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Archaeology Brings Us Closer to John’s Context

March 8, 2013 12:02 am / 4 Comments

It has been assumed for years by leading NT scholars that the oldest archaeological artifacts that can be traced back to early Christians were produced after AD 180 [Graydon F. Snyder, Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine, rev. ed. 2003].  Therefore, many do not know that it is time to abandon that earlier assumption in light of relatively recent discoveries in Asia Minor.  Now there is earlier evidence, earlier by two generations than was previously thought, and this new material culture pertains to one of the seven congregations to whom John wrote.  Equally significant, this archaeological material reflects some of the facets of the Johannine practice of numerology.  Any one of these three aspects about this new artifact, its date, its location, or its numerology, would justify posting this evidence, but the combination of all three of these relating to the book of Revelation is extremely noteworthy.

The evidence comes from the area of graffiti excavated by archaeologists working in early Roman Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), and the evidence is dated no later than AD 125.  Prof. Roger Bagnall, former professor of classics and history at Columbia University and now Director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University, reported these findings recently in his important work Everyday Writing in the Græco-Roman East [Sather Classical Lectures, University of California Press; Reprint edition 2012].

Bagnall reports that there are graffiti found in layers of plaster in the Roman basilica in Smyrna, and one of these layers of plaster can be dated precisely to AD 125, using a Roman era date contained in the plaster.  The layer dated AD 125 is the “uppermost layer of plaster” and it “follows that the earlier layer or layers of plaster, and the inscriptions on them, must date before 125.”

In the plaster pre-dating AD 125 Bagnall mentions “a most remarkable graffito” which “can only indicate a Christian character.”

Before reproducing the information given by Prof. Bagnall, some might need a brief refresher course in the Graeco-Roman technique of numerology known as isopsephism, since it is impossible to understand this graffito without this.  Even if you are conversant with the details of biblical numerology, you might have slept through the lecture and demonstration about isopsephism in seminary.  The term isopsephism comes from the Greek word ἰσόψηφα [=isopsephism] which means “of equal numerical value.”  The presupposition for isopsephism to work and have meaning is the fact that “each letter of the original Greek alphabet . . . serves also as a numeral,” (Peter Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. Greek Papyri Beneath the Egyptian Sand Reveal a Long-Lost World, 2007, p. 205) thereby making it possible to assign a numerical value to words as also happens in gematria.  Isopsephism is a technique where two words, or a word and a phrase, or a word and a letter of the alphabet had the same numerical value.  Thus, to give one example, the Greek word “Amen” [=ἀμήν] has the numerical value of 99 [ἀ=1; μ=40; ή=8; ν=50].  According, we have early Christian documents which end with the term “Amen” given in its numerical amount, 99.  Now we can appreciate the meaning and significance of this new discovery that brings the modern interpreter of Revelation closer to the world of John and his congregations.

Discovered at Smyrna was the following Greek wording:

ἰσόψηφα                         “Of equal value”

κύριοϲ     ω                       “Lord     800″

πίστιϲ     ω                        ”Faith     800”

Putting this in the context of ancient Smyrna and its community of believers, we see an artifact standing chronologically between John’s admonition to the congregation at Smyrna that, “the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested” (Rev. 2:10) and the brutal martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of the congregation in Smyrna (ca. AD 155).  If the church in Smyrna continued to experience suffering in the time between John and Polycarp, it would be difficult to imagine two other words more important to a suffering congregation than the words “Lord” and “faith.”

The close correlation of these two pregnant theological terms through the technique of isopsephism clearly shows the outlook of the believer who scrawled this isopsephism because of his or her association of them.  Contrary to what many scholars affirm, I have yet to be persuaded that this use of numbers is all about “secret code” coming from a persecuted and marginalized sect.  Rather isopsephism here is a technique for the association of beliefs, ideas, values, etc that stand in an essential relationship to each other and whose fuller meaning is manifested through this association.

In the next post, deo volente, I will give some more historical evidence about modern misconceptions about the use of numbers by those early Christian believers, especially “secret code” interpretations.

