Since Leonhard Rost's 1926 investigation on the "Succession Narrative" has been challenged in recent scholarship, it seems certain that there was never such literary unit as a "History of David`s Rise." Thus the question arises, along which lines did the books of Samuel grow? The paper shall address this question, but it shall first deal with the different views on kings Saul and David and show a development of the narrative tradition of the two kings. The paper will point out that the narratives of Saul and David reveal a great deal of different thoughts on the two first kings of the Israelite monarchy. The main texts to deal with will be Saul's kingdom (1 Sam 13-22); the narratives of David as fugitive in 1 Sam 23-27:4, the stories of David working for Achisch of Gat (27:5-29) and the Stories of Saul's Death (1 Sam 31-2 Sam 1). It will be considered whether the different views on the two kings in the different episodes of the first Book of Samuel allow one to distinguish diachronically different literary units of the first (and second) book(s) of Samuel. (However, due to the texts this paper deals with, there will be no focus on especially Deuteronomistic issues, since there are few Dtr. passages in this section of the first book of Samuel.

Hebrews’ discussion of Jesus’ entry into the true tabernacle is central to the text’s soteriological program. This paper examines the images used to characterize this sanctuary and its location within a heavenly city in order to understand the cultural repertoire utilized in this text. I argue that Hebrews is thus informed by and responding to the building programs prominent in Flavian Rome, particularly Vespasian’s construction of the Temple of Peace and the rebuilding of the Capitoline temples following their destruction by fire. I shall show how the text’s use of these buildings and the activities in them interacts with the patterns of tabernacle and temple drawn from the scriptures of Israel. The result for Hebrews is a soteriology that is doubly supersessionist, claiming the superiority of the cult of Jesus over both the Israelite cult and the cult of the Capitoline gods. This paper expands upon my earlier work analyzing Hebrews in relation to the celebration of the Flavian triumph in the city of Rome after the First Jewish War, presented at the SBL International Meeting in Rome, 2001.

A reasonable assumption holds that we should be concerned to recover as much historical information as possible from ancient Christian texts like Paul’s letters; that if pressed such letters can and will give up a coherent – sometimes even detailed – picture of their original contexts. While it is recognized that most New Testament writings reflect little direct historical information (names, dates, places and specific events), the great discovery of Enlightenment Biblical scholars was that, like an Etruscan vase, even the form of a text can be used as evidence in surmising the historical circumstances surrounding its writing. And yet, given the volume of scholarship which has been devoted to examining Paul and his congregations, it is surprising that less attention has been paid to what the texts portray as the apostle’s main concern: not what his congregations were in any objective, historical sense, but their identity in relation to him and to God. By concentrating on the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians (the most overtly “historical” of Paul’s letters) this paper argues that Paul’s letters are written in a type of rhetoric that has a greater relationship with the history it created than that which it reflects. Paul’s rhetoric has an historical referent in the reality it envisions, and examining this process helps join hermeneutics and rhetorical-criticism. Paul’s literary rhetoric accomplished its persuasive task by means of a Ricoeurian “world of the work”. His letters, quite literally, “made history”.

This paper will review briefly the current scholarly concepts on the issue of Hellenism in Galilee and in particular in the towns of Jesus. It will demonstrate how little traces of Hellenism were found in the archaeology of these places and in Bethsaida in particular and will suggest a sociological pattern by which Hellenism was introduced into Galilee and to Bethsaida in particular. The pattern encountered in archaeological discoveries does not suggest dissemination from the lower parts of the society to the upper levels, nor does it suggest commercial, military or cultural patterns, but rather a political venue superimposed on the society from the ruling regimes. Hellenism was introduced by Herod the Great as his tribute to the Roman Imperial Cult. His dynasty carried on this mission and managed to compromise between political demands and religious convictions. The major change, however, occurred only after the destruction of the Temple, when the Jerusalem Hellenized population was dispersed and moved to Galilee and the Roman legions were stationed in this district. After some centuries of deterioration and decline, Bethsaida was rebuilt during the third century BCE perhaps as a Tyrian colony, which provided dried fish and linen to the growing economy of Tyre. At the onset of the first century BCE the town was conquered by the Hasmoneans who cut all communication lines to the Phoenician coast and the town suffered another setback. It was rebuilt and resettled during Herod the Great by Jews and in 30 CE, Philip the son of Herod, elevated the settlement to a status of a Greek City - “polis”, renamed it as Julias after Julia/Livia the wife of the Emperor Augustus and built a modest temple for her cult in the town. This was the main vehicle by which Hellenism was introduced to the town.

The twenty-one prophetic verses of the Book of Obadiah are entirely devoted to the destruction of Edom as a punishment for their participation in the events of 597 B.C.E. These anti-Judean actions are the reason, according to many scholars, for the abundance of Biblical passages that condemn Edom. However, some researchers have indicated that Edom is not singled out in comparison to other nations in sources of the relevant period, such as Kings, Jeremiah, and especially Ezekiel 25, where Edom is treated in a similar fashion as are the Philistines, Moabites, and Amonites. For this reason other historical backgrounds have been suggested to explain the hostility towards Edom. Some find it in the pre-exilic period, while others point the occupation of Judah by the Edomites during the exilic period as cause of this antagonism. In this paper the various explanations are assessed and a new approach is offered. A conceptual theology of Judean people in the post-exilic period is examined as the main cause for the anti-Edomite attitude in late Biblical sources.

