Bible in Ancient Christianity – serie

The volume is a Festschrift offered to Charles Kannengiesser on the occasion of his 80th birthday and honours him for his numerous scholarly accomplishments. Its twenty-five contributions discuss some of the major issues pertaining to the reception and interpretation of the Bible in late antique Christianity and Judaism. They focus on the ways in which communities and individuals understood the Bible and interpreted its traditions to address their historical, social, and theological requirements. Since the Bible was by far the most important book during these centuries, a discussion of its influence in such contexts will illuminate significant aspects of the formation of western civilisation.

Why did early Christian authors interpret the biblical theophany narratives as manifestations of Christ? And how was this interpretation challenged by Augustine? This book explores the theological underpinnings of ancient Christian theophany interpretation, tracing its development into two major exegetical strands. Patristic exegesis of the theophanies involved polemic and the formation of Christian identity, the relationship between vision and spiritual transformation, and theological claims about knowing God through creation. While the christological interpretation developed within particular early Christian beliefs and logic, Augustine challenged it using similar logic and foundational beliefs. Through Augustine’s reconfigured reading, one may see the critical and creative capacity of patristic authors to adapt, challenge, and transform exegetical traditions.

In The Church as Paradise and the Way Therein: Early Christian Appropriation of Genesis 3:22–24, Christopher A. Graham demonstrates that early Christian authors employed the words “paradise” and “way” as allusions to the expulsion narrative (Genesis 3:22–24) to signify that the benefits available in protological Paradise were once again accessible in and through Jesus and the Church. The centrality of the expulsion narrative in their literary milieus gave these authors confidence that readers would discern these allusions. After considering the reception of the expulsion in texts circulating within the early Christian milieu, Graham turns to the texts of Luke and Irenaeus of Lyons. Both authors drew from an interpretive tradition in which a return to Paradise was desirable. Both celebrated Jesus's reversal of Adam's expulsion and the constitution of Jesus's followers as the location and means by which humanity could continue to access divine truth and life. For both authors, the Church is Paradise and the way therein.

Scripture Re-envisioned discusses the christological exegesis of biblical theophanies and argues its crucial importance for the appropriation of the Hebrew Bible as the Christian Old Testament. The Emmaus episode in Luke 24 and its history of interpretation serve as the methodological and hermeneutical prolegomenon to the early Christian exegesis of theophanies. Subsequent chapters discuss the reception history of Genesis 18; Exodus 3 and 33; Psalm 98/99 and 131/132; Isaiah 6; Habakkuk 3:2 (LXX); Daniel 3 and 7. Bucur shows that the earliest, most widespread and enduring reading of these biblical texts, namely their interpretation as "christophanies"— manifestations of the Logos-to-be-incarnate—constitutes a robust and versatile exegetical tradition, which lent itself to doctrinal reflection, apologetics, polemics, liturgical anamnesis and doxology

What does it mean for a group to speak of its identity and, in contrast, to speak about the “other”? As with all groups, early Christian communities underwent a process of identity formation, and in this process, intertextuality played a role. The choice of biblical texts and imageries, their reception and adaptation, affected how early Christian communities perceived themselves. Conversely, how they perceived themselves affected which texts they were drawn to and how they read and received them. The contributors to this volume examine how early Christian authors used Scripture and related texts and, in turn, how those texts shaped the identity of their communities.

Scripture and the Search for the Christian Doctrine of God examines the dynamic exegetical traditions that shaped the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies and how these legacies of biblical reading have influenced both evaluations of the fourth century and subsequent use of patristic materials by scholars and theologians. Part I, “Legacies,” focuses on pre-Nicene reading practices with an eye towards how they were received in the fourth century and beyond. Part II, “Traditions,” investigates how fourth- and fifth-century theologians received and inherited pre-Nicene traditions of biblical reading. Part III, “Receptions,” highlights the way that patristic exegesis has been received in a variety of post-patristic contexts, including Medieval Chinese Christianity, early Renaissance Humanism, and Contemporary Evangelicalism. The result is a greater appreciation of the deeply biblical character of the early Christian search for the doctrine of God.