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Franz Joseph Dölger-Institut

zur Erforschung der Spätantike

Teaching through images between claritas and obscuritas. Christ’s meta-didactic speech on parables in Juvencus’ Evangeliorum libri 2, 755/74. 824/8

JbAC 61 (2018) Seiten: 37-53

The present article provides an in-depth analysis of the paraphrase of Mt. 13,10/7. 34f in the Euan-geliorum libri quattuor composed by Juvencus, the first Latin biblical paraphrast (Iuvenc. 2,755/74. 824/8). Christ’s words on His parabolic teaching represent a unique case of meta-didactic speech in poem allowing an investigation of Juvencus’ subtle, yet constant, strategies of interpretation of the biblical account, especially those concerning the clarification of the didactic message of the Gospel narrative. Particularly interesting is the sharp differentiation of the internal addressees of Christ’s discourse according to their dignity and merits, which appears to be influenced by Origen’s (or Ori-genist) exegesis of Mt. 13.

Francesco Lubian