Scriptural Citations Research Articles

Christian Ecology in the Letter to the Hebrews

AbstractThis paper proceeds from a discourse analytical perspective and asks what we can learn from Hebrews 1-2 concerning the relationship of humanity to creation through Christ. First, the exordium is examined to reveal a descent–ascent motif for the incarnate Son who is the one through whom God creates (1:2) and who sustains everything by his powerful word (1:3). The paper then explains how the Son’s sacrificial activity is subsumed within this theology as we look at the catena of scriptural citations found in the rest of chapter 1, where the catena deepens the theology of the exordium by presenting the same events in reverse order. However, towards the end of the catena, when we would expect a reference to the Son and his having inherited a name greater than the angels (1:4), we instead hear about how the angels are sent to serve humanity who inherit salvation. This enables the discourse to move on to chapter 2 and the purpose of Christ’s descent to lead humanity heavenward to glory (2:10). This paper uncovers how that glory is the Son’s own glory and posits a process of theosis by which humanity shares in the Son’s sustaining role over creation.

Scribal Harmonization and Matthew’s Fulfillment Citations in Codices Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus

Abstract LXX editor Alfred Rahlfs assumed that the scriptural citations in the NT had influenced the LXX. Text-critics of the NT have suggested that the influence primarily went in the other direction. More recent research suggests that the two textual traditions were transmitted independently of each other. This article studies harmonization by examining the relevant passages in LXX (source-text) and NT (citation) in manuscripts where both texts are extant and sometimes copied by the same scribe. Did these scribes harmonize in one direction or the other? This examination of Matthew’s unique Fulfillment Citations and their sources in the three pandects, Codices Alexandrinus, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, suggests that these scribes have rarely harmonized the text. The result shows that Vaticanus and Sinaiticus reflect less harmonization (and more negative evidence) than Alexandrinus, whereas a specific early corrector of Sinaiticus (Ca) occasionally harmonized the LXX to the NT. This confirms that the two traditions have remained largely independent. However, in all detected cases of possible or probable harmonization, the LXX text was harmonized to the NT, which supports Rahlfs’s position.

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use Christopher T. Begg and Richard A. Taylor 2596. [The Adam Myth in Paul and in the Hellenistic Judaism of Jerusalem; the Apocalypse of Moses; Rom 7:7-25] Jan Dochhorn, Der Adammythos bei Paulus und im hellenistichen Judentum Jerusalems. Eine theologische und religionsgeschichtliche Studie zu Römer 7,7-25 (WUNT 469; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021). Pp. xvi + 722. €184. ISBN 978-3-16-160096-8. Rom 7:7-25 is the core segment of an extended Adam-Sin-Death Complex featured in the Proto-Pauline letters. That complex has generated a copious exegetical tradition, [End Page 976] which D. surveys in this volume. As the background for the Romans passage, D. identifies the Jewish document known as the Apocalypse of Moses (Apoc. Mos.). Recognition of Paul's use of this document allows for the possibility of dating the document more precisely and of reconstructing the origin of the Jewish "Adam Myth." In addition, the Apoc. Mos. and several other related writings can be ascribed to the Jerusalem milieu of those who had come back from the Diaspora, a milieu to which Paul belonged and from which early Christianity received various stimuli of essential significance. D.'s study has theological consequences for Paul's anthropology, harmatology, and "nomology" in particular, which D. systematically presents and which should serve to generate new impulses for dogmatics, the Church's proclamation, and the dialogue between the confessions. [Translated and adapted from published abstract.] D,'s monograph unfolds in a series of nine chapters: (I) Introduction; (II) The Power of Sin of Paul; (III) Exegesis of Rom 7:7-25; (IV) Tradition-Criticism: Apoc. Mos. 15–30 as the Decisive Parallel; (V) Further Parallels between the Proto-Paulines and the Adam Accounts; (VI) The Transformation of the Tradition of the Apocalypse of Moses in Rom 7:7-25; (VII) Rom 7:7-25 and Its Active Constituents in the Thought of Paul; (VIII) The Religion-Historical Background of the Pauline Adam-Sin-Death Complex; and (IX) The Pre-Christian Paul and the Intellectual Culture of Palestine in the Herodian and Roman Period. The volume concludes with an extensive bibliography and three indexes (passages, authors, and topics).—C.T.B. 2597. [Leviticus 16 in the Gospels] Hans M. Moscicke, Goat for Yahweh, Goat for Azazel: The Impact of Yom Kippur on the Gospels (Lanham/Boulder/New York/London: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2021). Pp. ix + 172. $95. ISBN 9781978712423. This volume is a follow-up to M.'s 2020 monograph entitled The New Day of Atonement: A Matthean Typology (WUNT 2.517; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck) in which he explored the influence of Leviticus 16, particularly its reference to two goats, on Matthew's account of Jesus's Passion. In the current volume, M. extends his investigation to include the influence of the Leviticus text on all four of the Gospels. In the introduction to the volume (p. 2), M. provides this account of the arrangement of the work: Chapter 1 comprises an analysis of the effect of Azazel and Yom Kippur traditions on Matthew's Final Judgment episode (Matt 25:31-46), arguing that the evangelist portrays the expulsion of the unrighteous as a purgative event resembling the yearly expulsion of iniquity from the temple by means of the scapegoat. In chapter 2 I contend that Matthew constructs a goat-for-Yhwh typology in his baptism scene (Matt 3:16-17) and a goat-for-Azazel typology in his temptation narrative, foreshadowing the christological goat narrative in his passion narrative. I argue in chapter 3 that Luke's narrative regarding Jesus's visit to Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30) contains special material that has been shaped by Jubilee and Yom Kippur traditions. In this text, Jesus's scriptural citation of Isa 58:6 and 61:1-2 and the townspeople's attempt to cast Jesus off a cliff both recall Second Temple traditions pertaining to the Day of Atonement. Chapter 4 explores the impact of ancient elimination rituals and Azazel/scapegoat traditions on the Gerasene exorcism in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 5:1-20). I further seek to understand how the Matthean and Lucan...

