Search results for ""Author Clare K. Rothschild""

Clare K. Rothschild offers the first comprehensive examination of why current models of Q feature traditions concerning John the Baptist both prominently and favorably. A close hermeneutical investigation of the NT Gospels, including literary phenomena such as the double attribution of sayings to John and to Jesus, contradictions among sayings of Jesus, and significant thematic continuities between Baptist traditions and Q sayings on topics such as the Son of Man and Kingdom of God, support the argument that at some point in the undoubtedly complex pre-history of its redactions Q existed as a source of Baptist traditions exclusively. This study also includes an important new interpretation of the Markan transfiguration narrative.

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This volume offers an introduction, critical edition, and fresh English translation of the Muratorian Fragment. In addition to addressing questions of authorship, date, provenance, and sources, Clare K. Rothschild carefully analyzes the text's language, composition, genre, and possible functions with reference to a breathtaking range of scholarly positions and findings from the eighteenth century to the present. She also investigates its position within the eclectic eighth-century Muratorian Codex (Ambr. I 101 sup.). A line-by-line philological commentary draws attention to literary, philosophical, and religious aspects of the individual traditions represented. This study should be of interest to scholars of the New Testament and early Christian literature, as well as experts on the emergence of the canon and historians of the Latin Medieval West.

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Paul's visit to Athens, in particular his Areopagus speech, is one of the most well known excerpts of early Christian literature. It is the most significant speech by Paul to a Gentile audience in Acts and functions as a literary crest of the overall narrative. Yet at the same time the speech is brief and possesses few specifically Christian terms. Critical analyses describe it as eclectic—an ad hoc blend of Greek and Jewish elements. In this study, Clare K. Rothschild explores how the apparently miscellaneous and impromptu components of Paul's speech and visit to Athens cohere when compared to the nexus of ubiquitously popular second-century traditions crystallized around the ancient Cretan prophet Epimenides. Precursor to the Rip Van Winkle legend, Epimenides was numbered among the seven sages, dubbed ἀνὴρ θεῖος by Plato, and venerated as cult transfer figure par excellence for transferring Cretan Zeus worship to Athens. Rothschild exposes correspondences between Epimenidea and the Lukan Paul, focusing on, but not limited to, the altar inscribed to "an unknown god" and the saying, "In him we live and move and have our being" (17:28a). Scholars have overlooked the significance of Epimenidean traditions by clinging too fervently to the presence of Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in Acts 17. The present treatment does not deny connections between Paul's Areopagitica and popular philosophical ideals, but seeks to show that, in tandem with these motifs, the episode of Paul in Athens utilizes popular 'religious' topoi to reinforce the Lukan theme of cult transfer.

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Although the view that Luke-Acts represents early Roman period historiography is widespread, still many scholars express dissent. Resulting from rather narrow understandings of ancient historiography, skeptics favor 'theological' as over and against 'historical' approaches, drawing too sharp a contrast between the two. Though this contrast has been fruitful within Lukan studies, pointing to various apologetic purposes of the works, it tends to overlook that theology is an integral aspect of the composition of all historical works.Clare K. Rothschild aims to shift the focus from revealing and defending theological motifs in Luke-Acts to attention to distinct historiographical methods and interests. She proposes that some of the compositional elements separated by past scholarship as characteristics of Lukan theology - in particular patterns of recurrence, prediction, use of the expression 'dei', and hyperbole - are, first and foremost, elements of rhetorical historiography with counterparts in other Hellenistic and early Roman period histories. As the rhetorical techniques of these historians, they directly support prologue claims to accuracy and truth, not undermining generic understandings of the works as historiography in favor of theological readings, but supporting this designation. While they may have implications for understanding an author's theology, their primary purpose is revealed by their function as tools of the craft of history.

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This volume comprises fifteen new essays on the Apostolic Fathers with a focus on the letters of Clement. An introductory essay investigates the role of seventeenth-century librarians in the origination of the collection's title. Five essays concern 1 Clement, exploring its relationship to 1 Corinthians, its generic classification, the discussion of "Christian education" (1 Clem. 21:8), the golden calf tradition, and the well-known legend of the regeneration of the phoenix. Three essays treat aspects of 2 Clement, including problems with recent translations of chapter 1, the motif of the barren woman in chapter 2, and the analogy of faith as a race in chapter 7. One study probes the Quintus incident in Martyrdom of Polycarp 4 as emblematic of the literary and cultural conventions of second-century sophism. Another study considers protection against exploitation of Christian generosity by visitors in Didache 12. Another contribution investigates the precise nature of allegory in the Epistle of Barnabas. A short piece on the Epistle of Diognetus argues that the ancient moral-philosophical topos of the invisible God is at work in this text; and, a final essay explores the popular second-century medical theory behind Hermas's presentation of ὀξυχολία ("irascibility") in Mand. 5.1.3 (33.3). The volume ranges widely within and beyond early Christian literature - from the streets of ancient Achaean and Asian πόλεις to the early modern libraries of Europe.

