Jonah Bissell

Shenoute of Atripe (b. 348), the Upper Egyptian archimandrite who governed three coenobitic monasteries near modern day Sohag, was the most prolific and sophisticated writer in the Sahidic Coptic dialect. Among his numerous discourses is a homily entitled, Against the Origenists (or I am amazed), in which he writes of the dangers of heretical teachers and apocryphal books, especially other gospels. Such rhetoric was not exclusive to Shenoute; however, he was famous for his polemical public sermons and, at times, strident rhetoric. Included within this sermon is mention of “Apa Athanasius... of true knowledge.” In his Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter (367 CE), Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, had called for a moratorium on the reading of apocryphal literature, including any gospels beyond the canonical four. Such censure of apocryphal literature was reinforced, it seems, by his papal successors: Theophilus, Cyril, and Dioscorus, the last of whom shared several encounters with Shenoute himself. Shenoute’s rhetorical censure of apocryphal gospels in Against the Origenists aligns politically with the Alexandrian patriarchate. As several scholars have shown, however, not all monastics so censured apocryphal literature, nor did they uniformly uphold Alexandrian ecclesiastical pronouncements. Shenoute’s polemic against apocrypha, i.e., his rhetorical alignment with Alexandrian orthodoxy, stands out in an Upper Egyptian monastic milieu. Through close readings of select passages in Against the Origenists, against the background of the letters of Athanasius, Theophilus, and Dioscorus, I demonstrate how Shenoute reinforces the episcopal measures begun by Athanasius and Theophilus, thus aligning his federation politically with the Alexandrian patriarchate.

Agrarians and Ecofeminists believe that our treatment of the land mirrors our treatment of one another. Our treatment of the land has been one of flattening, reducing, and commodifying, in the interests of power, domination, and control. Our treatment of other human beings, women in particular, has been one of flattening, reducing, and commodifying, in the interests of power, domination, and control. The COVID-19 global pandemic reflected a similar logic of control: human beings were commodified (and objectified) as carriers, vectors, or contaminants. Our agency, dignity, and particularity were ignored through statewide social distancing, quarantine, and self-isolation measures. Drawing from the insights of Agrarians and Ecofeminists, and attending closely to our post-pandemic moment, for pastors ‘Holy Presence’ means particularization. As industrialism, patriarchy, and pandemic exploit creation through commodification, ‘Holy Presence’ as particularization, can heal exploited congregations through anti-commodifying attention and care. In this paper, I survey the modern discourses of Agrarianism and Eco-Feminism, attending to the problems they address and the solutions they proffer. Then, I outline the commodifying power of the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing the results with those identified by the aforementioned discourses. Finally, I conclude with a formulation of ‘Holy Presence’ as particularization, informed by Agrarianism and Eco-Feminism and situated in our post-pandemic cultural moment. Ultimately, my contention is that American Baptist pastors can bring healing to their commodified and exploited congregations by reformulating (and embodying) ‘Holy Presence’ as particularization.