Quoting Before Canon: The Various Forms of Authority Attributed to the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Second and Third Century

Abstract The scriptural citations of early Christian theologians have often been enlisted in scholarly reconstructions concerning the development of the canon. The underlying assumption in many such reconstructions appears to have been that the frequent quotation of a writing indicates a corresponding level of authority for that writing. More recent scholarship has challenged this assumption by drawing attention to the specific rhetorical contexts in which scriptural quotations are employed. The current work contributes to this trajectory of research and the field of reception history more generally by considering citations of the Epistle to the Hebrews among the second- and third-century Christian writers who utilize the epistle most frequently, namely, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement, and Origen. The utilization of the Epistle to the Hebrews by these authors bears much greater resemblance, I argue, to the compositional and citational practices of their Greek predecessors than to the canon lists created by Christian theologians in the fourth century and beyond. The evaluation of these citations within the framework of later debates about canon, therefore, serves to flatten the diversity of approaches evident among the citations of Hebrews prior to the fourth century. Careful examination of citations from the Epistle to the Hebrews in the second and third centuries reveals that the various ways in which the document was quoted were frequently determined by the immediate rhetorical context in which those quotations were employed rather than by debates about the epistle’s authority.

Other Writings/Traditions

Other Writings/Traditions Christopher T. Begg, William J. Urbrock, Brian J. Meldrum, Richard A. Taylor, and Thomas Hieke Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America William J. Urbrock University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Brian J. Meldrum Catholic University of America Richard A. Taylor Dallas Theological Seminary Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz 739. [Angels in the Mäṣḥafä Qәddase and Its Andәmta] Tedros Abraha, "The Place of the Angels in the Mäṣḥafä Qәddase (The Book of Hallowing) and in Its Andәmta," Angelic Beings, 151-74 [see #810]. A.'s contribution focuses on angelology in the Ethiopic work of his title, with particular attention to the roles and locations within the heavenly hierarchy according to that document. The 81 canonical books of the OT and NT in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches and their mainly allegorical interpretation known as andәmta are key to the interpretation of the angelology of the above document as well as those found in the canonical 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Apocalypse of Ezra. Outside of its biblical sources, other important sources for the document in question are the Hexaemeron, Mäṣḥafä Aksimaros, and De Coelesti Hierarchia (Περὶ τῆς οὐρανίας Ἱεραρχίας)by Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite (5th cent. a.d.). Drawing on these and still other later sources, the Mäṣḥafä Qәddase offers details regarding the creation of angels, their numbers, their organization, and their role as part of the innermost circle of the Holy Trinity. In this document, angels are linked to the founding of churches, which are built wherever drops of blood of the crucified Christ fell or were sprinkled by an angel. Despite the massive presence of angels in all aspects of religious and secular life among Ethiopians and Eritreans, it is striking that in the Geʿez work Mäṣḥafä Qәddase taken as a whole angels do not play as prominent a role as one might expect. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 740. [The Torah's Dietary Laws in the Letter of Aristeas] Anna Angelini, "The Reception and Idealization of the Torah in the Letter of Aristeas: The Case of the Dietary Laws," HeBAI 9 (4, 2020) 435-47. In the Letter of Aristeas (LA), the dietary laws are presented as a paradigm for the entire Torah. However, the summary of the dietary laws given by the author in ¶¶128-171 does not, for the most part, literally quote the biblical texts in question, but rather reflects a considerable degree of interpretation regarding these laws. This paper examines the relationship between biblical traditions and Greek cultural referents in the Letter's presentation [End Page 246] of the dietary and sacrificial laws against the background of other Second Temple period texts which feature a reception of these laws, e.g., Philo, Josephus, and the Qumran materials. I argue that while the presentation of the dietary laws in the Letter attests to the considerable authority this section of the Torah had for the author from a symbolic point of view, it nonetheless offer little evidence for the practice and content of a dietary halacha. See ##679, 695. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 741. [Philo's Exegesis of the Dream of Jacob (Gen 28:10-22) in Somn. 1,1-188] Anne Boiché, "La place de l'Écriture dans l'exégèse du rêve de Jacob (Somn. 1,1-188)," Religion et rationalité, 9-27 [see #796]. B.'s study on the place of Scripture in the exegesis of Philo highlights the methodical fashion in which Philo develops his thought, not only taking the text of Scripture as his starting point, but also, and especially, proceeding in company with it. The dialogue between the scriptural text and Philo's interpretation of this unfolds by way of Philo's close work with scriptural citations, which sometimes are abbreviated or even implicit, as required by the nature of the Philonic commentary, but also via a process of reciprocal clarification on the basis of classical culture, this leading to an exegesis that is Philo's own, but always closely linked to the text of Scripture. [Translated and adapted...

