Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on January 5, 2008
Kretschmar, Georg: Die Offenbarung des Johannes: Die Geschichte ihrer Auslegung im 1. Jahrtausend. Calwer Theologische Monographien, B9. Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1985. 164 pp.
Kretschmar’s book is not only a presentation of its history of interpretation throughout the first millennium. It also presents the author’s view on introductory matters and its overall interpretation.
Contents (apart from foreword, list of abbreviations and abbreviated references)
I. Jewish apocalyptic (sic) as the background of traditional material for Revelation (pp. 11-18)
1. Apocalyptic as prophecy
2. Book of Daniel
3. The spread of apocalyptic in Judaism
II. The pictorial Book of Promises (pp. 19-68)
1. Christian apocalyptic
2. The origins of Revelation
3. Intention and characteristics
4. The structure of Revelation
5. The imagery of Revelation
III. Revelation in Early Christianity (pp. 69-79)
1. Early Christian apocalyptic and Revelation
2. Christian chiliasm
3. Gnostic reception
4. Irenaeus and Hippolytus, Methodius
5. Disputed canonicity
IV. Revelation in the Greek Church and the rest of the Orient (pp. 80-90)
1. Acceptance and influence of Revelation
2. Christian apocalyptic and interpretation of history besides Revelation
3. The great commentaries after the sixth century: Oecumenius; Andrew of Caesarea; Arethas of Caesarea; Dionysios bar Saliba
V. Revelation in the Latin Church (pp. 91-115)
1. Early Christian heritage: Victorinus of Poetovio
2. Church Controversy: Tyconius and Augustine
3. Learned collectors: Jerome, Cassiodor, Primasius
4. Results and heritage
VI. Revelation in the Middle Ages of the West (pp. 116-160)
1. Collecting and sieving the ancient heritage
a) Britain: Beda
b) Spain: Beatus
c) Italy: Ambrosius Autpertus
2. Revelation in the Carolingian Renaissance
a) The Carolingian Renaissance
b) Book paintings
c) Commentators
3. The High Middle Ages
a) Ottonic, imperial theology
b) Anti-Christ and the end of the world
c) Revelation in the Investiture Controversy
d) The Crusades and the theology of the House of Hohenstaufen
4. Exposition of Scripture and interpretation of history
a) The methods of theology
b) Experience of history and interpretation of Scripture
c) Epilogue: Change into a new chiliasm
Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on December 20, 2007
Hoskier, Herman C. The Complete Commentary of Oecumenius on the Apocalypse. 1928.
Hoskier’s critical edition is now superseded by de Groote’s recent critical edition.
Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on
Oecumenius. Oecumenii Commentarius in Apocalypsin. Ed. Marc de Groote. Traditio Exegetica Graeca, 8. Louvain: Peeters Publishers, 1999. xiv + 355 pp. ISBN: 3820495827.
Originally presented as the author’s thesis, Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, Faculteit der Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, 1992. Introduction and notes in German; text in Greek. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. More here.
De Groote’s critical edition supersedes Hoskier’s from 1928.
Weinrich cites Oecumenius regularly, his translation based on this edition. He also used “A rough English commentary … kindly provided to [him] by Clifford H. DuRouessau,” i.e. an unpublished manuscript.
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on
Weinrich, William C., ed. Revelation. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, vol. 12. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2006. xxxii + 454 pp. RRP $40.00 (but street prices are much cheapter). ISBN: 0830814973
This volume is strongly recommended.
In the ideal world, students would read the ancient Christian commentaries themselves in the original language. In the real world this volume is a very welcome one. Indeed, it should sit on every student’s shelf, or rather, it should lie on the desk and be consulted regularly. I really missed this volume when I wrote my forthcoming commentary on Revelation.
Professor Weinrich is professor of early church history at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
In his introduction, Weinrich surveys the ancient commentaries, as to their view on authorship and canonicity of Revelation (pp. xvii-xx). In the next section, Weinrich reviews the ancient commentaries and the interpretation of Revelation (pp. xx-xxix).
Weinrich has chosen eight commentaries for regular citation. He also includes selections from the Christian writers in order to illustrate their uses of Revelation, be it thematic, moral or theological and doctrinal reasons.
The eight commentaries that Weinrich cites regularly eller Petuvium
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on December 12, 2007
Oecumenius: Commentary on the Apocalypse. Trans. John N. Suggit. (Fathers of the Church). Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2006. Cloth, xii + 216 pp. $34.95.
Oecumenius’ commentary may be the earliest extant Greek commentary. This makes it a very important one. It is reviewed Pieter G. R. de Villiers in Review of Biblical Literature (2007).
Dr. de Villiers writes: “This translation of Oecumenius’s work offers valuable insights into the way early Christians interpreted the Bible and especially Revelation as a controversial and difficult text. Despite the commentary’s ideological character, evident from the way in which monophysitism and Oecumenius’s own orthodox position functions in it, useful perspectives on early Christian exegesis can be gained from it. Oecumenius engages in debate with critical readings of Revelation. He responds, for example, to doubts about Johannine authorship of Revelation because of differences between Johannine texts, to the chiliastic interpretation and to the Naherwartung that some readers read into the text. Although he expects the second coming of Christ (e.g., Oec. 1.15; 2.7) and vigorously defends the resurrection of the body (11.10), he tones down any imminent expectation of the end and refrains from calculating end events. He further offers interesting suggestions on the symbolic meaning of numbers and colors. At the same time, Oecumenius as a Greek from Isauria in Asia Minor shared the same location as the author of Revelation and thus provides an insider perspective on the way in which Christianity in the provinces continued to experience oppressive Roman rule. It is, however, in terms of its hermeneutics that this early commentary will elicit special interest, especially now that early Christian exegesis is increasingly being researched.” Read it all!
William C. Weinrich includes Oecumenius (quoted from another translation) in his volume on Revelation, which I will return to very shortly.
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Kretschmar, Georg: Die Offenbarung des Johannes: Die Geschichte ihrer Auslegung im 1. Jahrtausend. Calwer Theologische Monographien, B9. Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1985. 164 pp.
