Early Christianity Symposium

“Shepherds of Ireland and Iona: The Convergence of Ascetical Theology and Hagiographical Motifs in Adomnán’s Life of Columba”

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of St Columba of Iona and his successor and biographer, St Adomnán, in the early Irish reception and development of the New Adam motif: i.e., the ascetic’s assumption of Christ’s role as a redeemer of the created order, specifically as evidenced by their positive effect on animals and the environment. To this end, it will provide an overview of Adomnán’s Life of Columba, noting the influence of Sulpicius Severus’ Martinianaand Evagrius of Antioch’s translation of the Life of Antony on the text’s structure and content. It will then evaluate the hagiographer’s representation of Columba’s transformation from pilgrim to holy prophet, including the significance attached to practical asceticism and contemplation in this regard. It will therefore examine Columba’s unique manner of exile and subsequent establishment of a monastic community at Iona, including the spiritual retreat and scribal activity held to take place at this location. Lastly, it will assess Adomnán’s descriptions of Columba’s compassionate and authoritative exchanges with different terrestrial, aquatic, and avian creatures, both directly and via his prayers of intercession.

Dr Chris Baghos
Adjunct Lecturer in Theology, St Mark’s National Theological Centre, Charles Sturt University, Canberra

Dr Chris Baghos is an Adjunct Lecturer with the School of Theology in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Charles Sturt University and St Mark’s National Theological Centre (Canberra, ACT). He is also a graduate of the University of Sydney whose research interests include patristic theology, ecclesiastical history, and Greek, Latin, and Insular hagiographies. His first book, Wondrous in His Saints: Essays to Inspire on the Orthodox Patristic Tradition (Wipf and Stock), examines the wider legacy of the Church Fathers from a multicultural perspective, including its relevance for contemporary Christian experience and attitudes towards the arts and sciences. He has another book forthcoming titled Exploring Christian Identity from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Neither Greek nor Roman (Cambridge Scholars).

“Christianity and Paganism in Dark Age and Early Medieval Dalmatia”

This paper will discuss Christianity and paganism in the hinterland of Dalmatian cities between the Byzantine withdrawal (ca. 620-630) and the mid-ninth century. The withdrawal of the imperial administration caused the collapse of early Christian infrastructure outside several surviving cities, resulting in the abandonment of churches and changes in burial practices that show a mixture of Christianity, popular superstitions and probably paganism until the first decades of the ninth century. Returning to typical Christian practices and burials in the churchyards is only due to Carolingian Frankish expansion in this area and the appearance of new hereditary elites. The paper will examine these transformations in the archaeological record, paying special attention to burial practices.

Dr Danijel Džino
Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University; President of the Australasian Society for Byzantine Studies

Dr Danijel Džino is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, with research interests in the history and archaeology of the Balkans from the Iron Ages to the Middle Ages. He has published over 100 publications, including 6 books, the most recent of which are Early Medieval Hum and Bosnia ca. 450-1200: Beyond Myths (Routledge, 2023), From Justinian to Branimir: The Making of the Middle Ages in Dalmatia (Routledge, 2021), and (co-authored) Liburnians and Illyrian Lembs: Iron Age Ships of the Eastern Adriatic (Archaeopress, 2021).

“Patristic Reception of Jewish Liturgical Texts: The Tabernacle”

Belief that Jesus of Nazareth is truly God and truly man must radically influence the way one reads the Hebrew Scriptures. The question of how to interpret this library of Hebrew texts has been a fundamental concern for Christians since the beginning. Throughout his life, the late Joseph Ratzinger expended much energy—particularly in his Jesus of Nazareth trilogy—in demonstrating both the continuity of the Old and New Testaments and the fact that Jesus is the key to unlocking the mysteries of the Old. In recent years, Brant Pitre has written extensively on the Jewish roots of Christian belief. His work dovetails neatly with that of Ratzinger.

The liturgical texts of the Hebrew scriptures pose a particular challenge for Christian interpreters as much of what these describe has not been incorporated directly into Christian practice (e.g. animal sacrifices, purity regulations, etc). Inspired both by the work of Ratzinger and Pitre and by the writings of the patristic Fathers, this paper will investigate how the Fathers interpreted these liturgical texts. In particular, we will focus our attention on the patristic reception of texts detailing the Tabernacle.

