This study presents an analysis of the Syriac translations of Cyril of Alexandria's Christological works, seeking to locate them in their literary context on the basis of a comparative typology of translation technique and by making full use of Biblical citations and parallel citations in other texts. The texts in question range from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the sixth century and are closely comparable to other contemporary documents. The decades either side of the turn of the sixth century are shown as the key period in which Syriac translators developed a new vision of their language and its capabilities. More widely, the translations in question are used to illuminate parallel developments in late antique culture in matters of textual authority, the exegesis of patristic texts and the development of Florilegia. The Syrian church's new vision of language use can be observed in other walks of life across and represents a typical 'late antique' phenomenon.

More exegetical literature survives from the hand of Cyril of Alexandria than nearly any other Greek patristic author, yet this sizable body of work has scarcely received the degree of attention it deserves. In this work, Matthew R. Crawford reconstructs the intellectual context that gave rise to this literary output and highlights Cyril's Trinitarian theology, received as an inheritance from the fourth century, as the most important defining factor. Cyril's appropriation of pro-Nicene Trinitarianism is evident in both of his theology of revelation and his theology of exegesis, the two foci that comprise his doctrine of Scripture. Revelation, in his understanding, proceeds from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit, following the order of Trinitarian relations. Moreover, this pattern applies to the inspiration of Scripture as well, insofar as inspiration occurs when the Son indwells human authors by the Spirit and speaks the words of the Father. Although Cyril's interpretation of revelation may consequently be called 'Trinitarian', it is also resolutely Christological, since the divine and incarnate Son functions as the central content and mediator of all divine unveiling. Corresponding to this divine movement towards humanity in revelation is humanity's appropriation of divine life according to the reverse pattern—in the Spirit, through the Son, unto the Father. Applied to exegesis, this Trinitarian pattern implies that the Spirit directs the reader of Scripture to a Christological interpretation of the text, through which the believer beholds the incarnate Son, the exemplar of virtue and the perfect image of the Father, and accordingly advances in both virtue and knowledge. This process continues until the final eschatological vision when the types and riddles of Scripture will be done away with in light of the overwhelming clarity of the Christologically-mediated Trinitarian vision.

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This book addresses a particular and little-known form of writing, the prose dialogue, during the Late Antique period, when Christian authors adopted and transformed the dialogue form to suit the new needs of religious debate. Connected to, but departing from, the dialogues of Classical Antiquity, these new forms staged encounters between Christians and pagans, Jews, Manichaeans, and "heretical" fellow Christians. At times fiction, at others records of, or scripts for, actual debates, the dialogues give us a glimpse of Late Antique rhetoric as it was practiced and tell us about the theological arguments underpinning religious differences. By offering the first comprehensive analysis of Christian dialogues in Greek and Syriac from the earliest examples to the end of the sixth century CE, the present volume shows that Christian authors saw the dialogue form as a suitable vehicle for argument and apologetic in the context of religious controversy and argues that dialogues were intended as effective tools of opinion formation in Late Antique society. Most Christian dialogues are little studied, and often in isolation, but they vividly evoke the religious debates of the time and they embody the cultural conventions and refinements that Late Antique men and women expected from such debates.

A significant new study of Rabbula and Christianity in Edessa This volume makes available for the first time both the Syriac text and an English translation of every available original composition by Rabbula, the controversial bishop of Edessa (ca. 411–435 CE). It includes a new edition of the Life of Rabbula and other biographical traditions about him, including his conversion from paganism to Christianity. The texts collected in the volume are a valuable source for studying the reception history of biblical themes. In addition, the corpus offers insights into the beginnings of ecclesiastical legislation in the East, charitable work, pilgrimage, ascetic ideals, and church administration. Horn and Phenix examine Rabbula’s contribution to the Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries, including his influence on Cyril of Alexandria in his debate with Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Features A critical study of the theological, cultural, and historical development of Syriac Christianity Thorough historical, theological, and socio-cultural analysis provided for each text A previously unidentified Christian Palestinian Aramaic fragment

This volume, the first ever of its kind in English, introduces and surveys Greek literature in Byzantium (330 - 1453 CE). In twenty-five chapters composed by leading specialists, The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Literature surveys the immense body of Greek literature produced from the fourth to the fifteenth century CE and advances a nuanced understanding of what "literature" was in Byzantium. This volume is structured in four sections. The first, "Materials, Norms, Codes," presents basic structures for understanding the history of Byzantine literature like language, manuscript book culture, theories of literature, and systems of textual memory. The second, "Forms," deals with the how Byzantine literature works: oral discourse and "text"; storytelling; rhetoric; re-writing; verse; and song. The third section ("Agents") focuses on the creators of Byzantine literature, both its producers and its recipients. The final section, entitled "Translation, Transmission, Edition," surveys the three main ways by which we access Byzantine Greek literature today: translations into other Byzantine languages during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages; Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts; and modern printed editions. The volume concludes with an essay that offers a view of the recent past--as well as the likely future--of Byzantine literary studies.

The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research provides up-to-date discussions of every major aspect of New Testament textual criticism. Written by internationally acknowledged experts, the twenty-four essays evaluate all significant advances in the field since the 1950s.