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Document Details :
Title: La lavanda dei piedi di Gv 13,1-20, il Romanzo di Esopo e i Saturnalia di Macrobio
Author(s): PESCE, Mauro , DESTRO, Adriana
Volume: 80 Issue: 2 Date: 1999
The washing of the feet in John 13,1-20 is a ritual of inversion which transforms the ritual of receiving someone into one’s home, carried out by slaves and common to many cultures in the ancient world, into a ritual of admission to discipleship. Aesop’s Novel confirms that John 1,1-20 has to be set against the background of Graeco-Roman banqueting customs, especially as regards the slaves’ function and the use of the linen cloth (λέντιον) for washing feet. A parallel to the ritual of inversion in John 13 may be found in the feast of Saturnalia during which masters served their own slaves at table.