Papers by Emily J . Gathergood
Ancient Jew Review, 2021
The Ascension of Isaiah is 'having a moment'-increasingly receiving the attention it deserves, fr... more The Ascension of Isaiah is 'having a moment'-increasingly receiving the attention it deserves, from those working across the spectrum of disciplinary interests and approaches to ancient texts. As an early Christian apocalyptic text with various distinctive features-a seven-storied cosmology, a quirky angelomorphic christology, and a hierarchical trinitarianism-the Ascension of Isaiah is now recognised as an important, if under-researched, source for understanding early Christian thought. Its adaptation of a Jewish monotheistic framework to encompass the worship of Jesus 'the Lord Christ' as 'the Lord God' (9:5) constitutes important evidence for our understanding of the origins and development of Christ-devotion and 'christological monotheism'. Jesus is presented as the pre-existent, only-begotten Son of the Heavenly Father, who is divinely commissioned to descend from the right hand of God through the seven heavens, in the guise of a holy angel, and then to descend further to the earth in the form of a man, and finally to descend into Sheol in the form of an angel of lawlessness (10:7-15). These metamorphoses function to conceal 'the Beloved One's true heavenly identity and thereby facilitate his defeat of Satan, Sammael, Beliar and all their angels who oppressively rule the world and the realm below. They will slay him on the cross, 'not knowing who He is', thinking that he is flesh and a man, only for him to slay them in a surprise attack, and ascend to his heavenly throne in undisguised glory, along with the liberated spirits of the faithful departed (9:12-16). The plot is akin to a cosmic spy drama: the heavenly agent descends undercover on His Majesty's secret service with a strategic mission to assassinate the enemy and liberate the world. In Sheol, they can't kill him, because he's already dead. The narrative framework of this 'polymorphic'[1] christology may be represented graphically as follows:
The tragic news of the kidnap and murder of 33-year old Sarah Everard as she walked to her home i... more The tragic news of the kidnap and murder of 33-year old Sarah Everard as she walked to her home in South London's Brixton Hill recently, apparently by a serving Metropolitan Police officer, has triggered a national outpouring grief and sadness, as well as a surge of public outrage at the ubiquitous problem of male violence against girls and women. Vigils held in Sarah's memory at Clapham Common and numerous cities across the country have served as poignant spaces for hundreds of women to voice a broader lament and protest over the endemic social evil of gender-based violence-sexual harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence, 'honour'-based violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and trafficking as well as femicide. The manhandling of several women activists in an ill-judged, disproportionate crackdown by the Met amplified the disturbing case in point: women do not feel safe on our streets, even from the institutions meant to protect them.
New Testament Studies, 2013
Following the recent emphasis on studying early Christian manuscripts as historical artefacts, wh... more Following the recent emphasis on studying early Christian manuscripts as historical artefacts, whose text and meta-textual aspects comprise important embodiments of reception and interpretation, this paper reexamines the early Titus fragment ΰ₯ 32 (P.Ryl. Gr. 1.5) with respect to its physical situation within the manuscript. I expand the scope of current reconstructions to consider in detail the lost beginning of the epistle, and argue that Titus was not the first document in the codex: at least one other preceded. Although the identity of the accompanying material cannot be deduced codicologically, patristic evidence suggests that Titus was normally transmitted in a collection of thirteen or fourteen Pauline epistles when the ΰ₯ 32 codex was produced, rendering these the prime candidates.
New Testament Studies, Oct 1, 2013
Following the recent emphasis on studying early Christian manuscripts as historical artefacts, wh... more Following the recent emphasis on studying early Christian manuscripts as historical artefacts, whose text and meta-textual aspects comprise important embodiments of reception and interpretation, this article re-examines the early Titus fragment π32 (P.Ryl. Gr. 1.5) with respect to its physical situation within the manuscript. I expand the scope of current reconstructions to consider in detail the lost beginning of the epistle, and argue that Titus was not the first document in the codex: at least one other preceded. Although the identity of the accompanying material cannot be deduced codicologically, patristic evidence suggests that Titus was normally transmitted in a collection of thirteen or fourteen Pauline epistles when the π32 codex was produced, rendering these the prime candidates.
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Papers by Emily J . Gathergood