Papers by John Granger Cook
Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World
Biblische Zeitschrift, 2015
Religions, 2025
Eusebius transmits a fragment of Porphyry's Contra Christianos in which the philosopher claimed t... more Eusebius transmits a fragment of Porphyry's Contra Christianos in which the philosopher claimed that a disease or plague (νóσoς) had seized the city for many years because there was no longer any sojourn (ἐπιδηµία) of Asclepius and the gods there. Since Jesus was honored, no one experienced any public help from the gods. Porphyry's claim that Asclepius and the gods no longer dwelt in Rome resembles one of the elements of the ancient Roman ritual of evocatio, in which the tutelary deities were called out of a city by a Roman commander. It is only an analogy, since the Christians did not promise the tutelary deities that their images would be carried to their own city and given a cult, and they certainly did not make use of an obscure Roman military ceremony. Whether or not the ritual was practiced in the Imperium is not the central question of this article. Instead I wish to show that the implicit debate between Eusebius and Porphyry alludes to similar arguments between pagans and Christians in antiquity and that there are important analogies between Porphyry's argument about the departure of Rome's tutelary gods due to the presence of worship of the Christian deity in the city and the ritual of evocatio.
Salome's Dance and the Question of Historical Plausibility
Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, 2024
The Markan account of Salome’s dance before the Herodian court is historically plausible. There i... more The Markan account of Salome’s dance before the Herodian court is historically plausible. There is a logical gap, however, between what is historically plausible and what is historically probable. Roman (i.e., pagan) and Jewish individuals that were high born and low born – both men and women – could occasionally dance. Sometimes those dances were seen as transgressive according to Roman mores. Sometimes they occurred in the context of festivals. Mark describes Salome’s dance in such a context. The narrative explains Herod’s puzzlement about Jesus’ identity and his view that Jesus is Iohannes redivivus and is significant for historical Jesus research because Mark uses it to foreshadow Jesus’ own death for seditio.
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 2024
The scholarly community has generally concluded that Jub. 23:29-31 does not envision a resurrecti... more The scholarly community has generally concluded that Jub. 23:29-31 does not envision a resurrection of the dead. There are those who doubt the consensus, however. The question has implications for the debate over the existence of a so-called spiritual (non-bodily) resurrection in Second Temple Judaism. There is a fundamental distinction in the text between the Lord's servants (ʾagbertihu) who have long lives on the earth and the righteous (s. ādeqān) whose bones rest in the earth while their spirits observe the servants. Consequently, any attempt to isolate a spiritual resurrection in Jub. 23:29-31 fails.
New Testament Studies, 2024
There are good warrants for believing that either the word Christianos or the word Christiani, a ... more There are good warrants for believing that either the word Christianos or the word Christiani, a reference to the Christians, was probably in a graffito on the wall of the atrium of the house now identified as VII.11.11 in Pompeii when Giuseppe Fiorelli excavated it in 1862. Karl Zangemeister edited it in 1871 as CIL IV, 679 and included two divergent transcriptions. In 1995, Paul Berry published a book in which he claimed that he had made an image of the word Christianos using an industrial microscope and high-intensity light. A research project to investigate that claim could be potentially useful for verifying or falsifying Berry's results.
Crucifixion
Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2018
Crucifixion and related bodily suspension penalties were widely employed in Antiquity for the pun... more Crucifixion and related bodily suspension penalties were widely employed in Antiquity for the punishment of criminals and in times of war. Jesus of Nazareth is the most famous victim of the cross, and many scholars of crucifixion approach the topic with interest in Jesus’ death; however, scholarship on crucifixion also provides insights into (among other fields) ancient warfare, criminal law, political history, and cultural imagery. Invariably, such a subject requires multidisciplinary study. Current areas of discussion include the definition of crucifixion itself, especially in light of the range of use of ancient terminology. Further debates concern the origins of the punishment, the cessation of its practice (at least in the West), the precise means of death, and whether certain cultures (e.g., Second Temple Judaism) endorsed the penalty. A large portion of this article examines the many issues related to crucifixion as a form of execution in Antiquity. The topic of crucifixion i...
Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. Both the eyewitness testimony and h... more The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. Both the eyewitness testimony and historical evidence for Christ's resurrection is substantial and undeniable: 1) No other person in history prophesied His own death and subsequent resurrection and then proved His assertion by appearing bodily to hundreds after His death (Matthew 20:17-19; Acts 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Jesus repeatedly foretold "that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day" (Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; etc.). 2) Jesus' life, death, and resurrection changed the course of history as no life has ever done. So much so that our calendars revolve around His birth, from B.C., meaning Before Christ, to A.D., from the Latin Anno Domini, meaning the year of our Lord. 3) The Old Testament prophets foretold of Messiah's death and resurrection centuries before He was born (
Biblica, 2022
1 Cor 12,13c has generated an intriguing exegetical debate that remains ongoing. Scholars have be... more 1 Cor 12,13c has generated an intriguing exegetical debate that remains ongoing. Scholars have been unable to demonstrate conclusively whether ἐποτίσθημεν means “we were saturated” or “we were made to drink”. In addition, interpreters have been unable to conclusively show that the reference of 12,13c is to baptism or the Eucharist. These ambiguities are not ultimately fatal, however. John Chrysostom used all four of these possible readings of the phrase in his homily on 1 Cor 12,13. It is likely that Paul himself was intentionally responsible for the polyvalence of the text.
