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Theodoret of Cyrus: Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium – On Simon Magus. Here we publish a passage concerning Simon Magus from the Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium by Theodoret of Cyrus. The person of Simon Magus fades within the obscurity of legends. The published sources concerning him may be divided in three groups: the New Testament (Acts 8,5–25), the writings of the Church Fathers and the legends which arose concerning his person. All the Church Fathers present him as arch-heretic. In the introduction of this translation we will follow the way of Simon in the New Testament and in the writings of the scholars of the Early Church from his youth to his death. After having presented his life we will try to sketch out his teaching based on the available secondary sources. While Simon wrote no book from which we could reconstruct his teaching, we are acquainted with his doctrine only from the above mentioned writings.

The Passion of Christ in the Early Christian Creeds. In this short paper I present a pending question of the Christological passage of the Apostolic Confession. According to the teaching of the Bible, the passion of the Lord could not be summarized in this sentence: “he suffered under Pontius Pilate”, because the Lord has not suffered only under Pontius Pilate, but in his whole life, as we read it in the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians: “but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men” (Phil 2,7). So, the passion of Christ begins with his “keno/sij”, and his whole life can be summarized in this word: “he suffered”.

By the Sound of a Great Crowd. In this short writing our purpose is to examine the problems of translation and interpretation of Jeremiah 11,16. In this biblical verse the word hmlh has many possibilities of translation. After a short presentation of the biblical background I will examine the Hungarian, English, German, Dutch, French, Greek and Latin translations of this biblical verse, and finally I will present my own translation. At the end of this paper I am going to draw a parallel between the meanings of this image in the Old and New Testament. The Hebrew dictionaries given many meanings of the word hmlh: roaring sound, tempest and crowd. The LXX renders the word hmlh by circumcision, which is grammatically impossible. Hieronymus translates it with loquella, which means speaking. In Calvin’s Latin translation we read sermo, and in an additional note tumultus. In the German translations we can read große (Kriegs-) Getöse, ein großes Geprassel, Mordgeschrei.

God’s blessing. In this short writing our purpose is to set forth the meaning and the biblical roots of the blessing in the Christian liturgy. Many people consider that the blessing is the final action of the Christian worship. Furthermore we witness the depreciation and trivializing of the blessing. But having analysed the meaning of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew words we have to state that blessing is not the final action of the liturgy. Blessing is not the end, but the beginning of the Christian worship. By the blessing God’s name is pronounced over the children of Israel (Numbers 6,27). The history of the world and of mankind has started with God’s blessing. God’s blessing gives us the possibility to maintain our life and to lead a pious life.