ABSTRACTS [DISCLAIMER: the abstracts follow as sent by the authors, with no editing, thus the Society is not responsible for contents or linguistc quality]

László Perendy
The Reception of Pauline Literature in Early Apologetics

When studying the reception of Pauline literature in the 2nd century Greek apologies, we can observe a curious phenomenon. In the work of Aristides no indisputable reference to any Pauline letter can be found. We can find some similarities with the first chapter of the Letter to the Romans and the Letter to the Colossians at the most. We can be sure that Justin does already use some letters, but he never names the Apostle. It cannot be observed, either, that he attributes any authority to the letters he makes use of. Athenagoras is the first to use the expression: “the word of the Apostle”. Theophilus does quote Pauline texts, calling them “divine word”, attributing them the same authority as to the gospels or the books of the prophets. That does not mean, however, that he would rely on Paul in his argumentation. So we cannot say with certainty that any apologist we know by name would have been influenced by the theology of St. Paul. This can be established only about the author of the Letter to Diognet. However, even this work does not quote Paul by name. So the second century Greek apologists have something in common: none of them tries to argue for Christianity referring to the authority of the Apostle. The contribution tries to find out the causes of this particular feature.

Csaba Ötvös
Das Abbild der Pistis: Fragen zur Anthropologie in der Titellose Schrift aus Codex II von Nag Hammadi.

Einige Vorstellungen des auch heute noch mit vielen Fragen belasteten antiken Gnostizismus kann man mit der frühen Wirkung der neutestamentlichen Briefe und der Theologie von Paulus verbinden. Die manchmal wörtlichen Zitate des Apostels und die Elemente seiner Theologie in den Schriften von Nag Hammadi zeugen vom Bekenntnis der Briefe und der Lehren der paulinischen Theologie. In dem Vortrag möchte ich die Anthropologie der Titellose Schrift (NHC II 5) versuchen kurz vorzustellen, deren Wurzeln mehrere Forscher in der paulinischen Theologie gesucht haben. Im Mittelpunkt der widersprüchlichen Anthropologie steht eine an der valentinianischen Gnosis erinnernde Trichotomie, die auf die allgemeine gnostische antropologische Dichotomie gegründet ist, an die aber der Verfasser die systematische Vierteilung der Menschheit angehängt hat. Nach der Vorstellung dieser Frage, die von der mythischen Erzählung der Erschaffung des Menschen abhängt, möchte ich den Bereich des Vortrags auf die ersten Sätze der Kosmologie erweitern, weil die Anthropologie hier bedeutende Rolle spielen konnte. Wenn meine Sicht richtig ist, kann eine Einheit der Anthropologie und Kosmologie in dem Traktat gedeckt werden, die einerseits paulinische Begriffe bewahrt hat, anderseits auch aus anderen geschöpft hat.

Daniel Bajnok
Three years? Paul’s journey to Arabia and the Gnosis

The presentation intends to summarize and answer the questions concerning the journey of Paul to Arabia. Only a few weeks after his conversion, Paul may have drawn upon himself the hatred of the Jews in Damascus, since he started preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. He could escape his persecutors only by being lowered from the city walls in secret; however, according to Gal. 1:17, his first journey did not lead him to Peter and the other disciples in Jerusalem but rather to Arabia, to the kingdom of the Nabateans. At that time Petra, the capital of the Nabataeans, was a dynamically developing and bustling cosmopolitan city, where archaeological excavations revealed the signs of considerable Hellenic influence. Having spent two years there Paul returned to Damascus to go on to Jerusalem.
A number of elements in the teachings of Paul can be connected with the patterns of the so-called Gnostic movements that emerged in the soil of Christianity in the 2^nd century AD. Since the date of the genesis of Gnosticism as a religious and philosophical trend is disputed, we cannot claim with certainty that Paul formed his mythological scheme of salvation under the inspiration of Gnosticism, still, it is obvious that the Jewish apocalyptical tradition (probably known by Paul) in itself does not account for this mythology. Either the Gnostic terminology attested in Paul’s letters takes a common origin with Gnostic movements in the 2^nd century or later Gnostics take certain elements of the Pauline terminology.

Ottó Pecsuk
"Syneidesis played an important part already in the literature of Classical Greek literature but its highest period can be identified between 100 B.C.E. and 100 C.E. when the Apostle Paul joined other authors who filled the concept with new meaning (e.g. Seneca). While the Greek translation texts of the Hebrew Bible used syneidésis without any special Philosophical connotation (syneidésis being merely an Anthropological shadow of God's will), Paul who also was standing on the basis of the Hebrew Scriptures, used the term "conscience" with a very special theological flavour. This flavour was composed from Paul's own personal and psychological characteristics ("Robust Conscience of Paul" by Krister Stendahl) and from the special conflicts of the missionary churches planted by the Apostle, like the one in Corinth (see the the problem of eating meat offered to idols). Paul used these impulses to create an important and influential Soteriological concept
(cf. Rm 2:15)."

