Ahearne-Kroll Stephen P., Holloway Paul A., Kelhoffer James A. (eds.). Women and Gender in Ancient Religions: Interdisciplinary Approaches. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck),2010. — 518 p.. 2010

The past twenty years or so has seen a healthy blossoming of work on an­cient Mediterranean religions - and I especially wish to draw attention to the plural noun with which I ended that phrase: one important advance has been an enhanced appreciation of the fact that ancient Mediterranean reli­gions must be studied in the same way as they were often practiced: in concert with one another. As Carin Green reminds us in her essay in this volume, to do otherwise is to institute a “divide that is utterly false to the subjects themselves.” Several new Program Units at the American Acade­my of Religion and the Society for Biblical Literature have explicitly set out to address ancient religions from a comparative perspective or to ques­tion traditionally acceptable divisions between Judaism and Christianity, Christianity and various paganisms, or within the paganisms (or Christiani­ties and Judaisms for that matter) themselves. Established graduate pro­grams have added comparative requirements to their curricula; newer graduate programs have been founded on the premise that no ancient Mediterranean religion can be studied in isolation from the others.

και ουδενι ουδεν είπαν έφοβοΐιντο γάρ. (Mark 16:8b)

Introduction

An Unnamed Woman Anoints Jesus for Burial (14:3-9)

The Women at the Empty Tomb as Continuation of the Persona and Failures of the Twelve (15:40-16:8)

Conclusion: Discipleship and Gender in Mark

Motherhood and the Making of Fathers in Antiquity

Contextualizing Genetics in the Gospel of John

Turid Karlsen Seim

We know surprisingly little about the role of women at childbirth in antiq­uity.

Ancient Genetics: Observations and Paternal Claims

Post-natal Rituals: Viability and Paternal Potestas

Generation in the Gospel of John

Concluding Observations

Embryology, Plant Biology, and Divine Generation in the Fourth Gospel[347] [348]

Clare K. Rothschild

How many Flowers fail in Wood - Or perish from the Hill Without the privilege to know That they are Beautiful -

How many cast a nameless Pod Upon the nearest Breeze - Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight - It bear to other eyes -

Emily Dickinson, 1863

Introduction

History of Research

Three Prolegomena

Critical Analysis

Parthenogenesis among Nag Hammadi Texts

Blaming the Women

Women at Herod’s Court in Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities 15.23-231

Jan Willem van Henten

Discussions of ongoing research with colleagues are crucial for sharpening one’s critical mind.

The Portraits of Mariamme and Aristoboulus (Ant. 15.23-31)

The Order to Execute Mariamme (Ant. 15.57-87)

Salome Scheming for Mariamme’s Death

Conclusion

To Bear or Not to Bear

The Argument for Abstinence in the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians

Robert Doran

The sayings of the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians are found scattered in the third book of the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria.[540]

The Order of the Sayings

The Rhetoric of the Dialogue

Conclusion

Blood Ties

Martyrdom, Motherhood, and Family in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity[564]

Candida R. Moss

Introduction

Families Rejected

Absentee Fathers

Families Reconstituted

Conclusion

A New Web for Arachne and a New Veil for the Temple

Women and Weaving from Athena to the Virgin Mary[614]

Jeremy F. Hultin

In her elegant and erudite paper, “A New Web for Arachne,”[615] Sarah Iles Johnston has teased out an extraordinary web of significations from a brief epitome of the story of Arachne and Phalanx.

Part II: Ritual Victimology Or, How to Deal with Untimely Death

Fritz Graf

My contribution to this festive volume deals with untimely death and one specific ancient reaction to it, the accusation of sorcery.

Blaming the Witch

Forget Me Not

Memory and the Female Subject in Ancient Binding Spells

Stephen J. Davis

A Case of Unrequited Desire: Hermeias and Tigerous

The Malleability of Memory: From Modernity to Antiquity

Ancient Spells Designed to Enhance One’s Own Memory (Mnemonikai)

Ancient Binding Spells (Agogai) Designed to Manipulate the Memory of Another

An Incorporating Practice: Memory, the Body, and the Female Subject in Ancient Binding Spells

Women and Eros in Greek Magic and the Acts of Paul and Thecla

Matt Jackson-McCabe

Stephen Davis finds a significant intersection between memory, body, and gender in the magical papyri of Greco-Roman Egypt.

Gender and the Body in Greek Love Magic

Agoge Spells, Thecla, and the Interpretation of Christ Devotion as Magic

Holding the Line Women, Ritual and the Protection of Rome[795]

Part III: Logo

Gender and Grief

Seneca’s Ad Marciam and Ad Helviam matrem

Paul A. Holloway

You are expecting words of comfort? Here’s a scolding instead: “You are taking your son’s death like a woman!” Seneca, Ep. 99.2

On the Nature of Ancient Consolation

Seneca’s Ad Marciam and Ad Helviam matrem

Conclusion

Religious Experience, the Religion of Paul, and Women in Pauline Churches

Christopher N. Mount

According to Paul in 1 Cor 12:3, ούδει$ δυναται είπείν Κύριος Ιησούς, εί μη εν πνευματι άγίω (“No one is able to say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ unless possessed by the holy spirit”).[944]

The Religion of Paul

Apostles, Prophets, and Shamans

The Apologetics of Religious Experience

Spirit Possession and Women in Pauline Churches

The Example of Thecla and the Example(s) of Paul

Disputing Women’s Role in Early Christianity

Outi Lehtipuu

Around the year 200 C.E., Tertullian of Carthage ran into difficulties with a certain, otherwise unknown woman, a visiting teacher in the city.

