[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Sacrificing to standards
At 12:22 PM 3/11/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>I was always under the impression that the belief was that legionnaries
>sacrificed *before* their standards, not *to* their standards (the
>standard being in the middle of the encampment),
This, I think, is right. Much the same as Israel in the wilderness
(according to Numbers) placed the banner of the tribe in the middle of the
various encampments.
> but that to any onlooker
>this might be perceived as worship to the standard itself.
>
Indeed it must have.
>Secondly, is there not a passage in Josephus' BJ where Romans brought
>standards into the Temple precinct? Was this not regarded as idolatry,
>culminating in a riot?
>
This rings a bell. But, not knowing the citation's source I can't hazard a
guess.
>Yours,
>
>Marcus Wood
>Department of Theology
>University of Durham
Jim
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West
Adjunct Professor of Bible
Quartz Hill School of Theology
jwest@highland.net
or
jwest@theology.edu