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The history of scholarship on Hebrews attests a tension between the originality and Pauline character of its epistolary postscript (13:20-25). Generally speaking, scholars accepting the postscript's originality reject its Pauline character, while those rejecting its originality accept its reliance on Paul's letters. The Pauline character of the postscript is especially problematic for implying Paul's authorship of the book-a thesis that is all but dispensed with today. Clare K. Rothschild argues that if Hebrews's postscript is both original and imitative of Paul's letters, and if such imitation on the part of the author of Hebrews deliberately identifies the author as Paul, the entire book of Hebrews merits consideration as a pseudepigraphon.Examining Hebrews from this perspective, Rothschild makes the case that neither the postscript nor the rest of Hebrews was composed de novo. Rather, it deliberately adopts words and phrases-including citations from the Jewish scriptures-from a collection of Pauline materials, in order to imply Paul's authorship of a message that stands in continuity with esteemed Pauline traditions. Furthermore, the longstanding tradition of Hebrews's Pauline attribution suggests that it never circulated independently of other works attributed to Paul but was composed to amplify an early corpus Paulinum. This is the first ever monograph to examine the history of Hebrews' Pauline attribution and the significance of this attribution for our understanding of the book and its author's indebtedness to Pauline traditions.

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This collection of essays is partly the product of a symposium that took place at Humboldt University, Berlin in July 2010. It was supplemented by other articles which contributed further relevant aspects to the overall topic. The aim of the conference was to explore the longstanding conundrum of the rapid rise and growth of Christianity in the first three centuries CE. This well-studied question finds a special home in the city of Berlin where, at the beginning of the last century, Adolf von Harnack, Professor at Friedrich Wilhelms University (today Humboldt University) Berlin carried out what was arguably its most famous treatment. According to Harnack, early Christian history began in the missionary activity of contemporary Judaism. The movement spread as the result of a combination of deliberate syncretism with a measure of simplicity in the cultural and political unity of the Roman Empire. Over the past thirty years, scholars such as Ramsey MacMullen and Rodney Stark have questioned some of Harnack's conclusions. Arising from outside of the field of New Testament Studies (Ancient History and Sociology of Religion, respectively), both MacMullen's and Stark's approach remained at some distance from specialist understandings of, for example, complex theological and rhetorical aspects of early Christian texts. Therefore, in the wake of these important studies, a variety of new strategies have emerged taking these and other vital concerns into account. The essays in this volume represent these assorted approaches. Methodological rigor is the only unambiguous theme running throughout this otherwise diverse collection. The essays are collected under two broad sub-headings: Cultural Milieu and Texts. Topics treated include Paul, Jesus and the Gospels, other New Testament texts, the Apocryphal Acts, and the expansion of Christianity in the second and third centuries.

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In 2005 a French doctoral student discovered the long-lost treatise, De indolentia (Περὶ ἀλυπησίας/ἀλυπίας) or On the Avoidance of Distress in a monastic library in Thessalonica. De indolentia is a letter from Galen to an unspecified addressee in which he describes how he responded to the fire that destroyed much of his library and medicines in 192 CE. The manuscript, catalogued in the Vlatadon monastery as codex 14, is of unspeakable value to scholars of antiquity. Vivian Nutton characterizes the discovery as "one of the most spectacular finds ever of ancient literature." Scholarly consensus has established 192-193 CE as the most probable date of composition that,according to Galen, belonged to a group of writings he classified as moral philosophy. De indolentia provides important evidence for second-century literary culture covering a range of topics in this area of study, including Galen's aptitude for distinguishing genuine from false texts, his nuanced lexical debates with other physicians, and his prolific scholarly activity. The treatise also offers information about ancient library culture. Too often neglected in comparative studies of Early Christian literature, Galen's writings, particularly on moral philosophy, treat many of the same topics. Of particular interest to scholars of early Christian texts, De indolentia specifically addresses second-century use of parchment codices to preserve valuable texts, preserves some standard epistolary elements in the absence of others, has both private and publication aims in mind, and denotes a 'hermeneutics of self-interpretation' as crucial for understanding the text. This volume includes a brand new English translation of the text, a collation of all discrepancies among the leading critical editions of the Greek text, and essays by eminent Classicists and scholars in the field of early Christianity on different aspects of this fascinating new text.

