Apocryphal Work Research Articles

Mutatio nominum. Onomástica griega en transcripción árabe

In this article I attempt to analyse the onomastic forms included in the Arabic translation of the Apocryphal work known as 3 Ezra. My purpose is to describe the shifts and the adaptations of the original Greek proper nouns through their equivalent Arabic names in order to show the orthographic features and the linguistic phenomena that occur in it.

The Apocryphal Apocalypse: The Reception of the Second Book of Esdras (4 Esra) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment by Alastair Hamilton

95 Sometimes Mr. Elfenbein’s assertions go over the top (particularly in his chapters on Blake and Coleridge), but on the other hand, his geniuses here were often over the top themselves.Givenhiscareful criticism in the book, this conclusion seems schematic and hurried. His compelling book, however, shifts the way we look at gay and lesbian writers. Romantic Genius is among the bestofcurrentscholarship on the queer eighteenth century. Hans Turley University of Connecticut ALASTAIR HAMILTON. The Apocryphal Apocalypse: The Reception of the Second Book of Esdras (4 Esra) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Oxford: Clarendon, 1999. Pp. xii ⫹ 393. $85. Just in time for the new millennium (and the much anticipated doomsdayscenarios predicted long ago), Mr. Hamilton ’s authoritative study of the latest OT Apocrypha 2 Esdras (c. 90 A.D.), an exquisite expansion of his two articles on the reception of 2 Esdras, should arouse great interest among those who explore the rise and fall of eschatological literature , the philologicalchallengestotheauthority oftheBible, andthehistoryofbiblical hermeneutics. Mr. Hamilton stands on the shoulders of two eighteenthcentury giants, the German Lutherans Johann Albert Fabricius and Georg Serpilius , but weaves into his narrative his profound knowledge of the period and insights of recent scholarship. Each of the twelve chapters charts in chronological order the dispute about the canonicity of 2 Esdras, its date of composition , provenance, and authorship from the early Church Fathers to the Enlightenment . Concomitantly, Mr. Hamilton pays painstaking attention to how the book was employed by Roman Catholics , mainstream Protestants,andradical sectarians alike, who frequently turned the prophetic symbols of 2 Esdras into powerful tools of political and eschatological propaganda. The apocalyptic visions of the three-headed eagle, for instance , variously signified the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium in the East, the breakdown of power of the Roman Church in the West, or the rise and fall of the Habsburg emperors—all giving way to the lion (the true church) at the Second Coming. Thus, the humanist Pico della Mirandola and the Christian Hebraist Johann Reuchlin turned to 2 Esdras for its purported cabbalistic import; the radical prophet Savonarola for evidence of his self-styled messianism and the conversion of Jews and Muslims; the grammarians Pellikan and Bibliander for the advances of the Turks on Western Europe and OT predictions about the Christian messiah; Paracelsians, Boehmenists, and Rosicrucians, for spiritualized alchemy, theosophy, or anti-Catholic hegemony; New Prophets during the Thirty Years War for their role as latter-day Jeremiahs; Hartlib, Comenius, and Dury (with Manasseh ben Israel on their side) for the readmission of Jews in Cromwell’s England ; and, finally, Whiston and Newton for proof of psychopannychism, Arianism , or interminable calculations of prophetic timetables about Christ’s millennial reign. Even the New World and the peregrination of the Lost Tribes of Israel could be identified in 2 Esdras, for was not faraway ‘‘Arsareth’’ in America, where the Lost Tribes lived in their Andean hiding places—that is, if the accounts of Antonio de Montezinos and Manasseh ben Israel could be relied upon?In short,Renaissance philologists examining textual lacunae in biblical manuscripts just as 96 much as eighteenth-century radical Pietists discovering the operations of the Holy Spirit in human history found much in this Apocryphal work to engage their imagination. 2 Esdras became the subject of philological and theological controversies to our modern times. What is missing here is discussion of how such New Englanders as John Eliot, Thomas Shepard, Samuel Sewall, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards responded to the Apocryphal 2 Esdras. Theirconcern with Native Americans as the descendants of the Lost Tribes and with America’s place in the Christian geography of Christ’s millennial reign was similarly shaped by their response to 2 Esdras, either directly or indirectly through Joseph Mede and Manasseh ben Israel. Mr. Hamilton’shighlyrewardingstudy deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of every scholar interested in the history of Western philology and the evolution of early modern hermeneutics.Its complementary history of 2 Esdras in the Eastern Church remains to be written. Reiner Smolinski Georgia State University CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS. A Cultivated Reason: An Essay on Hume and Humeanism . University Park, PA: Penn State, 1999. Pp. vii ⫹ 190. $35; $19.95 (paper). Mr...

« Untersuchungen im Zusammenhang mit der sogennanten Epistula Lentuli »

Dating at the very ealiest from the XIVth century, the Epistle of Lentulus, offered here in a German translation, is an apocryphal work refering to the physical appearance of Jesus, presented as a very handsome man; but it also deals with the psychological portrait of Jesus.It raises, however, a theological question: does this beauty pertain to the Suffering Servant referred to by Isaiah? An inquiry into patristic literature shows the implications of both of the contradictory positions about Christ's beauty and ugliness. Both views are part of a soteriological perspective. The ugly Christ bears the sin of men; Christ in majesty sits at the divine tribunal. This image transmitted by the Epistle of Lentulus corresponds to homilies and pious works of the time when it started to be transmitted.

