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The following paper deals with some difficulties in the Italian school system process of unification according to Law Casati, due to a complex interrelation between the central State and the local authorities about vet education. The Regio Istituto tecnico in Bergamo represents an interesting case study, because the initial unsuccessful choice of introducing a mineralogical and metallurgical curriculum was produced by the lack of a fruitful debate with the local stakeholders and an inadequate understanding of the wide educational and professional initiatives offered by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into the complex manuscript tradition of the Christian Arabic universal chronicle composed by the Melkite patriarch of Alexandria Eutychius, also known as Sa‘īd ibn Baṭrīq (877-940). A textual analysis of the two recensions of the text (the so-called ‘Alexandrian recension’ and the so-called ‘Antioch recension’), together with codicological and paleographical evidence, leads to the conclusion that, contrary to what claimed by Michael Breydy, the manuscript containing the shortest version of the text (the codex Sinaiticus Arabicus 582) cannot be the author’s autograph, nor does it contain the original recension of the chronicle, but rather an abridged version of it. In view of this, a re-assessment of the whole manuscript tradition and a new critical edition are called for, as well as a re-evaluation of Eutychius’ value as a historian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers some methodological and bibliographical comments about the volume The Nag Hammadi Codices and Late Antique Egypt, ed. H. Lundhaug - L. Jenott (STAC 110), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2018. In particular, questions of source evidence and religious contextualization are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to reconstruct the religious experience of prophecy within Montanism via a re-evaluation of the treatise De ieiunio adversus psychicos, written by Tertullian at the turn of the 3rd century. Montanists were urged to fast because of the imminence of the end of times: they had to purify their bodies in order to remove corporeal ‘impurities’ preventing them from receiving salvation. On the other hand, Tertullian states that one can experience a communication with God only when the body is free from the weight of food and drinking. On such basis, I set out to identify a series of key features that may constitute a more reliable outline of prophecy as a religious experience as it occurred in the Montanist circles. More specifically, I will focus on the description of the relationship between the physiological effects of fasting on human body and the ecstatic prophecy. In this sense, a discussion on fasting as a religious practice in Montanist circles will reveal unexpected entry-points into the whole discussion of prophecy in Early Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anonymous author of the Life of Saint Syncletica opens his account of the protagonist’ s ascetic experience with a meaningful comparison. Since the figure of Thecla is a model for a Christian virgin, a complete parallelism between the two women would be simply a topos. But the laudanda deserves more than commonplace praise: in Syncletica’ s case, the Devil «demonstrates his more piercing brand of evil by disturbing her from within through her own contrary and destructive thoughts». Such a comparison deserves to be analysed more deeply. Since the Acts of Paul and Thecla establish an ascetic model, the first step would be a detailed reconstruction of Thecla’ s relationship with her body as it is depicted by ancient sources. Then, the description of Syncletica’ s regimen in the 5th-century Life would help us to better understand this ascetic ideal, allowing us to lay the foundations for a new and more conscious comparison between two temporally distant models of female asceticism. Thus, the aim of this paper is to define the true meaning of the aforementioned discipleship, analysing the relationship between two illustrious examples of women dealing with bodily privation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes into view texts from the roughly two hundred years of early Christian history, when martyrs were established as powerful agents. My observations follow the textual constructions of martyr’ s bodies that allow weak, old and vulnerable bodies to be in focus. The single narratives are differentiated according to their specific communicative strategies of presenting suffering martyr bodies and the connected social constructs. The actual violability of an individual confessor’ s body is contrasted with his or her self mastery of that vulnerable body and the tendency of eschatological negligence of feeling pain. However, a bias in the presentation of Christian and non-Christian slave bodies as well as in the textual exposure and narration of male and female bodies can be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definition of a Christian identity has been one of the most important aims of Church History as a literary genre since its very origins. The construction of a ‘cultural community’ plays a key role in the mid-fifth century church histories, where the three most famous historians (Socrates, Sozomen and Thodoret) emphasize the struggle between orthodoxy and heresies. However, another main theme is represented by the relationship between Christian education and classical paideia: should the latter be accepted by Christian readers? As already shown by Pierre Maraval, Socrates attributes great importance to the knowledge of Greek, pagan culture, which permeates his whole work. This paper will focus on another great Church historian: Sozomen. Starting