God Against the Gods (36 page)

CHAPTER THREE: Terror and True Belief

1
Lev. 19:34 (adapted from JPS and NEB).

2
Deut. 4:34, 2:25.

3
Deut. 6:10-11.

4
Deut. 20:16-17 (adapted).

5
Deut. 2:34.

6
Exod. 34:13.

7
E.g., Jer. 2:19 (NEB).

8
Deut. 3:22.

9
Num. 25:8.

10
Num. 25:11. The Hebrew word
Ki-nah
is variously translated as “zealous” and “jealous.”

11
Num. 31:15, 17-18.

12
1 Sam. 15:3, 12.

13
1 Sam. 15:3, 9, 23 (adapted from JPS and NEB).

14
According to the Bible, the land of Israel was united under a single monarch during the reigns of David and Solomon. On the death of Solomon, as a punishment for his acts of apostasy, a civil war ensued and the kingdom was split into two separate monarchies. The southern kingdom was called Judah and the northern kingdom Israel. Shortly after Solomon’s death, the monarch of the northern kingdom, Jereboam, set up sanctuaries for the worship of Yahweh in the northern cities of Bethel and Dan as alternatives to the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the royal capital of the kingdom of Judah.

15
2 Chron. 34:3.

16
Richard Elliott Friedman,
Who Wrote the Bible?
(New York: Summit Books, 1987), 102.

17
2 Kings 23:4 (New JPS).

18
2 Kings 23:13 (New JPS).

19
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman,
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
(New York: Free Press, 2001), 275, 276.

20
Ibid., 122.

21
2 Chron. 35:23.

22
Flavius Josephus,
The Works of Josephus
, trans. William Whiston (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1987),
Antiquities of the Jews
, 324.

23
1 Macc. 2:24, 26, 27 (NEB).

24
Steven Weitzman, “Forced Circumcision and the Shifting Role of Gentiles in Hasmonean Ideology,”
Harvard Theological Review
92, no.1 (January 1999): 59.

25
2 Macc. 7:2, 29 (NEB).

26
Emil L. Fackenheim,
What Is Judaism? An Interpretation for the Present Age
(New York: Summit, 1987), 67, 68.

27
Caecilius, quoted in Augustus Neander,
The Emperor Julian and His Generation
, trans. C.V. Cox (1812; reprint, Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2001), 56.

28
Flavius Josephus,
The Jewish War
, rev. ed., trans. G. A. Williamson (New York: Dorset Press, 1981), 404.

29
Ibid., 404-5.

30
Ibid., 405.

31
Flavius Josephus,
Works, Antiquities of the Jews
, 743.

32
Deut. 12:11.

33
Quoted in Jacob Neusner,
A Life of Yohanan ben Zakkai, ca. 1-80 C.E
. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1962), 142. Yohanan ben Zakkai is quoting Hos. 6:6.

34
Zvi Kaplan, “Hanina Segan Ha-Kohanim,”
Encyclopedia Judaica
corr. ed. (Jerusalem: Keter, n.d.), 7: 1266-67, citing Avot 3:2.

35
A. N. Wilson,
Paul: The Mind of the Apostle
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 5.

CHAPTER FOUR: Confessors and Traitors

1
Quoted in Franz Cumont,
Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism
(1911; reprint, New York: Dover, Publications, 1956) 37.

2
Ibid., 28, 31.

3
Ibid., 24.

4
Ibid., 66.

5
Quoted in Samuel Dill,
Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire
, 2d rev. ed. (New York: Meridian, 1958), 32.

6
Quoted in Patrick Tierney,
The Highest Altar: Unveiling the Mystery of Human Sacrifice
(New York: Penguin, n.d.), 441.

7
James George Frazer,
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
, abridged ed. (1922; reprint, New York: Macmillan, 1979) 406.

8
Ibid., 406 (adapted).

9
Ibid., 445 (adapted).

10
Adapted from Apuleius,
The Golden Ass
, trans. Jack Lindsay (1932; reprint, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962) 237-238.

11
Quoted in Augustus Neander,
The Emperor Julian and His Generation
, trans. C. V. Cox (1812; reprint, Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2001) 58.

12
Hans-Josef Klauck,
Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles
, trans. Brian McNeil (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 77 (referring specifically to the Epicureans and Stoics).

13
Pseudo-Plutarch, quoted in Abraham J. Malherbe,
Moral Exhortation: A Greco-Roman Sourcebook
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986), 30-31.

14
Dio Chrysostom, quoted in ibid. 24.

15
Acts 14:12.

16
Robin Lane Fox,
Pagans and Christians
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 119.

17
Quoted in John Holland Smith,
Constantine the Great
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 43.

18
Quoted in (and slightly adapted from) Jan Assmann,
Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), 53.

19
Saturnalia
of Macrobius, quoted in Dill, 92-93.

20
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine,
1971, 44.

