Recently the walking, talking cross in the Gospel of Peter has been interpreted as a popular belief or a common apocalyptic motif, irrelevant for understanding the gospel’s christology. I argue that the animated cross should be understood... more
Recently the walking, talking cross in the Gospel of Peter has been interpreted as a popular belief or a common apocalyptic motif, irrelevant for understanding the gospel’s christology. I argue that the animated cross should be understood as a manifestation of the resurrected Lord. This is demonstrated through a comparative study of epiphanies from Greek, Roman, and Jewish literature in which gods are identified and manifest by their unique signs, including talking trees. Since this cross appears simultaneously with the Lord’s enormous resurrected form, I conclude that the Gospel of Peter represents a polymorphic christology.
Gegenwärtig wird das gehende und sprechende Kreuz im EvPet gern als Element eines Volksglaubens oder als verbreitetes apokalyptisches Motiv gedeutet, das irrelevant für die Christologie des EvPet sei. Demgegenüber wird hier argumentiert, dass das belebte Kreuz als Manifestation des auferstandenen Herrn verstanden werden sollte. Dies wird an einem Vergleich von Erscheinungserzählungen aus griechischer, römischer und jüdischer Literatur gezeigt, in denen Götter anhand ihrer individuellen Zeichen, darunter als sprechende Bäume, identifziert werden. Da das Kreuz gleichzeitig mit der übergroßen Gestalt des Auferstandenen auftritt, wird geschlussfolgert, dass das EvPet eine polymorphe Christologie repräsentiert.
In the late fourth- or early fifth-century bilingual Codex Bezae (D), Lk. 6.5 includes the following agraphon in Greek and Latin: ‘On the same day, when [Jesus] saw someone working on the Sabbath, he said to him, “Man, if you know what... more
In the late fourth- or early fifth-century bilingual Codex Bezae (D), Lk. 6.5 includes the following agraphon in Greek and Latin: ‘On the same day, when [Jesus] saw someone working on the Sabbath, he said to him, “Man, if you know what you are doing you are blessed, but if you do not know then you are cursed and a transgressor of the law”’. Although scholars generally agree that this passage did not originate with the author of Luke, its precise origin and meaning remain contested. Previous studies implicitly agreed that the agraphon’s origin must be sought in the texts and traditions of the earliest Christian era. Based on literary parallels between Lk. 6.5D and the writings of Church Fathers, especially from the fourth century ce, this article argues that the Sabbath-Worker agraphon originated in the throes of later Christian polemic against Jewish and Judaizing practices of Sabbath observance.
Ancient Christian anti-Sabbath polemic worked to fashion Christianity and Judaism as distinct. This article demonstrates how Christian polemic against Sabbath-day synagogue attendance as well as arguments insisting on worship only on the... more
Ancient Christian anti-Sabbath polemic worked to fashion Christianity and Judaism as distinct. This article demonstrates how Christian polemic against Sabbath-day synagogue attendance as well as arguments insisting on worship only on the Lord’s Day correspond with textual variants in Luke 4:16 and 23:56. These passages were altered in some manuscripts in a way that distances Jesus and his disciples from Jewish Sabbath observance. Although these textual variants reflect the broader Christian polemic, they do not themselves function as polemic and are not well preserved. For these reasons, they provide a case study for thinking about the nature of New Testament textual transmission at the nexus of reading practices, practices of communal worship, and Christian identity discourse.
Jason Robert Combs, “Shepherd of Hermas and the Christian Experience of Non-Christian Epiphany” in Experiencing the Shepherd of Hermas, ed. Angela Kim Harkins and Harry O. Maier, Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle... more
Jason Robert Combs, “Shepherd of Hermas and the Christian Experience of Non-Christian Epiphany” in Experiencing the Shepherd of Hermas, ed. Angela Kim Harkins and Harry O. Maier, Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022), 153–169.
The Markan Passion narrative alludes to Ps 22 (LXX Ps 21) in reverse, culminating with Jesus' cry: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15.34; cf. Ps 22.1). I argue that this 'extended inverted allusion' was an admired... more
The Markan Passion narrative alludes to Ps 22 (LXX Ps 21) in reverse, culminating with Jesus' cry: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15.34; cf. Ps 22.1). I argue that this 'extended inverted allusion' was an admired literary technique. Through select examples of this technique in the writings of the Hebrew Bible and Greco-Roman literature, I demonstrate its various functions-it can be employed to reverse meaning, to dissociate causation or to create new narrative trajectories. Reading Mark 15 in light of the literary functions of inverted allusion reveals new interpretive possibilities. In the Septuagint, Psalm 21 suggests that the psalmist's suffering was merited because of transgressions, but the inverted allusions to this Psalm in Mark 15 reinforce that Jesus' suffering is unmerited (cf. Mark 15.10, 14) by decoupling the suffering from the transgressions. Additionally, in LXX Ps 21, the psalmist moves from forsakenness on account of transgressions toward divine deliverance. By alluding to this Psalm in reverse, Jesus travels the psalmist's journey in reverse. Rather than move from forsakenness toward divine deliverance, Mark's Jesus moves toward forsakenness, precisely to bring about divine deliverance.
