scholarly journals Iconography of The Birth of the Virgin Mary on the Basis of a Homily of St. John Damascene

Eikon / Imago ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-68
Author(s):  
José María Salvador González
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Real ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Subject

As a consequence of the fact that the New Testament mentions few episodes and very few details of the real life of the Virgin Mary, among the Eastern Christian communities several apocryphal legends, that tried to supply this hermetic silence around the birth, infancy, youth, adulthood and death of the Mother of Jesus, arose during the first centuries of Christianity. These apocryphal accounts were then taken up and interpreted catechetically as a useful devotional matter by many Church Fathers, theologians and ecclesiastical writers. The reflections of these prestigious thinkers formed a solid corpus of doctrine, from which very important Marian devotions and liturgical feasts would soon follow. A primordial milestone in this “imaginary” life of Mary is her supernatural birth, after her miraculous conception in the bosom of her old and sterile mother Anne. As a natural fruit of these heterogenous literary and theological sources, from the tenth-eleventh centuries the medieval Byzantine and European artists approached with remarkable enthusiasm the iconographic theme of the Birth of the Virgin Mary as a significant episode of her life. On this basis, in this article we propose a triple complementary objective. First of all, after outlining the essential content of the apocryphal sources, we will broadly analyze the various theological theses that we believe are deductible from the emotional reflections that St. John Damascene expresses in a homily on the subject. Secondly, we will analyze some Byzantine and European paintings on the Birth of Mary, in order to determine to what extent the apocryphal accounts and the doctrinal statements of the Damascene are reflected in the characters, situations, attitudes, accessories and scenographic elements represented in these depictions. Finally, we will state some conclusions that we believe to be plausible in relating the Damascenian texts and the pictorial works of reference.

NTERPRETATION OF THE METAPHOR "VESSEL" IN THE LIGHT OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: NEW OBSERVATIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-27
Author(s):  
Stanislav Stepanchenko
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Male Genitalia ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Shed Light

The texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are great importance for the reconstruction of the theological and ideological factors of the authors of the New Testament and can shed light on the understanding of some difficult passages of the New Testament. It is well known that the text of 1 Thessalonians 4:4 became Crux Interpretum for its researchers. Since the period of the Church Fathers, the text has had three conflicting interpretations. Modern research has continued this trend. The discovery in the 40s of the XX century Dead Sea Scrolls, gave a new look at some problematic texts of the New Testament. Thus, the two texts 4QSamb and 4Q416 2 ii 21 shed light on the discussion of 1 Thessalonians 4:4. But a closer examination revealed that their interpretation was also ambiguous, which in turn gave rise to a new wave of discussion. So, three options for understanding the texts were proposed. Consensus has not yet been reached. The text of 4QSamb was studied by F. Cross, D. Freedman, P. Andersen. Text 4Q416 2 ii 21 has been the subject of many publications, among the most important are the following: J. Stragnell, D. Harrington, T. Elgwin, J. Smith, M. Kister, B. Wald, F. Martinez. The purpose of the study is to critically analyze the interpretations of two texts from the corpus of Dead Sea Scrolls, 4QSamb and 4Q416 2 ii 21. The article examines two important texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4QSamb and 4Q416 2 ii 21, which shed light on a possible interpretation of a passage from Paul's corpus, 1 Thessalonians 4: 4. The 4QSamb study by scientists led to two interpretations of this passage. The article shows that understanding 4QSamb has a sexual context, and can locally indicate the male genitalia. The study of the text 4Q416 2 ii 21 led to the emergence of three radically different interpretations. Although each approach is well-argued and has its advantages, the paper has shown that the interpretation proposed by Elgwin Thorleif is more true in view of paleographic research, lexical analysis, and the immediate context of the passage. The article showed that the word כלי in the texts is used as a euphemism in the meaning of the male genitalia. This conclusion provides an important context for understanding 1 Thessalonians 4:4, that the interpretation of the word σκεῦός in this text must take into account the possibility of its interpretation in the sense of male "genitals".

scholarly journals Bogactwo i ubóstwo w średniowiecznej myśli chrześcijańskiej

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-15
Author(s):  
Urszula Zagóra-Jonszta ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Subject

The subject of consideration is wealth and poverty in the views of representatives of Christian and medieval thought. The attitude to wealth and social inequalities has evolved along with the development of the Christian religion and its penetration into the higher spheres of society. Both the New Testament and the early church fathers are mostly negative about wealth and getting rich. In later centuries, private property no longer aroused such emotions – it was even thought that poverty is not pleasing to God. Property inequalities and the division of society into states were accepted, claiming that people cannot be equal to each other but equal to God. Canonist thought reached the highest level in the works of Thomas Aquinas.