The B•I•B•L•E in Times of Trouble

December 9, 2012 8:11 pm / 1 Comment

The paradox of John’s use of Scripture has been pointed out by many, many scholars who write on the book of Revelation, namely that John’s prophetic work is replete with allusions to the Jewish Scriptures, but seemingly never quotes from them.  From chapter 1 through 22 there is virtually no block of verses that is fully intelligible without viewing it through the lens of the OT Scriptures.  We will never know about the people in the pews of John’s congregations [similar to today] whether they grasped most of John’s imagery and allusions, but we can affirm with certainty that for the prophet John the Scriptures were the necessary foundation for his message, his theology, and his ministry against the undulating forces of assimilation overwhelming some of the congregations of Roman Asia.
It is no coincidence that in a time when the Hellenistic-Roman cultures contemporary with the early church were attempting to force the followers of Christ into their mold that Christian leaders drank deeply from the wells of Scripture in order to resist this assimilation to ungodly ways.  Given the thematic connections between Revelation and the Synoptic Gospels, John in all probability was aware of Jesus’ own remarkable reliance upon Scripture during his post-baptismal temptations (Matt. 4:1-11).
It is helpful to see John’s own dependence upon Scripture during a time of persecution and the martyrdom of saints with what others did in similar circumstances.  The period of Seleucid hegemony over the land of Israel by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reigned 175-164 BC) comes to mind.  A pogrom against all Jewish religion and practices was begun (167-165 BC), including the desecration of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and the threat of death to all who opposed.  These events of oppression began the Maccabean Revolt by Jewish resistance fighters.  They both fought against Seleucid oppressors and Jewish sympathizers with paganism.  The recapture and purification of the Jerusalem Temple began the Festival of Lights (=Hanukkah). 
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Berlin Museum Wikimedia Creative Commons
What is interesting about the Seleucid attack upon Judaism is that the orders of Antiochus IV Epiphanes was not only to suppress Jewish practices and laws, but to destroy their Scriptures.  The policy was described this way in one contemporary source,
The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire.  Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king.  They kept using violence against Israel, against those who were found month after month in the towns (1 Macc. 1:56-58).
Clearly the total destruction of the Jewish Scriptures was high on the list of those leading this attack upon God’s people, in all probability because they knew that without their Scriptures the Jewish people were vulnerable to syncretism and the abandonment of their faith.
Moving next to the period of the so-called “Great Persecution,” begun in AD 303 under Diocletian, we have firsthand testimony of those who were eyewitnesses to the church building-by-church building and house-by-house search by pagan officials.  While searching at church buildings the Roman government was looking for valuables and church property; all of it was taken and sold, and the price went to the government.  Except, they were also insistent to demand all the church’s writings and Scriptures.  These had no market value, obviously, and were simply destroyed.  Leaving the church buildings they then went to the homes of any church leaders or officials who might own or possess copies of the Scriptures.  In the records from one North African location, a pagan official, “Felix the perpetual flamen [=Roman priest of Roman gods] and guardian of the state” went from house-to-house demanding all copies of the Bible.  According to the official proceedings his demands to Christians went like this,
(1)  “Bring forth whatever Scriptures you have, that you may obey the decree.”
(2)  “Bring forth the Scriptures. [We know] You have more.” 
(3)  “Look and see whether you have not got more. Bring them forth.” 
(4)  “Go in and search whether she has not any more.”
During this “Great Persecution” some Christians in North Africa cooperated with the attitudes and directives of the 2nd beast described by John in Revelation 13:11-18.  Some denied Christ, some betrayed other Christians, and some just reported to the State where copies of the Scriptures could be found.  Fellow Christians reported to the government, for example, that the Christians Felix, Victorinus, and Projectus had copies of the Bible.  When Felix the perpetual flamenand guardian of the state “came to the house of Felix, the worker in marbles, he brought forth five codices. And when they came to the house of Victorinus, he brought forth eight codices. And when they came to the house of Projectus, he brought forth five large and two small codices.”
Some Christians knew how foundational the possession and knowledge of the Scriptures were, and they refused to cooperate; they abandoned their own lives and welfare for the sake of the congregation’s possession of Scripture.  The official record continues,
Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Marcuclius and Catullinus:
“Show us the lectors [=readers of Scripture].”
Marcuclius and Catullinus said:
“We do not know where they live.”
Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Catullinus and Marcuclius:
“If you do not know where they are living, tell us their names.”
Catullinus and Marcuclius said:
“We are not Traitors; behold we are here. Order us to be killed.”
Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said:
“Let them be taken into custody.”
When in AD 303 a Christian bishop from the African town of Tibiuca refused to surrender the “books and parchments” which were under his care as bishop, he was sent, as was usual, to Rome to be beheaded [Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church, A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995, pp. 145-48 for these ancient texts].
Diocletian, Emperor AD 284-305
Wikimedia Creative Commons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian
Although the particular forms of resistance necessarily differed among the Maccabeans, John the prophet, and faithful Christians during the time of the “Great Persecution,” they all shared the common conviction that knowledge and use of Scripture were tantamount to faithfulness among congregations of God’s people. Although the State certainly wanted the revenue from selling the possessions of individual congregations, it often first and foremost sought copies of Scriptures to destroy in order to deprive Christians and congregations of them.  The famous church historian Eusebius (AD 263-339) had lived through persecutions and reported seeing the hostile pagan government burning the church’s Scripture in the agoras.  As the pagan Emperor Diocletian himself knew, “every Christian community, wherever it might be, had a collection of books and knew that those books were essential to its viability” [Gamble, Books and Readers, p. 150], an insight into Christian viability by a pagan Roman Emperor that seems lost on significant sections of modern Christendom. 
The removal of Scripture from the life of God’s people will subtly, but inevitably, detour God’s people from the small and narrow, one lane, road down which it travels on its journey to eternal life, and will redirect it to the high-speed, pick-your-own-lane, bespangled with distracting billboards, kind of freeway that routes one to eternal destruction (Matt. 7:13-14).  Loss of reliance upon Scripture, whether through seduction or brute force, will always fertilize the seeds of assimilation and syncretism.