from a positive attitude towards paideia, this author seems to suggest a new reception of the classical heritage, different from that of Socrates. Thanks to the representation of some literary characters – whose leading model should be found in the narration concerning Ephrem the Syrian – he engaged in dialogue with Socrates’ work in order to create a new kind of Christian paideia. This cultural interaction – far from being univocally accepted at that time – represents a turning point for the comprehension of Sozomen’ s work and shows us an original perspective on late antique culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the place of the concept of philautia in the Evagrius Ponticus’ conception of disease of the soul. We consider that this notion (philautia) has serious implications for the complete understanding of the evagrian vision of disease of the soul. Indeed, the philautia is, in the evagrian system, the most direct consequence of the ignorance of itself that the nous suffers after its fall. Philautia is also the immediate cause of the parà phýsin orientation of the passionate part of the soul. Putting the self-satisfaction as a precept, the philautia culminates in the state of spiritual atony and passionate eff ervescence called acedia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Life of John the Merciful, written by Leontios of Neapolis in the middle of the VII century, was translated into Syriac probably during the VIII century and then transmitted in some important Syrian Orthodox collections. The relevant differences between the Syriac version and the original Greek drew the attention of some scholars, who supposed that the Syriac reflects an ancient phase of the Greek text. This paper aims to clarify the issue of the position of the Syriac Life of John the Merciful within the manuscript tradition, which still represents a desideratum. After a detailed description of the extant different versions of the Greek text, the author focuses on the relation between the Syriac translation and the Greek witnesses, employing the stemmatic method, and provides a list of loci where the edition of the Life can be improved thanks to the Syriac. Conclusions are then drawn, shedding light on the Syriac milieus to be held as responsible for the translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Armenian corpus of Philo’s translations is a reference case to assess the usage of the ancient Armenian versions in textual criticism of the Greek originals. The paper highlights the exemplary character of this corpus, pinpoints progresses in the studies from a methodological point of view and sketches lines for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Acts of Peter and Paul are an apocryphal text well known and appreciated both in the Western and Eastern worlds, spuriously attributed to one Marcellus (‘pseudo-Marcellus’) who is also mentioned in other apocrypha. After providing a general introduction to the Acts of Peter and Paul in the Greek, Latin, and Armenian traditions, this paper focuses on a comparison between the Greek text and its Armenian translation, providing relevant examples thereof. The philological analysis shows that the Armenian translation depends on a well-attested Greek text and clarifies on which branch of the Greek manuscript tradition it is most likely based. It also offers some possible explanations for the discrepancies between the two texts that cannot be ascribed to accidents occurring in the Greek manuscript tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article off ers an overview of the corpus of the Armenian writings on Stephen the Protomartyr and, particularly, of the texts related to his death as well as the discovery and the translation of his relics (Revelatio, Translationes, Passiones, including an unpublished Passio Sancti Stephani that I recently discovered). Special attention is paid to the Armenian translations of the Greek and Syriac Panegyrics dedicated to the fi rst martyr, stressing when the original is lost (cf. the translations of the Laudationes attributed respectively to Athanasius of Alexandria and Gregory Thaumaturgus) or is preserved (cf. the translations of some writings in honor of Stephen attributed to Gregory of Nyssa, Proclus of Constantinople, and Ephrem/Jacob of Sarugh). For each text, several unpublished Armenian MSS have been listed in order to pave the way for new critical editions. In the last section, the paper offers the edition of the Armenian text (on the basis of MSS P110 and P118) and the Italian translation of a Panegyric of Saint Stephen attributed to Basil, making for the fi rst time its content accessible also to the readers who do not master the Armenian language. The importance of the Panegyric goes beyond the constitution of the corpus of texts on Stephen; as a matter of fact, it is one of the sources of the Commentary on the Song of Solomon attributed to the Armenian medieval poet Gregory of Narek. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Epideixis of Irenaeus of Lyons is known to us only in its Armenian translation. In Epideixis 43 appears a Hebrew quotation both transliterated and translated first from Hebrew to Greek and then from Greek to Armenian. This quotation – as far as we know, the only one in the Hebrew language in the whole work of Irenaeus – entails three problems. First: Irenaeus affirms that it is a quotation of Moses, but we can’t recognize it in any text we know, even if it resounds to Genesis 1,1. Second: it is difficult to reconstruct the original Hebrew text because the transliteration and the Armenian translation don’t correspond to each other. Indeed, a sequence of letters of the transliteration hasn’t any correspondence in the translation, and moreover, it is difficult to identify it with a Hebrew term. Third: in our passage, the Armenian language presents ambiguities that Greek did not, and the scholars do not agree about the position of Irenaeus in the theological point that this quotation would explain, namely if the Word was generated ab aeterno or ante tempus.  is paper pretends to present the status quaestionis of the previous interpretations of the quotation and to support one of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an overview of the rich Armenian tradition concerning Severian of Gabala’ s homilies. After an inventory, it deals with authenticity questions, surveys the relations between the Armenian and Greek forms, evoking a criterion that might help distinguishing early from (comparatively) late translations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

