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The project illustrates the variety of ways human beings have sought to communicate with or influence beings with extraordinary superhuman power for millennia. By including diverse examples such as vows and oaths, blessings, curses, incantations, graffiti, iconography, and more, PAW casts a wide net. In so doing, PAW privileges no particular tradition or conception of how to interact with the divine; for example, the project refuses to perpetuate a value distinction between “prayer,” “magic,” and “cursing.”
Detailed overviews introduce each area and address key issues such as language and terminology, geographical distribution, materiality, orality, phenomenology of prayer, prayer and magic, blessings and curses, and ritual settings and ritual actors. In order to be as comprehensive as practically possible, the volume includes a representative prayer of every attested type from each tradition.
Individual entries include a wealth of information. Each begins with a list of essential details, including the source, region, date, occasion, type and function, performers, and materiality of the prayer. Next, after a concise summary and a brief synopsis of the main textual witnesses, a formal description calls attention to the exemplar’s literary and stylistic features, rhetorical structure, important motifs, and terminology. The occasions when the prayer was used and its function are analyzed, followed by a discussion of how this exemplar fits within the range of variation of this type of prayer practice, both synchronically and diachronically. Important features of the prayer relevant for cross-cultural comparison are foregrounded in the subsequent section. Following an up-to-date translation, a concise yet detailed commentary provides explanations necessary for understanding the prayer and its function. Finally, each entry concludes with a bibliography of essential primary and secondary resources for further study.
The project illustrates the variety of ways human beings have sought to communicate with or influence beings with extraordinary superhuman power for millennia. By including diverse examples such as vows and oaths, blessings, curses, incantations, graffiti, iconography, and more, PAW casts a wide net. In so doing, PAW privileges no particular tradition or conception of how to interact with the divine; for example, the project refuses to perpetuate a value distinction between “prayer,” “magic,” and “cursing.”
Detailed overviews introduce each area and address key issues such as language and terminology, geographical distribution, materiality, orality, phenomenology of prayer, prayer and magic, blessings and curses, and ritual settings and ritual actors. In order to be as comprehensive as practically possible, the volume includes a representative prayer of every attested type from each tradition.
Individual entries include a wealth of information. Each begins with a list of essential details, including the source, region, date, occasion, type and function, performers, and materiality of the prayer. Next, after a concise summary and a brief synopsis of the main textual witnesses, a formal description calls attention to the exemplar’s literary and stylistic features, rhetorical structure, important motifs, and terminology. The occasions when the prayer was used and its function are analyzed, followed by a discussion of how this exemplar fits within the range of variation of this type of prayer practice, both synchronically and diachronically. Important features of the prayer relevant for cross-cultural comparison are foregrounded in the subsequent section. Following an up-to-date translation, a concise yet detailed commentary provides explanations necessary for understanding the prayer and its function. Finally, each entry concludes with a bibliography of essential primary and secondary resources for further study.
Representing some of the finest scholars in the field these eighteen scholarly essays touch on aspects of both phenomena. Three essays are devoted to the historiography of David Burr; three are dedicated to medieval Apocalypticism; another seven deal specifically with Peter of John Olivi; and five final essays explore aspects of the Spiritual Franciscans, their precursors and adherents.
Contributors are C. Colt Anderson, Marco Bartoli, Michael F. Cusato, Gilbert Dahan, Alberto Forni, Fortunato Iozzelli, Philip D. Krey, Robert E. Lerner, Warren Lewis, Michele Lodone, Kevin Madigan, Antonio Montefusco, Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel, Dabney G. Park, Sylvain Piron, Gian Luca Potestà, Marco Rainini, and Paolo Vian.
Representing some of the finest scholars in the field these eighteen scholarly essays touch on aspects of both phenomena. Three essays are devoted to the historiography of David Burr; three are dedicated to medieval Apocalypticism; another seven deal specifically with Peter of John Olivi; and five final essays explore aspects of the Spiritual Franciscans, their precursors and adherents.
Contributors are C. Colt Anderson, Marco Bartoli, Michael F. Cusato, Gilbert Dahan, Alberto Forni, Fortunato Iozzelli, Philip D. Krey, Robert E. Lerner, Warren Lewis, Michele Lodone, Kevin Madigan, Antonio Montefusco, Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel, Dabney G. Park, Sylvain Piron, Gian Luca Potestà, Marco Rainini, and Paolo Vian.
Contributors to this volume are: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Shraga Bick, Briouria Bitton-Ashkelony, Alberto Camplani, Thomas A. Carlson, Jeff W. Childers, Muriel Debié, Terry Falla, George A. Kiraz, Sergey Minov, Craig E. Morrison, István Perczel, Anton Pritula, Ilaria Ramelli, Christine Shepardson, Stephen J. Shoemaker, Herman G.B. Teule, Kathleen E. McVey.
Contributors to this volume are: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Shraga Bick, Briouria Bitton-Ashkelony, Alberto Camplani, Thomas A. Carlson, Jeff W. Childers, Muriel Debié, Terry Falla, George A. Kiraz, Sergey Minov, Craig E. Morrison, István Perczel, Anton Pritula, Ilaria Ramelli, Christine Shepardson, Stephen J. Shoemaker, Herman G.B. Teule, Kathleen E. McVey.
Abstract
Some of the ancient manuscripts and versions of Mark 15.15 add the phrase ‘to them’ after the verb ‘[Pilate] delivered [Jesus]’, suggesting that Pilate delivered Jesus to the Jewish crowd who subsequently crucified him. This textual variant was well-established in the Syriac and Ethiopic traditions while it remained marginal in the Greek, Latin, and Coptic traditions. This pattern suggests that those translators and readers of the gospels who lived on the Eastern fringes or outside of the territory of the Roman empire were more inclined to accept the idea that Jesus had been executed by the Jewish mob (and not by the Roman soldiers) than those translators and readers who lived in the core territories of the empire. The Diatessaron most likely played an important role in disseminating this anti-Jewish narrative. The obliteration of historical memories about crucifixion as a Roman method of execution in late antiquity contributed to the formation of one of the most devastating anti-Jewish narratives of the ensuing centuries.
Abstract
This article provides a bibliography of historical Jesus research from 2000 to 2023 in German and English language publications. In addition to the bibliography, a brief introductory essay identifies trends in historical Jesus research.
Abstract
Jesus is referred to as Rabbi or Rabbouni on four occasions in Mark. Most scholars assume that it was a commonplace term during Jesus’ lifetime and it is a Hebrew synonym for Teacher. It will be posited that it was not in use during the early decades of the first century ce and that it is actually an Aramaic term utilized by Mark and endowed with a messianic valence. This will be viewed within the context of Mark’s agenda of obfuscating the true identity of Jesus and employing Aramaic as a code language. Both Bartimaeus’ petition and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus will also be viewed from this perspective.