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James Harrison

Australian University College of Divinity, Biblical Studies, Distinguished Professor (FAHA)

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Books by James Harrison

Paul and the Ancient Celebrity Circuit: The Cross and Moral Transformation

Paul and the Ancient Celebrity Circuit: The Cross and Moral Transformation, 2019

Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome: A Study in the Conflict of Ideology

Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome: A Study in the Conflict of Ideology, 2011

Paul's Language of Grace in its Graeco-Roman Context

Papers by James Harrison

Ovid on Himself. Selections from the Works of Ovid Illustrating His Life and Development as a Writer

The Classical World, 1966

The "Clemency" of Nero and Paul's Language of "Mercy" in Romans: Paul's Reconfiguration of Imperial Values in Mid-Fifties Rome

Justice, Mercy, and Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 2020

Paul’s understanding of “mercy” (ἔλεοϛ), the equivalent of the despised Stoic emotion of miserico... more Paul’s understanding of “mercy” (ἔλεοϛ), the equivalent of the despised Stoic emotion of misericordia (“pity”), is distinctive in its Roman context. The idea of the God of Israel relentlessly seeking to incorporate elect Gentiles into his covenant people through the reconciliation proffered in Christ, with no prior worthy response required on their part, undermined not only Jewish ethnocentrism but also ancient understandings of those very rare occasions when the gods offered mercy to suppliants independently of any prior cultic appeasement. The initial expressions of clementia at the outset of Nero’s reign grew increasingly infrequent as a culture of violence and revenge progressively consumed the ruler. Paul’s summons to believers to exercise mercy and beneficence toward their enemies and persecutors would have marked out the social relations of Roman believers as distinctive as Nero’s rule increasingly slid toward tyranny. This article explores references to "mercy" in Romans in light of this Neronian backdrop which, in Paul's hands, becomes a distinctive social feature in the apostle's teaching.

‘Paul and the Ancient Gymnasium: Research Paradigms for "Academic Citizens" of the New World'

Les Ball and James R. Harrison (eds), Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead. Second Edition (Norwest: SCD Press), 2024

The essay examines trends in the uptake of research degrees in the Australian tertiary sector fro... more The essay examines trends in the uptake of research degrees in the Australian tertiary sector from 2010-2013 and then explores the present situation in the theological sector and its implications for the future. The paper further investigates Australian discussion regarding the models of theological education and (implicitly) research: the "Athens Academy," the "Berlin University," the "Jerusalem Community," and the "Geneva Seminary." The essay brings other models into consideration ("Learning Community," "Pneumatic-missional," "Theo-cultural"), arguing that Genesis 1-11 also provides valuable insights into God's "creation" mandate for research. The ethical dimension of tertiary teaching, leadership and research is then analysed, focusing on the writings of Professor Bruce Macfarlane from 2004-2012 regarding the service of the "academic citizen" to the community, inexplicably overlooked by Christian educationists. Having established how theological research should foster and sustain professional, ecclesiastical and academic vocations for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, the remainder of the essay asks how the ethical curriculum of the ancient gymnasium compared with the teaching of the apostle Paul in his "learning communities." What agenda does the apostle establish for theological research that will empower mission and ministry inside and outside of the church in God's world?

‘Paul and Empire II: Negotiating the Seduction of Imperial ‘Peace and Security’ in Galatians, Thessalonians and Philippians’

A. Winn (ed.), New Testament and Empire (Atlanta: SBL Press), 2016

In seeking to understand Galatians, Philippians, and Thessalonians in their imperial context, th... more In seeking to understand Galatians, Philippians, and Thessalonians in their imperial context, this article will concentrate on the archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and iconographic evidence for each city. It will be argued that an important issue for the apostle Paul and his house churches was the danger of an idolatrous accommodation with the patronal benefits and values of the Julio-Claudian house on the part of his converts, including the pathways of upward mobility that the Roman ruler and his officials offered to the socially and politically ambitious in the provinces. There was also an ideological collision between the Jewish apocalyptic eschatology of Paul’s gospel and the providential, prophetic, and benefaction perspectives espoused regarding the Julio-Claudian house by the Roman ruler and his clients. The versatility and pastoral care with which Paul handled these challenges partially explains why his gospel spread so rapidly throughout the eastern Mediterranean basin from the late 40s to the early 60s.

