Papers by Dmitrij Bumazhnov
“Thirst for Killing and Being Killed.” A Conflict over Execution of Pagans according to a 6th-century Syriac Source (in Russian), 2022
The source in question – the fictionalized “Eusebius Narrative” – is known as second part of the ... more The source in question – the fictionalized “Eusebius Narrative” – is known as second part of the so-called Syriac “Julian Romance” composed probably before the middle of the VI century in the miaphysite milieu of Edessa. In the “Narrative”, Pope Eusebius is confronted with Christian mob of Rome desiring to burn alive a group of pagan priests on the altar built with their participation in front of the biggest church of the city. Despite Eusebius’s eloquent attempt to plea for mercy, the zealots succeed in enforcing their will. This account seems to reflect the incident of 519 in Edessa as, in the course of changed religious politics in favour of the Council of Chalcedon, a military unit sent from Antioch arrested the (allegedly?) miaphysite metropolitan of Edessa Paul. In the same time, the “Narrative” can also be interpreted as criticism on execution of pagans in Byzantium.
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Bibel, Byzanz und Christlicher Orient ist eine Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Steph... more Bibel, Byzanz und Christlicher Orient ist eine Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Stephen Gero, emiritierter Inhaber der Professur fur das Fach "Sprachen und Kulturen des Christlichen Orients" an der Universitat Tubingen. Die Festschrift vereinigt 36 wissenschaftliche Beitrage von Kollegen und Schulern des Jubilars, die unter den Themenkomplexen "Fruhes Christentum", "Agypten und Nubien", "Syrisches Christentum", "Armenien, Georgien und Zentralasien", "Byzanz" und "Arabische Welt" zusammengefasst werden. Die Spannweite der Themen reicht von der Soziologie des Neuen Testaments bis zur Stadtentwicklung Aleppos im 19. Jahrhundert und spiegelt damit das reiche Interessenspektrum des Gefeierten. Den thematischen Schwerpunkt der Beitrage bildet jedoch die Kirchen- und Christentumsgeschichte des Nahen Ostens unter Einschluss der angrenzenden Gebiete in Byzanz, Nubien und Zentralasien. Dem wissenschaftlichen Tei...
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Scrinium, 2008
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Philologia Classica, 2020
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Loving both Greek and Jew. A Neglected Model of Interreligious Relations in the Early Christian Monastic Tradition (in Russian), 2022
It is well known that early Christian monks were frequently involved in acts of religious violenc... more It is well known that early Christian monks were frequently involved in acts of religious violence against pagans and Jews. Against this background, the article focuses on two passages from Ps.-Macarius the Egyptian and Isaac of Nineveh which presuppose loving and respectful attitude towards representatives of other religions on personal level. Suggestions about historical and literary contexts and current significance of this evidence are provided.
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Bogoslovskie trudy 50, 2021
St. Ephrem the Syrian, Severian of Gabala and St. John of Damascus testify to the exegetical trad... more St. Ephrem the Syrian, Severian of Gabala and St. John of Damascus testify to the exegetical tradition according to which animals were not allowed to stay in the primordial Paradise. To explain this unusual statement, the article analyses views on animals in the early Christian literature between the 1th –8th century in their various contexts. This analysis shows that almost all educated Christian authors of this time, when writing on animals, adopted the Stoic philosophical position sharply distinguishing between rational human beings and irrational beasts which had been created for humans. This rather extreme anthropocentric conception is mitigated in the monastic literature, in the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, in some books of the Bible as well as in a number of other texts read by early Christians.
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Philologia Classica
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Arsenius the Great and Socrates. Some Considerations about Theological Justification of the Secluded Life in the Early Christian Monasticism (in Russian), 2020
The article investigates an early theological justification of the radical detachment from societ... more The article investigates an early theological justification of the radical detachment from society expressed in a saying by the famous Egyptian hermit Arsenius the Great (4th‒5th century) who avoided contacts not only with lay people but even with his fellow monks in the desert of Sketis. This justification is to be seen in connection with the phenomenon of monastic secluded life which suddenly emerged in the second part of the 3rd century being in sharp contrast with traditional views of the catholic Christians of the 1st‒3rd centuries on the way of life suitable for the followers of Christ. In the article, the radical break with this early paradigm is called “revolution of the solitaries”. One of the results of the conducted research is that Arsenius, when staying away from all kinds of people, was to a certain degree guided by the example of Socrates.
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Review of: Philip Michael Forness, Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East. A Study of Jacob of Serugh, The Oxford Early Christian Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, in: Scrinium. Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique 16, 2020, 399–404., 2020
Review of: Philip Michael Forness, Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East. A Study of Jacob... more Review of: Philip Michael Forness, Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East. A Study of Jacob of Serugh, The Oxford Early Christian Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, XVI+322 p., ISBN 978-0-19-882645-3.
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Christians in Seleucia-Ctesiphon between 150 and 780, 2020
The article provides some glimpses in what we today know about the history of Christianity in Sel... more The article provides some glimpses in what we today know about the history of Christianity in Seleucia-Ctesiphon from the second century AD to the transfer of the Nestorian Patriarchal residence from Seleucia-Ctesiphon to Baghdad.
