Medieval History
The 2010 Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology, given by Professor Fergus Millar FBA
Religion and Community in the Roman Near East ? Constantine to Mahomet
27 January, 3 & 10 February 2010
5.30pm - 6.30pm, followed by a drinks reception
The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Free Admittance
Wednesday 27 January 2010
I. The Legacy of Alexander and the Bible. A Greek Christian World?
When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, acquired control of the Eastern provinces of the Empire and called the Council of Nicaea in 325, it was over six and a half centuries since Alexander had conquered the Near East. When the forces of Islam invaded in the 630s, Greek had been the primary public language there, from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and from the Taurus Mountains to the Red Sea, for almost a millennium.
But how deeply had Greek culture penetrated, and was the Christian Church in the Near East wholly Greek-speaking? What 'resistance' was offered by either an Aramaic or Syriac-speaking population, or by paganism. Where do the Jewish and Samaritan inhabitants of Palestine fit in? This long apparently ?Greek? phase in the Near East demands attention.
Wednesday 3 February 2010
II. Jews and Samaritans in a Greek Christian World
In the first few centuries CE, a network of Greek cities came to cover almost all of Palestine, and by the sixth century more than fifty of these places had bishops, who preached and wrote in Greek. In this context, what forms of religious, social or cultural self-expression were open to Jews or Samaritans?
In the fourth?sixth centuries churches were built almost everywhere ? but so also were Jewish and Samaritan synagogues ? and it was these, not the churches, which produced elaborate representational art on their mosaic floors. Jews also produced the vast corpus of rabbinic literature in Hebrew or Aramaic. But how separate was Jewish life in reality from its gentile environment? Should we think of separation into distinct geographical zones, of peaceful co-existence, or of communal conflict?
Wednesday 10 February 2010
III. Syrians and Saracens: Alternative Christianities?
Aramaic, in various dialects, persisted as a spoken language all through the centuries of Graeco-Roman rule. But, while Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic were long-established languages of culture in which religious texts were composed, at the moment of Constantine's conversion there was not a single community anywhere in the Roman Near East where Greek was not the dominant public language.
Christian literary composition in Syriac, which in origin was the Aramaic dialect and script used at Edessa, had however already begun before Constantine. The subsequent emergence of Syriac as a major language of Christian literary culture, and as expressed in the many beautiful contemporary manuscripts which survive, is of huge significance. But what was the role of Syriac-speaking Christianity in relation to Greek, and to the profound theological divisions of the time? Was it in Greek or in Syriac that the Bible and monotheism were transmitted to the Arabs of the desert?
About the Speaker
Fergus Millar was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford from 1984 to 2002. He is the author of The Roman Near East, 37 BC-AD 337 (1993) and A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II, 408-450 (2006). He was awarded the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies in 2005. Currently Senior Associate of the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Oxford, he is writing on the linguistic, cultural and religious history of the Roman Near East in the fourth to sixth centuries.
Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology
The Leopold Schweich Trust Fund, set up in 1907, was a gift from Miss Constance Schweich in memory of her father. It provided for three public lectures to be delivered annually (now triennially) on subjects related to 'the archaeology, art, history, languages and literature of Ancient Civilization with reference to Biblical Study'.
A poster for your notice board can be downloaded here:
Please visit our website for full details of our forthcoming events.
Telephone enquiries: 020 7969 5246 / Email: [email protected]
Please note our ticketing and seating policy:
British Academy Lectures are freely open to the general public and everyone is welcome; there is no charge for admission, no tickets will be issued, and seats cannot be reserved. The Lecture Room is opened at 5.00pm, and the first 80 audience members arriving at the Academy will be offered a seat in the Lecture Room; the next 60 people to arrive will be offered a seat in the Overflow Room, which has a video and audio link to the Lecture Room. Lectures are followed by a reception at 6.30pm, to which members of the audience are invited
- Remembering China?s Forgotten Jewish Community At Passover
It should therefore come as no surprise that Chinese and Persian Jewish scholars, Fook-Kong Wong and Dalia Yasharpour, have just jointly published a well-annotated reproduction of the Passover Haggadah of that now defunct Jewish community of indigenous...
- Archaeologists Unscramble Ancient Graffiti In Israel
Aramaic is the lingua franca of the ancient Middle East, the linguistic root of modern day Hebrew and Arabic. "Once you understand Aramaic," says Karen Stern, "you can read anything. You can read Hebrew, you can read Phoenician. I always call it the little...
- London Summer School In Classics
London Summer School in Classics The London Summer School in Classics (6th-15th July, 2010) offers 8 days of intensive teaching in Greek or Latin, along with additional lectures, workshops and a debate. Language classes are offered at all levels from...
- Syriac Literature And Interpretations Of Sacred Texts
Dear Colleagues, Kindly allow me to bring to your attention the ?call for papers? for the meetings of the program unit in Syriac studies at the November 20-23, 2010, meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta, Georgia. We had a very successful...
- Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture : Rescheduled
SIR ISRAEL GOLLANCZ MEMORIAL LECTURE The Alfredian project and its aftermath: rethinking the literary history of the ninth and tenth centuries Professor Malcolm Godden University of Oxford Thursday, 15 January 2009 5.30pm - 6.30pm, followed by a drinks...