New Testament Studies, 2023
Ruben van Wingerden's articles on carrying a patibulum and σταυρός are admirably precise. However... more Ruben van Wingerden's articles on carrying a patibulum and σταυρός are admirably precise. However, his analyses of two texts of Plautus and a fragment of Clodius Licinus are problematic. In contrast to van Wingerden's rather minimalistic conclusions regarding carrying a patibulum or σταυρός, it seems likely that carrying a patibulum was a general element in Roman practice in accounts in which patibula are mentioned in conjunction with crucifixions-even when there is no explicit reference to carrying the patibulum through the streets.
Oriens Christianus, 2021
One can reconstruct the travels of Panthera from the early second century Jewish community in Pal... more One can reconstruct the travels of Panthera from the early second century Jewish community in Palestine/Syria to Celsus’s indeterminate location, to Origen’s and Eusebius’s Caesarea, to the rabbinical academies in Mesopotamia, and to the earliest recension(s) of the Toledot Yeshu in Babylonian Aramaic. From the Mesopotamian academies the tradition presumably migrated to the Zoroastrians’ Persia, through them to Ełishē’s Armenia, and probably via Mardānfarrox in Persia to Neryosang’s India. The oldest version of the Toledot traveled west to Amulo’s ninth century Lyons, and the Panthera tale moved on to the disputation and trial against the Talmud in Paris in the 1240’s which resulted in the burning of copies of the Talmud in the Place de la Grève.
Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 2022
Interpreters who have claimed that Paul viewed the heavenly bodies of 1Cor 15,40-41 as living bei... more Interpreters who have claimed that Paul viewed the heavenly bodies of 1Cor 15,40-41 as living beings have used two basic arguments that are each beset by inherent weaknesses. One enumerates the views of various Hellenistic philosophers and others concerning the animate nature of the stars. The other argument claims that all usages of σῶμα in Paul refer to organic entities. Scholars have often ignored handbooks such as those of Aetius that include many alternative views. Paul based his affirmations on sense experience and probably believed that the heavenly bodies were creations of God-but not animate beings. A corollary of this conclusion is that Paul's statements about heavenly bodies do not indicate anything about the composition of the σῶμα πνευματικόν in 1Cor 15. Zusammenfassung: Exegeten, die behaupten, dass Paulus die Himmelskörper in 1Kor 15,40-41 als lebendige Wesen betrachtet, haben zwei grundlegende Argumente verwendet, die beide mit inhärenten Schwächen behaftet sind. Das eine führt die Ansichten verschiedener hellenistischer Philosophen und anderer über die belebte Natur der Sterne an. Das andere Argument besagt, dass sich alle Verwendungen von σῶμα bei Paulus auf organische Wesen beziehen. In der Forschung sind Handbücher wie das von Aetius, die viele alternative Ansichten enthalten, oft ignoriert worden. Paulus stützte seine Behauptungen auf Sinnerfahrung und glaubte wahrscheinlich, dass die Himmelskörper zwar Schöpfungen Gottes waren-aber keine belebten Wesen. Eine Folge dieser Schlussfolgerung ist, dass Paulus' Aussagen über Himmelskörper nichts über die Zusammensetzung des σῶμα πνευματικόν in 1Kor 15 aussagen.
Die Wirkungs- und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Septuaginta The History of the Septuagint’s Impact and Reception , 2022
Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum, 2021
Many logicians and exegetes have read Titus 1,12 as an example of the Liar's Paradox without payi... more Many logicians and exegetes have read Titus 1,12 as an example of the Liar's Paradox without paying sufficient attention to the nature of ancient oracular utterance. Instead of reading the verse as a logical puzzle, it should be read from its ancient context in the history of religions-a context of which ancient Christian scholars were aware. The Syriac scholars preserved a shocking Cretan tradition about Zeus's death that probably goes back to Theodore of Mopsuestia. The god responsible for Epimenides' oracle presumably rejected the Cretan tradition of Zeus's death and tomb. The truth value of 1,12 consequently depends on the oracle and not the human being (i. e., Epimenides) who delivers the oracle. A reading sensitive to the history of religions preserves the Pauline author's perspective in Titus 1,13: ἡ μαρτυρία αὕτη ἐστὶν ἀληθής. There is, consequently, a strong analogy between Caiaphas's words in John 11:49-50 and those of Epimenides in Titus 1,12.
Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok, 2020
A century ago Martin Dibelius informed New Testament scholars of the value of a cup, found in the... more A century ago Martin Dibelius informed New Testament scholars of the value of a cup, found in the treasure of Boscoreale, for the interpretation of Phil 3:8 (τὰ πάντα ... ἡγοῦμαι σκύβαλα). A skeleton on the cup stands over one lying on the ground and makes a drink offering accompanied by the exhortation: εὐσεβοῦ σκύβαλα. Dibelius interpreted the exhortation as a designation “in popular pessimism of human remains as dung [Dreck].” His view that the inscription expresses “popular pessimism” has dominated subsequent scholarship. Although Dibelius did not mention it, the cup is a pendant (one of a matched pair). The general philosophy of the cup and its pendant articulates a vision of life which Paul explicitly rejects in 1 Cor 15:32
Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World, (WUNT 460; ed. Benjamin Schliesser, Jan Rüggemeier, Thomas J. Kraus and Jörg Frey; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck) 303–321, 2021
Talking God in Society. Multidisciplinary (Re)constructions of Ancient (Con)texts. Festschrift Peter Lampe , 2021
Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 2020
Paul's expression in 1Cor 15,37, γυμνὸς κόκκος, has nothing whatsoever to do with a Platonist nak... more Paul's expression in 1Cor 15,37, γυμνὸς κόκκος, has nothing whatsoever to do with a Platonist naked soul or Stoic imagery of sowing and seeds. The context itself indicates that an immortal Platonic soul is not the reference of γυμνὸς κόκκος. The Platonist texts and the Stoic imagery of sowing and seeds do not resemble Paul's affirmations in 1Cor 15,37. Instead, texts from Greek biology and agriculture are far more illuminating. The naked seed of 1Cor 15,37 are a metaphor for sown dead bodies. The context and comparative texts indicate Paul's fundamental analogy: the naked seed is to the sown body as the plant body is to the body that will be. Zusammenfassung: Der Ausdruck des Paulus in 1Kor 15,37, γυμνὸς κόκκος, hat nichts mit einer platonischen nackten Seele oder stoischen Bildern von Saat und Samen zu tun. Der Kontext selbst deutet darauf hin, dass eine unsterbliche plato-nische Seele nicht die Referenz von γυμνὸς κόκκος ist. Die platonischen Texte und die stoischen Bilder von Saat und Samen ähneln nicht den Aussagen des Paulus in 1Kor 15,37. Dagegen sind Texte aus der griechischen Biologie und Landwirt-schaft viel aufschlussreicher. Der nackte Samen von 1Kor 15,37 ist eine Metapher für den gesäten, in der Erde sterbenden Körper. Der Kontext und die Vergleichs-texte zeigen die grundlegende Analogie des Paulus: Der nackte Samen entspricht dem gesäten Körper wie der Pflanzenkörper dem Körper, der sein wird.
Novum Testamentum, 2020
NA28 and UBS5 identify the source of Paul's statement in 1 Cor 15:33 as Menander, Thais, although... more NA28 and UBS5 identify the source of Paul's statement in 1 Cor 15:33 as Menander, Thais, although NA28 puts a question mark after "Thais." One can, however, demonstrate that the proverb originally came from Euripides. Consequently, future critical editions of the New Testament should include Euripides in the margin along with Menander and should probably make reference also to the mass of proverbs that were shared orally or in writing in the culture of antiquity. One can read 1 Cor 15:33 as a text of Euripides, Menander, or as an expression of the common wisdom of antiquity.
T&T Clark Companion to Second Temple Judaism, volume 2 , 2019
Sardis, ca. 170 CE, and the terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament" (vetus and novum instrument... more Sardis, ca. 170 CE, and the terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament" (vetus and novum instrumentum) were well established by the time of TERTULLIAN, 3 rd century CE.
Vigiliae Christianae, 2020
Brent D. Shaw has questioned the historicity of the Neronian persecution based on two arguments f... more Brent D. Shaw has questioned the historicity of the Neronian persecution based on two arguments from silence: Tacitus's use of the term "Christians" is an anachronism; and Suetonius knows of no connection between the fire in Rome and Nero's police actions against the Christians. Both of these untestable arguments from silence are inherently weak logically. One can make a good case for the claim that Chrestianus, Christianus, and Χριστιανός are not creations of the second century and that Roman officials were probably aware of the Chrestiani in the 60s. Tacitus's and Suetonius's accounts of the persecution are fundamentally reliable.
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Papers by John Granger Cook