The Strange Significance of the Name Carpocrates in Early Christian Polemic.
In this philological study we establish and reckon with the fact that the name Carpocrates was exceedingly rare and strange in antiquity. The rarity, we argue, was due to the name being a variant spelling or (purposeful) misspelling of the Greco-Egyptian deity Harpokrates. We also show how bizarre a...
| Published in: | Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 142; no. 4; pp. 717 - 734 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Literary Criticism |
| Published: |
Society of Biblical Literature
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=174829130&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 174829130 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00219231 JBL jtl: Journal of Biblical Literature issn: 00219231 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2023 vid: 142 iid: 4 pid: 11433 pub: Society of Biblical Literature artinfo: ui: 174829130 10.15699/jbl.1424.2023.9 ppf: 717 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: The Strange Significance of the Name Carpocrates in Early Christian Polemic. aug: au: POPE, MICHAEL ADAMSON, GRANT affil: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85621 su: Polemics Harpokrates (Egyptian deity) Ethnicity Christians Inscriptions Ancient (Literary period) sug: subj: Polemics Harpokrates (Egyptian deity) Ethnicity Christians Inscriptions Ancient (Literary period) ab: In this philological study we establish and reckon with the fact that the name Carpocrates was exceedingly rare and strange in antiquity. The rarity, we argue, was due to the name being a variant spelling or (purposeful) misspelling of the Greco-Egyptian deity Harpokrates. We also show how bizarre and even comical the name would have sounded to Hellenephone audiences. Greek parents, so far as the evidence suggests, were not naming their sons Carpocrates. We further explain how both the rarity and strangeness of the name functioned as a polemical weapon in the hands of some early Christian writers. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Biblical Literature is the property of Society of Biblical Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Biblical Literature holder: Society of Biblical Literature dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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