Animal sacrifice in ancient Greek religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC--AD 200 / Maria-Zoe Petropoulou. [print]

Approaching the issue of sacrifice -- Greek animal sacrifice in the period 100 BC to AD 200 -- From Greek religion to Judaism: a bridge -- Jewish animal sacrifice in the period 100 BC to AD 200 -- A bridge linking Greek religion and Judaism to Christianity -- Christians and animal sacrifice in the period up to AD 200 -- Conclusions.

"In this study of the ritual of animal sacrifice in ancient Greek religion, Judaism, and Christianity in the period between 100 BC and AD 200, Maria-Zoe Petropoulou challenges the common assumption that an objection to the practice of animal sacrifice was present in Christianity from the beginning. After briefly presenting the main scholarly interpretations of sacrifice, Petropoulou outlines her own theory, based upon the intersection of two axes, the vertical and the horizontal. Her focus is upon the horizontal axis - that of reality." "Drawing on a wide range of history and epigraphic material, Petropoulou demonstrates the vigorous and, at times, obligatory character of the tradition of animal sacrifice in Greek communities of the period - with the consequences that any possible objection to the practice would carry special weight. In the context of Judaism, she gives special attention to the writings of Philo, as evidence that animal sacrifice was important even to Jews living away from the Temple, and uses the mishnaic evidence, with caution, for the period after AD 70. Turning to Christianity, Petropoulou stresses that Christian objections to Jewish animal sacrifice - as opposed to criticism of explicitly pagan sacrifices - only come to the fore in the second century AD (although there are traces of this objection in the first century). The process by which Christianity finally separated its own cultic code from the existing tradition was in fact a slow and difficult one."--Jacket.

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