Search results for ""Author Thomas J. Kraus""

Zusammen mit dem Judasbrief gehört der zweite Petrusbrief zu den am meisten vernachlässigten Schriften der kanonisch gewordenen Texte des Neuen Testaments. Vielfach stehen einleitungswissenschaftliche Fragen, insbesondere in bezug auf die Verfasserschaft im Vordergrund der spärlichen Diskussion. Die Urteile über seine vergleichsweise ungewöhnliche Sprachgestalt führen außerdem zu widersprüchlichen Extrempositionen, die zumeist nicht über Allgemeinplätze und Pauschalurteile hinauskommen.Thomas J. Kraus erfaßt das sprachliche Material des zweiten Petrusbriefes. Mit Hilfe eines weit gefaßten Stilbegriffs ermöglicht er fundierte Beurteilungen der Stilistik und der Sprachverwendung dieser Schrift. Dabei dehnt er das relevante Vergleichsmaterial über die künstlichen Grenzen des Neuen Testaments hinaus aus. Zudem werden Inschriften, dokumentarische Papyri, profane wie religiöse klassische und spätklassische Texte als Formen des damaligen Griechisch in den Fortgang der Charakterisierung des zweiten Petrusbriefes integriert. Die jeweiligen Vorabklärungen der entsprechenden grammatischen wie stilistischen Kategorien, die auf den fraglichen Textkorpus anzuwenden sind, legen die Ausgangspunkte für Beobachtungen und Ergebnisse offen.So formt sich ein literarisches Profil des Petrusbriefes und seines Verfassers. Dieses Profil weist bemerkenswerte sprachliche Grundzüge auf und verbindet sich darüber hinaus mit der bewußt gestalteten Form - als Testament in Briefform mit apologetischer Ausrichtung - zu einem einheitlichen Ganzen.

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As the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament the Septuagint is probably the first great translation project of Greco-Roman antiquity. Together with the Septuagint text the religion and culture of ancient Judaism came to the fore of a Greek speaking audience, which did not have any access to the holy scriptures of the Jews in Hebrew. That translation project also manifested a transfer of religious, social, and anthropological categories and concepts of Semitic origin to another cultural world of language and science that itself was shaped by Hellenism.Over the last years the Septuagint has gradually edged closer into the interest of Biblical scholars and into the centre of historical and philological research. In the course of this main attention has not only been paid to further particulars of its origination in Alexandria but also on various linguistic specifics and distinctive features with regards to content of the Greek Bible. The question, however, which has hardly been studied so far, is to what extent the Greek translation of the Bible consists of stylistic and rhetorical elements that are not present in the Hebrew source text. Did the translators made use of their rhetoric and stylistic skills to give their translations a distinctive ornatus? Can we, according to Augustine, rightly claim that not only the authors of the Biblical texts but also the translators knew to formulate et eloquenter et sapienter, i.e. in an eloquent and wise manner? This issue, neglected in current research, is taken up in this collected volume. Seven scholars investigate into stylistic and rhetorical elements present in various books of the Bible (e.g., Psalms, Amos, and Solomon's Book of Wisdom) and establish a field of work that deserves to receive more attention in the future.Contributors are Eberhard Bons, Jennifer M. Dines, Katrin Hauspie, Jan Joosten, Thomas J. Kraus, A. Léonas, and K. Usener.

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The Book of Revelation is a peculiar text whose special status in early Christianity is manifested by its manuscript attestation, transmission, literary references and discussions among early Church writers. This special status forms the nucleus of these collected essays and is highlighted from various perspectives. Nowadays of course, the Apocalypse has become a treasure trove of famous motifs for artists, composers, poets and novelists. On the other hand, however, it also appears to be something of a bon mot in that its manuscript tradition is rather sparse and highly distinctive. With the help of single phenomena that revolve around the extraordinary attestation and transmission of Revelation, the authors here are able to unveil how its peculiarity was perceived in early Christianity. Its manifestation in manuscripts and in the lively controversy about its value and orthodoxy thus resulted in it being treated as unique.

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Alexandria was one of the main hubs of the Hellenistic world and a cultural and religious "kaleidoscope." Merchants and migrants, scientists and scholars, philosophers, and religious innovators from all over the world and from all social backgrounds came to this ancient metropolis and exchanged their goods, views, and dreams. Accordingly, Alexandria became a place where Hellenistic, Egyptian, Jewish, and early Christian identities all emerged, coexisted, influenced, and rivaled each other. In order to meet the diversity of Alexandria's urban life and to do justice to the variety of literary and non-literary documents that bear witness to this, the volume examines the processes of identity formation from a range of different academic perspectives. Thus, the present volume gathers together twenty-six contributions from the realm of archaeology, ancient history, classical philology, religious studies, philosophy, the Old Testament, narratology, Jewish studies, papyrology, and the New Testament.

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