brought it to the house of study. He said to them, “See, my sons, it is not the serpent that kills, but sin that kills.” At that time they said, “Woe to the man that a serpent meets, but woe to the serpent that Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa meets!”

    Our rabbis taught: It so happened that Rabbi Gamaliel's son got sick. He sent two scholars to ask Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa to seek mercy for him.

  • APPENDIX 12 - Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans 1–9

  • from APPENDIXES
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 576-578

  • Summary

    For an introduction to Ignatius and his letters, see Chapter 36 (pp. 463–68). In his letters Ignatius repeatedly warns against Christians who hold a docetic view of Christ. He directs his readers not to associate with these, but to follow the bishop. The following selection from his letter to the church in Smyrna illustrates these themes.

    Ignatius, also called Theophoros, to the church of God the Father and the beloved Jesus Christ, which is blessed with every gift, filled with faith and love, deficient in no gift, most suited for divinity and clothed with holiness, to the church in Smyrna of Asia: may you rejoice most greatly in a blameless spirit and the word of God.

    1:1 I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who has made you so wise. For I have observed that you are equipped with immovable faith, as if nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in both flesh and spirit, and established in love by the blood of Christ, fully convinced concerning our Lord that he was truly from the line of David with respect to the flesh, son of God with respect to the will and power of God, truly born from a virgin, baptized by John so that all righteousness might be fulfilled by him, 2 truly under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch nailed for us in the flesh (of whose divinely blessed Passion we are some of the fruit), so that he might set up an ensign for all ages through the resurrection for his saints and believers, whether among Jews or among Gentiles, in the one body of his church.

  • 35 - Conflict within the church (4): the Johannine Epistles

  • from PART VII - PROTO-ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 453-462

  • Summary

    The Johannine Epistles, like the letters of Ignatius discussed in the next chapter, reflect a conflict between two groups within the church, one Proto-Orthodox and one docetic. In these letters we hear only one side of the dispute, the Proto-Orthodox perspective.

    AUTHOR AND DATE

    The three letters designated 1, 2, and 3 John have such similar style and content that they must come from the same author. Tradition attributes them, along with the Fourth Gospel, to John the apostle, the son of Zebedee. In the letters themselves, however, the author does not identify himself, calling himself simply “the Elder” (2 John 1; 3 John 1). Because the second-century bishop Papias speaks of a leader at Ephesus called “the Elder John,” whom he distinguished from John the apostle, some scholars believe that the Elder John wrote the letters.

    Whoever the author may have been, the letters are clearly related to the Fourth Gospel in both style and content. Many of the same themes occur in both (see box, p. 454). These similarities show that, at the very least, “the Elder” of the letters must have belonged to the same community from which the Fourth Gospel came. His mind was saturated with the ideas expressed in that Gospel. He may even have played a role in its composition.

    Most scholars believe that the Gospel of John came first, followed by the letters of John sometime between 90 and 110 ce.

  • 1 - Introduction

  • from PART I - HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 3-14

  • Summary

    Billions of people throughout the world today practice the religion of Christianity. It consists of three primary divisions: Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism. It can be further subdivided into thousands of distinct denominations and sects, each differing to some degree in belief and practice. Though none of these Christian groups existed in the beginning of Christianity, all look back to that time as having fundamental significance for their own tradition. It is this foundational period of Christianity that we will study in this book. We will examine the history, literature, and religion of Christianity in its earliest stages.

    Our study will focus on the years from about 30 to 150 of the present era, from the beginning of Christianity through the first half of the second century. Occasionally, we will take a look beyond those years. At the beginning of that period, a Jewish man named Jesus of Nazareth went about Palestine preaching and attracting followers. After his crucifixion by the Roman governor, his Jewish followers continued to preach in his name, proclaiming him as the Jewish Messiah or Christ. Christianity thus emerged as a sect of Judaism in Roman Palestine. It quickly developed into various competing factions. Some of these factions remained primarily Jewish, while others opened the door to Gentiles (non-Jews). Some of these factions disappeared from history, while others survived and developed into forms of Christianity that still exist today.

