Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation (25 page)

65
Thunder, Perfect Mind, 18.8–19.33,
NHC VI, 2,
in
CGL
vol. 3, 246–251.

66
Trimorphic Protennoia, 35.11–36.28,
NHC XIII, 1,
in
CGL
vol. 5, 402–405.

67
Many commentators have noted that John’s apocalypse seems intended for reading or recitation in worship; for discussion, see the fine analysis of Pierre Prigent,
Commentary on the Apocalypse of St. John,
trans. Wendy Pradels (Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2001). For an incisive and intriguing discussion in English, see David L. Barr,
Tales of the End: A Narrative Commentary on the Book of Revelation
(Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 1985).

68
The Teachings of Silvanus,
106.30–117.20,
NHC VII, 4,
in
CGL
vol. 4, 336–367.

69
The Gospel of Phillip 67:25–26,
NHC II, 3,
in
CGL
vol. 2, 176–177.

70
For discussion, see chapter
5
, 138ff.

1
Epiphanius,
Panarion,
49.1. David Frankfurter, in his article “The Legacy of Jewish Apocalypses,” correctly notes that this allusion alone does not establish dependence on John’s book (137). However, the evidence for John’s influence on the movement includes other data mentioned here, including the controversy over the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, which it partly occasioned; see also Christine Trevett’s discussion of the topic in
Montanism: Gender, Authority, and the New
Prophecy
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996; cited from paperback edition, 2002), 130–139. On the “new Jerusalem,” see William Tabbernee, “Portals of the Montanist New Jerusalem: The Discovery of Pepouza and Tymion,”
Journal of Early Christian Studies
11:1, 87–89e. I am grateful to Elizabeth Clark for pointing out this intriguing article.

2
Timothy D. Barnes,
Tertullian
:
A Historical and Literary Study
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1971), 131.

3
Tertullian,
Apology,
37.

4
See discussion by Meeks,
The First Urban Christians
.

5
Tertullian,
Ad Nationes,
I, 7.

6
Isaiah 65:17–25.

7
Epiphanius,
Panarion,
49.11.

8
Epiphanius,
Panarion,
48.4.

9
Revelation 2:4. For a detailed discussion of the movement, see Trevett’s
Montanism,
cited in note 1, and also Laura Nasrallah,
“An Ecstasy of Folly”: Prophecy and Authority in Early Christianity
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).

10
Epiphanius,
Panarion,
48.12.

11
Eusebius,
History of the Church
(hereafter cited as
HE,
from
Historia Ecclesiae
) Book 5.16.

12
Justin,
Dialogue with Trypho,
82, 1ff., in
St. Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho,
trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 2003), 128.

13
Justin,
Dialogue with Trypho
, 81, 4, 127.

14
Justin,
Dialogue with Trypho
, 82, 2, 128.

15
Justin,
Second Apology 1,
in
St Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies,
trans. Leslie Barnard (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1997), 73. See also discussions mentioned in the following note.

16
Justin,
Apology,
1. For discussion and citations, see Pagels, “Christian Apologists and the ‘Fall of the Angels’: An Attack on Roman Imperial Power?” in
Harvard Theological Review
78
(1985): 301–325. For a more accessible discussion, see Pagels, “Satan’s Earthly Kingdom: Christians Against Pagans,” in
The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics
(New York: Vintage, 1995), 112–148.

17
Justin,
Apology
, 45.

18
Justin,
Apology,
12. For a fine discussion of reactions among the imperial circle, see Victor Schmidt, “Reaktionen auf das Christentum in den
Metamorphosen
des Apuleius,” in
Vigiliae Christianae
51 (1997): 21–71.

19
Justin,
Apology,
17.

20
E. Mary Smallwood,
The Jews Under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian: A Study in Political Relations
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1981), 47–149.

21
Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews
16, 6, 1–2; see also Glen Bowersock, “C. Marius Censorinus Legatus Caesaris,”
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
68 (1964): 207.

22
See Smallwood,
The Jews Under Roman Rule,
115–143; also the comments by Peter Schäfer,
Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 136ff; also note the essays published by Judith Lieu, John North, and Tessa Rajak, eds., in
The Jews Among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire
(London and New York: Routledge, 1992).

23
Philo,
De Legatione ad Gaium,
357, in
Philo: Vol. X,
trans. F. H. Colson and J. W. Earp (Bury St. Edmunds, UK: Loeb Classical Library, 1962), 178–179.

24
The Martyrdom of Justin, Chariton, Charito, Evelpistis, Hierax, Paeon, and Valerian
, 5.6. (hereafter cited as
The Acts of Justin,
from
The Acts of the Christian Martyrs,
trans. Herbert Musurillo (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1972), 47.

25
The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne,
1.4, in Musurillo,
Acts of the Christian Martyrs,
62–63.

26
On the image of “the beast” as Rome, menacing the martyrs, see
The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne,
1.5, 42, 57, 2.6. Note, too, that an earlier passage (1.10) quotes Revelation 14:4, while 1.57 quotes Revelation 22:1 and refers to John’s book among “the scriptures.”

27
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies,
III.11.9.

28
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies,
III.3.4.

29
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies,
V.26.1.

30
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies,
V.25.1ff. For one early interpretation of the Antichrist traditions, see Wilhelm Bousset,
The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore,
trans. A. H. Keane (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), with an updated introduction by David Frankfurter.