This paper will survey the depiction of Arabs in both the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds in relation to their portrayal in other rabbinic texts such as the Sifre, Mekhilta and Genesis Rabbah. To what extent are Arabs synonymous with the Ishmaelites? Is Ishmael a metonym for Arabs, and if so is this consistently the case? In rabbinic literature we find instances where the Ishmaelites are depicted as a distinct people with particular attributes and customs, and often, but not always, they are identified as Arabs. Even as early as the Book of Jubilees, the Ishmaelites were identified as Arabs, but the rabbis did not use the terms Ishmaelites and Arabs interchangeably. Thus, irrespective of the fact that the identification of Ishmaelites as Arabs was established as early as Jubilees and Josephus, amoraic literature uses the Ishmaelites and the children of Keturah to represent those excluded from the covenantal relationship God made with Israel and not exclusively to represent a specific ethnic group. In this paper we will therefore look at the images of Arabs, some more negative than others, and we will explore the extent to which the rabbis identify Arabs as Ishmaelites. I hope to demonstrate that although the rabbis at times use Ishmaelites to refer to Arab people, more often than not the Ishmaelites represent generically those excluded from the covenantal relationship God made with Israel.

The divisions between Isaiah 1-39 and 40-66 or 40-55 has been a scholarly suggestion since Duhm. But the recent growing consensus by literary scholarship that the form, the divisions and the content of a text carry the sense and the impact of a text, creates an uneasiness about the reasons for these divisions. The aim of this paper is to investigate the (dis)unity of these divisions on the basis of the forms, divisions and the content of the versions of Isaiah 35-40. This will be done by investigating the versions of the Massoretic Text, the Septuagint, the Targum Jonathan, the Peshitta and the Vulgate. The method adopted is an omnibus method of evaluating the form, delimitations and the content of each version together with the other versions with reference to the (dis)unity of Isaiah 35-40. It is assumed that the form, the divisions and the content given by the versions suggest (dis)unity of a text. It is argued on the basis of this assumption and the form, the divisions and the content of Isaiah 35-40 that Isaiah 35-40 was perceived to be a unity, and all these strongly suggest, contrary to the general consensus of the suggestion of Proto-Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah, that Isaiah 1-39 and 40-66 form a unity.

In Ugaritic ritual texts, certain geographical areas are found in lists of deities as recipients of sacrifices. However, such topography seems to have its numinous character degraded in mythological instances which advocate the sovereignty of other deities. The paper aspires to scrutinize this argument, focusing on the diverse senses of the term "earth" in KTU 1.6. Incidentally, we will inquire to what extent this assertion is able to illuminate the topographical sovereignty of Yahweh (?) in Amos 9:2-3.

One way of characterizing cultural structures is by the way they process information. Who/What are valid sources of information, and which sources of information are disparaged, and why? How is information managed? To whom is it extended and from whom is it withheld and why? My intention in this presentation is to analyze ancient Jewish groups from this perspective, with a particular emphasis on the Qumran sect.

The rare New Testament evidence for magoi and their activities is out of all proportion to the influence of this terminology during the history of Christianity. This observation draws attention to the Pagan and Jewish context and - in a second step - to the sociological use of this terminology as well. Against this background the magoi of the New Testament - the astrologers in Matthew's infancy-narrative, Simon Magus and Barjesus Elymas in Acts - can be seen in sharper focus and open up the way to a broad field of discussion.

The function of a metaphor is to explain a difficult concept, one that cannot be grasped or defined easily, with another more common concept. The English language, for example, explains the difficult concept 'life' by means of the simpler concept 'journey,' 'death' can be personified as 'the grim reaper,' and 'time' can be visualized as 'currency'. The Hebrew Bible also uses a plethora of metaphors, one of them being the metaphor of 'birth'. Differing from English usage where this particular metaphor is most often used to denote new beginnings ("the birth of a nation", "a star is born"), the Hebrew Bible applies the birth metaphor to the concept of 'crisis'. Groups of soldiers faced with coming battles, for example, behave like women giving birth - they scream, tremble, and lose control over their limbs. Individuals can also display childbirth-like symptoms when they are oppressed or persecuted and fear their own demise. In short, the Hebrew Bible uses the birth metaphor to describe a type of crisis that is life-threatening. People affected by this crisis stand at a fork in the road, one path leading to life and one leading to death. As in childbirth, it is not their choice which path they will tread. This paper will attempt to uncover the prophetic use of the birth metaphor for cases of personal 'crisis' focusing on Jonah 2:1-10 in comparison with the post-biblical 1 QH 11. Both texts narrate life-threatening situations experienced by individuals. But while the Qumran text makes the metaphorical comparison of 'birth' and 'crisis' explicit, the Jonah psalm does not. The choice of vocabulary and imagery, however, shows that it, too, uses the birth metaphor to paint the picture of an individual on the crossroads between life and death.

The use of music as therapy is well attested in the classical world, especially in Pythagorean and Platonic sources, and it continued to be practiced in Islamic medicine well into the modern period. David's use of music as therapy for Saul's bouts of mental illness is recorded in 1 Sam 16:14-23, immediately following his anointing and preceding his triumph over Goliath, thus introducing him almost 'prematurely' into the narrative of Saul's court. In this paper, we shall consider what is being described, and why the narrator would ascribe to those in the narrative a belief that music would calm Saul's insanity. The supposed nature of the therapy, whether medical or magical or both, will be analysed. The purpose of this passage in the Saul-David narrative and the fortune of this passage in subsequent sources will be discussed.

