| More clearly, Pilate, like most provincial officials, 9850 was probably politically ambitious and hence could ill afford too many bad reports about himself. 9851 In contrast with many of his peers in office, being only an equestrian left him especially vulnerable apart from Sejanus " s patronage. 9852 More to the point, Pilate had already incurred the hatred of the Jewish people (e.g., Josephus War 2.169–177; Ant. 18.55–62) and on some other occasions had backed down to pacify them (Philo Embassy 301–302; Josephus War 2.171–174; Ant. 18.59), especially if threatened with appeal to the emperor (Philo Embassy 304–305; cf. John 19:12 ). Thus Pilate was not only cruel but, like many bullies, fearful of exposure to those in authority over him. 9853 If anything, this situation would probably require Pilate in time to become more, rather than less, cooperative with the more powerful of his subjects (cf. John 19:12–13 ); to fail to prosecute a potential revolutionary, accused by the leaders of his own people, could lay Pilate himself open to the charge of maiestas. 9854 Even the suspicion of treason could be fatal under Tiberius, especially under Sejanus " s influence, and despite Sejanus " s patronage, he likely would not risk it. 9855 Further, although Jesus may have proved politically innocuous, 9856 cooperation with the local aristocracy would be politically more advantageous; that he survived as governor until 36 C.E., 9857 long after his patron " s demise, suggests that he had belatedly acquired some political savvy. Even a better governor might have executed a potential troublemaker without much evidence, especially under pressure. 9858 This was, after all, the provinces, not Rome. In any case, the hearing before Pilate is brief, and the execution swift (a few hours later). Though less explicitly than Matthew, John employs the catchword παραδδωμι to portray a whole web of guilt implicating Judas (6:64, 71; 12:4; 13:2,11, 21; 18:2, 5, 36), the Jerusalem aristocrats (18:30,35; 19:11), and Pilate (19:16). |
| On the first Sunday of Lent, our Holy Church celebrates the Triumph of Orthodoxy, of true faith, which trampled down all heresies and was established. For this reason this Sunday is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Heresies showed up even at the very beginning of Christianity. The Apostles of Christ themselves warned their contemporaries, and with them us too, about the danger of false teachers. The Holy Apostle Peter writes the following in his Second General Epistle: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed”(II Pet. 2:1-2). St. Paul, returning to Palestine from Greece, made a stop in Ephesus. To the the Christian inhabitants of the town there he said: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29-30). Many such false teachers and schismatics existed in the first centuries of Christianity. Some heresies troubled the Church for centuries, such as the heresies of Arius, of Macedonius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, of Nestorius and also the heresy of Iconoclasm. These heresies caused much disturbance in the Church and afflicted the Church greatly. There were many confessors and martyrs who shed their blood defending the true faith in the fight against false teachers and heretics. There were also many great prelates, who also suffered under persecution and were often exiled. Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, for example, in a council chaired by Dioscorus, called the Robber Synod and was “beaten so savagely that he died three days later.” The last in the line-up of heresies, the heresy of Iconoclasm, was the one that tormented our Orthodox Church the most. This heresy first appeared during the reign of Emperor Leo the Isaurian, who came to the throne in 717. He ascended the throne with the help of the army, which had many opponents of those who venerate holy icons, within its ranks. Because he wanted to please the army he started a harsh persecution against Iconophiles. |
