A History of Textual Violence: What Two Lacunae in Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries Can Tell Us about More Than Two Thousand Years of Homophobia

A History of Textual Violence: What Two Lacunae in Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries Can Tell Us about More Than Two Thousand Years of HomophobiaSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/JCKEHTSX/tei

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2024-08-15-04:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.DanielBrysonA History of Textual Violence: What Two Lacunae in Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries Can Tell Us about More Than Two Thousand Years of Homophobiahttp://syriaca.org/cbss/JCKEHTSXhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/JCKEHTSXhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/JCKEHTSX2013The debates over the meaning of the Greek word arsenokoites, commonly translated as "homosexual," have been characterized by a scholarly war of citations from different ancient authors. This project examines one of those citations in-depth: a damaged passage from the Syriac Book of the Laws of Countries ("BLC") quoted in Greek in the Praeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius. Part I introduces the problem and the texts. Attention is given to general questions such as the name, authorship, date, original language, and editorial history of the BLC. The damaged texts and their intact parallels are given in translation, and their basic editorial history is established. Part II details the history of scholarly mistakes and abuses to which these passages have been subject since the 19th century. Part III examines the implication of these passages and their history of misuse for LGBTQ history, the history of preliterate Europe, the meaning of arsenokoites, and other topics. The prospects for an English critical edition of the BLC are assessed and various proposed paths for future research are summarized. The appendices provide a partial conjectural restoration of the damaged passages and a list of foreign scholarship proposed for complete translation. Bryson, Daniel. “A History of Textual Violence: What Two Lacunae in Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries Can Tell Us about More Than Two Thousand Years of Homophobia.” M.A. thesis, Claremont Graduate University, 2013. Daniel Bryson, A History of Textual Violence: What Two Lacunae in Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries Can Tell Us about More Than Two Thousand Years of Homophobia” (M.A. thesis, Claremont Graduate University, 2013).BardesanI-III CEIII CEsexuality