This paper examines the role of John's Apocalypse and apocalyptic motifs in The Letter of Vienne and Lyons (177). This account of the martyrdom of Christians provides a glimpse into early circumstantial reflection upon Revelation. Some passages are cited explicitly while others are included through allusion. What becomes clear is that the communities in their experience of suffering read the Apocalypse as a prophecy of the Endtimes, but one which in their experience was finding partial, proleptic fulfillment in their trials in Lyons. For example, it was the beast who was inciting the slaughter of the faithful, but his full fury was still to come. Their test, like that of the future martyrs, was a test of faithfulness and alliance. Would they take the mark and receive entrance to the society or, as was said of them at the time, would they refuse the mark and reap banishment from the market places (13:17)? Like the two witnesses of Rev 11 the believers are killed and their bodies refused burial, yet they at that time, unlike the witnesses, were not raised. They had to await fulfillment of the apocalyptic promise. They imitated the faithfulness and suffering of the future witnesses, but not the swiftness of their reward. In this instance, apocalyptic is being read to locate a community's experience within sacred, apostolic expectation. They are the early members of an anticipated community who read the details of their trial and witness within the plot of the Apocalypse. The Apocalypse's terror and victories authenticate and locate their own tragedies and they gain confidence in their future blessings. They gain identity, their suffering gains meaning, and they thereby gain courage and hope. If they are currently participants in the apocalyptic conflict, they can depend on participating in apocalyptic peace (20:4).

Luke, Mark and Matthew concluded successive pericopae with the words, "No one dared to question him [Jesus] any longer." Luke concluded the "Question about the Resurrection" story with the "dare to question" comment, but Matthew and Mark omitted the note. Mark concluded the next pericope, "The Great Commandment," with the "dare to question" comment, but Matthew, who is in Markan order, and Luke, who is not, both omitted the conclusion. In "David's Son," the three writers' next pericope, Matthew concluded the story with the "dare to question" comment, but Mark and Luke omitted it. Only the "Question about the Resurrection" is a true dispute story. This paper will attempt a coherent explanation of these observable facts. What can this data teach us about the redactive methods of the three synoptic authors, and does the data aid us in determining the order in which the synoptic gospels were written? On the other hand, although both are apparently later than Luke's version, Matthew and Mark's versions of the "dare to question" conclusion preserve Semitic elements absent in Luke. Matthew and Mark misplaced the "dare to question" note, but they retained more of its hypothetical Semitic undertext. This study will illustrate the importance of a correct and full methodology for interpreting the Gospels. Without sensitivity to the Semitic elements embedded in the text, one might assume, based on the "dare to question" comment's correct placement by Luke, that Luke also preserved the earliest form of the text. However, by paying close attention to Semitisms in the text, one can correct first impressions. Thus, the added value of a Semitic approach to the synoptic gospels.

Eine Analyse der paulinischen Argumentation in ethischen Fragen zeigt, dass alle Inhalte der Einzelanweisungen und die jeweiligen Begründungsstrukturen der Empfängergemeinde bekannt gewesen sein müssen. In paränetischen Abschnitten wie 1Thess 5,12-22 erinnert Paulus durch Wiederholung. Bei ethischen Konfliktfällen wie 1Kor 6,12-20 erinnert er durch Aktualisierung, da bereits bekannte Inhalte und ethische Handlungsformen neu auf bestimmte Missstände bezogen werden. Bezugspunkt dieser Erinnerung ist einerseits die konkrete Handlungsebene, andererseits das Beziehungsverhältnis mit Christus. Die wiederholende und aktualisierende Erinnerung besitzt für die paulinische Ethik eine fundamentale Bedeutung, denn eine ethische Handlungsorientierung kann auf diese Weise gebildet und langfristig gefestigt werden. Für diesen Ansatz der paulinischen Ethik lässt sich eine direkte Kontinuität mit der im beginnenden rabbinischen Judentum aufgenommenen Linie der deuteronomistischen Bewegung nachweisen, für die die Erinnerung an die geschichtlichen Heilstaten Gottes und bestimmte Handlungsnormen grundlegend war. Daneben steht Paulus ebenfalls in der Traditionslinie der hellenistischen paidei,a, für die das kontinuierliche Einüben und Wiederholen Basis jeder Entwicklungsmöglichkeit war. Hinweise wie die Wiederholung der Passa-Inhalte (1Kor 5,6-8) oder der Bezug auf den paidagwgo,j (1Kor 4,15) zeigen, dass Paulus sich mit seiner Ethik bewusst in diese beiden Traditionslinien stellt und erinnern will.

Among the several thousands of magic-related texts and fragments in the Cairo Genizah, a handful were written in a special code, consisting of the substitution of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet by quasi-alphabetical signs. Upon first encountering this code in a small and fragmentary text, I was unable to crack the cipher and interpret the text. I then came across a longer, well-preserved text written in this code, and was able to crack it and learn the alphabetic value of each of its signs. Only then did I realize that words coded in this cipher also appear in some previously-published magical texts from the Cairo Genizah, where they were taken by the editors as meaningless magical signs. I have also examined all the other magical and non-magical ciphers known to me from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and have thus far not been able to find any close parallel to this specific cipher. The aim of my paper is to present the code, to gather together all the Genizah fragments currently known to me in which it is used, and to begin speculating about its possible origins.

Two verses in the Torah seemingly instruct the ancient Israelite community to avoid partiality in favor of the poor. Exodus 23:3 and Leviticus 19:15 each contain warnings against preferable treatment of the poor. I intend to show that in the context of each pericope these verses must be read as a warning against prejudicial treatment that harms the poor, reading gdl for dl in Ex.23:3 and understanding the phrase "to lift the face" in Lev.19:15 as a sign of negative rather than positive bias. The phrase "to lift the face" with God as subject occurs in Deut.10:17, where it is most commonly understood as a general statement about God's impartiality. Instead, this verse emphasizes the nature of the God of the Bible as one that is antipathetic to negative prejudice on the basis of external characteristics that identify persons by race, class or sex. Contemporary theological and ethical implications of all three texts will be briefly explored.

