An international group of archaeologists, art historians, and New Testament scholars investigate the function of spaces in Roman houses and temples in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Corinth, Rome, Ostia, Ephesus, and Judea. Their concern is more fully to understand the relationship between different architectural forms, Roman domus, villas, and insulae, in relation to Paul's letters and the gospels.
How are archaeology and art related to understanding New Testament texts, for example, narratives of the Lord's Supper and other meals? An international group of archaeologists, art historians, and New Testament scholars investigate the function of spaces in Roman houses and temples in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Corinth, Rome, Ostia, Ephesus, and Judaea. Another concern is more fully to understand the relationship between different architectural forms, Roman domus, villae, and insulae, in relation to Paul's letters and the gospels, in order to enable informed interpretation of leadership, meal customs, social relationships, and ethics in those contested spaces.
Table of contents:
A. Interpretive Issues
John R. Clarke (University of Texas, Austin): Representations of Worship at Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia in the Imperial Period: A Model of Production and consumption -
Irene Bragantini (Università di Napoli - Orientale): The Cult of Isis and Ancient Aegyptomania in Campania -
Fabrizio Pesando (Universita Orientale di Napoli): The Properties and the Social Role of Feminae Nobiles in Italy During the Early Imperial Age -
Annette Weissenrieder (San Francisco Theological Seminary, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley): Contested Spaces in 1 Corinthian 11:17‒34 and 14:30: Sitting or Reclining in Ancient Houses, in Associations and in the Space of ekklēsia -
Laura Salah Nasrallah (Harvard Divinity School): Grief in Corinth. The Roman City and Paul's Corinthian Correspondence -
Eleanor Winsor Leach (Indiana University Bloomington): Rhetorical 'Inventio' and the Expectations of Roman Continuous Narrative Painting
B. Contested Domestic spaces
1. Domus
Ivan Varriale (Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli): Architecture and Decoration in the House of Menander in Pompeii -
Mario Grimaldi (Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli - Université Paris X Nanterre): Art and Architecture of the House of Fabius Rufus in Pompeii -
David L. Balch (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley): The Church Sitting in a Garden (1 Cor 14:30; Rom 16:23; Mark 6:39‒40; 8:6; John 6:3, 10; Acts 1:15; 2:1‒2) -
Hilke Thür (University of Vienna): Art and Architecture in Terrace House 2 in Ephesos: An example of domestic architecture in the Roman Imperial Period
2. Villae
Umberto Pappalardo (Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli): How the Romans saw the frieze in the Villa of the Mysteries -
Rosaria Ciardiello (Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli): Beryllos, the Jews and the Villa of Poppaea in Oplontis (Torre Annunziata) -
Monika Bernett (University of Munich): Space and Interaction: Narrative and Representation of Power under the Herodians
3. Insulae
Maria Paola Guidobaldi (Director of excavations, Herculaneum): Insula Orientalis 1 in Herculaneum -
Janet DeLaine (Oxford): Housing in Roman Ostia
C. Contested Sacred Spaces: Temples, the Imperial Cult, and Mithraea
Tina Najbjerg (Princeton University): Exploring the economic, political, and social significance of the great Porticus in Herculaneum -
Annette Weissenrieder (San Francisco Theological Seminary, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley): »Do you not know that you are God's temple?« Towards a new perspective on Paul's temple image in 1 Corinthians 3:16 -
David L. Balch (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley): Cult Statues of Augustus' Temple of Apollo on the Palatine in Rome, Artemis'/Diana's Birthday in Ephesus, and Revelation 12:1-5a -
L. Michael White (University of Texas at Austin): The Changing Face of Mithraism at Ostia. Archaeology, Art, and the Urban Landscape -
Ulrike Muss (University of Vienna): The Artemesion at Ephesos: Paul, John and Mary
