Serge Ruzer – författare

This volume presents case studies of the phenomena that contributed to group identity in late antique Syria-Mesopotamia, in particular traditions reflecting interactions between Judaism and Christianity, among various Christian groups, and among other religious traditions of late antiquity (such as Zoroastrianism or 'paganism'). By studying Christian, Jewish and other sources that deal with the establishment, modification and deletion of boundaries, the authors seek to create a frame of reference that will in turn explain and contextualise the existing evidence concerning communication and interaction between highly diverse groups in Late Antiquity.

Focusing on travel narratives as a setting for spelling out both cultural exchanges and identity building, the present volume maps a variety of strategies employed in travelogues by Christians and Jews in the late antique Roman East.The first part sheds light on the shared cultural background – folkloric or mythic – reflected in late antique Jewish and Christian sea-travel stories, and the various attempts to adapt it to a specific religious agenda. While the comparative analysis of the sources from two textual communities emphasizes their different religious agendas, it also allows for restoring patterns of the broader background with which they converse. The second part highlights Christian perceptions of the Land of Israel in missionary enterprises and in the eschatological visions.The travelogues offer a window on the interplay between shared inheritance and new agendas within the dialectical development of religious traditions in Late Antiquity.

Die Beiträge dieses Bandes diskutieren polemisch aufgeladene Neubewertungen religiöser Traditionen und Schriften der westlichen Welt, die im Lauf der Jahrhunderte in verschiedenen religiösen Kontexten genutzt wurden. Sie ziehen neue religiöse Ansichten nicht als Verbesserung ererbter Traditionen in Betracht, sondern als Ausdruck von Macht, die beim Kampf um Identität verwendet wird: Anfechtung, Aneignung, Deutung und Polemik gegen die religiös "Anderen", die, manchmal nur andeutungsweise, Kritik an ererbter Tradition üben. Dieser Band behandelt eine Typologie der Vielfalt bescheinigter Strategien und hebt dabei Fälle von grenzwertigen Gegensätzen, die den Umsturz von allgemeinen Glaubensformen beinhaltet, hervor, während er moderatere Interaktionswege erläutert. Die meisten Beiträge wurden bei einer Konferenz im Jahr 2016 in Jerusalem präsentiert, welche Guy G. Stroumsa ehrte, einen renommierten Wissenschaftler auf dem Gebiet des frühen Christentums und der Spätantike, der, neben zahlreichen anderen Auszeichnungen, mit dem Leopold Lucas-Preis 2018 geehrt wurde.

This volume discusses links between the exegetical trends current in various Second Temple Jewish circles and patterns of New Testament conversation with Jewish Scripture. The standard focus on Jewish background of Christianity is complemented here by an alternative direction: the “mapping” of New Testament evidence as the early witness to more general trends attested in their fully developed form only later, in rabbinic literature. The question that dominates much of the discussion is: How can the New Testament be used for creating a fuller picture of Second Temple Jewish exegesis?The book deals with a representative variety of samples from different layers of the New Testament tradition: Synoptic Gospels, Pauline Epistles and Acts.