From time to time the Bible is being invoked in ways that are totally inappropriate to biblical scholarship. So what would constitute a proper use of the Bible, especially the New Testament, to prevent fostering feelings of animosity towards homosexuals based on the text of Romans 1:26-27? A study of the text shows that the apostle Paul opposed not so much a model of homosexuality but homosexuality by its very nature as being contra God's intention for humankind. The theological intention of the text is not meant to foster animosity toward the homosexual, but to bring the active homosexual to repentance. The Church certainly will have to rethink its attitude toward the homosexual in the light of the responsible reading and application of the text of Romans 1:26-27. The text seems to dictate an acceptance of the homosexual into the Christian community whilst denouncing homosexual practices.

As little as one can speak of other social conventions as if unrelated to concrete historical and cultural phenomena, can one speak of “writing” or “reading” without reference to the material aspects of text production, or outside historical constraints? We need to think about communication technologies as cultural products interwoven with historical processes. The paper focuses on the final stages of the development of the Gospels: the possible historical settings for the planning, “research,” writing, editing and publishing of the Gospels by investigating the information we possess today about the mechanics of reading and writing in antiquity. In ethnographical terms the following historical questions will be dealt with: 1) How was writing perceived by its culture? (2) How was writing taught and learned, and by whom? (3) How was writing described by contemporary readers and writers? (4) How was the relationship between readers and texts understood? (5) How did the book as a physical object affect the cultural activity of reading and further writing? A brief discussion of authorship, authors and writing in the world of Evangelists will synthesise the material in a contribution towards an ethnography of communication in the first-century Mediterranean world.

Much has been written about the Book of Job as a correction to retribution theology. This argument maintains that the righteous suffer and apparently suffer without adequate explanation from God. Furthermore, the righteous do not always prosper throughout their lives. Wisdom Literature, however, looks at life from a long-term perspective. It bases success on right speaking, right relationships, and right actions. These principles hold true in Job. Wisdom Literature shows how to achieve a stable and successful life. Its keynote principles include the following: · Wisdom is teachable · Wisdom's pursuit must be ongoing throughout life · One's well-being relates to choices · Someone of greater import teaches someone of lesser standing · Wisdom is an acquired skill · The fear of the Lord enlarges one's understanding of God and of one's life. When God speaks to his servant Job, God follows his own agenda. For example, God takes delight in outlining details of his creation; by sharing his thoughts with Job, he seems to invite this righteous sufferer also to take delight in creation. Via his monologue, God puts in perspective Job's difficulties and hardships. God teaches Job. Significantly, God's agenda as an answer satisfies Job. Throughout the book, Job grows as a character. He increases in wisdom. Arguably, Job experiences joy in repentance (42:3,6) and obedience (42:8,10). Blessings and restoration come only after his wisdom lesson. He expresses awe and worship, clearly goals of Wisdom Literature. For Job, knowing God more deeply and hearing his voice bring this upright man joy.

In 1978 Morton Smith published a study under the provocative title "Jesus the Magician." In this contribution I want to look at the immediate responses at the time and look where we stand now after the highly productive decade of the 1990s as regards the definition, role and function of magic in the ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish cultures.

This rereading of Genesis 4:19-24 will build on Rosi Braidotti's concepts of feminist postmodernisms and 'nomadic subjects' (1994, 1997), to make connections between biblical studies, feminist theory and cultural studies. It will proceed from etymology through and with midrash, birth control documentation, and family life in ancient cultures and into music, in order to trace the [distorted?] reflection--in this short biblical passage--of a mini-story of foundational cultural origins.

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Many Black Bible scholars have uncritically embraced the methodologies and conclusions of the European theological academy. Couched in philosophical language and protected by political power, Eurocentric hermeneutics displays an illusion of impregnability. However, when carefully examined under the methodological microscope, the Eurocentric derived historical-critical method is found to be lacking the superior scientific substance it claims for itself. It is time for Black biblical interpreters to break the chains of European academic endorsement and develop a hermeneutic that is faithful to the Black Christian experience in Africa and the Diaspora. Black theologians should not be intimidated by the amorphous prowess of the imperialist predators, but should take bold steps to bring the relevance of the liberating biblical message back to our expectant pews and craving communities.

Gustaf Dalman laid down a challenge: “Wer Beweise für ein hebräisches Urevangelium sammeln wollte, hätte zuerst dies kai egeneto nennen müssen.” Dalman thought that he had blocked a Hebrew path: “Selbst der ‘Wir-Bericht’ is nicht davon frei, s. Apg. 21,1.5; 27,44; 28,8.17. . . . Solche Beobachtungen verbieten die Annahme eines hebräishen Originals.” Most investigators of Luke-Acts assume that Hebraisms must reflect Luke’s Septuagintalizing style. But Dalman was wrong about facts in Acts 16-28. We must take up his challenge. The truly Hebraic idiom is a “subjectless egeneto + finite verb” and Luke never used this in Acts 16-28, nor anywhere else in Acts. Luke used this idiom 33 times in his gospel. On the other hand, Luke used a more Greek idiom, “egeneto + infinitive main event,” six times in his gospel and sixteen times in Acts, of which nine are in Acts 16-28. These data have been known since Plummer, Luke (1896), but are regularly ignored, mis-reported, or mis-applied. The only satisfying explanation is that "egeneto + infinitive" is Luke’s style. It never occurs in the LXX. Against this, the corresponding structure “egeneto + finite verb” is not Luke’s style. It appears to come from a pre-synoptic source and is limited to the gospel. The Parable of the Vineyard is a profitable case study. There are more Hebraisms than previously recognized. There are even three non-Septuagintal Hebraisms. Using this approach we confirm the existence of a pre-synoptic witness to the gospel traditions behind Luke. The setting for the parable comes from the Hebraic Greek source, also much of the body, the closing, as well as the connection between the parable and the short scripture quotation. The Vineyard Parable, uttered during Jesus’ last week, was a stinging rebuke against the fraud, violence and tithing practices of the temple authorities.

