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18962 results in Cambridge Histories

Page 925 of 949

  • 17 - AUGUSTINE AS BIBLICAL SCHOLAR

  • from V - THE BIBLE IN THE EARLY CHURCH
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Bible
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 April 1970, pp 541-563

  • Summary

    Augustine's achievements as a biblical scholar and exegete can be appreciated only in relation to his childhood and general education. The African Council of Carthage of 397, at which Augustine was present, recognised an Old Testament Canon which included the books of the Apocrypha and a New Testament Canon which included Hebrews and Peter. The actual text of scripture upon which Augustine exercised his exegetical talent varied during the course of his life. Augustine's own views on scriptural exegesis are set out in the treatise De Doctrina Christiana which appeared in its final form only in 427, and which may therefore be regarded as representing his mature opinion. Augustine's approach to scriptural exegesis is first and foremost that of a pastor, designed to instruct his congregation in the doctrine of the Church and to stir their minds to greater warmth of devotion.

  • 13 - BIBLICAL EXEGESIS IN THE EARLY CHURCH

  • from V - THE BIBLE IN THE EARLY CHURCH
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Bible
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 April 1970, pp 412-453

  • Summary

    The exegesis of the primitive Christian Church was a direct and unselfconscious continuation of the type of exegesis practised by ancient Judaism in its later period. The discovery of the Qumran literature has opened to another type of Jewish exegesis, the list of proof-texts. The greater part of Christian exegesis for a hundred and fifty years after the resurrection is of course exegesis of the Old Testament. One of the most important new features in all Christian exegesis from the end of the second century onwards is the acceptance by the Church of the Fourth Gospel as fully authoritative. The Western tradition of exegesis showed its conservatism and caution, however, in another direction, and that is in its treatment of eschatology. The Christian gospel was being transposed from a basically Jewish frame of reference and form to a basically Greek frame of reference.

  • 3 - BOOKS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

  • from II - BOOKS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Bible
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 April 1970, pp 30-48

  • Summary

    The discovery of more than half a million documents spanning the period of the Old Testament enables a comparison to be made between the various contemporary literary forms in use within the ancient Near East. The Assyrian and Babylonian scribes of the first millennium employed scrolls of papyrus or leather for Aramaic inscriptions. The varied and numerous documents and writing materials presuppose persons skilled in writing. From 3100 BC in Mesopotamia, and thereafter in Egypt, Anatolia and Elam, scribes were at work in the principal cities and centres of government. In Mesopotamia and Israel the overriding cultural factor was the concept of law and authority which ensured the vitality, stability and continuity of a highly developed civilisation. The Hebrew Proverbs are closest to the precepts or instructions which range from the Old Kingdom writings of the Egyptian sages to the New Kingdom collections and are scattered throughout the literature.

  • 10 - THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON

  • from IV - THE NEW TESTAMENT
    • By R. M. Grant, Carl Darling Buck Professor of Humanities, Divinity School, Chicago, Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Bible
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 April 1970, pp 284-308

  • Summary

    The Canon of the New Testament was the result of a long and gradual process in the course of which the books regarded as authoritative, inspired, and apostolic were selected out of a much larger body of literature. During the apostolic age the Christian Bible consisted of the Old Testament alone, not that the Old Testament was precisely defined, but the main outlines were quite clear. The Church was experiencing severe exegetical difficulties toward the middle of the second century. Many Gnostics were able to provide esoteric interpretations of Pauline epistles and of the gospels as well. Among the most important documents in the history of the New Testament Canon is the 'Muratorian' fragment, so called because it was published by L. A. Muratori in 1740. Origen provides one of the best examples of the way in which literary criticism was being brought to bear on questions of authorship in relation to canonicity.

  • 8 - BIBLE AND MIDRASH: EARLY OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS

  • from III - THE OLD TESTAMENT
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Bible
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 April 1970, pp 199-231

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses the nature and purpose of midrash and focuses on some biblical passages which foreshadow and prompt the discipline of exegesis. The most famous of the scribes was Ezra, and it is in connection with him that scripture interpretation as such is first mentioned in the Bible. The public recitation of scripture which was part of Temple worship became the essential feature of synagogal liturgy already in pre-Christian times and appears in the New Testament as a well-established custom. Palestinian Jewry was divided, from the second century BC to the end of the Second Temple, into separate and rival groups each of which slanted its interpretative system to justify the biblical authenticity of its beliefs and way of life. Beyond any immediate exegetical assistance, midrash is by nature provides the closest historical link with Old Testament tradition itself.

  • 4 - BOOKS IN THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD AND IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

  • from II - BOOKS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Bible
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    01 April 1970, pp 48-66

  • Summary

    The discoveries at Qumran show that in the first century BC the text of Isaiah, for example, was faithfully transmitted; the widely varying interpretations that might be placed on the text by Jews as well as later by Christians. Christian literature began with the interpretation of the Old Testament in the light of Christian experience. The literature of the earliest Church, from the New Testament, is with two exceptions what might have been predicted from its Jewish origins: the sacred books of Judaism and some interpretations of those books in the light of Christian experience. In Jewish copies of the Greek versions of the scriptures it was usual for the name of God, Yahweh, to be written in Hebrew letters. Christian culture and education were bookish through and through; reliance on the book, initially a legacy from Judaism, was soon a weapon of the Church in its fight against paganism.

Page 925 of 949