Gospel Stories Research Articles

Предметный мир ребенка в русской и европейской книжной иллюстрации XIII—XVI вв.

The article presents the results of research on miniatures of manuscripts and engravings of printed books of the 13th —16th centuries — important pictorial sources on material culture, including costume and household items related to the life of a child, as well as their games, toys and dolls. The medieval miniatures have been massively studied by students of historic costumes, seldom toys, while this article addresses the miniatures and engravings as the most important pictorial source on the Middle Ages and early Modern times. References are provided to specific images from books and their digitized copies and some replicas. The identified sources show that the book illustration of the studied period is able to provide what is necessary for understanding how medieval children grew up and developed, how they were dressed, slept, what and how they played. Gospel stories about Jesus Christ’s infancy were most important in this matter. Among the secular subjects, quite informative are illustrations with the births of princely children and the lives of historical figures, known and anonymous characters of miniatures and engravings.

"ANOTHER WORLD": PROSE BY NATALENA KOROLEVA

The paper is devoted to the main ideological-aesthetic, genre-style, historical and cultural features of Natalena Koroleva’s fiction. Historicism and Catholicism, noticeable in the writer’s prosaic works of different genres and styles, are considered the dominant elements of her artistic worldview and thinking. The analysis focuses on the writer’s three key interwar novels: "An Ancestor", "A Shadow’s Dream", "1313" and examines several aspects of their poetics. Koroleva’s historicism is noted for combining scientific (in particular, archeological) knowledge, religious and philosophical experience and an artistic intuition of the writer. The author’s relationship with Catholicism are defined by complexity and ambiguity – from absolutization to undermining of the Christian dogmas and appeal to the history of religious heresies (like the Cathars, Albigensians). Koroleva organically connected Christian mythology with the European cultural tradition as its integral part and understood Christianity as a fundamental basis for the European spiritual and cultural values. The writer’s beliefs in the interaction of history, religion, culture and literature affected a number of her literary texts, many of which are based on gospel stories, medieval mysteries and folk legends. Each of the mentioned works of Koroleva is perceived as a holistic artistic phenomenon linked to her other works and created on the basis of her research into ancient, medieval, and early modern history. The novel «An Ancestor» is viewed as the author’s individual-mythological vision of the family history and the work that, having absorbed various genre varieties (family chronicle, travel novel, historical novel), testified to the author’s attention to the social-cultural, historical, and religious-spiritual characteristics of a person of the early modern era. Koroleva’s novel "A Shadow’s Dream" is regarded as having a connection with the genre of an "archeological novel" ("The Emperor" by Georg Ebers is a particular example of the latter). The novel "1313" is perceived as the author’s attempt to artistically depict the motif of a man’s encounter with the devil in the moral, psychological, cultural, philosophical, and mythological contexts of medieval Europe. The historical and cultural content of Koroleva’s prose, its artistic, aesthetic and ideological potentials are additionally emphasized.

«Проповедующая» архитектура: Спасо-Вифанская обитель митрополита Платона

The Saviour of Bethany Monastery was founded by Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) near the Trinity Lavra of St.Sergius in 1783. The Transfiguration Cathedral of Bethany had an extraordinary altar in the shape of a grotto, which, according to the founder’s plan, was supposed to represent the evangelical Tabor. After a series of harmful reconstructions in the 19th century, in the 1930s, the monastery ceased to exist. Thereafter this unique building was excluded from the paradigm of studying the history of the 18th century Russian architecture. The article examines a set of ideas behind Metropolitan Platon’s intention as reflected in his writings. There is not enough material on the construction of the monastery; consequently, the texts of the founder himself are particularly valuable, even though they mostly belong to the genre of sermon that does not imply a commemorative function. Also, as a possible approach to the problem, the article suggests considering the pastoral speeches of Platon that were delivered in the Bethany Cathedral as works that formed an ensemble with its architecture. Five speeches of Metropolitan Platon have been analysed, fixing his theological interpretation of the gospel stories, which the altars of the cathedral and the monastery itself are dedicated to: the Resurrection of Lazarus and his house in Bethany, the Transfiguration of Christ, and the mount Tabor. “Autobiography” by Platon and some writings by his contemporaries have also been investigated. All these sources have allowed to, firstly, clarify the precondition for Platon’s design of the Bethany monastery and highlight its particular reflexive level; and secondly, to put fundamentally different questions to sermons, which were previously considered only as a kind of written sources, and to show their connection with temple architecture as synthesis of arts.

