Investigation of the Agora area at Dura was begun in 1931, and continued in the following seasons of work. It is now possible to trace in some detail the history of the site, which developed from an open square only partly enclosed by simple market buildings into a complex of public and private structures. From one of the latter, a private house built in the late second century in the northwest part of the area (G5 H), came the inscription which is the subject of the present paper.

This invocation of the ‘soul gods’ or ‘divine souls’ to receive Terentius, and the material which Welles has collected in illustration of it, may have a bearing on the ordo commendationis animae. The form of the Rituale Romanum, reprinted in each volume of the Breviary, includes one prayer with these words

Suscipiat eum sanctus Michael Archangelus Dei … Veniant illi obviam sancti Angeli Dei et perducant eum in civitatem caelestem Jerusalem. Suscipiat eum beatus Petrus Apostolus, cui a Deo claves regni caelestis traditae sunt. Adjuvet eum sanctus Paulus Apostolus.…

In the extant writings of certain of the Church Fathers there are some interesting references to a man named Thallus. At the present time, beyond what can be inferred from these early Christian references, nothing is certainly known about him. In recent years, however, attempts have been made to fix the identity of this Thallus. Because of its potential significance for the early history of the gospel tradition, one of these attempts has become rather popular. Much of the acclaim over this suggested identification would seem to be based on a confusion between what has recently been said about Thallus and what is actually known about him from the early Christian references. Consequently, numerous errors of fact and fancy have arisen. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate, first, what is actually known about the Thallus referred to by the Church Fathers, and second, the validity of the identification currently proposed.

Since the work of Zielinski and Gothein in the early years of this century, it has been clear that the medieval and modern Catholic teaching of the seven cardinal sins, sometimes called the deadly sins, had a Hellenistic astrological origin. The details of that provenance, however, are still vague, and it is my purpose to add some further information tending to clarify the complex problems of origins. The material here presented will strengthen what must be a nebulous, though very probable, hypothesis. The problem, however, is not so much to show the exact origin of the concept, as it is to refute certain misleading orthodox theories of origin.

The peculiarities of the Exultet in the South-Italian Church have often been the subject of scholarly investigation. Quite recently, several new studies have been devoted to this famous and indeed very beautiful liturgical prose hymn which was sung on the Saturday of Holy Week. Among these peculiarities, the practice, for example, of writing the hymn on a long scroll and of embellishing the text with illuminations was observed nowhere but in Southern Italy. This scroll, as is well known, was intended to fall more and more over the ambo so that, as the archdeacon sang the text, the congregation could at the same time gaze at the illustrations to the respective parts of the prayer. Word and illustration thus supported each other in a singular way.

Among the historical documents of Harvard Divinity School is a volume entitled The Records of the Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is a history of the School written year after year, by students. The annual scribe seems to have been a member of the senior class, duly elected to this post and for this task. The records began with the year 1827 and were kept up through 1893. It is our hope to appeal to alumni of the intervening years, and eventually to bring the book down to date.

Readers of the Journal of Theological Studies may recall the interesting note by Mr. C. H. Roberts in the issue of January, 1939, vol. XL, no. 157, pp. 55–56. In connection with the occurrence of the verb in Galatians 2, 14 (ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε εἶδον ὅτι οὐκ ὀρθοποδοῦσιν πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου κτλ.), Mr. Roberts calls attention to the appearance of the noun ὀρθοποδία in a recently published private letter of A.D. 117 (Papiri della R. Università di Milano, No. 24), which contains the sentence: νὴ τὴν σήν μοι σωτηρίαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ τεκνίου μου καὶ ὀρθοποδίαν, ἧς πέπεισμαί σε κήδεσθαι οὐκ ἔλασσόν μου κτλ.