Biblical Interpretation in Early Christianity

Catalog description

This course will examine Christian discourse surrounding scripture and the ways in which it spoke and could be made to speak to the church throughout the period from, roughly, the second through the sixth centuries C.E. We will address, inter alia, questions of what texts came to be regarded as scripture and by what processes this occurred; the formation and 'closing' of the canon; the development of different schools and strategies for biblical interpretation; Christians' interactions with other interpretive communities, including particularly their Jewish neighbors, whose readings shaped Christian understandings of scripture; as well as regional, individual, and genre-specific differences