The Transformation of the parable and Jemal Karchkhadze’s “He”

       The work analyzes the inner world of Jemal Karchkhadze's literary characters based on such important events as revenge and forgiveness with their religious and literary interpretations. Jemal Karchkhadze's theological and psychological observations are shown for the purpose of searching the human essence, to achieve the divine in order to discover the true purpose. The classic story of revenge and forgiveness can be considered Jemal Karchkhadze's story "He". At the level of extralinguistic context, this work is the main work of Jemal Karchkhadze - because the character of the story is the eternal hero of the Gospel stories, which includes himself all the dimensions of the universe. All the plate of the parallel language coexist in it simultaneously - the chronotype, epiphany at the beginning of the road and at the end of the road, all the anthropomorphism used in the text of the story indicates the conotactic meaning of the words and concentrates in the subtleties of the Gospel. He is the protagonist of the Gospel books, which is transformed in other writings of the writers and has different names. He has to solve one of the major moral tasks everywhere - whether he can create a great mystery of being a human, fulfill his will and choice - to forgive and to be elevated to the Divine. That is why it does not matter what name he is called, or not called any name. He is the son of all times, all the epochs. The idea of ​​his name is combined with the portrayal of Georgian national souls in the works "Zebulon", "Antonio and David", "Resident", "Dimension".   "He", as the central base parable, is transformed in almost every other work of Jemal Karchkhadze and embodies a single parable system that presents the depth dimension of the writer's creativity. This dimension, in its turn, serves the greatest mission of personal and moral perfection before the divine.

Do drama activities based on Gospel stories affect aspired moral identity? Evaluation of the Impact of an Intervention in a Secondary School Classroom

This study evaluated the effect of drama activities based on Gospel stories on the aspired moral identity of secondary school students. Seventy 13-year-old students at a gymnasium in Nicosia, divided into an experimental and a control group, were taught the same four Gospel stories, but only the intervention group participated in drama activities. The experimental group students wrote down their impressions in a small text. All the participants took “The Value Clarity Questionnaire” (VCQ) to measure the results before and after the study. The experimental group’s pre-test VCQ score was significantly higher than the control group’s, while both groups’ post-test scores showed significant improvement. Interestingly, the control group also benefited from teaching Gospel stories and improved in areas with lower scores than the experimental group before the study. Most students found drama activities more engaging and effective in encouraging them to reflect on their values and identify the person they want to be. The findings suggest that drama activities based on Gospel stories can positively impact students’ value clarity. This is important because value clarity is linked to a life consistent with one’s values, well-being, and improved self-esteem. This small study could be expanded and contribute to a greater understanding of how drama activities in religious education classes can assist students in forming their aspired moral identity.

Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure by David Wenham

Reviewed by: Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure by David Wenham Glenn B. Siniscalchi david wenham, Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure (Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021). Pp. xii + 249. Paper $29.99. David Wenham’s evenhanded, concise, and accessible book is dedicated to the basic themes of contemporary research on the historical Jesus. It is strongly recommended for introductory-level college courses that are related to historical approaches to the NT writings. One of the best aspects of Jesus in Context is the comprehensive coverage of most of the pertinent subjects in the current state of historical Jesus research. Whether it is the broad contours of the Roman Empire or the Jewish matrix from which Jesus and his first followers emerged in ancient Israel, there is plenty of informative and digestible material in this book. Wenham’s impartial coverage of the current findings of Jesus research is both ecumenically sensitive and consistent with the presuppositions of Christian theology. In this way, W.’s text subtly reports that christological orthodoxy and many well-established conclusions about the historical figure of Jesus can now be seen as comrades-in-arms. W. is keen on informing the reader where the consensus of NT scholars stand with respect to Jesus and his self-understanding; his teachings, actions, and miracles; and the immediate impact that he made on his followers. One might profit from understanding the political and socioreligious contexts in which Jesus lived (part 1) and some of the major themes that characterized his sayings and ministry (part 2). Toward the beginning of Jesus in Context, W. discusses the literary sources that ancient historians commonly use to study Jesus, the geographical and archaeological discoveries that seem pertinent for the relevant contemporary studies, and the history of ancient Israel and the Roman Empire up to and including the first century of the Common Era. [End Page 168] Wenham’s text is also excellent with regard to the fundamental reliability of the canonical Gospels. He rightly reports that form criticism, redaction criticism, the fascination with the second-century apocryphal Gospels, and the notion of oral traditions in ancient Palestine are not relevant enough concerns to lead one to conclude that the Christian Gospels are unreliable. Moreover, the current state of NT scholarship is not on the side of the revision-ist views of Rudolf Bultmann (who was known for separating the theology of the canonical Gospels from whatever history might lie behind them) or the older nineteenth-century scholars who saw the Gospels as fabricated myths. In the words of W., “The skepticism that ends up with scholars concluding or implying that much gospel tradition is the creation of the early Christian church rather than Jesus is curious, to say the least. It is much more likely that the main creative genius reflected in the gospel stories and teaching was the person who inspired the Christian movement, rather than . . . his followers” (p. 76). Rather, most of the newest questers in the guild endorse the historicity of Jesus and his various teachings about the reign of God, his baptism by John the Baptist, his wondrous miracles, and his resurrection from the dead. Recognizing that Paul’s letters were not understood as inspired texts by the original recipients, W. pointedly brings home the relevance of the apostle Paul for Jesus studies: “Both these early letters and others that followed, . . . give a lot of evidence about what the first Christians said and believed about Jesus. The letters are not telling the stories of Jesus, but are dealing with issues that had arisen in the churches; their references to Jesus are all the more revealing for being incidental” (p. 47). One of W.’s areas of special interest is that the apostle Paul and the four Gospel writers were not literarily dependent on one another. Despite that barrage of technical publications on early christology and historical criticism, W.’s book should be warmly welcomed as one of the best introductory texts on the current state of the basic questions on the historical Jesus and the reliability of the NT. In terms of accessibility and depth of...