Recent studies in the book of Ezekiel have developed around elements that make Ezekiel unique among the prophets. In addition to treatments stressing the idea of Ezekiel as one among the literati and the literary nature of the book as a whole, other studies have addressed the historical orientation of the work, so clearly seen in the recurring date formulas. Various "visionary" themes command attention as well, one of which is the movement of the kabod or "glory" of the deity. Within the context of such discussions, the subject of myth within the context of prophecy has arisen again. Lawrence Boadt recently argued that the book of Ezekiel creates a "counter-myth." Myth, of course, is a subject which historically has labored under something of an identity crisis, particularly when viewed across disciplines. Ezekiel, as character and book, is situated at the threshold of major historical, religious and literary change. This pivotal position calls for continued and deeper examination of the intersection of these observations and ideas. This paper argues that the use of time and space within the context of the visionary experiences of Ezekiel is instructive with regard to questions of genre and intent in a much broader sense than is generally recognized and that such use challenges biblical scholarship further to engage with greater rigor the question of "myth" within a larger and more interdisciplinary framework.

When it comes to their applicability to ancient contexts, social theories are often viewed with a wary and suspecting gaze. Social theories, many have asserted, are for the modern context and cannot find relevance for a context covered by the sands of time and change. Aware of such critiques, and their more often than not legitimacy, this investigation will begin the process of defining a theory suitable to the ancient context. Society--an understanding of which is fueled by the concept of spatiality--exists within 'space,' or three-dimensional space: social, real and imaginary. Defined by and defining of social space, real (wherein things are 'objectively perceived' and perception is primarily conscious) and imaginary (wherein perception is not objective or always conscious) space must exist within social space. Through a process of definition and re-definition delineated by the objective structures of social space, those 'things' (e.g., forces, factors, elements, etc. within society) placed initially within real or imaginary space may be (re)situated with the progression of the theory. Because imaginary space allows for the existence of those 'things' unperceived, and more often than not much of an ancient context is not perceived by the modern scholar, this theory provides an allowance for the unknown that it might later be (re)defined and accounted for. In sum, the process of social theory must begin by defining the context in question in terms of spatiality (a process of situating/placing in social, real, or imaginary space). The theory itself understands that social contexts are defined as certain intersections, among an infinitude of possibilities, within social space--intersections which are given shape by objective structures. With the application of this theory, ancient contexts as products of social processes will be clarified and offered definition.

The paper will examine scholarly opinions on the locative 'He' in question, and will make some new suggestions. Traditionally, this locative ending is an object to explain a remnant of the old accusative case ending. However, the identity of morpheme 'He' has remained an open question among the scholars; some thought the morpheme 'He' is a voiceless letter while others see the morpheme 'He' as a pronounced consonant as in Ugaritic. My paper will attempt to answer this question. Additionally, my paper will demonstrate the different development of the Hebrew word 'shamma(h)' of which the 'He' is regarded as the same locative 'He'.

This essay will explore the ways in which understanding John's anthropology might illuminate his eschatology. Much previous discussion of the issue has followed a diachronic model, focusing on source-critical problems, comparing John's perspective with that of the historical Jesus, and/or forcing John into a hypothetical timeline for the Church's developing theology. This essay will instead focus on terms and concepts which reveal John's anthropological theory and will use this model to outline John's view of the individual's eschatological status. Overall, John promotes a functional immortality for believers rather than a doctrine of future resurrection, making his view distinct both from Platonic or Gnostic dualistic notions of immortality and from Paul's futuristic immortality which follows resurrection.

This paper explores the Jewish pseudepigraphical background of the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions. We especially consider how earlier traditions associated with the patriarch Enoch were appropriated by these romances. Of special interest are the views of law and sin's origin Enochic traditions and the Pseudo-Clementines share. We also take account of the eclipse of the figure Enoch in these later Christian works.

My recent work on the crowds concluded by arguing that Matthew sought to bring the Jewish "crowds" (who, I conclude, are emblematic of the Jewish people) into the Church, but that they proved recalcitrant. Yet, as one reviewer perceptively noted, I never stipulated what, if they had proved willing, they would have needed to do to join Matthew's Church. Just what are the "entrance requirements" for the crowds? Does Matthew's Jesus, in fact, lay out any "entrance requirements?" If so, are they the same sort of demands that Jesus requires of the disciples? Or are they more akin to the requirements that the Risen Jesus stipulates in the great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20)? This paper will examine these questions, and block out the nature and character of the "entrance requirements" of the Jewish crowds.

This paper deals with two phases of the formation of Early Christianity. In the first period, until about 200 CE, different forms of Christian religion emerged and crystallized. The paper analyzes this process as an evolution of cultural pieces and examines why Christianity developed along specific "attractors." We propose that in the first period the "epidemic" of texts and ideas played a major role. From the cross-fertilization of Jewish and Hellenistic cultural bits, a number of mentally appealing religious elements emerged, which spread quickly among the population of the Mediterranean. In the subsequent period, the different forms of Christianity were competing in cultural evolution, and a handful of successful varities became dominant.

A study of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system reveals that there is a significant relationship between the use of certain verbal forms / verbal sequences and the social dynamics represented in a text, especially in direct discourse. This phenomenon is evident in ancient and modern languages, semitic and non-semitic (e.g. El-Amarna texts, Egyptian, Korean, Tagalog, French). In Biblical Hebrew, it is particularly evident in the following contexts: 1. Where the weqatal follows an imperative 2. Where a volitive (imperative, jussive, cohortative) is accompanied by the particle na' 3. Where the infinitive absolute expresses a command 4. With the long imperative. In this paper, we will show that the use of the elements mentioned above is connected to one of the following social contexts: 1. Where one of higher social status addresses one of lower social status 2. Where one of lower social status addresses one of higher social status. The evidence will show that the authors and editors of the biblical text had in their arsenal of linguistic features, expressions, morphemes, and syntagmas directly linked to the social dynamics of a text.

