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It is well known that Syriac translations from the Greek changed a great deal between the fourth and seventh centuries AD. Many Syriac versions of the scriptures, the Greek Fathers and the philosophers were subjected to revision and improvement. This study looks at the Syriac translations of Cyril of Alexandria's Christological works and seeks to place them in the wider context just mentioned. It aims to illuminate their date and background on the basis of a comparative typology of translation technique and method. This also includes the use of biblical citations and parallel citations in other texts as important evidence. It is shown that the texts come from dates ranging from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the sixth century and can be fittingly compared with other contemporary documents. The findings highlight the importance of the few decades either side of the turn of the sixth century as the key moment when the Syriac translators developed a new vision of their language and its capabilities. This was the time of the most rapid change and pivots around the person of Philoxenus. It is also suggested that Philoxenus' own role resulted from his reading of some of these very translations and the new techniques found therein. In the first section, it is suggested that these technical developments are related to parallel developments in the church concerning matters of textual authority and systematisation, the rise of patristic exegesis and florilegia. In a final chapter, the study goes on to place this development in a still wider context within late antiquity and argues that this new vision of language use which we see in the Syrian church can be paralleled in a number of other walks of life and, in fact, represents a typical 'late antique' frame of mind.

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This thesis examines the theology and piety of Isaac Ambrose (1604-1664), a moderate Lancashire Puritan minister. More specifically it raises the question about the nature of his spiritual practices and whether they reflect what Bernard McGinn calls the “mystical element” of Christianity? This research is distinctive since Ambrose has never been the primary focus of research. There are six chapters to this thesis. Chapter 1 examines the definition of three key terms: “mysticism”, “Puritanism”, and “Puritan mysticism” and then substitutes “contemplative-mystical piety” for McGinn’s mystical element since this language is more familiar to the Reformed community. A review of the literature reveals the prevalence of contemplative-mystical piety within mainstream Puritanism. Chapter 2 explores the biblical and theological foundations of union with Christ, which the Puritans often called spiritual marriage. Contrary to common perception, the Puritans encouraged intimacy and sexual enjoyment in their godly marriage that they often perceived as a reciprocal relationship with their spiritual marriage. The third chapter creates a contemplative biography of Ambrose through his diary entries and examines his relationship with God and his neighbor through his annual retreats, the struggles of his soul, serving as a physician of the soul, times of public fasting and worship, and the significance of specific places or environment to his piety. Chapter 4 narrows the focus to Ambrose’s teaching on meditation and contemplation. The influence of Bernard of Clairvaux is clearly evident as Ambrose contemplatively looks at Jesus throughout all the manifestations of Jesus’ life. The fifth chapter considers Ambrose’s use of ravishment and examines the nature, dynamics and benefits of this ambiguous term of delight and enjoyment. The final chapter moves from the seventeenth-century to the present and inquires whether Ambrose’s contemplative-mystical piety can guide contemporary Reformed Christians. That requires an examination into the resistance of Karl Barth as well as the more receptive possibility of retrieval through Herman Bavinck. This work concludes with seven principles from Ambrose to encourage those who are members of the Reformed tradition.

This study examines St. John Chrysostom's teaching on two strands of thought. The first relates to a modern Orthodox commonplace holding eastern Christian thought as fundamentally therapeutic, in contrast to a juridical western Christianity. It was hypothesized that 1) neither provides a strong fundamental paradigm because each can be variously interpreted based on one's answer to the question, “What is man?” and 2) the πολιτεία of heaven (the theme, according to Chrysostom, of all the evangelists), might provide a sufficient paradigm. The πολιτεία of heaven does provide a better major paradigm – seamlessly incorporating therapeutic and juridical language and the common Christian understanding of man as a communal being in relation firstly with God and then with creation. However, this paradigm requires fleshing out with various images to avoid being misconstrued. The second strand furthered earlier work on the Orthodox understanding of sanity, insanity, and demonic possession. Chrysostom allowed for non-demonic mental illness, but was far more concerned with the insanity of sin than with mental illness or possession. This view is common, but Chrysostom is remarkable for his enormous compassion for both groups and his vehement insistence that sin is far worse insanity. Both strands show man on a continuum – the lower limit case being the ἄλογος man who lives for himself and temporal things; the upper case, exemplified by the monk – the true member of the πολιτεία of heaven – who loves God and neighbor and seeks heavenly things. The thesis concludes by examining the consequences of these findings for modern Chrysostom scholarship. These include the necessity of 1) taking seriously Chrysostom’s accusations of insanity and demonic possession, 2) examining the effect of materialistic and democratic presuppositions on one’s understanding of Chrysostom’s work, and 3) addressing the question, “How does one study somebody who would consider one insane?”

