Το Ευαγγέλιο της Συζύγου του Ιησού και πάλι / GWJ again

Με αφορμή τη δημοσίευση του άρθρου του Andrew Bernhard, "Postscript: A Final Note about the Origin of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife" στο τελευταίο τεύχος του New Testament Studies ο Mark Goodacre επανέρχεται στο θέμα και κάνει μία χρήσιμη ανασκόπηση των πραγμάτων μετά τη δημοσίευση στο διαδίκτυο του άρθρο του Ariel Sabar (εδώ) και την παραδοχή από την ίδια την Karen King ότι η έρευνα φαίνεται να οδηγεί στο συμπέρασμα ότι το κείμενο είναι πλαστό.

Gospel of Jesus' Wife Updates

Εντυπωσιακή αναπαράσταση της Αρχαίας Κορίνθου / An impressive animation of ancient Corinth

Στην ιστοσελίδα Realm of History έχει ανέβει μία πολύ εντυπωσιακή αναπαράσταση της Κορίνθου του 2ου αι. μ.Χ., όπως την συνέλαβε ο Danila Loginov: η αγορά, ο ναός του Απόλλωνα, το θέατρο, ο ιππόδρομος, το γυμνάσιο, το αμφιθέατρο, ο ναός του Ασκληπιού. Bέβαια δεν είναι ακριβώς η Κόρινθος που επισκέφτηκε ο Παύλος, όμως πολλά από τα κτίρια υπήρχαν και στον 1ο αι. μ.Χ. Επιπλέον, στο ίδιο δημοσίευμα υπάρχει και το σύντομο βίντεο των Ian Paul και Stephen Travis για την Κόρινθο της εποχής του Παύλου:

Glorious Animation Presents The Ancient Greek City Of Corinth During The Roman Period

Το τρέχον τεύχος του NTS / The current issue of NTS

New Testament Studies 63:2 (2017)

• Carl R. Holladay, "Acts as Kerygma: λαλεῖν τὸν λόγον," 153-188 (abstract)
• Nathan C. Johnson, "Anger Issues: Mark 1.41 in Ephrem the Syrian, the Old Latin Gospels and Codex Bezae," 183-202 (abstract)
• Urban C. von Wahlde, "Narrative Criticism of the Religious Authorities as a Group Character in the Gospel of John: Some Problems," 222-245 (abstract)
• Courtney J. P. Friesen, "Birthing the Children of God: Echoes of Theogony in Romans 8.19–23," 246-260 (abstract)
• Christopher J. Fresch, "Is There an Emphatic μέν? A Consideration of the Particle's Development and its Function in Koine," 261-278 (abstract)
• Jean-Daniel Dubois, "Le docétisme des christologies gnostiques revisité," 279-304 (abstract)
• Andrew Bernhard, "Postscript: A Final Note about the Origin of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife," 305-317 (abstract)

Quaestiones disputatae

• Matthias Klinghardt, "Marcion's Gospel and the New Testament: Catalyst or Consequence?," 318- (abstract)
• Jason Beduhn, "Marcion's Gospel and the New Testament: Catalyst or Consequence?," 324-329 (abstract)
• Judith Lieu, "Marcion's Gospel and the New Testament: Catalyst or Consequence?," 329-334 (abstract)

Ένα ενδιαφέρον παράδειγμα αρχαίας κριτικής του κειμένου / An interesting example of ancient

Στο ιστολόγιό του ο Alex Poulos έχει αναρτήσει ένα απόσπασμα της Ομιλίας του Ωριγένη στον Ψαλμό 77, όπου ο αρχαίος εκκλησιαστικός συγγραφέας συζητά ένα ζήτημα κριτικής του κειμένου στο Μτ 13,35. Στα χειρόγραφα, τα οποία έχει στη διάθεσή του ο Ωριγένης, το κείμενο αποδίδει τους παλαιοδιαθηκικούς στίχους στον Ησαΐα. Ο Ωριγένης υποθέτει ότι ένας από τους πρώτους αντιγραφείς αντικατέστησε το όνομα του Ασάφ, που έπρεπε να υπάρχει εδώ, επειδή δεν το γνώριζε. 

Ο Ωριγένης κάνει επίσης ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον σχόλιο το οποίο αφορά στη σημασία της Γραφής:

"Διὰ τοῦτο εὔλογόν ἐστι τὸν πίστιν ἔχοντα, οὐ τοσοῦτον διὰ τὰς γραφὰς ὅσον διὰ τὸν κόσμον καὶ τὴν τάξιν τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ, <εἰς> τὸν ποιήσαντα τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ πιστεύοντα εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν, οὐ τοσοῦτον ἀπὸ τῶν ἀναγνωσμάτων ὅσον ἀπὸ τῆς ἐναργείας ἐκ τῆς δυνάμεως τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν, ἐκ τοῦ πλήθους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ κεκρατηκότος τῆς οἰκουμένης, ἔπειτα ἥκειν ἐπὶ τὰ γράμματα, μετὰ τοῦτο πάλιν αἰτεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ χάριν, ἵνα μὴ παρεκδεξώμεθα τὰ γεγραμμένα."

Α.Τ.: Δηλαδή ο Ωριγένης θεωρεί ότι οι Γραφές είναι βέβαια σημαντικές, δεν μπορούν, ωστόσο, να αποτελέσουν την πρώτη και αποκλειστική αυθεντία. Ο Poulos εκτιμά ότι αυτό οφείλεται στο ότι ο Ωριγένης έχει μπροστά του ένα κείμενο που έχει ένα κείμενο κοινό με όλους, όμως νομίζω ότι εδώ έχει να κάνει με το πώς κατανοείται η Γραφή κι ο ρόλος της μέσα στην Εκκλησία: όχι ως μία αυθεντία έξω από αυτήν που την ορίζει και την επηρεάζει, αλλά ως μία αυθεντία που πηγάζει μέσα από την Εκκλησία. Yπό αυτό το πρίσμα μπορούν ίσως να κατανοηθούν όσα λέει ο αρχαίος εξηγητής για την "δύναμη τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν" ή για την "ἰσχὺ [τοῦ] κεκρατηκότος τὴν οἰκουμένην".

Textual Criticism and Biblical Authority in Origen's Homily on Ps. 77

Αντικειμενικότητα και υποκειμενικότητα στη βιβλική εξήγηση / Objectivity and subjectivity in biblical exegesis

Στην ιστοσελίδα The Bible and Interpretation ο Jeffrey L. Morrow (Seton Hall University) συζητά το ζήτημα της υποκειμενικότητας και της αντικειμενικότητας στην βιβλική εξήγηση.

"On Biblical Scholarship and Bias"

Το τρέχον τεύχος του JBR / The current issue of JBR

Journal of the Bible and its Reception 3:2 (2016)

• Sharon Farmer, "Conflict, Encounter, and the Materiality of the Text: Christian and Jewish Sacred Texts in Europe and North America, c. 1250–1700," 153-176 (abstract)
• Richard Rouse, / Mary Rouse, "Santa Barbara’s Thirteenth-Century Paris Bible: A Second Look," 177-204 (abstract)
• Theodor Dunkelgrün, "When Solomon met Solomon: A Medieval Hebrew Bible in Victorian Cambridge," 205-254 (abstract)
• Jourden Travis Moger, "Gog at Vienna: Three Woodcut Images of the Turks as Apocalyptic Destroyers in Early Editions of the Luther Bible," 255-277 (abstract)
• Roman Fischer, / Jourden Travis Moger, "Johannes Dietenberger and his Counter-Reformation German Bible," 279-302 (abstract)
• Ann Marie Plane, "‘to subscribe unto GODS BOOK’: The Bible as Material Culture in Seventeenth-Century New England Colonialism," 303-329 (abstract)

Στο τρέχον τεύχος του JRS / In the current issue of JRS

Journal of Roman Studies 106 (2016)

• Clare Rowan, "Ambiguity, Iconology and Entangled Objects on Coinage of the Republican World," 21-57 (abstract)
• Celia E. Schultz, "Roman Sacrifice, Inside and Out,"  58-76 (abstract)
• Eleanor Cowan, "Contesting Clementia: the Rhetoric of Severitas in Tiberian Rome before and after the Trial of Clutorius Priscus," 77-101 (abstract)
• Virginia Closs, "Neronianis Temporibus: The So-Called Arae Incendii Neroniani and the Fire of A.D. 64 in Rome's Monumental Landscape," 102-123 (abstract)
• Benedikt Eckhardt, "Romanization and Isomorphic Change in Phrygia: the Case of Private Associations," 147-171 (abstract)
• Paul Schubert, "On the Form and Content of the Certificates of Pagan Sacrifice," 172-198 (abstract)

Στο τρέχον τεύχος του PRSt / In the current issue of PRSt

Perspectives in Religious Studies 43:4 (2016)

Joseph B. Tyson, "Acts and the Apostles: Issues of Leadership in the Second Century," 385-98

This article focuses attention on the meaning of apostleship in the Pauline letters and the Acts of the Apostles. In his letters Paul insists that he is an apostle, and he cites his witness of Jesus’s resurrection to confirm it. He acknowledges an unspecified number of other apostles, who have great authority. He also knows, however, of competing criteria for apostleship and, hence, rival groups of apostles. The author of Acts introduces two non-Pauline requirements: that the apostles must be twelve in number and that all apostles must have been associates of the historical Jesus. Writing in the early second century, the author of Acts recognized that the Pauline understanding of apostleship could no longer be maintained. The definition that Acts introduced provided a structure for Christian leadership, but the paradox remains that the apostleship of a primary character in the book was excluded by that very definition.

