LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Acts and 1 Corinthians

We normally don't think of the New Testament as Roman literature, but it is.  Like the Second-Temple Literature that we read earlier in the semester in relation to Greek culture, the New Testament comes from a marginalized sector of Rome (the cult of Jesus of Nazareth with origins in Judea and in Antioch), but it is nonetheless Roman.  So, what do the writings of the New Testament tell us about Roman culture?  How do they relate to Roman culture?  How do they relate to Greek Second-Temple Literature?

Early Christianity existed in the context of a bunch of cults that originated in the East and traveled to Rome (from Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Judea, Egypt, etc.).  As we learned from Livy, the Romans could be very superstitious, believing in omens such as the birth of two-headed snakes or of sheep with both male and female parts.  Various eastern cults traveled to Rome, one following another like fad after fad.  The reading from Turcan's Cults of the Roman Empire tells about some of these cults.

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. How did Christianity relate to the eastern cults that spread through the Roman Empire?  Compare the reading from Turcan's Cults of the Roman Empire to the readings from the New Testament.  Choose one episode from the New Testament and a similar episode described by Turcan.  How was Christianity like an eastern cult?  How was it different?
2. How does the New Testament relate to the Second-Temple Literature we discussed earlier in the semester?  What themes are similar?  Are the main characters and events of the New Testament readings similar to the main characters and events of earlier Second-Temple Literature?  Compare and contrast one character or event from each.
3. How does the New Testament relate to mainstream Roman culture?  What themes of Augustan Rome are also themes in Acts or 1 Corinthians?  Do the characters in the New Testament behave like the characters in Virgil, Ovid, or Livy?  In what ways is the New Testament different from mainstream Roman culture?  Saul of Tarsus (that is, Saint Paul) is a Roman citizen.  In what ways is he very Roman?  In what ways is he very unRoman?  Choose one or two specific episodes (from Acts or 1 Corinthians) and focus on them in your response.