21
Diana Bowder,
The Age of Constantine and Julian
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1978), 98.

22
Dill, 98.

23
Bowder, 83.

24
Quoted in Fox, 165.

25
Quoted in A. N. Wilson,
Paul: The Mind of the Apostle
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 4.

26
Gal. 3:13, 28.

27
Acts 23:11.

28
1 Cor. 10:20.

29
Exod. 34:13-14.

30
Minucius Felix, quoted in John Holland Smith,
The Death of Classical Paganism
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 5. Minucius, a Christian writer of the third century C.E., “put this scandal together in order to refute it.”

31
Quoted in (and slightly adapted from) ibid.

32
Quoted in Fox, 420.

33
Ibid.

34
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
, (1776; reprint, New York: Heritage, 1946), 1:420-21.

35
Ibid. 1: 450.

36
Fox, 434.

37
Quoted in Gibbon, 1: 427.

38
Rev. 16:6, 17:5, 6. The mention of Babylon in the Book of Revelation is understood by most scholars as a reference to Rome.

CHAPTER FIVE: “In This Sign, Conquer”

1
John Holland Smith,
Constantine the Great
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 3.

2
Quoted in ibid., 16.

3
Ibid., citing Zosimus and Orosius.

4
Quoted in Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick,
A History of Pagan Europe
(London: Routledge, 1995), 55.

5
Quoted in A. Nicholas Sherwin-White, “The Empire of Rome,” in Arnold Toynbee,
The Crucible of Christianity: Judaism, Hellenism and the Historical Background to the Christian Faith
(Cleveland: World, 1969), 146.

6
Smith,
Constantine
, 7.

7
Quoted in ibid. 22-23.

8
Andrew Alfoldi,
The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome
, trans. Harold Mattingly (1948; reprint, Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 1998), 20. “Childish silliness” is a phrase used by historian P. Batiffol to argue that a certain letter attributed to Constantine was a forgery. “[S]uch primitive ideas characterize the whole of Constantine’s religious writings,” counter Alfoldi, “and betray thereby their imperial composition.”

9
Smith, Constantine, 21.

10
Quoted in ibid. 26.

11
Quoted in Alfoldi, 22.

12
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
, (1776; reprint New York: Heritage, 1946) 1:441-42.

13
Jones and Pennick, 64.

14
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 98.

15
Quoted in Pierre Chuvin,
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
, trans. B. A. Archer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), 18.

16
Smith,
Constantine
, 60.

17
Ibid.

18
Quoted in ibid. 63.

19
Lactantius, quoted in ibid., 103.

20
Historians do not agree on the origins of the
chi-rho
. “As a Christian symbol, it is definitely documented since the mid-second century,” insists Carsten Peter Thiede,
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity
(New York: Palgrave, 2001), 82. Robin Lane Fox, however, insists that, “despite much debate and searching, no ‘chirho’ sign has been found in a Christian context which is datable with certainty to the years before Constantine’s vision.” Robin Lane Fox,
Pagans and Christians
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 616.

21
Fox, 616.

22
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 106.

CHAPTER SIX: The Harlot in the Bishop’s Bed

1
Quoted in Diana Bowder,
The Age of Constantine and Julian
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1978) 28-29 (adapted).

2
Ibid.

3
Ibid.

4
Ramsay MacMullen,
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 14.

5
Quoted in John Holland Smith,
Constantine the Great
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 273.

6
A. R. Whitham,
The History of the Christian Church to the Separation of East and West
4th ed. (London: Rivingtons, 1954), 255.

7
Robin Lane Fox,
Pagans and Christians
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 358.

8
Ibid., 559.

9
Smith,
Constantine
, 187, citing Epiphanius.

10
John 3:16.

11
Deut. 6:4.

12
1 Cor. 8:6.

13
Acts 5:32 (adapted).

14
Whitham, 185.

15
Matt. 28:18-19.

16
Theodosius, quoted in Richard E. Rubenstein,
When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity During the Last Days of Rome
(San Diego: Harcourt, 1999), 220.

17
Augustine,
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
, trans. Edward B. Pusey (New York: Modern Library, 1949), 304, 308.

18
J. N. Hillgarth, ed.,
Christianity and Paganism, 350-750: The Conversion of Western Europe
, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), 3.

19
Whitham, 186.

20
Ibid.

21
Quoted in Robert M. Grant,
Gods and the One God
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986), 160-61.

22
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776; reprint, New York: Heritage, 1946), 1:604.

23
Ibid.

24
Gregory of Nyassa, quoted in Rubenstein, 6-7 (the quotation from Gregory has been slightly adapted).

25
Smith,
Constantine
, 162.

26
Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick,
A History of Pagan Europe
(London: Routledge, 1995), 67.

27
Quoted in Hermann Dorries,
Constantine the Great
, trans. Roland H. Bainton (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 57.

28
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 130.

29
Dorries, 61.

30
Jerome’s
Chronicle
, quoted in John Holland Smith,
The Death of Classical Paganism
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 61.