 is paper highlights the infl uence of Ori gen’ s intellectual legacy on the thought of the French theologian Henry de Lubac. In order to achieve this goal, the categories of “history” and “spirit” are scrutinized, constituting as they do not only the title of de Lubac’ s most important work on Origen, but also his fundamental theorical grid to understand the Alexandrian theologian. However, the essay aims to show that, though still retaining some explanatory potential for grasping how Origen’ s thought structures itself, such categories inevitably neglect deeper elements in the latter. Origen’ s assumptions about the epinoiai do especially help solve the aporias raised by de Lubac’ s frequent analogies between Logos, Scripture, Eucharist and Church, all of whom turn hardly distinguishable from one another, without recurring to such theorizing. As a result, a unitary reflection still emerges, centering around the aforementioned relationship between history and Spirit and up to date addressing issues and methods in contemporary theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the tales in parabiblical and Rabbinic Literature about the fate of Jewish infants during Egyptian captivity, comparing them with contemporary legal and homiletic texts about infancy, birth, and exposure of infants. The story of infants exposed and raised by angels is put in parallel with the Babylonian poem Atra-Hasis, advancing the hypothesis of an original myth about birth and overpopulation behind Exodus' infancy stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide an overview of the funerary practices and places reserved for infants in Visigothic Spain, between the late Roman period and the Arab Conquest. It investigates in particular some of the most important necropolises of the Meseta, the core of the Iberian Peninsula and the land occupied by the Goths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The child is a liminal subject in Italian archaeological research, still limited and discontinuous about it. Italian archaeology, particularly of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, seems in fact to be more affected by the critical issues and difficulties concerning the analysis of this specific age, reserving for it a marginal place in studies dealing with this topic. This paper focuses in particular on studies of infant funerary practices that are considered most indicative of the child's material presence in the ancient society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to give a brief overview of some strategies for the inclusion of children in the Egyptian society, with particular regard to sons who do not have a biological relation with their parents but who are acquired through assimilation practices, such as the adoption of an orphan or the emancipation of a young slave. For this purpose, some literary attestations will be examined in order to show how in ancient Egypt a "nobody's child" could turn into a legitimate child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to outline how the child was conceived and perceived in ancient Mesopotamian society. This overview will be outlined by examining the juridical documentation, which will allow us to know how much the child's status was closely linked to the protection of the family institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ancient Mesopotamia, infancy is an elusive category. Although vaguely defined from a lexical viewpoint, the concept of childhood is almost entirely absent from literature, and seldom represented in non-literary textual sources. Texts regarding childbirth, however, constitute an exception to this. Several sources, from mythological accounts of creation (anthropogonies) to therapeutic texts and omens, shift their attention to birth and the baby. Taking this fact into account, in this paper I focus on the role that children bodies play in divination. More specifically, I analyze how the appearance of the baby different body parts conveys a message that can concern both the baby - as carrier of his/her individual destiny written in his/her body (physiognomy), and the whole community (teratomancy), the child becoming at the same time both the message and messenger of the gods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at providing a general overview on the papyri preserving the Acta Alexandrinorum, dealing as it does with their origin, state of preservation and contents, as well as with the history of research since the time they were found and edited. Moreover, the paper delves into such issues as the dating of the writings and their graphic types. An analysis of the literary aspects of the Acta and their historical relevance for our understanding of the Jewish presence in Egypt during the first centuries of the Common Era is also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to set out a coherent structure for the prologue to the Commentary on John by Origen. Indeed, this prologue is rather long and difficult to understand as