Here are a few links that are extraordinarily helpful for working with the various “hands” of medieval paleography. 

• • • Resources from a Medieval Latin Paleography course at Stanford. - This is a great resource for manuscripts from Britain, Ireland, the Iberian peninsula, France, Belgium, German, and Italian.
    • D. Tillotson’s Medieval Writing site.
    • EVELLUM - various software programs (for purchase)  for the electronic study of medieval paleography. See especially DUCTUS for the period 150 AD - 1500 AD.
    • Resources for Medieval Studies from Georgetown University - LABYRINTH
    • Collections of Manuscripts online:
• •  
    •  
      • Diocese of Cologne, Codices E. Ecclesiae Coloniensis
      • Dublin, Trinity College Library
      • National Library of Ireland
      • Oxford, Bodleian Library, by period & place
      • Oxford, Bodleian Library, Checklist of Mss. to 1500
      • Oxford, Bodleian Library treasures, shelf mark
      • Philadelphia (?), Lawrence Schoenberg Collection
      • St. Gallen, Switzerland, Codices E. Sangallenses

Enjoy!

This site is run by Dr. Glen Thompson, history prof, at Wisconsin Lutheran College and is replete with a plethora of patristic resources and links. It is well worth your time

Now that the Christmas presents have been opened, the holiday rush is somewhat ebbing, and life returns to its “normal” hectic pace, reflection upon the incarnation of Jesus Christ is  especially in order. And, since I tend toward the historical and exegetical in my ponderings, I thought I would mention one of my PhD courses that is particularly relevant to the question of the Incarnation as well as doctrinal development via exegetical controversy. As it regards the Arian controversies of the fourth century, it is an interesting question as to how large portions of the Church (and Empire for that matter!) could be swayed to follow the Arian understanding of Christ. Is it because the Church was so overwhelmingly influenced by Hellenistic thought and Platonism, forsaking their Hebraic roots (as some have argued)? Or could it be that though the conversation took place in a 4th century philosophical vocabulary it was primarily exegetical? If so, what was one of the primary passages in the debate. This post touches upon that issue and recommends some works for further study. (more…)

I recently ran across Andreas Wengerscius’ Libri Quattuor Slavoniae Reformatae and must say I wish I knew a group of Latinists that would translate this into the languages of Eastern Europe. (This would also be a valuable work to have in English on one’s shelf right next to D’Aubigne). This work was introduced and endorsed by Voetius and chronicles the ecclesiastical histories of Poland, Bohemia, Russia, Prussia, and Moravia, from the time of the apostles’ through the Reformation. The fact that this work remains untranslated is not a gap in the scholarship but a tremendous chasm in Reformed Protestant Church history: Secondly, it would also give modern missions efforts in Eastern Europe a good back story prior to the modern period of the controversies and various unification efforts that occurred as well as the many persecutions that faced Protestants in largely Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox lands. Thirdly, as a result, on a doctrinal level this also narrates some of the engagements of the Reformed Orthodox with the Eastern Orthodox churches. Also, in the fourth book, some sections read like a roster or missions report of the names, locations, and status of the pastors, churches, and cities in Eastern Europe. It is virtually a Reformed “who’s who” of Eastern Europe chronicling who was where and when and doing what in the mid-17th century. Lastly, there is also a fascinating transcript of the questions, arguments, and responses at the Colloquy of Roznov (in modern day Czech Republic) in 1660. This was a dispute between the “Arians/Socinians” or as they called themselves the Christian Unitarians and the Roman Catholics on a variety of topics but especially the Trinity.

By the way the table of contents is here

Just a quick link to most of the Patrologia Graeca and Patrologia Latina on Google Books. This link is maintained by a classics professor at Loyola University in Chicago.  There are also some other helpful gems as well for Jewish, Rabbinic, and Early Christian studies. Enjoy.

