Orientador: Ivan Esperança Rocha / Banca: José Adriano Filho / Banca: Andrea Lúcia Dorini de Oliveira Carvalho / Resumo: Com a descoberta dos escritos gnósticos, popularmente conhecidos como biblioteca de Nag Hammadi, os estudos do cristianismo primitivo encontraram uma nova fonte de informações, e principalmente, de idéias. A concepção de um cristianismo homogêneo no séc. II acabou sendo ultrapassada, tendo em vista a diversidade de pensamento que o gnosticismo cristão traz em si. Formas diversas de se vivenciar a fé cristã foram encontradas em tais escritos, como é o caso do evangelho de Maria, que leva o nome de uma figura enigmática do movimento cristão, Maria Madalena. O presente trabalho procura verificar os elementos que constituem esta nova forma de se viver a práxis cristã, inclusive com a possível participação feminina. O papel social da mulher no cristianismo traz em si uma história de lutas e silêncios, vivência e exclusão. Com o auxilio do movimento feminista e seus desdobramentos nas ciências humanas, nos estudos de gênero e na teologia feminista por exemplos, procura-se reconstruir esta história, trazendo à superfície as vivências de mulheres cristãs no caminho para a realização de sua fé. / Abstract: With the discover of the Nag Hammadi's library and the gnostics writings, the Early Christianity studies had found a new information source, and specially, of ideas. The conception of a monolithic christianity in the second century, has been overpassed, in face of the variety of thoughts that the christian gnosticism brings on itself. Different ways of living the christian faith, has been found on this writings, like the gospel of Mary, who takes the name of a enigmatic character of Eartly Christian moviment, Mary Magdalene. This work intents to verify the constitucional elements of this new way of living the christian praxis, including the possibility of feminine actuation. The social role of women on christianity, brings on itself a history of silences and contests, exclusion and participation. With the assistance of the feminist moviment and it's development on the human sciences, gender studies and feminist theology, we search to reconstruct this history, bringing to the surface, the christian women's experiences on their path to the achievement of their faith. / Mestre

The identification of the speakers in John 3:13-21 and 3:31-36 has remained a longstanding question in biblical studies, confirmed by the difference of opinion in commentaries and the lack of agreement over the placement of quotation marks in contemporary versions of the Bible. The scholarly debate has centered on whether these passages ought to be interpreted as continuations of the words of Jesus and the Baptist, or as authorial commentary appended to their respective discourses. The purpose of this study was to remedy this interpretive difficulty by approaching the question from a wholly different angle: that of tracing the reception history of John 3 in the patristic period (up to A.D. 450). By critically surveying how these earliest readers of John’s Gospel interpreted the speakers, this thesis provides a fresh basis for evaluating the divergent theories of modern commentators and for reconsidering the placement of quotation marks in Bible versions.

Judas Iscariot has been and remains to this day one of the most hated persons in human history. The goal of this project is to examine the evolution Judas as he appears, first within the pages of the Christian canon, then moving over to literature outside the canon, into Apocrypha. Moreover, consulting ancient and modern sources allows for the ability to raise questions regarding the possibility of redemption for Judas as well as an analysis on whether this person was real or simply a literary construct by ancient authors in order to strengthen the core of the Christian belief system. With the inclusion of a clear and present villain in the narrative, the early Christians or proto-Orthodox were able to separate themselves from the initial Jewish community and labelled Judas as the ultimate example of what not to do when it came to being a “true” Christian. The discovery of the Gospel of Judas and its subsequent publication brought mainstream attention to the early years of Christianity, with its many different structures. The exploration of its pages reveal an entirely different message in which Judas Iscariot is a central figure, amidst a more “gnostic” tradition. The character of Judas Iscariot has since travelled through the centuries and it is this project’s mission to demonstrate the evolution of this character, showing how he first appears as merely one of twelve men who follow Jesus to a personification of evil. The project will also demonstrate how a possible misunderstanding of literature could have created a literary scapegoat, resulting in Judas Iscariot’s use as a tool to foster hatred and animosity towards the Jews. The end result leaves the reader with the question of whether Judas deserves absolution for his actions, who may have been an important part of God’s plan for humanity’s salvation.

