Search results for ""Author John Granger Cook""

John Granger Cook traces the use of the penalty by the Romans until its probable abolition by Constantine. Rabbinic and legal sources are not neglected. The material contributes to the understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus and has implications for the theologies of the cross in the New Testament. Images and photographs are included in this volume."[Cook] has offered the guild of classicists and New Testament scholars much more: an immensely detailed depiction of crucifixion in the ancient world replete with insightful commentary and illuminating images that will likely become the standard in the field for generations to come."Charles L. Quarles in Review of Biblical Literature, http://www.bookreviews.org (04/2015)"This is a major and substantial work that will be a valuable resource for many years to come. Cook […] provides a thorough and deeply documented study of the practice and meaning of crucifixion as a form of capital punishment in the ancient Mediterranean world."Donald Senior in The Bible Today 2014, p. 375-376"This volume, with its encyclopedic scope, is the most thorough treatment of the subject yet produced. Cook has done a lifetime's work here and he deserves our appreciation for assembling such a complex, thorough, and useful work."Jim West on http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2014/10/03/crucifixion-in-the-mediterranean-world/

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According to the available evidence not many pagans knew the Greek Bible (Septuagint) before the advent of Christianity. Those pagans who later became aware of Christian texts were among the first, according to the surviving data, to seriously explore the Septuagint. They found the Bible to be difficult reading. The pagans who reacted to biblical texts include Celsus (II C.E.), Porphyry (III C.E.), and Julian the Apostate (IV C.E.). These authors thought that if they could refute one of the primary foundations of Christianity, namely its use or interpretation of the Septuagint, then the new religion would perhaps crumble. John Granger Cook analyzes these pagans' voice and elaborates on its importance, since it shows how Septuagint texts appeared in the eyes of Greco-Roman intellectuals. Theirs was not an abstract interest, however, because they knew that Christianity posed a grave danger to some of their dearest beliefs, self-understanding, and way of life.

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Recent New Testament scholarship has raised the question of the effect of the New Testament on readers including an 'implied' reader. How did the New Testament affect ancient readers who rejected it?John Granger Cook contributes to the ongoing investigation of the relationship between Christianity and Greco-Roman antiquity. He addresses the response to the New Testament in the following authors: Celsus, Porphyry, the anonymous philosopher of Macarius Magnes, Hierocles, and Julian the Apostate. These authors are readers who found the New Testament to be a rejection of values they took to be fundamental in Greco-Roman culture. The works of these pagans exist in fragments preserved by Christian apologists who attempted to respond to their critique of Christian texts and practices. The doctrine of the resurrection, for example, contradicts the belief in reincarnation and an immortal bodiless soul. Apocalyptic texts rejected the eternity of the universe. Jesus was considered to be inferior to the heroes of Hellenistic culture such as Apollonius of Tyana who conducted themselves as philosophers should. Pagans were disturbed by the ability of Christian language to persuade people to join the movement. Both pagans and Christians made use of apologetic techniques designed to attract people to their respective positions. Rhetoric and literary criticism were tools that both used in their ongoing arguments.John Granger Cook makes use of these tools to analyze the texts of the pagan readers of the New Testament.

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Ancient and modern scholars have written many thousands of pages on resurrection in the New Testament. Fewer have examined the theme in both pagan and Jewish texts, however, and the topic remains inherently fascinating. John Granger Cook argues for two primary hypotheses: First, there is no fundamental difference between Paul's conception of the resurrection body and that of the Gospels; and second, the resurrection and translation stories of Greco-Roman antiquity probably help explain the willingness of Mediterranean people to gradually accept the Gospel of a crucified and risen savior. The use of ἐγείρω (egeirō, wake/rise) and ἀνίστημι (anistēmi, rise) and the bodily nature of resurrection in ancient Judaism and paganism warrant the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis is more speculative, but the Christian apologists' comparisons of pagan narratives with those of the New Testament renders it feasible.

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