Books by Fr. Silviu N . Bunta
St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2025
In The Life of Our Fathers, Fr. Silviu Bunta shows how Scripture functions in the Orthodox Church... more In The Life of Our Fathers, Fr. Silviu Bunta shows how Scripture functions in the Orthodox Church. Rather than giving a method to interpret Scripture, he points to the way Apostolic Christianity has always engaged biblical revelation—by living the ascetical and liturgical life of the Church. There is no distance between reader and text, and the Bible is not an object of study and analysis but a reality that we participate in through the life of the Church in her services and ascetical practices. As we put off the old man, and with it the crushing weight of our fallen egos, the words of Scripture become our own speech and we ourselves are transformed and made new.
Born from talks given to lay audiences, this book remains deeply accessible. It challenges common assumptions about how to approach Scripture, showing us a far deeper and richer path of participation. This is not a call to interpret better, but to live differently. For anyone seeking to understand how Scripture functions in the Orthodox tradition, The Life of Our Fathers offers a rare and timely guide.
Cherubim Press, 2021
(Ohio), where he teaches Scripture, koine Greek, and biblical Hebrew. After undergraduate studies... more (Ohio), where he teaches Scripture, koine Greek, and biblical Hebrew. After undergraduate studies in both classics and theology, and an M.A. degree in Scripture, he received his Ph.D. in Judaism and Christianity in antiquity from Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), where he studied with then Archimandrite Alexander (Golitzin). He has published and lectured on ancient Jewish and Christian hermeneutics, and ascetical and mystical traditions. He serves under the omophorion of Archbishop Alexander in the Bulgarian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America.
Cherubim Press, 2021
I. Containing the Divine Liturgy of St. John the Golden-mouth WITH ITS ACCOMPANYING OFFICE (and s... more I. Containing the Divine Liturgy of St. John the Golden-mouth WITH ITS ACCOMPANYING OFFICE (and seasonal services) published with the blessing of Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin) of the Bulgarian Diocese and of the Diocese of the South of the Orthodox Church in America second edition Cherubim Press Dayton Pr. Silviu Bunta Pr. Matthew-Peter Butrie, translators and editors Ana Bunta (some illustrations)
Papers by Fr. Silviu N . Bunta
ROOTS, 2025
Ever since the launch of the historical-critical approach, academic studies of the Hebrew Bible/O... more Ever since the launch of the historical-critical approach, academic studies of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament have been dominated by its presupposition that, against the overwhelming witness of early and Orthodox Christian interpretive traditions (as well as early Jewish), in the Scriptures one is given narratives—stories, messages, descriptions, concepts, etc. Nevertheless, the Book of Psalms has consistently frustrated this interpretive instinct fundamental to academic studies. My paper—building on this frustration and drawing on recent proposals to discard historical criticism as a useful approach to the Old Testament—argues that the Psalter on its own is aligned with the aforementioned early and eastern Christian appropriations of it. More specifically, the Psalter puts forth the imagery of the “Face” of God in a de-narrativized fashion, neither as a concept, nor as a description (belonging to a past to be recalled or re-actualized in the act of reading), but as an open and ongoing divine embodiment to be had by the visionary and the hearer-speaker of the scriptural text at once.
Mystics, Mysticism
Encyclopedia of the Bible Online, Apr 12, 2022
Scrinium, Mar 30, 2009
. (2) This title is a misnomer based on an introduction prefaced to the text at a later time and ... more . (2) This title is a misnomer based on an introduction prefaced to the text at a later time and uncritically appropriated by the earlier editions of the book (cf. M. de Jonge,
Gorgias Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2009
The fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel has received extensive attention from recent scholarship... more The fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel has received extensive attention from recent scholarship. 1 While modern scholarship has long noted the literary connections of Daniel 4 with Ezekiel 31, it has consistently disregarded the theomorphic character of the enormous tree in Ezekiel 31 and the ideological connections of Daniel 4 with the exilic and post-exilic theomorphic anthropology that underlies Ezekiel 31. It has established no associations between Daniel 4 and the exilic and post-exilic interests in Adam's physical resemblance to YHWH and the concurrent concerns with legitimate expressions of iconic venerations. An analysis of Daniel 4 within its context and against the background of earlier biblical and ancient Near Eastern sources will evince the focus of the story on the issue of legitimate channels of iconic worship and the theomor-1 E.g., M. HENZE, Nebuchadnezzar's Madness (Daniel 4) in Syriac Literature // The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception / Ed.
