The Old Testament as Authoritative Scripture in the Early Churches of the East: (1 Bible in the Christian Orthodox Tradition)

The Old Testament as Authoritative Scripture in the Early Churches of the East represents the latest scholarly research in the field of Old Testament as Scripture in Eastern Christianity. Its twelve articles focus on the use of the Old Testament in the earliest Christian communities in the East. The collection explores the authoritative role of the Old Testament in the churches of the East and its impact on the church’s doctrine, liturgy, canon law, and spirituality.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Nicolae Roddy: Introduction – J. Edward Walters: Son of Man, Son of God: Aphrahat’s Biblical Christology – Merja Merras: Ephraem the Syrian and the Authority of the Old Testament Writings – Bryan A. Stewart: Levitical Paradigms for Christian Bishops: The Old Testament Influence on Origen of Alexandria – Mark W. Elliott: Leviticus between Fifth-Century Jerusalem and Ninth-Century Merv – David Kneip: The Holy Spirit in Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on Isaiah – Robert A. Kitchen: Winking at Jonah Narsai’s Interpretation of Jonah for the Church of the East – Jonathan Loopstra: A Syriac Tract for the «Explanation» of Hebrew and Foreign Words – Nicolae Roddy: Does the Orthodox Lectionary Subvert the Gospel? The Pericope of the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matt 21:36-46) – Timothy Scott Clark: A Question for the Audience: The Prokeimenon and Poetics in Eastern Liturgy – Edith M. Humphrey: Grand Entrance: Entrance into Worship as Rhetorical Invitation and Liturgical Precedent in the Older Testament – Rajkumar Boaz Johnson: The Use of the Old Testament in the Syrian Christian Traditions of India.

About the Author :
The Editor: Vahan S. Hovhanessian holds a Ph.D. in Biblical studies from Fordham University in New York. He is Professor of Biblical Studies at the St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New Rochelle, New York, and Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies at the Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey. He has published books and articles in the English, Arabic, and Armenian languages in the fields of Biblical studies, Pauline theology, New Testament pseudepigrapha, and the early Church in the East. He is the chairman of the Bible in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions unit of the Society of Biblical Literature.