Alexander the Great in the Early Christian Tradition: Classical Reception and Patristic Literature

What has Alexander the Great to do with Jesus
Christ? Or the legendary king’s conquest of the Persian Empire (335-23 BCE)
to do with the prophecies of the Old Testament?

In many ways, the early Christian writings on Alexander
and his legacy provide a lens through which it is possible to view the
shaping of the literature and thought of the early church in the Greek East
and the Latin West. This book articulates that fascinating discourse for the
first time by focusing on the early Christian use of Alexander. Delving into
an impressively deep pool of patristic literature written between 130-313 CE,
Christian Thrue Djurslev offers original interpretations of various important
authors, from the learned lawyer Tertullian to the ‘Christian Cicero’
Lactantius, and from the apologist Tatian to the first church historian
Eusebius. He demonstrates that the early Christian adaptations of the
Alexandrian myths created a new tradition that has continued to develop and
expand ever since. This innovative work of reception studies is important
reading for all scholars of Alexander the Great and early church history.