Agrarian concerns Surrounded by invisible powers Threatened Protected Contract religion Corpus of rules & codes to gain influence what to do what to avoid governed proper ritual not a code for behaviour Prayer Attempt at coercion (Lat. Pietas, Gk. Eusebeia) NT. Godliness unqualified acceptance of one s obligations to the gods. Attitude of respect trying not to offend the gods Avoid taboos Invocation Request Perform ritual New Testament World 3: Religion, Magic & Superstition The Nature of Greco-Roman Religion Sacrifice Characteristic form: Public worship Private worship The Sacrifice Bull, sheep or pig Bird, food or incense Killed Entrails examined Inedible parts Edible parts Leftovers to meat market (makellon) Different Emphasis on Greco-roman Religion Hellenistic (Greek) Roman Anthropomorphic gods Correct belief in gods important Atheism Continuity of belief & practice The Imperial cult was the worship of the Roman emperor as a god The Cult of the Emperor very popular in Asia Minor Temple of Dea Roma and Divus Julias High Priest in Asia: men or women Essential to Rome's survival Neglect was treasonous No one exempt from the cult Important social factor in everyday life in the Empire A means of political control Imperial Cult Abstract gods Correct rites for gods important Sacrilege Business contract Priene Calendar 9 BC Since providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a saviour, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance excelled even our anticipations, surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings (evangelion) for the world that came by reason of him which Asia resolved in Smyrna. "The cult was a major part of the web of power that formed the fabric of society. The imperial cult stabilized the religious order of the world. The system of ritual was carefully structured; the symbolism evoked a picture of the relationship between the emperor and the gods. The ritual was also structuring; it imposed a definition of the world. The imperial cult, along with politics and diplomacy, constructed the reality of the Roman empire." S.R.F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: CUP, 1984), p. 248. Dr Richard J. Hawes 1
Diaspora scattered Considerably more Jews outside Palestine by 1st AD A very visible presence Various levels of integration Identity markers: Sabbath Circumcision Dietary restrictions Strict monotheists Cosmos overflowing with supernatural beings Good angels Evil (fallen) angels Actively involved in human affairs Humanity defenceless & expendable pawns Jubilees & 1 Enoch fallen angels responsible for evil Elaborate & complex hierarchies of angels Reason for angelic speculation Examples: Distinct Religions/Cults Cult of Demeter Cult of Dionysus Cult of Isis Cult of Cybele Cult of Mithras Diaspora Judaism Judaism in the Greco-Roman World Jewish Superstition & Magic Greco-roman Mystery Cults Jews had exemption rights Own law & customs Jewish & Greek legislation equally valid Collect their own Temple tax Did not have to partake in gentile religious activities Cause of gentile festering resentment Jews kept a low profile Magic resided on the margins Fortune tellers, exorcists & sorcerers (Acts 8:9; 13:6-12; 19:13-20) The Prayer of Jacob Magical text Summoning formula Secret names Nonsense words Recitation ritual Asks for moral transformation and angelic mortality Common Features Annual plant cycle symbolize life, death, rebirth Secret ceremonies Initiation rites Achieve union with deity Mythic stories: defeated enemies or returned to life after death Cult members shared in triumph Redemption from the earthly Uninterested in doctrine & arguments Ultimately attained immortality State religion unsatisfying Not personal, no emphasis on afterlife, lacked salvation, interested only in state & great men Greco-roman Superstition Greatest concern Demons & malevolent spirits Superstition, divination, astrology & magic Spiritual Universe Multi-storeyed insula (block of flats) Crossroads Spirits (daemones) midway between gods & men Controlled by divination & magic Magicians, soothsayers, sorcerers, & witches Charlatans & swindlers preying on the gullible Two Roman ladies consult a witch (Pompeii) Dr Richard J. Hawes 2
Magic Protective Magic Evil spirits, black magic, illness Imprecatory Magic Invoke curse on enemy or competitor Love Magic Compelling affection in another Books devoted to sorcery and spells Know the deity/spirit name Formulae, terminology, summons, request, dismissal Symbols to be inscribed Procedures enacted Oracles Consult an Oracle Wait for answer to be given by idol Question to a priest on a lead tablet Sit quietly & listen to passers-by Spend night in shrine & have dream Dreams come from Zeus (Pliny) Controlling & Knowing the Spirits Divination Knowledge of the unknown Future event Hidden truth Supernatural guidance Discerning the will of the gods haruspicy: entrail examination augury: flight patterns cosmological phenomena: lightning, eclipse, earthquake Astrology Could plot one s life or one s day Horoscopes drawn up at birth Heavenly bodies determined: Fate Fortune Character Temperament Omen Bad or good omen any form! Great care had to be taken interpreting Cosmological phenomena The inconsequential Rampant paranoia Avert evil omen Amulet, talisman, charms Metal, papyrus or gem stones Often phallus-shaped Dr Richard J. Hawes 3
