Search Results (7)

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematologic malignancy arising from clonal plasma cells, with poor long-term outcomes due to inevitable relapse after conventional therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) has shown remarkable efficacy in relapsed patients. Conventional CARs employ single-chain variable fragments (scFvs), whereas single-domain antibodies (sdAb or VHHs) offer advantages such as small size, high stability, and potentially reduced immunogenicity. We designed and evaluated a novel anti-BCMA nanoCAR-T based on the VHH Nb17, compared with the conventional scFv-based CAR-T CT103a. Nb17 demonstrated strong BCMA binding and was incorporated into a CAR construct. Both nanoCAR-T and CT103a were generated via lentiviral transduction of primary T cells. Their cytotoxicity, cytokine secretion, degranulation, memory phenotype, and gene expression were assessed in vitro, along with antitumor activity in vivo. Nb17-nanoCAR-T demonstrated specific cytotoxicity, cytokine release (IL-2, TFNa, IFNg), and CD107a degranulation comparable to CT103a. Transcriptomic analysis revealed overlapping pathways between both CARs. Upon rechallenge, both CARs showed enhanced proliferation compared with untransduced T cells. In vivo, Nb17-nanoCAR-T and CT103a eradicated tumors in NSG mice. These findings demonstrate Nb17-nanoCAR-T exhibits potent anti-myeloma efficacy comparable to scFv-based CAR-T, supporting its potential as a promising therapeutic alternative. Full article

This paper focuses on the reception of the Torah by the Church Fathers who lived up to the beginning of the third century. Christians, having received the whole Torah through the Septuagint translation, became selective in the way they accepted it, adhering to it only with reservations. Christological and ethical concerns were at the heart of their acceptance or rejection of various aspects of the Torah. This article will gauge whether Christians had a positive, negative, or neutral evaluation of the Torah and will seek to identify the ways in which they perceived the Torah. By analysing the ways in which the Torah and at times other Old Testament texts were handled, their presentation of these Jewish Scriptures will be brought to light, highlighting different approaches employed in this regard. One notes the following stances: the Torah’s commandments supplemented the Lord’s teachings (the Didache); the Torah was read allegorically and typologically despite a Midrashic approach (Epistle of Barnabas); certain laws were believed to have been instituted as a result of the people’s hardness of heart (Justin Martyr); natural law is distinct from the demands added to it after the Jews’ wayward actions (Irenaeus); the temporal aspects of the law were superseded by its eternal aspects (Tertullian); whilst upholding the promises of the Law, the prophets were seen as going beyond the Law (Tertullian) or as giving the Law a spiritual interpretation (Epistle of Barnabas); and, rarely, the Law was held in very high regard (Clement of Alexandria). This paper is not concerned with any blatant rejection of the Torah and, indeed, the Tanakh at large (as was the case with Marcion), but rather with the subtler nuances that can be detected in other writers who had to rethink the validity and role/place of the Torah in the faith. Full article

Modern scholars often understand 1 Cor 15:29 as a clear reference to the baptism of living individuals as proxies for the departed. Yet before or at the time of 1 Corinthians, there appears to be no evidence for this practice or a similar one. A reasonable explanation for its emergence, therefore, is that the tradition derives from 1 Cor 15:29, rather than giving rise to it. Consequently, 1 Cor 15:29 supplies a unique opportunity to see how Paul’s earliest interpreters navigated the conflict between the emergent proxy baptism tradition and others they had inherited. Responses varied from acceptance (Marcion) to tolerance (Ambrosiaster) to rejection (Tertullian, Didymus, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Eznik) of proxy baptism as being what 1 Cor 15:29 describes. Adopters of proxy baptism found support in Paul for breaking with prior tradition and interpreted 1 Cor 15:29 as a basis for creating a new tradition that fit a distinctive need in their community. By contrast, those who tolerate or reject the proxy baptism interpretation do so by considering both 1 Cor 15:29 and Paul himself as more thoroughly situated within existing prior traditions that rule out proxy baptism. These different responses illustrate the complex interplay between Paul and the conflicting traditions through which his letters have been and continue to be received. These responses also surface key features of the interplay between conflict and tradition, whether that conflict occurs within explicitly religious spheres or not. Full article

