The Catena In Marcum

Providing the first extended English translation of the earliest anthology of patristic commentary on Mark’s gospel, this book provides a careful analysis of the development of this text and assesses its significance for the history of the interpretation of Mark’s gospel.

The Catena in Marcum commonly attributed to Victor of Antioch, is the earliest anthology of patristic commentary on the gospel according to St Mark. Its compilation dates from the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth century. Providing the first extended English translation, this book identifies the range of patristic sources employed by the editors, and the historiographical, literary and dogmatic concerns which informed the editing and compilation of this important text. It provides an invaluable resource for those interested in the history and development of the interpretation of Mark.

The Catena to James (compiled ca. 700 CE) collected excerpts from the best ancient Greek commentaries on the Letter of James, ranging from Origen to Maximus the Confessor. This translation and commentary make the whole Catena available for the first time in a modern language. An extensive introduction locates the Catena both in its own historical and literary context and in the context of modern catena studies. The detailed commentary elucidates the wide-ranging and sophisticated nature of the philological, historical-critical, rhetorical, ethical, theological, and pastoral insights of these ancient readers of James.

Eusebius the Evangelist analyzes Eusebius of Caesarea's fourth-century reconfiguration of the Gospels as a window into broader questions of technology and textuality in the ancient Mediterranean. The four Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) share language, narratives, and ideas, yet they also differ in structure and detail. The sophisticated system through which Eusebius organized this intricate web of textual relationships is known as the Eusebian apparatus. Eusebius' editorial intervention--involving tables, sectioning, and tables of contents--participates in a broader late ancient transformation in reading and knowledge. To illuminate Eusebius' innovative use of textual technologies, the study juxtaposes diverse ancient disciplines--including chronography, astronomy, geography, medicine, philosophy, and textual criticism--with a wide range of early Christian sources, attending to neglected evidence from material texts and technical literature. These varied phenomena reveal how Eusebius' fourfold Gospel worked in the hands of readers. Eusebius' creative juxtapositions of Gospel material had an enduring impact on Gospel reading. Not only did Eusebius continue earlier trajectories of Gospel writing, but his apparatus continued to generate new possibilities in the hands of readers. For more than a millennium, in over a dozen languages and in thousands of manuscripts, Eusebius' invention transformed readers' encounters with Gospel text on the page. By employing emerging textual technologies, Eusebius created new possibilities of reading, thereby rewriting the fourfold Gospel in a significant and durable way.

This volume examines the Byzantine manuscripts which transmit unique collections of Greek exegetical extracts on the Gospel of Luke. These codices singuli contain compilations which differ in content and sequence of scholia from all the other known catena types of this Gospel. The Clavis Patrum Graecorum volume on catenae, updated by Jacques Noret in 2018, briefly discusses these individual manuscripts in the codices singuli section (C137). The witnesses are: Vindobonensis theol. gr. 301 (C137.1); Monacensis graecus 208 (C137.2), Codex Zacynthius (C137.3); Vaticanus graecus 349 (C137.4), Palatinus graecus 273 (C137.5), and Laurentianus Conv. Soppr. 159 (C137.6). To these, Parpulov's 2021 catalogue of Greek New Testament Catenae added four further codices singuli: Parisina supplementa graeca 612 and 1248 (C137.7), Prague, Národní Knihovna České republiky, XXV B 7 (C137.8), Venice, BNM, Z.495 (1048) (C137.9) and Drama, Μ. Κοσινίτσης, 3 (C137.10). It also adds a new catena type, C139.1, attested by four manuscripts. These updates have been incorporated in the online Clavis Clavium. Further research, however, has shown that Codex Zacynthius, Palatinus graecus 273 and Prague, Národní Knihovna České republiky, XXV B 7 all transmit the same compilation; Vindobonensis theol. gr. 301 contains a collection of comments similar to C132 and is not a codex singulus; Parisinum supplementum graecum 1225, previously identified as C131, is a separate catenae type which may be assigned the siglum C137.11. This present volume provides the editio princeps of four of the unique catenae on Luke which have not previously been published (C137.2, C137.4, C137.6, C137.11) and the new catena identified as C139.1. It includes a thorough examination of the content and structure of each manuscript and an investigation of the direct and indirect sources used by their compilers.

Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors takes us on a voyage through the history of philosophical thought as present in the works of Thomas Aquinas. It is a synthetic presentation of the works and thought of the great predecessors of Aquinas, as he kne

The Bible was the essence of virtually every aspect of the life of the early churches. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation explores a wide array of themes related to the reception, canonization, interpretation, uses, and legacies of the Bible in early Christianity. Each section contains overviews and cutting-edge scholarship that expands understanding of the field. Part One examines the material text transmitted, translated, and invested with authority, and the very conceptualization of sacred Scripture as God's word for the church. Part Two looks at the culture and disciplines or science of interpretation in representative exegetical traditions. Part Three addresses the diverse literary and non-literary modes of interpretation, while Part Four canvasses the communal background and foreground of early Christian interpretation, where the Bible was paramount in shaping normative Christian identity. Part Five assesses the determinative role of the Bible in major developments and theological controversies in the life of the churches. Part Six returns to interpretation proper and samples how certain abiding motifs from within scriptural revelation were treated by major Christian expositors. The overall history of biblical interpretation has itself now become the subject of a growing scholarship and the final part skilfully examines how early Christian exegesis was retrieved and critically evaluated in later periods of church history. Taken together, the chapters provide nuanced paths of introduction for students and scholars from a wide spectrum of academic fields, including classics, biblical studies, the general history of interpretation, the social and cultural history of late ancient and early medieval Christianity, historical theology, and systematic and contextual theology. Readers will be oriented to the major resources for, and issues in, the critical study of early Christian biblical interpretation.

Liturgical Subjects examines the history of the self in the Byzantine Empire, challenging narratives of Christian subjectivity that focus only on classical antiquity and the Western Middle Ages. As Derek Krueger demonstrates, Orthodox Christian interior life was profoundly shaped by patterns of worship introduced and disseminated by Byzantine clergy. Hymns, prayers, and sermons transmitted complex emotional responses to biblical stories, particularly during Lent. Religious services and religious art taught congregants who they were in relation to God and each other. Focusing on Christian practice in Constantinople from the sixth to eleventh centuries, Krueger charts the impact of the liturgical calendar, the eucharistic rite, hymns for vigils and festivals, and scenes from the life of Christ on the making of Christian selves. Exploring the verse of great Byzantine liturgical poets, including Romanos the Melodist, Andrew of Crete, Theodore the Stoudite, and Symeon the New Theologian, he demonstrates how their compositions offered templates for Christian self-regard and self-criticism, defining the Christian "I." Cantors, choirs, and congregations sang in the first person singular expressing guilt and repentence, while prayers and sermons defined the collective identity of the Christian community as sinners in need of salvation. By examining the way models of selfhood were formed, performed, and transmitted in the Byzantine Empire, Liturgical Subjects adds a vital dimension to the history of the self in Western culture.