Hellenism – Judaism – Christianity
Essays on Their Interaction
by P.W. Van Der Horst
In 1990 the author published two volumes of collected essays. The first one, Essays on the Jewish World of Early Christianity, focused on the relevance of Jewish themes and writings for the study of early Christianity; the second one, Studies on the Hellenistic Background of the New Testament, centered on pagan Hellenistic material, elucidating various aspects of the New Testament and Early Christianity. In the present volume these threads come together. In 20 essays, most of them published over the last few years, some of them new, several aspects of pagan Hellenistic and Judeo-Christian cultures are investigated in their various forms of interaction. Disparate though the copies may seem at first sight, the underlying unity is to be found in the fact that the author wrote all these essays in the framework of the Utrecht University Faculty of Theology’s research project: ‘The Cultural Milieu of Early Christianity’. The study of the New Testament was the starting point and remains the impetus for the research that lies behind most of all of these contributions. In the Utrecht tradition, inaugurated by W.C. van Unnik, New Testament problems are studied in their ancient context in the widest sense of the word. This inevitably leads to thorough research of both Jewish and Hellenistic cultures in the period from Alexander the Great to Justinian, in their various interactions. This is why the book has a fourfold division: (1) Hellenism and Judaism, (2) Judaism and Christianity, (3) Hellenism and Christianity, and (4) Hellenism-Judaism-Christianity. The author hopes that reading these studies will create a greater awareness of how much there is yet to be discovered in these still largely unexplored areas of the interrelationships of Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian cultures in antiquity. Whatever important research has already been done in this field, there is little doubt that this kind of investigations is still very much in its infancy. If these contributions, however modest, make other scholars and students enthousiastic for pursuing this line of research, the author will have attained his goal.
In 1990 the author published two volumes of collected essays. The first one, Essays on the Jewish World of Early Christianity, focused on the relevance of Jewish themes and writings for the study of early Christianity; the second one, Studies on the Hellenistic Background of the New Testament, centered on pagan Hellenistic material, elucidating various aspects of the New Testament and Early Christianity. In the present volume these threads come together. In 20 essays, most of them published over the last few years, some of them new, several aspects of pagan Hellenistic and Judeo-Christian cultures are investigated in their various forms of interaction. Disparate though the copies may seem at first sight, the underlying unity is to be found in the fact that the author wrote all these essays in the framework of the Utrecht University Faculty of Theology’s research project: ‘The Cultural Milieu of Early Christianity’. The study of the New Testament was the starting point and remains the impetus for the research that lies behind most of all of these contributions. In the Utrecht tradition, inaugurated by W.C. van Unnik, New Testament problems are studied in their ancient context in the widest sense of the word. This inevitably leads to thorough research of both Jewish and Hellenistic cultures in the period from Alexander the Great to Justinian, in their various interactions. This is why the book has a fourfold division: (1) Hellenism and Judaism, (2) Judaism and Christianity, (3) Hellenism and Christianity, and (4) Hellenism-Judaism-Christianity. The author hopes that reading these studies will create a greater awareness of how much there is yet to be discovered in these still largely unexplored areas of the interrelationships of Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian cultures in antiquity. Whatever important research has already been done in this field, there is little doubt that this kind of investigations is still very much in its infancy. If these contributions, however modest, make other scholars and students enthousiastic for pursuing this line of research, the author will have attained his goal.
- By (author) PW van der Horst
Other Titles in this Series
My Shepherd, though You Do not Know Me
The Persian Royal Propaganda Model in the Nehemiah Memoir
Volume 78
Happy the One who Meditates on Wisdom (Sir. 14,20)
Collected Essays on the Book of Ben Sira
Volume 43
Sabbath in the Making
A Study of the Inner-Biblical Interpretation of the Sabbath Commandment
Volume 97
The Old Greek of Isaiah: Issues and Perspectives
Papers read at the Conference on the Septuagint of Isaiah, held in Leiden 10-11 April 2008
Volume 55
“Have You Not Read this Scripture?”
Memory Variation and Context-Based Modification in the Old Testament Quotations in the Gospel of Mark
Volume 116
Jesus, the Eschatological Temple
An Exegetical Study of Jn 2,13-22 in the Light of the Pre 70 C.E. Eschatological Temple Hopes and the Synoptic Temple Action
Volume 58
A Divine Round Trip
The Literary and Christological Function of the Descent/Ascent Leitmotif in the Gospel of John
Volume 79
Qumran and the Bible
Studying the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Volume 57
Meaningful Meetings with Foreigners in the World of the Bible
Essays in Honour of Klaas Spronk on the Occasion of His Retirement
Volume 119
The Sources of Celsus’s Criticism of Jesus
Theological Developments in the Second Century AD
Volume 108
Between Israelite Religion and Old Testament Theology
Essays on Archaeology, History, and Hermeneutics
Volume 80
From Worshipping, Sacrificing and Mourning to Praising and Praying
Key Concepts of the Greek Bible
Volume 120
Law, Prophets, and Wisdom
On the Provenance of Translators and their Books in the Septuagint Version
Volume 68
Heilige oder Hure?
Die Rezeptionsgeschichte von Juda und Tamar (Genesis 38) von der Antike bis zur Reformationszeit
Volume 48
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