JbAC 61 (2018) Seiten: 117-132

This paper analyses the reception of the Sibyls and the Sibylline oracles among Christian authors in the late antique Latin West which is characterized by high complexity. It shows various continuities with the Christian reception in the previous centuries and has parallels to the contemporaneous reception in the Greek East, but some peculiarities are present. These are primarily to be seen in pejorative references in the context of the fixed antithesis between pagan and Christian that influences large parts of the Christian discourse in the West at that time. But there are also more affirmative positions that point to parallels between Christian and pagan ideas about Sibyls or seek to transform the Sibyls according to Christian concepts.