Leontopolis: Kaiserstadt ohne Bischof?

The city of Leontopolis in Isauria first appears in the sources towards the end of the 5th century, more precisely: in a legal text of the later Codex Iustinianus. In general, the surviving information is very sparse. In this essay, the source material is reviewed, in particular the mentioned law and the Martyrdom of Konon of Bidana. On this basis, a date of foundation is suggested, a new localisation of the city is established and the question of its own episcopal see is pursued.

Titus 1,12: Epimenides, Ancient Christian Scholars, Zeus’s Death, and the Cretan Paradox

Many logicians and exegetes have read Titus 1,12 as an example of the Liar’s Paradox without paying sufficient attention to the nature of ancient oracular utterance. Instead of reading the verse as a logical puzzle, it should be read from its ancient context in the history of religions—a context of which ancient Christian scholars were aware. The Syriac scholars preserved a shocking Cretan tradition about Zeus’s death that probably goes back to Theodore of Mopsuestia. The god responsible for Epimenides’ oracle presumably rejected the Cretan tradition of Zeus’s death and tomb. The truth value of 1,12 consequently depends on the oracle and not the human being (i. e., Epimenides) who delivers the oracle. A reading sensitive to the history of religions preserves the Pauline author’s perspective in Titus 1,13: ἡ μαρτυρία αὕτη ἐστὶν ἀληθής. There is, consequently, a strong analogy between Caiaphas’s words in John 11:49–50 and those of Epimenides in Titus 1,12.

An Early Collection of Acts from the Council of Ephesus (431) in Antioch

The keeping, storage and circulation of documents and acts created by the eastern (anti-Cyrillian) bishops at the council of Ephesus (431) is obscure. A letter by Theodoret written on the eve of the Second Council of Ephesus provides an exceptional window into a set of documents relating to the occasion and stored at Antioch at the time. The description reveals the overall scope and character of this set of documents, including some aspect of their probable materiality, and the tendencies and purposes guiding their compilation. It further allows to tentatively identify several of the documents mentioned with those surviving in later collections.