Abstract

Published four years after his Historia contra mythos, a study of Diodore of Tarsus’ and Theodore of Mopsuestia's polemic against allegory in the light of the allegorizing and mythologizing efforts of Julian the Apostate and Sallustius (reviewed in JTS, ns 56 [2005], pp. 675–6), this is Felix Thome's second large-scale exploration of a work of Antiochene exegesis. Similar to the first book in structure and design, it consists of a series of studies of Theodore of Mopsuestia's commentary on John's Gospel. As Barhadbeshabba of Halwan reports in his history of the Syrian school foundations (PO 4/4, pp. 66 f.), bishop Rabbula of Edessa, a supporter of Cyril of Alexandria in the aftermath of the Council of Ephesus in 431, had all of Theodore's writings burnt, except his commentaries on John's Gospel and on Ecclesiastes. The reason for the survival of these two works was that they had not yet been translated into Syriac. Ironically, the commentary on John's Gospel is now extant solely and almost in its entirety in a Syriac translation. Besides there exist a number of fragments in Latin (from translations of conciliar texts) and Greek (mainly from catenae). Thome set himself the task of scrutinizing all these texts and making Theodore's work accessible in a series of detailed investigations.

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