Transcultural Approaches to the Bible: Exegesis and Historical Writing across Medieval Worlds ed. by Matthias M. Tischler and Patrick S. Marschner

Reviewed by: Transcultural Approaches to the Bible: Exegesis and Historical Writing across Medieval Worlds ed. by Matthias M. Tischler and Patrick S. Marschner Thomas A. Fudge Tischler, Matthias M., and Patrick S. Marschner, eds, Transcultural Approaches to the Bible: Exegesis and Historical Writing across Medieval Worlds (Transcultural Medieval Studies, 1), Turnhout, Brepols, 2021; pp. viii, 253; 19 colour illustrations; R.R.P. €80.00; ISBN 9782503592855. Few would question the assertion that the Bible ranks amongst the most important volumes in Western civilization. What has not been examined as thoroughly is the way in which Scripture has been utilized in creating and manipulating human memory, especially across transcultural medieval worlds. Naturally this is a large task that cannot be accomplished in a single thin volume. But this collection takes an initial step in that important direction. With a specific focus on the Iberian context, Latin Europe, the Near East, and the Baltic world, we are introduced to a series of vignettes drawing attention to the nature of Biblical interpretation and historical writing across these medieval worlds. Unsurprisingly, we learn the ways and means in which the Bible provides theological justification for crusading, explains how and why crusaders are God’s special people, provides an explanation for understanding the post-biblical nature of providential history, and how marginal glosses explain and correct the vagaries of Scripture, while at the same time elaborating how different cultures and events represent extensions of biblical narratives and truths. All of this is approachable and explicable by seeing beyond simplistic Sunday school notions of Scripture as a single text, reflecting a linear and unified programmatic agenda, possessing a priori metahistorical authority adopting modern assumptions like inspiration, verbal dictation, and theological politics creating the ‘word of God’. What is essential is understanding a complicated transmission process, a virtual lacuna surrounding canonization, and claims about authority that are often little more than the habit of repeated reading. As this volume makes clear, none of these components ever existed in an untouchable sacrosanctity. Cultures past and present, of course, have preferred to see the Bible as an instrument of unassailable power and authority. Many writings outside the biblical canon retained authority for communities of faith throughout the ages and informed efforts to frame concepts of salvation-history in the post-biblical world of the Middle Ages. Scripture was used, sometimes misused, occasionally abused, in a quest to explain history by adapting Iberian motifs, for example, to biblical narratives wherein typological connections between medieval and the Hebrew Bible worlds suggest prophecy, fulfilment, and justification for events, ideas, and practices. In this way, knowledge of the Bible plays a major part in interpreting contemporary affairs, thus enhancing the role Scripture plays in historical writing. Untangling these two discrete texts is difficult. [End Page 271] Knowledge of the Bible occurred aurally, optically, and dramaturgically, rather than through reading. Crusade narratives, for example, are peppered with Scriptural citations and allusions. The crusades become salvific, the Bible indispensable for crusaders, and we find arresting accounts of armies chanting hymns or psalms as the military machine advances in the name of God. Crusade texts are one example of how and why the Bible was quoted to provide credibility or justification. This volume underscores the role of historians toiling in the dimness of the medieval world, labouring to see mundane human efforts in the beam of divine light, interpreting human affairs with reference to the work of God, and setting forth these typologies in clearly enunciated exegesis. In consequence, contemporaries and posterity understand medieval matters in terms of the eternal now. Several chapters underscore the work of many medieval writers in identifying and applying the most appropriate biblical text for any number of respective contexts. Biblical manuscripts are utilized, by means of exegetical gymnastics if necessary, to illuminate divine approbation in the varied cultures of a world centuries removed from the sacred text. The more successful of such efforts resulted in medieval chronicles that are truly sustained dialogues with the Scriptures. Of particular interest is the dispute about clerical sexuality by means of an innovative use of Ezekiel 23, wherein we find absorbing elaboration of ‘condemned sisters, effeminate brothers, and damned heretics’ by Lydia M. Walker...

Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins.

Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Revising the Repetitions: The Relative Textual Stability of Repeated Patristic Citations as a Window into the Transmission History of Patristic Exegesis – Chrysostom’s Homilies on Romans as an Initial Test Case

Since the beginning of the discipline, New Testament textual critics have made use of the scriptural citations found in patristic homilies, commentaries, and other exegetical works. Those who use these sources commonly distinguish between the initial citation of a passage of Scripture and the repetitions of this passage in the following exposition. These repetitions are often considered less susceptible to alteration in the course of transmission and therefore more likely to provide reliable access to the form of the biblical text used by the patristic exegete in question. At the same time, in some textual traditions, both these initial citations and their repetitions show evidence of deliberate alteration in the course of transmission. Based on a full collation of the direct Greek manuscript tradition for selected test passages of Chrysostom’s Homilies on Romans (CPG 4427) this paper considers the relative textual stability of initial citations and their subsequent repetitions, opening a new window into the transmission history of patristic exegesis.

Paul and Scripture

Paul and Scripture

Reading Sacred Scripture with Thomas Aquinas: Hermeneutical Tools, Theological Questions and New Perspectives ed. by Piotr Roszak and Jörgen Vijgen

Reviewed by: Reading Sacred Scripture with Thomas Aquinas: Hermeneutical Tools, Theological Questions and New Perspectives ed. by Piotr Roszak and Jörgen Vijgen David Whidden Reading Sacred Scripture with Thomas Aquinas: Hermeneutical Tools, Theological Questions and New Perspectives edited by Piotr Roszak and Jörgen Vijgen (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), xvi + 601 pp. One of the curiosities of Thomistic scholarship is that Aquinas's primary role as a Dominican master was to lecture on Scripture, yet until recently there has been relatively little attention paid to his engagement with Scripture. Scholarship on Aquinas's biblical commentaries has been neglected relative to the size of its presence in his corpus. A positive contribution to redressing this imbalance is in this recent text edited by Piotr Roszak and Jörgen Vijgen, who provide us with a collection of essays that investigate Aquinas's use of Scripture. Including the introductory essay, in twenty essays from international scholars we are presented with a variety of ways of understanding the role of Scripture in Aquinas's theology, the tools he used, how he thought about Scripture, and how his use of Scripture illuminates a variety of theological and philosophical questions. As with any other good collection of essays, the editors provide a thematic guide and summary of the work in their introduction, beginning by reiterating Étienne Gilson's claim that Aquinas's "entire theology … is a commentary on the Bible" (vii), and making their own argument that "the thought of Aquinas undoubtedly operates within a biblical horizon" (viii), a claim that is further strengthened by the variety of ways the other nineteen essays reinforce the primacy of Scripture in Aquinas's thought. The contribution of this book, however, is not just to describe the primacy of Scripture in Aquinas's thought, but to take into account his hermeneutical [End Page 331] perspective as we understand it now while pointing to future research directions. Likewise, the essays do not just look backward historically, but also provide fruitful links to contemporary issues. After the introduction, the next eleven essays are organized around the theme of hermeneutical tools. In these essays the authors attempt to provide an understanding of the Aquinas's basic exegetical approach, both in his theology of Scripture and in the variety of exegetical tools and methods he used. Several themes emerge out of these essays. One theme that is taken up is that of the multiple senses of Scripture and how Aquinas deploys them. On one hand Gilbert Dahan (50–52) argues that, while Aquinas speaks of the four senses of Scripture inherited from Stephen Langton, he also engages with the threefold sense of Scripture from Hugh of St. Victor. But, contrary to Aquinas's description in Summa theologiae I, q. 1, a. 10, Dahan argues that the four senses of Scripture are not really functional in Aquinas's exegesis (52) and that "the backbone of his hermeneutical system" is engaging with the texts through narrative, parabolic, and poetic modes (58). On the other hand, Elisabeth Reinhardt, in an essay describing how Aquinas's inaugural lectures programmatically shape his future exegesis, shows how the four senses of Scripture are operative in his exegesis of the Book of Romans (80–82). Likewise, Roszak shows how Aquinas's use of scriptural citations tends to have a more spiritual sense when used in his commentary on the Psalms (135–37), and Jeremy Holmes shows how Aquinas reads the Old Testament primarily through the spiritual sense, a reading based on a participation metaphysics that allows Aquinas to preserve the theological value of the Old Testament through a Christological reading of those texts. These essays helpfully point to a possible difference between Aquinas's theory of the senses of Scripture and how he actually deploys that theory in his actual exegetical practice, a difference that deserves further study. A second theme that emerges from these essays is the Christological shape of Aquinas's exegesis. Contrary to modern forms of exegesis, Aquinas sees Christ as the "center and summit of Sacred scripture and ultimately the reason for its unity" (Reinhardt, 88), so much so that, as Dahan points out, it is Christ who "gives the text its truth" (70). For...