a whole. First, the paper presents and compares the different structures suggested by other researchers. Then, prolonging their works, it sets out a precise structure, from a literary point of view. Indeed, when reading the text closely, we notice that the composition of the whole prologue is based on two particular words: first, ἀπαρχή (first fruits) and words of the same family are used by the exeget to build a hierarchy that highlights the Gospel of John, then the word εÙ-αγγέλιον (gospel) is studied and defined in the second part of the prologue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called Dialogue with Heraclides is not a whole, but it is a collection of three different literary pieces, probably taken from a larger collection of Origen's διαλέξεις or διάλεκτοι present in his library in Caesarea. The first part of this paper examines the structure of the so-called Dialogue, the literary genre of διάλεξις and its connection with the rhetorical practices of the Second and Third century, and the place of this miscellaneous work in Origen's production. §§2 and 3 analyze style and content of the second part of the so-called Dialogue. Origen deals with the problem raised by someone about some biblical passages, which may be interpreted as indicating that the human soul coincides with blood. By allegorizing these and other biblical texts, Origen offers a short exposition of his doctrine of the spiritual senses, which allows him to solve the posed difficulties. A suggestion about the possible eschatological and martyrological views of Origen's opponents concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the reconstruction of the main educational and cultural experiences lived by the Italian philosopher Mario Dal Pra (1914-1992), during his childhood and youth in Veneto (a region in the North-East of Italy). The classical studies in the seminary of Vicenza, the involvement in the local Catholic Movement (Azione Cattolica and then Fuci), the studies in Philosophy at the University of Padua under the guide of Erminio Troilo represented the pillars of his initial formation as a Catholic young scholar during the dreadful Fascist period. This kind of perspective, so effective in those years, was suddenly changed by Dal Pra into a new look on reality, philosophy and religion − influenced by a critical rationalism − after his commitment in Italian Resistance movement during the second world war. For this reason, an in-depth analysis of his “Venetian years” could offer an unreleased reading of his intellectual and religious origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Montessori Pedagogy shows very different possible faces in different historical-cultural contexts. In the 1920s and early 1930s, for example, Montessori Pedagogy was strongly related to fascist pedagogy and education in Italy. This paper focuses on theory-immanent explanations for this phenomenon, based on an analysis of Montessori’s books and lectures at international courses and congresses (1910-1935) and archive research (Fondazione Giovanni Gentile, Archivio Capitolino, Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, and Segreteria particolare del duce). Explanations are found in the combination of formal aims and exclusive orientation on the methodical, based on Montessori’s implicit anthropology, and in lacking criteria for the child to choose for or against something, which eventually leeds to auto-education towards fascism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with Rufinus' translation of chapter 9 from Gregory of Nazianzus' second Oration and reaches some innovative conclusions about his translation techniques. In or. 2,9, in order to demonstrate the assumption that grazing animal is different from leading souls, the Cappadocian delved into the shepherd' s life and its duties, drawing basically from Theocritus' poetry. As true to its Vorlage as it might appear at first sight, Rufinus' version of the oration bears nonetheless the typical marks of Roman literary translation: explicative additions, more vivid and tangible descriptions, a moralistic attitude, enriching allusions to auctores of renown. In this respect, whereas Gregory alludes to Theocritus as his primary source, Rufinus depends on Virgil' s works, especially the Bucolica and Georgica, which he reads along the lines of ancient Virgilian exegesis as taught in the school of Donatus and then transmitted to us by Servius and Servius Danielinus. In addition to this, Rufinus aims at emphasizing the shepherd' s care for the flock, thus betraying the influences of both the text of the Gospels and the representation of the Good Shepherd in the mosaics of the Aquileia Basilica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kephalaia gnostika is one of the most intriguing books by Evagrius Ponticus, not only because of their literary and doctrinal format (short chapters dense with obscure metaphors), but also because of their two extant Syriac versions: a longer one mostly considered to be the original one, as closer to Origenist positions, and a shorter one regarded as a 'censored' version of the former, aiming to present Evagrius in line with contemporary orthodoxy. Recent studies challenge Antoine Guillaumont's widely accepted opinion that the longer version of the Kephalaia gnostika is the authentic one, offering arguments that I discuss in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the figure of Moses as interpreted by Philo and Origen, in order to capture the contacts between these two exegetes and the dependence of the Christian on the Jew. According to their reading, the figure of Moses is outlined as a prophet (the greatest one), a legislator and a hermeneut (with a distinction between laws that are directly instituted by God and others that are granted