Sprache:
Französisch
Erscheinungsjahr:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Revue Philosophique de Louvain
Angaben zur Quelle:
51,1 (2020) 1-14
Schlagwort(e):
Homer Appreciation
;
Bible Canon
;
History
;
Books History
Kurzfassung:
Number twenty-four is applied to the books of Holy Scriptures in Judaism, as also number twenty-two. Those are respectively the numbers of the letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. The twenty-four books of the Iliad and of the Odyssey, fundamental pieces of the Hellenistic education, are designated of old by the letters of the Greek alphabet. The opposition Homer – Sacred Books, witnessed in rabbinical Judaism, may imply a reference to this counting of the Homeric books. On the Christian side, the counting of the twenty-four books has been put in relation with the Elders of the Apocalypse. Moreover, Origen relates the number of the books of the Old Testament and the Hebrew alphabet, while Hilary and Jerome know of the numbers twenty-two and twenty-four of both Hebrew and Greek alphabets. Convergence of those established facts leads to a necessary hypothesis, the implicit reference to the Homeric epics in the Jewish and Christian traditions about the Biblical canon. This reference is one of the factors which permitted to assemble books of diverse literary genres under a sole authority.
DOI:
10.2143/RTL.51.1.3287449
URL:
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