Why Study the New Testament?

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
WAYNE A. MEEKS
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Real ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Discussion Partners

‘New Testament studies’, as most of us learned the discipline, depends on some fundamental assumptions: that scientific history leads us toward objective, secure knowledge of the past; that careful method can unlock the real meaning of a stable text; that we have an audience who genuinely care what we say. Every one of these assumptions has become problematic. For the future, we must not give up on historical research, but we must think more urgently about what it means to write history well. In our role as teachers of Christian communities, we need to examine ways in which texts are used, rediscovering the formative uses in place of an almost exclusive stress by ‘biblical theology’ on the normative. Finally, acknowledging the demise of Christendom, we must seek to engage an ever larger circle of discussion partners, seeking to overcome our isolation within the academy and within a world that has grown rapidly more diverse even as it has become astonishingly smaller.

The Missing Rhetorical History Between Quintilian and Augustine

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-376
Author(s):  
Mike Duncan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Classical Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical History ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Rhetorical Force ◽  
Apostolic Church

Current histories of rhetoric neglect the early Christian period (ca. 30–430 CE) in several crucial ways–Augustine is overemphasized and made to serve as a summary of Christian thought rather than an endpoint, the texts of church fathers before 300 CE are neglected or lumped together, and the texts of the New Testament are left unexamined. An alternative outline of early Christian rhetoric is offered, explored through the angles of political self-invention, doctrinal ghostwriting, apologetics, and fractured sermonization. Early Christianity was not a monolithic religion that eventually made peace with classical rhetoric, but as a rhetorical force in its own right, and comprised of more factions early on than just the apostolic church.

The New Testament and Intellectual Humility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Macaskill
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Sacrificial Love ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind

This book examines how the New Testament scriptures might form and foster intellectual humility within Christian communities. It is informed by recent interdisciplinary interest in intellectual humility, and concerned to appreciate the distinctive representations of the virtue offered by the New Testament writers on their own terms. It argues that the intellectual virtue is cast as a particular expression of the broader Christian virtue of humility, which proceeds from the believer’s union with Christ, through which personal identity is reconstituted by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we speak of ‘virtue’ in ways determined by the acting presence of Jesus Christ, overcoming sin and evil in human lives and in the world. The Christian account of the virtue is framed by this conflict, as believers within the Christian community struggle with natural arrogance and selfishness, and come to share in the mind of Christ. The new identity that emerges creates a fresh openness to truth, as the capacity of the sinful mind to distort truth is exposed and challenged. This affects knowledge and perception, but also volition: for these ancient writers, a humble mind makes good decisions that reflect judgments decisively shaped by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. By presenting ‘humility of mind’ as a characteristic of the One who is worshipped—Jesus Christ—the New Testament writers insist that we acknowledge the virtue not just as an admission of human deficiency or limitation, but as a positive affirmation of our rightful place within the divine economy.

Kann man die neutestamentlichen Briefe der Gattung „Apostelbrief“ zuordnen?

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-250
Author(s):  
Bärbel Bosenius
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The New Testament

During the last 40 years New Testament scholarship did not apply the term “apostolic letter” consistently. All early Christian letters and only the New Testament or Pauline respectively Deutero-Pauline letters were called “apostolic letters” by New Testament scholars. Since the term from the sources ἀπόστολος in the undisputed Pauline letters refers to Paul’s function as founder of early Christian communities but not to his function as their leader, New Testament scholars should avoid the misleading term “apostolic letter.” Within the corpus of New Testament letters one should rather differentiate between “kerygmatic letters,” “pseudepigraphic Pauline letters” and “early Christian Diaspora letters.”

scholarly journals The “legendary style” in “The comprehensive life of Constantin (Cyril) the Philosopher”

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Svitlana Borshch
Keyword(s):  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
The Real ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Slavonic Language ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Real Person ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Christian Society

