St. John the Forerunner in Amisus. A note on a Christian epitaph (original) (raw)
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Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum – Journal of Ancient Christianity 16 (2012) 181-225
The present article offers the edition, accompanied by an English translation, of a Coptic homily on the Cross and the Good Thief (CPG 2622; clavis coptica 0395) attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria. The edition is based on the Pierpont Morgan codex M595, ff. 141ro-148ro, a 9th century parchment codex, which belonged to the Monastery of the Archangel Michael, situated near Hamuli in the Fayyum oasis. The critical apparatus records the variant readings of the three other surviving manuscripts of Ps.-Theophilus’ sermon. The introduction contains the description of the manuscripts, as well as a commentary which links the sermon on the Cross and the Good Thief by Ps.-Theophilus to the Patristic exegetical tradition. Literary connections between the long hymn to the Cross, which appears in the text edited here, and similar material in the pseudo-Chrysostomic work In venerabilem crucem sermo (CPG 4525) are also pointed out.
A Second-Century Christian Inscription from the Via Latina
Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2011
The article discusses an inscription from the suburbs of Rome, known as NCE 156. Fifty years ago, Margherita Guarducci argued on paleographic grounds that it dates to the second century, making it among the very earliest Christian inscriptions known, earlier than than the Abercius stone, often considered to be the earliest Christian inscription in existence. Her arguments are reconsidered and strengthened in light of later publications and discoveries. The core of the article, however, is devoted to demonstrating the presence of a deep and complicated relationship with the language of Greek funeral poetry, a connection that has completely escaped scholarly notice. As a result, it is clear that the inscription is a funeral epitaph, not a "baptismal inscription" as has been claimed in some studies. Moreover, the writer of the text deliberately subverted many of the conventions of Greek funeral poetry and expected the audience for the poem to appreciate this. The poem and the people who wrote, commissioned, and displayed it may thus be situated fairly highly on the spectrum of literary and cultural sophistication. While the circumstances of discovery do not allow us to place the inscription in a precise archaeological context, it is possible that it derives from the grounds of a villa, around the Third Mile of the Via Latina, where a community of Valentinian Christians may have been located.