Reliance on Scripture and Vicissitudes of Textual Practices in Madhyamaka Thought


 
 
 What texts did Buddhists of South Asia and beyond read? How did they read, interpret, and use these texts? This essay focuses primarily on the first of the two questions and examines in this connection instances of citation found in the early Mūlamadhyamakakārikā commentaries and in a related Tibetan work as evidence of the uses of Buddhist texts. The collected samples indicate two major shifts in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist textual practices. The first transition occurred in the sixth and seventh centuries when Indian commentaries on the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā began to cite scriptural passages with greater frequency, especially from the Mahāyāna sūtras. The example of Tsong kha pa’s Madhyamaka work represents a later trend in which Tibetan writers repeated sūtra passages previously cited in the Indian texts that were the main objects of their study and attention. What emerges here is the pivotal role played by the middle-period Indian Mādhyamikas. Writers such as Bhāviveka and Candrakīrti contributed very substantially to the collection of core scriptural citations that were deployed in the Madhyamaka texts. While some of the sūtra passages these Indian Madhyamaka authors used were circulated outside the circle of their own philosophical tradition, others appear to have been newly collected through their private reading experience.
 
 

Christ as a Model for Eschatological Worshipping Community : Rereading Romans 15:7-13

Based on the premise that Paul’s theology and ethics are interrelated rather than separated, this article rereads Romans 15:7-13 with a particular concern to prove that Paul’s various ethical admonitions are profoundly shaped by his theology, especially christological and eschatological beliefs. Despite the presence of a number of christological and eschatological beliefs interwoven in this passage, there are two undergirding beliefs. Regarding the eschatological belief, Paul believes that, through the eschatological Christ’s event (i.e., his death and resurrection), Gentiles are now incorporated into a new eschatological people of God. His various ethical call for unified worship are the natural corollary of this eschatological belief. Regarding the christological belief, in the catena of scriptural citations (15:9b-12), Christ is essentially depicted as the one who both exemplifies and exhorts mutual welcoming and unified worship. In short, Paul’s ethical admonitions are not arbitrary or tactical solutions to ad hoc pastoral problems, but the thoughtful outworking of his coherent theology.