This thesis attempts to reveal a neglected facet of Justin Martyr’s idea of the new covenant (NC), with a focus on Justin’s identification of the new covenant with Christ. It is an effort to seek its Jewish origins. Justin’s interpretation of the NC in Jeremiah 31(38).31-32 is indebted to an early liturgical tradition preserved in Luke 22 and 1 Corinthians 11. This interpretation of the NC as the Sacrament is linked with his identification of the NC with Christ, since Justin views the Eucharist as the embodiment of the divine Logos, which Justin considers to be equal to Christ. Justin’s NC does not only refer to the Eucharist, but baptism as well. Although Justin’s identification might have been partly influenced by the Kerygma Petri, which identifies the Law with the Lord, it is rather significantly influenced by the Jewish traditions. This element in Justin’s use of the NC is shaped by the textual/exegetical traditions of the OT/Hebrew Bible such as LXX, a Jewish recension (a καίγε type/‘Theodotion’, or Aquila), and the PT tradition in its oral stage. Particularly, Justin detects the theme of the ‘coming/going out of תורה/תודה’ in Isaiah 2.3/51.4 and the Book of the Covenant—the context of the NC text of Jeremiah (30-31 [37-38])—with his knowledge of a Hebraizing reading of Jeremiah 30.19 attested in the version of Aquila; Justin’s juxtaposition of these verses in Dialogue 11 and 24 indicates that he views תורה in Isaiah 2.3 and 51.4 as identical with תודה/εὐχαριστία in Jeremiah 30.19. Moreover, Justin learned the Midrashic tradition on the water of Marah, which involves Jewish metaphors of ‘tree (of life)’ and ‘water’ as the Torah, orally from the early PT tradition. Justin’s knowledge of this Midrashic tradition, together with his recognition of LXX Jeremiah 11.19 which associates ‘tree’ with ‘bread’, and LXX Exodus 23.25 which juxtaposes ‘bread, water, and wine’, has facilitated his identification of Christ with the new Law/covenant, namely the Sacraments. The identification of the messianic symbol of ‘ruler’s staff’ with the ‘covenant of kingship’ in 4Q252 strengthens our view that Justin’s identification of the NC with Christ is rooted in Jewish traditions, since in Dialogue 86, Justin also associates ‘sceptre/rod’ with the ‘tree of life’, which is the new Law/covenant and Christ. The findings of this thesis have an implication on the scholarly view of Justin’s use of the testimony sources. This study confirms the fact that Justin’s OT texts are often quoted from secondary sources. As far as his use of Jeremiah 31.31-32 and his OT citations in Dialogue 86 are concerned, however, his combinations and alterations of the biblical texts are related to his theological view of the NC, so that they may indicate Justin’s reworking of the OT/source material; the influence of contemporary Jewish traditions can be traced even in the upper layer of Justin’s source material.

One of the most prevalent features in John Chrysostom’s writings is his numerous portrayals of exemplar figures. In this thesis, we will argue that these exemplar portraits are largely determined by the literary strategies and analytical frameworks propounded by two major traditions: the Greco-Roman tradition of paideia, philosophical ethics, biography and rhetoric, and the Christian tradition. When due attention is paid to the strategies of exemplar discourse in both traditions, a hermeneutics of exemplar portraits may be developed. Such a hermeneutical approach will not only elucidate Chrysostom’s pedagogical and ideological objectives for these portraits, but, more importantly, deepen our understanding of his ethics and theology as a whole. As our analysis of his portrayals of King David, the apostle Paul, Christian ascetics and martyrs show us, Chrysostom’s ethical framework is greatly indebted to the Greco-Roman tradition of virtue ethics. Furthermore, the approaches that Chrysostom adopts to present his exemplars also rely heavily on the narrative strategies and rhetorical techniques bequeathed to him by the Late Antique biographical and rhetorical traditions. Having said this, the forms that his exemplar portraits take are also distinctively Christian because they declare powerfully Chrysostom’s soteriological convictions, namely, that Christian salvation is nothing less than the transcendence of one’s human limitations by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that one can participate in Christ’s deified life in the human body and live a life that is not dissimilar to the angels. In the case of his martyr portraits, the articulation of this soteriological and ethical vision would compel Chrysostom to introduce two innovations to his rhetorical approach, namely, the reconception of the martyr as an icon of God’s grace and power, and a new emphasis on his audiences’ identification, imitation and veneration of the martyr.