Acknowledgments
Much of the material in this book improves and expands upon articles published over the last few years,1 many of which began as conference presentations, panel discussions, or various informal consultations. I am grateful for the feedback and corrections received from a good many anonymous reviewers as well as from many colleagues and friends in academia. I should mention, in particular, Fr. Michael Slusser, S. J. (for feedback on Genesis 18 and Isaiah 6), Dr. Andrei Orlov, Dr. Claire Clivaz, and Dr. Edith Humphrey (for feedback on Luke 24), and Rev. Dr. Silviu Bunta (for his ultra-competent help with textual problems in Habakkuk 3 and Daniel 7).
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Jeffrey Bingham and the members of the editorial board of Brill’s series “The Bible in Ancient Christianity,” for accepting to publish this book. Professor Paul Blowers, who signs the Foreword, offered a solid, even enthusiastic, endorsement when I was most doubtful of what I had written: thank you!
I gratefully acknowledge the atmosphere of freedom and the encouragement to prioritize research at Duquesne University’s Department of Theology, and the concrete help received from the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts in the form of a generous NEH/Wimmer Family Foundation Grant. I express my warm thanks and appreciation to the staff at our Gumberg Library, especially to Mr. Theodore Bergfelt, for countless purchases and inter-library loans that made writing this book possible.
Many of the images I have used come from libraries, museums, and universities that have established an effective protocol for such requests. In some cases, however, access to specific images seemed impossible at the institutional level and only became possible thanks to the personal kindness of people such as Dr. Despina Alexiadou, Dr. Cornelia Tsakiridou at Lasalle University, Dr. Ioannis Sissiou at the Byzantine Museum of Kastoria, Dr. Anastasia Drandaki at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mrs. Mara Verykovou at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Dr. Gawdat Gabra, former director of the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Justin, Chief Librarian of St. Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai, Mother Abbess Mihaela (Cozmei) of Sucevița Monastery, the Rev. Dr. Ioan Paul Valenciuc at the Archbishopric of Suceava, and the Rev. Hieromonk Makarios at the Monastery of Simonos Petra on Mount Athos.
Many thanks are due to the long-suffering Graduate Assistants who have labored over various drafts of various parts of the manuscript: Justin Leavitt Pearl, Faith McFadden, Eileen Newara, and, with a special note of gratitude, Gwendolen Jackson, for her final proofreading and compiling of the index.
I came from Romania to the United States with the definite purpose of studying with Alexander Golitzin—now Professor Emeritus of Patristics at Marquette University and an Orthodox Archbishop—and, together with others in the Theophaneia School, I continue to count myself as one of his students. It is the theological vision inherited from my mentor that keeps me motivated to engage in scholarship at the fertile intersection of Bible and Early Christian Studies. As a matter of fact, it was the gracious, generous, and self-effacing presence of Archbishop Alexander and Father Makarios during a three-week stay at Simonopetra, in the summer of 2016, that somehow gave me a joyful glimpse into how I could and needed to write a tripartite study of “christophanies.”
… But this book is dedicated to Cristina and our children Irina, Andrei, and Miruna, my closest and dearest ones, my theophany.
“Matt 17:1–9 as a Vision of a Vision: A Neglected Strand in the Patristic Reception of the Transfiguration,” NeoT 44 (2010):15–30; “Vision, Exegesis, and Theology in the Reception History of Hab 3:2 (LXX), in “What Does the Scripture Say?”: Studies in the Function of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity. Volume 2: The Letters and Liturgical Traditions, ed. C. A. Evans and H. D. Zacharias (London and New York: T&T Clark International, 2011), 134–46; “ ‘I Saw The Lord’: Observations on the Early Christian Reception of Isaiah 6,” Pro Ecclesia 23 (2014): 309–30; “Blinded by Invisible Light: Revisiting the Emmaus Story (Luke 24,13–35),” ETL 90 (2014):685–707; “The Early Christian Reception of Genesis 18: From Theophany To Trinitarian Symbolism,” JECS 23 (2015):245–72; “Christophanic Exegesis and the Problem of Symbolization: Daniel 3 (The Fiery Furnace) as a Test Case,” JTI 10 (2016):227–44; “The Son of Man and The Ancient of Days: Observations On The Early Christian Reception of Daniel 7,” Phronema 32 (2017):1–27; “Ὁ ὤν εὐλογητὸς Χριστὸς ὁ Θεὸς ἡµῶν: Observations On the Early Christian Interpretation of the Burning Bush Scene,” JAAJ 6 (2018); “Worship at the Footstool of His Feet: Observations on the Christian Reception of Ps. 98/99:5 and 131/132:7,” BibRec 6 (2018).