The word onocentaurus (“donkey-centaur”) appears three times in Greek Isaiah (and in the entire OG/LXX for that matter): Isa. 13:22, 34:11, 14. The only other literary attestation comes from the 3rd cent. CE (e.g. Aelian, De Natura Animalium, 17.9). In Greek Isaiah, the onocentaurus, is (according to James Aitken) “but one of a number of animals…to be found roaming the wilderness, translating both īy-yīm (“hyena”; Isa 13:22; 34:14a) and lī-līt (“night-demon, Lilith”; Isa 34:14b)” (No Stone Unturned, 78). Strikingly, the word is attested elsewhere in a mosaic found in Italy dated to the 1st-cent. BCE. The vividly decorated Nile Mosaic of Praeneste (Palestrina) is “divided into two parts, the upper half depicting a sandy and rocky wasteland that represents Nubia, and the lower half depicting luscious, inhabited regions that represent the Nile valley” (Aitken, 78). Among the many African animals which populate the upper half of the mosaic is “one animal atop a rock, whose antelope-like body is joined to a human head with long flowing hair” (Ibid.). Beneath this mythical creature is the iconic inscription: hē onocentaura. The translator of Greek Isaiah could have substituted the Hebrew īy-yīm with the Greek noun hūaina (“hyena”; i.e. Hdt. 4.192, Arist. HA 579b15, Ael. NA 7.22, Opp. C. 3.263; also called glanos, Arist. HA 594a31; which even denotes “antelope” in Ael. NA 15.15) and the enigmatic lī-līt could have certainly been transliterated (a custom which appears throughout the OG/LXX). Why, then, would the translator(s) of Greek Isaiah choose the mysterious term onocentaurus as their equivalent for such Hebrew nouns? To this query the following paper is devoted. First, I will survey the wide variety of proffered scholarly solutions to this question. Next, I will examine the term’s inclusion in the 1st-century (BCE) Nile Mosaic of Praeneste, attending to the mosaic in its own right more than any other scholars similarly engaged. Third, after scrupulous examination of the term in the mosaic’s art historical and religio-mythical context, I will attempt an historical reconstruction of the possible circumstances surrounding its inclusion in Greek Isaiah (13:22, 34:11, 14). On the basis of such reconstruction, lastly, I will propose a renewed interpretation of the respective Greek Isaianic texts, which, according to my proposal(s), evidence a remarkable degree of religio-mythical fluidity in antique Alexandrian religion(s).

Early Christianity through its literary remains purports to have appealed especially to slaves. Such texts, for one, depict the early church to have attracted slaves through status dissolution (e.g. Gal. 3:28/1 Cor. 12:13/Col. 3:11). For this to have worked, however, slaves must have lacked any degree of social autonomy, but as we will see, this was not always the case. Such texts also depict the church as inclusive of enslaved members (e.g. Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3:22-25; 1 Tim. 6:1-2). However, in large part, slaves in antiquity lacked control of their own bodies and were thus often unable to meet Christianity’s radical sexual standards. Such texts even depict the church as preferable to indigenous ‘pagan’ religion (e.g. Acts 17:22-34; 1 Cor. 12:2; etc.). However, in a set of inscriptions from 2nd century (CE) Greece (IG II[2] 1365-6), we meet Xanthos, an ancient slave who could have realistically joined the church. However, as the inscriptions show, Xanthos was not a Christian. The example of IG II[2] 1365-6 generates a constellation of related questions: Were slaves in antiquity drawn to Christianity? Could slaves even be so drawn? If so, could they have maintained membership in the early church, given the radical sexual ethics of the early Christian movement? In this paper, I contend that the early church was generally not congenial to (the majority of) ancient slaves. Toward this end, I examine two inscriptions from southern Greece (IG II[2] 1365-6), noting in brief what they reveal about the lived experience of ancient slaves. I, then, examine several Christian texts (1 Cor. 7:21-23; Gal. 3:28/1 Cor. 12:13/Col. 3:11) which portray the early church as attractive to slaves. I, then, return to Xanthos, comparing the preferability of local Christ-associations with indigenous ‘pagan’ cults (in this case, the Laurian cult of Mēn Tyrannos). I conclude the paper by suggesting a more nuanced picture of enslaved religious preference in Mediterranean antiquity.

The Synoptic Gospels often invoke commonplace socioeconomic realia with sophisticated literary purpose. Early Christian interpreters, however, quickly began to abstract such material from its original cultural context for use in devotional, ecclesial, and theological domains. The Gospel writers themselves even abstract such realia, transmuting its original material import for the sake of dogmatic expression. However, despite such aims one must not assume that every invocation of contemporary socioeconomic phenomena exhibits literary abstraction. On the other hand, the redactional evidence itself suggests that on some occasions the Synoptic material depends upon and even reifies invoked agrarian realities from early Roman Palestine. A prime example of this phenomenon can be found in Mark 4:24b-25 and parallels (Matt. 7:2//Lk. 6:38; Matt. 13:12//Lk. 8:18; Matt. 25:29//Lk. 19:26). The Markan text features an aphoristic dyad which both Matthew and Luke split and place in different loci of their works. Not only this, but Matthew and Luke also modify the wording of certain portions of the dyad, omitting, rearranging, and adding to the preexisting material. Given its agrarian cultural content and its strong recurrence throughout the Gospel-tradition, Mk. 4:24b-25 and parallels offers striking evidence of redactional abstraction and reification. By carefully attending to Matthean and Lukan redactions of the Markan material, one can determine where the saying’s original agrarian connotations are abstracted and where they are seemingly reified. Thus, by acknowledging the socioeconomic texture of the Markan aphorism and by tracing its redaction in Matthew and Luke, one can confidently determine the various shades of meaning evinced in each Synoptic deployment. Over the course of this paper, therefore, I will: (a) examine the literary and material inspiration(s) behind the Markan aphorism; (b) trace Matthean and Lukan redactions of the aphorism; and (c) discuss the broader interpretive possibilities our study unveils (i.e. when social-scientific methods of interpretation are exegetically warranted and when they are not).

