Connecting Gospels

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Single Field ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Normative Status ◽  
Two Bodies ◽  
Shed Light

By the late second century, early Christian gospels had been divided into two groups by a canonical boundary that assigned normative status to four of them while consigning their competitors to the margins. The project of this volume is to find ways to reconnect these divided texts. The primary aim is not to address the question whether the canonical/non-canonical distinction reflects substantive and objectively verifiable differences between the two bodies of texts—although that issue may arise at various points. Starting from the assumption that, in spite of their differences, all early gospels express a common belief in the absolute significance of Jesus and his earthly career, the intention is to make their interconnectedness fruitful for interpretation. The approach taken is thematic and comparative: a selected theme or topic is traced across two or more gospels on either side of the canonical boundary, and the resulting convergences and divergences shed light not least on the canonical texts themselves as they are read from new and unfamiliar vantage points. The outcome is to demonstrate that early gospel literature can be regarded as a single field of study, in contrast to the overwhelming predominance of the canonical four characteristic of traditional gospels scholarship.

Sexual Defilement in Early Christian Texts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Family ◽  
Main Target ◽  
Christian Society

Chapter 7 demonstrates that sexual sin became the main target for purity discourse in early Christian texts, and attempts to explain why. Christian imagery of sexual defilement drew from a number of traditions—Greco-Roman sexual ethics, imagery of sexual sin from the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple texts, and both Jewish and pagan purity laws, all seen through the lens of Paul’s imagery of sexuality and sexual sin. Two broad currents characterized Christian sexual ethics in the second century: one upheld marriage and the family as the basis for a holy Christian society and church, while the second rejected all sexuality, including in marriage. Writers of both currents made heavy use of defilement imagery. For the first, sexual sin was a dangerous defilement, contaminating the Christian community and severing it from God. For the second, more radical current, sexuality itself was the defilement; virginity or continence alone were pure.

Evolution of the subjunctive in New Persian (10th–20th): From disappearance to reappearance

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-440
Author(s):  
Agnès Lenepveu-Hotz
Keyword(s):  
Intermediate Step ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Middle Persian ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The subjunctive mood is not built with the same morpheme in Middle Persian as in Contemporary Persian. In Middle Persian it is marked with the suffix -ā- and with the prefix be- in Contemporary Persian. Based on a corpus of eleven texts, this article will demonstrate how the Middle Persian subjunctive disappeared and how a new subjunctive form was created in New Persian. Contrary to common belief, we will see that this modal opposition indicative/subjunctive does not exist during the intermediate stages, i.e. Early New Persian (10th–11th c.) and Classical Persian (12th–19th c.). Therefore, the first value of rhematicity of the prefix be- will be analyzed in order to explain its reuse as a modal marking, certainly with an intermediate step of perfectivity, as well as the dialectal variants in New Persian. Since this same exact evolution of disappearance and modal recreation is seen in other languages not related neither genetically nor geographically to each other, the Persian modal evolution may shed light on the reason for the reuse of an ancient present as a modal form.

scholarly journals Textual Criticism, Translation Studies, and Symmachus’s Version in the Book of Job

Textus ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Alison Salvesen
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Variant Reading ◽  
Descriptive Translation Studies

Abstract The late second century CE translator/reviser Symmachus took a very different approach to the versions of his predecessor Aquila. His renderings do not appear to have survived in Jewish circles but were much admired by early Christian scholars, thanks to their preservation in Origen’s Hexapla. However, for textual critics of the Hebrew Bible Symmachus’ free approach has limited his value since his readings cannot be easily retroverted, unlike those of Aquila or Theodotion. In the case of the book of Job, although Symmachus’ “transformations” (to use a term from Descriptive Translation Studies) differ in nature from the freedoms observed in OG Job, while rejecting the narrow isomorphism of Aquila and Theodotion he nevertheless adheres quite closely to his Hebrew Vorlage. This offers the possibility of identifying elements significant for textual criticism in his rendering, including variant reading traditions or a different consonantal text.

