Biblical Commentaries

Forthcoming Books & Articles in 2019

February 18, 2019 by Frank Leave a Comment

First, to all of our readers and visitors, I wish you a blessed New Year.

Concerning books and articles to be published in 2019, this spring I look forward to the release of The Carolingian Commentaries on the Apocalypse by Theodulf and Smaragdus published by Medieval Institute Press. It will contain English translations of the Apocalypse commentary of Theodulf of Orleans from the year 810 and three homilies on the Apocalypse of Smaragdus from the year 812. Both served under King Charlemagne. Hopefully this year an essay I wrote on “Tenth-Century Exegesis of the Apocalypse” will be published in the Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature edited by Colin McAllister. It treats Arethas of Caesarea, the Catechesis Celtica, and an anonymous Gloss on the Apocalypse of John. These are discussed further under the “Forthcoming” tab on this site.

The “Current Projects” tab has also been updated. Concerning current writing projects, this year I look forward to finishing and submitting two books of translations of sixth and seventh-century writings on the Apocalypse. This spring I also plan to write three articles: “Spiritual Gifts: Patristics through Reformation Era,” “Predestination: Greek and Latin Patristics and Orthodox Churches,” and “Sin and Its Effects on the Human Will in Early Medieval pseudo-Augustinian Literature on Predestination.” All three of these I agreed to write for various books edited by others and they are due in June and July.

Finally, I would like to recommend a few books by others that I have read recently. On eschatology The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age by Jesse Hoover (Oxford, 2018), Robert Wilken’s The Land Called Holy: Palestine in Christian History and Thought (Yale University Press, 1992), and 40 Questions about the End Times by Eckhard Schnabel (Kregel, 2011). On the theology of grace and much more, there is the first English translation of Isidore of Seville’s Sententiae in the Ancient Christian Writers series, Vol. 73 (Newman, 2018), which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also the text “On the Hardening of Pharoah’s Heart,” probably written by Pelagius, came out in a first English translation by Bryn R. Rees in Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture 6 (2012):1-54.

My prayer for myself and for you in 2019 is that in holiness and humility we would serve our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and died for us. Frank

New Books on Eschatology & the Theology of Grace in Christian History

January 1, 2018 by Frank Leave a Comment

Happy New Year! In this post I want to inform our readers of some new books on eschatology and the theology of grace in early and medieval Christian history. On eschatology, they are:

T.C. Schmidt, transl., Hippolytus of Rome: Commentary on Daniel and ‘Chronicon’ (Georgias Press, 2017).

Peter of John Olivi, Commentary on the Apocalypse. Translation, Notes, and Introduction by Warren Lewis (Franciscan Institute Publications, 2017). This is a large commentary written in the year 1298.

On the theology of grace, most of which relate to the ninth-century controversy over divine predestination, are the following books:

Matthew Bryan Gillis, Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Rachel Stone and Charles West, eds., Hincmar of Rheims: Life and Work (Manchester University Press, 2015).

Jared G. Wielfaert, Prudentius of Troyes (d. 861) and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 2015). Available from ProQuest.

Guido Stucco, The Doctrine of Predestination in Catholic Scholasticism (2017).

Also, the following articles on the Gottschalk controversy may be of interest:

Brian Matz, “Augustine in the Predestination Controversy of the Ninth Century, Part 1: The Double Predestinarians Gottschalk of Orbais and Ratramnus of Corbie,” Augustinian Studies 46:2 (2015):155-184.

Jenny Smith, “As if Augustine Had Said: Textual Interpretation and Augustinian Ambiguity in a Medieval Debate on Predestination,” Past Imperfect 19 (2016)

Jenny Smith, “The Rebellious Monk Gottschalk of Orbais: Defining Heresy in a Medieval Debate on Predestination.” Both of Ms. Smith’s articles can be found on line.

Happy reading and wishing all of our readers a blessed 2018.

Frank

Tyconius, Exposition of the Apocalypse

June 20, 2017 by Frank Leave a Comment

My English translation of Tyconius’s Exposition of the Apocalypse has been published. It is in Volume 134 of the Fathers of the Church series. I hope you get a copy and enjoy reading his explanations of the Book of Revelation.

Tyconius wrote this Exposition about 380 AD. It is useful in many ways. He interpreted John’s visions to make them relevant for the church of all times, similar to modern “idealist” interpretations. He also believed that some passages in Revelation were symbolic of the future persecution of Antichrist, the Second Coming, and the Last Judgment.

He believed that the Book of Revelation is recapitulatory, rather than visions of events that reflect chronological order. On some familiar passages and themes, Tyconius saw the 144,000 as a symbol of the whole church. Likewise, the two witnesses are symbolic of the church prophesying in both testaments. Those sitting on thrones and reigning for a thousand years represent the present reign of the saints; and the first resurrection “is in this life through forgiveness of sins.”

The introduction and notes to the translation of Tyconius were written by David Charles Robinson of Toronto.

For a review of our book in Augustinian Studies 50:2 (2019), click here.

To order Tyconius of Carthage, Exposition of the Apocalypse from Amazon, click here.

I leave you with an encouragement from a Syriac commentator: “Let us spiritually refresh ourselves in the Apocalypse of the Son of God which is very dear and wonderful.”