Background

Background:
Dr. Chris Forbes graduated from Macquarie with a B.A. (Hons.) Dip. Ed. in 1978. He taught in State secondary schools for two years before taking up a Postgraduate Research Award at Macquarie in 1981, while also working part-time for the Australian Institute of Archaeology. He completed his Ph.D. in 1987, while teaching full time. He has lectured in Ancient History at Macquarie since then.
His teaching interests include New Testament History, Greek and Roman History of Ideas, Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic age (350 B.C. - 100 A.D.).
Chris is the Coordinater of the M.A. Program in Early Christian and Jewish Studies, and Vice President of the Society for the Study of Early Christianity at Macquarie.

Research Interests:
Chris' research interests lie primarily in the area of the relationship between early Christianity and its Graeco-Roman environment.

Publications:

1. Academic:
"Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony: Paul's Boasting and the Conventions of Hellenistic Rhetoric", New Testament Studies, vol. 32, 1986, pp. 1-30.

"Early Christian Inspired Speech and Hellenistic Popular Religion", Novum Testamentum, vol. 28 part 3, 1986, pp. 257-270.

"Prophecy and Inspired Speech in Early Christianity and its Hellenistic Environment", a revised version of my Ph.D. thesis, was published in the series "Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament", eds. M. Hengel and O. Hofius, Tübingen, 1995. In 1997 it was republished in the U.S.A. by Hendricksons Publishers, under license from J.C.B. Mohr / Paul Siebeck, Tübingen.

"Christians and Cynics": a review of F.G. Downing, Cynics and Christian Origins, Edinburgh, 1982, was published in The Classical Review, vol. XLV, No. 1, 1995, pp. 67-8. For an extended version of that review, click here.

A review of The Greek Alexander Romance, translated by Richard Stoneman: Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, 1991, was published in Ancient History: Resources for Teachers, vol. XXIV no. 1, 1994.

A review of N.G.L. Hammond, Alexander the Great: King, Commander and Statesman, 3rd edn., Bristol, 1994, was published in Ancient History: Resources for Teachers, vol. XXV, no. 2, 1995.

A review of Hellenistic History and Culture, ed. P. Green, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993, was published in Ancient History: Resources for Teachers, vol. 27, 1997

Two consecutive articles, “Paul's Principalities and Powers: Demythologising Apocalyptic?” and “Pauline Demonology and / or Cosmology? Principalities, Powers and the Elements of the World in their Hellenistic Context” were published in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament (Sheffield Academic Press), 2001, No. 82, pp. 61-88, and 2002, No. 85, pp. 51-73.

Contributions to Reference works:

A 2,000 word article on Epictetus, the early 2nd Century A.D. Stoic philosopher, has been published in the Dictionary of New Testament Background, IVP, 2000.

An 11,000 word chapter on “‘Comparison’ in the World and Writings of Paul” was published in Paul and the Greco-Roman World: a Handbook, edited by J. Paul Sampley, Trinity Press International, 2003, pp. 134-171.

2. Educational:

With G.G. Garner, Director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology: "Documents of the Egyptian Empire (1580-1380)", Melbourne, 1981, 1982; 52 pages.

"Documents of the Assyrian Empire (1115-612 B.C.)", Melbourne, 1986, 158 pages.