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For centuries, biblical prologues introduced readers to the themes and problems of the Latin Bible. Paul's profile has undoubtedly been shaped by this genre: Paul the new Moses, Paul the theologian, Paul the arbitrator between Jews and gentiles. Despite fine critical editions, the texts and historical situations of these prologues still lack scholarly attention. The present monograph examines one such introduction known as the Benedictine Prologue, acknowledged for its relationship to the Muratorian Fragment but excluded from all indices of biblical paratexts. Prompted by a new manuscript discovery, Jeremy C. Thompson and Clare K. Rothschild treat the prologue in its own right with a new edition and commentary covering all known sources and analogues. Ultimately, they propose to ground this rare text in the book practices, theological polemics, and intellectual exchange between Greek and Latin writers of the early fifth century and beyond.

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Early Christian texts are replete with the language of body and self. Clearly, such concepts were important to their authors and audiences. Yet usage rarely makes sense across texts. Despite attempts to establish a single biblical or Christian vision of either body or self across texts, the evidence demonstrates plurality of opinion; and, reception history multiplies interpretations. Depending upon the particular anthropological-philosophical paradigm of the interpreter (e.g., Platonic, Cartesian), Christian texts reflect a number of views about the body and self. Today, scholarship on these concepts advances in many different directions. In addition to sophisticated new methods of drawing history-of-religions comparisons, scholars place early Christian texts in conversation with philosophy, psychology, political science, and developments in the hard sciences — in particular the neurosciences, sometimes all but doing away with the notion of self. Recent studies and monographs focus on the disabled body, the gendered body, the slave body, the martyr's body, relevance of ancient scientific and medical treatises for understanding the body, the asexual body/self, embodied knowledge, the suffering self, and religion and the self. The essays in this volume individually and collectively participate in these ongoing discussions. They do not proceed with a uniform notion of either self or body, but recognize competition on the topics, ably captured by the variety of approaches to their meaning in antiquity and today, and offer nuanced analyses of texts and passages, highlighting individual perceptions of these crucial yet enigmatic concepts.

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The present volume offers a glimpse at one currently thriving expression of the distinguished history of religions school approach to the New Testament and early Christian literature. Begun circa 1884 at the University of Göttingen and pioneered by scholars such as Albert Eichhorn, Wilhelm Bousset, Johannes Weiss, and William Wrede, today applications of this approach are diverse. Scholars adapt the method, incorporating the latest technologies and insights, to optimize the school's original goal of accurate biblical interpretation. In North America, the University of Chicago has long been a hub of this type of investigation. Over the last century, many of these Chicago studies have produced groundbreaking results. Still, the approach has never been without its critics. Applying the history of religions school approach to a range of interesting topics and themes, the essays in this collection demonstrate against current opposition how the history of religions school continues to steer scholarly innovation in the field of New Testament studies by offering constructive new interpretations of early Christian and other writings and advancing discussion in key areas of research.

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Arthur Darby Nock (1902-1963) made lasting contributions to classical scholarship and the history of religion, including the study of ancient religion, magic, and the relationship of paganism to ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Almost ninety years after its publication, his work, Conversion: The Old and New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo , serves as an introduction to what is today an entire area of research encompassing history, literature (i.e., "conversion" as a literary genre), philosophy, psychology, and theology. The present volume features essays exploring the circumstances of religious transformation not only in early Christianity but also in other ancient religions and in philosophical schools - the various converts, the means by which followers attracted adherents, and the factors influencing and limiting their success.

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The primary impetus of this collection of essays on canonical and non-canonical Acts is to honor the scholarly achievements of Richard I. Pervo. Pervo pioneered the view that canonical Acts is comparable to ancient fiction, insofar as the various episodes about Peter, Paul and the other apostles were composed to entertain, even as they inform. In the spirit of this work, contributors to this volume do not sit idly by. Prodding and provoking readers, these new and often exploratory essays travel at different speeds and with notable variation from center within the broad orbit of canonical Acts. The hope is that this volume will foster serious conversation of the things discussed, with no small measure of delight along the way.

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