The School of Antioch

Acknowledgments

Members of the unit “Bible in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions” of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) are happy to present this book into the hands of scholars and students of biblical studies, as a new volume in the series “Bible in the Christian Orthodox Tradition” of the Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.

As in the previous volumes of the series, this book offers the latest scholoarly findings and conclusions in the field of biblical theology and research from the perspective, and based on the traditions, of the hisrtocial Orthoox Churches which read, studied, taught and commented on the Bible in their native languages. In this volume we focus on the biblical hermeneutics, criticism, interpretation and theology of the Church of Antioch: the Church that was born and nurtured in the historical Roman province of Syria-Palestina.

Thanks are due to all the scholars who contributed to this volume. Special thanks to Professor Paul Nadim Tarazi for his contribution to this volume and for being the inspiration behind the creation and continuation of our SBL group.

As the objective of our SBL unit is, may this volume function as a bridge introducing contemporary readers to the richness of the biblical theology of the centuries-old Churches of the East, the majority of whose theological literature remains unearthed until today. At the same time, may it be an opportutnity to invite scholars to explore the interpretive, hermenutical and exegetical tools used by these churches and to incorporate them into the contemporary critical approaches of biblical criticism.

+Vahan S. Hovhanessian, PhD
Series Editor

← VII | VIII → ← VIII | IX →

Abbreviations

← IX | X → ← X | 1 →

•  BRADLEY NASSIF  •

Introduction

The essays in this volume on The Bible in the Orthodox Tradition reflect the principles and perspectives of the “school” of Antioch (4^th-5^th centuries). A brief summary of contemporary scholarship on Antiochian¹heremeneutics will provide the context for the collection of essays that appear in this volume.

Since the early 1990s, there has been a rising interest in Antiochene exegesis among biblical and patristic scholars. Brevard Childs observed the motivations and issues that have driven scholars to revise their understanding of Antiochian exegesis:

The 1993 article to which Childs refers was subsequently updated in my essay “’Spiritual Exegesis’ in the School of Antioch” in New Perspectives on Historical Theology: Essays in Memory of John Meyendorff.³ That essay summarizes the contributions of only nine scholars (up to 1996) who had written on this subject over the past century, and critiques the secondary literature in which the Antiochian θεωρíα (theoria) appears. I concluded it by identifying six areas for future research on Antiochian θεωρíα. I summarize them here to provide direction to the ongoing work of modern-day students and scholars who might wish to take up this much needed area of research. The first and sixth items in the following list are currently underway, but the rest remains to be done in a doctor’s or master’s thesis: ← 1 | 2 →