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Religious Studies Review, 2007
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Männlein-Robert (Hg.), Seelenreise und Katabasis: Einblicke ins Jenseits in antiker philosophischer Literatur. Akten der 20. Tagung der Karl und Gertrud Abel-Stiftung vom 30. Juli bis 1. August 2018 in Tübingen, 2021
The article investigates the image of the "bad" tree in the Syriac Book of the Holy Hierotheos wr... more The article investigates the image of the "bad" tree in the Syriac Book of the Holy Hierotheos written in the 6th century AD. The Book is an pseudepigraph attributed to the alleged master of Dionysios the Areopagite Hierotheos. It describes mystical cosmic ascents and descents of the intellect during which it has to fight against the so-called "bad" tree in order to uproot it from itself and from the cosmos. I argue that the author of the Book adopted this imagery from some unknown Manicean source(s) and try to contextualize this borrowing in the time of creation of the Book.
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A.M. Butts et al. (eds), Narsai: Rethinking His Work and His World, 2020
It is generally known that the East-Syrian poet and exegete Narsai worked as teacher of exegesis ... more It is generally known that the East-Syrian poet and exegete Narsai worked as teacher of exegesis and director of the theological School of Edessa in Byzantine North-Mesopotamia. Narsai’s position as the head of the School of Edessa/Nisibis makes his writings particularly relevant for the study of religious education in the early East-Syrian tradition. The present essay focuses on the mēmrā 8 ‘On Peter and Paul’. In 1958, Paul Krüger suggested that, in this text, Narsai polemicizes against a Jewish-Christian group. The purpose of the present article is to investigate whether Krüger’s suggestion remains valid and, if so, to speculate what it can contribute to our knowledge about education processes in Narsai’s milieu.
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Arsenius the Great, Revolution of the Solitaries, and Socrates. An Early Theological Justification of the Radical Monastic Detachment from Society, 2020
The article investigates an early theological justification of the radical detachment from societ... more The article investigates an early theological justification of the radical detachment from society expressed in a saying by the famous Egyptian hermit Arsenius the Great (4 th-5 th century) who avoided contacts not only with lay people, but even with his fellow monks in the desert of Sketis. This justification is to be seen in connection with the phenomenon of monastic secluded life which suddenly emerged in the second part of the 3 rd century, in sharp contrast with traditional views of the catholic Christians of the 1 st-3 rd centuries on the way of life suitable for the followers of Christ. In this article, the radical break with this early paradigm is called the "revolution of the solitaries". Arsenius, who lived about eighty years after the first monks in Egypt started to be recognized as a distinct phenomenon in public space, does not necessarily draw on the oldest layers of the traditions justifying and explaining the religious motivation for being alone. Nevertheless, his statement is one of the first pieces of theological reflection on the subject transmitted in full which opens a number of intriguing possibilities for further research on this widely neglected field. The article provides the historical context of Arsenius' justification which includes criticism of the anachoretic monasticism in the pagan and Christian communities. Some critics of the secluded life consider it as contrary to the Jewish and pagan wisdom as well as to the revelation of Christ, a statement making Arsenius' apology most precarious. Of special inrerest is that Arsenius, when staying away remaining secluded from all kinds of people, was to a certain degree guided by the example of Socrates.
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Wahrheit ist Gott. Isaak von Ninive über die Lektüre der Eremiten, 2015
The article analyses two text by St. Isaac of Nineveh where he speaks explicitly about various ki... more The article analyses two text by St. Isaac of Nineveh where he speaks explicitly about various kinds of Christian and non-Christian literature apt and unapt for reading by hermits. Special attention is paid to the problem of monastic controversies concerning religious matters and to Isaac`s attempts of settling them.
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Narsai, Memra „Against the Jews“. Introduction and Russian Translation, 2019
This is the first translation of Narsai`s "Against the Jews" in any language. Suprisingly enough,... more This is the first translation of Narsai`s "Against the Jews" in any language. Suprisingly enough, Narsai uses a whole range of terms and ideas which have parallels in rabbinic literature and several times addresses his imaginary Jewish interlocuter as friend. A possible explanation of this rather unusual feature is that Narsai`s audience could have included Jews or Jewish Christians.
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Der Reigentanz der zwölf Tugenden in der Seele eines Demütigen. Eine Plotinreminiszenz bei dem koptischen Mönch Paulus von Tamma? Zum Problem der Traditionszuordnungen im frühen ägyptischen Mönchtum, 2013
Der Reigentanz der zwölf Tugenden in der Seele eines Demütigen. Eine Plotinreminiszenz bei dem ko... more Der Reigentanz der zwölf Tugenden in der Seele eines Demütigen. Eine Plotinreminiszenz bei dem koptischen Mönch Paulus von Tamma? Zum Problem der Traditionszuordnungen im frühen ägyptischen Mönchtum, in: D. Bumazhnov (Hg.), Akten des 2. Tübinger Symposiums zum Christlichen Orient „Ägypten in der spätantiken Zeit“, 7.–8. Dezember 2007, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 79, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013, 93–111
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Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 2019
God`s love for human nature in Isaac of Nineveh and Maximus the Confessor
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Papers by Dmitrij Bumazhnov