The mandate for women’s silence in 1 Corinthians 14.34-35 is an incongruity within Paul’s undisputed writings. Critical scholars expressed doubts about these verses’ authorship beginning in the nineteenth century. The consensus of egalitarian Paulists today is that vv.34-35 are not Paul’s sentiments. Disagreements about circumstances beyond this fact remain unresolved. Supporters of the quotation/refutation (“Q/R”) hypothesis argue that Paul quoted a letter from Corinth in vv.34-35 and refuted it in v.36. Supporters of the interpolation hypothesis regard the passage as a marginal gloss by a later author, inserted at one of two locations (after v.33 or v.40). The present work favors the Q/R position. Tertullian of Carthage (c.155-220 CE) was the first known exegetist of vv.34-35. Tertullian and his successors employed the Western text-type manuscript tradition. The second century CE displacement of vv.34-35 (following v.40) in this text stream is not evidence of haphazard interpolation. It coheres with a pattern of anti-feminist redactions in the Western texts of the epistles and Acts. The editors of the Western text-type sought to harmonize the genuine epistles with pseudo-Pauline material. This harmonization effort shaped later orthodox exegesis, which established canonical norms by domesticating Paul and recast him in the image of a Greco-Roman gender traditionalist. Full article

This contribution discusses the ways in which the Hebrew prophets in Greek and Latin translations were received by Christians from the second to fifth centuries CE, preceded by an impression of the New Testament use of these prophets. Besides the vast amount of ecclesiastical references and commentaries, it also deals with Marcionite and Gnostic views. It demonstrates that Christians most often read the prophets as testimonies to Christ and the communities of those who believed in him. Allegorical readings came up soon and were justified by Origen of Alexandria (185–254 CE), whose interpretations were most influential in subsequent centuries. In the fourth century, a reaction against the allegorical reading of the prophets arose in Antioch, Syria; the “Antiochene school” rather limited its approach to the historical context of the prophets, except for texts read Christologically in the New Testament. This article also considers the question whether the Christian appropriation of the Hebrew prophets may be deemed legitimate. Full article

This paper aims to examine the meaning, role, inspirations, and place of corporealism in Tertullian’s system of thought. The extent to which corporealism is a basic philosophical belief in Tertullian’s work and to what extent it is a particular element of his theological doctrine is questioned. It presents the named ontological position as a rare specificity within the range of early Christian thought, especially in Tertullian’s works De anima and De carne Cristi. This paper makes a clear distinction between corporealism and materialism, as it tries to determine the degree of influence of Stoic philosophy, especially ontology, on Tertullian, as well as the influence of Aristotle in selected areas. In this context, his traducianism is also examined. In the ontological context, the status of the soul and God in Tertullian thought is also presented. In connection with the metaphysical problem of creation, the article also touches on the question of creatio ex nihilo as a problem on which Tertullian had to take a stand. It investigates the role of corporealism in Tertullian’s polemic against Marcion, Apelles, and the Valentinian Gnosis by mapping which elements in the teachings of these representatives and Gnosis, especially (but not exclusively) Valentinian, could provoke Tertullian to controversy. This paper holds the opinion that Tertullian’s corporealism was due to his theological views and controversy with opponents, which were used as philosophical inspiration, especially stoic inspiration, but was used mainly in the service of his theological thinking and strategic needs for argumentation. Full article

The article analyzes the influence of the kabbalistic doctrine of Sabbatianism on the messianic philosophy of Giorgio Agamben. I argue against Simon Critchley that Agamben’s critique of the sovereign law is not inspired by Marcion’s idea of the total annihilation of law but by Sabbatai Zevi’s project of deactivating its repressive function. I further argue that Agamben also adopts the Sabbatian idea of Marranic messianism, which makes him repeatedly contaminate the Jewish tradition with foreign influences. Although this strategy is potentially fruitful, it eventually leads Agamben to overemphasize antinomianism and problematically associate all Jewish-based messianism with the radical critique of law. In the article, I demonstrate that things are more complex and even in the openly antinomian works of Walter Benjamin—Agamben’s greatest philosophical inspiration—Jewish law is endued with some emancipatory potential. Full article