‘The Politics of Oneness Among Romans’

One God, One People: Oneness, Unity, and Christian Origins, ed. S.C. Barton and A.J. Byers (Atlanta: SBL), 2023

This book chapter argues that the unity of humankind sponsored by Alexander the Great was anythi... more This book chapter argues that the unity of humankind sponsored by Alexander the Great was anything but universal and did not demonstrate any sense of oneness. Rather it enshrined the ethnic superiority of the Macedonian forces over against the Persians and, even more remotely, the rest of the marginalized nations. The same ambiguity existed in Roman relations with the barbarian nations. The occasional universalistic sentiments of Roman writers about the nations on the borders of empire stood at odds with the iconographic demeaning of the defeated nations on the Augustan victory arches and their assigned place of cultural and geographical inferiority in Roman thought. The only oneness that emerged out of the agonistic and status-obsessed Roman Republic was the triumph of the Julian house over the old noble houses, allowing a measure of consensus, peace, and concord to flourish under the providential auspices of the Benefactor of the world.

‘The Persecution of Christians from Nero to Hadrian'

M. Harding and A. Nobbs (eds.), Into All the World: Emergent Christianity in Its Jewish and Greco-Roman Context (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 2017

The persecution of Christians has become hot property in academic circles once again with the pub... more The persecution of Christians has become hot property in academic circles once again with the publication of Candida Moss’s 2013 book The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom. At one level, interest in the persecution of the early believers and their successors has never waned. The popular book of the English historian and martyrologist, John Foxe (1517–1587), has been in print and read continuously since its original 1568 publication. However, the provocative thesis of Moss, beyond the scope of this chapter to investigate, has grabbed the attention of the popular media and has posed the question anew regarding the motivations for the persecution of the early Christians, the extent of its occurrence under the Roman empire, and the veracity of the later Christian martyrological accounts. Moss argues that Christians “were very rarely the victims of imperial persecution.” In many respects, Moss has revived the famous critique of the Christian persecutions by the Roman historian, Edward Gibbon (1737–1794). This book chapter explores the evidence for the persecution of the first believers from Nero until the reign of Hadrian.

Beneficence to the Poor in Luke’s Gospel in its Mediterranean Context: A Visual and Documentary Perspective

Australian Biblical Review 65 (2017): 30-46, 2017

Jesus demands in Luke's Gospel that his followers divest themselves of their wealth and give to t... more Jesus demands in Luke's Gospel that his followers divest themselves of their wealth and give to the poor, and do good to and pray for the enemy. The "poor" are one of the several marginalised groups that, according to Jesus' Isaianic understanding of the Kingdom, are at the heart of his mission. However, Jesus criticises the strong reciprocity ethic animating the ancient benefaction system and is dismissive of the honorific accolades that it spawned for the Gentile kings. He underscores the indifference of the wealthy to the poor, as well as their blindness to eschatological judgement. Notwithstanding, Jesus commends the centurion synagogue benefactor, advocates the astute use of wealth to establish "friends" for the Kingdom, endorses his disciples' dependence upon benefaction for their mission, promises reward for the "poor," praises the sacrificial beneficence of an impoverished benefactor, celebrates the magnanimous monetary restitution offered by a morally unworthy tax collector to his victims, and challenges his disciples with the new paradigm of the "Servant" benefactor. Employing a visual and documentary perspective, this article demonstrates that Luke provides for his readers a nuanced, paradoxical and unconventional portrait of Jesus' response to the beneficence of the local elites, the Herodian house and imperial overlords.

‘Paul and Ancient Civic Ethics: Redefining the Canon of Honour in the Graeco-Roman World’

C. Breytenbach (ed.), Paul’s Graeco-Roman Context (Leuven: Peeters/ Leuven University Press), 2015

Accolades of civic honour motivated eastern Mediterranean elites to act ethically on behalf of t... more Accolades of civic honour motivated eastern Mediterranean elites to act ethically on behalf of their cities, either as benefactors of the community, or by seeking the praise of the Roman ruler through posts in the imperial cursus honorum. The constriction of honour and the virtues to the ruler meant that indebtedness to him had to be acknowledged, and that an inappropriately prominent public profile was to be avoided. Notwithstanding, grandiloquent moral language and the monumental iconography became more pronounced and competitive in the imperial age. Paul’s denunciation of boasting and the moral failure of humanity should be viewed as much against this backdrop as the traditional Jewish polemics against Gentile immorality and idolatry.

