USD Letter Collection Question Responses Read the book in the document from page 16-80 and answer the following questions on the sheet © 2003, 2016 by Bruc

USD Letter Collection Question Responses Read the book in the document from page 16-80 and answer the following questions on the sheet © 2003, 2016 by Bruce W. Longenecker
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic,
photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only
exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of
Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0500-8
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of
Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
4
Praise for the First Edition
“Using the time-honored form of a collection of letters—one thinks of the collected
letters of Pliny the Younger, many from the same area and roughly the same time
as these fictive missives—Longenecker provides, by means of an informative and
delightful fiction, a remarkably clear and accurate picture of Christian existence in
the eastern Mediterranean world of the first century. One comes away from this
book—a ‘historical novel’ in the best sense—both charmed and informed. It is a
thoroughly delightful read, from which both beginners and experts will profit.”
—Paul J. Achtemeier, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
“Longenecker’s Letters present in a fascinating and compelling way the contexts of
Second Temple Judaism and Greco-Roman urban life. And the narrative he weaves
is not only believable but also engaging, both academically and personally. This
untraditional presentation deserves a wide readership among all concerned more
traditionally with the ethos of New Testament backgrounds.”
—Joel B. Green, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Through the device of an extended correspondence between the evangelist Luke
and Antipas, a resident of Pergamum, Bruce Longenecker brings early Christianity
to life. The characters are vivid and believable, and they introduce the reader to a
rich historical and cultural context. Those familiar with early Christianity will
admire the imaginative way Longenecker builds on the best of modern scholarship,
and those new to the field will learn a good deal as they eavesdrop on this
conversation. This book is both a delight to read and a reliable guide to the
beginnings of Christianity.”
—Frederick J. Murphy, College of the Holy Cross
“A savvy and creative introduction to the New Testament world, disguised as a
collection of ‘lost’ letters between Luke and several well-positioned members of
Roman society. The genius of the book lies in its fusion of current New Testament
scholarship with a very plausible, personal narrative: the sobering story of one
man’s shift in allegiance from Caesar to Jesus. Along the way we overhear pagan
reactions to Jesus’s message and endearing stories from household churches; we
sense the perils of sea travel and witness the horrors of the Roman games; we
identify with privileged benefactors and hurt for subsistence farmers. Anyone
hunting for a reliable, if not always comfortable, guide to the dangerous world of
first-century Roman Christianity should be glad these papers were finally
‘discovered.’”
—Bruce Fisk, Westmont College
5
“This fictional correspondence is not true, but it certainly could have been.
Longenecker writes a very engaging account of several characters who, in their
different ways, came to experience and respond to the risen Jesus Christ through
Luke’s narrative. I was especially moved by the character of Antipas as he is
ennobled by being transformed from a Roman dignitary into a model of Christian
self-sacrifice.”
—Stanley E. Porter, McMaster Divinity College
6
For our son Callum:
May the narrative of your life be marked out by
honor
7
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Endorsements 5
Dedication 7
Author’s Preface 11
Editor’s Preface: The Discovery 13
LETTER COLLECTION 1 As One Nobleman to Another 17
LETTER COLLECTION 2 A Personal Request 23
LETTER COLLECTION 3 To Honor the Emperor 31
LETTER COLLECTION 4 They Proclaim a Different Lord 39
LETTER COLLECTION 5 The Reputations of Three Men 49
LETTER COLLECTION 6 Jesus Seems a Curious Figure 61
LETTER COLLECTION 7 Jesus’s Naive and Irresponsible Views 75
LETTER COLLECTION 8 Communities of Support and Fellowship 87
LETTER COLLECTION 9 The Contexts Determined the Contents 97
LETTER COLLECTION 10 A Complete Reversal of Lifestyle 117
LETTER COLLECTION 11 A Conduit of Blessing for Many 133
LETTER COLLECTION 12 The Gods Had Other Plans 149
LETTER COLLECTION 13 May His Will Be Done 163
LETTER COLLECTION 14 The Possessions of Our Common Creator 173
Editor’s Postscript 185
8
Appendix A: Maps 189
Appendix B: Characters 195
Appendix C: Historical and Fictional Aspects of the Narrative 199
Back Cover 205
9
Author’s Preface
The story you are about to encounter explores what might have occurred
during the final year in the life of a man named Antipas. We know about
Antipas from the book of Revelation. There we learn that he was martyred
for his faith in Jesus Christ in the city of Pergamum. So we read in
Revelation 2:12–13:
To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know
where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name.
