A Table of Christological Titles in Early Christian Writings

[Peter Kirby]

I've whipped up something real nice for you all.

http://peterkirby.com/a-table-of-christ ... itles.html

It's what you've all been waiting for... That's right! Your very own table of christological titles!

It tabulates! It organizes! It's hyperlinked!

Tell me, how many times have you sat down for dinner and realized that you don't even know which early Christian texts use the title "Savior"? Never again! With this handy table, you'll feel confident of being able to handle such questions quickly, easily, and effectively.

In fact, I'm so sure you'll like it, I'll even throw in a money back guarantee! If for any reason you aren't satisfied with this table of christological titles in early Christian writings, you can return it for a full refund.

Click now.

[stephan happy huller]

Very useful. But Clement of Alexandria doesn't use 'theos'?

[Peter Kirby]

Very useful. But Clement of Alexandria doesn't use 'theos'?

For the really voluminous authors, I used some satisficing heuristics. I didn't spend more than 10 minutes analyzing one author. This is part of why I need to ask for corrections as needed.

[Leucius Charinus]

I've whipped up something real nice for you all.

http://peterkirby.com/a-table-of-christ ... itles.html

It's what you've all been waiting for... That's right! Your very own table of christological titles!

It tabulates! It organizes! It's hyperlinked!

Cool. It's interesting seeing at a glance such a distribution of this usage across all the ECW.

A couple of comments ...

1) Is there a rationale at the moment for the sort order?
If not you could group them by a) the books of the canon, b) the fathers (god bless their cotton socks) and c) the heretics or the non canonic.

2) Also with the exception of "Word" all these titles in ECW only physically appear as nomina sacra --- AFAIK never in full.
If you used the Greek nomina sacra in the place of the "Christological title" you'd have slimmer columns

[Peter Kirby]

1) Is there a rationale at the moment for the sort order?
If not you could group them by a) the books of the canon, b) the fathers (god bless their cotton socks) and c) the heretics or the non canonic.

Yes. The sort order is on column B (the presence of "Jesus"), then column C ("Christ"), then column D ("Lord"), etc. Presence goes before absence, and alphabetization by title is the tiebreaker.

At the same time, I do want to make different presentations of the data that may be useful for different purposes.

2) Also with the exception of "Word" all these titles in ECW only physically appear as nomina sacra --- AFAIK never in full.
If you used the Greek nomina sacra in the place of the "Christological title" you'd have slimmer columns

Slimmer columns are desirable for adding more "christological titles" to the table, so, thank you for the suggestion.

While nominem sacra were certainly very widespread, "AFAIK never in full" might go too far if taken to mean, actually, never in full, which would require quite an exhaustive mss. search. I haven't done such a search to verify this idea/suggestion. (I'm not trying to argue against it. A proper argument against would be very simple and would just quote some manuscript evidence. I'm just saying I haven't looked into it properly.)

[Leucius Charinus]

While nominem sacra were certainly very widespread, "AFAIK never in full" might go too far if taken to mean, actually, never in full, which would require quite an exhaustive mss. search. I haven't done such a search to verify this idea/suggestion. (I'm not trying to argue against it. A proper argument against would be very simple and would just quote some manuscript evidence. I'm just saying I haven't looked into it properly.)

Well I have looked quite exhaustively at all the evidence I could lay my eyes upon and the AKAIK is qualified by this investigation. While I am not suggesting that my investigative search into this issue is necessarily all-encompassing and complete and in any way authoritative, I have yet to find an instance of any of these "Christological titles" expressed in an ancient manuscript in the full expanded form. The usual term I have seen in this regard is "Almost universal", so I guess those who use this term (eg: Hurtado et al) have run across some exceptions. However again, AFAIK, they see them as "exceptions to the universal rule". This is one of the most intriguing issues in ECW and although many theories have been put forward to explain the appearance and "Universal Use" of the nomina sacra, there is certainly no consensus in stuff like a) when they appeared, b) who was responsible, c) why or how the practice was "Universally adopted". To me it looks like an editor.

In fact the most intriguing issue is that the so-called heretical authors of the non canonical texts also "Universally" used this scribal convention. This to me appears as quite an amazing fact, and I have often wondered why this was the case. In any case, I would be interested if anyone could cite an instance of any of these "Christological Titles" (aside from "Word") that is found in any ECW in the full form, and not in the abbreviated "nomina sacra" form.

But anyway I appreciate being able to quickly see the global picture of use as presented in your table, since it is a rare view and perspective on ECW.

[Peter Kirby]

Thank you. And thanks for your insight; it's something I want to look into further.

[Leucius Charinus]

AFAIK this is an open question within the field. The more people looking into it the better. Best wishes with your research.

[DCHindley]

To be really useful, the table would have to provide more detail (such as number of occurrences).

Also, I'll have to assume that you did a search on the terms using English translations. In ancient Greek, the word order alone doesn't dictate what the translation may come out as.

In the long term, someone (not necessarily you) would have to dedicate a significant amount of time to review original sources.

Maybe that kind of thing isn't really a "problem" if the author of a Forum or Blog wanted to post "quick questions" of this kind, and leave it open for individual viewers/members to do the homework as the muse takes them. Here you are asking: I'd like to see "A Table of Christological Titles in Early Christian Writings." One reader may be interested in seeing how many times these titles appear in the works of specific authors, but only in easily available English translations. Another may want to look at the original languages, or order the info in a different manner, etc.
As the readers respond, the blog/forum owner should find ways to make the results (no matter how "provisional" the info be taken) available online (use your own space or link to the author's website if s/he has one.

DCH

Very useful. But Clement of Alexandria doesn't use 'theos'?

For the really voluminous authors, I used some satisficing heuristics. I didn't spend more than 10 minutes analyzing one author. This is part of why I need to ask for corrections as needed.

[Peter Kirby]

To be really useful, the table would have to provide more detail (such as number of occurrences).

I disagree. I hardly even see the point of doing that.

The use of the table is that it allows one to know which primary sources to look at (in the original languages for those who can) when talking about the presence of some christological titles in the early Christian writings (or to see, at a glance, their absence). It is prolegomenon to a real study of these terms.