Oskar Skarsaune

by Robert Louis Wilken (with Angela Christman and Michael Hollerich). (The Church’s Bible.) Pp. xxviii+590. Grand Rapids, MI–Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2007. £24.99 ($45). 978 0 8028 2581 0 JEH (60) 2009; doi :10.1017/S0022046909008847 This is one of the first three volumes to be published by Eerdmans in a new series, The Church’s Bible. Robert Louis Wilken is the chief editor of the series as well as of this particular volume (the other two being The Song of Songs by Richard A. Norris, Jr, and 1 Corinthians by Judith L. Kovacs). Like the other volumes in the series, this book is made up of excerpts from commentaries on the biblical text by ecclesiastical writers from Paul to Thomas Aquinas. Most frequently and extensively excerpted are the complete Isaiah commentaries by Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrus, but the volume also contains shorter excerpts from a wide range of writers, including some medieval ones. In his instructive introduction to this volume, Wilken introduces the modern reader to the challenges as well as the rewards of reading pre-modern scriptural interpretation. In two very succinct and informative essays, ‘ Interpreting the Old Testament ’ and ‘Introduction to the Christian interpretation of Isaiah ’, Wilken clarifies the basic hermeneutical key that guided the ancient and medieval Christian interpreters of Scripture : they read the whole of Scripture as one book, authored by the Holy Spirit, and took it to refer throughout to Christ and his Church – in straightforward as well as oblique words. Wilken paints a picture of a continuous tradition of Christian interpretation, marked more or less by the same hermeneutical principles all the way from the New Testament to the great commentators of the third and fourth centuries and later. As a result the reader is not made aware of internal discussions and differences among the early and later interpreters, for example that Origen’s type of allegory was controversial among Christians of his own time and later. Also, the aspect of development and change through the centuries is left to the reader to discover for him/herself. On the level of detail, I would have wanted more from Justin among the excerpts ; he is represented by one only. But these are minor criticisms. With this volume the modern bible reader has easy access to a veritable treasure trove of ancient commentary on Isaiah. The book of Isaiah was taken by its Christian interpreters to be richer in its Christological and soteriological message than any other Old Testament book. This volume is a splendid exhibition of their skill in such reading of its texts.

by Robert Louis Wilken (with Angela Christman and Michael Hollerich). (The Church’s Bible.) Pp. xxviii+590. Grand Rapids, MI–Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2007. £24.99 ($45). 978 0 8028 2581 0 JEH (60) 2009; doi :10.1017/S0022046909008847 This is one of the first three volumes to be published by Eerdmans in a new series, The Church’s Bible. Robert Louis Wilken is the chief editor of the series as well as of this particular volume (the other two being The Song of Songs by Richard A. Norris, Jr, and 1 Corinthians by Judith L. Kovacs). Like the other volumes in the series, this book is made up of excerpts from commentaries on the biblical text by ecclesiastical writers from Paul to Thomas Aquinas. Most frequently and extensively excerpted are the complete Isaiah commentaries by Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrus, but the volume also contains shorter excerpts from a wide range of writers, including some medieval ones. In his instructive introduction to this volume, Wilken introduces the modern reader to the challenges as well as the rewards of reading pre-modern scriptural interpretation. In two very succinct and informative essays, ‘ Interpreting the Old Testament ’ and ‘Introduction to the Christian interpretation of Isaiah ’, Wilken clarifies the basic hermeneutical key that guided the ancient and medieval Christian interpreters of Scripture : they read the whole of Scripture as one book, authored by the Holy Spirit, and took it to refer throughout to Christ and his Church – in straightforward as well as oblique words. Wilken paints a picture of a continuous tradition of Christian interpretation, marked more or less by the same hermeneutical principles all the way from the New Testament to the great commentators of the third and fourth centuries and later. As a result the reader is not made aware of internal discussions and differences among the early and later interpreters, for example that Origen’s type of allegory was controversial among Christians of his own time and later. Also, the aspect of development and change through the centuries is left to the reader to discover for him/herself. On the level of detail, I would have wanted more from Justin among the excerpts ; he is represented by one only. But these are minor criticisms. With this volume the modern bible reader has easy access to a veritable treasure trove of ancient commentary on Isaiah. The book of Isaiah was taken by its Christian interpreters to be richer in its Christological and soteriological message than any other Old Testament book. This volume is a splendid exhibition of their skill in such reading of its texts.

... xC PiPo ocauriou 6oiooua(ou xai co nxpopoXrS VLc6 TiVa votrtat, u'v9ItVO tZat 6 Iart?jp E xati 8tatperto xati tpewt6 xati <O(oa ... The great master of Alex-andrian theology, Origen himself, had done so in a way which strikingly anticipates Alexander's line of argument.30 The Son ...

CONTENTS Preface ix Abbreviations xn A Note on references and quotations in the text xv Introduction 1 Prelude: Justin's self-understanding as an exegete 11 Pan One: Justin's Old Testament quotations and their sources Chapter One: A brief survey of research 17 Chapter Two: A selective ...

... flere kapitler i Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (red. O. Skarsaune and R. Hvalvik; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007). English abstract. Since the days of bishop James Ussher in the middle of the 17th century, it has become customary to see Marcellus' letter to ...

This article considers a chapter in the history of the Old Testament within the Early Church, a history that is most often described in the terms of a history of interpretation. The issues include the interpreted Old Testament, the understanding of the Law, the hermeneutical and exegetical principles followed, and the authority and role accorded to the Hebrew Bible in the theological reflection of the Early Church. The usual emphasis of scholars is thus very much upon questions of hermeneutics and exegesis, or, in a word, on interpretation. This is true both of the classic monograph by Diestel from the last century1 and of the recent treatment by von Campenhausen.2 Without intending to discredit that kind of approach, I shall be concerned with a kind of preamble to such studies of interpretation. For prior to asking how the Bible was interpreted in the Early Church, we should first ask how it was transmitted.