PAGANS PERSECUTING PAGANS

October 5, 2011 11:36 pm / 4 Comments

 
GRANT
Graeco-Roman Antiquities & the New Testament
There are things you can tell about an entire ocean even if you have only one cup of water from it.  Naturally a scientist would like to have as many cups and as broad a sampling as possible, but even a single cup is of some help.  The same is true when investigating the world of the New Testament.  You can learn something even from one ancient document, though the explorer of the ancient world would like to have as many documents as possible. 
I hope once a week to present a small sample of information that mirrors some aspect of the ancient world surrounding nascent Christianity.
PAGANS PERSECUTING PAGANS
A student of Revelation might assume that Christians were the only religious group harassed and persecuted by the Romans.  However, the historical record testifies otherwise.  On more than one occasion in the 1st century AD Jews felt the brunt of Rome’s ability to punish religious dissent.  In the Graeco-Roman period there are even examples of one polytheistic, pagan religion persecuting another polytheistic, pagan religion.  Probably the best documented example of the Roman Senate persecuting and suppressing a pagan religion comes from the 2nd century BC.  This episode is usually referred to as the “Senatorial Decree concerning the Bacchanalia” (Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus), occurring 186 BC.  This event is documented by an important bronze inscription coming from the time of the Senatorial decree itself as well as by the narrative of the later Roman historian Livy, writing during the reign of the first Emperor Augustus (27 BC-AD 14).
Part of the reason for Rome’s pogrom against these worshippers of Bacchus was because they corrupted traditional Roman moral values and traditional Roman religion by their worship and activities; the spread of their religion was considered anti-Roman.  Livy notes (Roman History 39.8, 13)
Wild female worshipper of
Bacchus known as Maenad

To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practiced, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his nature. Nor were they confined to one species of vice—the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and women; . . . .  From the same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some cases, not even the bodies could be found for burial. . . . .  There were more frequent pollution of men with each other than with women. If any were less patient in submitting to dishonor, or more averse to the commission of vice, they were sacrificed as victims. To think that nothing was unlawful was the grand maxim of their religion. The men, as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic contortions of their bodies; the women, in the habit of Bacchantes, with their hair disheveled, and carrying blazing torches, ran down to the Tiber.

Wild female worshipper of
Bacchus known as Maenad
In order to rescue Italy from the religious and moral chaos associated with these Bacchic celebrations, the Senate ordered the cessation of these festivals and an order “was then given to demolish all the places where the Bacchanalians had held their meetings; first in Rome, and then throughout all Italy; excepting those wherein should be found some ancient altar or consecrated statue” (Roman History 39.18).  Once this senatorial decree had been posted throughout Rome and Italy, these Bacchic worshippers had ten days to comply, on threat of death.
All students of Revelation need to remember that Rome had been suppressing “undesirable groups” for generations prior to the advent of the Christian faith and had whetted its skills in eliminating enemies of the Roman status quo.
Wild female worshipper of
Bacchus known as Maenad
 
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