Ortodokse og orientalsk-ortodokse kirker

"We will not remove the age-old landmarks which our fathers have set (Proverbs 22:28), but we keep the tradition we have received. For if we begin to erode the foundations of the Church even a little, in no time at all the whole edifice will fall to the ground." - St. John of DamascusPerhaps our age's most definitive characteristic is a blurring of boundaries until their unitive function and meaning are lost. Often, ironically in the name of unity, protective walls are intentionally removed so that communities are "flooded" and age-old identities made fluid. Yet, have such contemporary phenomena on the social or personal plane sprung up "ex nihilo," or are they rather the fruit of centuries of incremental destruction of the age-old boundaries erected by our Fathers, first on the ecclesiological plane?In his book On Common Prayer with the Heterodox Protopresbyter Anastasios Gotsopoulos masterfully presents the wisdom of the Church's salvific delineation of the boundaries. Profoundly patristic, On Common Prayer completely puts to rest any misunderstanding or excuse as to how one must faithfully live within the boundaries while serving the salvation of all. Every angle of the matter is addressed: terms are defined, heresies identified, the consensus patrum illustrated, canons set forth. We are given the principles by which to faithfully interpret the canonical tradition, those sacred boundaries divinely established for the salvation of the world.Protopresbyter Anastasios Gotsopoulos is the rector of the Holy Church of Saint Nicholas, Patra, Greece. He is also the author of The Church of Rome and Its Bishop in the Minutes and Decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, as well as numerous articles and canonical studies.

Mehrere apokryphe Texte des frühen Christentums befassen sich mit Traditionen über den Apostel Johannes, seine Lehre, sein Wirken und seinen Tod. Ein bislang in der Forschung unterschätztes Werk sind die Johannesakten, die pseudonym dessen Schüler Prochoros (vgl. Apg 6,5) zugeschrieben werden. Diese Prochorosakten aus dem 5. Jhd. referieren die Mission von Meister und Schüler in Ephesos, schwerpunktmäßig jedoch auf der griechischen Insel Patmos. Die Prochorosakten waren ursprünglich auf Griechisch verfasst, wurden jedoch schnell in unzählige Sprachen übersetzt, darunter ins Koptische. Die hier vorliegende Studie unternimmt es, diesen Text aus der Vergessenheit zu heben. Neben einer ausführlichen Einleitung wird erstmals eine Übersetzung der gesamten griechischen Prochorosakten ins Deutsche geboten. Zum anderen stehen sieben Blätter aus der Wiener Papyrussammlung im Mittelpunkt, die Teile der sahidischen Übersetzung der Akten enthalten. Diese werden ediert und übersetzt. Durch eine kodikologische Einordnung in die koptische Tradition der Prochorosakten und durch textgeschichtliche Vergleiche wird eine bis dato nicht vorhandene Einführung in die koptische Überlieferung des Textes geboten. Somit werden die Johannesakten nach Prochoros in verschiedener Hinsicht aufgearbeitet und wichtige Schritte auch für die weitere Erforschung dieser christlichen Apostellegende unternommen.

For centuries, Catholics in the Western world and the Orthodox in Russia have venerated certain saints as martyrs. In many cases, both churches recognize as martyrs the same individuals who gave their lives for Jesus Christ. On the surface, it appears that while the external liturgical practices of Catholics and Russian Orthodox may vary, the...

Thorough investigations in recent decades have brought to light a relatively large number of ancient manuscripts of the various books of the Old and New Testaments from different parts of Ethiopia. This has led to a renewed interest in up-to-date critical editions of all the books of the Ethiopic Bible. For the Book of Jeremiah, however, there has never been a critical edition. This collection of seven essays marks the beginning of a new endeavour to fill this gap.Stefan Weninger introduces the reader medias in res, providing a condensed overview of the history of Ethiopic Jeremiah scholarship. Martin Heide's essay is a sample edition of the Book of Jeremiah based on nearly sixty manuscripts. The data that became available through collation allow to classify the manuscripts and provide first insights into the textual history of the Jeremiah Cycle. Michael Knibb invites the reader to review his experience with the critical edition of the Book of Ezekiel. Furthermore, another essay by him deals with the very intriguing manuscript Leiden Or. 14.692, being probably the earliest Ethiopic manuscript of Ezekiel. Steve Delamarter and Garry Jost introduce the reader to the digital methodology of the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament project, which they apply to a sample chapter of Jeremiah, coming to a similar conclusion - from a different perspective - as Martin Heide. Alessandro Bausi addresses important methodological questions, that is, the status of a reconstruction or whether critical editions of Ethiopic texts should be written in normalized orthography. Finally, Siegfried Kreuzer introduces the reader to an up-to-date view of the textual history of the Septuagint. This enables (and challenges) scholars dealing with textual criticism of Ethiopic Old Testament books to carefully consider the question of the Greek Vorlage.

The legends collected in Saints at the Limits, despite sometimes being viewed with suspicion by the Church, fascinated Christians during the Middle Ages¿as cults and retellings attest. These Byzantine Greek stories, translated into English here for the first time, continue to resonate with readers seeking to understand universal fears and desires.