  • 18 - Paul, his letters, and his churches

  • from PART IV - PAULINE CHRISTIANITY
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 289-302

  • Summary

    After Jesus, the apostle Paul ranks as the most significant figure in early Christian history. Paul became a Christian less than a decade after Jesus died in 30 or 33 ce. He knew some of the earliest Christian leaders, such as Peter and James the brother of Jesus. He even claimed to have had a vision of the resurrected Jesus. Much of the book of Acts focuses on Paul, and his name also appears on the thirteen letters that follow Acts. Here we take a look at the man, his letters, and the religion practiced by him and his churches.

    THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PAUL

    Paul is significant as an apostle, an author, and a theologian.

    Paul the apostle

    Paul is called an “apostle” by Luke and by Paul himself (Acts 14:4, 14; Gal 1:1; Rom 1:1). Meaning “one sent,” the term is linguistically equivalent to the term “emissary” or “missionary” (from Latin missus, “sent”). In the New Testament, however, the term sometimes has the further connotation of eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1:21–26; 1 Cor 9:1). Since Paul had a vision of the risen Jesus, he classed himself as an apostle along with those in Jerusalem who had been apostles before him (1 Cor 15:7–9; Gal 1:17). As an apostle primarily to the Gentiles (Rom 1:5; Gal 2:7–8), Paul helped spread the Christian religion to the limits of the Roman Empire in the first century.

  • 23 - The imminent parousia: 1 and 2 Thessalonians

  • from PART IV - PAULINE CHRISTIANITY
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 345-352

  • Summary

    Paul taught his churches to expect the “parousia,” the coming of Jesus on the “day of the Lord.” When Jesus did not appear, problems arose. Such problems are the focus of two letters attributed to Paul: 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The first letter deals with the problem of Christians who had died without seeing the expected return of Christ. The second corrects the view that the day of the Lord had already arrived.

    HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF 1 THESSALONIANS

    Acts 17:1–15 relates how Paul and Silas brought the gospel to Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. Preaching in the Jewish synagogue, Paul converted “some” of the Jews and “a great many” of the Greeks. When the Jews of the city opposed the message and stirred up a crowd against them, Paul and Silas fled to the neighboring town of Beroea. When the Jews of Thessalonica heard that Paul was preaching in Beroea, they came there and again forced Paul to leave.

    Paul subsequently traveled to Athens (Acts 17:16–33), from where he sent Timothy to check up on the church he had established in Thessalonica (1 Thes 3:1–3). When Timothy returned, Paul either was still in Athens (cf. 1 Thes 3:6) or had moved on to Corinth (Acts 18:1, 5). Hearing from Timothy that the Thessalonian Christians were standing firm in their faith, Paul wrote the letter of 1 Thessalonians to them.

  • 8 - The making of the New Testament

  • from PART I - HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 105-118

  • Summary

    Of all the literature of early Christianity, the collection known as the New Testament is today the most widely known, being considered scripture by the vast majority of Christians. But before the New Testament could become available to modern English readers, three events had to occur. (1) Someone had to decide what writings would be included in it. (2) The texts of these writings had to be passed down from ancient times to our day. (3) The texts had to be translated out of the original language into English. These three processes will be described in the present chapter.

    FORMATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON

    The process of deciding what writings should be included in the New Testament is called the formation of the canon. The term “canon” comes from a Greek word meaning a ruler, a standard of measurement. In early Christianity it referred to “the rule of faith” or traditional teaching in the church, the standard by which ideas and teachings were evaluated. Later it was applied to the writings that conformed to this standard. In this sense, the term “canon” refers to the collection of writings accepted by the church as scripture.

    At first, the early church had no scriptures except the Hebrew Scriptures. Since the earliest Christians were Jewish, they continued to esteem the scriptures of Judaism. Since many of them could not read Hebrew or Aramaic, the languages in which the Jewish scriptures were written, they used the Greek translation known as the Septuagint.

