Syllabus

The following is a preliminary syllabus (subject to change and emendation) indicating the topics of study and their respective readings. Students will be provided with a course reader containing all the required readings, and will not have to purchase any books in advance.

Introduction: The Jewish and Greek Religious Background

1. The Origins of Christianity in the Resurrection Experience and the Jesus Movement
   • The Book of Acts (if you haven’t read the New Testament, perhaps also Luke or Matthew)
   • Newsome, Greeks Romans and Jews, “The Spread of Hellenism”
   • Esler, The Early Christian World, “Mediterranean Context of Early Christianity”
   • Barrett, NT Background: Selected Documents “Rabbinic Literature and Rabbinic Judaism
2. Greek Religion
   • Homeric Hymn to Demeter
   • Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo
   • Martin, The Early Christian World, “Greco-Roman Philosophy and Religion”
   • Barrett, NT Background: Selected Documents “Mystery Religions”
   • Rice & Stambaugh, Sources for the Study of Greek Religion on Delphi, Eleusinian Mysteries, Dionysian Mysteries and the Kabeiroi at Samothrace|
   • Burkert, Greek Religion, “Individual Gods,” “Mystery Sanctuaries: The Kabeiroi and Samothrace, Eleusis, and Bacchica”
3. Women and the Greco-Roman World
   • Kramer, Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons and Monastics (excerpts)
   • Portefaix, Sisters Rejoice “Part 1” pp. 9-58

The Life of Paul

4. Paul, a Pharisee, Conversion and Questions of Chronology
   • Galatians 1 (Acts 9)
   • Martin, The Early Christian World, “Paul and the Development of Gentile Christianity”

The Birth of a Mixed Jewish and Gentile Community

5. “The Antioch Incident”
   • Galatians 1-2 (Acts 13-15)
   • Meeks, The First Urban Christians, “The Urban Environment of Paul”
   • Meeks, The First Urban Christians, “The Social level of Pauline Christians”

Paul’s Missionary Journeys in Asia Minor and Greece

6. Ephesus: Mission to the Gentiles
   • Galatians 3-5, Philemon (Acts 16:1-10)
   • Murphy O’Connor, St. Paul’s Ephesus
   • Meeks, The First Urban Christians, “The Formation of the Ekklesia”
   • Balch, Paul and the Greco-Roman World, “Paul, Households, and Families”
7. Thessaloniki:  The Church and Persecution
   • 1 Thessalonians, (Acts 17)
   • Malherbe, Paul and the Thessalonians, “Founding the Christian Community”
   • Jewett, The Thessalonian Correspondence: Pauline Rhetoric and Mediterranean Piety, “The Setting in Thessalonica”
   • H. Koester, “Archeology and Paul in Thessalonike” in Paul and His World
8. Philippi:  Christian Identity and The Role of Women in Paul’s Churches                       
   • Philippians (Acts 16:11-40)
   • Portefaix, Sisters Rejoice pp. 59-128
   • H. Koester, “Paul and Philippi” in Paul and His World
9. Corinth:  Christians among Gentiles
   • (Acts 18)
   • The Corinthian Correspondence
   • Balch, Paul and the Greco-Roman World, “Paul, Households, and Families”
   • Murphy O’Conner, St. Paul’s Corinth
10. Back to Athens: Conclusions