For all the students of New Testament exegesis and the history surrounding the texts, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts is a wonderful treasure of free high quality images. I highly recommend spending some time browsing through the manuscripts. Most, if not all, of these have never been in the public eye. Even among scholars in the field, the best that they may have seen is a black and white copy of microfiche. Also, this other site is a good resource for the Codex Sinaiticus.

I want to thank another fellow PhD. student who pointed me to this site, Jordan Ballor, who is a PhD. candidate at Calvin Theological Seminary and a Doktorand at the University of Zurich. Thanks Jordan!

This afternoon, Dr. John L. Thompson from Fuller Theological Seminary presented a thumbnail sketch of his most recent book Reading the Bible With the Dead: what you can learn from the history of exegesis that you can’t learn from exegesis alone (Eerdmans, 2007) by way of a lecture on the exegesis of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin on Psalm 137 and 139.  The lecture was entitled: “Anger Management, On Earth as it is in Heaven: What Christians Have Learned About Cursing Over the Years” and should be up in an .mp3 form in the next week or so through the Meeter Center. His lecture on history of exegesis was a fitting complement to round out my afternoon after Dr. R. Muller’s PhD course, 16th & 17th c. Scripture & Interpretation.

(more…)

In Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement, Gustaf Aulén sets forth Irenaeus as an early champion of Christ as victor over sin, the death, and the devil as a construction of the doctrine of the atonement devoid of penal substitution. His interpretation of Irenaeus burst upon the continental scene in 1931 and crossed into English-speaking discussion thereafter. To give a hint at his significance for modern approaches to the doctrine of the atonement, between 1969 and 1979 Macmillan Publishing went through 7 editions in trade paperback form. My interest in Aulen’s approach to the atonement rises primarily in his interpretation of Irenaeus that claims to be the proper historical doctrine of the atonement. So did Aulen get Irenaeus right? (more…)

In quite a bit of modern discussion (for example, the early 20th century piece - Aulen’s thought provoking Christus Victor - a terrible “historical survey” with a theological agenda!) it is common to segregate strands of atonement thought and maintain that the viewpoints are incompatible. Aulen’s contribution to the discussion is that he is the first in the modern period to raise the Christus Victor issue, and is therefore a great foil to get into the material from the patristic period onward. In Aulen’s work, we find that a Christus Victor theory is pitted against penal substitution and also the moral example theory. I could have addressed his version of the East/West tensions, 19th/20th century conservative/liberal issues, but I think since there is a more basic way to treat the work historiographically, his problematic expression of these other points are subsidiary to his main thesis. Basically, Aulen wants to maintain that there is an incompatibility between atonement theories - so a penal substitution cannot coexist simultaneously with Christ as victor over sin, death, and the devil, or as an example of love as well. Is he right? (more…)

They make your brain hurt don’t they? or at least your eyes!

For anyone out there working with primary sources (the very real deal - manuscripts, codices, tomes of patristic, medieval, and Reformation texts) in the fields of History of Exegesis, Greek Paleography, and any other variant of ancient Greek, especially inscriptions and abbreviations, the following little book is a rare gem.

Abbreviations in Greek Inscriptions: Papyri, Manuscripts, and Early Printed Books Ares Publishers, Inc. (Chicago: 1974) is a compilation by Al. N. Oikonomides (classics professor at Loyola University in Chicago) of monographs by Avi-Yonah, Kenyon, Allen, Ostermann, and Giegengack. Maybe 30 pages total, but definitely a must have (yes, it’s about a $1 a page … but if you really need it, well worth every penny!). As you can see, this isn’t Nestle-Aland 4 ed. (For a few more images, look here, here, and my personal favorites for epeidh and outos here.)

By the way, from my modest experience in 16th century texts so far, in a folio (~14 x 10) work these fonts are about a size 8 font. In a quarto (~10 x 8 ) about the same. In an octavo (~8 x 6) about a size 7 or 6, and in a sedecimo (~6 x 3) these bad boys are a size five or six font italicized!

(at least one more reason why the libraries of the world won’t ever <totally> be text-recognized in a database on Google Books …)