  • 21 - Problems of church life: 1 Corinthians

  • from PART IV - PAULINE CHRISTIANITY
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 328-338

  • Summary

    The city of Corinth became prosperous as a center of trade and banking. It stood on a narrow isthmus between two harbors. The eastern port of Cenchreae traded with Asia Minor, the western port of Lechaeum with Italy. The Romans destroyed the original Greek city in 146 BCE, and Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony in 44 BCE. In Paul's day, Corinth was the capital of the Roman province Achaia (Greece). There the proconsul of the province resided, along with a population of about half a million people.

    The earlier Greek city had acquired a reputation not only for wealth but also for sexual license. The geographer Strabo claimed that a thousand temple prostitutes had plied their trade in the temple of Aphrodite. The expression “a Corinthian girl” came to mean a prostitute, and “to corinthianize” meant to practice fornication. Scholars today tend to doubt Strabo's claim, since Greek religion did not generally include sacred prostitution, and the reputation of the city may owe more to Athenian slander than to reality. Nevertheless, it is interesting that in the later Roman city, consorting with prostitutes did become a problem among the members of Paul's church (1 Cor 6:12–20).

    Every other year, the stadium at Corinth hosted athletic contests, the Isthmian games, second in fame only to the Olympic games. Paul may have been in Corinth when the games were held in 49 and 51 ce.

  • 39 - Conflict with the Roman world (1): 1 Peter

  • from PART VII - PROTO-ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 484-496

  • Summary

    We have examined two central concerns of Proto-Orthodox literature: the problem of conflict within the Christian community and the relation of Christianity to Judaism. At this point we turn to a third major concern of this literature: the conflict between Christianity and the Roman world.

    ASPECTS OF THE CONFLICT

    Christian alienation from society

    In the Roman world, religion played an integral role in society and the state. There was no “separation of church and state,” such as developed in the United States. Rather the Roman government supported a religion of the state. Being a citizen of Rome meant participating in the state religion, offering sacrifices to the Roman gods and to the emperor as a divine man. In addition to the state religion, cults dedicated to various deities existed. Worship involved both individual offerings and festivals in which the whole community might participate. Inhabitants of the Greco-Roman world saw these rites as a way of keeping the gods in a good mood so that they would bless the community. Participation in them also had a social dimension: it showed that one belonged to and supported the community.

    It was precisely these religious and social aspects of community life from which Christian converts withdrew. As they became Christians, they adopted the Jewish code of monotheism, worship of one God. They could no longer participate in the polytheistic worship of their society. Consequently, they developed what sociologists would call a “sectarian” consciousness.

  • Preface

  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp xiii-xvi

  • Summary

    This book introduces the history, literature, and religion of early Christianity in the years from about 30 to 150 ce. In this book, I have two aims:

  • to provide a textbook for a one-semester course in the New Testament and the origins of Christianity;

  • to provide a selection of primary sources from outside the New Testament that are relevant for the origins of Christianity.

    • With this textbook and a Bible, the student should have the basic texts necessary for an introductory study of Christian origins.

    This book has developed as I have taught undergraduate courses in New Testament at several state universities. The students for whom I write are therefore undergraduate students in a liberal arts or humanities program. The book presupposes no prior knowledge of the New Testament or early Christianity.

    Significant features of this textbook include the following.

    1. As an introduction to Christian origins, the book takes a primarily historical approach to the literature. Chapter 1 explains more fully than most comparable textbooks the differences between the historical-critical method and the confessional method of studying the New Testament. At the same time, the book introduces students to various other current methods of interpretation and gives specific examples of each. The bibliographies also suggest books that employ these methods or explain them further. Some of the discussion questions allow the students to consider the contemporary relevance of the material.

  • 11 - The Gospel of Mark

  • from PART II - JESUS AND THE GOSPELS
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 155-173

  • Summary

    Through most of Christian history, the Gospel of Mark lay neglected in the shadow of its more substantial companions, Matthew, Luke, and John. As the shortest of the four Gospels, it contains few sayings of Jesus, certainly nothing as memorable as the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7), the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), or Jesus' discourse on the bread of life (John 6). Yet in the modern period, Mark's star rose as scholars began to perceive it as the earliest Gospel and mine it for information about the historical Jesus. More recently, scholars have seen it as a window not so much onto Jesus as onto the concerns of early Christianity. As a work of Christian apologetic, it makes the claim that Jesus was the Messiah and defends this claim against the objection that no true Messiah would allow himself to be crucified by the Romans.

