Eunice (saint)
Eunike ( ancient Greek Ευνίκη Euníkē ) is a Christian who is mentioned in the New Testament.
New Testament
The Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 16,1 EU ) mentions a “devout Jewish woman” as the mother of the apostle student Timothy , who was married to a Greek and lived in Lystra in Lycaonia . The as pseudepigraphical prestigious second letter of Paul to Timothy ( 2 Tim 1,5 EU ) pursuant to which they bore the Greek name Eunice and was the daughter of Lois; the author also describes her as a woman of "sincere faith". Eunike is the name of mythological figures in Hesiod , Theokritos and Pseudo-Apollodor and is epigraphically attested as a pagan woman's name, so something unusual for a Jewess.
While the author of the Acts of the Apostles probably imagined that Eunike converted to Christianity, 2 Tim 1,6 gives the impression that Timothy "grew up in a family that has been Christian since his grandmother." The transmission of faith to the third Christian generation is in the Pastoral letters subject, and that gave Christian mothers a special responsibility (notwithstanding the teaching prohibitions for women). The combination of the information from the Acts of the Apostles and 2. Timothy is not without tension, because Timothy’s religious childhood can only have been a Jewish childhood if Paul got to know him as a young man and made him a collaborator in the mission. But it was only on the initiative of Paul that Timothy was circumcised (Acts 16: 1). “It cannot have been a particularly pious Jewish family,” says Helmut Merkel and comes to the conclusion that 2 Tim does not represent Timothy's historical family relationships, but rather draws an ideal family picture.
Impact history
Eunike and Loïs were interpreted by interpreters of the Bible in the 19th century as role models for the upbringing of Christian children: Theodor Fliedner conceived "The New Picture Bible" with illustrations for Düsseldorf art students, which was finally realized as a portfolio with 30 single sheets in 1843 (later as: School Picture Bible , in 30 pictures of the Old and New Testaments ). The cycle of images begins with creation and ends with the sheet “Timothy is in the h. Scripture instructed ”; here Timothy reads Hebrew scrolls, guided by Eunike and Loïs (cf. 2 Tim 3:15 EU ). The pietistic pedagogue Christian Heinrich Zeller wrote a widespread text “Lois and Eunike. 2 Tim 1,5. The education of children for time and eternity. "
Eunike is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church . Her feast day is February 24th .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bauer / Aland: Greek-German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature . 6th edition, Berlin / New York 1988, col. 654.
- ↑ Rudolf Pesch : The Acts of the Apostles . Evangelical-Catholic Commentary Study Edition, Neukirchen and Ostfildern 2012, Volume 2, p. 96.
- ↑ Karoline Jäger-Reinbold: "What you inherit from your fathers - acquire it to own it": On dealing with Paul's inheritance in post-Pauline literature . In: Christiane Burbach (Ed.): Generation issues: theological perspectives on society in the 21st century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, pp. 65–76, here pp. 70 f.
- ↑ Helmut Merkel: The Pastoral Letters (= The New Testament German . Volume 9.1). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, p. 56.
- ↑ Digitized version : Timothy is in the h. Scripture instructed .
- ↑ Christine Reents : How are orthodoxy, pietism and revival reflected in Protestant children's and school Bibles between 1688 and 1850? Inventory and theological classification . In: Pietismus und Neuzeit , Volume 40, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014, pp. 64–96, here pp. 91–93.
- ↑ Basel posthumously 1879.
- ^ Calendar of saints of the Catholic Church in Germany: Eunike (Eunice) .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eunice |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Eunike |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Christian in Lystra, mother of Timothy |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1st century BC BC or 1st century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st century |