In Progress by Matthew R Crawford
This is an introduction and sample of a new edition and translation of the three-book treatise On... more This is an introduction and sample of a new edition and translation of the three-book treatise On the Trinity, traditionally ascribed to Didymus the Blind, though of debated authorship.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Books by Matthew R Crawford
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
T&T Clark, 2019
This volume combines some of the leading voices on the composition and collection of early Christ... more This volume combines some of the leading voices on the composition and collection of early Christian gospels in order to analyze Tatian's Diatessaron. The rapid rise and sudden suppression of the Diatessaron has raised numerous questions about the nature and intent of this second-century composition. It has been claimed as both a vindication of the fourfold gospel's early canonical status and as an argument for the canon's on-going fluidity; it has been touted as both a premiere witness to the earliest recoverable gospel text and as an early corrupting influence on that text. Collectively, these essays provide the greatest advance in Diatessaronic scholarship in a quarter of a century.
The contributors explore numerous questions: did Tatian intend to supplement or supplant the fourfold gospel? How many were his sources and how free was he with their text? How do we identify a Diatessaronic witness? Is it legitimate to use Tatian's Diatessaron as a source in New Testament textual criticism? Is a reconstruction of the Diatessaron still possible? These queries in turn contribute to the question of what the Diatessaron signifies with respect to the broader context of gospel writing, and what this can tell us about how the writing, rewriting and reception of gospel material functioned in the first and second centuries and beyond.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Origins
Chapter 1 – ‘Eusebius’ Canon Tables as a Paratext for Orde... more Table of Contents:
Part 1: Origins
Chapter 1 – ‘Eusebius’ Canon Tables as a Paratext for Ordering Knowledge’
Chapter 2 – ‘The Origins of Scholarship on the Fourfold Gospel: From Alexandria to Caesarea’
Chapter 3 – ‘Reading the Gospels with the Canon Tables’
Part 2: Receptions
Chapter 4 – ‘Augustine’s Use of the Canon Tables in De consensu evangelistarum’
Chapter 5 – ‘Canon Tables 2.0: The Peshitta Version of the Eusebian Apparatus’
Chapter 6 – ‘Scholarly Practices: The Eusebian Canon Tables in the Hiberno-Latin Tradition’
Chapter 7 – ‘Seeing the Salvation of God: Images as Paratext in Armenian Commentaries on the Canon Tables’
Appendix 1: A Translation of Eusebius’ Letter to Carpianus
Appendix 2: Eusebian Parallels in Augustine’s De consensu evangelistarum
Appendix 3: The Gospel Synopsis in Codex Climaci Rescriptus and its Possible Connection to Ammonius’ Diatessaron-Gospel
Appendix 4: The Note of Theophanes the Grammarian about Canon Tables
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Cyril of Alexandria left to posterity a sizable body of exegetical literature. This monograph att... more Cyril of Alexandria left to posterity a sizable body of exegetical literature. This monograph attempts to reconstruct his theology of Scripture in order to suggest that his exegetical practice is inseparable from, and must be interpreted in light of, his overarching theological vision. I argue that the most important intellectual factor shaping his exegesis is his Christologically focused, pro-Nicene Trinitarianism, an inheritance that he received from fourth-century authors. Cyril’s appropriation of pro-Nicene thought is evident in his theology of revelation and his theology of exegesis. Revelation, in his understanding, proceeds from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit, following the order of Trinitarian relations. Moreover, within this Trinitarian scheme, the incarnate Son functions as the central agent and content of divine revelation, a status that further implies the centrality of the gospels in the canon of Scripture. Corresponding to this movement of God towards humanity in revelation is humanity’s appropriation of divine life according to a reverse pattern—in the Spirit, through the Son, unto the Father. This scheme applies broadly to Cyril’s soteriology, but also to his understanding of exegesis, since he regards biblical interpretation as a means of participating in the divine life. More specifically, this Trinitarian pattern implies that the Spirit is required to read Scripture properly, and that in the act of interpretation the Spirit directs the reader to a Christological reading of Scripture, through which the believer beholds the incarnate Son, the exemplar of virtue and the perfect image of the Father, and accordingly advances in both virtue and knowledge. This process continues until the final eschatological vision when the types and riddles of Scripture will be done away with in light of the overwhelming clarity of the Trinitarian vision.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Peer-Reviewed Articles by Matthew R Crawford
Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 2024
