Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Hi Peter, Yes, it is always hard to compare economics of one era to another. Prices of different things are always fluctuating. If pay was actually 1/2 denari a day than a 300-600 dinari trip would take 2-4 years of work to pay for, assuming a worker could save every denari s/he earned and did not s...

Hi Arnoldo, From Plautus, Menaechmi , Act V, Sc. 4. Messenio, a slave, soliloquizes: Well, this is the proof of a good servant: he must take care of his master's business, look after it, arrange it, think about it; when his master is away, take care of it diligently just as much as if his master wer...

Hi Bernard, The word "diakonos" might be translated as "servant," but it was slaves that ran errands in ancient times, such as delivering letters. The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon Strong's Number: 1249 Original Word Word Origin diakonoß probably from an obsolete diako (to run ...

Hi Bernard, Thank you for the link to orbis ( http://orbis.stanford.edu/# ). It is really a quite wonderful site and I had a lot of fun putting in various scenarios. Under different scenarios, Orbis gives us quite different lengths for the trip. For example, a civilian, private January trip using ro...

Hi Bernard, Greek women were generally not allowed out of their houses except to attend religious festivals. Why would Phoebe be taking the month long trip to Rome. What could possibly be the reason? Any woman traveling alone on such a long journey would face incredible dangers of rape and enslaveme...

I think it is essential to remind ourselves that there was no post office in ancient Rome. This meant that you had to have a friend deliver the letter or a slave. If you were sending a letter across town or to a nearby town that was only a few kilometers away, this was no problem. The friend or slav...

Hi Kunigunde, Thanks for this information. I haven't thought or heard of the Rosicrucians for a long time. They use to advertise in many of the comic books I read as a kid . http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LgsDUWIMT2g/Te48mUjZsrI/AAAAAAAAAxw/fuvUNelHnLA/s1600/rosicrucians.jpg The Poet Leonard Cohen refers...

Hi Andrew, Good description of Historia Augusta. But then again, isn't every work connected to early Christianity dodgy? Warmly, Jay Raskin The source could be a forgery however other parts of this book support it's authenticity. FWIW, Mark (aka, the Boukalou/Buffalo ) was allegedy martyred during a...

Hi Arnoldo,

What is the source Stephen used for the quote from Hadrian?

Hi Tenorikuma, This is good stuff. Thanks. One can imagine that Christian interpolators filched the material from the missing parts of Tacitus' own annals and simply changed Isis followers to Christians. They would have destroyed these parts because there is no mention of Jesus in them. Warmly, Jay ...