You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my
faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
There must have been an intriguing series of events leading to Antipas’s
punishing death. Those events, however, have been lost in the sands of
time. We will never know who Antipas was or the episodes that provoked
his martyrdom. But we can speculate. And that is what transpires in this
story—a story that arises from one supposition, one fact, and one tradition.
The supposition is simple: that the Antipas mentioned in Revelation
2:13 had been named after Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and
pro-Roman tetrarch who reigned over Galilee during the time of Jesus’s
ministry.
The fact is equally simple: that this Antipas died as a martyr for Christ
in Pergamum, where pro-Roman sentiment and emperor worship were
rampant—a fact alluded to in Revelation, which speaks of Pergamum as
the place “where Satan has his throne.”
Add the supposition to the fact, and a protonarrative emerges of one
who began life dedicated to the advancement of Rome and ended his life
as one perceived to be an enemy of Rome. Add to this the ancient tradition
about Antipas’s gruesome martyrdom (narrated later in this book), and the
narrative virtually writes itself. A storyteller needs only to fill in the blanks
—something I seek to do in a historically reliable fashion throughout the
story you are about to encounter.
10
The ancient philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “The perfect friendship is
that between good men, alike in their virtue.” The following narrative
explores some of the dynamics of friendship, goodness, virtue, and honor
in the ancient world of the Roman Empire, in which Jesus and his first
followers proclaimed the message of a different empire (“the empire of
God”) and enacted distinctive forms of friendship, goodness, virtue, and
honor.
11
Editor’s Preface
The Discovery
Let us now praise famous men.
SIRACH 44:1
It wasn’t until we opened the casements and began to probe their contents
that we realized the full extent of the discovery we had stumbled upon.
Entombed within those casements, hidden from human eyes for nearly two
thousand years, lay the fragile but miraculously preserved literary remains
of famous men. The ancient city of Pergamum had generously given up
one of its last remaining secrets, and I had been the beneficiary of its
generosity.
The discovery was itself a corporate find. In the last two decades of the
twentieth century, archaeologists from Germany, the United States, and
Turkey took a keen interest in excavating the ancient site of Pergamum.
Previous excavations of the ancient city had already uncovered some of its
remains, but there was much more to do. And so I joined the
archaeological teams already in place, bringing with me a small team of
archaeologists sponsored by my university.
In the course of our excavations, the remains of ancient temples and
civic centers of various kinds were unearthed, along with a variety of
ancient houses. When excavating one of these houses, my team discovered
three lead casements that had purposefully been stored away. The
casements had long ago been sealed with pitch and wax, placed within a
recessed space between the remains of two stone-wall partitions, and
entombed within a low-grade concrete casing.1 Ultrasound explorations of
the casements revealed what appeared to be documents. Experts in papyri
and parchment manuscripts were given the task of extracting and
examining the documents. Although fragile, those documents proved to be
enormously resilient against the effects of time and emerged from their
makeshift tombs virtually intact. In only a handful of insignificant places
has there been need to postulate what the original text might have been.
12
What follows is the first English translation of these intriguing ancient
documents. The collection involves an exchange between well-placed and
influential persons based in both Pergamum and Ephesus.2 These
documents were clearly treasured by their long-deceased owner, who at
some point gathered them together and stored them to keep them safe and
perhaps (in light of some of their contents) to keep himself safe.
The primary figures in the exchange are (1) Antipas in Pergamum, an
elite pro-Roman businessman, and (2) Luke in Ephesus, an important
figure in early Christianity whose two-volume work (the Gospel of Luke
and the book of Acts) comprises more than one-quarter of the New
Testament. Although we know something about Luke from his writings
contained in the canon of the Christian church, almost nothing has
previously been known about Antipas, who comes to life through these
letters as a figure of great interest.
