Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity - Collected Essays I

Cover

Preface

Contents

Abbreviations

Section I: Aspects of Early Christianity

Chapter 1: Why Did Jesus’ Followers Call Themselves ‘Christians’?

1. The Importance of Christ

2. Christian and pagan adhesion to one god

3. Jesus’ followers as ‘Christians’

Chapter 2: The Social and Religious Capital of the Early Christians

1. Charity

2. Interconnectedness

3. Family aspects

4. Bonding and bridging

5. Religious capital

Conclusion

Chapter 3: Why Did Early Christianity Attract Upper-class Women?

Chapter 4: Pauper or Patroness: the Widow in theEarly Christian Church

1. Jesus and the first Palestine congregations

2. The Greek world

3. The Roman world

4. Syria and Egypt

5. The Christian Empire

6. Conclusions

Chapter 5: Peregrinus’ Christian Career

Chapter 6: The Domestication of Early Christian Prophecy

1. The situation in Paul’s time

2. The situation around AD 100

3. Montanism or the revival of prophecy

4. Preliminary conclusions

5. The Ascension of Isaiah and ecstatic prophecy

Section II: Studies in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostlesand the Pseudo-Clementines

Chapter 7: Women in the Acts of John

1. Lycomedes and Cleopatra (19–29)

2. Andronicus and Drusiana (63–86)

3. Old women and widows (30–7)

4. Conclusion

Appendix: date and place of composition of the Acts of John

Chapter 8: Man, Magic, and Martyrdom in the Acts of Andrew

1. Males and females

2. Magic and exorcism

3. Martyrdom

Chapter 9: Aspects of the Acts of Peter: Women, Magic, Place and Date

1. Women

2. Demons and magic

3. Place of origin and date of the APt

Chapter 10: Magic, Martyrdom and Women’s Liberation in the Acts of Paul and Thecla

1. Paul and Thecla in Iconium

3. Paul and Thecla in Antioch

4. Composition, name, date, place of origin, author, and aims of the AP

Chapter 11: The Acts of Thomas: Place, Date and Women

1. Women

2. Women and the AAA

Chapter 12: Conversion in the Oldest Apocryphal Acts

1. The Acts of John

2. The Acts of Peter

3. The Acts of Paul

4. Conclusions and general observations

Chapter 13: Magic in the Apocryphal Acts

1. Realities and representations of magic

2. Exorcism

3. The confrontation between the apostle Peter and Simon Magus

4. Conclusions

Chapter 14: The Apocryphal Acts: Authors, Place, Time and Readership

1. Authorship, text and message

2. The chronology and place of origin of the AAA

3. Readership

Chapter 15: Pseudo-Clementines: Texts, Dates, Places, Authors and Magic

1. Text

2. Place and Date of the Grundschrift, Homilies and Recognitions

3. The Author of the Grundschrift

4. Magic

Chapter 16: Apion and Anoubion in the Homilies

1. Athenodorus

2. Annoubion

3. Appion

4. Conclusion

Section III: Apocalypses and Tours of Hell

Chapter 17: The Apocalypse of Peter: Greek or Jewish?

Chapter 18: The Apocalypse of Peter: Place, Date and Punishments

1. The Date and Place of the Apocalypse of Peter

2. Crimes and punishments

3. The nature and chronology of the tours of hell

Chapter 19: Christian Hell: From the Apocalypse of Peter to the Apocalypse of Paul

1. Date and place of origin

2. Old and new sins and sinners

3. Punishments

4. Conclusion

Chapter 20: Tours of Hell: Greek, Jewish, Roman and Early Christian

1. The Greeks

2. Palestine

3. Rome

4. Early Christianity

5. Conclusion

Chapter 21: Descents to Hell and Ascents to Heavenin Apocalyptic Literature

1. Descents in the classical world

2. An Enochic interlude

3. A descent in Rome

4. Descents in early Christianity

5. Ascent to heaven

5.1 The ascent of the soul to heaven: round trips and single journeys

5.2 Roundtrips to heaven in vision or ‘reality’

5.3 Ascent to immortal heavenly life

6. Conclusion

Section IV: The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas

Chapter 22: Perpetua and her Diary: Authenticity, Family and Visions

1. The Acta martyrum

2. The text of the Passion of Perpetua

3. Perpetua and her family

4. Perpetua’s visions

4.1 Perpetua’s Ascent to Heaven

4.2 Perpetua and her brother Dinocrates

4.3 The fight against the Egyptian

5. Conclusion

Chapter 23: Felicitas: The Martyrdom of a Young African Woman

Chapter 24: The Motivation of Martyrs: Perpetua and the Palestinians

1. The penultimate day

2. The preparations for the execution

3. The motivation of martyrs

Chapter 25: Passio Perpetuae 2, 16 and 17

2.1–2

2.3

16.1

16.2

17

Chapter 26: The Vision of Saturus in the Passio Perpetuae

1. Saturus and (the text of) his vision

2. Saturus’ welcome in heaven

3. Conversation with the clergy on earth

4. Conclusion

Chapter 27: Contextualising Heaven in Third-Century North Africa

1. The Passio Sanctorum Mariani et Iacobi

2. The court scene

3. The heavenly landscape

4. The fountain and the cup

5. Marian’s heaven

Acknowledgements

Index of names, places and passages