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The essays in this volume examine the relationship between ancient fiction in the Greco-Roman world and early Jewish and Christian narratives. They consider how those narratives imitated or exploited conventions of fiction to produce forms of literature that expressed new ideas or shaped community identity within the shifting social and political climates of their own societies. Major authors and texts surveyed include Chariton, Shakespeare, Homer, Vergil, Plato, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Daniel, 3 Maccabees, the Testament of Abraham, rabbinic midrash, the Apocryphal Acts, Ezekiel the Tragedian, and the Sophist Aelian. This diverse collection reveals and examines prevalent issues and syntheses in the making: the pervasive use and subversive power of imitation, the distinction between fiction and history, and the use of history in the expression of identity.
This monograph examines the problem of universally inclusive language in the book of Revelation and the resulting narrative tension created by narrowly exclusive language. Analysis is conducted by placing relevant texts within their literary-narrative context and through consideration of how the author understood and appropriated biblical traditions. A key feature of this study is its examination of four early Jewish documents with significant similarities to the problem being examined in Revelation. From these documents (Tobit; Similitudes of Enoch [1 Enoch 37-71]; 4 Ezra; and, Animal Apocalypse [1 Enoch 85-90]) a contextual picture emerges which allows a fuller understanding of Revelation's distinctive approach toward the problem of the fate of the nations. This study contends that the interpretive strategies applied to biblical traditions in Revelation have their roots in the wider early Jewish milieu. From this comparative analysis, identifiable patterns with regard to the role of 'universal terminology' in the communicative strategy of John's Apocalypse emerge.
This volume considers the New Testament in the light of anthropological study, in particular the current trend towards theological anthropology. The book begins with three essays that survey the context in which the New Testament was written, covering the Old Testament, early Jewish writings and the literature of the Greco –Roman world. Chapters then explore the anthropological ideas found in the texts of the New Testament and in the thought of it writers, notably that of Paul. The volume concludes with pieces from Brian S. Roser and Ephraim Radner who bring the whole exploration together by reflecting on the theological implications of the New Testament's anthropological ideas. Taken together, the chapters in this volume address the question that humans have been asking since at least the earliest days of recorded history: what does it mean to be human? The presence of this question in modern theology, and its current prevalence in popular culture, makes this volume both a timely and relevant interdisciplinary addition to the scholarly conversation around the New Testament.
The essays collected here approach the book of Tobit from a range of disciplines: literary, feminist, anthropological, imagination, theological, textual and historical. This multi-disciplinary approach will generate new ideas and approaches to the book of Tobit. The essays vary not only in methodology used, but also in the texts that they examine. The book considers in detail some Latin manuscripts, encompassing an article introducing a print of the Ceriani Latin text, and includes an overview of the Old Latin textual tradition and context. There is a comparison between two Greek manuscripts of Tobit 14 and a re-examination of the place of origin of the text. A social anthropological reading...
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The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (or Paidika) is one of the most unusual gospels in the Christian tradition. Instead of revealing the compassionate Jesus so familiar to us from the biblical Gospels, it confronts its readers with a very different Jesus – a child who sometimes acts like a holy terror, killing and harming others for trifling faults. So why is Jesus portrayed as acting in such an 'unchristian' fashion? To address this question, Cousland focuses on three interconnected representations of Jesus in the Paidika: Jesus as holy terror, as child, and as miracle-working saviour. Cousland endeavours to show that, despite the differing character of these three roles, they present a unified picture. Jesus' unusual behaviour arises from his 'growing pains' as a developing child, who is at the same time both human and divine. Cousland's volume is the first detailed examination of the Christology of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and provides a fresh and engaging approach to a topic not often discussed in representations of Jesus.
The Acts of the Apostles joins the Gospel of Luke with the ministry of Paul. The author shows how this masterful storyteller worked his magic, drawing on first-century literary techniques of narration and characterization.
Papers based on a conference held October 2006, Babeðs-Bolyai University in Cluj.
The present volume of the DCLY 2006 collects the contributions of the International Conference of the â__International Society for the Study of Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literatureâ__ (ISDCL), which took place at the University of Barcelona from July 2nd to 6th, 2005. The Congress was devoted to the question â__How Israelâ__s Later Authors Viewed Its Earlier Historyâ__.
The Zechariah Tradition and the Gospel of Matthew is a comprehensive study of the ways Matthew utilizes Zechariah texts and traditions. Against the background of materials from Qumran, and apocryphal and deuterocanonical writings Matthew's explicit citations of Zechariah are examined; the influence of Zechariah elsewhere in the First Gospel is identified; and the extent to which Matthew alludes to characteristic Zechariah themes, alone or in combination with other prophetic traditions, is explored. Zechariah traditions appear in Matthew's distinctive materials, as well as in texts Matthew has transmitted, or altered, from Mark and Q. The impact of Zech 9-14 is not limited to the Passion Narr...