Since a few of the extant letters are dated according to day and month,
we know that the exchange takes place over a period of ten or so months
(mid-January to early October), with several indicators in the letters
suggesting that they were written in the year 92 CE.3 In my translation, I
have ordered the letters according to their content rather than their strict
chronological sequence so that Antipas’s letters are followed immediately
by the relevant response from Luke, regardless of how much later those
responses might have been written.
Sometimes chance encounters between people start out as
inconsequential but become life changing. If a chance encounter brought
Luke and Antipas together, these letters indicate that such an encounter did
not remain inconsequential for long. Neither should it remain Pergamum’s
secret any longer.
1.
It has not been possible to discern the identity of the house in which the lead
casements were discovered. In all likelihood, it was the house of Antonius, who plays a
large role in the narrative conveyed by the letters.
2. In the ancient world, scribes frequently made copies of private correspondence
prior to the delivery of the original documents to their intended recipients. The
parchment documents discovered at Pergamum appear to include copies of Pergamene
letters sent to Ephesian residents in some cases, and in other cases the original Ephesian
letters sent to Pergamene residents. The one who long ago placed the letters in their
protective casements, therefore, appears to have been a resident of Pergamum.
3. In the majority of cases in which specific dates are not mentioned, I have provided
estimates in footnotes as to the date of each letter. Readers who choose to disregard
13
these footnotes will not be at a disadvantage in understanding the basic unfolding of
events. But the estimates may benefit those interested in precise chronological
sequence.
14
— Letter Collection —
1
As One Nobleman to
Another
15
Antipas’s Letter
Antipas,1 son of the nobleman Philip, civic benefactor of the cities of Tyre
and Caesarea, freeborn citizen of the blessed empire of Rome, and
worshiper of Jupiter, Zeus Olympios the Savior;
To the most excellent Calpurnius, son of the distinguished Theophilus,
benefactor of the people of Ephesus, nobleman of the Lydian region;
Greetings.
On this tenth day before the ides of January [5 January], I write to you,
most excellent Calpurnius, as one nobleman to another, with an invitation
from Lucius Cuspius Pactumeius Rufinus, a leading official of the city of
Pergamum and one to whom I have committed myself. Rufinus has
managed to earn from our great emperor Domitian the honor of sponsoring
two days of gladiatorial contests in the course of the next year. As you
may have heard, Rufinus’s father, Drusus, has recently died and has left an
endowment along with instructions for sponsoring two gladiatorial days in
Pergamum. These instructions are being implemented by Rufinus himself,
who will use the occasion to celebrate the memory of his father as an
esteemed citizen of the empire, as well as to celebrate our beneficent gods
and our illustrious emperor, whose guiding spirit fills the empire.
The first gladiatorial day will take place on the thirteenth day before the
calends of April [19 March; the “calends” is the first of the month]. The
second will fall just before the autumn equinox on the sixteenth day before
the calends of Domitianus [15 September].2 These days will adorn the
great city of Pergamum, whose citizens are even now full of anticipation.
Rufinus has conscripted me to undertake several organizational tasks for
these gladiatorial contests, which I am happy to do. One of those tasks
includes extending an invitation to the honorable men of the region,
bidding them to attend and thereby helping to promote harmony among the
great benefactors of our regional cities. Since you rank among that
esteemed number, it falls to me to request your presence at the first of
these occasions. You would be one of six officially recognized
representatives of the noblemen of Ephesus, Pergamum’s sister city in
concord and itself a promoter of Rome’s magnificence. You will have a
place specially reserved in the tribunal editoris, designated for highly
regarded civic magistrates and other noblemen alongside the holder of the
contest. Although the emperor has agreed to offer part of his own
16
gladiatorial troupe for the occasions, he himself will not be in attendance.
Nonetheless, many esteemed citizens will be gathered, and we hope that
you will be among that number. Should you and your entourage require
housing for the event, I have a list of Pergamene noblemen who will gladly
extend hospitality to visiting noblemen. Simply let me know your needs,
and I will make the necessary arrangements.
