Michaela Durst: The reception of New Testament interpretations of the death of Jesus in the fourth century

The death of Jesus as a soteriological event has inspired Christian writers from the time of the writing of the biblical text up to the present day. However, the question of continuity and discontinuity between the New Testament interpretations of the death of Jesus and those of the 4^th century remains until this day. But the answer should not be given solely with reference to “Hellenisation”, or with talk about “misunderstanding”. The analysis of the reception of New Testament citations and allusions would seem also to offer a promising way of finding answers to the following questions: Which texts about Jesus’ death are frequently used? In what contexts they are presented? And: Can we make statements about the reasons why these sections were selected from the Christian “memory”?
For this purpose, I analyse sources from Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianz and John Chrysostom. Examples of this approach will be presented for discussion.