In his anti-Christian treatise Against the Galileans, the emperor Julian objected to the Hebrew B... more In his anti-Christian treatise Against the Galileans, the emperor Julian objected to the Hebrew Bible’s claim that Israel was God’s special possession and, in response, elaborated a sophisticated philosophy of ethnicity that explained all aspects of diversity in the human species as resulting from a complex causal network in which patron deities operated in concert with natural forces to produce distinct 'natures' for each people group, which in turn influenced their laws, culture, and intellectual achievements. In Julian’s view, only if such divine causes can be identified for all aspects of one’s identity and nature could the universal Craftsman be said to have providentially cared for all nations of the earth. This pairing of the Hippocratic tradition of geographic determinism with Neoplatonic theology in Julian’s theory resulted in the most robustly deterministic account of ethnic hierarchy in antiquity. When he came to write his rebuttal of Julian’s treatise several decades later, Cyril of Alexandria formulated a moral critique of the emperor’s philosophical proposal, arguing that, if humans have different natures that constrain their behavior, this can only mean that some have been endowed with a natural defect. In place of Julian’s philosophy of ethnicity, Cyril therefore proposed a theology of human equality according to which all humanity had a common nature, deriving from a single Creator, and therefore an equivalent capacity for pursuing virtue. Contingent aspects of human identity such as one’s upbringing, as well as ethnic traits like skin color and language, thus had no bearing upon a person’s moral capabilities. The present article maps the contours of this debate between Julian and Cyril and traces its origins in the account of human diversity set forth in Origen’s Against Celsus.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Church History, 2023
Scholarly accounts of the violent events that occurred early in Cyril of Alexandria's episcopal t... more Scholarly accounts of the violent events that occurred early in Cyril of Alexandria's episcopal tenure rely most of all upon Socrates's Ecclesiastical History, Damascius's Philosophical History, and John of Nikiu's Chronicle. In contrast, Cyril's own corpus is almost never consulted or engaged by scholars working on these topics, which has resulted in the complete neglect of certain passages that are directly relevant to these well-known events. Surprisingly, on at least three occasions Cyril explicitly rejects religiously motivated violence, while, in contrast, in two other passages he theorizes about it in positive terms as a means of protecting the integrity of communal boundaries. The analysis of these passages reveals that, in certain works, Cyril employed a violent rhetoric that plausibly contributed to creating the environment that resulted in Hypatia's murder. In contrast, however, he seemingly shifted his rhetoric at a certain point in his career, going out of his way to disavow precisely the kind of actions with which he is usually associated, perhaps doing so as a response to Hypatia's horrific death. With these complementary insights, this study contributes to the growing scholarly interest in how violent rhetoric can lead to actual violence. Moreover, Cyril's disavowal of religious violence complicates the simplistic image of him that holds sway as the dominant interpretation of his legacy among scholars of late antiquity.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Classical Receptions Journal, 2023
Although it is one of his lesser known and performed plays, Henrik Ibsen considered Emperor and G... more Although it is one of his lesser known and performed plays, Henrik Ibsen considered Emperor and Galilean to be his Hovedverk-his 'main' or 'pivotal' work-in which he finally presented his positive worldview. It remains comparatively little studied in scholarship, though one scholar has recently argued that it is the key to unlocking his entire corpus. The present study builds upon past scholarship uncovering the works Ibsen drew upon in writing the play but goes beyond the mere question of its historical sources and accuracy to consider Ibsen's purpose for including the specific and precise pieces of historical texture he chose in the particular order and configuration he devised. In short, we aim to identify the creative purposes for his curating of the historical details he took
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Classical Quarterly, 2022
Emperor Julian's three-book treatise Contra Galilaeos survives solely in those Christian sources ... more Emperor Julian's three-book treatise Contra Galilaeos survives solely in those Christian sources that quoted it in order to respond to its forceful attack on Christianity. The bulk of these survivals comes from Cyril of Alexandria's twenty-book Contra Iulianum. The recent publication of the first modern critical edition of Cyril's work creates the occasion for a fresh study of the remnants of Julian's text that can be recovered from it. This is especially true for Books 11-20 of Cyril's treatise that are themselves lost and survive only in quotations in later Greek and Syriac sources. The present article undertakes a reassessment of the Julianic material preserved via the Syriac transmission of Contra Iulianum, including several passages hitherto unknown or ignored in earlier studies of Julian's treatise. It provides the Syriac text and English translation of eight passages and contextualizes them in the wider argumentative aim of Contra Galilaeos.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Ecclesiastical History (forthcoming), 2020
