Imagining the Death of Jesus in Fourth-Century Mesopotamia : : A Study of Ephrem of Nisibis / / Blake Hartung.
In this volume Blake Hartung explores the place of the passion and death of Jesus in the writings of Ephrem of Nisibis (ca. 307–373). The book argues that the genre of Ephrem’s works (usually short poems for public performance), is key to understanding his unsystematic approach. Ephrem drew widely u...
Saved in:
| Superior document: | Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements Series ; Volume 181 |
|---|---|
| VerfasserIn: | |
| Place / Publishing House: | Leiden, The Netherlands : : Koninklijke Brill nv,, [2023] ©2023 |
| Year of Publication: | 2023 |
| Edition: | First edition. |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Vigna ;
Volume 181. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (270 pages) :; illustrations. |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Table of Contents:
- Intro
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1. Introduction: Imagining the Death of Jesus in Fourth-Century Mesopotamia
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Subject of This Study
- 3. Why Ephrem?
- 3.1. Ephrem's Life and Works
- 3.2. The Challenges of Studying Ephrem
- 3.3. Drama, Performance, and Ephrem's Theological Imagination
- 4. Ephrem, the Syriac Tradition, and Early Christianity
- 4.1. The Distinctiveness of Ephrem and the Syriac Tradition
- 4.2. Ephrem and Greco-Syriac Culture
- 5. State of the Question: The Death of Jesus in Early Christianity
- 5.1. Early Approaches: Patristic Atonement Theology
- 5.2. Reframing Early Christian Atonement Theology
- 5.3. Ephrem, the Atonement, and the Death of Jesus
- 6. Sources for This Study
- 7. The Plan of This Book
- Chapter 2. Ephrem's Biblical Imagination
- 1. Introduction: "Sheol Vomited and Spat out the Dead"
- 2. Ephrem and the Bible
- 2.1. Ephrem's Biblical Vision
- 2.2. Ephrem's Gospel
- 2.3. Ephrem's Context as a Reader of the Bible
- 2.4. Reading Matt 27:52-53 with Ephrem
- 3. Ephrem's Use of Matthew 27:52-53
- 3.1. Matthew 27:52-53 in Syriac
- 3.2. Interweaving John 5 and Matthew 27
- 3.3. "Life for the Dead"
- 4. The Raising of the Dead in Ephrem's Theological Imagination
- 4.1. The Raising of the Dead and the Descent to Sheol
- 4.2. The Raising of the Dead and the Identity of Jesus
- 4.3. The Raising of the Dead and the Future Resurrection
- 5. Ephrem, the Bible, and the Resurrection of the Dead in Polemical Context
- 5.1. Ephrem and the Bardaisanites on the Bodily Resurrection
- 5.2. The Absence of the Raising of the Dead in Ephrem's Anti-Bardaisanite Polemic
- 6. Conclusion
- Chapter 3. Dramatizing the Defeat of Death: Personification and Performance
- 1. Introduction.
- 2. The Personified Death and the Conquering Jesus: Death and Its Defeat in Ephrem's Mêmrâ on Our Lord
- 2.1. The Confrontation with Death in the Mêmrâ on Our Lord
- 2.2. The Confrontation with Death in Its Fourth-Century Context
- 2.3. Ephrem and the Origins of the Narrative of Christ's Defeat of Death
- 3. Adapting the Drama of the Descent to Sheol
- 3.1. Ephrem's Descent Poems in the Context of Early Christian Literature
- 3.2. Ephrem's Descent Poems in Rhetorical and Literary Context
- 3.3. The Forces of the "Left Side": Ephrem's Death among the Evil Powers
- 3.4. Death's Boasting and Defeat: Nis. 36 and Nis. 41
- 3.5. The Great Reversal: Death's Reflections on His Defeat
- 3.6. Sheol Weeping for Her Children: Nis. 37
- 4. Ephrem's Audiences and the Performance of Death
- 5. Conclusion
- Chapter 4. Dramas of Jewish Rejection: Jews and the Death of Jesus in Ephrem's Theological Imagination
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Ephrem's Anti-Jewish Polemic: Rhetoric or Reality?
- 3. The Triumphal Entry: An Anti-Jewish Drama in Poetry and Prose
- 3.1. Dramatizing the Triumphal Entry in the Commentary on the Diatessaron
- 3.2. Dramatizing the Triumphal Entry in Cruc. 1 and Res. 3
- 4. Who Are the "Jews"? The Layers of Dramatic Polemic
- 4.1. Making the Bridegroom a Stranger
- 4.2. Emperor Julian, the Jews, and the Blurring of Distance: The Madrāšê against Julian
- 5. Dramatizing Supersessionism
- 5.1. The Praise of the "Peoples" and the Silence of the "People": Eccl. 41
- 5.2. Dramatizing the Events of the Passion as Supersessionist Parables: Azym. 5 and Cruc. 4
- 6. Alternative Portrayals of Jews
- 6.1. The "Jewish" Ephrem of the Old Testament Commentaries
- 6.2. More Positive Assessments of Jews: The Mêmrê and Madrāšê
- 6.3. Understanding the Varied Portrayals of Jews
- 7. Conclusion.
- Chapter 5. The Economy of Debt and Payment: Economic Imagery, Benefaction, and the Death of Jesus
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Economic Imagery and the Context of the Debt Payment Motif
- 2.1. Understanding Ephrem's Economic Imagery
- 2.2. Ancient Patronage and Benefaction
- 2.3. Patronage and Benefaction in the Syriac Context
- 2.4. Patronage and Benefaction and Ephrem's Economic Imagination
- 3. The Passion as Debt Payment in Publicly Performed Poetry
- 3.1. The Debt of Adam and Its Payment
- 3.2. Reciprocity and Human Participation in the Payment of Debt
- 3.3. "Blotting out" Debt through Obedience: Ephrem's Reading of Col 2:14
- 3.4. Imitation and Reciprocity in Ephrem's Social World
- 4. The Debt-Paying Passion in Anti-Marcionite Polemic
- 4.1. The Prose Refutations in Context
- 4.2. The Marcionite Vision of the Redemptive Passion according to Ephrem
- 5. Conclusion
- Chapter 6. Time, Chronology, and the Crucifixion
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Feast of Pascha in Northern Mesopotamia
- 2.1. Ephrem and the Quartodeciman Pascha
- 2.2. Sources: Identifying Ephrem's "Paschal Hymns"
- 3. Marking Time and Retelling the Passion Narrative
- 3.1. April Personified: Res. 3 and Res. 4
- 3.2. April and Springtime Imagery
- 4. Ephrem's Cosmic Chronology of the Death of Jesus
- 4.1. Chronological Parallelism
- 4.2. The Exodus and Passover in Ephrem's Cosmic Chronology
- 5. Paschal Chronology: Ephrem and the "Three Day Problem" (Cruc. 6)
- 5.1. The Three-Day Problem in Context
- 5.2. Cruc. 6: Analysis
- 5.3. Cruc. 6: Conclusions
- 6. Conclusion
- Chapter 7. Conclusion
- 1. Summary of This Work
- 2. Possibilities for Further Study
- Bibliography
- Index of Biblical References
- Index of Other Ancient Sources
- Index of Subjects, Names, and Modern Authors.