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The Pericope Project aims at studying the divisions of the text of the Bible in the ancient manuscripts and at presenting them to a wider public. The roots of this project are to be found with some scholars who in the nineties of the last century started to use the Masoretic accentuation as an indication for the delimitation of units in Hebrew verse. Consequently, the correct interpretation of the system of accentuation came under discussion. At the moment it would seem that a consensus is growing and for that reason it seems appropriate to present a systematic description of the system of Masoretic accents. Based on previous studies of the system of Masoretic accentuation, a short “syntax” will be offered during this paper, which might function as a guideline for the interpretation of the system as indicating the end of cola and poetic verses within Hebrew poetry. Furthermore, in this paper we will also deal with the problem of the differences between the delimitations as they are found in the Masoretic Text and those present in the ancient Versions(LXX; Pesh: Vg etc.). Most of the examples will be from the Book of Lamentations, but if necessary we will also present examples from the other books of the Hebrew Bible.

Each contributor will present a case study of his/her group’s participation in the Intercultural Bible reading project. Group readings from Indonesia, South Africa, El Salvador and The Netherlands will be discussed.

In the second part of the Book of Joshua, where the division of the land is described, God does not seem to play a direct role in the act of land allotment. God takes only an indirect part in the scene when lots are cast and through allusions to theological highlights of the Pentateuch. The question implied is whether or not this has to do with the date of the composition of this text – possibly a time when the writers/composers could not relate to divine promises and their fulfilment, or divine commands and their execution as “unbiased,” as the writers/composers of the Pentateuch had done.

At the 2003 International meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Cambridge, it was reported that the Ethiopian Orthodox church is, perhaps, the last Christian community in existence that uses hand-written manuscripts in its worship services. The subject arose in the context of discussion of a paper I delivered there on “sociological models for understanding scribal practices in the biblical Dead Sea scrolls.” This paper will report on an anthropological survey in Ethiopia in the spring of 2004 aimed at understanding the sociology of Ethiopian biblical scribal communities. The survey was supported by an Association of Theological Schools/Lilly research scholars grant and conducted in affiliation with the Institute of Ethiopian Studies of the Addis Ababa University. The paper will report on: 1) the theoretical framework adopted for the study (based on elements of Peter Berger’s and Emile Durkheim’s theories on the sociology of religions); 2) the methodology employed in the survey; 3) an overview of the findings of the study; and 4) their possible relevance for understanding scribal evidence in the biblical Dead Sea scrolls.

In this paper it is shown how the various cultural contexts from within which the different participating Bible study groups read the text of John 4, played a determining role in their understanding of the central concept in John 4, namely “living water”. The intercultural exchange between the world of the Biblical text, and the different worlds of modern interpreters is examined and analysed.

Scholars working with a diachronic approach concur that the text of Saul searching for the lost asses of his father (I Sam 9:1-10:16) is a composite text. There is near unanimous agreement that the initial story did not mention the name of Samuel and even those who argue that Samuel is part of the oldest literary stratum maintain that the scene of Saul's unction is a later addition to the story. In this paper we will argue against this contention and show that the modifications to the oldest literary strata of this tale are limited to the following verses: 9:1,2a,13,15-16,17b,20-21,27b; 10:1b,5b-6,8-9a,10b-13,16b. Our source criticism of the text considers the writing techniques that characterize the oldest literary stratum and have an essential role in the narrative development. A macro-syntactical analysis corroborates our findings that the original story tells of Saul's meeting with Samuel and the unction that followed.

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The transitivity, intransitivity, stativity or passivity of a verbal form affects the number and nature of elements in its valency pattern, that is, elements occurring along with it in order to make a grammatical sentence. The more elements needed, the more ‘verbal’ the form is considered to be. The opposite is also true: the fewer elements needed, the less inherently verbal the form is taken to be. Thus our judgement in classifying verbal forms is affected by the class of verbs to which a form belongs. Whole sets of verbs have ended up in classical lexica listed without certain forms which do fit into the paradigm and are attested in the data. For example, the participle of stative verbs in Hebrew are commonly listed separately as adjectives, while the verb itself is presented as though it had no participial form. In Syriac, the passive participle often appears, not under the verb, but as a separate entry, where it is called an adjective. However, not all such entries function syntactically as an adjective, nor does the adjectival function fit all other occurrences of the participial form. Due to their passive nature, passive participles tend to function attributively, but this is not valid always and everywhere. In constructing a lexicon, various principles can be followed. Two of these are user friendliness and systematic elegance, both goals worthy of striving after. The effects of the two can be in conflict in the practical treatment of language data. Alternatives for treating the passive participle are presented and the effects of the different approaches are compared with each other. Suggestions are made for preserving the best of both approaches.

The Hebrew cultic term isheh occurs almost exclusively in the Pentateuch. In this paper, I want to start with a contribution to the ongoing discussion regarding its translation. In recent scholarship, different proposals have been made that isheh void of any connotation to 'fire,' means '(food) gift' (J. Hoftijzer, J. Milgrom, R. Rendtorff). I will challenge these opinions and argue that connotations of isheh to fire can be verified with regard to its function in sacrificial rituals, and by analyzing its rendering in LXX. The proper translation, therefore, is 'fire offering'. Building on this broader understanding, I then want to show that isheh is a key notion of the sacrificial cult, thus also serving as a comprehensive term for all sacrifices (e.g., Lev 23:25, 27, 36, 37). The peculiar fact that it occurs almost exclusively in the Pentateuch is an indication that the term as such disappeared. In later biblical texts, however, equivalent terms with connotation to 'fire' replace it as comprehensive cultic term.