The gladiatorial school here at Pergamum is making preparations for the
event, and we have notified the gladiatorial schools in Smyrna and
Philadelphia as well, each of which have agreed to supply contestants for
the first event. Gladiators from Galatia and Egyptian Alexandria will also
be there. At present just over one hundred gladiators have been purchased
for the day, but Rufinus is hopeful for more. If you meet with any itinerant
lanistae [owners of gladiatorial troupes] who are not aware of these events,
we would be in your debt if you would pass on the information. They
should make contact with Rufinus of Pergamum directly.
Euphemos of Pergamum, my honorable host, also sends his greetings.
Stachys, my servant, delivers this message. If your response to this
message is not delayed, he is at your service for delivering your response
to me. He should be no burden upon you. I have instructed him to find
accommodation at a local inn if you require him to remain overnight
before delivering your response.
May the gods continue to bless you and your household.
17
Calpurnius’s Letter
Calpurnius of Ephesus, son of Theophilus;
To Antipas, nobleman of Pergamum;
Greetings.
You have honored me with your kind request for my attendance at the
gladiatorial contest in the spring. The occasion falls just prior to a voyage
that I hope to make, so I should be able to attend. I am not a keen
enthusiast for the contests, you should know, since throwing men to wild
beasts or watching them kill each other in combat for the amusement of
spectators has never seemed to me either prudent or tasteful. But your
invitation is gracious, and I am concerned to preserve healthy relationships
between the cities of Ephesus and Pergamum. Their long-standing
competition for civic honors and prestige has too frequently induced an
unhealthy enmity between the noblemen of our two grand cities. While I
applaud civic competition to the extent that it sharpens our interest in
promoting the beneficence of our own citizens, I regret the lack of concord
that occasionally transpires. For that reason, although I will not revel in the
contests, I nonetheless consider it my civic duty to comply with your
gracious invitation and represent my fair city in the Pergamene games. The
riot that broke out between the people of Pompeii and Nuceria at a
gladiatorial competition some thirty years ago clearly indicates the severity
with which Rome looks upon intercity discord, with the emperor
forbidding further shows in Pompeii for a decade and rewarding the
senator who sponsored the competition with exile. There is a need for
intercity cooperation in events of this sort, and so I will be content to play
a role in ensuring civic stability. I am greatly honored by your invitation. I
will make my own housing arrangements for the time that I am there, since
I have strong ties with certain leading men of Pergamum.
Your host, Euphemos, is himself a man of high repute, and your
association with him in Pergamum is sure to prosper. Please send him my
regards.
Your servant Stachys has been no burden. Upon my insistence, he was
provided with food and accommodation at my own house. I did not want
to subject him to one of the crude local inns that are famous for their
bedbugs and foul practices. I send him back to you with a gift of friendship
for you, along with this brief letter.
18
Farewell.3
1.
As in most ancient correspondence, the sender (i.e., Antipas) is identified first in
the letter, and the addressee (i.e., Calpurnius) is identified second.
2. At this time, Domitian had renamed the months of September and October
“Germanicus” and “Domitianus,” respectively. The traditional names were reinstated
after Domitian’s death.
3. If Antipas wrote his letter on 5 January, his messenger Stachys would have
departed from Pergamum on 6 January and arrived in Ephesus on the afternoon of 9
January. If Stachys then left Ephesus on 10 January, he would have arrived back in
Pergamum on 13 January with Calpurnius’s reply.
19
— Letter Collection —
2
A Personal Request
20
Antipas’s Letter
Antipas, benefactor of cities of the empire and student of great literature;
To the most excellent Calpurnius, nobleman of Ephesus and protector of
the library of Theophilus;
Greetings.
Rufinus was pleased to hear of your intention to attend the first
gladiatorial contests that he will sponsor this year in Pergamum. Your
presence will honor us. Your views about the necessity of promoting
intercity harmony among the elite are especially appropriate and fall well
within Rufinus’s expectations for the day. I am certain that your astute
influence will be felt within the amphitheater.
I have noted, honorable friend, your hesitation about gladiator…
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