Nonnus of Panopolis: Paraphrasis of the Gospel of John XI(Oxford Early Christian Texts)

This ground-breaking work is a critical edition of chapter XI (The Resurrection of Lazarus) of Nonnus of Panopolis' Paraphrasis of the Gospel of St John, written in the mid-fifth century in elegant hexameters. Made available for the first time in Anglophone literature, the volume consists of an introduction discussing cultural (theological and philosophical affiliations, dialogue with contemporary art), literary (character-sketching, narrative, interaction with the Dionysiaca), and technical (paraphrastic technique, transmission, metre) aspects and places the work in its immediate and broader context. The Introduction includes an edition of chapter XI from the so-called Athous paraphrase of Nonnus' Paraphrasis.An exhaustive line-by-line commentary covers a wide range of issues arising from Nonnus' spiritualizing rendition. Konstantinos Spanoudakis identifies literary models and intertextual links with earlier traditions: epic (mainly Homer, Apollonius Rhodius, Oppian), mystic (Orphic literature, Chaldean Oracles), and philosophical (Neoplatonists, Gnostics). Dr Spanoudakis illustrates Nonnus' interaction with early Christian poetry and literature, his debt to Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on the Gospel of John, his familiarity with Syriac exegesis (John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia), and the homiletic and apocryphal tradition on Lazarus. The book features a short Appendix discussing a curse against the Jews embedded as an interpolated verse in ms V.

Table of Contents:
Preface Abbreviations Introduction I. Poet and Poems IIa. Literary Affiliations IIb. Biblical and Patristic Affiliations IIc. Afterlife IIIa. Neoplatonism IIIb. Theurgy IV. Dionysiac Ramifications: Some Resurrections in the Dionysiaca V. Paraphrasis XI as Contemporary Poetry VI. Paraphrastic and Literary Techniques VII. Perspectives on the Lazarus Miracle VIII. The Vorlage(n) and the Syrus Lewisianus IX. Metre X. Manuscripts XI. The Athous Paraphrase (Athous Dionysiou 326 [D]) XII. This edition Texts and Translation Commentary Appendix: An Interpolated Verse in ms. V Bibliography Index of Passages Index of Greek Words Discussed General Index

About the Author :
Konstantinos Spanoudakis is Assistant Professor of Classics at the Department of Philology, University of Crete. He published an edition of the poetical and grammatical fragments of the Hellenistic poet Philitas of Cos (Brill, 2002) and co-edited with F. Manakidou Alexandrine Muse: Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (Athens, 2008). He is also the editor of Nonnus of Panopolis in Context: Poetry and Cultural Milieu in Late Antiquity (DeGruyter, 2014).