Category Archives: Ethnicity in early Christianity and the New Testament

Arabians: Pseudo-Nilus on barbarian bandits and Saracens in the Sinai desert (early fifth century CE)

Barbarian peoples: Caesarius of Nazianzos’ and George the Monk’s collection of extraordinary customs (sixth / ninth centuries CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Celsus and Origen of Alexandria (second-third centuries CE)

Barbarian wisdom: Clement of Alexandria [VI] on barbarian and Hebrew philosophy (late second century CE)

Chaldeans, Greeks, Egyptians, and Judeans: Aristides of Athens (second century CE)

Christians, Judeans, and Greeks: Christians as a descent group in the Epistle to Diognetos (second or third century CE)

Cretans: Stereotypes in the letter to Titus (early second century CE)

Eastern and northern peoples: Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries, Pseudo-Clementines, and Origen on astrology and peoples (second-third centuries CE)

Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians: Julius Africanus on competitive chronologies (ca. 222 CE)

Ethiopians, Nubians, and Egyptians: Christian authors picturing darker-skinned peoples as “demons” (second century CE on)

Greeks and other peoples: Paul’s Judean stereotypes about non-Judeans (mid-first century CE)

Greeks, Barbarians, Judeans, and Christians: Eusebios’ framing of a way of life (early fourth century CE)

Indians: Palladios and George on naked philosophers or Brahmans (fourth / ninth centuries CE)

Judean wisdom: Pseudo-Clement on a journey to Peter the Judean sage (third century CE and on)

Judeans and others: The Gospel of Philip (before the fourth century CE)

Judeans: Ignatius on Judaizing and Christianizing (early second century CE)

New scholarly article: Maia Kotrosits, “The Ethnography of Gender” (2023)

Parthians and Scythians: Julius Africanus on barbarian military techniques (early third century CE)

Parthians, Libyans, Egyptians and others: Acts of the Apostles on legends of Judean migration (early second century CE)

Persian wisdom: Lactantius and others on the Oracles of Hystaspes the Mede (third century CE)

Persians: Acts of Archelaos on Mani’s foreignness (early fourth century CE)

Persians: Irenaeus on Marcus the Valentinian Magian (late second century CE)

Persians: Matthew and Luke-Acts on two contrasting approaches to Magians (late first century CE)

Phoenicians: Gospel of Mark on Jesus and a Syro-Phoenician woman (late first century CE)

Pontic peoples: Tertullian on the Pontic “barbarian” Marcion (late second century CE)

Romans, Egyptians, Persians, and others: Minucius Felix’s ethnographic defence of the Christian people (early third century CE)

Samaritans and Judeans: Belonging to Israel in the Gospels (first century CE)

Scythians and barbarians: Colossians and others on ritual recitations (late first or early second century CE)

Scythians: Adventures of Andrew and Matthias among the Man-eaters as ethnographic fiction (third-fifth centuries CE)