The impact of oil in Alaska

Résumé du document

The period in which the New Testament books have been written was marked by a very particular "cultural milieu? which was called Hellenism in reference to the form of Greek lifestyle and culture imposed by Alexander the Great upon the territories he conquered, in the 4rth century BCE. This Hellenistic culture which continued long after Alexander the Great died and spread itself in many different countries from Macedonia to the Himalayas going through Palestine is a fascinating period for both historians and theologists.

Extraits

[...] Firstly a historian perspective will help us to understand better the way of thinking and living of the time which may have influenced the authors of the New Testament. Secondly, a more literary perspective will draw our attention on the impact of the Greek literary mode on the form of writing of the NT books. Finally, a theoretical perspective will make us see how in fact, this Greek influence is greatly debated and criticized among scholars. An important element that we have to bear in mind if we adopt a historical perspective here is that Hellenism did not simply occur during Alexander the Great's reign. [...]

[...] Cohen speaks about the fusion of cultures more than a dominant Greek influence. Nevertheless, having said this, he admits that Greek became an important language for Jewish philosophical and religious thought. During the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, a group of Jews that we now call the “extreme Hellenizers” was greatly influenced by Hellenism and tried to reform Judaism by wanting to “make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon Macc.1:11) This programme shows the direct impact of Hellenistic culture- when it inspires the desire to change and adapt fixed ideas. [...]

[...] A more literary perspective may help us see the impact of Greek culture on the writings of the New Testament. The first thing to notice is that the New Testament was first written in a dialect of Greek called koine. In a linguistic point of view, it is interesting to notice the influence of a language on the meaning of a text; this makes us pay more attention to certain key words such as “resurrection” to only quote one which originally comes from a Greek imagery in the sense that it comes from two words: to be raised up (from the dead, the ‘hole') and to be woken up (from the sleep of death). [...]

[...] Moreover, this influence can also be seen in Paul's writings. Indeed, in Acts 17, in the Areopagus speech, Paul begins his “captatio benevolentiae” with Athens's piety. In Hellenism-Judaism-Christianity, P.W. van der Horst draws a parallel between Paul and several contemporary Greek authors on the topic of God's proximity to every individual: can be found since he is not far from each of Also, one can see the influence of the Greek literary mode of the epistle when looking at the First Epistle of the Corinthians for example, which is a letter (or conflation of several letters) from Sosthenes and Paul de Tarsus to the Christians of Corinth. [...]

[...] Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora P.82-102. Frederick C. Grant, Roman Hellenism and the New Testament, Oliver and Boyd Schuyler Brown, The origins of Christianity, A Historical Introduction to the New Testament, Oxford University Press P. Canivet, Histoire d'une entreprise apologétique au Vè siècle, Paris, 1958. [...]