The natural point of departure is K. A. Credner's monograph on OT quotations in Matthew and Justin (1838). Credner noted as a general characteristic of Justin's LXX quotations their hebraizing features; and this lead him to reject the theory that the long LXX quotations in Justin were due to scribes "correcting" Justin's quotations to conform with the standard LXX text of their time. This chapter examines the texts on which Justin himself comments. It discusses the texts which are rendered in two versions, one LXX and one non-LXX, since these instances are especially instructive. The theory propounded is then tested on cases where we can observe Justin working with known sources, i.e. OT quotations in Christian writers before him. In the first two sections the texts are treated in their OT order; in the last section the author follows the order of the respective writings.Keywords: Christian writers; Credner; Justin; LXX quotations

It goes without saying that defining the term “Jewish believers in Jesus” is basic to this project. By defining this concept we determine the very subject matter of this book. In this book, by the term “Jewish believers in Jesus” we mean “Jews by birth or conversion who in one way or another believed Jesus was their savior.” We have chosen to focus on the criterion of ethnicity rather than the criterion of ideology. Many, perhaps most, histories of “Jewish Christianity” or the like, have done the opposite. The basic definition of who is a Jewish Christian is derived from the definition of which theology and praxis the person in question embraces.1 One can then either disregard the question of ethnic origin completely,

It is evident that in many respects this «kerygma source» is close to Barnabas. But there is no question of identity. Justin's non-LXX quotations tend to deviate from the LXX where Barnabas agrees, and vice versa. Many of the crucial testimonies in Justin's «kerygma» material are totally absent from Barnabas. Justin's first testimony on the apostolic mission is Is 2:3b. 4 (LXX text). If Justin's source was a dialogue, he would not want simply to reproduce the questions and answers of his source. The objections and questions raised in the source he would include in his own exposition of the text - hence the many objections stated by Justin himself. But he would show his independence of his source, and his greater mastery of the debate, by letting Trypho ask new questions - questions not asked or answered in Justin's source.Keywords: Barnabas; Justin; kerygma; non-LXX quotations; Ttypho

A feature that has struck most commentators reading Justin's exegetical expositions is his remarkably bad organization of the material. One often searches in vain for a coherent line of argument, because Justin allows himself to follow all kinds of digressions, and sometimes seems to follow rather far-fetched associations. The most recent large-scale treatment of the subject is Prigent's monograph on Justin and the QT. His analysis again probes behind Justin's present disposition in search for the organization of the Syntagma. This chapter presents the intricate interplay between an inherent structure of the quotation material employed, and Justin's own shaping of the material. This presupposes that Justin employed source material which had a certain structure and that this structure not always coincides with the plan he imposed upon the material. This presupposition is well established by von Ungern-Sternberg's, Bousset's and Prigent's analyses.Keywords: Christian; Justin; Prigent's analyses; Syntagma; Von Ungern-Sternberg

This chapter discusses the two closely interrelated concepts in Justin: his people of God idea and the eschatology of the kerygma tradition. It begins with some remarks on the people of God problem. In a recent study, P. Richardson has argued that Justin is the first who claims that the Church is Israel. Richardson's thesis contradicts the view that this claim was regarded as evident and self-explanatory by almost all early Christians. The motif of baptism may be another link to this chapter of the Dialogue: The three first texts in Dial 72 have the motif of the paschal lamb as their common denominator, and it is seen that the whole paschal lamb typology has baptismal connotations. This may also point to the underlying unity between paschal lamb motif and descent motif in Dial 72.Keywords: baptism; eschatology; God; Justin; kerygma tradition; paschal lamb motif

Is 7:14 and Is 8:4 are referred to Hezekiah by the Jews, says Justin. Two rabbinic passages confirm this. Four men, says R. Abba b. Kahana (ca 310), obtained knowledge of God unaided: Abraham, Job, Hezekiah, the Messiah. Hezekiah king of Judah also learned to know the Holy One, blessed be he, by his own unaided effort. The Jewish material on Ps 72:5/17 is richer. I Enoch 48:3 may contain an allusion to Ps 72:17. There are several rabbinic passages which contain sayings which deduce the length of the Messianic age from Ps 72:5. Justin's millennarian material has a theological profile somewhat different from Revelation, and also somewhat different from Irenaeus' tradition. It is usual to think of Asia Minor as the mother soil of early Christian chiliasm.Keywords: Christian; Hezekiah; Irenaeus tradition; Jews; Justin; Messiah; Messianic age

This appendix of the book The Proof from Prophecy presents the analytic tables of Justin's OT Quotations. The tables comprise all formal quotations in Justin and the most obvious allusions. The quotations are differentiated with respect to text-types. LXX quotation means a quotation which exhibits a basically LXX text-type.Keywords: Justin; LXX quotation

... Alon, Studies: Alon, Gedalyahu. Jews, Judaism and the Classical World: Studies in Jewish History in the Times of the Second Temple and Talmud. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1977. Barclay/Sweet, Early Christian Thought: Barclay, John and John Sweet, eds. ...

This index contains a list of modern author names discussed in the book The Proof from Prophecy. The main concern of the book lies with the contents of the tradition transmitted to Justin. The author tries to determine the extent of the traditional material, and further to grasp its theological profile and provenance, as far as possible. One learns something about the history of exegesis prior to Justin and thus, indirectly, more about Justin himself.Keywords: Justin; Prophecy; theological profile

... flere kapitler i Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (red. O. Skarsaune and R. Hvalvik; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007). English abstract. Since the days of bishop James Ussher in the middle of the 17th century, it has become customary to see Marcellus' letter to ...