In the early fifth century, both Cyril of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo used Eusebius of Caes... more In the early fifth century, both Cyril of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo used Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicle in the writing of their respective apologetic treatises - Against Julian for Cyril and The City of God for Augustine. The present study compares the usage these two authors made of their predecessor and argues for two continuities between these acts of reception: the use of synchronisms between biblical and non-biblical history and the tracing of Mosaic monotheism through time. In both these respects, Cyril and Augustine were carrying forward themes of Christian apologetic that reached back to the second-century apologists, albeit in a more sophisticated form.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Early Christian Studies 29.1, 2021
Approximately one-third of the Oration to the Greeks composed by Tatian the Assyrian is devoted t... more Approximately one-third of the Oration to the Greeks composed by Tatian the Assyrian is devoted to exposing the origin and current activity of demons in human affairs. The primary goal of the present article is to elucidate the source and logic of Tatian’s demonology, specifically as it relates to astrological fate and pharmacology, the two “hostile devices of the demented demons” that he denounces. I argue, first, that his focus upon these two areas is not by chance, but is due to the influence of 1 Enoch, since, like 1 Enoch, he holds that these domains of human expertise derive from malevolent heavenly beings. I argue, second, that Tatian’s criticisms of both astrology and pharmacology are structurally analogous insofar as he claims both are purely the product of demonic contrivance. As a result, these seeming areas of knowledge are in fact based upon nothing real or natural about the world but are instead arbitrary and nonsensical. Moreover, Tatian’s emphasis upon demonic delusion serves the polemical goal of his Oration in an additional way, since it casts the demons as a foil for Tatian himself. Unlike the demons, whom he compares to bandits, Tatian speaks as a representative of the true world order and its one legitimate ruler, and he offers his own Oration as a kind of harsh logotherapy that can accomplish the very thing the demons mendaciously claim to be able to effect through astrology and pharmacology.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Theological Studies, 2020
Cyril of Alexandria’s apologetic treatise Contra Julianum drew upon a wide range of earlier Chris... more Cyril of Alexandria’s apologetic treatise Contra Julianum drew upon a wide range of earlier Christian literature, including works by Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, ps-Justin Martyr, and others. The literary relationship between Contra Julianum and the De Trinitate attributed to Didymus the Blind is, however, contested. In this article I reexamine the parallel passages between these two works and argue that Cyril drew directly upon the De Trinitate as he composed Contra Julianum, using that prior work in three different ways. Finally, in light of this finding, I argue that this literary dependency sheds some light upon the intellectual and perhaps also social milieu out of which Contra Julianum arose, namely the long tradition of Christian authors who appropriated non-Christian sources for apologetic purposes, including such figures as Origen and Didymus.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The earliest formal New Testament commentary in Syriac is the so-called Commentary on the Diatess... more The earliest formal New Testament commentary in Syriac is the so-called Commentary on the Diatessaron attributed to Ephrem. This commentary is thoroughly at home in the world of Syriac Christianity, as seen not least in the fact that it focuses on Tatian's gospel version. Nevertheless, portions of the commentary also exhibit awareness of exegetical traditions shared with contemporary Greek authors. This paper focuses on one of the more striking of these parallels, namely, (ps-)Ephrem's treatment of Mary's Davidic lineage and relation to Elizabeth her 'kinswoman'. Eusebius of Caesarea had taken up this issue in his Gospel Problems and Solutions, and the author of the Syriac commentary argues for the same three points evident in Eusebius' treatment. Hence, the Syriac commentator has likely been directly or indirectly influenced by Eusebius' formulation of this tradition, although specifying the manner of this transmission of ideas is impossible.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Tatian the “Assyrian,” student of Justin Martyr and teacher in Rome in the latter half of the sec... more Tatian the “Assyrian,” student of Justin Martyr and teacher in Rome in the latter half of the second century, was recognized by later Christians such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius, as one of the most educated Christian thinkers of his day. However, a survey of ancient sources and modern scholarship on this figure reveals a number of competing “Tatians” who are not easily reconcilable with one another: Tatian the Marcionite, the Valentinian, the Encratite, the proto-Monarchian, the rhetorician, the gospel editor, and the founder of a school that decisively shaped Syriac Christianity and later Antiochene theology. The present article examines each of these representations in turn in order to highlight a series of unsolved problems related to Tatian and his legacy which require further research, while also suggesting that the inconsistencies in our sources might be the result of Tatian’s own failure to formulate a coherent and compelling intellectual system that could command the allegiance of many followers.