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In this volume Blake Hartung explores the place of the passion and death of Jesus in the writings of Ephrem of Nisibis (ca. 307–373). The book argues that the genre of Ephrem’s works (usually short poems for public performance), is key to understanding his unsystematic approach. Ephrem drew widely upon the Passion narratives and traditional motifs related to Christ’s death and deployed them differently in distinct settings. Each chapter explores a key theme in Ephrem’s discourse about the death of Christ in context (including anti-Judaism, the defeat of death, and economic imagery). Ultimately, Hartung urges further consideration of the role of Christ’s death in early Christian thought and practice beyond the traditional confines of atonement theology.
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This book focuses on Irenaeus as key to the early Christian appropriation of divine simplicity as a philosophical principle, since he is the first Christian source to explain his usage in relation to God. Beyond providing limits for what a simple God can and cannot mean, he also applies this principle to God’s activity (i.e. creating), and to God’s names and powers. There is a growing interest in the early Christian appropriation of divine simplicity: Simons' study is timely as the first book to focus exclusively on the earliest explanation and application.
In this volume Julien M. Ogereau investigates the origins and development of Christianity in the Roman province of Macedonia in the first six centuries CE. Drawing from the oldest literary sources, Ogereau reconstructs the earliest history of the first Christian communities in the region and explores the legacy of the apostle Paul in the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Beroea. Turning to the epigraphic and archaeological evidence, Ogereau then examines Christianity’s dissemination throughout the province and its impact on Macedonian society in late antiquity, especially on its epigraphic habits and material culture.
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This book offers the first detailed commentary on the Gnostic treatises reported by Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses 1.29–30. It is argued that these texts represent the earliest tangible layer of the Gnostic literary tradition and served as sources for the Apocryphon of John and other later works. They also formed the starting point for Valentinus and his followers, who sought to reconcile the ideas of the Gnostics with apostolic Christianity. The book also shows that Irenaeus and later heresiologists referred to “the Gnostics” as a specific group among the great mass of heretics.
A Critical Edition and Translation of Evagrius Ponticus’ Kephalaia Gnostika in Arabic
In the late fourth century, the early Christian monk and author Evagrius Ponticus wrote his magnum opus in Greek—entitled Kephalaia Gnostika (“Gnostic Chapters”)—a spiritual treatise on ascetic contemplation and unity with God. After Evagrius’ death, however, his theology attracted controversy, and many of his writings were suppressed or destroyed. As a result, complete copies of this important work principally survived only in Syriac translations and an Armenian adaptation, until the recent discovery of two Arabic copies at the so-called Monastery of the Syrians in Egypt. The present volume represents the first-ever critical edition and translation of the Kephalaia Gnostika in that language.
Aḥob of Qatar and the Development of the East Syriac Exegetical Tradition
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In The Heirs of Theodore Seth M. Stadel examines Aḥob of Qatar, a late 6th-century East Syriac biblical commentator, and his surviving Old Testament exegetical works. He further investigates what can be deduced of Aḥob’s influence on the later East Syriac exegetical tradition, and he details the originality of Aḥob’s exegesis, especially in comparison with earlier and contemporary Greek and Syriac sources. By presenting the first annotated edition, English translation, and study of Aḥob’s extant Old Testament exegetical works, Stadel is able to show that Aḥob represents a distinct voice within the East Syriac exegetical tradition.
The series comprises volumes of ancient texts with translations and commentaries, individual monographs, thematic collections, as well as translations into English of noteworthy volumes in modern languages. It covers the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions from the early through to the contemporary period. The series will make a valuable contribution to the field of Eastern Christian Studies by publishing research by scholars from a variety of disciplines and traditions.

The series published an average of 1,5 volumes per year over the last 5 years.
The Bible in Ancient Christianity series examines how the Scriptures were interpreted in ancient Christianity, particularly as Scripture functioned in liturgy, in exposition, homilies, in art, in spirituality, and in social issues. The chronological parameters for the series are the first through the fifth centuries. Questions of how Scripture functions will include both, for example, how Augustine interpreted Romans, as well as how Romans was interpreted among various writers. The geographic and chronological breadth of the series means that Eastern as well as Western Christian authorities will be examined. Although the focus will be on widely accepted canonical texts (within these two traditions), the series will not restrict itself to only “orthodox” readings of the texts. Thus, the series might include manuscripts concerning the Gospel of Thomas; and the series might examine how so-called heterodox personalities (e.g., Montanists) used the Bible. Nonetheless the principle aim will be to look at how canonical texts functioned in ancient Christianity.

The series published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.

Abstract

The early Christian work “The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity” consists of different parts combined into a single book. Three parts are generally accepted: 1) Perpetua’s Notes, 2) Saturus’s Vision, 3) the Eyewitness story and the Prologue and Epilogue written by the same author. We argue that the Prologue plus Epilogue and the Eyewitness story had different authors and there was one more person, who was neither a participant nor a contemporary of the Carthaginian martyrdom. The results of his activity can be found in short sentences connecting the parts, as well as in violations of the structure of the narrative and a serious mistake made in the enumeration of the arrested catechumens. The authors claim also that this kind of collection as in The Passion had no analogues in ancient classical literature and followed the model of the New Testament.

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In: Scrinium