31
I John 4:3.

32
Daniel 7:7ff; Irenaeus,
Against Heresies,
V.25.3.

33
John 5:43; Irenaeus,
Against Heresies,
V.25.4. As noted in note 31, we find in I John 4:3 the prophecy of a deceiver called “antichrist.”

34
“Those who believe willingly do God’s will, by their own choice; but those who disobey, by their own choice do not accept his doctrine,” in
Against Heresies,
V.27.1. Brian E. Daley, in his influential book on early Christian apocalyptic sources, observes that Hippolytus of Rome, who wrote his
Refutation of All Heresies
and his treatise
De Christo et Antichristo
during the early third century, “promises
to the orthodox …
[that] he shall escape ‘the threat of fiery judgment,’ and ‘the ever-threatening eye of Tarturus’ punishing angels’ (10.24.2) to become ‘a familiar companion of God and a fellow-heir of Christ” (italics mine). See
The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 40.

35
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies
, V.26.2.

36
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies
, V.30.3.

37
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies
, V.30.3.

38
Pliny,
Letter to Trajan,
Letter X.9; see 5–10.

39
Although Fronto’s speech is lost, Minuncius Felix gives this account of what he said in
Octavius,
9.6, and Tertullian may be echoing and satirizing other aspects of that famous speech in
Apology
2 and 7.

40
The Martyrdom of Justin,
5, 1–3, in Musurillo,
Acts of the Martyrs,
47.

41
Celsus’
True Doctrine
survives only in fragments preserved in a book that the Christian teacher Origen wrote to refute his influential polemic. For a reconstructed translation of Celsus’ work, see Celsus,
On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians,
with introduction and translation by R. Joseph Hoffmann (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987). Origen’s book against Celsus is well translated and annotated by Henry Chadwick in his
Origen: Contra Celsum
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1965). For an excellent discussion of how members of Marcus’ circle reacted to the Christian movement, see Victor Schmidt, “Reakionen auf das Christentum in den Metamorphosen des Apuleius,” in
Vigiliae Christianae
51 (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1997), 51–71.

42
This suggestion is made by Schmidt, “Reaktionen auf das Christentum,” 61.

43
Origen,
Contra Celsum,
4.11.

44
Origen,
Contra Celsum,
V.14.

45
Origen,
Contra Celsum,
I.1; see also VIII.17–68.

46
Tertullian,
Against the Jews (Adversus Judaeos),
9.15, in G. D. Dunn,
Tertullian,
in the series
The Early Church Fathers
(London: Routledge, 2004), 87.

47
See Timothy D. Barnes, “Pre-Decian
Acta Martyrum
,” in
Journal of Theological Studies
19, n.s. 19 (1968): 433–437.

48
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas,
18.8, in Musurillo,
Acts of the Christian Martyrs,
126–127.

49
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas,
10.1–25, in Musurillo,
Acts of the Christian Martyrs,
116–119. For discussion of these allusions to Revelation in the account of Perpetua’s martyrdom, see R. Petraglio, “Des influences de l’Apocalypse dans la
Passio Perpeutuae
11–13,” in
L’Apocalypse de Jean: Traditions exégétiques et iconographiquest, III–XIII siècles
(Geneva: Librarie Droz, 1979), 15–29; see also David P. Armstrong-Reiner,
“You Opened the Book”: An Instrumental Understanding of the Patristic Use of the Revelation of John,
unpublished dissertation, Emory University, May 2008.

50
Tertullian,
De Spectaculis,
30.

51
Tertullian,
Apology,
30.

52
Matthew 22:21.

53
Romans 13:1.

54
Tertullian,
Apology,
32, 39.

55
Tertullian,
Apology,
39.

56
Apuleius,
Apology,
55–56.

57
In this respect, other evidence suggests that he was right; note, for example, that these are some of the same charges that Irenaeus threw against Marcus, the visionary teacher active in his district, as well as in Asia Minor, whom he called a fraud and heretic and accused of practicing magic and seducing rich women; see, for example,
Against Heresies
I, 13.1–6.

58
Apuleius,
Apology,
25–26.

59
Apuleius,
Apology,
26.

60
Apuleius,
Apology,
28.

61
Although this is the popular title, Apuleius aptly called it
The Metamorphoses,
since, as we shall see, its primary theme is transformation.

62
Apuleius,
The Golden Ass,
9, 14.

63
Apuleius
, The Golden Ass
, 11, 16–24; in section 23, Apuleius writes that “the initiation ceremony took the form of a kind of voluntary death, and salvation through divine grace.”

64
Justin,
Apology,
61.

65
Pliny, Letter to Trajan, Letter X, 96.

66
Timothy D. Barnes,
Tertullian,
258. For an excellent account of how the Christian message traveled, see Meeks,
The First Urban Christians.

67
Tertullian,
De Testimonio Animae,
1.

68
Tertullian,
De Testimonio Animae,
6.

69
Tertullian,
De Testimonio Animae,
1.

70
Tertullian,
Apology,
24–25.

71
Tertullian,
Apology,
12–13.

72
Tertullian,
Apology,
4.

73
Tertullian,
De Testimonio Animae,
2.

74
Tertullian,
Apology,
33–34.

75
Tertullian,
Apology,
24.

76
Tertullian,
To Scapula,
2:
Tamen humani iuris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putaverit, colere nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio.