The famous account in the Historia Augusta of Severus Alexander’s lararium, which contained an image of Christ alongside other figures including Apollonius of Tyana, Vergil, Orpheus, and Achilles, has long been accepted with insufficient discernment and dubious judgment. The present article challenges this ongoing scholarly trend, suggesting that the story should be rejected not only as history but even as a plausible fiction. In defense of this position, both literary and archeological evidence is presented and considered. Ultimately, in line with the basic orientation of modern HA scholarship, the whole tradition is suggested to be understood best as a fictive expression of “innovative traditionalism,” i.e. part of the late fourth-century polytheistic author’s fanciful yet culturally conservative reaction to the ascendant Christian culture of the post-Theodosian world.

The present article seeks to further the distinctive participatory picture of Calvin through an engagement with the prelapsarian contours of his anthropology and their oft-overlooked importance for the theme of participation that is uniquely found in his thought. The interpretive argument that emerges is that Calvin’s prelapsarian understanding of participation not only necessitated mediation by Christ in a (perhaps unexpectedly) dynamic way but was also synergistic in shape (especially when considered “preceptively” as opposed to “decretively”). Calvin’s postlapsarian understanding of participation will be shown to have adaptively retained its originally dynamic mediatorial aspects through a pivotal shift towards monergism that was brought about by humanity’s fall into sin. Taken together, it will be concluded that Calvin’s prelapsarian assumptions surrounding participation not only undergirded and bolstered the monergistic postlapsarian participatory account of salvation that he is more typically known for but also provides a previously unconsidered angle deserving of conversation.

In 1 Timothy 2, the author claims that Eve alone was deceived, and not Adam, yet women can be saved through childbirth. In Or. 37, Gregory of Nazianzus construes Genesis 3 differently, insisting that both Eve and Adam were deceived and that both will be saved in the same manner. This article considers whether Gregory performs a subtly transgressive rewriting of 1 Timothy. To corroborate that Gregory is engaging 1 Timothy, rather than disregarding it, the article surveys early Christian reception of 1 Tim 2:14 through the lens of Elizabeth A. Clark’s categories of ascetic reading, and it explores how women function in Gregory’s corpus and how his own interpretive principles could render a transgressive rewriting intelligible. It concludes that Gregory may be transgressing 1 Timothy after the pattern of Jesus transgressing the Mosaic law on divorce, a spiritual transgression.

While ancient people defined themselves largely by their ability to employ correct speech in Greek or Latin, many early Christians discussed a foreign type of speech from heaven. This celestial communication medium created a different criterion to establish status and identity in Christian communities. This article explores conceptions of this heavenly speech in Sethian and Valentinian writings, as well as in Ignatius. Sethians and Valentinians appeal to different sensory perceptions to describe celestial communication. For Sethians, heavenly speech is imbued with light and is conceptualized through visual frameworks, whereas for Valentinians, celestial communication functions like smell. In contrast, Ignatius associates celestial speech with a person: the bishop. That is, Ignatius defines celestial communication as whatever the bishop communicates, whether spoken or silent. For all these second- and third-century Christians, correct employment of celestial speech forges a unique social structure and reifies boundaries for a given in-group.

Scholars have long noted the prevalence of exile as a theme in John Calvin’s theology, which responded to times unsettled by religious persecution and migration. However, research has only begun to describe with precision how Calvin portrayed exile. This article examines the theme in Calvin’s biblical exegesis, demonstrating how his commentaries and sermons problematize exile by establishing two requirements for faithfulness from the exilic experiences of Abraham and David: 1) open confrontation with idolatry; and 2) the pursuit of sacramental nurture. In both cases, the reformer’s exegesis is notable for reflexively invoking Nicodemism, persistently deploying Abraham and David as counterexamples against this contemporary problem. This intersection of crypto-religion and exile, considered spiritually and politically, displays how context drove Calvin’s exegesis toward readings distinctive in the history of interpretation. It also sharpens exile’s polemical potential as a differentiated category Calvin used to encourage the community of believers while disciplining its behavior.

Mark Noll recognized that “the most comprehensive defense of female activity in public life came from Sarah Grimké.” Claudia Setzer lauded Grimké’s Letters, as “the first sustained analysis of women’s rights stemming from biblical and theological argument to be written by an American.” Scholars have studied her use of the Bible, including her critique of translations, but none has detailed Grimké’s use of the influential whole-volume commentaries of Matthew Henry, Thomas Scott, and Adam Clarke. This article documents her citations, critiques, and editing of those commentaries through selection, interruption, omission, and paraphrase. It focuses upon her thirteenth and fourteenth letters, in which Grimké interpreted Acts 2:1–4, 1 Cor 11:4–5 and 14:34–35, and 1 Tim 2:8–12. By studying her critical engagement with commentaries, we demonstrate the veracity of Grimké’s contention that women “shall produce some various readings of the Bible a little different from those we now have.”

This article identifies a development in rabbinic discourse about Torah study. Whereas early texts contrast study with activities like earning a living, the Palestinian Talmud presents a new debate in which study stands in binary opposition to activities otherwise considered part of the life of Torah, such as good deeds and prayer. This debate shaped the eventually dominant view of the rabbinic sage as primarily, or even exclusively, a scholarly figure. The article shows how this discourse was formulated through adaptation of earlier sources and considers how it may have responded to broader transformations in the sages’ world.

This article offers an account of Origen’s understanding of Jesus’s descent into Hades, drawing on the full breadth of his corpus. I argue that Origen develops two themes in his writing on the descent. First, the descent completes the defeat of the devil, which began when Jesus offered himself as a ransom for humankind. Second, Origen understands the descent into Hades as the final stage of the savior’s revelatory descent through all the different realms of the cosmos. In both cases Origen’s characteristic conception of the soul of Jesus plays an essential part. Thus, Origen argues that it is the perfect virtue of Jesus’s soul and not the divine power of the Son of God that destroys the devil’s power. Likewise, Origen’s understanding of a rational mind’s ability to take on different bodily forms underlies his idea of the savior’s descent through different realms of the cosmos.

The intersections of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are well known, but scholars tend to treat each as largely independent from the others, at least after some initial point of origin. We seek rather to emphasize their ongoing inter-dependence and demonstrate the implications for both historical and theological work. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have continuously formed, re-formed, and transformed themselves by interacting with or thinking about one another. That co-production, in all the ambivalence it entails, has shaped not only the rituals and teachings of these traditions but also some of our most enduring forms of prejudice as well as the conceptual tools with which we undertake the study of these religions. After first offering a definition of religious co-production, we then give an example, in the monk Sergius-Baḥīrā, of what historical and theological insights a methodology of co-production can yield. Finally, we offer an exploration of the critical and constructive potentials of that insight, gesturing toward the possibility of both a history and a theology of co-production.

A remarkable tale in the Babylonian Talmud (b. Qidd. 81a–b) recounts how Pelimo, who regularly exclaimed “an arrow in Satan’s eye!,” ironically attracts Satan’s personal attention. Disguised as a pauper, Satan wreaks havoc until he ultimately offers an alternative apotropaic formula—a biblical verse (Zech 3:2)—for Pelimo to use against him. While often read as a moral allegory, this article argues that the story is rooted in late antique Babylonian notions about demons and apotropaic practices, as evidenced in incantation bowls, amulets, and related objects. The narrative not only presumes this cultural context but actively engages it—contrasting two protective formulae and casting Satan as an advocate for one. In doing so, it reveals how rabbis participated in broader debates over the legitimacy and efficacy of different magical practices, using narrative as a tool of persuasion. Comparison with other Talmudic passages further highlights evolving rabbinic views on ritual power and the shifting role of biblical verses in Jewish magic.

In The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) John Bunyan describes the Flatterer as a “man black of flesh.” This depiction sets the course for the reception and adaptation of his work as a spiritual classic to enact, perpetuate, and even deepen a racist vision. Alternatively, theological awareness of racism and racialization finds expression in critique and correction. The history of the illustration of the Flatterer raises particularly acute questions. Bunyan’s own scripturally informed concern for monuments allows illustrated adaptations, such as Little Pilgrim’s Progress, to be brought into conversation with Ryan Newson’s theological treatment of confederate monuments. Given that so many adaptations of The Pilgrim’s Progress come from within evangelicalism, both racist and racially aware representations of Bunyan’s work are weighed in light of Vincent Bacote’s race-centered, constructive critique of evangelical theology.

Recent scholarship has witnessed an increasing focus on the different (Greek, Latin, Syriac) versions of the Pseudo-Clementines as fourth- and fifth-century narratives, with each expressing its own unique rhetorical and religious-philosophical voice. In light of this, the different dynamics of the reception of ancient philosophy in the Pseudo-Clementine versions has garnered some moderate attention. In this contribution, I focus on the Latin version (Recognitions) and discuss the way in which the character of Peter and his students—former students of philosophy—systematically interpret the lives of the main character Clement and his parents within a framework of an original Christian-philosophical program (of ethics, physics, and epoptics). Additionally, Plato’s philosophy is key in this regard. I examine how a number of Platonic quotes and allusions—unique to the version of the Recognitions—play a fundamental role within the narrative arc of the Recognitions and within Peter’s discourse of (lived) Christian philosophy.

Although manuscripts are, literally, old media, they are also breaking news. This article reports from a study of scholars of ancient religions’ experiences with media engagement concerning manuscript finds and forgeries. Inspired by a mediatization-of-science perspective, the study explores the motivations for and involvement in public-facing scholarship, as well as the experienced effects of and reactions to their media exposure. Focusing on the challenges of media publicity in particular, the study discusses how the current impact and publicity agenda of contemporary universities affects individual academics.

The findings of this article are based on interviews with a sample of experts who, during the last twenty-five years, have shared their expertise in public-facing media outlets about the Gospel of Judas, the Hazon Gabriel tablet, the Jehoash inscription, the post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments, the so-called Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, the Sappho papyri, and the manuscript purchases of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Judas Cyriacus appeared in liturgy, hagiography, iconography, and vernacular literature from late antiquity until the early modern era, enjoying wide popularity across Christian traditions. While the Finding of the Holy Cross has been well-studied, the invented saint, Judas Cyriacus, and his martyrdom have not received comparable attention. His legend’s entanglement with liturgical and vernacular traditions around the veneration of the cross, especially in the West, influenced Western Christian attitudes towards Jews for over a thousand years, warranting further study. This article examines the Judas Cyriacus legend, revealing the complexities of Christian identities and truth claims in late antiquity, especially in inter-religious contexts with contemporary rabbinic texts. It also explores the significance of Judas Cyriacus’ pseudo-Hebrew prayers, which both adapted intercultural magical practices for Christian use and marked his Jewish identity as indelible even during his Christian martyrdom, highlighting tensions in the perceived efficacy of Christian baptism for Jews.

Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of absolute transcendence has been criticized for defeating any possibility of relationship to the divine as Other. Such critiques restage central theological trends that rely on analogy as opening just such an avenue to the divine. Aquinas proposes analogy in his own criticism of Maimonides’ negative theology of God as beyond any likeness, in ways similar to arguments leveled against Levinas. Levinas, however, proposes a language model, which also illuminates Maimonides’ own language discourses, as a way to allow relationship while sustaining distinction from transcendence. Through language, the divine is addressed while respecting absolute Otherness, in a move away from ontology to ethics.