‘Who is the “Lord of Grace”? Jesus’ Parables in Imperial Context’

A. Weissenrieder (ed.), Borders: Terms, Ideologies and Performances (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), 2016

This book chapter set out to investigate to what extent the exercise of imperial clementia in the... more This book chapter set out to investigate to what extent the exercise of imperial clementia in the first century might have provided a backdrop to the “mercy” and “compassion” traditions in the Lukan parables of grace. As third generation believers heard Luke’s gospel for the first time, those who were Romans may have had difficulties in comprehending the radical political and social challenge that these parables posed to the operation of the ruler’s patronal relationships and to the exercise of clementia to those who had affronted him, or to the enemy nations which had opposed his rule. In either case, the ruler was to discriminate rationally regarding the worth of the individual or nation being offered his pardon. Under no circumstance was the offer of merciful pardon to be affected by the presence of (what the Stoics deemed) the unstable emotion of “pity,” lest the overarching protocols of justice (iustitia) be violated. A prior evaluative “border,” therefore, was indelibly drawn in the Roman mind, discriminating between “worthy” and “unworthy” clients, with the latter group being deemed to be outside the scope of clementia. It is argued in this book chapter that Luke’s compassionate Saviour and Lord joins together the expression of divine clementia with divine misericordia in a new social and theological synthesis that would challenge Roman social relations from the top of the social pyramid to its base.

Paul and Aesop: Popular Morality and the Apostolic Gospel in the Ancient Mediterranean

Paul in His Jewish and Graeco-Roman Context: Theological, Ecclesial, Social, and Political Perspectives, ed. Constantine R. Campbell and James R. Harrison, 2025

This chapter explores the popular morality in the Babrian fables, the most extensive collection o... more This chapter explores the popular morality in the Babrian fables, the most extensive collection of the Aesopian tradition roughly contemporary with the apostle Paul. Despite the redactional issues associated with the Aesopian fables, the quasi-historical or legendary status of Aesop, and the interpretative legitimacy of the epimythia (the moral conclusions to the fables), their moral world view was familiar in antiquity because of their literary citation, use in elementary school curricula and rhetorical exercises, and recounting in oral culture. Whether it was the divine world or the role of prayer, variegated social relations, and the prohibitions and exhortations of the morality espoused therein, Aesopian moral assumptions would have invisibly shaped the ethical behaviour of Paul’s audiences, as much as the teaching of the philosophical schools and the peripatetic philosophers. Despite areas of similarity in ethical and social perspective between Paul and the Aesopic tradition, the Christologically modified monotheism of the apostle, his indebtedness to the LXX, the dramatic social reversal effected by God in the Gospel of Christ crucified, the pneumatic empowerment of believers, and the reconfiguration of Aesopian ethical commonplaces with new theological content, challenged the fundamental structures of the moral life in antiquity.

‘“Signs on the earth below” (Acts 2:19b): Luke-Acts and the Miraculous in the Graeco-Roman World’

Journal of the Gospels and Acts Research , 2025

This article explores Luke’s reference to the phrase 'signs on the earth below’ in Acts 2:16-21 i... more This article explores Luke’s reference to the phrase 'signs on the earth below’ in Acts 2:16-21 in its wider Graeco-Roman context. Five strands of Graeco-Roman evidence regarding the miraculous, each of differing genres and from different historical periods, will be examined and their intersection with Luke-Acts explored, comparing their claims to legitimation where possible. The literature and documents are Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Lucian’s Alexander the False Prophet and The Passing of Peregrinus, the writings of Apollonius the paradoxographer, the miracles
of Asclepius at Epidauros and other sanctuaries, and, last, the magical papyri. It will be argued that Luke-Acts consistently highlights the distinctiveness of the approach of Jesus and the first Christian missionaries to the miraculous. Nevertheless, Luke is alert to local Graeco-Roman expressions of the miraculous in the eastern Mediterranean basin, which, by virtue of their similarity to some of the early Christian phenomena, help us to see the emerging conflict between both religious traditions.

