“To the ravens”: Curses from the Oracle of Abonouteichos

This discussion examines the religious conflict between the cult and oracle of Glykon and its Epicurean opponents recorded in the second century CE satire, Alexander the False Prophet, by Lucian of Samosata. Following the market theory of religion approach, these groups can be understood to have been engaged in an intense and escalating struggle over followers, financial support, status, and, ultimately, for survival. For the oracle and Glykon's prophet, Alexander of Abonouteichos, this effort included the use of magical curses, which were deployed against their adversaries. As such, these circumstances represent an as-yet unrecognized agonistic context for cursing to take place in the Graeco-Roman world. Alexander's use of cursing also highlights previously overlooked aspects of his own connections to the practice of magic in Graeco-Roman antiquity.

Is Eliphaz a false prophet? The vision in Job 4.12-21

The night vision recounted by Job’s friend Eliphaz in Job 4.12-21 has received an extraordinary amount of scholarly attention. Among other difficulties, the core of the vision’s message (4.17) – typically interpreted as stating that humans cannot be just in God’s sight – appears to contradict Eliphaz’s statements elsewhere (e.g., 4.6-7). The relationship between 4.17 and the metaphors for death with which the vision ends has also occasioned considerable debate. In this paper, it is argued that Eliphaz’s words can be viewed as a response to Job’s speech in Chapter 3, particularly his description of the sleep of death in 3.11-19. The poet portrays Eliphaz as having perceived Job’s words as a challenge to God’s justice and has him—after implying divine inspiration for his message with the use of an extraordinary set of oracular tropes in vv. 12-16—offer in vv. 17-21 a rebuke and warning evocative of those used by biblical prophets to call sinners to repentance. As the prologue indicates, however, Job’s suffering is not due to sin but instead to his superlative goodness; Eliphaz’s words are therefore profoundly misguided and can have no salutary effect. In essence, I propose that the poet is presenting Eliphaz as an example of what Deut. 18.20 calls a ‘presumptuous prophet’, that is, one who wrongly claims that he is speaking on behalf of God. His remarks serve only to distance Job further from both the ‘friends’ and God, as Job’s sharper tone in Chapters 6-7 makes clear. This reading can help explain some of the more puzzling elements in these verses and also maintains the traditional attribution of the vision to Eliphaz (instead of to Job himself, as a growing number of scholars have proposed).

Religion and Revolution: Joseph Smith, Abraham Lincoln, and the Book of Mormon

The name Joseph Smith, b. 23 December 1803, d. 27 June, 1844 invokes words like heretic, false prophet, con artist and fruitcake. No stranger to con artistry or the interior of a prisoner cell, Smith was arrested numerous times on legitimate charges, he also accomplished something no other Prophet did: developed the character and strategies for First Citizen of Humanity, Abraham Lincoln and helped start a War Between the States that enslaved men might be free. Though he never lived to see his Book of Mormon accomplish its ends, he, along with the Latter Day Saints were never given recognition, not even informally for this, humankind’s the most important task. The most important in human history. In this paper I detail important elements of Smith’s and his Church’s work and also illuminate his ties to Mr. Lincoln, and mourn the wayward Church of today. Perhaps revisiting Mister Smith’s Vision will reignite all of us and cause us to rise up and wage one more War against tyranny, weaponry, waste, abuse, neglect, and utter ignorance of our innate spiritual principals.

Gender-Based Perspectives on Key Issues Facing Poor Ahmadi Women in Pakistan

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC, or Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at) believe themselves to be Muslims. The AMC was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1889 as a revival movement within Islam. Unlike all other sects of Islam, they believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908) of Qadian (a small town in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, India) is the same promised Messiah who was prophesied by the prophet Muhammad. Other sects believe that the promised Messiah is yet to come and, therefore, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a false prophet and his followers are non-Muslims.