The subject of the study is the “legendary style” of one of the most iconic hagiographic text of the IX century “The Comprehensive Life of Constantine (Cyril) the Philosopher”. This Pannonian legend belongs to the texts of Cyril-Methodius cycle and has the description of the re-finding and transportation Saint Clement’s relics by Constantine the Philosopher from Korsun (Chersonesus) to Rome. This episode is an important part of the process of legalizing the translation of the Divine Books to the so-called Church-Slavonic language. The phrase “legendary style” was borrowed from I. Franko’s work “Saint Clement in Korsun” (Lviv, 1902–1905) and has not been explained as a term yet. The purpose and the novelty of our research is to find out how “legendary style” was formed, which techniques were needed to create this concept. The relevance of this study is due to the analyzing sources for the legend as a genre (it was formed on the base of the hagiographical texts such as Jacobus da Varagine’s "The Golden Legend", XIII century). Ideological description of historical events ("tendentious historicity"), disclosure of holiness and using the category of the miraculous were clarified as the technique of “legendary style”, using the cultural-historical method, elements of comparative, structural and phenomenological analysis. Holiness, called by J. Le Goff “the most important value of Christian society”, is a predetermined aspect in “The Comprehensive Life of Constantine (Cyril) the Philosopher” and it connected the saint’s life with the events of the New Testament. The category of the miraculous is considered from the point of mythological view: miracles regulated the universe, restored harmony and established true rules and laws. According to A. Losev, the true Christian miracle occurred when the real person dialectically synthesized with his/her inner ideal at a certain moment. “Tendentious historicity” is observed in the episode about saint relics of Pope Clement I. There are variations in the very process of re-finding the holy remains: locations, heroes and time in some stories are not the same in different texts from the so-called Cyril-Methodius cycle. It gives reasons to consider these texts ideologically involved. It is advisable to include other hagiographic texts to confirm or refute, expand or narrow the “legendary style” as a term in further research.

scholarly journals Teologia kapłaństwa i urzędu kapłańskiego w I wieku chrześcijaństwa

2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kasprzak
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Good News ◽  
New Covenant ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

Neither the Apostles nor any Christian minister is admitted to use the priest’s title in the text of the New Testament. Nevertheless, in the New Testament we can perceive the development of the doctrine of the priest ministry in the early Church. Albert Vanhoye maintains that the lack of the term “priest” in the New Testament suggests the way of understanding of the Christian ministry, different from this in the Old Testament. It can’t be considered as a continuation of Jewish priesthood, which was concentrated mainly on ritual action and ceremonies. In the first century the Church developed the Christology of priesthood (Hbr) and ecclesiology of priesthood (1 P). Early Christians focused first on the redemptive event of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and Jesus as the mediator of a new covenant. Only then the religious communities adopted the priest’s title for their ministry.In the early years of the Church, all the ministries were regarded as a charismatic service among the Christian communities. In their services the early Christians followed Jesus Christ sent by God to serve. The Holy Spirit sent by God in the name of Jesus bestowed the spiritual gifts upon the Church (1 Kor 12–13). Consequently the disciples of Jesus and their successors could continue his mission. The Twelve Apostles’ ministry was the very first and most important Christian ministry. It was closely connected to the service of Jesus Christ himself. The Apostles were sent by the authority of Jesus Christ to continue his mission upon earth and they preached the Good News of the risen Christ. The Apostolicity was the fundamental base for every Church ministry established in different Christian communities. Successive ministries were established in order to transmit the teaching of Jesus Christ and to lead the community. For the early Christians the priesthood was not an individual privilege. It had rather the community character.

scholarly journals New Testament Anthropology: Conscience as an Anthropological Phenomenon in the Context of the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
Priest Aleksiy (Razdorov) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Historical Epoch ◽  
Human Awareness

This article examines the New Testament teaching about man in the authentic epistles of Paul the Apostle. In particular, it studies the anthropological phenomenon of conscience as one of the important ethical terms in Christian worldview. In spite of the fact that this topic has been thoroughly investigated by Western biblical science, Russian theological environment has not been paying it sufficient attention. Therefore, from the position of theological and philological research within the framework of the historical and cultural approach, the article dwells on conscience expressed by Paul the Apostle through the term συνείδησις in the epistles to the Corinthians and the Romans, whose authorship as St. Paul’s is unquestioned by modern biblical studies. The research shows that Paul the Apostle used the term συνείδησις in a sense related to human awareness, without any explicit emphasis on morality as in the works by Stoic philosophers. For St. Paul, the term συνείδησις in a general sense means an autonomous anthropological instance of a person’s judgеment/assessment of his/her own behaviour in relation to the norms, laws and rules adopted by him/her. However, depending on the historical circumstances in the life of Christian communities, Paul the Apostle gave this term his own semantic connotations. According to this research, in the text of the Pauline epistles συνείδησις appears not only as a general anthropological phenomenon, but also as an independent (autonomous) personified witness to the truth, as an instance that checks the correspondence between the declared value norms in the mind and the person’s own behaviour. This instance reflects the mental activity of a conscious human as a person in any cultural and historical epoch regardless of his/her religious preferences.

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