Greek Christian Literature

This work discusses the origin and perspectives of the canon of Greek Literature. After outlining the question, the history of the word κανών and the concept ‘canon’ in Antiquity are explored. Nowadays the existence of different kinds of canon must be assumed: this work deals with one of them, the so-called internal canon. In order to analyze it, some peculiarities of the ancient Greek Literature must be first identified. Afterwards the study specifies the reasons which make reasonable not to exclude from the canon three kinds of authors: postclassical writers, Christian authors and representatives of transcultural literatures. The work discusses then the two main points concerning the canon, the textual quality and the importance within the cultural tradition. Finally some considerations concerning the possibility of establishing selective lists of Greek authors on the basis of the comments and critical judgments of ancient readers are proposed.

Cette contribution à l’Histoire de la littérature grecque chrétienne offre un bilan de la recherche sur les Actes des martyrs rédigés en langue grecque (avec plusieurs références aux récits latins), en rappelant que leur « historicité » ne réside pas uniquement dans leur rapport à la réalité, mais aussi dans leur mode de transmission. Le chapitre est suivi d’une liste des textes avec présentation de leur contenu et références aux éditions/traductions.

In contemporary sociolinguistic research, religion as a correlate to linguistic variation tends to receive less attention than the four main variables class, age, gender, and ethnicity. The connection between language and religion is usually studied from the perspective of identity and language attitude. In Arabic studies, Christian varieties of the language are treated either within a dialectological framework, or as part of the study of Middle Arabic. As a result, it is not often clear to what extent they may indeed be regarded as varieties based on religion. In this paper, I compare the context and function of Christian Arabic with that of Christian Greek and Latin, which are said to have functioned as in-group varieties in the Roman empire. By comparing these cases I attempt to clarify the nature of Christian Arabic.

Este trabajo analiza la conveniencia de estudiar la relación entre la literatura griega pagana y la cristiana como un caso de literatura postcolonial . No se trata solo de comprobar si no se comete un anacronismo al operar así. La cuestión es, en último extremo, si la hipótesis postcolonial permite comprender mejor, desde una perspectiva comparatista, ciertas peculiaridades de la literatura cristiana.

The article shows that St Sophronius met Cyrus of Antioch after the Union (3 June 633) between the Chalcedonians and the Theodosians had been signed.  The letter of Cyrus which Sophronius brought to Sergius of Constantinople after the failure of his meeting with Cyrus cannot be identified as the Ep. ad Sergium CP (CPG 7611) as Grumel and Winkelmann considered: it was another letter, the existence of which had already been postulated by Hefele, a short extract of which is preserved in the Acts of the Lateran Council of 649.  Neither can the letter forbidding all discussion of one or two operations in the two natures of Christ, which Sergius sent to Cyrus after his meeting with Sophronius, be identified as the Ep. ad Cyrum Alex. (CPG 7605).

texte expliqué d'après une méthode nouvelle par deux traductions françaises, l'une littérale et juxtalinéaire présentant le mot a mot français en regard des mots grecs correspondants, l'autre correcte et précédée du texte grec, avec des sommaires et des notes.

The issue of the original language of the Muratorian Fragment has never been conclusively resolved. Although there is general agreement in the scholarly literature that the Latin text which we know was in fact a translation from Greek, the idea that it was originally written in Latin has not ceased to find advocates. This article reopens the question of the date of the Latin text and shows that the evidence points to the second half of the fourth century, well over 100 years after the date in which the Fragment is likely to have been drafted (i.e. the last decades of the second century), if one takes into account the Fragment’s content and the state of the New Testament canon to which it refers. The chronological gap between the Fragment’s content and the date of its Latin text is a first clue to its being a translation. This study also reviews anew the linguistic evidence in favour of a Greek original and shows that some features of the Latin text decisively support this hypothesis.