“Glory to the Righteous One” (Tzvi la-tzaddik) (Isa. 24:16): The Use of Biblical Quotations in the Polemic against the Sabbatean Movement

Promoted by Nathan of Gaza—a reputable figure—Sabbatai Tzvi was hailed as the messiah across the Jewish communities of the medieval world, thousands flocking to his side. One of his prominent detractors was R. Jacob Sasportas, who wrote numerous letters to his peers—rabbis of the western Sephardi diaspora—in order to dissuade them from giving Sabbatai their support and prove Nathan to be a false prophet. Much of Tzitzat novel Tzvi consists of his extensive correspondence on the subject, together with the responses he received. The rich language in which it is couched reflects the biblical citations on which all the parties drew in order to clarify their position and substantiate their arguments. Herein, I examine this significant but relatively neglected phenomenon, focusing primarily on Sasportas’ exegesis of Scripture and the peculiar meanings the biblical text assumed within the context of the polemic.

cult of Glykon as a 'New Religious Movement'

This essay explores the integration of eastern religions into the Roman world during the early Empire by examining one particularly successful example, the Cult of Glykon, which became popular during the later second century and following. Drawing on the characteristics that social scientists have identified as most significant in contributing to the success of New Religious Movements (NRMs) in the recent past, the presence of these features in the Cult of Glykon is considered from the surviving evidence, including the satire Alexander or the False Prophet, which was written by Lucian of Samosata. As this discussion makes clear, the Cult of Glykon appears to have achieved some measure of success as a New Religious Movement in the Roman world because it possessed many of the same characteristics. They are, therefore, a useful starting point for exploring the integration of other religious groups in the Roman world.

The Residue of Matthean Polemics in the Ascension of Isaiah

This article explores the literary relationship between the Matthean tradition and the Ascension of Isaiah, a second-century pseudepigraphon detailing Isaiah's visions of the ‘Beloved’ and his polemical (and fatal) engagement with the ‘false prophet’ Belkira. While the lexical affiliation between these texts has been a point of interest, the discussion has oscillated between types of sources utilised, whether gospel material mutually shared with Matthew or Matthew itself. Though this paper details lexical contact, it pushes beyond philological similarity and posits narrative imitations as well as shared polemical strategies. The result is that Isaiah is more readily seen as a figure fashioned after the Matthean Jesus, and the ‘martyred prophet’ motif that ripples throughout the Gospel of Matthew as appropriated and narrativised by the Ascension of Isaiah for a second-century conflict over prophetic practices.

ВОПРОС АУТЕНТИЧНОСТИ ПРИПИСЫВАЕМЫХ МУСАЙЛИМЕ ТЕКСТОВ В СВЕТЕ ДРЕВНЕАРАВИЙСКОЙ ТРАДИЦИИ РЕЛИГИОЗНОЙ РЕЧИ

Средневековые мусульманские источники, включая исторические и литературные антологии, а также богословские труды, содержат высказывания, приписываемые современнику Мухаммада, лжепророку Мусайлиме из оазиса Йамама. Аутентичность этих текстов неоднократно подвергалась сомнению. Тем не менее формульный характер и вариативность приведенных в источниках отрывков подтверждают вероятность длительной устной передачи текстов. Структура текстов, следование принятым в доисламской Аравии традициям религиозной речи, включая широкое использование синтаксического параллелизма, рифмованной и ритмизованной прозы и иных художественных средств, характерных для речей доисламских прорицателей, а также их содержание позволяют предположить возможность создания этих текстов в племенном аравийском обществе VII в н. э. Устная передача текстов после победы ислама вплоть до их фиксации средневековыми мусульманскими авторами может быть объяснена чувством племенной солидарности по отношению к автору высказываний.Medieval Muslim sources, including historical and literary anthologies, as well as theological works, contain the utterances attributed to the false prophet Musaylima from the oasis of Yamama, who was a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad. The authenticity of these texts has been repeatedly challenged. Nevertheless, the formulaic nature and variability of the fragments cited in the sources could be evidence of prolonged oral transmission of these texts. The structure of the texts, their close relation to the traditions of religious speech in pre-Islamic Arabia, including the widespread use of syntactic parallelism, rhymed and rhythmic prose and other artistic means characteristic of the speeches of pre-Islamic kahins, imply the possibility of these texts being created in tribal Arabian society in the 7th century A.D. The oral transmission of the text after the victory of Islam, up to their fixation by medieval Muslim authors, could be explained by a sense of tribal solidarity with the author of the utterances.