New Testament Names in the Text of the Ladder of John Climacus

The paper explores eleven New Testament names featured in the text of the Ladder by John Climacus, a translated monument of early Slavic writing. These personal names are a special kind of biblical quotations referring to the events of the holy history. The research is based on comparative analysis of the Greek texts of the Ladder published by Jacques Paul Migne (Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 88), four ancient Byzantine codes and five Slavic manuscripts which contain the first Slavic translation of the book made by Preslav scribes in the first half of the 10th century. The article follows research on the collective church memory of medieval scribes which manifests itself in the commonality of topics, images, plots, ideas, and expressions that go back to the text of the Bible. The New Testament characters that are featured in the Greek text of the Ladder and its Slavic traslations are: Jesus Christ, Mary, John the Baptist, John the Apostle, Lazarus, Peter, Paul, Timothy, Herod, Pontius Pilate, Judas. The author identifies the key biblical images in the Greek text of the Ladder (Jesus Christ and the supreme apostles Peter and Paul) and specifies the functions of New Testament names in the text: referential, symbolic, emphatic and indexical. The oldest Russian manuscript showcases spelling inconsistencies in relation to New Testament names as well as multiple errors indicating both the inexperience of the scribe and his poor knowledge of gospel stories. These errors were eliminated from the text of later manuscripts. The analysis identified four words that are absent in the historical dictionaries of the Russian and Old Slavonic languages (bezvrednitsa ‘dispassion’, besslovesne ‘wordlessly’, zluderzhanie ‘rancor’, suprotivpremeneniе ‘transformation’).

«Евангельская история»: широкий замысел свт. Феофана (Говорова) и пути его воплощения

The article discusses the ways and methods of implementing the plan of St. Theophan to compose the Gospel story according to the four canonical books of the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The creative history of the book is restored on the basis of St. Theophan’s letters to the Athos monk Arseny (Minin) and N. V. Elagin, as well as the bishop’s articles “Lessons from the deeds and words of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ” and “Instructions according to which everyone can compose a consistent Gospel story from the four Gospels by himself.” An analysis of the four-part structure of the book is undertaken. As an example of St. Theophan’s deep reading of the gospel text, the stories about the calling of fishermen by the Lord, about His visit to the house of Martha and Mary and the farewell conversation with the disciples are considered. A kind of inserted episode of creative history was revealed — St. Theophan’s editing of the famous three-volume work of the same name by Archpriest Pavel Matveevsky. The main feature of St. Theophan’s work, in comparison with the other Gospel stories, consists in the distribution of events into periods and departments, not so much by the time of their accomplishment, but by place.

How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths

How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths

Афанасий Афанасьевич Фет как поэт-мыслитель

The article proposes to consider the creative individuality of A.A. Fet as a poet-thinker. It places a special emphasis on his ideological views, expressed in his enthusiasm for the teachings of A. Schopenhauer’s and in disputes with L.N. Tolstoy; extensive epistolary material is involved (this correspondence with Ya.P. Polonsky, L.N. and S.A. Tolstoy, N.N. Strakhov, K.R. and others); a brief overview of the critical reviews of contemporaries on the poet’s poetry collections is given. Here, Fet’s philosophical lyrics are analyzed in particular detail (first of all – the late, period of “Evening Lights”, in which there is an understanding of the universal categories of being – life and death, good and evil, the world and man, time and eternity), some parallels are drawn with F.I. Tyutchev. The article traces the development of spiritual and religious issues in the work of Fet’s (gospel stories and motives, the image of the Lord, the genre of prayer, etc.). The article raises the question of expanding the concept of “poet-thinker” taking into account the category “mind of the heart” designated by Fet himself. From these positions, his poem “I am waiting, embraced by anxiety...” from the “Evening Lights” collection is analyzed. Considering Fet’s work as “the poetry of thought” does not cancel, but enriches his airy image in our minds, allows us to present Fet’s personality in more volume, to clarify and expand the idea of the real complexity and versatility of his artistic nature, to come closer to understanding “lyrical insolence” as “the property of great poets” (words of L.N. Tolstoy about A.A. Fet).

Аллюзия на евангельские сюжеты в романах «Христос приземлился в Городне» В. Короткевича и «Мастер и Маргарита» М. Булгакова

Аллюзия на евангельские сюжеты в романах «Христос приземлился в Городне» В. Короткевича и «Мастер и Маргарита» М. Булгакова

ЛИК МАРИЈЕ МАГДАЛЕНЕ У СПЕВУ ИГЊАТА ЂУРЂЕВИЋА

Марија Магдалена је на културолошком плану један од најпознатијих библијских ликова. Недостатак чињеница о њеном животу омогућио је различите интерпретације њеног значаја и функције у јеванђеоским причама. Једно тумачење лика Марије Магдалене понудио је и Игњат Ђурђевић ускладивши га са временом у ком је живео и са потребама друштва које је настојао да поучи. У раду ћемо покушати да упоредимо представу Мандалијене покорнице са новозаветном и апокрифном представом ове личности.

Тайноводственные смыслы в Гомеровском центоне 1-й редакции (1HC)

The paper explores some intertextual connections in the Homeric cento of the 1st redaction (1HC). This particular version is the most interesting from this point of view. The text can be read on three levels of meaning. The first level is the narrative one, or a macrotext (a paraphrase of Gospel stories about Jesus). The second could be called a microtext. This is “stylistic”, or “epic” level, because the author imitates the style of Homer with his cliches, epic formulas and fixed epithets. The third level is philosophical, or even “mystagogical” one; it involves intertextual connections. One of the main intertextual Odyssey motives is that of the way to the Heavenly Motherland. For example, there are healing episodes where the main characters not only are healed by Jesus but they get the opportunity to return to their motherland. This idea is Neoplatonic as well. Another example of the “mystagogical” intertextuality is represented in the Cento scene of the Wedding at Cana, where two entrances to the cave are mentioned. The Cento probably alludes to the Porphyry’s treatise and reveals the “secret sense” of the scene: Jesus is the Creator of cosmos and he knows all the secret ways and entrances of Nature. The author of the article suggests that this comprehension was inspired by Neoplatonic idea that Homer is concerned in the mysteries of the universe. It was based on the decontextualisation of Homeric text and its allegorical interpretation.

Lessing as Editor of Reimarus

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s publication of Fragments of an Unknown Wolfenbüttel Author in the 1770s unleashed a storm of debate and controversy, which ended with censor stepping in and forbidding further contributions. The Fragmentenstreit, the ‘Battle of the Fragments’, as it came to be known, was a critical point in the development of German theology. For Schweitzer, as is made clear by the full title of his survey of historical Jesus studies ( The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede), the publication of the fragment ‘On the purpose of Jesus and his disciples’ marks the true beginnings of an historical engagement with the Gospel stories about Jesus. For Lessing, Reimarus’ text certainly raised questions about the interpretative methods and categories which are most properly applied to the Gospels; it also raised issues about the relationship between reason and revelation, the place of the Bible, the canon, in the development of Christian faith, and indeed of the very nature of faith itself. We will look briefly at some of these questions. There is, too, a much wider and more demanding question: what influence did this debate have on the subsequent history of German theology which, in the 150 years which followed, saw the rise of both liberal and more confessionally oriented theologies, the prominence of figures like Schleiermacher, Hegel, Ritschl, Barth, and Bultmann? We can offer no more than a few pointers to the beginnings of such developments.

