Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-009-26856-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 350 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 771 g

In this volume, Carson Bay focuses on an important but neglected work of Late Antiquity: Pseudo-Hegesippus' On the Destruction of Jerusalem (De Excidio Hierosolymitano), a Latin history of later Second Temple Judaism written during the fourth century CE. Bay explores the presence of so many Old Testament figures in a work that recounts the Roman-Jewish War (66–73 CE) and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. By applying the lens of Roman exemplarity to Pseudo-Hegesippus, he elucidates new facets of Biblical reception, history-writing, and anti-Judaism in a text from the formative first century of Christian Empire. The author also offers new insights into the Christian historiographical imagination and how Biblical heroes and Classical culture helped Christians to write anti-Jewish history. Revealing novel aspects of the influence of the Classical literary tradition on early Christian texts, this book also newly questions the age-old distinction between the Christian and the Classical (or 'pagan') in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bay, Carson

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Altes Testament: Exegese, Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Historiographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. On the destruction of Jerusalem: Christian, Classical, Biblical, Josephan; 2. Hebrew vs. Jew: identity and differentiation in De Excidio; 3. Abraham, ethnography, exemplarity, and oratory at De Excidio 5.41.2 and 5.53.1; 4. Exemplarity and national decline at De Excidio 5.2.1; 5. Jewish and Christian martyrdom at De Excidio 3.2 and 5.22; 6. King David as Christian-classical exemplum in Pseudo-Hegesippus; 7. Elisha, disaster, and extended exemplarity in De Excidio; 8. A classical world of Biblical Exempla: suicide and patriotism in De Excidio 3.16-17; 9. A Christian world of Hebrew Exempla: war and faith in De Excidio 5.15-16. 10. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Bay, Carson
Carson Bay is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland.