Memory and Identity in the Syriac Cave of Treasures

Memory and Identity in the Syriac Cave of Treasures PDF

Author: Sergey Minov

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 900444551X

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In Memory and Identity in the Syriac Cave of Treasures, Sergey Minov analyses the role played by the pseudepigraphic work known as the Cave of Treasures in the formation of cultural memory and collective identity among Syriac Christians of Iran during Late Antiquity.

Memory and Identity in the Syriac Cave of Treasures

Memory and Identity in the Syriac Cave of Treasures PDF

Author: Sergey Minov

Publisher: Jerusalem Studies in Religion

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 9789004445505

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Introduction -- 1. Genre, date and provenance of CT -- 2. Categorizing the Jewish "Other" -- 3. Categorizing the Iranian "Other" -- 4. Identifying the Syriac Christian "Self" -- General conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Index of Names and Subjects.

Hebrew between Jews and Christians

Hebrew between Jews and Christians PDF

Author: Daniel Stein Kokin

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-12-19

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 311033982X

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Though typically associated more with Judaism than Christianity, the status and sacrality of Hebrew has nonetheless been engaged by both religious cultures in often strikingly similar ways. The language has furthermore played an important, if vexed, role in relations between the two. Hebrew between Jews and Christians closely examines this frequently overlooked aspect of Judaism and Christianity's common heritage and mutual competition.

The Syriac Legend of Alexanders Gate

The Syriac Legend of Alexanders Gate PDF

Author: Tesei

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-11-03

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0197646875

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The Syriac text entitled Neshana d-Aleksandros (also known as Syriac Alexander Legend) is a seminal text for late Christian and Muslim apocalyptic traditions. Containing the earliest recorded versions of literary motifs that would become central to the medieval apocalyptic tradition, it represents an early witness to an influential political ideology that guided both Byzantine and early Islamic imperial policies. While the scholarly consensus commonly dates the Neshana to the time of Heraclius (r. 610-641 CE), in this book author Tommaso Tesei argues that an earlier version of the text was produced during the reign of Justinian I (r. 527-565). This new historical contextualization of the text enables us to better delineate the role of the Neshana in the development of late antique, politicized, forms of apocalypticism, which assign to the Christian Roman Empire the task of establishing a cosmocratic rule in view of Jesus' Second Coming. In analyzing the contents and the ideology of this seminal text, this volume contributes to our understanding of the origins and developments of important literary motifs of Medieval literature worldwide, such as the characterization of Alexander as a pious prophet-king and the story of the gate that he erected to confine the eschatological nations of Gog and Magog. The Syriac Legend of Alexander's Gate sheds light on lesser-known aspects of political debates in the sixth-century Near East and offers historians a valuable insight into important aspects of Justinian's reign.

Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity

Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity PDF

Author: Simcha Gross

Publisher:

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1009280511

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From the image offered by the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish elites were deeply embedded within the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE). The Talmud is replete with stories and discussions that feature Sasanian kings, Zoroastrian magi, fire temples, imperial administrators, Sasanian laws, Persian customs, and more quotidian details of Jewish life. Yet, in the scholarly literature on the Babylonian Talmud and the Jews of Babylonia , the Sasanian Empire has served as a backdrop to a decidedly parochial Jewish story, having little if any direct impact on Babylonian Jewish life and especially the rabbis. Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity advances a radically different understanding of Babylonian Jewish history and Sasanian rule. Building upon recent scholarship, Simcha Gross portrays a more immanent model of Sasanian rule, within and against which Jews invariably positioned and defined themselves. Babylonian Jews realized their traditions, teachings, and social position within the political, social, religious, and cultural conditions generated by Sasanian rule.

The Making of Syriac Jerusalem

The Making of Syriac Jerusalem PDF

Author: Catalin-Stefan Popa

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1000877469

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This book discusses hagiographic, historiographical, hymnological, and theological sources that contributed to the formation of the sacred picture of the physical as well as metaphysical Jerusalem in the literature of two Eastern Christian denominations, East and West Syrians. Popa analyses the question of Syrian beliefs about the Holy City, their interaction with holy places, and how they travelled in the Holy Land. He also explores how they imagined and reflected the theology of this itinerary through literature in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, set alongside a well-defined local tradition that was at times at odds with Jerusalem. Even though the image of Jerusalem as a land of sacred spaces is unanimously accepted in the history of Christianity, there were also various competing positions and attitudes. This often promoted the attempt at mitigating and replacing Jerusalem’s sacred centrality to the Christian experience with local sacred heritage, which is also explored in this study. Popa argues that despite this rhetoric of artificial boundaries, the general picture epitomises a fluid and animated intersection of Syriac Christians with the Holy City especially in the medieval era and the subsequent period, through a standardised process of pilgrimage, well-integrated in the custom of advanced Christian life and monastic canon. The Making of Syriac Jerusalem is suitable for students and scholars working on the history, literature, and theology of Syriac Christianity in the late antique and medieval periods.

Florilegia Syriaca: Mapping a Knowledge-Organizing Practice in the Syriac World

Florilegia Syriaca: Mapping a Knowledge-Organizing Practice in the Syriac World PDF

Author: Emiliano Fiori

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-02-17

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 9004527559

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From the 6th century onwards, Syriac patristic florilegia – collections of Greek patristic excerpts in Syriac translation – progressively became a prominent form through which Syriac and Arab Christians shaped their knowledge of theology. In these collections, early Greek Christian literature underwent a substantial process of selection and re-organization. The papers collected in this volume study Syriac florilegia in their own right, as cultural products possessing their own specific textuality, and outline a phenomenology of Syriac patristic florilegia by mapping their diffusion and relevance in time and space, from the 6th to the 17th century, from the Roman Empire to China.

Key Terms of the Qur'an

Key Terms of the Qur'an PDF

Author: Nicolai Sinai

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-07-11

Total Pages: 840

ISBN-13: 0691241317

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"A one-volume, single-authored reference book featuring scholarly essays on key terms that appear in the Qur'an"--

Genesis in Late Antique Poetry

Genesis in Late Antique Poetry PDF

Author: Andrew Faulkner

Publisher: CUA Press

Published: 2022-05-13

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0813235561

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The biblical book of Genesis stands nearly without parallel in the shared history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Because of its abiding importance to late antique theology and practical life across religious boundaries, it gave rise to a wide range of literary responses. The essays in this book study an array of Jewish and Christian responses to Genesis as they took shape in specific literary forms—the unique genres of late antique poetry. While late antique and early medieval Jews and Christians did not always agree in their interpretations of Genesis, they participated broadly in a shared culture of poetic production. Some of these poetic genres paralleled one another simply as distinct examples of metered speech, while others emerged in conversation and through mutual influence. Though late antique poems developed in a variety of languages and across religious boundaries, scholarly study of late antique poetry has tended to isolate the phenomenon according to language. As a corrective to this linguistic isolation, this book initiates a comparative conversation around the Jewish and Christian poetry that emerged in late antique Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac. Tending equally to exegetical content and literary form, the essays in this book sit at the intersection of a variety of scholarly conversations—around the history of biblical exegesis, the formation of late antique and early medieval literature and literary culture, and the comparative study of Judaism and Christianity.