Medieval History
Religion and Community in the Roman Near East ? Constantine to Mahomet
The 2010 Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology, given by Professor Fergus Millar FBA
Religion and Community in the Roman Near East ? Constantine to Mahomet
27 January, 3 & 10 February 2010
5.30pm - 6.30pm, followed by a drinks reception
The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Free Admittance
Wednesday 27 January 2010
I. The Legacy of Alexander and the Bible. A Greek Christian World?
When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, acquired control of the Eastern provinces of the Empire and called the Council of Nicaea in 325, it was over six and a half centuries since Alexander had conquered the Near East. When the forces of Islam invaded in the 630s, Greek had been the primary public language there, from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and from the Taurus Mountains to the Red Sea, for almost a millennium.
But how deeply had Greek culture penetrated, and was the Christian Church in the Near East wholly Greek-speaking? What 'resistance' was offered by either an Aramaic or Syriac-speaking population, or by paganism. Where do the Jewish and Samaritan inhabitants of Palestine fit in? This long apparently ?Greek? phase in the Near East demands attention.
Wednesday 3 February 2010
II. Jews and Samaritans in a Greek Christian World
In the first few centuries CE, a network of Greek cities came to cover almost all of Palestine, and by the sixth century more than fifty of these places had bishops, who preached and wrote in Greek. In this context, what forms of religious, social or cultural self-expression were open to Jews or Samaritans?
In the fourth?sixth centuries churches were built almost everywhere ? but so also were Jewish and Samaritan synagogues ? and it was these, not the churches, which produced elaborate representational art on their mosaic floors. Jews also produced the vast corpus of rabbinic literature in Hebrew or Aramaic. But how separate was Jewish life in reality from its gentile environment? Should we think of separation into distinct geographical zones, of peaceful co-existence, or of communal conflict?
Wednesday 10 February 2010
III. Syrians and Saracens: Alternative Christianities?
Aramaic, in various dialects, persisted as a spoken language all through the centuries of Graeco-Roman rule. But, while Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic were long-established languages of culture in which religious texts were composed, at the moment of Constantine's conversion there was not a single community anywhere in the Roman Near East where Greek was not the dominant public language.
Christian literary composition in Syriac, which in origin was the Aramaic dialect and script used at Edessa, had however already begun before Constantine. The subsequent emergence of Syriac as a major language of Christian literary culture, and as expressed in the many beautiful contemporary manuscripts which survive, is of huge significance. But what was the role of Syriac-speaking Christianity in relation to Greek, and to the profound theological divisions of the time? Was it in Greek or in Syriac that the Bible and monotheism were transmitted to the Arabs of the desert?
About the Speaker
Fergus Millar was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford from 1984 to 2002. He is the author of The Roman Near East, 37 BC-AD 337 (1993) and A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II, 408-450 (2006). He was awarded the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies in 2005. Currently Senior Associate of the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Oxford, he is writing on the linguistic, cultural and religious history of the Roman Near East in the fourth to sixth centuries.
Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology
The Leopold Schweich Trust Fund, set up in 1907, was a gift from Miss Constance Schweich in memory of her father. It provided for three public lectures to be delivered annually (now triennially) on subjects related to 'the archaeology, art, history, languages and literature of Ancient Civilization with reference to Biblical Study'.
A poster for your notice board can be downloaded here:
Please visit our website for full details of our forthcoming events.
Telephone enquiries: 020 7969 5246 / Email: [email protected]
Please note our ticketing and seating policy:
British Academy Lectures are freely open to the general public and everyone is welcome; there is no charge for admission, no tickets will be issued, and seats cannot be reserved. The Lecture Room is opened at 5.00pm, and the first 80 audience members arriving at the Academy will be offered a seat in the Lecture Room; the next 60 people to arrive will be offered a seat in the Overflow Room, which has a video and audio link to the Lecture Room. Lectures are followed by a reception at 6.30pm, to which members of the audience are invited
- Remembering China?s Forgotten Jewish Community At Passover
It should therefore come as no surprise that Chinese and Persian Jewish scholars, Fook-Kong Wong and Dalia Yasharpour, have just jointly published a well-annotated reproduction of the Passover Haggadah of that now defunct Jewish community of indigenous...
- Archaeologists Unscramble Ancient Graffiti In Israel
Aramaic is the lingua franca of the ancient Middle East, the linguistic root of modern day Hebrew and Arabic. "Once you understand Aramaic," says Karen Stern, "you can read anything. You can read Hebrew, you can read Phoenician. I always call it the little...
- London Summer School In Classics
London Summer School in Classics The London Summer School in Classics (6th-15th July, 2010) offers 8 days of intensive teaching in Greek or Latin, along with additional lectures, workshops and a debate. Language classes are offered at all levels from...
- Syriac Literature And Interpretations Of Sacred Texts
Dear Colleagues, Kindly allow me to bring to your attention the ?call for papers? for the meetings of the program unit in Syriac studies at the November 20-23, 2010, meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta, Georgia. We had a very successful...
- Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture : Rescheduled
SIR ISRAEL GOLLANCZ MEMORIAL LECTURE The Alfredian project and its aftermath: rethinking the literary history of the ninth and tenth centuries Professor Malcolm Godden University of Oxford Thursday, 15 January 2009 5.30pm - 6.30pm, followed by a drinks...