| 357 The chief sources in English are: Ronald Bainton. Christian Attitudes to War and Peace. A Historical Survey and Critical Re-Evaluation. Nashville. 1960; C. J. Cadoux. The Early Christian Attitude to War. Oxford, 1919 (repr. NY. 1982); A von Harnack. Militia Christi: The Christian Religion and the Military in the First Three Centuries. (tr. D. M. Gracie. Philadelphia. 1980: original German ed. 1905; H. A. Deane. The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine. New York. 1963 (chs. 5–6); J. Helgeland. Christians and Military Service: AD 173–337. PhD Diss. University of Chicago. 1973. (summarized in Idem. “Christians and the Roman Army. AD. 173–337.” Church History. 43. June 1974. 149–161; J. M. Hornus. It is Not Lawful for me to Fight: Early Christian Attitudes to War, Violence and the State. (trs. A. Kreider & O. Coburn). Scottsdale, PA, 1980; H. T. McElwain. Augustine’s Doctrine of War in Relation to Earlier Ecclesiastical Writers. Rome, 1972; T. S. Miller & J. Nesbitt (eds). Peace and War in Byzantium. Essays in Honor of G. T. Dennis. CUA Press. Washington, 1995; E. A. Ryan. “The Rejection of Military Service by the Early Christians.” Theological Studies. 13. 1952. 1–32; W. R. Stevenson. Christian Love and Just War: Moral Paradox and Political Life in St. Augustine and his Modern Interpreters. Macon. GA, 1987. 358 L. J. Swift. The Early Fathers on War and Military Service. (Message of the Fathers of the Church. Vol. 19). 1983. Wilmington, DE. 360 See: M. Chatzidakis. The Cretan Painter Theophanes: The Wall-Paintings of the Holy Monastery of Stavronikita. Thessaloniki. (published on Mount Athos). 1986. 361 Cf. J. E. Damon. Soldier Saints and Holy Warriors: Warfare and Sanctity in the Literature of Early England. Aldershot. Ashgate Press, 2003. 362 Helgeland (1973. p. 17.) illustrates how both Harnack and Cadoux’s works progress from this shared presupposition despite their different perspectives on the issue of pacifism as a general Christian ideal. (Cadoux regarded Harnack as having soft-pedaled the Church’s early peace witness). |
| Photo: Freepik.com What influences us most in our lives? Who are the people or figures who consciously or maybe unconsciously influence us? We all are surely influenced by a variety people, by certain ideologies, by contemporary movements or fads, by the things that surround us. There are societal influences, financial influences, political influences, cultural influences, and individual influences. I think of what we see on the internet and how we engage with social media. Who are the popular characters and figures who persuade countless people, who sway us and affect our worldview, our understanding of success and happiness and meaning and life itself. I googled to see who are the most famous people in the world today. Celebrities like Will Smith, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Selena Gomez, Oprah Winfrey or the Kardashian. Entertainers like Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift or Justin Beiber. Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. Athletes like Lebron James, Tom Brady, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Politicians turned demagogues like Donald Trump (I was just in vacation at Myrtle Beach and found it quite strange how there were numerous Trump Superstores; what other politician ever had stores like that?). Even previously unknown young teenagers like Charli and Dixie Damelio have become influencers among the youth through Tiktok fame. What do these figures represent? How do they influence us, in conscious or often in unconscious ways? Do we envy their rich and famous lifestyles? Do we dream about the freedom they have to do whatever they want? And because they have an oversized platform, do we give their voice more credence and importance than we should? This past week I learned about Andrew Tate, one of the most popular social media personalities over the past six months. He is a former world champion kickboxer who probably very few people knew about back in March, and yet, over the past half year videos of him have been watched more than 11 billion times! He’s a savvy entrepreneur who knows how to market himself with his façade as a rich, tough, do-whatever-I-want man’s man who makes outrageous, misogynic, and terribly dangerous statements about women. The disturbing part, however, is that millions of people, especially male teens and young men, watch this man, find his offensive comments funny, and are unconsciously manipulated by his behavior. |