by Moses), or finally as a holy man and a model of life, who had access to the contemplation of mysteries. For Philo, such hidden mysteries constitute the meaning of the Pentateuch, are the symbol of the harmony of the cosmos and the law, of the nature and moral life, while for Origen, on the other hand, they represent the Christological meaning, hidden below the types and the adumbrations. The desert cycle brings out some contacts in their way of understanding Easter as a passage or transit, a clear concept in Philo, which Origen acknowledges and enhances. The understanding of the journey in the desert as a spiritual itinerary of the soul is another aspect of their proximity: a place of trial and ascetic commitment for Philo, for Origen a space vacuum perturbationibus et fluctibus, ad quietem discendi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philo's De Vita Mosis has given birth to different questions about its genre, its relationship with other works, its supposed readers; this paper deals especially with this last question. Through a detailed analysis of the most important themes and of the words chosen by Philo, it is possible to notice that the author reserves a lot of attention to Roman values and tries to present Moses and the Jewish culture in the most favourable way for a Roman audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution analyses the relationship between Philo' s philosophical exegesis and some categories that are characteristic of Platonism in the Imperial Age. The figure of Moses is assumed as a point of observation of this phenomenon, since he is a privileged subject in the relationship between man and God. The analysis assumes as a core point the exegesis of Dt 5,31, in which God invites Moses to "stay with him". Two main concepts are at stake: the proximity to God and the idea of stability. This paper therefore tries to explore the possibility that these two aspects are translated and assimilated, throughout Philo' s hermeneutics, to two central axes of Platonism in the Imperial Age: assimilation to God, on the one hand, immutability and the First Principle' s ontological otherness, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philological and literary studies on Coptic language and literature have faced a growing interest in recent years. As well, a more careful and sensitive reconsideration of archives and newly collected archaeological data allow today a more detailed reconstruction of the Egyptian Late Antique and Medieval landscape. The ultimate goal of PAThs project is to build new bridges between these two disciplines by creating an online atlas able to represent Coptic literature in its archaeological context, testing methodological frameworks and building IT tools based on network technologies. We believe that information technology, widely used since long time by both disciplines, can provide a common ground for experimentation and fruitful collaboration: PAThs information system discussed in this paper has proven to be an important test bench for the development of new methodologies and the improvement of the studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canons attributed to Basil of Caesarea were known so far through a number of Arabic manuscripts, one of which was translated in German by Riedel, but not edited; a quotation of Canon 1 in a Coptic liturgical manuscript of paper (published by J. Dresher); a number of fragments belonging to different Coptic codices, edited and inedited, and in particular two leaves from a lost papyrus codex coming from Deir Bala'izah (n. 31), with the text of Canon 36 (published by P.E. Kahle); some Chester Beatty leaves (ms 819C, ff. 1-8) from a parchment codex (Canons 48-96) likely deriving from the White Monastery (inedited); the Turin Codex XIII, which is constituted by a good number of fragmentary leaves partially edited by F. Rossi. To these textual witnesses a new entire codex has been added, now preserved in Cairo, Coptic Museum. The aim of this contribution is to offer an updating about the edition of the Canons and to place them in the context of the Coptic literature, in particular the circulation of the canonical literature in this language and the intellectual milieus that promoted it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the framework of a broader research project on Greek and Coptic culture in Late Antique Egypt (5th -7th century), this paper deals with the relations between Greek highbrow literary production (especially poetry) and Coptic literature, considered as two sides of the same coin. Indeed, rather than asking 'trans-cultural' questions - as the essay by M. Detienne alluded in the title does, I propose to adopt an 'intra-cultural' approach, in order to shed an unusual light on the multicultural society of Late Antique Egypt. The comparison of apparently distant texts, like epic poems in Greek and hagiographies in Coptic, can be helpful, in my submission, to better understand the attitude to classical paideia in Late Antique society, and to dismiss the old interpretive model of 'the high vs the low', too often declined as 'Greek vs Coptic'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to give a general introduction to the theme section resulting from an international meeting held at the "Dipartimento di Storia Culture Religioni", Sapienza University of Rome, on November 11-12, 2016. The paper briefly clarifies the importance of the Book of Genesis in Western culture and the value of Origen's interpretation of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the preliminary findings of the examination of dates in legal documents of the First, and Second (Bar Kokhba) Revolts, the Ba-batha archive, the Salome Komaise archive, and other civil documents from lay Jewish communities found in the