On Wednesday, 6 December 2023, the Department of Theology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens played host to the distinguished Professors of New Testament Cilliers Breytenbach (Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of Humboldt University of Berlin and Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University) and Christiane Zimmermann (Professor at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of Kiel University), who presented on topics related to their research on Christian inscriptions from Asia Minor. Attending the lectures were faculty members and students from the Department of Theology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
A major tool for their research—and any related project—is Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae: A digital collection of early Christian Inscriptions (ICG: https://icg.uni-kiel.de), a database they have created and continue to expand and enrich in the context of a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) research programme. During the event, Professor Breytenbach presented the topic: The Resurrected Jesus, Jonah, and the Big Fish (ICG 829), and Professor Zimmermann the topic: Marcus Iulius Eugenius (ICG 371). Professor of New Testament at the Department of Theology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Christos Karakolis, introduced the lectures.
Following the lectures, there was a discussion on the topics arising from them and the contribution of inscriptions to studying and understanding early Christianity, particularly those aspects of Christianity that literary sources of the period do not cover adequately.