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The emergence of a clearer canon of Christian scripture in the late second century coincided with... more The emergence of a clearer canon of Christian scripture in the late second century coincided with a pronounced debate over the proper method for interpreting the texts contained therein. Issues of canonicity were therefore inseparable from debates over exegesis and hermeneutics. Most of the texts and authors involved in this struggle—such as Marcion, Valentinus, and Irenaeus—have received ample scholarly attention, but one seems to have been largely overlooked, namely, the Letter of Peter to James that stands at the head of the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies. This short letter demonstrates a remarkable self-awareness of the possibility of misinterpretation, that is, a lack of correspondence between what exists in the mind of the source and what is expressed by those in the subsequent chain of interpretive transmission, and it offers a solution based on a fictitious Jewish precedent, which, while acknowledging the necessity of interpretation, nevertheless attempts to provide strict boundaries within which proper interpretation can occur. In some respects, such as the insistence on interpretation according to a κανών, this model closely mirrors what others like Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria also advocated. Yet the Letter of Peter to James is distinct in the prominence granted to the character of Peter, and in the secrecy of the books about which it speaks.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
1 Peter 3:21 has been called “the nearest approach to a definition of baptism that the NT affords... more 1 Peter 3:21 has been called “the nearest approach to a definition of baptism that the NT affords,” yet the key phrase συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς ἐπερώτημα εἰς θεόν is notably ambiguous and thus open to divergent interpretations. This article considers under-utilized comparative material from the early Christian tradition to shed light on the passage. Five sources are investigated: the early baptismal catechesis known as the Two Ways tradition; the interpretations of the verse put forward by Basil of Caesarea, ps-Didymus the Blind, and Cyril of Alexandria; and finally the translation of the verse in the Syriac Peshitta version. The evidence of these early sources supports a subjective reading of the genitive in the Petrine verse, and also demonstrates a twofold trajectory in the interpretation of the content of the “appeal”—initially with a moral emphasis that becomes increasingly doctrinal from the late fourth century onwards. In keeping with this more prominent doctrinal focus, the ἐπερώτημα of 1 Peter becomes assimilated to the ὁμολογία of the baptizand, a conjunction of terms that also occurs in legal contracts in the papyri. Hence, the view of baptism as a formal and public contract with subsequent binding force on the parties involved remains constant from 1 Peter through these later sources, though the content of the commitment undergoes development during this period.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The only two surviving works from Tatian are his Oration to the Greeks and the so-called Diatessa... more The only two surviving works from Tatian are his Oration to the Greeks and the so-called Diatessaron. Previous scholars have examined the Oration in search of clues that might shed light on the origins of his gospel, and have highlighted his adherence to divine "unity" and insistence on historical "accuracy." In this article it is argued that a more fundamental theme in the Oration is Tatian's concern for proper "order," a rhetorical category that he filled out with theological and philosophical content, and that it was this which served as the primary impetus for his creation of his gospel edition. Furthermore, if rhetoric gave him the motivation, it was his grammatical training which gave him the tools for this enterprise, since in composing his work he must have relied upon the kind of close literary analysis learned under the grammarian. Viewing the matter from this perspective allows one to place Tatian more clearly into the second-century context of the Second Sophistic and also allows one to situate him within an ongoing conversation among Christian authors in the second century over the order, or lack thereof, evident in the church’s authoritative texts.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
In Progress by Matthew R Crawford
Books by Matthew R Crawford
The contributors explore numerous questions: did Tatian intend to supplement or supplant the fourfold gospel? How many were his sources and how free was he with their text? How do we identify a Diatessaronic witness? Is it legitimate to use Tatian's Diatessaron as a source in New Testament textual criticism? Is a reconstruction of the Diatessaron still possible? These queries in turn contribute to the question of what the Diatessaron signifies with respect to the broader context of gospel writing, and what this can tell us about how the writing, rewriting and reception of gospel material functioned in the first and second centuries and beyond.
