Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online

The Paraphrase of Shem is the first tractate of the best-preserved codex discovered at Nag Hammadi (Upper Egypt) in 1945 – codex 7 – and so is among the most complete of the Coptic texts composing the Nag Hammadi collection. The scribal hand of the codex is a practiced, lovely unical script, identical to that of the latter treatises of NHC XI ( Allogenes and Hypsiphrone). The scribe of the first half of NHC IX also wrote NHC I, 4 ( Resurrection, Treatise on), and the make of codices I, VII, and XI are similar, so the three are generally considered to make up a subcollection …

Shenoute of Atripe (“the Great”; c. 347–c. 465 CE) led a federation of three monasteries in the area of Atripe, a village on the west bank of the Nile, across from the city of Panopolis (modern Akhmim). Shenoute is the most important native writer in the Coptic language, producing numerous theological, homiletic, and disciplinary works throughout his long career as a monastic administrator (archimandrite), and was known in Egypt as an advocate for the poor and a critic of alleged pagan and heretical opponents.SourcesIn ancient and medieval sources outside of Egypt, Shenoute is…

In early Christian art, the good shepherd motif refers to the symbolic representation of Jesus Christ (Christ, Jesus, 01: Survey) in a variety of media; he is typically pictured as a beardless, tunic- and sandal-clad man who carries a bag of stones on his belt or a milk bucket in one hand. He either stands bearing a sheep or goat on his shoulders or sits on a rock, often accompanied by one or more other sheep or goats. The shepherd may also be depicted milking an ewe. This motif had its o…

Sidonius Apollinaris, whose career in the third quarter of the 5th century CE took him from son-in-law of an emperor to prefect of Rome to bishop of Clermont, is a representative par excellence of late antiquity in general, and the end of the Roman Empire and the rise of barbarian Europe in particular. He manifested not only the traditional late Roman aristocratic interest in engaging in both public service and literary study, but also the increasing tendency for Roman senatorial aristocr…

Simon Magus – often also referred to as Simon the Magician or Simon the Sorcerer – is the archetypal heretic of early Christianity. He is first mentioned in the New Testament, which forms the basis and motivation for further individual depictions in noncanonical texts, and by church writers later. Because of his behavior in Acts 8:9–24, he became the eponym for the sin of simony, in other words, the sale or purchase of ecclesiastical offices. It is said that he had a considerable number …

Born around the year 325 CE, Simplician had, according to the testimony of Augustine of Hippo, lived a life entirely dedicated to God since his youth (Aug. Conf. 8.1.1), a formulation that could also be interpreted as meaning that he had already been ordained as a presbyter at an early age. From 340 to 365 CE, he lived in Rome, where he gave advice and support to the famous rhetorician Victorinus, a leading representative of the so-called Latin Neoplatonism, on the latter’s path to conversion. These were the years i…

The concept of sin (Lat. peccatum; Gk ἁμαρτία/ hamartia) has varied through time: it has a history that shows fluctuations regarding the operations of external agents and interior motions of the soul, individual and communal responsibility, inherent predilection, and voluntary acts. This rich matrix of analysis offered many different combinations, without a clear, linear progression of ideas. Rather, possibilities surface, resurface, mutate, and are in constant tension. Sin has long been a device…

Siricius (d. Nov 26, 399 CE) was bishop of Rome from December 384 to November 399 CE. He had been a lector and a deacon under Liberius (352–366 CE) and Damasus (366–384 CE; Ferrua, 1985, no. 24832) and succeeded Damasus. Since Damasus’ episcopal rival, Ursinus, was still alive, the danger of another disputed election could have arisen. However, a letter composed in early 385 CE from Valentinian II (375–392 CE) to Pinianus (whose official position is not mentioned) praises the Roman peopl…

Sirmium, located in modern-day Serbia, was a city at the Sava River, a lengthy tributary of the Danube River. The modern town name is Sremska Mitrovica.HistoryProof of organized human settlement dates from 5000 BCE. Originally Sirmium was a Celtic Scordisci settlement, later Pannonian-Illyrian Amantini. It was conquered in 35 BCE by Octavian, the later emperor Augustus. Around 14 BCE, an anti-Roman uprising found place in Pannonia (An. Flor. Epit. 2.24), Sirmium was taken over by the governor of Ilyricum, Marcus Vinicius, and, after the conquest by the Roman E…