| The more radical groups, led by Al-Nusra Front, give the appearance of having studied guerrilla warfare as it occurred elsewhere. Among other things, they have learned that to stay alive, much less to win their battles, guerrillas must earn the support of the people; in areas they control, they provide essential services. Overall, these add up to an alternative government. As the most venturesome and best informed of the foreign media reporters witnessed: The al-Nusra Front, the principle [sic] jihadi rebel group in Syria, defies the cliche of Islamist fighters around the Middle East plotting to establish Islamic caliphates from impoverished mountain hideaways. In northeastern Syria, al-Nusra finds itself in command of massive silos of wheat, factories, oil and gas fields, fleets of looted government cars and a huge weapons arsenal. The commander talked about the services al-Nusra is providing to Shadadi's residents. First, there is food: 225 sacks of wheat, baked into bread and delivered to the people every day through special teams in each neighbourhood. Then there is free electricity and water, which run all day throughout the town. There is also al-Nusra healthcare, provided from a small clinic that treats all comers, regardless of whether they have sworn allegiance to the emirate or not. Finally, there is order and the promise of swift justice, delivered according to sharia law by a handful of newly appointed judges. All observers agree that the foreign-controlled and foreign-constituted insurgent groups are the most coherent, organized, and effective. This is little short of astonishing as they share no common language and come from a wide variety of cultures. In one operation, which I mention below, the cooperating groups were made up of Chechens, Turks, Tajiks, Pakistanis, French, Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisians, Saudi Arabians, and Moroccans. Paradoxically, governments that would have imprisoned the same activists in their own countries have poured money, arms, and other forms of aid into their coffers. The list is long and surprising in its makeup: it includes Turkey; the conservative Arab states, particularly Qatar and Saudi Arabia; the EU member states; and the U.S. |
| Фелл стал персонажем известного четверостишия Томаса Брауна, начинающегося словами “Я не люблю вас, доктор Фелл” и т. д 145 Fox A. John Mill and Richard Bentley, a Study of the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, 1675–1729. Oxford, 1954. 146 Witby D. Examen variantium lectionum J. Millii. London, 1709. Английский деист Энтони Коллинз (Anthony Collins) (1676–1729) действительно поднимал вопрос об авторитетности Св. Писания, ссылаясь на столь огромное число разночтений (“A Discourse of Freethinking”. London, 1713). Последствия, к которым могли привести такие размышления, получили отражение в сатирическом эссе Дж. Свифта “An Argument against the Abolition of Christianity”, где он описывает некоего развратника, “который слышал о тексте, принесенном для доказательства существования Св. Троицы, о которой в древней рукописи писалось иначе; он тотчас сообразил и сделал вывод “Если все так, как ты говоришь, я спокойно могу и дальше пить, спать с женщинами и не обращать внимания на священников” (Swift Jonathan. Works. III. Edinburgh, 1814, pp. 199). 147 О содержании этого издания Уэллса можно судить по подробному описанию на титульных листах. Часть его мы приводим ниже: “В помощь тем, кто стремится глубже постичь Св. Писание. Тексты св. Луки: его Евангелия и Деяния Апостолов, даются по следующей схеме: I. Первоначальный греческий текст, исправленный в соответствии с более древними и точными чтениями. II. Общепринятый английский перевод, уточненный в соответствии с оригиналом. III. Парафраза, в которой не только объясняются трудные места и выражения, но также каждая книга делится на главы и абзацы; рассматриваются также и дополнения к Евангелиям от Матфея и Марка, сохраненные Лукой в своем Евангелии. В конце каждой книги приводится краткий обзор содержания. IV. Замечания (по мере необходимости), относящиеся к “Several Particulars”. Oxford, 1719”. 148 Текст памфлета см. Gregory С . R. Prolegomena (том III издания Тишен-дорфа “Novum Testamentum Graece”, ed. critica octava maior; Leipzig, 1884–1894), pp. 231–240. |
