This article examines the story of Jesus’ birth as it is presented in some of the so-called Apocryphal Infancy Gospels that have always aroused great interest in popular culture and in the arts. These texts describe the birth of Jesus by means of an important ‘narrative expansion’: the childbirth of Mary takes place in a cave, one or more midwives as well as two animals, the ox and the donkey, are added to the scene. These narratives do not relate the preaching of Jesus, his death on the cross and his resurrection, but they present the event of his birth as a new beginning for all mankind. In doing so they reflect early Christian questions concerning Jesus’ nature. Examining some characteristic elements of this narrative development of the birth of Jesus, this article tries to show how this nativity may correspond to the construction of a myth.

This short article is intended to contribute to the solution of a known locus desperatus of the Augustinian Confessions. The Author proposes that 8, 2, 3 should be read spirabat paululum iam instead of spirabat † popilios iam †. The conjecture is reminiscent of Catil. 61, 4 paululum etian spirans concerning Catilina’s death (Augustine remembers this famous Sallustian locus when he writes civ. 3, 27 vix paululum respirante civitate). Catilina’s death is a metaphor for the fall of Roman paganism, and for Marius Victorinus’s and Augustine's personal lives as well as their conversions. Ruggiero adds further evidence to Manlio Simonetti’s arguments as shown in the «Nota al Testo» (vol. I, 1992, pp. CLXIIICLXVIII) preceding his edition of Confessiones for the Italian collection “Lorenzo Valla”: common mistakes such as popilios iam were already in the edition’s manuscript.

This article analyses the Tractatus in psalmos 82, 83 and 84, reported in the two series that transmit Jerome’s homilies. The first part analyses the polemical terminology employed in regard to heretics and Jews, and the juxtaposition between the simplicity of the Christian style and the eloquence of rhetoricians. In the second part, the homilies of the two series are compared, and exegetical differences are pointed out. Lastly, an overview of a possible chronology of the Tractatus is proposed.

Written in 620 ca., the Pandectes of the Holy Scripture (CPG 7842-7844) of Antiochus, monk of the Great Laura of Saint-Sabas (Jerusalem), represents a remarkable example of the kefavlaia literary genre in the early Byzantine period. It includes, among its many patristic sources, a series of 26 passages borrowed from the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch (CPG 1025), used in their recensio media. The quotations are distributed in 13 of the 130 total chapters of the work. The present study aims not only to evaluate the textual contribution of the Pandectes to the study of the Epistles of Ignatius, but also attempts a critical outline of its wide manuscript tradition and text.

Isidore of Seville did not leave behind any specifically trinitarian, Christological or pneumatological treatises. We find his theological doctrine evident in sections throughout his works although, as a result of the effort of a good compiler and synthesizer, it is not difficult to trace the passages in which the bishop of Seville deals with each one of these subjects. With regard to the doctrine on the Holy Spirit, the chapter dedicated to the third person of the Trinity in the first book of the Sententiae offers a fairly complete summary of the matter. The following pages are intended to present the content of that chapter and to place it within the context of the rest of Isidore’s theological output. Therefore, in addition to paying close attention to the text of the Sententiae, we will seek its dependence or influence, as the case may be, on other treatises of Isidore, mainly in these three: Etymologiae, De fide catholica and Liber differentiarum [II]. Augustine, Gregory the Great and the theological contribution of the Spanish councils are presented as Isidore’s main sources.

This study aims to delineate some aspects relating to Hosius of Corduba, especially in regard to the nexus between ecclesiastical politics and faithfulness to Nicene orthodoxy found on the margins of the often discussed concessions by the Spanish bishop to the pressures of Emperor Constantius II, when the former signed the homoiousian formula of the Council of Sirmium in 357. Through an analysis of the ancient historiographical witnesses, one notes a clear divergence between the Eastern and Western sources. While Hosius’s orthodoxy and sanctity are a given in the tradition of the Greek Church, Latin historiography considered him a crazy old man and traitor of the Nicene faith. These contrasting judgments come from the differing evaluations attributed to the Spanish bishop’s concessions when he was confronted by Constantius II: for those of the East, it is simply a question of ecclesiastical politics; for the West, faithfulness to Nicene orthodoxy involved taking a much greater risk. This note wishes to foster a reading of the Orthodoxy of Hosius that is more juridical than doctrinal.