Origin of India’s St. Thomas Christians: A Historiographical Critique (review)

Origin of India's St. Thomas Christians: A Historiographical Critique. By Benedict Vadakkekara. (Delhi: Media House. 1995. Pp. xii, 509. $30.00.) This book is the result of extraordinary labor by the author. He makes reference to all the archival and published sources available on the topic. In itself the topic should not be controversial, but in the hands of fanatic Latinists and avid believers of the Saint Thomas tradition in the Malabar it became just that. The Latinists reject outright the tradition that Saint Thomas the Apostle founded the church in Malabar as historically unfounded while the Malabarites accept it without question. Both sides argue for their causes, not for historical accuracy. The author makes it his task to find the historical truth. For this he employs some of the well-worn tools of historiography. The first thing the author does is to establish the identity of the Saint Thomas Christians. This is important as in several regions of the Middle East and Asia claim to be descendants of the people converted by Thomas the Apostle in the first century. Even in Malabar itself there are groups who attribute their evangelization to Thomas as they are descendants of people from regions other than India which, by their tradition, were beneficiaries of Thomas' apostleship. Vadakkekara narrowly defines Saint Thomas of India as those who are descendants of the first-century converts to Christianity who received their baptism in Malabar. The author further narrows the definition to include only those who follow the Law of Thomas, the customs and traditions sanctioned by the Apostle himself; those who used the Syriac language in their liturgy; those who maintained the exclusivity of the caste regulations handed down from their Hindu ancestors with regard to etiquette, pollution and purification, meals, and marriages. He also narrows down the list of names designating, exclusively and without doubt or ambiguity, this Christian community of Malabar. They are Thoma Christians, Nasrani Mappilas, Christians of the Serra, Christians, and Chaldeans. Further Vadakkekara identifies the present-day Christian communities in Malabar who are offshoots of the original community the Apostle Thomas founded. They are the two churches in communion with the papacy, the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches, and the six churches which are outside the obedience of Rome, namely, the Syrian Orthodox, the Independent Syrian Church of Malankara, the Mar Thomite Church, Saint Thomas Evangelical Church of India, the Church of South India, and the Church of the East. Next the author discusses briefly the available sources that might provide historical validity to the tradition that Saint Thomas the Apostle founded the church in Malabar. The first among these is the tradition itself that is composed of the belief that Thomas founded this church and the religious, ritualistic, and liturgical experiences and expressions that sprang from this tradition. Second among the sources is the physical presence of the tomb of Saint Thomas in Mylapore, near Madras, and the many facts, historical and otherwise, associated with it. The third source is the Acta Thomae, an apocryphal work written in Syriac, reportedly during Thomas' own lifetime, which contain references to his apostolic work in India, aside from descriptions of his travels and other activities, all of which became part of the folklore and tradition of Malabar Christians. The author, then, analyzes the evidentiary value of these sources and weighs their significance in proving or disproving the historicity of Thomas' apostleship in India. …

Hagiographie antique et démonologie. Notes sur quelques Passions grecques (BHG 962z, 964 et 1165-66)

The Passiones of Juliana of Nicomedia (BHG 962z), Juliana and Paul (BHG 964) and Marina (BHG 965) contain a long and interrelated demonological passage which betrays the influence of the Vita of Anthony and the Quaestiones of Bartholomew; in the first and third texts the depiction of Satanael apparently goes back via the above mentioned apocryphal work to Jewish and Gnostic traditions.

Quel est l'auteur du Discours 35 transmis parmi les œuvres de Grégoire de Nazianze ?

Who is the Author of Discourse 35 ? Discourse 35, which has come down to us along with the works of Gregory of Nazianzus, is held to be an apocryphal work. The study of the form and contents of the discourse leads to the conclusion that the author is either Gregory of Nyssa or one of his imitators.

The Harrowing of Hell, Psalm 24, and Pliny the Younger: a Note

As late as the fifteenth century a prominent theme in medieval English prose and poetry was the one usually called the harrowing of hell. 1 The antecedents of it in Insular, as well as in Continental, literature are too numerous and familiar to cite at length. The motif is derived, mediately or immediately, from an apocryphal work known as the Gospel of Nicodemus or the Acts of Pilate. The latter part of the ancient document is an account of the descent of Christ into Hades, a narrative apparently older than the rest of the tale; actually of unknown date, it may have originated in the third or even second century. 2 The central idea, the rescue of the pre-Christian faithful believers from the hold of Hades, is still older and probably Scriptural (I Pet. 3 : 19; 4 : 6). But there is a detail in many versions of the descensus that cannot be traced in any writing earlier than the Gospel of Nicodemus: when the Lord dies on the cross and goes to the place of departed spirits, He challenges the entrance to the nether region with the words

An Apocryphal Work Ascribed to Philo of Alexandria

An Apocryphal Work Ascribed to Philo of Alexandria