Cave Letters in Nahal Hever, Wadi Murabba 'at and other sites. It is proposed that a pattern of dates that occurs in the documents may indicate an interest in fortunate days to sign legal contracts. These apparent repetitions occur in secular and religious (marriage-related) legal documents written in Hebrew and Aramaic in the mid and late first century, and in Greek under the Roman administration in the early second century. They seem to occur irrespective of the different calendars used. After testing the hypothesis of "lucky days " by examining the dates in some marriage contracts the paper suggests that more research is needed to investigate possible Jewish interest in hemerologies, and the belief by lay people and rebels alike that some days of the month, or those with particular numbers, were better for sealing agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Origen's authorship of the so-called Hypomnema on Psalms by Origen, a rather long treatise on the headings of certain Psalms, was up to the present never questioned. However, in connection with the editorial work on Eusebius' commentaries on Psalms, certain congruencies between Eusebius' works and the Hypomnema caught the eyes of the authors. In the current paper they proof their assumption that the work has to be given to Eusebius rather than Origen, because of its content and scope, its situation of manuscript tradition, its style and even its obvious reception of Origen's works. The paper is supplemented by a preliminary edition and translation of the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show how Origen, in the Commentary on John, uses the form of the text he comments, to give psychological complexity to the Gospel characters. The complexity of the characters sometimes reflects a break or a change in the narrative: e. g., Lazarus first goes out of the tomb then gets untied, which means, according to Origen, that he gradually goes back to life, and thus makes moral progress. Furthermore, the psychological complexity of the characters sometimes reflects a lack of coherence that Origen finds out in the text. In short, this paper attempts to highlight to what extent the content of the Origenian exegesis is built upon the form of the text of John. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Averil Cameron in a series of papers between 1975 and 1980 argued that the accession of Justin II in 565 marked a turning point in Byzantine society with the evolution of a new integration between imperial government and contemporary taste that could only be expressed in religious terms. Though accepting Cameron's argument, this paper argues that the necessary agent for this was the change during Justinian's lengthy reign (527-565) from its early confidence and energy to a later disillusion and pessimism which in turn marked the culmination of various changes across the previous century. Those changes saw Christianity from the mid fifth century at last becoming concerned with its social implications rather than being obsessed with its legal status and theological difficulties as it had been since Constantine. But what also resulted was the combination of fear of God and fear of the emperor both now being accepted as positive factors which in turn produced a puritanical society where fear was accepted as normal and appropriate. So changes that stemmed from religion had a major effect on secular society, marking a very real change from antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hezekiah's prayer is an expression of refined biblical literary art, with many of its words and images having created divergences of interpretation over the centuries. One of these is the meaning of dôr in Isa 38:12. This study addresses its three different interpretations - "dwelling", "generation" and "life" - considering, above all, that the term is here used as a target of a metaphor whose source is, instead, the shepherd's tent. In particular, an analysis of the tent as a source in other biblical metaphors (Isa 30:20; 40:22; 54:2-3; Jer 10:20) highlights its versatile denotative valency, and leads to a better understanding of dôr within this specific context. This paper proposes to interpret the occurrence of dôr within Hezekiah's prayer not as "dwelling", as is generally believed by modern commentators and translators, but as "generation" or "life". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies Origen's doctrine on 'taste' as 'spiritual sense' as part of his theological development of eating and/or drinking metaphors. To let know the most important fruit of the 'taste of Logos', namely the ontological participation in Trinitarian life, this article offers both a status quaestionis on origenian studies on the subject of 'spiritual nourishment', and a brief approach to Origen's hermeneutical framework for the use of 'eating' and/or 'drinking' metaphors in theological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purported correspondence on faith between Emperor Leo III and Caliph Umar II, conserved in the work of an Armenian historian and in two recently discovered manuscripts, has long drawn the attention of scholars. While most of the modern debate has developed around the authenticity of the letter exchange and around the contents of the religious controversy, the issue of how the two writers address each other in the extant texts can shed some light on how two major religious and political alterities, Byzantium and the Caliphate, conceived the position of their opponent, as well as their own. The paper will briefly discuss the various positions on the authenticity and date of the letters, and will move on to analyse how each of the two powers in the debate represents the other, especially in political terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes chapter LI of Epiphanius's Panarion, as well as the Alogi's opposition to Johannine writings, in order to better understand its meaning in a wider context. A comparison between Epiphanius' account and other contemporary sources exposes the strategies which the bishop of Cyprus implemented to defend orthodoxy in the field of sacred texts, and thus reveals how deep he was involved in the process of canonization of the future New Testament, and especially of the Johannine writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Christianisation started spreading in the Mediterranean world and beyond, a fundamental issue was how people would receive the new faith. According to Peter Burke and his cultural hybridity theory, an exchange of information and culture affecting both sides takes place when an encounter between two cultures is established. In the history of humanity, there are countless examples of such contacts, not always passive and peaceful. Nonetheless, these exchanges are not always equal in terms of consequences for the groups involved, but it is certain that they all get mutually influenced, which in turn brings about changes. The result of this encounter and exchange is not simply pagan or "purely" Christian, but something new, a hybrid identity product of a clash of cultures. In this paper I will give examples of how this hybridization happened during the process of Christianisation of the Western Europe from 4th to 7th century and I will focus on the history of Gaul, Spain and Britain during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Aqedah" (the binding or sacrifice of Isaac) is one of the most commented episodes of the Book Genesis. In the postexilic and intertestamentarian period it gains more and more importance. Not only Abrahams obedience and faithfulness, but also Isaacs pretended agreement to be sacrificed became topoi of the Jewish exegesis. In the Books of Macabees, in the Book of Jubilees, and in the hellenistic-Jewish literature, Isaac arises gradually as a typos of martyr, whose merits concern all the future generations of Israel. In the rabbinic literature (Targumim, Mekhilta, Midrashim) this line of interpretation has been further developed. Isaac's merits have an important role for the Jewish religious praxis after the destruction of the Tempel (70 CE) and the interruption of the sacrificial cult, which has been replaced by prayers including Gen 22. In the Christian tradition before Origen Isaac is mainly a typos of Christ. Probably Origen's audience also knew of the typology Isaac/Christ and expected to hear of it from the exegete. Nevertheless he prefers to dedicate more attention to the figure of Abraham and ignores any presumptuous agreement of Isaac to be sacrificed. For long parts of the HomGen VIII (dealing with the Aqedah) he neglects the typology Isaac/Christ and follows quasi in literal manner the Biblical narrative. This typology appears in the end of HomGen VIII and is used in HomGen IX in polemical sense against Judaism, when Origen deals with the promises made to Abraham after the binding of Isaac. The answer to the question, why did he mainly neglect this typology interpreting the Aqedah, could be searched in the polemics with his Jewish interlocutors and probably concerns the views of his public. The martyr-role of Isaac appears in the pre-Christian period and probably influenced the typology Isaac/Christ, as many scholars suppose. Nevertheless we can state that also the rabbinic exegesis seems to accept some Christological characteristic in the interpretation of Isaac. The purpose of the present paper is to explore reciprocal influences between Jewish and Christian exegesis of the Aqedah considering Origen's homilies on Genesis and some fragments from the catenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, I published a German translation (with a Greek text without critical apparatus) of testimonies and fragments by Origen commenting on the Book of Genesis. Now I am preparing the edition in the series „Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller" (de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston). The fragments are the remains of two works by Origen, the commentary and the 'scholia' concerning the first book of the Bible. Almost all fragments of these 'scholia' have come down to us through the florilegium called Collectio Coisliniana (ed. Petit), the exegetical Catena on Genesis (ed. Petit) and the Commentary on Genesis by Procopius of Gaza (ed. Metzler). In preparing the edition I have to rework parts of the editions of Françoise Petit in order to examine the different branches of the manuscript tradition, especially the different types of catena (according to the classification of Karo and Lietzmann). On this occasion one should question anew the origin of the fragments we call 'scholia'. What kind of work was it from which they come? The catenae and florilegia give at best the author's name for a fragment; very seldom we get the title of the work it comes from. Our testimonies give us three terms: 'scholia', 'semeioseis' and 'excerpta', presumably referring to the same kind of source, because Jerome used 'excerpta' as translation for 'scholia' as well as for 'semeioseis'. It is under discussion how to define the literary genre. In his fundamental paper Éric Junod examined the material and gave a rough definition: 'semeioseis', later on called 'scholia', were shorter exegetical remarks, formally distinguished from commentaries and homilies. Christoph Markschies gave them a place in the teaching at Origen's private university in Alexandria and in Caesarea Maritima, namely as both the notes of the hearers of Origen's lectures, analogously to the practice in philosophic schools of their time, and those by Origen himself preparing his lectures. Franz