Early Christianity in Pompeian Light: People, Texts, Situations

273 Pages·2016·17.26 MB·English

by  Bruce W. Longenecker

New evidence from the ashes
Scholars of early Christianity are awakening to the potential of Pompeii’s treasures for
casting light on the settings and situations that were commonplace and conventional for
the first urban Christians. The uncovered world of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, allows us to peer back in time, capturing a heightened sense
of what life was like on the ground in the first century— the very time when the early
Jesus-movement was beginning to find its feet. In light of the Vesuvian material remains,
historians are beginning to ask fresh questions of early Christian texts and perceive new
contours, nuances, and subtleties within the situations those texts address.
The essays of this book explore different dimensions of Pompeii’s potential to refine our
lenses for interpreting the texts and situations of early Christianity. The contributors to
this book demonstrate that it is an exciting time to explore the interface between the Vesu-
vian contexts and the early Jesus-movement. 
CONTENTS
Part I. Envisioning Situations
1. Growing Up Female in the Pauline Churches: What Did She Do All Day?
—Carolyn Osiek
2. Nine Types of Church in Nine Types of Space in the Insula of the Menander
—Peter Oakes
3. The Empress, the Goddess, and the Earthquake: Atmospheric Conditions
Pertaining to Jesus-Devotion in Pompeii—Bruce W. Longenecker
Part II. Enhancing Texts
4. Powers and Protection in Pompeii and Paul: The Apotropaic Function
of the Cross in the Letter to the Galatians—Natalie R. Webb
5. Violence in Pompeian/Roman Domestic Art as a Visual Context for Pauline
and Deutero-Pauline Letters—David L. Balch
6. Spheres and Trajectories: The Angels of the Churches (Revelation 1–3)
in Context—Jeremiah N. Bailey
Bruce W. Longenecker is professor and W. W. Melton Chair of Religion at Baylor Uni-
versity. He formerly taught at St. Andrews, Cambridge, and Durham Universities. He is
the author of numerous publications, including The Crosses of Pompeii: Jesus-D evotion in
a Vesuvian Town (2016), The Cross before Constantine: The Early Life of a Christian Symbol
(2015), both from Fortress Press.
RELIGION / EARLY CHRISTIANITY
LONGENECKER Early Christianity in Pompeian Light
Early Christianity in Pompeian Light
Early Christianity in
Pompeian Light
People, Texts, Situations
Bruce Longenecker, editor
Fortress Press
Minneapolis
EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN POMPEIAN LIGHT
People, Texts, Situations
Copyright © 2016 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations
in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
without prior written permission from the publisher. Visit
http://www.augsburgfortress.org/copyrights/ or write to Permissions, Augsburg
Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.
Cover image: Photo: Osiek Figure/Daily Life/Bruce W. Longenecker
Cover design: Laurie Ingram
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Print ISBN: 978-1-4514-9010-7
eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-1897-1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z329.48-1984.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
This book was produced using Pressbooks.com, and PDF rendering was done by
PrinceXML.
For Andrew Wallace-Hadrill
Also from Fortress Press
Bruce W. Longenecker,
The Crosses of Pompeii: Jesus-Devotion in a Vesuvian Town (2016)
The Cross before Constantine: The Early Life of a Christian Symbol (2015)
Peter Oakes,
Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul’s Letter at Ground Level (2013)
ix
Contents
ix
Editor’s Preface xi
Part I. Envisioning Situations
1. Growing Up Female in the Pauline Churches: What 3
Did She Do All Day?
Carolyn Osiek
2. Nine Types of Church in Nine Types of Space in the 23
Insula of the Menander
Peter Oakes
3. The Empress, the Goddess, and the Earthquake: 59
Atmospheric Conditions Pertaining to
Jesus-Devotion in Pompeii
Bruce W. Longenecker
Part II. Enhancing Texts
4. Powers and Protection in Pompeii and Paul: 93
The Apotropaic Function of the Cross in
the Letter to the Galatians
Natalie R. Webb