Paganism and Christianity 100-425 C.E. a Sourcebook
Ramsay MacMullen and Eugene N. Lane
Number of quotes: 14
Book ID: 170 Page: 5
Section: 2E6
She crossed herself in Christ’s name, for she was a Christian.
Quote ID: 3674
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 170 Page: 6
Section: 2E1
For Josephus, this was the third element in his instruction; the power of sorcery had failed where Christ’s name and the sign of the cross are. Nevertheless he was not persuaded to become a Christian.
Quote ID: 3675
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 170 Page: 21/22
Section: 5D
Source: Cicero, On Divination 2.132-33, trans. William A. Falconer, LCL.….
But superstitious bards, soothsaying quacks,
Averse to work, or mad, or ruled by want,
Directing others how to go, and yet
What road to take they do not know themselves;
From those to whom they promise wealth they beg
A coin. From what they promised let them take
Their coin as toll and pass the balance on.
Quote ID: 3676
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 170 Page: 23
Section: 2E6
some invoking the Greek Nemesis, for which purpose there is at Rome an image of the goddess on the Capitol, although she has no Latin name?
Quote ID: 3677
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 170 Page: 31
Section: 2E3
The Asclepius-sanctuary, Asklepieion, of Pergamon was of exceptional size, grandeur, and fame. Through excavation as well as ancient descriptions, it is also relatively well known today. Surviving inscriptions include some that tell of cures wrought by the god and commemorated by grateful patients, of which the following three are examples.
Quote ID: 3678
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 170 Page: 33
Section: 5C
(in the reign of Hadrian?): The senate and people of the capital city of Asia, twice the Temple-Warden, first city, the city of Pergamon.
Quote ID: 3679
Time Periods: 012
Book ID: 170 Page: 60
Section: 2B1
After these introductory thoughts, you should deliver a hymn to the god himself: “Sminthian Apollo, how should we address thee? As the sun that is the dispenser of light and source of the brilliance of heaven? Or as Mind, as the theologians say, penetrating through the aether to this world of ours? As the creator of the universe, or as the Second Power?
Quote ID: 3680
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 170 Page: 72
Section: 2C
5.5 Two Documents of Mithraism….
It involved worship by small groups of almost entirely male votaries in artificial caves, as well as various stages of initiation, of which the highest was that of father (pater).
Quote ID: 3683
Time Periods: 12345
Book ID: 170 Page: 83
Section: 2E2
One man cuts off his virile parts and another slashes his arms. What can they fear from the wrath of the gods when they use such means to win their favor? Moreover, gods deserve no worship coli debent of any kind if they want this kind. So great is the frenzy of a disordered and unsettled mind that means are used to placate the gods that have never been employed even by the most horrible men whose cruelty is recorded in myth and legend . . .….
If anyone has leisure to view what they do and what they suffer, he will find practices so indecent for honorable men, so unworthy of free men, so unlike those of sane men, that if their number were fewer, no one would have any doubt that they were demented. As it is, the only support for a plea of sanity is found in the number of the mad throng.”
Quote ID: 3684
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 170 Page: 84
Section: 2A5
their worship belongs rather to custom than truth.” Seneca also censures the sacred institutions of the Jews, especially the Sabbath … they lose in idleness almost a seventh of their life . . . he says: Meanwhile the customs of the accursed race have gained such influence that they are now received throughout all the world. … The Jews, however, are aware of the origin and meaning of their rites. The greater part of the people go through a ritual not knowing why they do so.”
Quote ID: 3685
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 170 Page: 139
Section: 2E2,2C
But the hierophant was not disposed to admit him to the rites, for he said that he would never initiate a wizard and charlatan, nor open the Eleusinian rite to a man who dabbled in impure rites.
Quote ID: 3686
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 170 Page: 160/161
Section: 1B
13.5 Tacitus’s Idea of the Jews….
Histories (5.3ff.)
….
Most writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease, which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt, that king Bocchoris, seeking remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this race detested by the gods. The people, who had been collected after diligent search, finding themselves left in a desert, sat for the most part in a stupor of grief, till one of the exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to look for any relief from god or man, forsaken as they were of both, but to trust to themselves, taking for their heaven-sent leader that man who should first help them to be quit of their present misery.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: ha!
….
Nothing, however, distressed them so much as the scarcity of water, and they had sunk ready to perish in all directions over the plain, when a herd of wild asses was seen to retire from their pasture to a rock shaded by trees.
….
In their holy place they have consecrated an image of the animal by whose guidance they found deliverance from their long and thirsty wanderings.
Quote ID: 3687
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 170 Page: 235
Section: 2D3B
PJ: Moved here from 2A4. Been used.Culcianus said: Come on, sacrifice.
Phileas replied: I do not sacrifice. I haven’t learned how.
Culcianus said: Didn’t Paul sacrifice?
Phileas replied: No. Far from it.
Culcianus said: Didn’t Moses sacrifice?
Phileas replied: The precept was for the Jews alone to offer sacrifice only in Jerusalem to God alone and the Jews break the law now in doing so anywhere else.
Culcianus said: What manner of sacrifice does God require?
Phileas said: A pure heart, unsullied soul, reasoned ideas, which lead to piety and just deeds. . . . There only will the soul receive rewards.
Quote ID: 3689
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 170 Page: 237
Section: 3A2A
Culcianus [PJ: died 313] said: If you were one of the yokels who give themselves up out of desperation, I wouldn’t spare you. But since you have so much wealth that you could feed and take care not only of yourself but of the whole city, spare yourself for that reason, and sacrifice.Phileas said: I do not sacrifice.
Quote ID: 3690
Time Periods: 4
End of quotes