Dr Kevin Wagner
Senior Lecturer in Theology and Associate Dean – Learning and Teaching, University of Notre Dame, Australia

Dr Kevin Wagner is the Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Education, Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Australia. He is the principal convener of the Theology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium conference series and co-editor of the eponymous book series. He is the President of the recently formed Catholic Scholars Guild, the patron of which is His Grace, Archbishop Anthony Fisher. His teaching and research are predominantly in the areas of Patristic Theology, Early Church History, and Scripture. A high school teacher by trade, Kevin has also been the Director of the Emmanuel School of Mission in Rome, a role he shared with his wife, Helen. Kevin and Helen are currently responsible for the La Communauté de l'Emmanuel (Emmanuel Community) in Sydney.

“Solomonic Literature: Jewish, Hellenistic and Christian”

The 1^st century BC–1^st century AD in late Second Temple Judaism was a crucial period which would leave indelible marks on the origins of Christianity. The confrontation as well as interaction between Jewish/Christian and pagan worldviews and practices, previously brought to focus through the process of Hellenisation, became even more intensified with the Roman hegemony of the Mediterranean world. One significant way that Jews and Christians asserted and confirmed their own identity in the face of imperial power was through the rewriting and thus renewed interpretation of the biblical heritage. Three pseudepigraphic works written in this period in the Solomonic tradition are a perfect example to illustrate. The Psalms of Solomon, originally written in Hebrew and dated to the 1^st century BC, took the persona of King Solomon, the Temple builder, son of David who commanded homage from Gentile kings, in an expression of the deep Messianic hope as the response to a national religious crisis. But the Solomonic persona was also used as a symbol not of Jewish particularism but of universal wisdom in Judaism’s active engagement with Hellenism, especially Hellenistic philosophy, as demonstrated in the Book of Wisdom, or Wisdom of Solomon, written in Greek in the mid-1^st century BC, likely in Alexandria, the centre of Hellenistic learning. Finally, the Odes of Solomon, believed to have been written by Jewish Christians in either Syriac or Greek in the late 1^st century AD, developed the Solomonic tradition in the mystical Song of Songs, portraying the love of Christ for His people in poetic dialogues.

Dr Lydia Gore-Jones
Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies, St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sydney College of Divinity

Lydia Gore-Jones is Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies at St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sydney College of Divinity. She received a doctoral degree from Macquarie University’s Ancient History Department in 2018. She attends Sts Michael and Gabriel Antiochian Orthodox Church in Ryde NSW with her husband and daughter.

“A Citizen of Empire or Citizen of the World? Paul’s Textual Identities as a Roman Jew and Greek Christian”

There is a significant trend among scholars to study “Paul within Judaism.” What this means, as Michael Bird describes in part, is to study “the apostle Paul and his letters in relationship to the Jewish people and cultus, reconsidering Paul’s Jewish identity and his own Jewish devotion” (2023). In his letter to the Philippians, Paul styles himself as “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil 3:5), centring his identity in Judaism. Yet a few sentences on he tells his converts, both gentiles and Jews, that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). This is an interesting thing to say to a church that is located in a Roman colony in which according to Acts Paul exercised his special privileges as a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37–38). At important points in the narrative of Acts, Paul’s Roman citizenship becomes crucial in dealing with the Roman authorities (Acts 16:37–38; 22:25–29; 23:27; 25: 11, 16). There is a distinct contrast between Paul’s vision of citizenship in Philippians and the narrative image of Paul’s Roman citizenship in Acts. These contrasting images of citizenship lay the foundations for a dramatic shift in the image of Paul as a Jew and Roman citizen to Paul as a citizen of the world in early Christian literature from the second century onwards. This paper will seek to explore these textual identities and plot the developing image of Paul’s citizenship in early Christian literature.

Dr Lyn M. Kidson
Honorary Research Fellow, Macquarie University

Dr Lyn M. Kidson is an independent scholar, honorary research fellow at Macquarie University, and an affiliate of the Australian College of Theology. She holds a Master of Arts in Early Christian and Jewish studies from Macquarie (2013) and completed a doctorate there in 2018. Her thesis was published by Mohr Siebeck under the title “Persuading Shipwrecked Men: The Rhetorical Strategies of 1 Timothy 1” (2020). Lyn’s main areas of interest are rhetoric, ancient constructions of masculinity and femininity, citizenship and kingship, and numismatics.

