Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

In general, theological terms this study examines the interplay of early Christian understandings of history, revelation, and identity. The book explores this interaction through detailed analysis of appeals to "mystery" in the Pauline letter collection and then the discourse of previously hidden but newly revealed mysteries in various second-century thinkers. T.J. Lang argues that the historical coordination of the concealed/revealed binary ("the mystery previously hidden but presently revealed") enabled these early Christian authors to ground Christian claims - particularly key ecclesial, hermeneutical, and christological claims - in Israel's history and in the eternal design of God while at the same time accounting for their revelatory newness. This particular Christian conception of time gives birth to a new and totalizing historical consciousness, and one that has significant implications for the construction of Christian identity, particularly vis-à-vis Judaism.

Gibt es einen roten Faden, der den gesamten 1. Korintherbrief durchzieht? Diese Studie findet das kohärenzstiftende Element des 1Kor in der Selbstdarstellung des Apostels. Die paulinischen Selbstaussagen werden dabei sowohl in die antiken Formen der literarischen Selbstdarstellung eingeordnet als auch im Kontext der hellenistischen Popularphilosophie interpretiert. Als Modell für Paulus' Selbstdarstellung bildet sich die archetypische Gestalt des Weisen heraus, die der Apostel jedoch gemäß seiner theologia crucis umprägt. Somit präsentiert sich Paulus sowohl als ein nachahmenswertes Vorbild als auch als ein christusgemäßer Weiser - eben "beispiels-weise". Viele Passagen des Briefes erscheinen dadurch in einem neuen Licht.

The book explores ancient interpretations and usages of the famous Delphic maxim “know yourself”. The primary emphasis is on Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman sources from the first four centuries CE. The individual contributions examine both direct quotations of the maxim as well as more distant echoes. Most of the sources included in the book have never previously been studied in any detail with a view to their use and interpretation of the Delphic maxim. Thus, the book contributes significantly to the origin and different interpretations of the maxim in antiquity as well as to its reception history in ancient philosophical and theological discourses. The chapters of the book are linked to each other by numerous cross-references which makes it possible to compare the different views of the maxim with each other. It also helps readers to notice relationships and trajectories within the material. The explorations of the relevant sources are also set in the context of ongoing debates about the shape and nature of ancient conceptions of self and self-knowledge. The book thus demonstrates the wide variety of philosophical and theological approaches in that the injunction to know oneself could be viewed and how these interpretations provide windows into ancient discourses about self and self-knowledge.