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This chapter examines how different cultural and religious groups constructed narratives of Roman justice between the late first and late third century, and assesses the interactions and connections between these narratives. It focuses on three case studies: (i) the Acta Alexandrinorum, accounts of embassies and trial scenes between Alexandrian Greeks and emperors; (ii) Christian texts, chiefly the apocryphal acts featuring encounters between apostles and emperors and the martyr acts recounting trials before Roman governors; and (iii) Jewish literature, including 1 and 2 Maccabees, and rabbinic texts which include discussions of Roman justice. The narratives of justice created by Alexandrian Greeks, Christians, and Jews in the High Empire are united by the fact that they all rewrite the public transcript of Roman legal authority. These stories show evidence of cross-cultural interactions in both form and content, but this chapter argues that the ultimate purpose and agenda of the different narratives were specific to the community that produced them.
The expression 'Apostolic Fathers' corresponds to an idea of seventeenth century origin. The primitive Christian literature takes a variety of forms, but by far the most frequent form is that of the letter. In the Roman-Hellenistic world letters were a common, if not frequent, means of communication among ordinary folk, for personal or business purposes. Of the letters in the New Testament, fourteen were traditionally attributed to Paul. Of these, the unquestionably genuine ones are 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, Galatians and Romans. The term 'gospel' eventually came, in early Christianity, to identify works of widely differing sorts. The Valentinian Gospel of Truth appears to be a sermon or treatise. The Gospel of Thomas is an anthology of sayings of Jesus. Among the Apostolic Fathers, some of the characteristics of the apocalyptic literature are shared by The Shepherd of Hermas, which stems from the Roman Church of the early second century.
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