    THE ORIGIN OF MARK

    The Gospel of Mark does not indicate who wrote it, how it originated, or what sources it drew upon. We are therefore dependent on church tradition and historical analysis for reconstructing its origin. Two primary theories have been proposed concerning the origin of this Gospel.

    The preaching of Peter

    According to the earliest tradition about the Gospel, someone named Mark wrote it based on what he heard from Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples. This tradition comes from Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, in the first half of the second century, quoted by the church historian Eusebius (324–25 ce).

  • APPENDIX 14 - Conflict with Rome

  • from APPENDIXES
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 584-588

  • Summary

    Nero blames the Christians

    Tacitus, Annals 15.44

    In 64 ce a great fire broke out in Rome that burned down much of the city. Suspicions arose that the emperor, Nero, had given orders to burn the city so that he could build a new capital named after himself. To avert these suspicions, Nero made scapegoats out of the unpopular Christians. The Roman historian Tacitus gave the following account in his Annals (c. 116 ce).

    But neither human work nor lavish grants of the emperor nor the means used to appease the gods caused the scandal to abate or dispelled the belief that the fire had been ordered. Therefore to end the rumor, Nero substituted defendants and punished with the most unusual penalties a group of people hated for their shameful deeds, whom the common people called Christians. The author of that name, Christus, had been punished with the death penalty by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Repressed temporarily, the deadly superstition broke out again not only in Judea, the source of that evil, but also in the City [Rome], where all things atrocious or shameful flow together from everywhere and are celebrated.

    So first those who confessed were seized, then on their information vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as for hatred of the human race. Mockeries were added to their deaths.

  • 2 - Jews among Greeks and Romans

  • from PART I - HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 15-31

  • Summary

    Christianity arose in Palestine, the homeland of the Jewish people. This region touches the Mediterranean Sea on the west, the Arabian desert on the east, Syria on the north, and Egypt on the south. In the first century ce, Palestine belonged to the Greco-Roman world, a world governed by the Roman Empire but united by Greek language and culture. This government and culture prevailed in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean. To understand the emergence of Christianity, therefore, we must have some knowledge of the history of Palestine and the culture of the Greco-Roman world to which it belonged.

    PALESTINE UNDER ANCIENT ISRAEL

    According to the Hebrew Scriptures, a man named Moses led a group of Hebrew slaves out of Egypt into the wilderness. After Moses' death, his assistant Joshua led the people into the land of Canaan, or Palestine, which they began to take over from its former inhabitants. These Hebrew people, traditionally divided into twelve tribes, called themselves and their land “Israel.” Eventually the Israelites established a monarchy, and the second king, David, subjugated the entire land. The people of Israel believed that their God, Yahweh, had promised this land to their ancestors – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – and that Yahweh had brought them out of Egypt to possess it. The kingdom of Israel reached its peak under David's son Solomon. During this period of peace and prosperity, Solomon built a Temple for Yahweh in the capital city, Jerusalem.

  • 7 - An overview of early Christian history

  • from PART I - HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 90-104

  • Summary

    To study early Christian writings historically, we need to set them within three distinct contexts: first-century Judaism, the Greco-Roman world, and early Christianity. Previous chapters have focused on the first two of these contexts. Here we focus on the third, giving an overview of early Christianity from its beginning in about 30 ce to the rise of the state church under the Roman emperor Constantine in 313 ce.

    JOHN THE BAPTIST AND JESUS

    Christianity had its roots in the movement begun by John the Baptist. Around the year 29 ce John began to preach, urging the Jewish people to repent of their sins and “flee from the wrath to come” (Luke 3:7). Those who received his message were baptized in the Jordan River. John began to attract disciples, and because of his influence with the people, Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea, had him killed.

    One of the people whom John baptized was a man named Jesus. The New Testament calls him “Jesus the Nazarene” or “Jesus the Nazorean.” The former expression probably indicates that he came from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. Whether the latter expression means the same thing or not is uncertain.