‘Paul the ‘Paradoxical’ Parent: Paul’s “Parenthood” in First-Century Context (2 Cor 12:14-16)’

Theologizing in the Corinthian Conflict: Studies in Exegesis and Theology of 2 Corinthians , 2013

In this little discussed vignette of parental beneficence in 2 Corinthians 12:14-16, New Testame... more In this little discussed vignette of parental beneficence in 2 Corinthians 12:14-16, New Testament scholars, including myself, have underestimated the paradigms of selfless parenthood that existed in antiquity. These may have informed Paul’s discussion, along with the traditions regarding paren- tal beneficence in the Jesus tradition (Matt 7:9-11) and Paul’s own under- standing of the self-impoverishment and self-emptying of Jesus as the enslaved benefactor (2 Cor 8:9; Phil 2:6-8). Notwithstanding, the reciprocity conventions underlying parenthood in antiquity are the dominant cultural understanding. Paul is mounting a critique of these in verses 14-16, though with more subtlety and balance than has been hitherto appreciated.

format_quoteOnly three scholars have addressed the social context of Paul's plea in 2 Corinthians, indicating a scholarly gap in understanding.format_quote

‘Modern Scholarship and the “Nature” Miracles: A Defence of Their Historicity and Affirmation of Jesus’ Deity’

Reformed Theological Review 72/2: 86-102., 2013

The nature miracles represent historically reliable Jesus traditions. In the three examples discu... more The nature miracles represent historically reliable Jesus traditions. In the three examples discussed in this article, the nature miracles meet the criterion of multiple attestation and are likely to be authentic because their traditions originate from independent sources. It is also argued that some of the nature miracles — those absent from Mark but reported in Matthew, Luke or John — probably predated the composition of the gospel of Mark in the sixties. The nature miracles, therefore, are not late first-century theological creations of the early church as it attempted to engage the religious and political propaganda of its Jewish and Graeco-Roman environment. Rather, the nature miracles belonged to the formation of the gospel tradition from the very beginning and they are embedded in narratives that are replete with accurate detail from first-century Galilean village life. When the historicity of the nature miracles is admitted, the self- understanding of Jesus as an agent of the miraculous acquires an even more profound dimension. Not only does Jesus exhibit consciousness of being the eschatological herald and the messianic son of the Kingdom of God in the present, but he also acts in same manner as the covenantal God of Israel does on behalf of His people. Jesus actualises Yahweh’s great deeds of deliverance for his dependents in the present.

Gentle Philosopher, Rhetorician, or Selfless Benefactor? Paul's Apostolic Image and Ethos in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

The First Urban Churches. Volume 7: Thessalonica, 2022

This essay argues that, while Abraham Malherbe rightly locates Paul’s rhetoric in 1 Thess 2:1–12 ... more This essay argues that, while Abraham Malherbe rightly locates Paul’s rhetoric in 1 Thess 2:1–12 in the world of the Cynic mission, he is incorrect in refusing to allow that the apostle was engaged in specific apologia against misrepresentations of his ministry at Thessalonica, as opposed to the pericope merely being a general case of paraenetic and exemplary rhetoric. Not only has the challenge offered by Jeffrey Weima to the consensus emanating from Malherbe’s contribution been convincing in this regard, but I have argued that Malherbe overlooked elements of a personal apologia against the harsh Cynics in the evidence of Dio Chrysostom, on which his case heavily relies. Thus Paul’s apologia, carried out primarily in the positive antitheses (1 Thess 2:2, 4a, 4c, 7b–8) but ranging more widely throughout our pericope, draws on the language of the eulogistic inscriptions, depicting the apostle as the selfless benefactor who honors God. Malherbe’s conten- tion that Paul presents himself as the gentle philosopher may have some rhetorical traction on the basis of the τροφός image in 1 Thess 2:7, but even this claim is open to challenge on the basis of the honorific inscrip- tional and visual evidence. But even more fundamentally, as the LXX and Second Temple Judaism evidence outlined above shows, Paul draws on the faith of Israel to show his Thessalonian converts that he, like them, had been ushered by grace into the cruciform service of their glorious Lord, the risen Messiah. Paradoxically, the experience of the shame of the cross in their sufferings for Christ had become an unsurpassed honor for both the apostle and his converts.

format_quoteMalherbe's interpretation positions Paul as a 'gentle philosopher' engaged with converts, reshaping traditional views on Pauline rhetoric.format_quote

An Epigraphic Profile of Thessalonica from the Hellenistic Age to the Roman Empire

