Greco-Roman, Judaic, and Christian Traditions in Hadrian's "Introduction to the Divine Scriptures," 5th Century A.D.
FAIN: FA-54167-08
Peter W. Martens
St. Louis University (Notre Dame, IN 46556-4635)
My project is to publish a critical study and translation of Hadrian's "Introduction to the Divine Scriptures" (fifth century CE). In this book, Hadrian, a Greek Christian scholar, wrestles with the idiosyncratic features of Semitic thought, vocabulary, and literary style that surface in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the church's Old Testament. In particular, he grapples with the evocative and all-too-human portrayals of God in this document. Hadrian's treatise resides, then, at the intersection of two cultures, the Semitic and Greco-Roman, and of two religions, Judaism and Christianity. I will offer the first English translation of the "Introduction." I will also write a substantial critical essay of this book in which I investigate its structure, intent and content, as well as locate it within two main contexts: its relationship to Greco-Roman literary education in late antiquity, and its place in early Christian biblical scholarship.