Part 1: Origins
Chapter 1 – ‘Eusebius’ Canon Tables as a Paratext for Ordering Knowledge’
Chapter 2 – ‘The Origins of Scholarship on the Fourfold Gospel: From Alexandria to Caesarea’
Chapter 3 – ‘Reading the Gospels with the Canon Tables’
Part 2: Receptions
Chapter 4 – ‘Augustine’s Use of the Canon Tables in De consensu evangelistarum’
Chapter 5 – ‘Canon Tables 2.0: The Peshitta Version of the Eusebian Apparatus’
Chapter 6 – ‘Scholarly Practices: The Eusebian Canon Tables in the Hiberno-Latin Tradition’
Chapter 7 – ‘Seeing the Salvation of God: Images as Paratext in Armenian Commentaries on the Canon Tables’
Appendix 1: A Translation of Eusebius’ Letter to Carpianus
Appendix 2: Eusebian Parallels in Augustine’s De consensu evangelistarum
Appendix 3: The Gospel Synopsis in Codex Climaci Rescriptus and its Possible Connection to Ammonius’ Diatessaron-Gospel
Appendix 4: The Note of Theophanes the Grammarian about Canon Tables
Peer-Reviewed Articles by Matthew R Crawford
The contributors explore numerous questions: did Tatian intend to supplement or supplant the fourfold gospel? How many were his sources and how free was he with their text? How do we identify a Diatessaronic witness? Is it legitimate to use Tatian's Diatessaron as a source in New Testament textual criticism? Is a reconstruction of the Diatessaron still possible? These queries in turn contribute to the question of what the Diatessaron signifies with respect to the broader context of gospel writing, and what this can tell us about how the writing, rewriting and reception of gospel material functioned in the first and second centuries and beyond.
Part 1: Origins
Chapter 1 – ‘Eusebius’ Canon Tables as a Paratext for Ordering Knowledge’
Chapter 2 – ‘The Origins of Scholarship on the Fourfold Gospel: From Alexandria to Caesarea’
Chapter 3 – ‘Reading the Gospels with the Canon Tables’
Part 2: Receptions
Chapter 4 – ‘Augustine’s Use of the Canon Tables in De consensu evangelistarum’
Chapter 5 – ‘Canon Tables 2.0: The Peshitta Version of the Eusebian Apparatus’
Chapter 6 – ‘Scholarly Practices: The Eusebian Canon Tables in the Hiberno-Latin Tradition’
Chapter 7 – ‘Seeing the Salvation of God: Images as Paratext in Armenian Commentaries on the Canon Tables’
Appendix 1: A Translation of Eusebius’ Letter to Carpianus
Appendix 2: Eusebian Parallels in Augustine’s De consensu evangelistarum
Appendix 3: The Gospel Synopsis in Codex Climaci Rescriptus and its Possible Connection to Ammonius’ Diatessaron-Gospel
Appendix 4: The Note of Theophanes the Grammarian about Canon Tables