This article re-examines the attention scholars have given to the origins of monoergenism and monotheletism and proposes a rebuttal to the positions of J. Tannous who, in an article in Dumbarton Oaks Papers in 2014, holds that these doctrines represented in Syro/Palestine certain “regional doctrinal hegemonies, at least among Chalcedonian communities, and were not artificial concoctions”. For the author, on the other hand, the episcopal sees in these regions had to have been for the most part in the hands of monophysites, without in any way excluding the possibility that there were also Chalcedonian bishops and communities as well, as in the case of Abraham of Rusafa. Thus, for the Author, monoenergism and monotheletism, from an epistemological and theological point of view, were the last glimmer of Apollinarism which was continually re-emerging from the ashes and given a new life by Severian monophysitism.

The comments in this Note are not exhaustive, but intentionally offer a path (1. Feminine Typologies; 2. Testimonials relating to ministry; 3. Rites of Ordination (?); 4. The sacramental bond) wherein theological interpretation has a privileged place, deeply inscribed in the present commentary in regard to women’s problems and expectations in today’s Church. Although nothing certain and irrefutable emerges from the documentary evidence, in regard to women’s ministry, the situation of the Church has changed, as has the situation of women. The true sacramental bond concerns the theological understanding of ordained ministry. If this bond is reconnected to its original and constitutive character of service (diakonia), perhaps some of the reasons for excluding women will crumble. For there are women in the Church who continue to live and work within and for the Church.

The question of the role of women in the Church, in other words, of women’s ministries, is still conditioned today, especially in the Catholic Church, by theological a priori and by anachronism. This essay aims to discuss and to point out the difficulties arising from both of these factors.

In his Commentarium in Hieremiam, as well as in other contemporary works, Jerome accuses Pelagius of conducting a defamatory campaign against him by accusing him of Origenism, contempt for marriage (regarding such charges Jerome had already needed to defend himself!) and more generally, of wishing others ill. Did Jerome really seek to discredit his adversary, or were such accusations even circulating? This paper takes into consideration Pelagius’s surviving works and intends to give – within the limits admitted by the sources – an answer to this question, coming to the conclusion that the conflict between the two writers was not lacking in personal attacks, and that Jerome’s report is thus trustworthy.

Augustine’s Sermon 4 on Esau and Jacob is long (860 lines) and consists of a complex division in 37 chapters. This division makes it difficult to identify quickly and easily the rhetorical arrangement which must have been an important factor in making this sermon a success in the context of Augustine’s struggle against Donatism. This same division has been handed down through the centuries. Once the existing, complex division into 37 chapters is relinquished, it is possible, on the basis of linguistic and Scriptural indications, to establish the existence of a new, simple division into 3 parts. A frame exists in these three parts that runs from creation (Gen. 1) to judgement (Mt. 25), in which Augustine discusses the stories of (the blessings of) Esau and Jacob (Gen. 25 and 27) in the context of the absence or presence of love (for which he employs 1 Cor. 13). Seen from this perspective, Esau represents the bad people who consciously permit themselves to be separated from the Church through the absence of love (a reference to the Donatist schism), while Jacob stands for the good people, who highlight the unity of the Church by availing themselves of love: by not acting on their own authority and expelling sinners, but by leaving judgement to God and by accepting them lovingly. The new division clearly reveals this message.

In anticipation of a new edition of the Passio apostolorum Petri et Pauli (CANT n. 193), this article analyzes the recensio conducted by Lipsius for his edition of 1891. The review of the main variants highlighted by the editor reverses his thesis: they depend on innovations by reduction, not by interpolation. Such innovations could perhaps depend on early medieval liturgical use of the work. With regard to the methodology, the comparison with the Greek tradition of the work, as an external criterion of evaluation, appears misleading, since it is unlikely that Greek is the original language.

Replete with stories of gods and men interacting with animals, classical literature also affords a broad range of relationships between women and animals. Such a rich series of symbolic animals finds fertile ground in the biblical world, too. Apart from symbolic animals, early Christianity knows a direct contact with wild animals during the persecutions carried out by the Roman Empire. By analyzing the martyrdom of some women (Blandina, Perpetua and Thecla) in connection with the animals they had to face, we can note that animals acquire a symbolic meaning. They become the pieces of an allegorical and exegetical framework whose major purpose is to celebrate God.

The Apostle Paul exercised his ministry in the Roman provinces of Galatia and Asia. An unknown presbyter of the second century wrote the Acts of Paul. An important part of this text consists of the Acts of Paul and Thecla. Although sometimes these Acts circulated as a separate text, they recount the vicissitudes of the virgin Thecla, native of the city of Iconium (the present Konya). The events take place mainly in the cities of Iconium of Licaonia and of Antioch of Pisidia (Yalvaç), two neighboring regions in the heart of Anatolia in the Roman province of southern Galatia. The article intends to offer the historical, geographical, linguistic and cultural background of the Acts of Paul and Thecla of the second half of the second century.

