Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

5) Lucian of Samosata (ca. 125 CE – after 180 CE, maybe as late as 200 CE) refers to the fable twice, apparently as familiar to his readers. Remarks addressed to an illiterate book-fancier , 30, (ca. 170 CE) he writes: “So it is with you [the ignorant book collector]: you might, to be sure, lend you...

These four examples (well, 3 & 4 are related, depending on whether Herodotus/Cyrus was alluding to a saying attributed to a real "Aesop", or "Aesop" is just a collective name for these kind of moralistic animal fables) were all that I could come up with off the top of my head...

4) Aesop's Fables 290. The Fisherman and his Pipe , translated by Laura Gibbs (2002) There was once a fisherman who saw some fish in the sea and played on his pipe, expecting them to come out onto the land. When his hopes proved false, he took a net and used it instead, and in this way he was able t...

3) Herodotus, Histories , book 1.141.1-4, citing Cyrus the Great response to the Greeks who wanted to become allied with him now that he had defeated Lydia, but who had previously snubbed his request that they desert to his side: 1 As soon as the Lydians had been subjugated by the Persians, the Ioni...

2) Plutarch, Lives 39, quoting Roman politician Tiberius Gracchus: "The wild beasts of Italy have their caves to retire to; but the brave men who spill their blood in her cause have nothing left but air and light. Without houses, without any settled habitations, they wander from place to place ...

1) Plato, Phaedrus 233d-e "[233d] Besides, if you ought to grant favors to those who ask for them most eagerly, you ought in other matters also to confer benefits, not on the best, but on the most needy; for they will be most grateful, since they are relieved of the greatest ills. And then, too...

It is an interesting topic. ... Some time in the Fourth century, it appears the cross symbol was associated with crucifixion. Hi Jay! I wonder if the adoption of the "T" shape was related to the number symbolism found in epistle of Barnabas, in which the number of the members of Abraham's...

Some of you may be interested in this book, the title of which I just saw announced: Cook, John Granger. Crucifixion in the Mediterranean world. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 327. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015. xxiv, 522 p. € 69.00 (pb). ISBN 9783161537646. Golly, I'm interest...

DCH, I like the idea that Origen misread or misheard this account about Ananus. Everything Origen says about "James" is said about Ananus there; also notice that Ananus is associated with someone named "Jesus" who was "also joined with him ... although he was inferior to hi...

Eusebius allegedly quotes Josephus thus: “ These things (fall of Jerusalem) happened to the Jews to avenge Jacob the Just, who was the brother of Jesus called Christ, and whom the Jews had slain, although he was a man most distinguished for his justice .” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History , Book 2,...