    After being baptized by John, Jesus branched out on his own. He began to preach in Galilee and to attract his own disciples. What Jesus preached and what he thought of himself are questions that scholars still debate.

  • APPENDIX 8 - The Gospel of Peter

  • from APPENDIXES
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 553-556

  • Summary

    For an introduction to the Gospel of Peter, see Chapter 15, pp. 239–41.

    Jesus' trial

    1 But of the Jews, no one washed his hands, neither Herod nor any of his judges. And since they did not want to wash, Pilate stood up. 2 Then Herod the king commanded that the Lord should be escorted out, saying to them, “Do what I commanded you to do to him.”

    3 Joseph, a friend of both Pilate and the Lord, was standing there, and, knowing that they were going to crucify him, requested the body of the Lord for burial. 4 Pilate sent to Herod and requested the body from him. 5 Herod said, “Brother Pilate, even if no one had requested him, we would have buried him, since a Sabbath is dawning. For it is written in the Law that the sun should not set on a slain person.”

    He turned him over to the people one day before Unleavened Bread, their festival. 6 Those who took the Lord pushed him along as they ran and said, “Let us drag along the Son of God, now that we have power over him.” 7 They dressed him in a purple robe and sat him on a seat of judgment, saying, “Judge justly, king of Israel.” 8 One of them brought a crown of thorns and put it on the Lord's head.

  • 9 - Introduction to the Gospels

  • from PART II - JESUS AND THE GOSPELS
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 121-139

  • Summary

    In New Testament study, the term “gospel” or “good news” (Greek evangelion) carries two different meanings. In one sense, the gospel was the message preached by the Christian community about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In this sense, it is related to the term “kerygma,” meaning “proclamation” or “announcement.” In another sense, a Gospel is a writing about Jesus. In this text, we will use gospel with a small “g” to represent the message, and Gospel with a capital “g” for the writing. Likewise, evangelist will refer to a preacher of the gospel; Evangelist, to the author of a Gospel.

    TYPES OF GOSPELS

    When we speak of “the Gospels” we normally mean the four found in the canon of the New Testament. The term “Gospel,” however, has been used to refer to a variety of other early Christian texts. Among the Gospels that survive, we find passion Gospels, infancy Gospels, collections of sayings, and collections of meditations.

    Passion Gospels

    The New Testament canon contains four Gospels, bearing the titles “Matthew,” “Mark,” “Luke,” and “John,” respectively. We cannot be sure that these titles give the true names of the authors, since these headings were added to the Gospels years after they were written. The Gospels themselves tell us nothing about who wrote them or when they were composed. Scholars, however, generally date them to the years between 70 and 100 ce. These four works contain stories about Jesus and sayings attributed to him.

  • 25 - Prison Epistles (2): Colossians and Ephesians

  • from PART IV - PAULINE CHRISTIANITY
  • Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    10 July 2002, pp 362-376

  • Summary

    The letters of Colossians and Ephesians show striking similarities in content and wording. Though both claim to be written from prison by Paul, scholars debate whether Paul wrote both, one or the other, or neither.

    MYTH AND RITUAL IN COLOSSIANS

    Before we discuss the authorship of Colossians, it will help to examine its main religious ideas. To analyze these, we will use two categories from the comparative study of religion: myth and ritual. “Myth,” as scholars of religion use the term, refers to a story that has special significance for a religion or culture. Often the story relates the actions of supernatural beings or heroes. Myths of origin tell how things got to be the way they are. For example, numerous cultures have creation myths, which tell how the world began. Other myths of origin include myths concerning the origin of death and myths of alienation, which tell how humans became alienated from their creator. Some religions also have redeemer myths, which tell how a divine being or hero rescued the world in some way. We also find eschatological myths, which relate the end or culmination of history. Related to myths are rituals, sacred actions or ceremonies, which enable the practitioner to participate in the events of the myth.

    Using these categories to analyze Colossians, we find that the author knew a creation myth, an alienation myth, a redeemer myth, and an eschatological myth. He also knew a ritual, baptism, which allowed his readers to participate in the mythic drama of redemption.

Page 922 of 1200