| 115). “In contrast to the years that must be spent to master other religious disciplines and Yoga, which offer the same results that TM proponents claim, teachers say TM can be taught in a matter of minutes” (pp. 110–111). Some who have experienced it describe it as a “state of fulfillment” similar to some drug experiences (p. 85), but the Maharishi himself describes it in traditional Hindu terms: “This state lies beyond all seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting – beyond all thinking and feeling. This state of the unmanifested, absolute, pure consciousness of Being is the ultimate state of life” (p. 23). “When an individual has developed the ability to bring this deep state to the conscious level on a permanent basis, he is said to have reached cosmic consciousness, the goal of all meditators” (p. 25). In the advanced stages of “TM” the basic Yoga positions are taught, but they are not necessary to the success of the basic technique; nor is any ascetic preparation required. Once one has attained the “transcendental state of being,” all that is required of one is twenty minutes of meditation twice daily, since this form of meditation is not at all a separate way of life, as in India, but rather a discipline for those who lead an active life. The Maharishi’s distinction lies in having brought this state of consciousness to everyone, not just a chosen few. There are numerous success stories for “TM,” which claims to be effective in almost all cases: drug habits are overcome, families are reunited, one becomes healthy and happy; the teachers of TM are constantly smiling, bubbling over with happiness. Generally, TM does not replace other religions, but strengthens belief in almost anything; “Christians,” whether Protestant or Catholic, also find that it makes their belief and practice more meaningful and deeper (p. 105). The swift and easy success of “TM,” while it is symptomatic of the waning influence of Christianity on contemporary mankind, has also led to its early decline. |
| Rossi S. Minucio, Giustino e Tertulliano nel loro rapporti col culto di Mitra//Giornale italiano di filologia. 1963.16. 1.17–29 p. Rudolf K. Die Gnosis. Leipzig, 1977. Rudolf K. Gnosis und Spätantike Religionsgeschichte. Gesammelte Aufsätze. Leiden, 1995. Schelowsky G. Der Apologet Tertullianus in seinem Verhältnis zu der griechisch-römischen Philosophie. Leipzig, 1901. Schneider A. Le premier livre «Ad nationes» de Tertullien. Neuchätel, 1968. Schenke H.-M. The problem of Gnosis//The second Century. 1983. P. 72–87. Seliga S. De conviciis Tertullianeis//Eos. Kwartalnik klasyczny. Organ polskiego towarzystwa filologicznego. 1936. Vol. 37. Fase. 3. P. 267–273. Sider R. D. Ancient rhetoric and the art of Tertullian. Oxford, 1971. Sidwell K. Reading Medieval Latin. Cambridge, 1995. Simon M.-Benoit A. Le judäisme et le christianisme antique. Paris, 1968. Stroumsa G. A. Another seed: studies in Gnostic mythology. Leiden, 1984. Swift L. J. Forensic Rhetoric in Tertullian’s Apologeticum//Latomus. Revue d’etudes latines. Tertullian. Adversus Marcionem/Edited and translated by E. Evans. I–II. Oxford, 1972. Timothy H. The early Christian apologists and Greek philosophy. Assen, 1973. Walker B. Gnosticism. Its history and influence. Wellingborough, 1983. Waszink J. H. Tertullian’s principies and methods of exegesis//Early Christian literature and the classical intellectual tradition. Paris, 1979. P. 17–31. Weber E. Zwei Gedanken zum Mithraskult//Hyperboreus. 2001. Vol. 7. Fase. 1–2. P. 329–331. Wellstein M. Nova verba in Tertullians Schriften gegen die Häretiker aus montanistischer Zeit. Stuttgart; Leipzig, 1999. Williams M. A. Rethinking Gnosticism. An argument for dismantling a dubious category. Princeton, 1994. Wilson R. McL. Gnosis and the New Testament. Oxford, 1968. Wilson R. McL. The Gnostic problem. A study of the relations between Hellenistic Judaism and the Gnostic heresy. London, 1958. Wilson R. McL. The Gnostics and the Old Testament//Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Gnosticism. Stockholm, 1973. Leiden, 1977. |
