Exagoge – RCS

Rainer Stahl Retired general secretary of Martin-Luther-Bund (Habichtstrasse 14 A, Erlangen, Germany, D-91056)
rainer.stahl.1@gmx.de

Stahl R. «Simul iustus et peccator», Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2024, vol. 13, pp. 34–47.

doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2024-13-34-47

Language: Russian

This paper was originally written as a meditation about the text of Exodus 32:7–14 which was the scriptural basis for the sermon on Sunday «Rogate» on May 5th, 2024. During the work two painful challenges came into my view, which the church in Germany affects since years. Firstly, in the Eastern part of Germany, the possible cooperation of church officials with the security of the former German Democratic Republic, with the so called «Staatssicherheit». Secondly, in the last time the important labor about the possible sexual misuse of children and youngsters. It was a deep spiritual insight for me that the critique of God about Israel, which our Bible text shows, may offer help for dealing with these two challenges. The article covern several issues in turn: the textual problems of Exodus 32:7–14, the way of writing of this text in connection with the history of theology in Old Judah, the surface of the Bible text and finally the main themes which could be stressed on the basis of this Bible text. The last include: the question of pictures for God, the image of bull as the wrong possibility, intercession as the correct way dealing with God, the work about the relation to the security of the German Democratic Republic and the confession of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Key words: Martin Luther, Exodus, ethics, old Judah, Germany, ressurection

URL: https://rcs-almanac.ru/stahl-2024-en/

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Zoya Anatolyevna Barzakh PhD in Philology, graduate student, Department of Classical Studies, Bar-llan University (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 5290002)
zoia_barzakh@mail.ru

Barzakh Z. A. «Exodus» (Ἐξαγωγή) of Ezekiel the Tragedian: introductory article and translation, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii[Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2019, vol. 8, pp. 334–355.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2019-00016

Language: Russian

This is the first Russian verse translation of the fragments of the tragedy Exagoge, which was written by a certain Ezekiel in Hellenistic Alexandria and passed to us in citations by Eusebius of Caesaria (Praeparatio Evangelica). This tragedy dramatized the events of the Pentateuch book Exodus, chapters 1–15. It was written in ancient Greek and according to the canons and standards of ancient Greek tradition. This is the longest Jewish Hellenistic poetic fragment to survive, the most substantial testimony to Hellenistic tragedy, and the earliest Jewish play in history. The most probable date of the fragments is the end of III–II century BC. Ptolemaic Alexandria of this period was the unique spiritual and cultural environment, which originated the biggest, the most influential and certainly the most open to the Hellenic cultural influence Jewish community of the diaspora. The best-known literary document of the period is the translation of LXX, which, in turn, gave the impulse to the creation of vast corpus of Jewish literature in Ancient Greek. In the Introduction, the translator gives the survey of Exekiel’s sources. Among the Jewish sources, apart from the Pentateuch in LXX translation, we can mention early Jewish mysticism, known to us through Enochic tradition, and early exegetical tradition, which lately originated what passed to us through midrashim. Menwhile, we can state with certainty that the author of the tragedy was familiar with the greatest masterpieces of ancient Greek tragedy and made a conscious attempt to use its canons and images in adopting Biblical material.

Key words: Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exagoge, Alexandria, Hellenistic tragedy

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/en/barzakh-2019-en/

«Simul iustus et peccator» — «At once justified and sinner»

«Exodus» (Ἐξαγωγή) of Ezekiel the Tragedian: introductory article and translation