Paul and Women - An Ambiguous Legacy

The Pastoral Epistles: Silencing Women with Male Authority

The Acts of Paul and Thecla: Empowering Women to Act

Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Social Reality of Early Christian Women

Asceticism and Autonomy?

Celibacy vs. Married Life

Women as Leaders

Conclusion: Contending for the Legacy of Paul and Thecla

Sophrosyne for Women in Pythagorean Texts

Annette Bourland Huizenga

Introduction

Sdphrosyne in the Texts Ascribed to Pythagorean Women

Sophrosyne for Men and Women

Additional Evidence and Implications

Becoming the Perfect Man

Clement of Alexandria on the Philosophical Life of Women[1205]

Judith L. Kovacs

Introduction: Clement on Women

Stromateis, Book 4 as Context of the Four Chapters on Women

Stromateis 4, Chapter 8 and the Interpretation of Galatians 3:28

The Meaning of φιλοσοφεω: Cultivating the Philosophical Life

Clement and the Language of Gender in the Greco-Roman World

Stoic Household Theory and Clement’s Citations from Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5

Becoming “Equal to the Angels” (Luke 20:34-36) and the “Perfect Man” (Eph 4:13)

Stromateis 4, Chapters 19-21: Virtuous Women and the Meaning of μαρτυρία

Conclusion: Saint Paul, the Language of Gender, and the Philosophical Life of Women

The Spirit as Mother in Early Syriac-Speaking Christianity

Susan E. Myers

Early Christian authors from the richly expressive religious environment of northern Mesopotamia were comfortable appropriating images of the femi­nine spirit of God known from the Hebrew tradition and developing their own language and images for her.

A. Feminine Language for Spirit: A Survey of Sources

B. Earliest Sources

Development of the Images in the Acts of Thomas

Syrian Authors from the Classical Period

Conclusion

List of Contributors

Index of Ancient Texts

Index of Modern Authors

Books and textbooks on the discipline History of religions:

1. Behera Maguni C. (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Readings on Tribe and Religions in India: Emerging Negotiations. Routledge,2024. — 502 p. - 2024 ãîä
2. Brodd Jeffrey, Little L., Nystrom B., Platzner R., Shek R., Stiles E.. Invitation to World Religions. 4th edition. — Oxford University Press,2022. — 1196 p. - 2022 ãîä
3. Ambasciano L.. An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-Truth and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge. Bloomsbury Academic,2019. — 280 p. - 2019 ãîä
4. Aldhouse-Green Miranda. Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain. Thames & Hudson,2018. — 256 p. - 2018 ãîä
5. Bell Michael. City of the Good: Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What is Right. Princeton University Press,2018. — 360 p. - 2018 ãîä
6. Bhayro Siam, Rider Catherine (eds.). Demons and Illness from Antiquity to the Early-Modern Period. Leiden, Boston: Brill,2017. — xiv, 434 p. - 2017 ãîä
7. Blakely S. (ed.). Gods, Objects, and Ritual Practice. Lockwood Press,2017. — 371 p. - 2017 ãîä
8. Bredholt Christensen Lisbeth, Hammer Olav, Warburton David. The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe. Acumen,2013. — 456 p. - 2013 ãîä
9. Bommas M., Harrisson J., Roy Ph. (Eds.). Memory and Urban Religion in the Ancient World. Bloomsbury Academic,2012. — 312 p. - 2012 ãîä
10. Annus Amar (ed.). Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,2010. — viii, 352 p. - 2010 ãîä
11. Cox Robert E.. Creating the Soul Body: The Sacred Science of Immortality. Inner Traditions,2008. — 288 p. - 2008 ãîä
12. Clothey Fred W.. Religion in India: a Historical Introduction. Routledge,2007. — 300 p. - 2007 ãîä
13. Asad Talal. Formation of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford University Press,2003. — 269 p. - 2003 ãîä
14. Benko Stephen. The Virgin Goddess Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology. Leiden: Brill, 2003 - 2003 ãîä
15. Carroll Brett. The Routledge Historical Atlas of Religion in America. Routledge,2000. — 144 p. - 2000 ãîä
16. Burkert Walter. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. 3rd Edition. — Harvard University Press,1998. — 272 p. - 1998 ãîä
17. Clarke Peter et al. (eds.). The World's Religions. Routledge,1988. — 995 p. - 1988 ãîä
18. Asimov Isaac. Words in Genesis. Houghton Mifflin,1962. — 257 p. - 1962 ãîä

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