Introduction

This monographic issue (Words from Another World: Understanding Prophecy in Early Judaism and Christianity, eds. R.F. de Sousa and A. Mambelli) of "Cristianesimo nella storia" focuses on perceptions and conceptions of prophecy in early Judaism and Christianity. The volume contains reworked versions of papers presented at the session entitled Understanding Prophecy in Early Judaism and Christianity which took place at the 2019 Conference of the European Academy of Religion in Bologna, Italy, as well as other original articles. There is a total of nine contributions dealing with different aspects of the issue and written by an international group of scholars. More specifically, the first articles investigate the representation, interpretation, and function of prophecy in early Jewish contexts, with a focus on the LXX translators’ distinctive beliefs concerning prophets and prophecy compared to their Hebrew or Aramaic Vorlage (Valérie Duval-Poujol, W. Edward Glenny, Philippe Le Moigne, and Anna Mambelli). After the articles of Luca Arcari and Rodrigo F. de Sousa, which deal with methodological and historical issues relevant to the interpretation of prophecy in early Judaism and Christianity, the next section analyses particular and significant approaches to prophecy and prophetic books in early Christian contexts (Eric F. Mason, Gaetano Spampinato, and Tommaso Interi). While each contribution has a particular and specific focus, together they allow for an overview of topics of interest that show the similarities and specificities of each tradition.