 

Atanáz Orosz
I commenti dei Padri greci all’Inno dell’agape fino a Nicodemo Agiorita

Sulle lettere di S. Paolo ai Corinzi, ci sono rimasti commenti dei Padri Cappadoci. Gregorio Nazianzeno ci trasmetteva persino un’icona dell’apostolo-“archetipo”. L’immagine più completa di S. Paolo si trova nelle omelie del Crisostomo e nei commenti di Teodoreto di Ciro. In questo lavoro su 1Cor 13, offriamo un riassunto dell’ermeneutica greca moderna di S. Paolo attraverso una compilazione esegetica del Nicodemo Agiorita († 1809). “Le 14 Epistole del divino apostolo Paolo commentate in greco da Teofilatto di Bulgaria” sono un adattamento in neogreco dei commenti dell’arcivescovo di Bulgaria († 1108). Nicodemo si riferisce sopratutto ai commenti di Teofilatto di Bulgaria, ai Padri Cappadoci e ad alcuni rappresentanti delle scuole antiochena ed alessandrina. Tra i testimoni più tardivi e spesso invocati sono Massimo il Confessore, Fozio e Gregorio Palamas. Nondimeno, più invocato sembra essere il Crisostomo, spesso citato già nel prologo. Nicodemo continua l’ottimismo del Crisostomo e di Gregorio Nazianzeno quanto all’ imitazione di quest’ “archetipo”.

Mihály Kránitz
[slide-show]

The Church was founded by Christ but Saint Paul had a singular role for spreading communities all over the ancient world, the Roman Empire. It is improtant to discover the territory where Paul at first preached the Gospel and founded new churches. In our days the cities that Paul has visited are already abandoned and located in ruins. The purpose of the presentation is to show how stones can reveal the spirit of a missionary who walked among the excavated archaelogical sites 2000 years before.

Róbert Somos
St Paul and the homonymy in the Philocalia

The short communication aims to show in what extent is present Saint Paul in the anthology of Philocalia collected by Gregory of Nazianz and Basil the Great in connection of the notion of the homonymy (chapter 9^th and 14^th) .
    Conclusions:
1) In connection of the notion of the homonymy in the Philocalia Saint Paul is the most cited author. On this base it can be proven that there is a special link between Pauline exegesis and the Origenian notion of homonymy. This is in accordance with Origen’s valuation on Paul in HomNum 3, according to which Paul is the greatest apostle.
2) The homonymy is the central notion of the Origenian exegesis in the level of the terms, which expresses in the simplest way the starting point of the interpretation.
3) The primacy of the name in relation of the predicate has ontological character. Moreover, this is a manifestation of the Platonic ontology and not a simple convention derived from the usage.   

Csaba Sivadó
The Patristic Interpretation of Roman 5,12 in the Eastern Church and it’s Present-day Relations

The Scriptural base of the theology of original sin can be traced to 5,12 of the Roman letter of Saint Paul. St. Augustin – in the debate with Pelagius – placed the foundation of the western theological thinking in the interpretation of this doctrine. Unfortunately in the time of the bishop of Hyppo, in the latin translation of the Vulgata, the „eph’ hó” expresssion was translated into latin with „in quo” and according to this it was related to Adam, which possibility in the original text can’t be permitted. By this mistranslation and other theological emphases, different theological approaches, differencies of interpretations emerged in the Eastern and Western part of the anciant christian world. In the greek patristic interpretation the language structure of „eph’ hó” allows two possibilities to the interpreter – which radically differs from the western christianity and instead of original sin they use original mortality.
In the thesis, at the examination of the patristic texts, I intended to have both the representatives of the Antiochian and Alexandrian exegetical schools express their opinions. The last part of the research intends to focus the present-day approaches, and the nearpast neopatristic authors’  theological synthesis in the Eastern Church.

Adalbertus Alexis Németh
Sanctus Paulus in Nicolai Sinai Cogitationibus ad Minucium

Dictatum in Archivo Collegii Reformatorum Debrecini conservatum habet nonnulos locos ad Sanctum Paulum pertinentes, quorum illustrisimi sunt: 33r, 36r, 39v bis, 41r, 43v, 46v, 47r, 60v, 70r, 157r, 183r, 185r bis. Quibusdam horum interpretatis apparet Apostolum Sanctum Paulum magnam apud reformatos cives Debrecenienses auctoritatem habuisse Nicolaumque Sinai hac auctoritate fultum Minucium interpretatum esse.