Book Review: Book Reviews

Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: A Critical Edition with Modern Spelling. Edited by Arthur Stephen McGrade. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Three volumes, cxiv + 1100 pp. $450.00 (cloth).Richard Hooker and the Vision of God: Exploring the Origins of ?Anglicanism.' By Charles Miller. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2013. 350 pp. $50.00 (paper).Recent decades have witnessed a resurgence in serious academic study of Richard Hooker's thought, largely thanks to the publication of the multivolume Folger edition of Hooker's collected works between 1977 and 1998. This resurgence has been matched, however, with an inexorable decline in popular reading of Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity : the exorbitant cost of the Folger edition has kept it the preserve of academic libraries, and the rarity of earlier critical editions has also led to a waning influence. The past decade has seen various attempts to remedy this situation, but they all share a similar weakness of providing only abridged selections. While affordable, these abridged selections are arranged to suit the interests of political philosophers or popular readers who want an easy arrangement of what Hooker had to say about isolated theological ideas. As a result, such selective editions variously obscure the context, complexity, and interdependence of Hookers thought across the Laws. A. S. McGrade's new critical edition of the Laws and Charles Millers introductory text both attempt, in their own ways, to provide a more comprehensive view of Hookers theological vision at an affordable price and in an accessible way.A. S. McGrade, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, caps a lifelong academic love affair with Hooker by providing a cheaper (although still relatively expensive) version of the definitive Folger edition of Hookers Laws. It includes all eight books, modernizes the Elizabethan spellings, introduces the structure and content of the Laws, and offers critical appendices. Without doubt, McGrade's achievements deserve high plaudits and his critical edition should become the standard reference work for years to come. McGrade acts as the consummate teacher in his introduction, written in accessible and yet academically rigorous language, expressive of his contagious joy in Hooker and yet cognizant of Hookers limitations as a writer and thinker. McGrade covers the historical provocation for the Laws, tours the reader around an itinerary which takes in the broad themes and structure of each book, and considers Hookers multiple audiences, including posterity and the modern reader. Briefly and gently, McGrade gives a strong apologia why Hooker remains pertinent not only as a beautiful writer, but also as a thinker with beautiful ideas about public life and the common good.McGrade s textual expertise and sensitivity remains consummate in the new critical edition. Spellings are modernized word-for-word, without paraphrase or substitution, thereby respecting Hookers original syntax and yet rendering it easier for the modem eye to parse. Although some purists may be alarmed at the modem spelling, translations of other major early modem texts (of various languages) into modem English should ameliorate such concerns, and certainly helps reduce the sense of distance between Hooker and the modem reader. McGrade translates non-English material into the English vernacular in both the main text and in Hookers footnotes; the original texts are either given on the page or in an appendix. The critical appendices themselves exhaustively provide a glossary of terms, a guide to sources and people mentioned in the Laws, indices of scriptural citations, persons, and subjects, as well as a thorough bibliography. These appendices mean that the text of the Laws remains uncrowded with immediate exegetical gloss, but still rigorously supported when the reader wants explanation or help navigating the text. …

Christianity in the later Roman Empire: a sourcebook

Introduction Acknowledgements Chronological Table 1. Christianity and Rome 2. The Great Persecution 3. The Conversion of Constantine 4. Constantine and the Imperial Church 5. The Donatist Schism 6. The Doctrine of the Trinity 7. Scripture and Liturgy 8. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 9. Emperor and Bishop 10. Asceticism and Monasticism 11. Christianization 12. Paideia: Christianity and Classical Culture 13. Christians, Jews and Manichees 14. Gender and Society 15. Holy Men and Holy Women 16. Pilgrimage and Relics 17. Missionaries and Kings 18. The City of God 19. The Christological Controversies 20. Christianity and the Barbarian Invasions Epilogue: The Dawn of Medieval Christendom General Bibliography Index of authors and texts Index of Scriptural citations General Index

Wrapped up in the Bible: The Multifaceted Ritual on a Late Antique Amulet (P. Oxy. VIII 1077)

This essay offers the first sustained interpretation of the poetics of P. Oxy. VIII 1077—a sixth-or seventh-century c.e. healing amulet in which the presumably Christian practitioner constructs efficacy through scriptural citation, visual features, material peculiarities, and performative action. Drawing on literary and material evidence and utilizing insights from diverse disciplines, this paper argues that the practitioner attempted to heal the client by ritually wrapping him or her (through the amulet’s drawing) in the power of Jesus’s healing ministry, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. The paper also highlights how “magical” objects might contribute to the history of the book.