Nicholas J. Zola, "Evangelizing Tatian: The Diatessaron’s Place in the Emergence of the Fourfold Gospel Canon," 399-414

This essay explores the relationship between Tatian’s Diatessaron and the fourfold gospel canon. The core question is whether Tatian’s aim was to supplement the four Gospels or to supplant them. Some read Tatian as a harmonist, subservient to his sources. Francis Watson and others would read Tatian as an evangelist, who uses the same techniques as Luke or Matthew to rework his sources into a full-fledged gospel. I probe the initial merits of this argument by looking at the evidence of the time (how the state of the fourfold gospel canon may have influenced Tatian’s motivations) and the evidence of the text (what the surviving witnesses of the Diatessaron reveal of Tatian’s redactional hand). Identifying the Diatessaron’s genre is crucial for establishing whether its reconstruction can give us unadulterated access to second-century texts of the Gospels. I end by offering directions for future research on this essential question.

Denis Farkasfalvy, " Irenaeus’s First Reference to the Four Gospels and the Formation of the Fourfold Gospel Canon," 415-427

This article intends to show that Christianity’s four-gospel canon in its closed form owes its origin to a historic agreement between Polycarp of Smyrna and Pope Anicetus in Rome. After describing the Marcionite and Valentinian crisis reaching Rome, I line up evidences for a possibly contemporaneous presence of Marcion, Valentinus, Anicetus, and Justin Martyr, and even Tatian and Irenaeus as Polycarp arrives from Smyrna in 154. Examining four consecutive sentences on the canonical gospels in Irenaeus’s Adversus haereses 3.1.1, I show that these come from a Roman source verbatim preserved. Then I infer that they record the outcome of the meeting between Polycarp and Anicetus, failing to resolve the Quartodeciman problem but resulting in both leaders embracing their respective apostolic traditions about the gospels and their written records in contradiction to Marcion’s single-gospel proposal, Valentinus’s unlimited approval of many gospels, as well as the tendencies in Justin Martyr leading to Tatian’s Diatessaron, a single-gospel combined from the oldest extant gospels.

D. Jeffrey Bingham, "A Reading of Irenaeus in Response to Father Denis Farkasfalvy," 429-436

Father Denis Farkasfalvy’s claim that a portion of Haer. 3.1.1 derives from a non-Irenaean, Roman Christian source is based upon what he views as contextual discontinuity of the passage. This article responds to that claim by offering an alternative reading of the text, which ultimately does not require a non-Irenaean source. After briefly reviewing the history of the application of source criticism to Adversus haereses, the alternative reading is presented, which demonstrates that the purpose of the text is to validate the authority of the apostolic proclamation of the gospel, both in oral and written form. This alternative reading not only addresses the concerns raised by Farkasfalvy but also demonstrates how the passage fits within the logical continuity of the argument to which it contributes.

David E. Wilhite, "Marcionites in Africa: What Did Tertullian Know and When Did He Invent It?," 437-452

Tertullian wrote several treatises attacking Marcion, which has led many to assume that Marcionites resided in Tertullian’s Africa. Against this assumption, one finds other sources from Africa claiming that Marcionism cannot be found there, and upon a closer inspection of Tertullian’s works it is clear that he relies on literary sources for Marcion’s teachings, not first hand interactions with Marcionites. The many statements in Tertullian’s works that relay Marcion’s teachings turn out to be rhetorical devices. In particular, Tertullian accommodated the specific practices taught by Cicero and Quintillian wherein the rhetorician must “invent” the facts about one’s opponent. This is especially done with the device known as prosopopoiea, or speech in character, whereby the opponent’s side of the diatribe is invented. When Tertullian is read as inventing Marcionism in Africa, his works can be seen as attacking other (quasi-) “Marcionite” heresies, such as Valentinianism, which do seem to be a threat to Tertullian’s Carthaginian Christian community.

Edward McMahon, "The Contribution of the Second Century Seminar to the Study of the New Testament and Early Christianity," 453-459

Since its establishment by Outler and Farmer in 1968, the Second Century Seminar has served as a place in the Southwest for a discussion of the origins and development of Christianity in the late New Testament and apostolic periods. After describing its origins, the article describes the way the Seminar works with circulating institutional hosting, including dinner and local leadership from the schools and seminaries in a seminar format that values both solid presentations and responses and vigorous discussion among attending faculty and students. While noting significant attitudinal changes in the broader confessional and academic milieu (SBL) since 1968, the Seminar is shown to have been a catalyst for ecumenical publications and joint projects crossing confessional lines and old scholarly divisions. The International Bible Commentary (1986) was both a “Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary.” Joint projects have investigated the Gospels and their sources (Griesbach Hypothesis; the Gospel of Matthew) and more-broadly anti-Judaism and the Gospels. The Second Century Journal (ed. Ferguson, 1981–1992) promoted further the Seminar’s now third-generation study of second-century texts and contexts for the academy and churches.