Leggere per interpretare, interpretare per leggere. Il ruolo della grammatica nell'esegesi cristiana antica

[Autom. eng. transl.] The volume examines the practices of reading and exegesis of the texts of Christian authors between the second and third centuries, in particular Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Justin, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. The investigation is carried out in a comparative perspective, aimed at encouraging comparison with contemporary non-Christian authors, Pliny the Younger, Aulus Gellius and Elius Aristides among others, to identify the shared and specific aspects of the Christian context. The common reference is the scheme of traditional Greco-Roman grammar, developed by Dionysius Thrax and subsequently codified by Quintilian and Apollonius Disculus. Starting from the concrete act of reading, the first and founding part of grammatical τέχνη, the volume delves into the role of grammatical tools for the purposes of the hermeneutics of the Scriptures, a decisive aspect of Christian exegesis of the first centuries. Reading constitutes the basis on which interpretation is based and the latter in turn determines the way in which the biblical text is concretely read. The reading methods thus outlined shed new light on the process of establishing the Christian canon of the Scriptures and on the dynamics of the religious and intellectual self-definition of the first Christian communities in the varied cultural and social panorama of the time.