Paul in the Summa Theologiae by Matthew Levering

Reviewed by: Paul in the Summa Theologiae by Matthew Levering Aaron Canty Paul in the Summa Theologiae. By Matthew Levering. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2014. Pp. 336. $61.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8132-2597-5. It is not apparent to all readers of Thomas Aquinas that the Bible plays an indispensable role in his theology. That seems to be an unstated thesis of Matthew Levering in his book, Paul in the Summa Theologiae. After decades of relative neglect in the first half of the twentieth century and into the second half, Aquinas’s scriptural commentaries began to receive scholarly attention. Less attention, however, has been paid to the role of Scripture in Aquinas’s synthetic works, including the Summa theologiae. Using as a reference point Wilhelmus G. B. M. Valkenberg’s magisterial study Words of the Living God: Place and Function of Holy Scripture in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, which evaluates scriptural citations in the Summa theologiae, Levering proposes a more circumscribed study, namely, to discover the particular contribution of Pauline texts to the Summa theologiae. Taking the Pauline corpus for what Aquinas understood it to be, namely, the fourteen letters of the New Testament from Romans to Hebrews, Levering undertakes a detailed study of Paul’s influence on Aquinas. Levering’s book is divided into three sections. The first section examines how Aquinas applies Pauline texts in his exposition of three theological topics: the Trinity, Christ’s passion, and baptism. In his treatment of each of these three topics, Levering follows the order of the Summa theologiae, locating each Pauline text and commenting on where and how Aquinas uses it, whether in an objection, the sed contra, the respondeo, or the reply to an objection. With respect to the Trinity, Aquinas uses Paul especially in the questions of the Prima pars on human knowledge of God (q. 12), God’s knowledge (q. 14), God’s will (q. 19), predestination (q. 23), God the Father (q. 33), and the missions of the Son and Holy Spirit (q. 43). Levering finds that Paul’s emphasis on human salvation is what links these theological topics. God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, wills to save humanity through Christ’s atoning death and resurrection, and the sending forth of the Holy Spirit allows humanity to respond in faith and love to the Father’s revelation in Christ. Regarding Christ’s passion, which Aquinas treats in questions 46 to 49 of the Tertia pars, Levering draws three main conclusions about Aquinas’s engagement with Paul. First, Aquinas emphasizes the importance of Christ’s love and obedience while enduring his suffering and death. Paul testifies to Christ’s love in Ephesians 5:2 and Galatians 2:20, and he underscores the role of Christ’s obedience to the Father in Philippians 2:8 and Romans 5:29. Second, Aquinas draws from the Pauline writings various soteriological elements of Christ’s death. These elements include the meriting of exaltation for himself and for those who believe in him (Phil 2:9), the sacrificial and redemptive dimensions of his death (Eph 5:2; Gal 3:13), and the exemplary [End Page 152] and revelatory functions by which God manifests his power and glory through human weakness (1 Cor 1:18 and 1:25; 2 Cor 12:4). Third, Aquinas describes how Christ’s passion changes the lives of believers. God elicits through Christ a free response in faith and love (Rom 3:25 and 5:8), reconciles humanity to himself (Rom 5:10), and liberates humanity from the power of the devil (2 Thess 2:9). Aquinas discusses the sacrament of baptism a little later in the Tertia pars (qq. 66-69). Levering finds that Pauline texts in the first three questions, which pertain to the nature of baptism, the minister, and the recipients respectively, play a smaller role than they do in question 69, which contains 26 of the 89 Pauline quotations Aquinas appropriates in the questions on baptism. Most of these quotations derive from Romans, in which Paul discusses baptism at some length. Romans 6:11 claims that Christians have been baptized into Christ...

“As Far as My Poor Memory Suggested”: Cyprian’s Compilation of Ad Quirinum

The question of who compiled Ad Quirinum remains unresolved. The previous consensus that it was indeed Cyprian, based largely on Koch’s work, was challenged by Bobertz over twenty years ago. Since then, the issue has received little attention. Here I refute Bobertz’s main arguments for believing that the collection existed prior to Cyprian’s conversion. I argue that textual variations between Ad Quirinum and Cyprian’s letters and treatises do not rule out Cyprian being the compiler, as similar variations also occur in Cyprian’s uncontested works. I examine the role of tradition and memory in scriptural citation and show how Cyprian’s own catechumenate assisted in his preparation of Ad Quirinum. I also demonstrate that there is no conflict between Test. 3.28 and Cyprian’s practice in the wake of the Decian persecution and consider why Pontius did not include the work in his list of treatises.