Gábor Buzási
The Apostle Paul in the writings of Pagan apologists: Celsus, Porphyry, Julian

In my presentation I will focus on the character and work of the Apostle Paul as seen by the Late Antique defenders of Paganism. The starting point will be the analysis of these authors' explicit statements, while the interpretation of the latter requires a depiction of their context and broader background as well.

László Répás
’Christ is the end of the law’ – Pauline citations in Irenaeus’ interpretation of the Mosaic law in the Book 4 of Adversus Haereses

In my lecture I would like to make an attempt to examine Irenaeus’ attitude towards the Mosaic law, especially in the light of his Pauline citations based on some passages of the Book 4 of AH. Marcion’s dichotomic interpretation of the Bible, his insistence on the antagonistic opposition between the Old and the New Testaments, the Law and the Gospel was a major challenge for the exegetes of the early church. This challenge prompted also Irenaeus to collect ammunition from the letters of the apostle only accepted by the heretic leader of Pontus – classifying Marcion as a Gnostic – in his antignostic polemics in order to refute his Antitheses. I am searching for the answer to the question whether the recurrent charge can be proved that in his polemics Irenaeus occasionally misunderstood or misinterptreted the statements of Paul about the relation of the Law and the Gospel, or rather there is a shifting of stress as a consequence of the fact that Irenaeus quotes Paul first of all to rise to this new challenge and interpretes the law from this point of view in the Book 4 and his interpretation is faithful to and coherent with the Pauline theology. I would like to advance arguments in favor of this latter point.

Sándor Cserháti
 Die Fragen von der vom Paulus veranlasste Sammlung für die Urgemeinde.

   a) Paulus hatte an der apostolische Synode im Jerusalem versprochen "die Armen " in der Urgemeinde finanziell unterzustützen. Er war mit vollem Herz sein Versprechen zuverwirklichen. Darum hatte er mit dieser Sache fast in jedem von seinen Briefen beschäftigt. Die Aufgabe konnte nicht einfachsein, wenn die Verwirklichung  umgefähr achr Jahre beansprucht  hatte. 
   b) Der wirkliche Grund der Action ist  unter der Forschern sehr fraglich. Als Armengeld könnte zu spät angekommen. Als Tempelsteuer müsste es rregelmässiger sein. Wahrscheinlicher ist, dass "die Kollekte" sollte eine Demonstration der Einheit der Kirche sein.
   c) Wer die Mitteilungen   des Apostels recht versteht , der wird bemerken, wie taktvoll der Apostel verfahren sollte. Schon damals war die Beziehung zwischen der Juden und Nichtjuden sehr gespannt. Auch die öffentliche Geldsachen waren mit Verdacht umgegeben. Das Benehmen des Paulus war  von vielen Christen negativ beurteilt.
    d) Was mit dem Spenden geschehen ist, blieb im Dunkel. Der Apostel rechnet schon im Römmerbrief  mit Zurückweisung. Aber wie es immer geschehen ist, bleibt selbst der Ablauf der Sammlung ein schöner Ausdruck der Einheit der Christen heit für immer. 

Péter Csigi
Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia is not one of the best known authors of the ancient Christian area. Chromatius, who lived and was active in the second half of the 4th century, was a good friend of Jerome and Rufinus. Out of his compendium it was only the collection of his speeches that was accessible for a long time. His literary works were placed in the spotlight when parts of his commentary written to the Gospel of Mark were discovered in the second half of the 20th century. In his works his intention is to introduce the Holy Scriptures in a clear fashion and provide an explanation corresponding to the believers’ spiritual needs. His interpretations generally follow his predecessors, however his style is always characterised by a firm orthodox faith and elegant style.
In his 12th and 28th speeches he gives an explanation of some extracts by St Paul. In these explanations spiritual life is compared with physical exercise and practical disciplines are defined for the athletae spiritales. The Christian believer must reject all that deteriorate his character: wickedness, uncleanliness, unjustice and instead he needs to fortify himself with the commandment of purity, patience and kindness in order to fight his arduous fight against the devil and his demons. Thus following Christ he will receive the heavenly rewards from God.

Anna Tóth
 

Miklós Gyurkovics
 

László Odrobina
 

Tamás Adamik

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Németh Csaba

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Tóth Judit

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AKIYAMA Manabu, János

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Frenyó Zoltán

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Péter Tóth

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Boudewijn Dehandschutter
Rereading the Martyrdom of Paul
 

István Baán

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Gábor Kendeffy

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