Miracle Stories of the Early Christian Tradition. By Gerd Theissen. Edinburgh, T. and T. Clark, 1983. Pp. x + 322. £12·95.

1984 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-540
Author(s):  
A. T. Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Early Christian

scholarly journals The Magi and the Star in the Gospel of Matthew and Early Christian Tradition

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Hegedus
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of Matthew ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Christian Beliefs

Abstract The Matthean pericope (2.1-12) of the Magi and the star of Bethlehem prompted a variety of responses among early Christian commentators of the second to the fifth centuries. These responses reflect a range of attitudes among the early Christians towards astrology, which was a fundamental and pervasive aspect of ancient Greco-Roman religion and culture. Some early Christian writers repudiated astrology absolutely, while others sought to grant it some degree of accommodation to Christian beliefs and practices. Interpretations of the Matthean pericope offer an index to the range of such views. This paper examines the motifs of the Magi and of the star in Matthew 2.1-12 as well as a number of early Christian interpretations of the pericope as evidence of a pattern of ambivalence in early Christian attitudes toward Greco-Roman astrology.

scholarly journals The First Witnesses. Martha, Longinus and Veronica in the Slavic Manuscript Tradition (Initial Observations)

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Skowronek ◽  
Marek Majer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
The One ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Patron Saints ◽  
Popular Texts

The epithet ‘first witnesses’, conferred on the three saints in the title, is but a conventional designation; it seems fitting as common for the figures of saints, who gave proof of their devotion to Christ. Otherwise, although they make no simultaneous appearance in any of the canonical texts, there are – interestingly – far more interconnections between the three characters in pseudo-canonical and legendary literature than could be surmised from the lack thereof in the Bible. The aim of the paper is to present a literary picture of three New Testament heroes, as commemorated in different literary texts representing diverse cultural registers, even from the Ancient Christian Times until the close of the Middle Ages. Among them there are short and extended lives and passions of saints, liturgical poetry, as well as specific, more popular texts, such as ‘tales’ and legends. The material under discussion largely includes texts that form a part of the Slavic Orthodox tradition, depicting them on the background of fairly wellknown works belonging to the Western Christian tradition. It turns out that the legends are inspired by the canonical text on the one hand, while on the other hand they themselves infiltrate official texts – they become officially sanctioned as soon as their popularity is taken over and adopted by liturgical practice. It should be borne in mind that those legends – part of which is known both in the Eastern and in the Western Christianity – confirm one further crucial characteristic of texts constituting the canonical and pseudo-canonical tradition: the commonness of themes and motifs which can without exaggeration be called ‘wandering’. They determine the fact that there is hardly any originality in the formation of the characters of patron saints; moreover, on the level of creating the notion of sainthood and its reception, there seem to be far more common points than differences between both of the Early Christian traditions – the East and the West. The paper is an attempt to point out how the Christian tradition exemplifies various manifestations of holiness, what means it has for annotating, elucidating and embellishing the Biblical hypertext, and how it adapts pseudo-canonical legends for the purposes of liturgical use.

scholarly journals The Normative-Ethical Context of the Golden Rule

TECHNOLOGOS ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Apressyan Ruben
Keyword(s):  
Golden Rule ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ethical Context ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Normative Content

According tocommonunderstanding, the Golden Rule exists in a form of maxims and various proverbs. However, in many cultural traditions, this rule is present as part of institutionalized texts and has a specific normative context. The article proposes an account of the Golden Rule within a particular example of the Judeo-Christian tradition (based on a study of the Bible books), in relation to the Lex Talionis and the Commandment of Love, in respect to what the Golden Rule is contextualized, in three stages. Firstly, the main passages, in which these principles are compared and contrasted have been selected in the books of the Bible. Such are the following: Lev. 19.18, 33–34, Matt. 6.37–38; 7.12; 22.40. Secondly, it has been taken into account that the normative content of these principles, although they are expressed in strict formulations, is internally dynamic. When clarifying both the normative context of the Golden Rule and the content of each of the principles, it is necessary to take into account their internal normative dynamism. Thus, Talion, which historically arose as a principle of retribution, limiting the amount of punishment to the degree of harm caused, eventually transformed into a principle of compensation, primarily monetary, and in a later era, early Christian authors reinterpreted it as a principle that admonishes against causing harm to anyone. The Commandment of Love for one’s neighbor covers the spectrum of demands from love for one’s neighbor as a close one through love for one’s neighbor, who is considered a stranger, to love for a neighbor, who is actually a foe. The normative dynamics of the Golden Rule can be traced in its two formulas – negative and positive. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the examples of thinking in the spirit of the Golden Rule, which are found in the oldest Bible books. Thirdly, the three principles are compared in their imperative characteristics by a number of parameters, regarding which similarities and differences between them are presented in different configurations.

scholarly journals Judeo-Christianity as a Cultural-Religious Phenomenon in the Context of Early Christian Tradition and Modern Religion

2007 ◽  
pp. 38-52
Author(s):  
Pavlo Yuriyovych Pavlenko
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Hellenistic World

Even in the superficial reading of the New Testament, the fact that all the texts attributed to the Apostle Paul are too different not only in their creed, but also in their orientation to representatives of the Hellenistic world is striking. In contrast, the Gospels, the Epistles of James, Peter, John, Judas, and the Epistle to the Jews, and the Book of Revelation, are focused solely on the Jewish reader, have a clear, Jewish attitude. In one way or another, they constantly emphasize that Jesus of Nazareth is a Jewish Savior.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document