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List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: The End-Time in 1 Enoch, Paul, and Matthew: Continuity and Discontinuity - Philip Esler, University of Gloucestershire, UK
Chapter 2: Debating Daniel’s Dream: The Synoptic Gospels and the Similitudes of Enoch on the Son of Man - Logan Williams, Durham University, UK
Chapter 3: Comparing Apples and Oranges? Eschatological Perspectives from 1 Enoch and 1 Peter - Sofanit T. Abebe, University of Edinburgh, UK
Chapter 4: Has Christian Tradition Influenced the Ge‘ez and Greek Versions of 1 Enoch? - Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany
Chapter 5: Non-Human Animals in the Primeval History of Jubilees - James Hamrick, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany
Chapter 6: The Trial against Isaiah: About Alleged Jewish Backgrounds of the Ascension of Isaiah - Jan Dochhorn, Durham University, UK
Chapter 7: The Vorlage of the Ethiopic Version of the Epistula Apostolorum: Greek or Arabic? - Darrell Hannah, All Saints Church Ascot Heath, UK
Chapter 8: The Apocalypse of Peter in Ethiopic Tradition - Eric Beck, University of Edinburgh, UK
Chapter 9: Gospel Traditions in Transition: A Look at the Ethiopic Tamare Iyesus - Meron T. Gebreananaye, Durham University, UK
Chapter 10: ‘The House of the Gospel’: Text, Image, and Sacred Space - Francis Watson, Durham University, UK
Chapter 11: Afterword - Michael Knibb, Kings College London, UK
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Meron Gebreananaye is Doctoral Research Student at Durham University, UK.Francis Watson is Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham and was formerly a holder of the Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis in the University of Aberdeen (1999-2007), as well as a Reader in Biblical Theology, King's College London. Previous publications include: Paul, Judaism and the Gentiles, Text, Church and World, Text and Truth and Agape, Eros, Gender. Logan Williams is Doctoral Research Student at Durham University, UK.
Summary
This book highlights the significance of a group of five texts excluded from the standard Christian Bible and preserved only in Ge‘ez, the classical language of Ethiopia. These texts are crucial for modern scholars due to their significance for a wide range of early readers, as extant fragments of other early translations confirm in most cases. Yet they are also noted for their eventual marginalization and abandonment, as a more restrictive understanding of the biblical canon prevailed – everywhere except in Ethiopia, with its distinctive Christian tradition in which the concept of a “closed canon” is alien.
In focusing upon 1 Enoch, Jubilees, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Epistula Apostolorum, and the Apocalypse of Peter, the contributors to this volume group them together as representatives of a time in early Christian history when sacred texts were not limited by a sharply defined canonical boundary. In doing so, this book also highlights the unique and under-appreciated contribution of the Ethiopic Christian Tradition to the study of early Christianity.
Foreword
This volume examines five texts that were integral to early Christianity, but which are now preserved in full only in the Ethiopic textual tradition.
Additional text
The volume ... offers a valuable contribution to boundary-bridging research of ‘apocrypha broadly defined’, studying the ancient works as they were transmitted in Eastern Christian contexts.