Published here is a critical edition of Augustine’s Sermons 293 and 299, the first edition since the Maurists. Sermon 293 was preached in Carthage on the 24th of June 413, feast of John the Baptist, at a time when infant baptism was a controversial question. Sermon 299 was delivered on the 29th of June, in honour of Peter and Paul : its manuscript transmission and thematic likeness with Sermon 293 suggest that it was preached, according to Pierre-Marie Hombert’s hypothesis, in the same year in the same city, not five years later. Both texts, numbered among the longest of the De sanctis sermons, contradict Pelagian theses about the origin of death and the notion of human impeccability.

The Matthean parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matt 13:24-30) appears across the spectrum of writings of early Christians in north Africa. Given that the parable seems to advocate a non-judgemental acceptance of sinners within the community in the present age, while north African Christianity is known for its emphasis on membership purity and the exclusion of sinners, how was this parable handled in that context? This article argues that an author like Tertullian avoided the ecclesiological dimensions of the parable, and that Cyprian never applied the parable so as to reject the excommunication of the lapsed. Tyconius and Optatus made only passing reference to the parable. Augustine found the parable helpful in arguing against the Donatist practice of excommunicating traditores. Contra litteras Petiliani is considered in some detail. Yet even Augustine, who stands outside the north African tradition, believed in the excommunication.

Although at first sight the Speculum contains ‘too little Augustine’ for theologians who are attempting to discover the originality of this thought, it is in fact a revealing anthology. An examination of the criteria used for the selection of Scriptural quotations brings to light an important facet of his mystagogy. Both the exclusion and inclusion criteria demonstrate that Augustine’s intention is to confront his reader with his own imperfections, and this to a much greater degree than is suggested by the understatement of Speculum 108 that the moral guidelines proffered should have an immediate impact. Augustine’s aim in writing the Speculum is to effect a confrontation of the reader with himself, in a first, but permanent step on the way of mystagogy. Scripture serves as a mirror to reflect as detailed and unpolished an image as possible of the person who looks into it; the confrontation must be as violent as possible.

This paper is intended as an offprint, focused on the history of studies, of a larger analysis about the so-called gammadia in the Roman catacombs and their computerized cataloguing which was the subject of my doctoral thesis. Over the centuries a basic confusion existed between gammadiae as symbols in the frescoes and in the mosaics, and the term as used in some biographies in the Liber Pontificalis. An important role was assigned to the illustrations in Antonio Bosio’s Roma Sotterranea, which conditioned the observations of all later authors, and to Antonio Quacquarelli’s studies which were based on a connection between gammadiae, numerology and patristics. Aided by recent opinions and studies, especially on the textiles from the Ancient Near East, Egypt and Israel, we can try to continue the analysis of gammadiae, searching for their real meaning.

Written in 620 ca., the Pandects of the Holy Scripture (CPG 7842-7844) by Antiochus, monk of the Great Laura of Saint-Sabas (Jerusalem), represents a remarkable example of the kefavlaia literary genre in the Early Byzantine Period. It includes, among its many patristic sources, a series of 26 passages borrowed from the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch (CPG 1025), as found in their recensio media. The quotations are distributed in 13 of the 130 total chapters of the work. This second part of the study aims to propose the critical text of the Epistles of Ignatius contained in the Pandects and so to cast light on Antiochus’ use of his sources in creating his own work.

The image of wine has a “spiritual sense”, which helps the faithful to understand the principles of their belief. Its mystery is connected with the theme of “sober inebriation”, developed by Philo of Alexandria and Origen, and culminating in Ambrose. The good wines that the bride enjoys before the groom’s arrival are a symbol of the good doctrines of the OT, whose teachings are however inferior to the revelation of the incarnate Christ. Good, sweet wine, meanwhile, refers to the doctrines of the NT interpreted spiritually, the logos that helps us begin to know Christ, to bind ourselves to him in ecclesial unity and to love our neighbour. It also leads us to the “winepress”, i.e. renouncing superfluous land, becoming “full of must” and inebriated, so that we can dedicate ourselves to contemplation. The vine has a Christological value and catechetical function, dating back to John 15.1, which is often quoted with Saint Paul. The place where the vine is born and develops is the soul; the Logos supports its flowering in those who, by their free will, choose to flourish. The cluster of grapes refers to Christ, or to the victory of the righteous; the many grapes that he contains are believers. The vineyard is a symbol of the church formed by the pagans, of the commandments of God, or of the good things that God gave to man, who did not preserve them, having been stripped of them by the devil. The guardians of the vineyard are angels or priests.