Description
Early Christian texts are replete with the language of body and self. Clearly, such concepts were important to their authors and audiences. Yet usage rarely makes sense across texts. Despite attempts to establish a single biblical or Christian vision of either body or self across texts, the evidence demonstrates plurality of opinion; and, reception history multiplies interpretations. Depending upon the particular anthropological-philosophical paradigm of the interpreter (e.g., Platonic, Cartesian), Christian texts reflect a number of views about the body and self. Today, scholarship on these concepts advances in many different directions. In addition to sophisticated new methods of drawing history-of-religions comparisons, scholars place early Christian texts in conversation with philosophy, psychology, political science, and developments in the hard sciences — in particular the neurosciences, sometimes all but doing away with the notion of self. Recent studies and monographs focus on the disabled body, the gendered body, the slave body, the martyr's body, relevance of ancient scientific and medical treatises for understanding the body, the asexual body/self, embodied knowledge, the suffering self, and religion and the self. The essays in this volume individually and collectively participate in these ongoing discussions. They do not proceed with a uniform notion of either self or body, but recognize competition on the topics, ably captured by the variety of approaches to their meaning in antiquity and today, and offer nuanced analyses of texts and passages, highlighting individual perceptions of these crucial yet enigmatic concepts.
Chapter
Karina Martin Hogan: The Mortal Body and the Earth in Ben Sira and the Book of the Watchers
The Earth in the Cosmology of Ben Sira
The Earth in the Cosmology of the Book of the Watchers
The Earth in the Anthropology of the Book of the Watchers
The Earth in the Anthropology of Ben Sira
Matthew Goff: Being Fleshly or Spiritual: Anthropological Reflection and Exegesis of Genesis 1–3 in 4QInstruction and First Corinthians
The Vision of Hagu, the Fleshly Spirit and the Spiritual People
Flesh and Spirit: 1 Corinthians 3
Ψυχή and Πνεῦμα: 1 Corinthians 15
Adam and the Elect in 1 Corinthians and Early Judaism
Gen 1:27 and 2:7 in 4QInstruction and 1 Corinthians
Alec J. Lucas: Distinct Portraits and Parallel Development of the Knowledge of God in Romans 1:18–32 and Wisdom of Solomon 13–15
B. Wisdom of Solomon 13–15
III. Knowledge of God, Universalism, and Particularism
Troels Engberg-Pedersen: A Stoic Concept of the Person in Paul? From Galatians 5:17 to Romans 7:14–25
Interlude: An Earlier Argument
Galatians 5:16–18: The Problem
Galatians 5:16–18: The Solution
The Stoic Context for the Reading of Galatians 5:16–18
Galatians 5:13–6:10 as part of 5:1–6:18
From Galatians to Romans: Gal 5:16–18 (or 25) in Rom 7:14–8:13
‘Powers’ and a ‘Person’ in Romans 7:14–25
Platonism or Stoicism in Romans 7:14–25?
Romans 8:1–13 or Cognition as the Solution to the Risk of akrasia
Stoicism behind Romans 7:14–25
Christian Person, Christian Body: A Specifically Stoic Concept of the Person in Paul
Stefan Krauter: Is Romans 7:7–13 about akrasia?
1. The Structure of the Argument in Rom 7:7–24
2. The Relation between Rom 7:7–13 and the Story of Eve in Gen 3
3. Rom 7:7–13 and the Ancient Debate about Paradoxical Effects of Prohibitions
IV. Canonical Gospels and Acts
Martin Meiser: Anthropologie im Markusevangelium
II. Leiblichkeit und Personalität
III. Verstand und Affekte
IV. Der Mensch als Frau bzw. Mann
V. Der Mensch in seiner Gottesbeziehung
VI. Der Mensch in seinen sozialen Beziehungen
1. Die Wahrnehmung der nichtchristlichen Gesellschaft
2. Beziehungen innerhalb der Gemeinde
V. Extra-canonical Gospels and Acts
Manfred Lang: The Christian and the Roman Self: The Lukan Paul and a Roman Reading
1. Some outlines of what the Self could be
1.1 Modern and classical considerations
1.2 The Framework for Reception
2. The Recipient as Artifex Vivendi
2.1 The Necessity to Develop an Art of Living
2.2 The Search for an Artifex Vivendi
3. The Overpowering of the Theomach (Acts 5–12)
3.1 Background of a Possible Reception
3.2 God Takes the Theomach into Service
3.2.1. The Broader Context
3.2.2. The Confrontation (Acts 9:1–30)
3.2.2.1. Blinding and Insight (Acts 9:1–19a)
3.2.2.2. Leading an Insightful Life (Acts 9:19b–30)
4. The Basis: God in the One Resurrected for All (Acts 17:16–34)
4.1 The Starting Thesis: V. 16–21,31
4.2 The God who Turns Towards Humanity: V. 22–31
5. The Last Journey and the Christian Art of Living (Acts 27:1–44)
Troy W. Martin: Clarifying a Curiosity: The Plural Bloods (αίμάτων) in John 1:13
1. The Problem of the Plural
2. Proposed Solutions by Commentators
3. A Solution Provided by Ancient Medical Texts
3.1. The Main Idea of the Plural in John 1:13
3.2. The Use of the Plural in Ancient Medical Texts
3.3. The Plural in Euripides’ Ion
3.4. The Will of the Flesh and the Will of a Husband
Richard I. Pervo: Identification Please: Aspects of Identity in Ancient Narrative
Appendix: Interpreting Apuleius’ Metamorphoses
Janet E. Spittler: The Anthropology of the Acts of Thomas
The Anthropology of the Acts of Andrew
Body and soul in the Acts of Thomas
A Third Anthropological Element: The Human-Divine Connection
“Dwelling in” as Metaphor for the Human-Divine Connection
“Marriage” as Metaphor for the Human-Divine Connection
“Yoke” as Metaphor for the Human-Divine Connection
A Concluding Note: The Platonic Anthropology Turned on its Head
Romulus D. Stefanut: From Logos to Mythos: The Apocalypse of Paul and Plato’s Phaedo in Dialogue
I. Introduction and Argument
II. Paul’s λόγος (2 Cor 12:1–5)
III. The Apocalypse of Paul
2. The Journey of the Soul
VI. Summary and Conclusion
Robert Matthew Calhoun: The Resurrection of the Flesh in Third Corinthians
Text and Translation of 3 Corinthians acccording to P.Bodm. X
The Style and Structure of 3 Corinthians
The Resurrection of the Flesh
Annette Bourland Huizenga: “Epitomizing Virtue: Clothing the Christian Woman’s Body”
Material Elements of Female Adornment
Chart One: Texts and Topics
Gender and Personal Adornment
The Perspective of 1 Timothy
David Konstan: Torture and Identity: Paganism, Christianity, and Beyond
Prudentius’ Peristephanon
Soul and Body Before Christ
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela
An Exception? Augustine’s Confessions
Fritz Graf: Apollo, Possession, and Prophecy
VII. History of Interpretation
John R. Levison: Assessing the Origins of Modern Pneumatology: The Life and Legacy of Hermann Gunkel
A Salient Trio of Contributions
Other Ancient Jewish Sources
Other Early Christian Literature
Christian Body, Christian Self: Concepts of Early Christian Personhood
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