Review: Juvencus’ Four Books of the Gospels: Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor, by Scott McGill

Book Review| December 01 2017 Review: Juvencus’ Four Books of the Gospels: Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor, by Scott McGill Scott McGill, Juvencus’ Four Books of the Gospels: Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor. New York: Routledge, 2016. 308 pp. ISBN 9780415635837. $125.00. Blossom Stefaniw Blossom Stefaniw University of Halle Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Studies in Late Antiquity (2017) 1 (4): 407–409. https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2017.1.4.407 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Blossom Stefaniw; Review: Juvencus’ Four Books of the Gospels: Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor, by Scott McGill. Studies in Late Antiquity 1 December 2017; 1 (4): 407–409. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2017.1.4.407 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentStudies in Late Antiquity Search Scott McGill has made available in English translation the first of the Latin biblical epics and the first known hexameter poem dedicated to Christian subject matter. With the publication of this volume, the entire poem is accessible in a modern European language for the first time. This is a great feat for the integration of a significant text to the teaching and study of early Christianity, quite apart from the linguistic heroism required to translate more than 3000 lines of dactylic hexameter into very respectable English verse. The book itself is straightforward, consisting of a roughly 20-page introduction and very copious and valuable notes that give details of intertextual allusions, clarifications of references to the gospel stories, and literary commentary. The text of the poem is correlated in the right hand margin with the passages from the canonical gospels to which it refers. The poem itself takes up 78 print... You do not currently have access to this content.

Re-Marking the Place of Mark


 
 
 Burton Mack's A Myth of Innocence presents a novel approach to the study of early Christianity. Scholars have always imagined that the foundational beginnings of Christianity could be traced back to the historical man named Jesus. The rise of Christianity has been variously attributed to Jesus' charisma or personality, to some surprising activity he did or words that he spoke, or to something remarkable about his death. Although a consensus as to what the unique originary events must have looked like has never been reached, scholars continue to assume its existence is the only thing that can account for the beginnings of Christianity and its myths of divine events. As a historian, Mack finds the insistence upon a singular origin to be strange. New Testament scholarship over the past two centuries has focused on two related topics, the historical Jesus and the earliest Christology, by attempting to work backwards in time through the gospel mythologies. Mack, however, proposes that since the gospels are mythical stories, the foundations of Christianity should be located with the composition of the gospel stories.
 
 

Переклади текстів Святого Письма в барокових проповідях

Some peculiarities of the translation of Holy Scripture fragments in the texts of baroque sermons are discussed in the paper. The author analyzes the features of the national language testified in the translations, and concludes that the preachers studied gospel stories creatively, made them more stylistically expressive, which can be explained by the specificity of homiletic work.

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The differences between the healing stories from Epidaurus and from the Gospels

In Epidaurus, the main ancient sanctuary of Asclepius, important inscriptions from the fourth century B.C. were found. Their texts were based primarily on earlier traditions on healings. They tend to exaggerate and to promote the sanctuary. Their main feature is incubation followed by vision and healing, usually in a dream. It is assumed that there are some similarities and some differences between the healing stories from Epidaurus and from the Gospels. However, the similarity consists only in generic features: they are both healing stories and can be labeled miracle stories (but “miracle” is a notion we have constructed). Similarities in details between single stories are secondary and only few. Some health problems in the stories, as blindness, are the same, but it is rather banal, because they were both frequent and difficult to treat. Laying on hands and touching in the Gospel stories are perhaps inspired by Greek worldview, but they do not occur in Epidaurus. Other features are different. The healings are named differently. Stories are build In a different manner. Epidaurus stories stem mostly from votive inscriptions and reliefs (adorned with fantasy), the Gospel stories stem from oral traditions. Epidaurus stories concentrate on the sick persons, the Gospel stories on the healer. Jesus in these stories appears as a powerful human being. Epidaurus healings result from a theophany or sometimes occur through sacred animals, serpents and dogs. Epidaurus stories are most often related to oracular dreams, what never occurs in Jesus stories. Visions from Epidaurus involve chirurgical operations and many medicaments, both absent in the Gospels. The Gospel miracles had no sacral context. Epidaurus stories were transmitted in the context of a particular sanctuary, the Gospel stories in the context of a community. These descriptions of healing miracles seem quite dissimilar.