Athanasius’s letter provides evidence of how he drew upon resources available in Hellenistic philosophy to integrate the psalms into the sort of meditational practices that were the chief means of caring for oneself taught by the... more
Athanasius’s letter provides evidence of how he drew upon resources available in Hellenistic philosophy to integrate the psalms into the sort of meditational practices that were the chief means of caring for oneself taught by the philosophical schools. The Psalter proved to be a remarkably flexible technology that could be appropriated in any number of circumstances to acquire self-knowledge and heal unhealthy emotional and intellectual responses. The self ’s indeterminacy was stabilized through daily exercises that employed the persuasive language of the Psalter to internalize the biblical narrative and its constitutive theological doctrines. The ultimate goal of this spiritual practice of personal prayer was to harmonize oneself with the eternal Source of the universe as one’s bodily song became more and more an outward image of the internal ordering of the mind. Athanasius’s promotion of the Psalter had important political implications insofar as it was an aspect of his broader effort to unite urban and rural Christians in a shared ascetic program.
The profile of American clergy is rapidly changing, especially when gauged in terms of their increasing age and the small number of young people who begin ministry in their twenties. This article contends that the problem of recruitment... more
The profile of American clergy is rapidly changing, especially when gauged in terms of their increasing age and the small number of young people who begin ministry in their twenties. This article contends that the problem of recruitment is the result of a destabilization of the profession that has occurred in recent decades and has called into question the value of the clergy’s traditional skills and knowledge. Understanding the real root of the crisis explains the prevalence of ministerial ideals that instruct clergy, above all, to use their profound understanding of their own life experience to make their ministry meaningful to contemporary people. Such an approach has a number of shortcomings, not the least of which is that it has little to say about how those who lack life experience are to be qualified for ministry. Rather than appealing to life experience, it will be more fruitful to focus on the recovery of the clergy’s confidence in the intellectual content of their profession and the intrinsic value of its fundamental practices.
In a world where too many people continue to be tortured without recourse to legal protections, nonlegislative resources for preserving human dignity amid dehumanizing terror are much needed. This article analyzes the hermeneutical... more
In a world where too many people continue to be tortured without recourse to legal protections, nonlegislative resources for preserving human dignity amid dehumanizing terror are much needed. This article analyzes the hermeneutical exercises constructed by the influential third century Christian intellectual, Origen of Alexandria, to prepare himself and others for torture and martyrdom. These exercises were designed to be a counter-asceticism that would strike at the root of violence both in the self and in society and enable his contemporary Christians to suffer at the hands of the Romans without losing sight either of their own humanity or that of their tormentors. Christians following Origen’s practice were trained to resist not only the Roman Empire’s violent disciplining of bodies, but the whole interpretation of the world that justified it as they embodied a nonviolent alternative to it. In this way, Origen provides resources for a particularly religious mode of resistance to torture that usefully supplements the contemporary human rights campaign and holds promise for overcoming some of its limitations.
While Reinhold Niebuhr's realist political philosophy continues to find advocates in many quarters on account of its explanatory power, his Christian ideals have had difficulty gaining purchase in the material world. The tension between... more
While Reinhold Niebuhr's realist political philosophy continues to find advocates in many quarters on account of its explanatory power, his Christian ideals have had difficulty gaining purchase in the material world. The tension between particular political interests and universal moral ideals threatens not only to undermine Niebuhr's efforts to preserve the ethical quality of politics but also his grounds for hope. The source of this problem can be traced to a weakness in the Christological foundations of Niebuhr's Christian realism—specifically to his intentional severing of classical Christology from politics in his appropriation of Augustine's realism. After examining the reasons for this rejection of classical reflections about Jesus, this article explains how the Christology of Niebuhr's favorite early Christian realist, Augustine, makes possible a theological reasoning that expands the social imagination, and promotes a deeply principled and hopeful material transformation, while not forfeiting its critical and explanatory capacity.
Augustine’s Christian psychology is best understood as one particularly brilliant example of the philosophically informed therapies that were prevalent in the late antique world. Representatives of Greek and Roman philosophical schools... more
Augustine’s Christian psychology is best understood as one particularly brilliant example of the philosophically informed therapies that were prevalent in the late antique world. Representatives of Greek and Roman philosophical schools commonly employed highly cognitive therapeutic regimes to assist individuals in imposing a rational order upon the instinctual push and pull of their emotions. They did so by artfully constructing words and ascetic practices to help individuals grow in self-knowledge and to act according to their newly acquired insights. To know oneself was to understand oneself within an ordered universe as a rational yet mortal human being rather than as a god or beast. Seeing how Augustine used the psychology that he inherited makes it possible to appreciate, among other things, his pioneering analysis of the internal divisions that fragment the self. Furthermore, it is in his critique of philosophically articulated technologies of self-improvement that Augustine’s worry becomes apparent that such therapies risk entrapping the self in its own rational point of view. For Augustine, psychic health required therapeutic practices that not only supplied self-knowledge, but also progressively freed the self from its own rational constructions as it increasingly found stability in divinely given love.