Brent Shaw

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Shaw created controversy in 2015, when an article he published on the Journal of Roman Studies argued that Emperor Nero had not, as it is generally believed, persecuted Christians following the Great Fire of Rome. While Shaw accepted the authenticity of the passage of Tacitus about Christians in the Annals , he argued that Tacitus was using legendary and apocalyptic Christian sources to write his work; he also argued that the term "Christians" was not in use during Nero's reign and that Christians in Rome weren't so numerous to be persecuted. [3]

Shaw's views have received strong criticism and have generally not been accepted by the scholarly consensus: [4] writing on New Testament Studies , Christopher P. Jones (Harvard University) answered to Shaw and challenged his arguments, noting that the Tacitus's anti-Christian stance makes it unlikely that he was using Christian sources; he also noted that the Epistle to the Romans of Paul the Apostle clearly points to the fact that there was indeed a clear and distinct Christian community in Rome in the 50s and that the persecution is also mentioned by Suetonius in The Twelve Caesars . [5] Shaw responded to Jones in a article in the same journal. [6] Larry Hurtado (University of Edinburgh) was also critical of Shaw's argument, dismissing it as "vague and hazy". [7]

Writing on Eirene: Studia Graeca et Latina, Brigit van der Lans and Jan N. Bremmer (University of Groningen) also dismissed Shaw's argument, noting that the Neronian persecution is recorded in many 1st-century Christian writings, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Book of Revelation, the apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah, the First Epistle of Peter, the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of Clement, although these texts, while referring to fires or punishments, do not explicitly relate these events to the Neronian fire. Van der Lans and Bremmer also argued that Chrestianus, Christianus, and Χριστιανός were probably terms invented by the Romans in the 50s and then adopted by Christians themselves. [8]

In an article for Vigiliae Christianae , John Granger Cook (LaGrange College) also rebuked Shaw's thesis, arguing that Chrestianus, Christianus, and Χριστιανός are not creations of the second century and that Roman officials were probably aware of the Chrestiani in the 60s. [9]

In his book Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Costantine, Barry S. Strauss (Cornell University) rejects Shaw's argument. [10]

Selected publications

Books

  • Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents (2001). Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN   0-312-23703-0
  • Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine (2011). Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-12725-4
  • Bringing in the Sheaves: Economy and Metaphor in the Roman World (2013). University of Toronto Press. ISBN   1-442-64479-6

Edited and co-authored

  • Finley, Moses I. (1983). Economy and Society in Ancient Greece (Saller, Richard P. and Shaw, Brent D. eds.). Penguin (Pelican). ISBN   0-140-22520-X
  • Finley, Moses I. (1998). Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (Shaw, Brent D., ed. Reprinting of 1980 edition). Markus Wiener Publishers. ISBN   1-558-76171-3
  • Shaw, Brent D., et. al. (2008). Worlds Together, Worlds Apart 2nd edition. W. W. Norton. ISBN   0-393-93493-4

Collected papers

  • Environment and Society in Roman North Africa (1995). Variorum. ISBN   0-860-78479-7
  • Rulers, Nomads, and Christians in Roman North Africa (1995). Variorum. ISBN   0-860-78490-8

Articles

  • "Eaters of Flesh, Drinkers of Milk: the Ancient Mediterranean Ideology of the Pastoral Nomad". Ancient Society. 13: 5–31. December 1982.
  • "Bandits in the Roman Empire". Past & Present. 105: 326–374. 1984.
Revised with addendum on recent research in: Shaw, Brent (2003), "Bandits in the Roman Empire", in Osborne, R. (ed.), Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society, Cambridge University Press, pp. 326–374.
Revised with addendum on recent research in: Shaw, Brent (2003), "The Passion of Perpetua", in Osborne, R. (ed.), Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society, Cambridge University Press, pp. 286–325.
  • Shaw, Brent D. (1996). "Seasons of Death: Aspects of Mortality in Imperial Rome". The Journal of Roman Studies. 86: 100–138. doi:10.1017/s0075435800057452.
  • Shaw, Brent (2003), "Climate, Environment, and History: the Case of Roman North Africa", in Wigley, T.M.L.; Ingram, M.; Farmer, G. (eds.), Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and their Impact on Man, Cambridge University Press, pp. 379–403.
  • Shaw, Brent D. (2015). "The Myth of the Neronian Persecution". Journal of Roman Studies. 105: 73–100. doi:10.1017/S0075435815000982. S2CID   162564651.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nero</span> 5th Roman emperor from AD 54 to 68

