{"title":"Early Christian Handbooks on Interpretation","authors":"T. Toom","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.6","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter identifies the types of handbooks of biblical interpretation that are available from the patristic period. It assesses handbooks which summarize the content of biblical books, compare translations, affirm the unity and coherence of scriptural accounts, explicate difficult passages, explain the biblical names of persons and places and their etymologies, provide guidelines for theological interpretation, and comment on various items mentioned in Scripture. It also takes a closer look at some key handbooks, which explicitly address interpretative matters: such as those of Origen, Tyconius, Augustine, Eucherius, and Adrian. The considered handbooks are very different, as they focus on particular hermeneutical issues and address particular concerns.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"410 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126689795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ideal Interpreters","authors":"P. Martens","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.8","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines early Christian accounts of ideal (and less than ideal) interpreters of Scripture. These figures were configured by two spaces in the Late Antique world: the institution of the schoolroom, especially the grammatical and rhetorical training that were directly applicable to the study of Christian Scripture; and the Christian ‘religion’, with its range of doctrinal, moral, and liturgical associations that informed the student and study of Scripture. This chapter focuses on the following features of these interpreters: their aims, their education and skills, their moral and doctrinal commitments, precedents and guidelines for interpretation, reading virtues, and the dynamic of prayer and divine response.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130675842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sentences","authors":"Luke Dysinger, OSB","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.14","url":null,"abstract":"The classical genre of moral-philosophical wisdom sayings or gnomai was adopted in early Christianity by creating exegetical sentences that rephrased or alluded to biblical texts. These were inserted into existing collections which were edited to highlight Christian moral teaching. The chief example of this genre is The Sentences of Sextus. In early monasticism, especially in the writings of Evagrius Ponticus, pedagogically arranged chains of exegetical sentences initially augmented, then gradually replaced the pagan gnomai in collections. In texts intended for monastic contemplatives the sayings became increasingly enigmatic, presuming familiarity with Christian monastic vocabulary and models of spiritual development. Coinciding with the waning of original biblical exegesis in the late fifth century, the more obscure exegetical gnomai themselves became the object of commentary and exegesis. This approach is exemplified in the writings of Maximus Confessor, whose ‘centuries’ of chapters (kephalaia) reinterpret and explain texts that were originally intended to evoke speculative meditation.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114705492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Medieval Latin Reception","authors":"Franklin T. Harkins","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.43","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides an overview of the nature of medieval Latin reception of early Christian biblical interpretation, proposing that ancient exegesis served as an ‘omnipresent foundational force’ undergirding and guiding medieval engagements with the sacred text. The first part of the chapter broadly sketches several characteristic examples from the dawn of the Middle Ages to the twelfth century, including the reception of Jerome’s Vulgate as the authoritative version of Scripture, the enormous debt that early medieval scholars such as Bede and Alcuin owed the fathers, and the form and function of the Glossa ordinaria. The second part, in contrast, offers a detailed analysis of the reception of early Christian interpretations of 1 Timothy 2.4 by considering the readings that high scholastic masters such as Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus set forth in their Sentences commentaries.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"125 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121940407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gnostics and their Critics","authors":"David Brakke","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.25","url":null,"abstract":"The Gnostics primarily engaged in ‘rewritten Bible’: they retold and augmented the stories of Genesis and the Gospels, sometimes seeming to replace the biblical book as much as to explicate it. Valentinus practised a highly allusive form of biblical interpretation, in which the Bible and other literature enabled him to express a vision that was personal and biblical. The students of Valentinus participated fully in the emerging ‘academic’ culture of Christian biblical interpretation that arose in the second and third centuries, using the techniques of literary criticism. It was the results of their methods as much as the methods themselves that the critics of the Gnostics and Valentinians, such as Irenaeus and Origen, attacked in their responses.