Since the publication of Lynn White Jr.’s “the Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” (1967) Christian theologians and Biblical scholars alike have been hard pressed to search the Christian tradition for theological funding for positive ecological engagement. As a result of this endeavor, it has been revealed that the Christian tradition, identified by White as the culprit guilty for the onset and exacerbation of our current environmental crisis, has been historically misinterpreted by anthropocentric communities, whose theological formulations have resulted in an ecologically degenerative Christian dogmatics. Thus, theologians and Biblical scholars alike have tirelessly sought to reinterpret the Christian tradition revealing the ecological sensitivity espoused by the Biblical tradition itself. Among such pioneers are New Testament scholars who have attempted to read Paul’s letters ecologically, interpreting the Pauline material with a view towards positive ecological engagement. However, despite the recent surge in such ecological readings of Paul, NT scholars have consistently failed to identify and/or justify the interpretive strategies employed in their various construals of Pauline texts. The strategies employed range from: historical-critical readings of recovery, which seek to recover the original meaning of Paul’s authorial intent in attempt to generate contemporary eco-ethical action; personal-ascetical readings, which contend that modern ecological appropriation must take place through the liturgical embodiment of NT eschatological texts; doctrinal construct readings, which attempt to construct an eco-theological conceptual lens through which other Scriptural texts are interpreted and appropriated ecologically; narrative readings, which place modern readers within the substructural Pauline creation narratives to incite modern ecological activism; ethical principle strategies, which seek to identify general ethical principles from Paul’s particular situational ethics; and reconstructive readings, which seek to read Pauline scripture from the perspective of the Earth in order to construct an inventive eco-theological tradition from Christian Scripture. Given such hermeneutical diversity, if any substantive progress is to be made in the ecological interpretation of Paul, NT scholars must first identify (and/or formulate) and validate the hermeneutical strategies by which ecological interpretations can proceed. To foster such methodological progress the following paper presents a survey of all available ecological readings of Paul followed by an evaluation of each interpretive strategy according to its hermeneutical and exegetical validity. To conclude, the paper gestures towards a promising hermeneutical trajectory for future “ecological” readings. Ultimately, this paper exposes the inherent weaknesses of NT/Pauline ecological interpretation, and suggests a fruitful way forward for “ecological” engagement with the NT.

This article argues that recent scholarship has misunderstood Paul’s maternal imagery in Romans 8.18—23. It integrates modern metaphor theories with tradio-historical readings of ancient Jewish texts in attempt to discern the precise contours of Paul’s metaphorical description of Creation in vv. 19—22. This interdisciplinary investigation reveals that maternal descriptions of the Earth were quite common among Paul’s religio-literary predecessors and that his particular metaphor in Rom 8.19—22 spans wider than is commonly thought: vv. 18—23. Paul’s ‘Mother Earth’ metaphor serves the broader purpose of Rom 8 by conveying the future bodily resurrection as the Earth’s giving birth to the dead.

The provenance of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) remains an open question to scholars of early Christianity. Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor have been proffered as the most likely settings of origin (with the latter two favored especially in recent years). The educational scenes in IGT may provide helpful hints of the text's original setting. Paul Foster, however, in comparing the details of such scenes with depictions of education in literary sources, concludes that they offer no features suggestive of a particular setting of origin. However, comparison of such scenes with material depictions of ancient education may provide more geographical precision. A reexamination of the text's educational scenes vis-à-vis material-cultural evidence suggests that Egypt should be reconsidered as a viable setting of origin for IGT.