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tacitus on Jesus</span> References by Roman historian and senator Tacitus to Christ

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire</span> Roman religious persecution of Christians

Christians were persecuted, sporadically and usually locally, throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the 1st century AD and ending in the 4th century. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of Roman paganism and the Hellenistic religion, as Christianity spread through the empire, it came into ideological conflict with the imperial cult of ancient Rome. Pagan practices such as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry. The state and other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for introducing an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy. The first, localized Neronian persecution occurred under Emperor Nero in Rome. A more general persecution occurred during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. After a lull, persecution resumed under Emperors Decius and Trebonianus Gallus. The Decian persecution was particularly extensive. The persecution of Emperor Valerian ceased with his notable capture by the Sasanian Empire's Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa during the Roman–Persian Wars. His successor, Gallienus, halted the persecutions.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pliny the Younger on Christians</span> Pliny the Youngers views on Christianity

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suetonius on Christians</span> Mentions of Christians by the historian Suetonius

The Roman historian Suetonius mentions early Christians and may refer to Jesus Christ in his work Lives of the Twelve Caesars. One passage in the biography of the Emperor Claudius Divus Claudius 25, refers to agitations in the Roman Jewish community and the expulsion of Jews from Rome by Claudius during his reign, which may be the expulsion mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. In this context "Chresto" is mentioned. Some scholars see this as a likely reference to Jesus, while others see it as referring to another person living in Rome, of whom we have no information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannine community</span> Ancient Christian community that supposedly authored the Johannine literature

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Christian sources such as the New Testament books in the Christian Bible, include detailed accounts about Jesus, but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the biblical accounts of Jesus. The only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony A. Barrett</span> British-Canadian Classical scholar and author (born 1941)

Anthony Arthur Barrett is a British-Canadian Classical scholar and the author of several books on Roman antiquity.

References

  1. ↑ "List of Wallace K. Ferguson Prize Recipients". Canadian Historical Association. Archived from the original on 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
  2. ↑ "List of 2012 Prose Award Recipients". American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence.
  3. ↑ Shaw, Brent D. (2015). "The Myth of the Neronian Persecution". The Journal of Roman Studies. 105: 73–100. doi:10.1017/S0075435815000982. S2CID   162564651 – via Cambridge University Press.
  4. ↑ McKnight, Scot; Gupta, Nijay K. (2019-11-05). The State of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research. Baker Academic. ISBN   978-1-4934-1980-7. It appears to me that historians of ancient Rome generally accept Nero's persecution of Christians
  5. ↑ Jones, Christopher P. (2017). "The Historicity of the Neronian Persecution: A Response to Brent Shaw" (PDF). New Testament Studies . 63: 146–152. doi:10.1017/S0028688516000308. S2CID   164718138 – via Cambridge University Press.
  6. ↑ Shaw, Brent D. (2018). "Response to Christopher Jones: The Historicity of the Neronian Persecution". New Testament Studies . 64: 231–242.
  7. ↑ "Nero and the Christians". Larry Hurtado's Blog. 2015-12-14. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  8. ↑ Van der Lans, Birgit; Bremmer, Jan N. (2017). "Tacitus and the Persecution of the Christians: An Invention of Tradition?". Eirene: Studia Graeca et Latina. 53: 299–331 – via Centre for Classical Studies.
  9. ↑ G. Cook, John (2020). "Chrestiani, Christiani, Χριστιανοί: a Second Century Anachronism?". Vigiliae Christianae . 74 (3): 237–264. doi:10.1163/15700720-12341410. S2CID   242371092 – via Brill.
  10. ↑ Strauss, Barry (2020-03-03). Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-6884-1.
Brent Shaw
BrentDShaw.png
Shaw in 2012
Born
Brent Donald Shaw

(1947-05-27) May 27, 1947 (age 76)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
OccupationProfessor of Classics
SpouseShauna Shaw (m. 1969)
Academic background
EducationBA in Classics and Anthropology (University of Alberta, 1968)
MA in Classics and Ancient History (University of Alberta, 1971)
PhD in Classics and Ancient History (Cambridge University, 1978)
Doctoral advisorJoyce Reynolds
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