This article analyses an old issue regarding the identity of John the Baptist in the Commentary on the Gospel of John by Origen of Alexandria in response to the Gnostic Heracleon and some enigmatic anonymous adversaries. Taking as a starting point the two hypotheses existing nowadays about this topic, a new approach is proposed through which it is shown that both hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. The present work has been structured into two large sections. The context where this debate emerges is presented in the first part. This context refers to the continuity or discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. The second part is focused on the identity of John the Baptist adopting the point view related to the impossibility of identifying the disciple with no specific character, also revealed in the first section.

In this paper we shall examine a few texts by authors who predate Hilary in order to investigate a possible exegetical tradition or interpretative current that could include several gnostic groups cited by Irenaeus of Lyons (II c.), to Origen (III c.) and saint Hilary of Poitiers (IV c.). However, one of the interpretations that Origen presents in his Commentary on saint John is the same interpretation that Hilary gives, but it is more developed. Certainly, Hilary and Origen comment two different Gospels, but both comment homologous scenes; Hilary comments Mt. 8:5-13 and Origen, Io. 4:46-54. In addition, we believe some testimonies in Hilary’s commentary can reveal the influence of Origen’s commentary on Hilary/s. One of these testimonies could be the explanation of the strange reading transmitted by Hilary who calls tribunus to the centurio of the Gospel.

The study of the reception of Irenaeus of Lyons in the Liber de sectis hereticorum of Baldwin of Canterbury (+ 1191) illuminates three aspects of the author’s context: (1) the theological and ecclesial context (the problem of Catharism and of Nihilism); (2) the context of the libraries in which Baldwin could have read the Adversus Haereses; (3) the context of the manuscript tradition of the Adversus Haereses. Here a study of the titles of the chapters and of the textual variants allows us greater precision concerning the manuscripts which we know in a stemma codicum. Our conclusion is that the work of Baldwin is the only witness which we have to the manuscript of Canterbury which, in turn, is shown to have a closer kinship with the manuscripts of the family of manuscripts preserved in Lyons, especially with the Arundel manuscript.

Vat. gr. 1196 is a miscellaneous manuscript that contains canonical, synodal and heresiological texts from different authors. These adnotationes offer its own foliation and contents.

This article studies Isidore of Seville’s reception of the moral theology of Gregory the Great. Examples will be offered from the Expositio in Vetus Testamentum and the second book of the Differentiae; the moral project of the Sententiae will also be explored. The most significant conclusion is that Isidore refuses to reproduce the most relevant innovations of Gregory’s teaching on charity.

In Hippolytus, in Cant. II, 3 we find the Georgian term შჯულ-ი (šǯul-i) several times. G. Garitte rendered it in his Latin translation always as lex, causing quite a bit of obscurity in Hippolytus’ lines. The solution appears when we recognize that it can be traced both to the Greek νόμος and to διαϑήκη. If we take this into account, the text now flows harmoniously with other passages in the works of Hippolytus and with the literal tenor of the terms chosen by the Greek epitomist from the Interpretatio Cantici canticorum of Hippolytus.

Augustine of Hippo wanted to establish differences in everyday life between the Catholic Church and other religious movements. With this goal in mind, the Bishop of Hippo reflected upon the eating habits of a good Christian. Through analysis of different works of the Augustinian corpus it can be observed how he approached food from a dual point of view: a hierarchical difference between “earthly food and heavenly food” and rules that should govern the habits of faithful Christians, among them fasting.

According to John Cassian, God bestows his supernatural grace only upon men who transcend Christian legalism and take up Christ’s consilium perfectionis. God’s grace is merited by men who strive to perfection. In so doing, they place themselves sub gratia Christi. For Cassian, the true Christian community is composed solely of ascetics who have set themselves apart from ordinary Christians in order to attain the highest good to which human nature must aspire – theperennial contemplation of God. As Cassian has it, it is the main concern of the ascetic bishop to convey to ordinary Christians the call to perfection.

This article draws attention to the silent relationship ─ both in written and archeological sources ─ between monasteries and the production of parchment in Late Antiquity, particularly in Visigothic Spain, where there is little archaeological data concerning early monastic communities. Once contextualized, the little, indirect evidence for the production of parchment may provide a valuable argument for the identification of Christian monastic buildings in certain archaeological sites that have been classified according to other typologies (villages, encampment, etc.), at a time of major changes, during which the parchment codex has replaced the papyrus roll.

The Historia monachorum Syriae, written by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in 444 AD, contains a large quantity of sports metaphors in which the ascetic was presented as the “athlete of God”. The origin of this metaphor goes back to the epistles of Paul of Tarsus. Afterwards, there were many Christian writers who included it in their writings, although Theodoret undoubtedly exploited it in a much more intense way than other authors. His abundant use of this metaphor was due to the great popularity enjoyed by athletic contests in the eastern Mediterranean well into the fifth century. Moreover, the partially profane education of Theodoret allowed him to give a specific terminology to his sports metaphors hardly documentable in other writers of Christian antiquity.