The presence of merkabah mysticism in Hebrews was proposed as early as four decades ago. Ronald W... more The presence of merkabah mysticism in Hebrews was proposed as early as four decades ago. Ronald Williamson, Hans-Martin Schenke, and Otfried Ho us read several of the epistle's motifs, particularly the heavenly throne/enthronement, the heavenly temple and its liturgy, and the divine glory, in conjunction to merkabah mysticism. 1 However, subsequently such connections were largely dismissed based primarily on the late date of the Jewish texts used in these studies (mostly from Hekhalot literature). Moreover, Williamson undermined his own argument for merkabah connections in noting that most of the above motifs could be explained "on the basis of a common indebtedness to the Old Testament." 2 Furthermore, in 1990 David Hurst made a strong argument against merkabah connections: rst, most of the motifs occur in apocalyptic literature and psalms, and, second, Hebrews never mentions the texts "which one normally associates with the later phenomenon of Merkabah mysticism," these being Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, Psalm 97, and Isaiah 6. 3 To his credit, Hurst asks the basic question on the issue: "Was there in the rst century an entity which may con dently be labelled as 'Merkabah mysticism,' with which Hebrews may be compared in the * The argument of offered in this study was presented in a more concise form at
Driven Away with a Stick: The Femininity of the Godhead in y. Ber. 12d, the Emergence of Rabbinic Modalist Orthodoxy, and the Christian Binitarian Complex
Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism, 2020
Encyclopedia of the Bible Online
Scrinium, 2007
As part of an incessantly growing literature on Moses, the portrayal of Moses in Testament of Mos... more As part of an incessantly growing literature on Moses, the portrayal of Moses in Testament of Moses has received extensive attention in modern scholarship. While the peculiarity of 11:8, in which Moses' sepulcher is described as covering the whole world, from one extremity to another, has been long noted, the paragraph has not yet been analyzed in any thorough study. This article analyzes 11:8 in its textual and contextual aspects. It argues that the peculiar words about Moses' burial constitute an expression of a Second Temple tradition that portrays Moses as a physically enormous being. Aetas, which is a translation for the Greek hltKta, meaning both stature and age, is part of the language of speculations about God's enormous corporeality as early as the first century C.E. Augustine's polemics attest that the term is still part of the language of Christian anthropomorphite circles in the fifth century. The four directions in 11:8 appear in similar contemporary (fi...
Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 2010
Page 37. In Heaven or on Earth: A Misplaced Temple Question about Ezekiel's Visions Silviu N... more Page 37. In Heaven or on Earth: A Misplaced Temple Question about Ezekiel's Visions Silviu N. Bunta In 2007, as I was preparing the first draft of this paper for a conference, 1 I was re-reading a refreshing study by Rachel Elior, The Three Tem-ples. ...
Yhwh's cultic statue after 597/586 BCE: A linguistic and theological reinterpretation of Ezekiel 28: 12
The Catholic Biblical quarterly, 2007
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One Man ( ) in Heaven: Adam-Moses Polemics in the Romanian Versions of The Testament of Abraham and Ezekiel the Tragedian's Exagoge
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 2007
Several scholars have noted that already in the Second Temple period Judaism developed speculatio... more Several scholars have noted that already in the Second Temple period Judaism developed speculations that associated Adam with the primordial light. The present study explores two possible expressions of such speculations, namely, a Romanian version of the Testament of Abraham and Ezekiel the Tragedian’s Exagoge. A Romanian manuscript tradition of the testament, diverging from the Greek versions, portrays Adam as a ‘luminous man’. A second manuscript tradition makes reference to Adam’s face in terms reminiscent of Moses’ luminous face on Sinai. It is subsequently argued that the two phrases are expressions of early polemics between traditions about Adam’s luminescence and traditions about a luminous Moses and that, on the side of Moses traditions, Ezekiel the Tragedian’s Exagoge attests to a Mosaic claim over a prominent title in Adam-light speculations, namely, φος.
Journal for the Study of Judaism, 2006
The present article analyzes the various texts concerning Jacob's image engraved on the thron... more The present article analyzes the various texts concerning Jacob's image engraved on the throne of glory. It compares the Jacob texts with previous traditions regarding Adam's special status as the image of God or the equivalent of a cultic representation of an ancient Near Eastern king or of a Roman emperor. The Jacob texts reveal a similar anthropology that emphasizes the dichotomy of humanity. On one hand the earthliness of the functionality of the human body is associated with angelic opposition, and, on the other, the body's divine likeness gives rise to angelic veneration. The investigation of the two traditions demonstrates a conspicuous dependence of the Jacob texts on the Adamic traditions.
Moses, Adam and the glory of the Lord in Ezekiel the Tragedian: On the roots of a merkabah text
This dissertation is an exposition of the kabôd speculations in the exilic and Second Temple peri... more This dissertation is an exposition of the kabôd speculations in the exilic and Second Temple period with a central focus on vice-regent traditions, particularly as reflected in the throne scene in Ezekiel the Tragedian's Exagoge . It supports the hypothesis--advanced by Gerschom Scholem ...
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Books by Fr. Silviu N . Bunta
Born from talks given to lay audiences, this book remains deeply accessible. It challenges common assumptions about how to approach Scripture, showing us a far deeper and richer path of participation. This is not a call to interpret better, but to live differently. For anyone seeking to understand how Scripture functions in the Orthodox tradition, The Life of Our Fathers offers a rare and timely guide.
Papers by Fr. Silviu N . Bunta