Significant Mystery Cults 1 The cult of Demeter was perhaps the oldest Greek mystery religion. In the myth, the god of the underworld kidnapped Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the soil. Demeter's absence in pursuit of them caused vegetation to stop growing. To prevent all humans from dying, Zeus allowed Demeter and Persephone to be reunited each year for a short time, thus allowing annual cycles of plant growth. The rites connected with this cult, the Eleusinian Mysteries, were held each year in Eleusis near Athens. The Orphic mystery religion of Greece began in Thrace as the orgiastic cult of Dionysus. It toned down the more savage elements of the earlier religion and added a sacred literature that offered salvation through personal purification and secret ceremonies. This religion was strongly dualist, teaching that the soul is imprisoned by the body and must be released from the body's corrupting influences. It espoused the belief that the soul can become purer through repeated reincarnations. The cult of Isis originated in Egypt, but spread throughout the Empire as it changed nature. It started as a typical Near Eastern religion, in which Isis was the goddess of heaven, earth, sea and underworld and was assisted by her husband, Osiris. In some versions of the myth, Isis brings Osiris back to life after he is killed by his brother. When Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy took power in Egypt, c. 300 B.C., he changed the religion in order to bring together Egyptian and Greek beliefs and practices. He replaced Osiris with a new god, Serapis. The religion's elaborate rituals and emphasis on human immortality made it popular, and by the mid-first century A.D. it could claim an impressive temple in the centre of the city of Rome. The cult of Cybele, the Great Mother or Corn Mother, was very popular around the Mediterranean in the New Testament era. Starting as a nature goddess in Phrygia, she came to be seen as the mother goddess of all gods. The cult's central myth taught that Cybele drives insane her human lover, Attis, when he is unfaithful to her. When Attis castrates himself and later dies, Cybele goes into mourning and so introduces death into the world. But then she preserves Attis's body from decay (or turns him into a tree), and life is restored to nature. Its most well-known ritual was the taurobolium, in which initiates lay underneath boards on which a bull was sacrificed, catching its blood on their faces and sometimes drinking the blood. Its priests typically were eunuchs, having duplicated Attis's action as part of the annual rites. The cult of Mithras originated in Persia, but it had undergone significant changes in Syria before it achieved its popular form. Roman soldiers apparently first brought it into the Empire and would eventually help carry it as far north as Britannia. Its core myth described the god Mithras springing to life from a rock, battling the sun and then slaying a bull, an act that represented the first act of creation. This slaying gave rise to the human race. Heavy with dualism, Mithraism saw humans as trapped in the struggle between good and evil. The souls of humans on earth were seven levels removed from their original home in heaven and contaminated by contact with the body. The soul that passed the tests of this life would eventually reunite with the good god. Mithras was seen as a mediator to help humans fight evil and as a judge of humans. The cult made extensive use of astrology and astrological symbols. It was the only mystery religion that called on its followers to live an ethical life. It did not share other mystery cults' notions of a life-death cycle. Mithraism would become the most important of all mystery religions in the Empire, even rivaling the popularity of Christianity for a time, but in the New Testament era it was relatively unknown. 1 James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1999), pp. 96-98. Dr Richard J. Hawes 4
Annotated Bibliography Moyer V. Hubbard, Christianity in the Greco-Roman World (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010). Hubbard s chapter on Greco-Roman religion provides an excellent overview of all the aspects concerning superstition and its attendant magical practices. He also looks at Diaspora Judaism and the Hellenistic influences that played on shaping its more superstitious elements. He deals with the Imperial cult in the chapter on City & Society. Lots of helpful NT examples.. James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1999). Jeffers chapter on religion provides a good survey of the major civic cults of the more important Greco-Roman gods. He also does an excellent job examining the various Mystery Religions with attention to their common features as well as their specific manifestations. R.M. Ogilvie, The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus (London: Chatto & Windus, 1969). A very accessible and cheap primer on Roman religion, gods and practice. Deals with civic public cults right through to private household religion. Valerie M. Warrior, Roman Religion (Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Another beautiful little primer on Roman religion. Deals with most aspects of the subject. Lavished throughout with pictures and photos, many of which are in colour. Dr Richard J. Hawes 5