Scriptural Substitutions and Anonymous Citations: Judaization as Rhetorical Strategy in a Jewish Sufi Text1

In this article, I take the theme of other people’s scriptures in a slightly different direction by highlighting a case in which an instance of scriptural engagement is characterized by a notable absence rather than explicit presence. I examine the work of David ben Joshua Maimonides, a medieval Jewish author who engaged with and quoted from Muslim Sufi texts. However, in the process of writing David systematically removed references to the Qurʾān and obscured the identity of his Sufi interlocutors, a process which scholars often describe as “judaization.” However, this descriptive use of judaization often functions to obscure the complicated negotiations between an author and his or her sources. In this case, I pose judaization as an analytical problem. I argue that David left his knowing readers clues in the text that hint at the Sufi provenance of many of his ideas. The removal of qurʾānic material and the obfuscation of his Sufi sources were actually part of a clear and deliberate rhetorical strategy meant both to subvert his Sufi texts and to bolster his claims about the relationship between Sufism, biblical Judaism, and the revivification of prophecy among the Jews.

The Collects of the Roman Missals: A Comparative Study of the Sundays in Proper Seasons before and after the Second Vatican Council by Lauren Pristas

Antiphon 18.1 (2014) 106–109 Book Review Lauren Pristas The Collects of the Roman Missals: A Comparative Study of the Sundays in Proper Seasons before and after the Second Vatican Council T&T Clark Studies in Fundamental Liturgy Series New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013 xiv+250 pages. Paperback. $49.95. Critical studies of the post-Vatican II liturgical reform are in many cases old news, the sort of thing that has been brought up since the “Ottaviani Intervention.” But Lauren Pristas, a professor of theology at Caldwell College in New Jersey, has made it her business over the last decade to look more deeply than most other scholars at the original Latin texts of the revised Roman Rite liturgy . Specifically, she has undertaken a non-polemical study of the theological principles and policies of revision that underpin the propers of the Mass. Her monograph, The Collects of the Roman Missals, which culls and augments her previous research, is a comparative study of the collects assigned to the Sundays and major feasts of proper seasons in the missal of 1962 (the last of the Tridentine missals) and the missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970 (or, in its most recent typical edition, 2002). Its objective is threefold: to determine whether the pre- and post-Vatican II missals “emphasize the same truths of faith and the same aspects of Christian life, whether Catholics who worship by means of the revised rites are shaped by their worship in the same way that earlier generations were shaped by theirs, and if the answer to either of the preceding questions is no, to determine the nature and significance of the differences” (1). The book consists of eight chapters (Introduction and Background ; Resources; Advent; Christmas; Septuagesima; Lent; Paschaltide ; Summary and Conclusion), an extensive bibliography and three indices: prayers, Scripture citations, and general. Drawing on published and archive material, Pristas presents the relevant discussions and decisions of the Consilium, the body charged with revising the liturgical books according to the prescriptions of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy , Sacrosanctum Concilium. Beginning with the First Sunday of 107 Book review Advent and ending with Pentecost Sunday, she carefully examines the Latin collects of the two missals in relation both to each other and to their respective source texts—a researcher’s nightmare , given that the Consilium eliminated or relocated many of the old orations and removed many of the features of the traditional Proper of the Seasons (gone are the Ember Days, the season of Septuagesima, Passiontide and, while not pertinent to the present study nonetheless noteworthy, the Octave of Pentecost). We need not wait for Christmas to arrive before we find that the 1970 missal introduced significant changes of theological emphasis and spiritual outlook. For example, the 1962 Advent Sunday collects express the absolute necessity of grace for every salutary act “unambiguously in the somewhat subtle, non-expository manner proper to orations,” whereas the new prayers, while not explicitly contradicting Catholic teaching on grace, invite misunderstanding because they “neither articulate it nor, more worrisomely , seem to assume it” (59). The traditional Advent collects, moreover, “rest upon the logical assumption or, more accurately, the firm belief that divine assistance is the actual presence of Christ” (61); by contrast, the new collects seek goods which “do not reduce, as it were, to the simple presence of Christ or of God himself” and consequently “portray God as standing further off and acting toward us in a less personal and more extrinsic manner ” (61–62). More striking was the complete overhaul of the corpus of Lenten collects. In the Tridentine missals these prayers emphasize “the interdependence between body and soul and of the necessity of both divine grace and graced human effort” (154). The revisers rephrased or replaced all of these collects, except the one for Palm Sunday, by texts which are “materially quite different” (127). It might be claimed that Sacrosanctum Concilium no. 109, which directs that the season’s “twofold character” (penitential and pre-baptismal) be given greater prominence in the liturgy, justifies a revision of the Lenten formularies; but that makes all the more “surprising...the absence of the baptismal elements” from all of...