The thesis presents firstly the political and historical situation in the Late Roman Empire in which the Church was granted liberty. Through the historical events is shown how the theological discussions were jointed and influenced by the contemporary political situation of the Empire. Secondly, the life of the Pope Innocent I before and during his pontificate is presented and Nachleben of Innocent as a saint man, the style of his letters is involved too. In the same chapter is his pontificate described and discussed through letters, which he sent to various groups of bishops. These are divided into the following groups: Eastern bishops, bishops in Europe, boshops of Africa and the letters as a support for his friend John Chrysostom. In all these fields Innocent treats self-confidently, with the authority of the Roman bishop, but the kinds of claims to his authority depends on geographical location in which the letters are sent. Alongside the contribution of the basic introduction to the letters of the Pope Innocent I this thesis also offers the short excursion to the philological analysis and the selected theological topics (especially liturgical) of his letters.

Athanasius of Alexandria’s list of canonical scriptures has often been taken as a natural terminus in the long, inevitable process that led to the development of a fixed “New Testament.” Recently, however, a number of scholars have challenged this point of view, arguing instead that citations, canon lists, and manuscript copies must each be placed within their own distinctive social and historical contexts before any judgment about the relationship of a given passage or book to the shifting category “sacred writing” can be made. When this careful attention to social context is applied to the use and reproduction of the work known as the Epistle to the Hebrews, a complex story of the book’s reception emerges. The Epistle to the Hebrews was written about, quoted, and reproduced to a variety of ends throughout the early Christian period. As I show, its reception was influenced not by canonical concerns per se, but instead by the utility of its theological arguments, its shifting relationship to the Pauline corpus, the history of its translation into Latin, and, to a lesser extent, its appearance in lists of sacred scripture produced by fourth- and fifth-century theologians. By placing ancient discussions of Hebrews’ status within bibliographic methodologies, assessing citation patterns in light of broader compositional and citational practices, and situating Christian manuscript evidence within the editorial customs of the time, I argue that the “canonicity” of Hebrews was never seriously questioned. Instead, historical accident, late antique book cultures, changing attitudes toward the function of apostolic authorship, and the varying transmission of scriptures in Greek and Latin conspired to produce a complex textual and material record. As the reception of even this one book shows, the transmission of early Christian writings rarely conformed to the supposedly rational decisions of church leaders about the inclusion or exclusion of certain works.

The object in writing this thesis has been to pursue the theological development of the doctrine of the trinity in the Church of the early centuries through the writings of the Church fathers. It is a continuation of a former study, A New Testament Study of Trinity, a thesis submitted for the Bachelor of Divinity degree, which was received in July, 1952. This entire study has been an attempt to soak the self in the patristic writings and to arrive at a first-hand conception of the classical doctrine of the trinity, which we believe, is a creation of the fourth century.

Jesus was a healer, but what may not be as obvious is that he started a legacy of healing. He passed on his skills and abilities to his followers at least three times. Though not as frequently, they continued to heal through the Book of Acts. The legacy continued in the Apocryphal Acts and other apocryphal materials spanning the early centuries of the common era. Secondary literature looks at modern scholarship and leans heavily into Rabbinic literature. Up to this point, other English-language works in healing have sorely lacked luster in providing. The exploration of the healing legacy of Jesus shifted to meet the skills and needs of the healers, patients, and communities involved. Further, the healings had a substantive resultant impact on various levels of socioeconomics for the parties, which is explored by reexamining each group type of healings, from lameness and paralytics to possession and resurrection, and more. The hope is that taking a holistic approach to these healings as possible will allow readers a new way of experiencing the early common era and these events that permeated everyone's lives at one time or another.