This paper will examine the power dynamics between the male and female protagonists of the Song of Songs and in contemporary advertising featuring biblical women. We would like to suggest that in both the biblical text and in contemporary advertising, sexual relations tend to be viewed in terms of the loss of male power, to the advantage of the female. In the biblical corpus, this is viewed overwhelmingly as a negative thing, whereas contemporary advertisements present this as a positive for women. Though the Song of Songs has typically been seen as presenting a challenge to this biblical view of sexual relations, we would argue that the Song, in its presentation of sexual power dynamics is not so very different from the power dynamics depicted in the rest of the Bible and in contemporary advertising.

A. G. Dickens' The English Reformation asserts that the development and distribution of the vernacular scripture played a significant role in the English Reformation. The revisionist historians Christopher Haigh, Rosemary O’Day, and J. J. Scarisbrick argue that King Henry’s move away from Roman Catholicism was primarily a personal and political maneuver. They assert the “Henrician Schism” to have been a “top down” politically driven “reformation from above” rather than a religious reformation generated by changes in faith, practice, and the availability of a vernacular scripture, a “bottom up” reformation or a “reformation from below”. The revisionists marginalise the impact of the introduction of the vernacular scripture on the English Reformation by arguing that literacy among the general populace of England was not widespread at that time of the English Reformation. Three factors counter the literacy argument against Dickens’ thesis: 1] the attendance at worship services where the vernacular scripture was read, taught, and preached publicly for the hearing of all present; 2] The households with at least one literate resident who could read to the family providing for the hearing and teaching of the vernacular scripture outside of the church beyond what literacy rates indicate; and 3] The propagation of the “heard” vernacular scripture and its content by word of mouth and open discussion in rural areas of Britain, Wales in particular.

The topos of grace is a—if not the—centre piece of Protestant theology, and it is also perceived as central to Paul’s theologizing. In recent research grace has become an issue of debate again from different perspectives: Sandra Hack Polaski found a ‘hidden discourse of power’ in Paul’s language of grace whereas John Barclay perceives Paul’s reference to grace as the clear indication of the absolute newness of the message of the gospel which is disrupting any historical, sociological, theological, or other continuity. The paper takes up such issues of the current debate. It particularly explores the aspect of power in Paul’s use of the language of grace. Is it supporting the introduction of structures of domination and subordination in his relations to his communities and to an originally egalitarian movement. Or can other than hierarchical patterns be developed in relations where there is power involved through the reference to grace? Could the discourse of grace also be read as a discourse of an alternative or even of resistance? What is the relevance of such readings from different perspectives have for a feminist perspective?

This paper discusses an analysis of the concept of illicit sex in four series which list sexual infractions in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Three of the series are legal instruction: Lev 18, Lev 20:10-21 and Deut 22:13-23:1. The fourth is a series of curses: Deut 27:20-23. The analysis takes four textual features - "point-of-view," "language depicting the sex act," "selection," and "structure," - to be the primary signals informing the conceptualities of illicit sex. An examination of that analysis demonstrates the way in which these signals are read as shaping the conceptuality of illicit sex. Mention is also made concerning the implications that conceptuality has for analysis of other underlying conceptualities in the texts such as agency of women and purity and property.

In earlier studies I have shown the influence of Sasanian civil law on the rabbinic legislation embodied in the Babylonian Talmud, and even, in one or two cases,instances where ritual regulations adopted and adapted a common Sasanian rule (the validity of returnable gifts) in and to rabbinic ritual use. Given the thousand years of coexistence of Jews and Persians in and around Babylonia this is hardly surprising; the Babylonian Talmud itself explicitly recognizes the comfort level of the Jews in the Persian "exile." Moreover, well-known rabbis seem to have taken part in the vigorous relgious debates between Manicheans, Zoroastrians and Jews that took place during the period, especially in the vicinity of the Persian capitol Ctesiphon. In this paper I will examine several cases in which the reverse may have happened; that is, Sasanian and post-Sasanian Zoroastrian purities' legislation seems to have considered for the first time the possibilies raised by the rabbinic system. Zoroastrian purities law is embodied in three compilations, the Vendidad (c1200 BCE), the Zand on that Vendidad (completed in the Sasanian period (224-651 CE, but more likely the earlier or middle part of the era), and Shayast ne Shayast, which was compiled in the ninth century but contains a good deal of earlier material. In examining the relationship of each of these compilations with each and other and with rabbinic literature, I have—to my surprise—discovered several cases in which issues are raised in the latest of these compilations that are completely missing from the earlier ones, and it is precisely these in which rabbinic concepts are considered. In some cases they are accepted, in one rejected—but they seem to have been considered for the first time during the Sasanian period.

This paper intends to examine the differences between MT Pentateuch and LXX Pentateuch in regard to the terms Hata' and Hatta't. What is hoped to be gained from this exercise is an identification of whether or not taxonomistic tendencies of the type one finds in the Targum may be found in LXX. To this end, the paper will scrutinize various translations of the two terms Hata' and Hatta't by LXX Pentateuch. It is hoped that the initial observations in this paper will set the stage for a wider examination of the terms throughout the LXX, and that the conclusions will help to define later rabbinic explication of sin and impurity.

Apotropaic prayers and hymns request God's protection from evil spirits. In this lecture I intend to survey the corpus of such prayers composed during the Second Temple Period, divided into two groups: those of non sectarian origin but known at Qumran, and those with such affinity to the thoughts of the Qumran sect that they may have been composed by members of this sect.

