The present paper presents an overview of the types of writing that were used by Christian Arabic scribes during the long ninth century. It categories them into three groups consisting of several subcategories and discusses the traits of such categories. It further aims at collecting extant shelf marks of early Christian Arabic manuscripts and research relating to these findings, add to the search for disjecta membra, and contribute to our knowledge of individual scribes and scribal activity in the early Christian Arabic manuscript production.

Description of Christian Arabic Bible translations held at the British Library

The paper examines different approaches to Scripture in general, and exegetical uses of the Book of Psalms in particular, in early Rūm Orthodox (Melkite) texts. It singles out general statements relating to Scripture and explains them both in terms of reception of the Patristic heritage and as a message delivered to an audience in a specific context. It also discusses the authors’ conception of the Hebrew text of the Bible. Finally, the paper investigates the uses of the Psalms’ quotations in the analyzed texts, often used to prove Christian doctrines as expressed in the New Testament.

This paper provides a number of cases where early Christian Arabic Bible translators resorted to qur’ānic-sounding language and (later) also a qur’ānic aesthetic in their production of biblical codices. The main purpose of the paper is to discuss various reasons as to why they went so far into the “realm of the other” when producing these translations. The answer to that question is most likely connected to the little-known function of these Bible translations, a topic also addressed in the paper. The adoption of qur’ānic language results in a comparatively high level of intertextuality and the use of codicological features associated with Mamluk Qur’āns also tend to blur religious borders. Thus, the paper also explores the possibility to view a portion of the Christian Arabic Bible endeavour as part of the broader process of “religious co-production.”

This article discusses the use of “Islamic” vocabulary in Christian Arabic Bible translations composed around the 9th century. It suggests that there is a link between such use and the translation’s Vorlage dependence, function, and the general translation technique attested in it. The article further proposes that a function of translations containing a notable and seemingly deliberate use of Islamic-sounding vocabulary was to show that the Christian Scriptures were able to absorb the message of Islam, just like early Christian Arabic theologians promulgated the idea that Christian dogmas permeated the Qurʾān. Thus, instead of shielding their Scriptures from a competing religion by dressing them in a more neutral linguistic register, these translators and authors presented a Christianity essentially elevated beyond words and contexts and therefore portrayable in any of them.

The aim of this article is to demonstratethe dynamic nature of the Christian Arabic Book of Daniel. I will present extant versions, discuss their variegated canonical constellations, show the fluidity of text units in the various versions and describe how they have even come to absorb liturgical practice. Special attention will be paid to the deuterocanonical narratives related to the Book of Daniel that have almost completely escaped scholarly scrutiny. The fluctuating and vivid character of Arabic Bible translations is particularly evident in the rendition of Daniel, yet in many aspects these findings are characteristic of the Arabic Bible enterprise at large. Arabic translations appear to have functioned alongside texts in the established liturgical languages which continued to serve as the measuring standard of the biblical narrative. Thus, the value of the Arabic Bible renditions lies foremost in their ability to capture a less formalized, spontaneous, and uninhibited practice and understanding of the religious heritage.

Christian Arabic translations reflecting Islamic vocabulary 

No one mentions Syriac, – a dialect of the Aramaic language Jesus spoke –, without referring to Sebastian P. Brock, the Oxford scholar and teacher who has written and taught about everything Syriac, even reorienting the field as The Third Lung of early Christianity (along with Greek and Latin). In 2018, Syriac scholars world-wide gathered in Sigtuna, Sweden, to celebrate with Sebastian his accomplishments and share new directions. Through essays showing what Syriac studies have attained, where they are going, as well as some arenas and connections previously not imagined, flavors of the fruits of laboring in the field are offered. 

Contributors to this volume are: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Shraga Bick, Briouria Bitton-Ashkelony, Alberto Camplani, Thomas A. Carlson, Jeff W. Childers, Muriel Debié, Terry Falla, George A. Kiraz, Sergey Minov, Craig E. Morrison, István Perczel, Anton Pritula, Ilaria Ramelli, Christine Shepardson, Stephen J. Shoemaker, Herman G.B. Teule, Kathleen E. McVey.

The present study offers a comparative analysis of colophons written in Arabic by Christian scribes at the monasteries of Saint Chariton, Saint Sabas, and Saint Catherine in the ninth and tenth centuries CE. These monasteries have played a crucial role in the formation of the early Christian Arabic manuscript tradition. The colophons of these manu-scripts provide the most immediate access to the socio-cultural milieu of their producers. The present study is based on a selection of 20 colo-phons, which are explicitly connected to one of the three monasteries. Our main aim is to draft a typology of early Christian Arabic colophons as a means to investigate the various issues surrounding emergent Chris-tian Arabic scribality. Additionally, we will discuss paleographical fea-tures of the handwriting of the scribes who authored the colophons dis-cussed here. As we will show, these can be used to connect anonymous colophons and manuscripts without colophons, at least with some prob-ability, to the workshops of these monasteries. Overall, our aim is to highlight the microhistorical significance of early Christian Arabic colo-phons, which not only offer spatio-temporal, prosopographical, social, intellectual, and, to some extent, economic coordinates for the contex-tualisation of early Christian Arabic manuscript production, but also al-low us to catch a glimpse of early Christian Arabic scribal self-perception. 

The present study offers a comparative analysis of colophons written in Arabic by Christian scribes at the monasteries of Saint Chariton, Saint Sabas, and Saint Catherine in the ninth and tenth centuries CE. These monasteries have played a crucial role in the formation of the early Christian Arabic manuscript tradition. The colophons of these manu- scripts provide the most immediate access to the socio-cultural milieu of their producers. The present study is based on a selection of 20 colo- phons, which are explicitly connected to one of the three monasteries. Our main aim is to draft a typology of early Christian Arabic colophons as a means to investigate the various issues surrounding emergent Chris- tian Arabic scribality. Additionally, we will discuss paleographical fea- tures of the handwriting of the scribes who authored the colophons dis- cussed here. As we will show, these can be used to connect anonymous colophons and manuscripts without colophons, at least with some prob- ability, to the workshops of these monasteries. Overall, our aim is to highlight the microhistorical significance of early Christian Arabic colo- phons, which not only offer spatio-temporal, prosopographical, social, intellectual, and, to some extent, economic coordinates for the contex- tualisation of early Christian Arabic manuscript production, but also al- low us to catch a glimpse of early Christian Arabic scribal self- perception.

This volume explores the ways in which representatives of different monotheistic traditions experienced themselves as “the other” or were perceived and described as such by their contemporaries. This central category – which includes not only those of different religions, but also converts, foreigners, sectarians, and women – is studied from various perspectives in a range of texts composed by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim authors during late antique and mediaeval times. Conceptualizations of such “others” are often intrinsically related to the idea of exile, another important category that is analysed in this work.

The preaching event is a complex process of communication and interpretation. The aim of this study is to describe and discuss how the preaching event is affected when it is digitally mediated and involves so-called “religious digital creatives” (RDCs). This is achieved through a case study of the preaching event at two Church of Sweden (CoS) congregations that offered pre-recorded, digitally mediated worship services. The research questions guiding the study were: “When and how do the RDCs engage in the preaching event?” and “How can the effects of this engagement be understood in the light of homiletical theory drawing on the works of Mikhail Bakhtin?” The study found that RDCs engaged in the verbalization phase of the preaching event in several ways—including visualization, direction, editing, enhancement, and contextualization of the sermon—and thus contributed significantly to the preaching event. Furthermore, the RDCs exhibited notable relational authority—an authority based on negotiation, interdependence, and interaction. Employing homiletical theory that draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s work, I argue that the RDCs in this case study are best understood as co-preachers who contribute to expanding the polyphony of the preaching event.

The purposes of this article-based thesis are to explore and understand preaching as a practice in general,and the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces in particular. Informed by the practicetheory of Theodore Schatzki, it presents the results of a cross-case analysis of four di!erent case studiesof the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces in Swedish protestant churches. Based on theanalysis, I argue that the deep relationality of the practice of preaching involves not just humans andtexts but also material arrangements and that this feature often is ampli"ed in digital culture and spaces.While there were examples of a decrease, overall, there was an increase in interaction, negotiation, andinterdependency. In light of this, I contend that the practice of preaching in digital culture and spacesis characterized by co-preaching. Moreover, I argue that some of the implications of co-preaching arethe enabling and encouragement of dialogue, imagination, and the priestly function of the priesthoodof all believers, but also an increased vulnerability for the co-preachers involved.

Ever since the theory of orality and literacy was introduced, it has provided scholars with a deeper understanding of the intertwined nature of culture and communication, as well as an appreciated tool for analysis. This is true also for the field of World Christianity. As the era of digital media emerged, the theory was developed as a tool to interpret digital culture as a ‘secondary orality’. This article critiques and cultivates this theory, by showing how the analytical tool of orality, literacy and secondary orality might be sharpened. This is done in dialogue with the practice of female preachers. Preaching thus serves as an example for a wider discussion on the development of the theory. The sharpening of the tool is done through letting the complexity of practices inform the theory. Through historical case studies of three strategically chosen female preachers, four questions are identified that would be important to consider when the theory and its developments are used in analysis: genre of communication, the categories of body and space, and how authority is construed. Finally, the cultivated theory is applied in the analysis of a female preacher in a digital culture and space.

 This study examines digitally-mediated sermon listening practices by interviewing twenty-nine listeners from Swedish Protestant congregations. The analysis draws on Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory, focusing on the entanglement of human activity, material arrangements surrounding the preaching event, and the ends of practices—including how changes to any or all of the above impact the practice in question. The study found that listeners strove to uphold the listening practices they were accustomed to from their respective churchesand attempted to carry these over into the digitally-mediated preaching event. To a large extent,they succeeded in opening and managing a “third room of preaching.” Furthermore, the studyhighlighted the importance of knowing the ends of these listening practices. The study alsodemonstrated the significance of material arrangements and how changes in these arrangementssometimes led to the obstruction—or even breakdown—of listening practices. However, changesin material arrangements also inspired new practices—pointing to the need to rethink listeningpractices that are merely borrowed from in-church services.