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115831866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Manichaean Biblical Interpretation","authors":"J. Beduhn","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.26","url":null,"abstract":"Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, represents the third-century Mesopotamian outgrowth of second-century Christianity in its pre-canonical character and valuation of the logia of Jesus over gospel narrative. He followed Marcion in his special esteem for Paul, critique of gospel authorship and transmission, and antithetical contrast of Jesus to Torah. He cited Jesus and Paul as the basis for many of his distinctive teachings, and this use of biblical material was transmitted across Asia by the Manichaean mission. In the Roman Empire, later generations of Manichaeans developed a rich exegetical tradition in dialogue and rivalry with orthodox Christians. Some Manichaean interpretative readings, particularly of Paul, influenced Augustine of Hippo, and through him subsequent Catholic and Protestant exegesis.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131387376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Christian Apocrypha","authors":"Stephen J. Shoemaker","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.18","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on the production of early Christian apocryphal writings as an act of biblical interpretation. Particular attention is given to the ‘parabiblical’ nature of many such writings—that is, the ways in which these texts often reflect parallel development of traditions that came to be included in the biblical canon. Many early Gospel traditions and Pauline apocrypha preserve independent, even rival versions of the earliest Christian traditions. For the historian, these texts frequently share equal importance with the canonical traditions in the effort to understand the earliest formation of the Christian biblical traditions. Other early Christian apocrypha relate to the canon in a more supplementary fashion. These serve to fill major gaps in the New Testament tradition, some having a more direct connection to the canonical texts than others.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"111 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128508375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Canons and Rules of Faith","authors":"Joseph T. Lienhard, SJ","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198718390.013.3","url":null,"abstract":"A canon is a collection of sacred books. A rule of faith is a concise statement of Christian beliefs. The Hebrew (Jewish) canon (the Christian Old Testament) comprised three parts: the Law (five books), the Prophets (eight books), and the Writings (eleven books). The Septuagint or Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is longer, by at least seven books. The earliest New Testament canon appeared before 200, and it was finalized c.400. The New Testament comprises the Gospel (4) and the Apostle (13 letters, or 14 with Hebrews). Luke added Acts to his Gospel and John the Presbyter wrote Revelation. Seven catholic epistles complete the canon. The rule of faith, prominent in Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, guided the perception of orthodoxy, and theological thought, in the second and third centuries. Later the creeds (baptismal and conciliar) functioned as the rule of faith had earlier.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129347414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adam and Eve","authors":"Peter C. Bouteneff","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.33","url":null,"abstract":"Adam and Eve, who barely appear in the Bible after they are introduced in the book of Genesis, serve a short but important list of functions within early Christian writing. They represent Christ and Mary, respectively, among other typological readings of the Paradise narrative. They also stand for all of humanity, partly by virtue of their location at the top of the human genealogy, and partly because their acts in the garden are commonly universalized to represent the sins of each and all. The understanding of their sin as resulting in an original guilt passed on through the generations is by no means a common one in early Christian writing. The question of their historical existence is not foreign to some of the ancient authors—nor does it really preoccupy any of them—but it does not receive a straightforward or consistent answer.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132018428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Graeco-Roman Literary Criticism","authors":"Peter T. Struck","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780198718390.013.5","url":null,"abstract":"The poets in the classical world carried wide authority on questions about the gods, the nature of the world, and the human place in it, and this provoked ancient readers to detailed and subtle reflections on how such profound wisdom might be conveyed through the medium of poetry. This chapter presents an overview of literary criticism in the Greek and Roman world. It sets Plato and Aristotle at the centre, working through core questions of imitation, morality, and epistemology. It gives outlines of the histories of allegorical commentary, which is mostly focused on questions of interpretation, and rhetorical criticism, more focused on the craft by which such meanings might be communicated; with some further consideration of the origins of textual criticism, and the importance of philosophical and rhetorical schools in producing these traditions. The chapter concludes with the creative and deeply influential ideas of the Neoplatonists.","PeriodicalId":279897,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125153400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}