Thesis advisor: Christopher R. Matthews / Thesis advisor: Thomas D. Stegman / Previous scholarship on Paul in Acts focuses on reconstructing the historical Paul from a critical comparison of the discordant portraits of the apostle in the letters and in Luke’s second story. As such, the throbbing question that drove not a few scholars was “Which depiction reveals the real Paul?” With a productive surge in the narrative criticism of Acts, many literary critics have redirected their efforts to Luke’s sociologically tinged rhetoric, which undergirds a more pertinent concern: “What is Luke describing through his depiction of Paul?” Scholars representative of a narrative reading of Acts include: Richard I. Pervo, Daniel Marguerat, and François Bovon, to name a few. They all agree that the portrayal of Paul in Acts tells the reader more about the sociocultural situation of Luke’s group than about the historical Paul. Despite this scholarly achievement, the air of anti-Semitism still saturates the atmosphere of Acts scholarship. Hence, it is evident that narrative criticism by itself is insufficient to decipher the subtle rhetoric Luke employs to relate his story. Couched in a tensed tale of sibling rivalry, the familiar lexeme, “the Jews,” which is frequently correlated with the “Christian” Paul, is imbued with a subtle nuance: diaspora Jewishness. Neglectful of recent critical discussions on the parting of Judaism and early Christianity and the foci of the Redescribing Christian Origins project of the SBL, many well-intentioned narrative critics of Acts have succumbed to a traditional reading of Acts evincing an anti-Semitic worldview. This cannot be further from the truth. By contrast, I argue in this work that if narrative criticism is refined by means of the critical deductions of social scientists, and if these conclusions are polished by the perceptive study of historians of religion, it will lead to the articulation of a setting in which Luke’s project may be viewed as participating in “Jewishness.” In lieu of mirroring the replacement of Jewishness by Christianness, Luke’s narrative relates the tale of Christ-believing diaspora Jews who are steeped in imperial life and culture. The pseudo-dichotomy that is repeatedly reaffirmed by scholars thus should be jettisoned forthwith, because it is blind to the intricacies of social becoming and identity formation. Aided by studies in social identity and collective memory, Acts may be seen to reflect the fervent struggle of Christ-believing diaspora Jews who upheld the messiahship of Jesus, the non-Judaizing of pious Gentiles, and subservience to imperial authorities as signature traits of diaspora Jewishness: the dual commitment to Jewish ancestral customs and active participation in the Greco-Roman society. So Acts is definitely about Jewishness without precluding Romanness. The key to this clarification is the type of Jewishness Luke espouses—diaspora Jewishness. Approaches to Acts that reinforce a spurious dichotomy (i.e., Judean or Greco-Roman) are methodologically flawed, because they ignore the subtle rhetoric of Luke: overwhelmingly situating references to “the Jews” in coastal cities around the Aegean Sea, mostly Greece and Asia Minor. In line with the principles of literary cartography, Luke’s siting of “the Jews” in these cities has nuanced its denotation: diaspora Jews. Previous scholarship has ignored this subtlety and has created a hermeneutical quandary: Is Luke’s sociocultural milieu Judean or Greco-Roman? The story underlying Luke’s astute application of the familiar lexeme, “the Jews,” leaves no room for speculation or contradiction. The rhetoric is lucid: Jews residing in Asia Minor and Greece. These Jews are the historical referents of Acts. Hence, Luke’s second story evinces ideological tensions characteristic of social becoming and identity formation. Using the sociological principles espoused by Mark Currie, hostility is fiercer when competitors have more in common. The competing groups described in Acts are not dissimilar (Jews and Christians) but are rivals (non-Christ-believing diaspora Jews and Christ-believing diaspora Jews). Each earnestly strives to defend its unique understanding of diaspora Jewishness. Nor is Christianness indicative of a new “religion” but rather is a legitimate expression of diaspora Jewishness. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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