“Might Unassailable? Walls, Gates, and the Marble King of Byzantine Constantinople”

The walls surrounding the city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine empire for over a thousand years, were built by the emperor Theodosius II the Younger in the fifth century AD. While fulfilling the practical purpose of extending the city’s boundaries and keeping enemies at bay, the walls were also endowed with symbolic significance. This is because Constantinople was seen as a sacred space that was distinct from the profane space outside its walls. This presentation will explore how the transition from the profane to the sacred was marked on the lintels of gates into the city with crosses, christograms and the ΙΧ monogram. Nowhere is this best seen than in the Golden Gate reserved for the emperor and his entourage, built most likely by Theodosius II. Marked with Christ’s name, the gate also displayed political images of empire—quadrigas, Tyches and winged Victories (Nikes)—along with mythological scenes depicting Hercules and Prometheus, again pointing to attempts by the Byzantines to preserve the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. But perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Golden Gate has been its permanent association with the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaiologos, who according to Greek folklore was said to have been transformed into marble and buried at its base, one day to return to reclaim the city. This paper will assess not only the symbolic significance of the motifs associated with the walls and gates of the city, but their persistence to this day in certain milieus in spite of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople on May 29^th 1453 and its modern iteration as Istanbul, the largest city in the Republic of Turkey.

Dr Mario Baghos
Senior Lecturer in Theology and Post-Graduate Theology Co-ordinator, University of Notre Dame, Australia

Dr Mario Baghos is Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney. From 2018 to 2023, he was Adjunct Lecturer in Theology in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Charles Sturt University. From 2010 to 2017 and 2020 to 2022, he taught Church history and Patristics for the Sydney College of Divinity. He has also lectured and tutored in the discipline of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney. Dr Baghos has published broadly in the areas of Patristics and Byzantine Studies, specifically on eschatology and symbolism in Christian art and architecture. His forthcoming book is entitled Remnants of New Rome: The Sacred Symbolism of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire (Bloomsbury Publishing).

“Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and the Neoplatonists: One Wonders Who is the Christian and Who is the Pagan”

For a very long time, the thesis about the Hellenisation of Christianity (Adolf von Harnack), as well as the assumption that there is always an asymmetrical relationship between philosophy and theology – wherein the former plays the dominant role – has led scholars to take for granted that Neoplatonism had a determining effect on the theological development of early Christianity. It is not hard to see the biases of such a view, while a more insightful evaluation of the textual evidence convinces one that what really took place in Late Antiquity was much more dialectical, complex and nuanced. To be more precise, between certain theological trends of early Christianity and specific exponents of Neoplatonism an extremely original and creative dialogic emerged that reshaped the history of ideas.

The most conspicuous, innovative, bold and in many respects culminating moment of this syncrasis between the Christian and the Hellenic spirit was the encounter, so to speak, of Proclus and the so-called Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Moreover, what is of particular interest in the case of these thinkers is not the influence that the former exercised on the latter, but the conditions under which they recapitulated the Christian – Neoplatonic dialogic, on the one hand, and the hermeneutics that account for their familiar otherness, on the other. My paper will attempt to address both issues, firstly by exploring the place, function and importance of the eidos, the tropos and the topos of the Hellenic in the oeuvre of the thinkers under discussion, and subsequently by suggesting a theoretical model according to which cultural phenomena can be hierophanically distinctive, yet at the same time religiously cognate.

Dr Vassilis Adrahtas
Convenor of Greek Studies, University of New South Wales; Casual Academic in Islamic Studies, University of Western Sydney

Dr Vassilis Adrahtas is the Convenor of Greek Studies at the University of Western Sydney and Subject Coordinator in Islamic Studies at Western Sydney University. His background is in theology, philosophy and sociology, while his specialisation is in early Christianity, Patristics, Byzantine philosophy, and Indigenous Australian religions. Over the years he has taught at several universities both in Australia and overseas. He has authored and co-edited ten books, published many chapters in collective volumes, and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals.