| Byzantines 16. 1958. P. 158–161. Reisinger E. C. The Law and the Gospel. Phillipsburg, NJ, 1997. Salaville S. An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Liturgies. London, 1938. Schilbach E. Byzantinische Metrologie. München, 1970. Schnackenburg R. The Gospel according to St John. Vol. 1. Montreal, 1968; Vol. 2. New York, 1980; Vol. 3. New York, 1982. Schuchard B. G. Scripture within Scripture. The Interpretation of Form and Function in the Explicit Old Testament Citations in the Gospel of John. Atlanta, 1992. Schulz H.-J. The Byzantine Liturgy. New York, 1986. Smets A., Van Esbroeck M. Introduction//SC 160, 13–126. Stuckenbruck L. T. Satan and Demons//Jesus among Friends and Enemies. A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels/Ed. by C. Keith and L. W. Hurtado. Grand Rapids, 2011. P. 173–197. Stuckwisch, D. R. The Basilian Anaphoras//Essays on Early Eastern Eucharistic Prayer/Ed. P. Bradshawp. Collegeville, 1997. P. 109–130. Swift E.H. Hagia Sophia. New York, 1940. Tabory J. Towards a History of the Paschal Meal//Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times/Ed. P. Bradshaw, L. Hoffmann. Notre-Dame, Indiana, 1999. Taft R. Byzantine Communion Spoons: A Review of the Evidence//DOP 50. 1996. P. 209–238. Taft R. F. Ho Monogenes//The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford; New York, 1991. Vol. 2. P. 1397. Taft R. F. St. John Chrysostom and the Byzantine Anaphora that Bears his Name//Essays on Early Eastern Eucharist Prayers/Ed. P. F. Bradshaw. Collegeville, 1997. P. 195–226. Taft R. F. The Communion, Thanksgiving, and Concluding Rites. R., 2008 (A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; Vol. 6). (Orientalia Christiana Periodica; 281) Taft R. The Diptychs (A History of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. Vol. 4). OCA 238 . Roma, 1991. Taft R. F. The Great Entrance: A History of the Transfer of Gifts and Other Preanaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. R., 19782 (A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; Vol. 2). (Orientalia Christiana Periodica; 200) |
| Jim Jones himself was unquestionably in touch with the mainstream of today’s religious-political world. His religious background as a “prophet” and “healer” capable of fascinating and dominating a certain kind of unsettled, “searching” modern man (chiefly lower-class urban blacks), gave him a respected place in the American religious spectrum, rather more acceptable in our more tolerant times than his hero of an earlier generation, “Father Divine.” His innumerable “good deeds” and unexpectedly generous gifts to the needy made him a leading representative of “liberal” Christianity and drew the attention of the liberal political establishment in California, where his influence increased with every year. His personal admirers included the Mayor of San Francisco, the Governor of California, and the wife of the President of the United States. His Marxist political philosophy and commune in Guyana placed him in the respectable political avant-garde; the lieutenant governor of California personally inspected Jonestown and was favorably impressed by it, as were other outside observers. Although there were complaints, especially in the last year or two, against Jones’ sometimes violent way of dominating his followers, even this aspect of Jonestown was within the limits allowed by the liberal West for contemporary Communist governments, which are not looked on with too great disfavor even for liquidating some hundreds or thousands or millions of dissenters. Jonestown was a thoroughly “modern,” a thoroughly contemporary experiment; but what was the significance of its spectacular end? The contemporary phenomenon that is perhaps closest in spirit to the Jonestown tragedy is one that at first sight might not be associated with it: the swift and brutal liquidation by the Cambodian Communist government, in the name of humanity’s bright future, of perhaps two million innocent people – one-fourth or more of the total population of Cambodia. This “revolutionary genocide,” perhaps the most deliberate and ruthless case of it yet in the bloody 20th century, is an exact parallel to the “revolutionary suicide” 63 in Jonestown: in both cases the sheer horror of mass death is justified as paving the way for the perfect future promised by Communism for a “purified” humanity. |
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