The coming age of adversarial social bot detection

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Cresci ◽  
Marinella Petrocchi ◽  
Angelo Spognardi ◽  
Stefano Tognazzi
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Computer Security ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Proactive Approach ◽  
Bot Detection ◽  
Illegal Activities ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Over Time

Social bots are automated accounts often involved in unethical or illegal activities. Academia has shown how these accounts evolve over time, becoming increasingly smart at hiding their true nature by disguising themselves as genuine accounts. If they evade, bots hunters adapt their solutions to find them: the cat and mouse game. Inspired by adversarial machine learning and computer security, we propose an adversarial and proactive approach to social bot detection, and we call scholars to arms, to shed light on this open and intriguing field of study.

Jewish Religion in the Apocrypha

2021 ◽  
pp. 450-476
Author(s):  
Carla Sulzbach
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
Wisdom Of Solomon ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Jewish Religion

In this chapter, the Apocrypha are read through the lenses of Jewish observances in their original Second Temple era milieu, in their (dis-)continuity with biblical as well as post-Temple Rabbinic culture. This allows for these writings, all dating from the Graeco-Roman period, to be put on a trajectory from pre-exilic times (to which they were heir and to which they refer), through Second Temple times, to Rabbinic Judaism. The total known textual corpus dating from this period is much greater and also comprises the Pseudepigrapha, Qumran, and the Hellenistic-Jewish historians. Early Christian texts in their interaction with their Jewish subtexts, too, shed light on the development of Early Judaism of this period although these fall outside the purview of this article, which narrows its focus to a selection of representative examples, namely, 1 and 3 Maccabees, Tobit and Judith, the Additions to Daniel and to Esther, as well as the Wisdom of Solomon.

The Donkey Deity

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-39
Author(s):  
M. David Litwa
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Negative Valence

This chapter argues that the notion of the evil (Judean) creator had existed for centuries in native Egyptian revisionary mythology. The notion was thus already prepared for its early Christian application to the Judeo-catholic creator. Since the second century BCE, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans had identified the evil god Seth-Typhon (often depicted as a donkey-like creature) with the Jewish god Yahweh. The Seth-Yahweh tradition, with all its negative valence, was then applied to the creator worshiped by Christians as well. Evidence for this view comes from the early Christian depiction of the creator and his sons in donkey (Typhonian) form. In addition to material culture (gems, amulets, and graffiti), four texts are analyzed in this chapter: The Birth of Mary, the Secret Book of John, the so-called Ophite diagram, and the Phibionites described by Epiphanius.

Polykoiranie II (Philo Judaeus, Early Christian Apologists, Pseudo-Dionysius)

2021 ◽  
pp. 70-99
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Bennington
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Clement Of Alexandria ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
The One ◽  
Eusebius Of Caesarea ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

The chapter pursues invocations and quotations of the same line from Homer in Philo Judaeus’s On the Confusion of Tongues, and subsequently among the second-century CE Christian apologists Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, pseudo-Justin, Eusebius of Caesarea, and the pseudo-Dionysius, and their various attempts to Christianize pagan and Judaic sources. The complexity of the “One” in the concept of “one God” is analysed in Christianity, Judaism, and Islamic thought, and shown to have a significant stylistic presence in Derrida.

Amulets and the Ritual Efficacy of Christian Symbols

2019 ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Rangar H. Cline
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Insight Into

Although “magical” amulets are often overlooked in studies of early Christian material culture, they provide unique insight into the lives of early Christians. The high number of amulets that survive from antiquity, their presence in domestic and mortuary archaeological contexts, and frequent discussions of amulets in Late Antique literary sources indicate that they constituted an integral part of the fabric of religious life for early Christians. The appearance of Christian symbols on amulets, beginning in the second century and occurring with increasing frequency in the fourth century and afterward, reveals the increasing perception of Christian symbols as ritually potent among Christians and others in the Roman Empire. The forms, texts, and images on amulets reveal the fears and hopes that occupied the daily lives of early Christians, when amulets designed for ritual efficacy if not orthodoxy were believed to provide a defense against forces that would harm body and soul.

Imitation in Johannine Christianity

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Cornelis Bennema
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Christian

Studies in Johannine ethics have flourished in recent times, but scholars have yet to reach the heart of the matter. My contention that imitation is central to Johannine ethics is perhaps surprising because the concept is not immediately evident in the Johannine writings. I will therefore explain how we can recognize and understand Johannine imitation, followed by an account of how John’s ‘imitation ethics’ works. Our findings will discover a tradition of imitation from Jesus in the early first century to Johannine Christians in the late first century, and on to the early Christian martyrs in the second century.

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