The Lost Letters Of Pergamum

In the source “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas,” the narrative of a few early Christians who died for their beliefs is told. The two martyred women, named Perpetua and Felicitas, along with a few other followers of the religion were imprisoned because they identified themselves as Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to the Roman Emperor. The Christians were sentenced to death by beast for this. The source illustrate the problems Christians had in navigating the cultural realities of life in the Roman empire. This can be observed along with the struggles involved in class, family, and gender.

The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.

It is possible to write on the life of Jesus from the information gathered from the bible. I will be dividing my essay into three parts. In the first part of the paper, I will talk about the nature of the gospels, John’s views vs. the Synoptic, discuss if the authors of the gospels are eyewitnesses and how they used written sources. Also I will talk about the Q source. Then I will elaborate on the topic of how Matthew and Luke were similar. Then I will continue on by discussing how the Old Testament uses Moses, Samuel and Elijah to interpret Jesus, and finally whether or not the Sermon on the Mount happened. In the second part of my paper, I will talk about Jesus’s birth and childhood, his miracles, his resurrection, and what Jesus did to cure people, spirits and how they are interpreted to the prophet, magician and the mad man compared to Saul and Elijah. The final part of the paper I will talk about what Jesus talked about as regards to the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of the Romans and what he intended by speaking of the end of the world. I will also speak of the reasons behind the Romans executing him. My sources for this paper will be the New Jerusalem Bible Readers edition as my primary source and lecture notes from Professor Trumbach.

Antipas, a quite wealthy nobleman, began his letters in a bragging type of tone sharing that not only did he come from the house of Philip but he was in fact a benefactor to two very large cities in Rome. In the beginning of the book he boasted about his standing with little to no sense of restraint. But the more his relationship with Luke grew his manner became that of a much humbler person, and opened one of his letters in such a way, “Antipas, a nobleman of Caesarea; To Luke and the noble Calpurnius” (pg.157). By writing it in this fashion he was not only seeing both Luke and Calpurnius on the same level of standing as he but we wanted them to know he thought of them this way as well. Antipas’ show of humility stood to be quite significant as we see him slowly grow more and more humble while he is going through the process of being redeemed. In the beginning we could see that he thought of Christians and Jesus as a danger to the city of Rome, he also saw Jesus as a disruptive force to the way society should be. Yet the letters continued to be exchanged and through this exchange he grew more and more curious of the personage of Jesus Christ. And we start to see a change in his attitude and opinions as well as that of his grasp of the concept.

The Roman Empire, in which the early Church rises in the wake of Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, is complex cultural melting pot. Rife with hedonism, the honor/shame structure of the Roman Empire encourage the worship of the Emperor as God and the Empire as his Holy Empire. Against this narrative, the early Church was a counterculture to the ways of the empire and it is against this backdrop that Bruce Longenecker’s The Lost Letters of Pergamum takes place. The Lost Letters of Pergamum is a historical narrative following Antipas and encounters with Luke through an associate in a neighboring town. Antipas, named after his relative Herod Antipas, has come to great wealth and influence in the Roman empire. Antipas is introduced to

“You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city--where Satan lives.” (Revelations 2:13). In “The Lost Letters of Pergamum”, by Bruce Longenecker, he takes the name found in Revelations and creates a fictional character in a world based two thousand years ago. Antipas is a Roman Civic leader who learns much about Christianity through Luke’s Gospel writings. He learns in Luke’s writings that Jesus is “the answer” for both him, and for the first century Greco-Roman world. In many ways the world Longenecker created is similar to that of the 21st century and in many ways

The purpose behind this paper is to offer a brief review on a book called “Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism” . This review will focus on four major components, first being the editor’s information. The editor’s information will cover education, any positions they hold today, and whatever scholarship information that is currently available. The second thing that will be reviewed will be a concise summary of the major theme of the book followed by the third, an honest and courteous evaluation of the book. The fourth thing that will be added is a bibliography at the end of the paper for reference of the book.

The Lost Letters of Pergamum is a book by Professor Bruce W. Longenecker, is a fictional book of letters that are exchanged between the fictional characters Antipas, a benefactor of Rome, and Luke, a physician and writer of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. This book is artfully written to give the modern reader a glimpse into the context and culture of the first century church. Longenecker presents a stunning display of Christ’s life through these letters and also the effects of his life in his culture.

The book under review is titled, Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism, edited by Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, Jason Maston with a foreword by Francis Watson.

Logeneckers “ Lost letters of Pergamum” is written as a fictional account of a series of letters that were written by a few prominent men in the year 92 AD. These men include Antipas who is known as a proclaimed benefactor of the cities that include Tyre and Caesarea of Rome and also a worshipper of Jupiter, Calpurnius a nobleman of Ephesus, as well as Luke a scholar and the writer of the third gospel and a very good friend of Calpurnius. The letters exchanged between the three men contain information and thoughts about events and other prominent men such as Nero, Pharisees, Josephus, Domitian and many other as well as the gladiatorial games. Antipas also has a vested interest in learning about the Christian faith.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is of his greatest theological works, passed down for thousands of years and still as relevant today as it was in Paul’s time. How exactly is it relevant the modern Christian may ask? What with its harsh language that includes statements such as “the wages of sin is death” (6:23) and “the wrath of God” (1:18), one may say that current times have changed. Some may say that the issues Paul addresses are acceptable in today’s society. What exactly is the Christian to think? The purpose of this short essay is to examine how the Book of Romans relates to the Christian in the twenty-first century and how it helps to shape his worldview.

Readers of the Gospel of Luke often try to identify Luke’s intended audience. Understanding Luke’s intended audience can provide insight into how Luke used current culture to strategically spread the word of God. Specifically, we can look at the period of Hellenization, along passages, to interpret Luke’s Gospel as intended for a Greco-Roman audience.

This essay starts with the use of Roman architecture to practice Christianity. Then I will write about how the image of the Roman emperors became the inspiration for the image of the Jesus. Finally I will discuss the way Romans used the same iconography and narrative they already had as a formula to image the bible.

This method examines the unique literary features and the social function of the genre, canon, paying particular attention to the way in which once historically conditioned literature is given a new authoritative function as the comprehensive word of God to later communities of faith.

In part four Lohfink shows that this “foundational reception of Jesus' praxis of the reign of God continued beyond the New Testament communities into the age of the ancient church”