Sublime

Livy tells the tale of Ambigatus, who was king of the Bituriges tribe, in the centre of what is now France, but also king of all the Celts. Ambigatus, ‘wishing to relieve his kingdom of a burdensome throng’, sends his two sons off – each leading a horde of Celts – to find and settle new territories. One son, Segovesus, makes for the Hercynian highl

The label “synagogue of Satan” (also v. 9) strikes modern ears as especially harsh in a post-Holocaust world, but it was not unprecedented in inner-Jewish debate. The community at Qumran associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example, considered other Jews outside their sect to be “a congregation of Beliar,” another name for Satan.2

The Greek word pistis, generally rendered “faith” or “belief,” as it pertains to Christian salvation, quite simply has little correlation with “faith” and “belief” as these words are generally understood and used in contemporary Christian culture, and much to do with allegiance.