1. Introduction Part I. The Polemical Making of Marcion the Heretic: 2. The beginnings of the construction of a heretic: Justin Martyr 3. Irenaeus and the shaping of a heretic 4. Marcion through Tertullian's eyes 5. The heresiological tradition 6. Theology and exegesis against Marcion 7. Marcion in Syriac dress Part II. Marcion through his Scriptures: 8. Marcion as editor and interpreter I: Marcion's Gospel 9. Marcion as editor and interpreter II: Marcion's Apostolikon 10. Marcion's other writings Part III. The Second-Century Shaping of Marcion: 11. Marcion in his second-century context 12. Principles of Marcion's thought and their context I: God 13. Principles of Marcion's thought II: the Gospel 14. Principles of Marcion's thought III: life and practice 15. Principles of Marcion's thought IV: the contradictions of the Gospel 16. Afterword: Marcion and the making of a heretic.

Marcion and the Making of a Heretic: God and Scripture in the Second Century

THE SELF-ATTESTATION OF SCRIPTURE AS THE PROPER GROUND FOR SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Matthew Scott Wireman, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2012 Chair: Dr. Stephen J. Wellum This dissertation examines the Protestant doctrine of Scripture’s self-witness of divine authority. Chapter 1 examines the current evangelical milieu. The doctrine has become nearly obsolete in the discussion of systematic theology. Consequentially, wherein lies authority has been greatly misunderstood in Protestant circles. Chapter 2 surveys the doctrine through the history of the church. Particular note is made of Augustine, John Calvin, John Owen, and Herman Bavinck. This chapter evinces the near consensus of the church that the authority for the Church is found preeminently in the Scriptures. Chapter 3 summarizes post-conservative, Stanley J. Grenz and John R. Franke, attempts to ground theology in Scripture plus culture and tradition. This chapter does not offer a critique as much as it aims to represent post-conservatives in their own words. Chapter 4 looks at how the Old Testament viewed itself—particularly through the ministries of Moses and the prophets. YHWH chose representatives who would speak to the covenant community and write down the stipulations and history of YHWH’s relationship with Israel for posterity. Chapter 5 looks at the New Testament, which follows the paradigm instituted by the Old Testament. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s promises find their fulfillment, which foments his commissioning of the apostles to be his spokesmen. Chapter 6 ties together the threads that cohere in the two testaments of Scripture. It makes explicit the claims of Scripture that God is a se, he communicates with his creation, he uses spokesmen, and his written Word is its own witness for its authority. Chapter 7 defines the doctrine of Scripture’s self-witness and applies it to tradition, culture, and the task of apologetics. The chapter explicates the thesis of the dissertation that Scripture’s self-witness must be the ground of systematic theology.

"The Self-Attestation of Scripture as the Proper Ground for Systematic Theology"

In this dissertation, I engage a variety of contexts in reading Exodus 3:13–15. The trend in late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Old Testament scholarship was to oppose the meaning of the Hebrew text with later Christian interpretations, which built on Greek and Latin translations. According to this view, the text of Ex 3:13‒15 presents an etymology of the divine name that suggests God’s active presence with Israel or what God will accomplish for Israel; the text does not address the nature or being of God. In Part I, I critique this interpretive trend, arguing that religio-historical approaches to determining the origins of the name “YHWH” and of Yahwism do not substantially help one read the received form of the biblical text, and that Augustine’s interpretation of Ex 3:13–15 provides an example of a pre-modern reading of the literal sense that avoids the problems of which it might be accused.
In Part II, I argue that the text of Ex 3:13–15, understood according to the literal sense, addresses both who God is as well as God’s action, and that conversation with Augustine’s reading can help the reader, in a Christian context, to understand the text and its subject matter. Read within the literary contexts of the received form of the book of Exodus and the Pentateuch as a whole, the text of Ex 3:13–15 suggests that Moses’ question addresses more than factual information, even the character and nature of God. The “I am who I am” of v. 14a expresses indefiniteness; while God reveals himself as YHWH and offers this name for the Israelites to call upon him, God is not exhausted by this revelation but rather remains beyond human comprehension and control.

YHWH, the Trinity, and the literal sense : theological interpretation of Exodus 3:13-15

AC C O R D I N G T O AT H A N A S I U S of Alexandria, when the devil had failed to tempt the young monk Antony with thoughts of home and family or by coming to him as a woman, he desperately tried to seduce the ascetic by appearing as a black boy. Unimpressed, Antony told the devil, “You are black in your mind and as weak as a boy.”1 It was not the last time the devil or one of his demons would appear with black skin to an Egyptian monk, according to tales preserved in the monastic literature from the fourth and fifth centuries. A young monk beset by thoughts of sex encountered an Ethiopian woman with a foul smell. An older monk found an Ethiopian girl he remembered seeing in his youth sitting on his knees; driven mad, he struck her, and a foul odor adhered to his hand. Afflicted by pride, another monk was divinely instructed to reach for his neck, where

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_sexuality/v010/10.3brakke.pdf

Ethiopian Demons: Male Sexuality, the Black-Skinned Other, and the Monastic Self

An angelic community: the significance of beliefs about angels in the first four centuries of Christianity

The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate

Augustine : presbyter factus sum

From its inception the church has always had a Bible--the Jewish Scriptures. But Christians have not read these Scriptures in the same way the Jews did. They have read them in the light of what God did in Jesus the Christ. Thus the Jewish Scriptures became for Christian readers the Old Testament. This Ancient Christian Commentary on Exodus through Deuteronomy bears ample witness to this new way of reading these ancient texts. Among the earliest interpreters whose works remain extant is Origen, who virtually single-handedly assured the Old Testament a permanent place within the Christian church through his extensive commentary and reflection. His twenty-seventh homily on Numbers is particularly noteworthy for his interpretation of the forty-two stopping places in the desert wanderings as the forty-two stages of growth in the spiritual life. Among Greek-speaking interpreters, the current volume draws widely on John Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret of Cyr and John of Damascus. Among Latin-speaking interpreters, quotations from Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Peterius, Caesarius of Arles, Cassiodorus and Isidore are found in abundance. Ephrem and Aphrahat are represented among Syriac speakers. Numerous other interpreters are present from each grouping. Varied in texture and nuance, the interpreters included in this volume edited by Joseph T. Lienhard display a treasure house of ancient wisdom that speaks with eloquence and intellectual acumen to the church today.

Joseph T. Lienhard

Papers

The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate

Augustine : presbyter factus sum

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

Reading the Bible and Learning to Read: The Influence of Education on St. Augustine’s Exegesis

The Earliest Florilegia of Augustine