Xaver Risch, however, obtained quite another result from the detailed analysis of a catena on the Psalms, namely the second margin catena of the Codex Vindobonensis theol. gr. 8. As he could show, they are the author's notes in preparing a commentary and cannot be excerpts of any finished work. Of course, since we don't know any detail about the curriculum of Origen's university and the subjects of the lectures, we cannot exclude the possibility of his using any commentary (according to Risch) or any treatise (according to Junod) in teaching. Nor can we exclude 'scholia' coming from notes exclusively meant for purposes of teaching and learning. But we have no evidence. Since the discussion failed to find an exact meaning for 'scholia' or 'semeioseis' or 'excerpta', one should develop a broader concept to explain them. I propose to take them neither as an exact term of a literary genre nor as a label of function in running a private university, but as a category for librarian purposes. I think they were non-terminological designations, formulated ad hoc by users resp. librarians of the library of Caesarea, in order to separate remains of different pieces of Origen's literary legacy from the (finished) commentaries and homilies. Conclusions have to be drawn about the library of Caesarea Maritima as well as about the 'scholia' concerning the book of Genesis. At the time of Origen's death the library would host finished and unfinished works by Origen, possibly including material from the lessons of his 'private university' in Caesarea, as his preparations of lectures or pupil's notices of their contents. Origen's remains may have been with and without book cover, and the intention of some notices may have been uncertain, but they were esteemed as his legacy and included in the process of compiling catenae. 'Scholia' may have been morsels of such uncertain origin as well as excerpts of finished works. The 'scholia' concerning the book of Genesis seem to be drawn from a short commentary, perhaps not yet finished, meant to complete the extant commentary on Gen 1:1-5:1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide a general introduction to Origen's exegesis on the Book of Genesis. The few elements that modern scholars have at their disposal from the Commentary on Genesis make them understand on the one hand both the exegetical sophistication and the richness in contents of this commentary, on the other the importance of what we have lost and which we can hardly recover through other Origen's writings. The fact that Origen, in composing the commentary, exposed himself to his critics particularly for what concerns the elaboration of his protologic doctrines, combined with the fact that he later preferred a more covered language for exposing these same doctrines, makes the loss of this commentary particularly painful for those who are trying to reconstruct the evolution of his thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qumran manuscripts as well as the LXX and its secondary versions contribute to identifying two or more editions in some biblical books or sections of a book. The historical and prophetical books are those which better match a model of editorial pluralism. Books which circulated in Qumran times in two or more different Hebrew editions are basically the same which form the "Kaige-Th. group" of the Septuagint: Exodus (chaps. 36-40), Joshua- Judges, Samuel-Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Job, Song of Songs, and Daniel. In these books the OL version witnesses the oldest LXX text, reflecting a Hebrew text different from MT. The OL attests at times readings unknown to the rest of the textual traditions, both in Hebrew and in other ancient versions. The paper ends with a discussion of cases of interpolations or alternative Hebrew readings in Kings reflected in the Greek textual transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to study the kind of relationship which links the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron. This subject has been debated for a long time, since the discovery of the 'apocryphal' Gospel of Thomas, and has been very controversial. Scholars in fact disagree about this issue: some point to a direct relationship, a dependence of the Gospel of Thomas upon the Diatessaron or vice-versa; others instead deny a direct relationship and rather think to an indirect one. This kind of analysis is not easy because of the lack of an original of the harmony of Tatian. We can, in fact, reconstruct the text of the Diatessaron only through his many witnesses but this reconstruction is nevertheless very complex. This paper tries to show some examples of such a complex relationship: three cases in which we can clearly glimpse the connection which exists between the two texts. The analysis showed us that the relationship which does subsist between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron is not of a direct kind but rather they shared one common source, a gospel tradition with variant readings which probably was available in the canonical text of that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of Syriac Christianity (4th-8th century CE), the use of choral singing was very common right from the beginning. Although it has not always been appreciated by sources, it unquestionably appears as a practiced and effective instrument in numerous theological and doctrinal disputes that shook Syriac Christianity. Through the sweetness of a heavenly song the groups of women approached God, indirectly affirming the authority of the doctrinal principles that inspired their songs. This paper aims to investigate this complex phenomenon through the analysis of some written texts and iconographic elements available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]