“Infanticide or Indifference? Disentangling the use of ektithе̄mi and ekballō in Patristic and Documentary Greek”

“But as for us, we have been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and this we have been taught lest we should do any one an injury, and lest we should sin against God.” (Justin Martyr, First Apology 27)

Discussions of the exposure of unwanted infants recur in Hellenistic and Roman Jewish literature, and are a prevalent moral topos invoked in the writings of the Early Church Fathers. Greek philology has understood the standard term for child exposure to be ἐκτίθημι, functioning as a calque of the Latin term expositio. Likewise, ἐκβάλλω has been received as a cruder variant, denoting infanticide through the explicit description of the physical act of ‘throwing out’ unwanted infants conveyed by the lexemes: ἐκ (‘out’) and βάλλω (traditionally understood as ‘throw’). Although Liddell, Scott and Jones’ Greek-English Lexicon (LSJ) and the Cambridge Greek Lexicon echo these glosses, such lexica give insufficient consideration to these verbs’ attestations in documentary papyri. My paper considers quantitative evidence gleaned from attestations of ἐκβάλλω in corpora of documentary papyri in order to resolve lingering questions about the semantics of terms for child exposure used by Greek Fathers such as Justin Martyr, as well as to offer new insights into the confronting phenomenon of infanticide in Graeco-Roman society.

Mr Gabriel Jower
Tutor in Greek, Macquarie Ancient Languages School; Co-founder of PALAIA: Promoting Ancient Language Studies in Academia

Gabriel Jower is a Master of Research student at Macquarie University. His research focuses on the application of lexicography to answering questions of social history and the history of ideas in Graeco-Roman society. More specifically, Gabriel’s research focuses on the application of Postclassical Greek documentary evidence in answering these questions. He has tutored Koine and Classical Greek through the Macquarie Ancient Languages School and is the co-director of PALAIA (Promoting Ancient Languages in Academia).

“Barbarism Begins at Home: Revelation, Dionysius of Alexandria, and the Greek Prescriptivist Tradition”

The language of Revelation has long fascinated scholars, and not just for its apocalyptic imagery. Already in the 2nd century AD we find theologians discussing the most mundane features of the text in attempts to clarify its authorship. Eusebius preserves the remarks of Dionysius of Alexandria, who believed that John the Evangelist and John the Seer were not the same person on account of stylistic differences between their respective works. Among the features of Revelation cited are certain ‘barbarisms’ and ‘solecisms.’ These are supposedly absent from the Gospel and First Letter of John, which Dionysius considers to be stylistically superior compositions. He offers no further explanation or examples of these undesirable features. He simply presents them as evidence of the Seer’s ‘imprecise Greek.’

At first glance, Dionysius’ comments seem to confirm a long-held suspicion about the Greek of Revelation, namely, that it is hardly Greek at all. As Robert Henry Charles writes, “while he [John] writes in Greek, he thinks in Hebrew, and the thought has naturally affected the vehicle of expression.” Charles cites among other features the Seer’s tendency to place nominative nouns in apposition to oblique ones as proof of Semitic interference. In Greek and other Indo-European languages with declension nouns fulfilling the same function typically stand in the same grammatical case.

Progressive research has increasingly jeopardised this Hebraistic hypothesis through the identification of similar features in non-literary texts of the Roman and Hellenistic periods. Moreover, Garrett Best has shown that charges of barbarism (phonological error) and solecism (morphosyntactic error) were by no means restricted to uneducated and non-native speakers of Greek. Indeed, even the likes of Thucydides occasionally fell prey to the pedantry of postclassical rhetoricians. Some adopted a more nuanced approach to these grammatical violations. Quintilian, for instance, differentiates between intentional solecism, which is artistic, and the unintentional kind, which is not, though he admits that this distinction is not always easy to make.

This paper attempts to reconcile the solecisms of Revelation with the Greek language of its times by engaging with comparable examples in other texts and relevant discussions among ancient rhetoricians. Among the authors discussed are the Ezekiel and Ezra-Nehemiah translators, Quintilian and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and several little-known individuals from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. This research sheds further light on the sociolinguistic milieu of the first Christians and the postclassical development of the Greek language.

Mr Mark Matic
Lecturer in Classical Languages, Campion College Australia; Casual Academic in Ancient History and Croatian Studies, Macquarie University

Mark Matic is a linguist, historian and educator. He is passionate about ancient languages and the stories they preserve. His research focuses on the language of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) and non-literary texts of the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods (inscriptions, papyri, graffiti, etc.). He is currently writing a doctoral thesis on the language of 2 Esdras (Greek Ezra-Nehemiah) at Macquarie University. He was awarded the Macquarie University Medal and other prizes for his master’s thesis on the same theme and has presented his research at academic events at the University of Sydney, the University of Cambridge, and Sofia University Saint Kliment Ohridski. Mark has taught ancient Greek and Latin in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, the Macquarie Ancient Languages School, and Campion College, where he also teaches the history of the Early Church.