The First Urban Churches. Volume 7: Thessalonica, 2022

A strategically placed and wealthy polis, Thessalonica adeptly negoti- ated the arrival of the Ro... more A strategically placed and wealthy polis, Thessalonica adeptly negoti- ated the arrival of the Roman hegemony in Macedonia (168 BCE) and the ensuing shifts of political power occurring during the civil war of the late republic, thereby ensuring the city’s freedom from the Julio- Claudian principate onward. Although the cult of Roma and the Roman benefactors flourished alongside the imperial cult, this Roman focus in no way diminished the potency of the traditional Greek gods and heroes and the powerful imported Egyptian deities. In a world full of gods, the apostle Paul highlighted for the early Thessalonian believers the social and personal cost involved in turning to the living God and his crucified, risen, and returning Son. Not only did they face persecution, but their social constituency was drawn from lower-echelon trade associations, revealing a homogenous community of freed/free casual workers living close to or at subsistence level, without identifiable benefactors within their community. The commonalities and differences between the Thessalonian association inscriptions and the early Christian churches in the city are invaluable in highlighting the ethos of the communities of the first believers. In locating Thessalonian believers socially, religiously, and economically, we face the limitations posed by the scarcity of extant archaeological remains contemporary with Paul’s Thessalonian epistles. But the Thessalonian epigraphic corpus contributes to our understanding of Paul’s correspondence in the areas of honor culture, the Thessalonian cults, dream and vision revelation, and slavery, among other topics.

Romans 1:2-4 and Imperial "Adoption" Ideology: Paul's Alternative Narrative to Julio-Claudian Sonship and Apotheosis

The First Urban Churches. Volume 6: Rome and Ostia, 2021

In writing to Roman believers, living in the capital where the Julio- Claudian son of god and wor... more In writing to Roman believers, living in the capital where the Julio- Claudian son of god and world benefactor lived, Paul had to grapple with the various succession narratives popularly available to enthusiastic Roman audiences: the health-imperilled Augustus and the death of his adoptive heirs; Augustus’s quest for heirs who would demonstrate their public worthiness for rule; the epigraphic link of Julio-Claudian succession to apotheosized forebears; and the automatic inheritance of honorific office and imperium by the Roman ruler from Caligula onward. This complex succession ideology, changing over the generations, defined notions of Julio-Claudian adoption and sonship in the Roman mind during the early empire. This essay argues that the apostle Paul vigorously combatted the imperial ideology of adoption and apotheosis in our pericope. In Rom 1:3–4 the apostle set forth a humiliated and divinely vindicated heir as opposed to the Augustan paradigm of the deserving heir, a messianic Son by Davidic descent as opposed to an adopted Son by Julian legal decision, and a risen Son as opposed to an apotheosized son. With these broad theological and historical brushstrokes, Paul addressed the slowly changing panorama of succession ideology from Augustus to Nero, elevating the crucified Christ, dismissed by Roman auditors as a malefactor, to his rightful position of the risen and ascended Lord of all.

Ostia, Harbor Port of Rome: An Epigraphic and Archaeological Portrait

The First Urban Churches. Volume 6: Rome and Ostia, 2021

This study will undertake an examination of the archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evid... more This study will undertake an examination of the archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence of Roman Ostia,6 concentrating on the middle to late republican and Julio-Claudian periods, with a view to not only illuminating the Epistle to the Romans at particular points but also engaging with several wider debates of New Testament scholarship from an Ostian viewpoint. Nine intersections with the New Testament evidence are discussed. What is remarkable is the new set of social relationships con- structed by the apostle in the body of Christ. The civic pride of Ostia in the achievements of its elites, exemplified by its own local calendarin the Fasti Ostienses and by the boasting of the duumvirs, to cite one instance, is dismantled in the Epistle to the Romans. There Paul rejects all boasting because of the believer’s absolute dependence on cruciform grace for acquittal before God. Heated rivalries over honor in the Ostian associations, leading to erasures of senatorial names on inscriptions, are challenged by Paul’s radical reconfiguration of social relations among believers in the body of Christ. The hidden riches of Ostian studies and their contribution to scholarship on the Epistle to the Romans have yet to be further unearthed.

format_quoteOstia's prosperity declined from the third century due to earthquakes, political instability, and economic recession caused by trade decline.format_quote