The present paper will examine wisdom personified in Aramaic Ahiqar and compare it with wisdom personified in Proverbs 8. Bruce Zuckerman is making high resolution photographs available to the author and the information gleaned from those photos will be included in this proposed paper. This is a development of a paper presented on February 8th 2004 at The Biblical Colloquium West on Proverbs and Ahiqar which dealt with the Comparative Method and presented a summary of evidence demonstrating the possibility of influence of the Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar (written in Official Aramaic) on Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible. That Paper will appear this August in "The Biblical Historian" (ed., David Noel Freedman).

The first full day session on Syriac lexicography co-ordinated by the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP) was held at last year’s SBL International Meeting in Cambridge. The final session of this year’s day seminar will be a brief report on the aims, publications, and progress of the ISLP.

1 Samuel 1-7 is structured around a set of three repeating themes, the coming of kingship, the rise of Samuel and the freedom of Yahweh. This paper explores the way in which these three themes are woven together in the narrative and how the repetition of each theme closes off some interpretative possibilities and opens up others. Thus, although it is composed of diverse pieces, there is an intentional unity to the whole of this narrative.

The problem of domestic violence is not a modern phenomenon but is as old as human history itself. That Genesis places the story of Cain killing his brother Abel (Gen 4) immediately after the Fall (Gen 3) reflects the ancient Israelite awareness that fratricide and other forms of domestic violence are part and parcel of life in a fallen world. From early times pagan authors were equally aware of the problem. Hesiod, for example, depicts the deterioration in human relations from the golden to the Iron age, when the relationship of parents to their children and of siblings to one another is marked by disrespect, cruelty and abuse (Works and Days 105-202). Authors who lived during the Greco-Roman period were acutely aware of the problem, and stories of domestic violence appear frequently in the literary, philosophical, and rhetorical works of this period. As one might anticipate, such stories are especially frequent in philosophical discussions of anger, with instances of domestic violence used to illustrate the consequences of failing to moderate or eradicate that passion. Even Chariton's Callirhoe, the first extant Hellenistic novel, is based on the story of how Chaereas, in a fit of jealous rage, kicks his new bride Callirhoe as she runs to greet him. The kick, which strikes her squarely in the diaphragm, is so hard and vicious that it causes her to stop breathing, and everyone thinks that Callirhoe is dead. But hers is only a Scheintod, so that her burial is premature and sets the stage for the remainder of the romance and the eventual reunion and reconciliation of the couple. This paper gathers evidence for domestic violence as an acute problem in the Greco-Roman world and indicates how selected authors attempted to deal with it (e.g., Plutarch, On Brotherly Love).

The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam houses a collection of some thirty unpublished Jewish childbirth amulets from the 18th century. Childbirth amulets were used to ward off the female demon Lilith and were hung in the room of the woman giving birth. They are known from many Jewish communities and periods. In this lecture the form and content of the amulets from the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana will be discussed and the amulets will be placed within the long tradition of Jewish childbirth amulets.

This lecture examines the syntactical and thematic setting of animal images within two literary pericopes in the Book of Qoheleth (9:1-6; 9:13-10:1), and evaluates their empirical aspects as a concretizing device of Qoheleth’s sermon. When dealing with the impact of faunal aspects upon man’s intellectual and emotional perception of life, one should follow the literary perception of the animal in its various occurrences in the Bible. Qoheleth uses dialectical discourses in order to urge his audience to reflect upon contradictory phenomena in human life. Within the dialectical discourse, the animal simile sketches polarity by use of contradictory language and values that are seen as equal forces in the cognitive process of selecting the right way. The juxtaposition between two animals, a dog- qualified as a symbol of contempt and humiliation- and a lion - known as the 'king of beasts'- (9:4), is shaped as a paradigm of a 'Better'- proverb, and expresses Qoheleth’s ambivalent attitude toward life. The 'dead fly parable'- "A dead fly spoils a [chalice] of precious perfumery’s ointment" (10:1) is inserted between two proverbial sayings as a similitude: a. "one offender can destroy much of value" (9:18b); b. "a little folly outweighs wisdom" (10:1b). These proverbial sayings provide an analogous statement to the dead fly parable declaring wisdom’s limits and its vulnerability similar to the delicate essence of the aromatic perfume. Both wisdom and perfume suffer damage at the hands of a lesser being considered a fool, here a dead fly. The juxtaposition between the parable of the dead fly and the parable of the king and the poor-wise man echoes an encounter between wisdom and its rivals.

"Manliness was not a birthright," concludes Maud Gleason in Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome, a compelling treatment of masculinity and self-presentation during the Second Sophistic. "It was something that had to be won" (1995: 159). Gleason exposes the theatrical nature of manliness under the Roman Empire; for elites such as Polemo and Favorinus, the two orators that star in Gleason's study, gender was a matter of performance. They went into the wardrobe, as it were, not to pass through to Narnia but to get "dressed up" to play a manly role: voice, posture, clothing, each element had its place in a deliberate process of self-fashioning. In this essay it is contended that figures in the Book of Revelation are participants in the same cultural production, the same labor of masculine deportment. Like Polemo and Favorinus, the Lamb and the Witch-that is, "Babylon the Great" who misled the nations "by her sorcery" (Rev 18:23)-at once appropriate and subvert conventional Greco-Roman categories of gender. In Gleason's view, the play of the orators reflects the pressure that the rise of the Roman Empire brought to bear upon social roles forged in the classical era. This essay will likewise show Revelation and its characters to be products of the empire, where "men were men" only if their audience found the performance convincing.

Problems with respect to the relationship between texts and history have been a major issue in contemporary biblical exegesis. Since the Enlightenment, the Historical-Critical method has endeavoured to uncover the history of biblical manuscripts and to reconstruct the world behind the text. New literary theories argue that literature does not refer to reality, and that history is unattainable through texts. Is there an alternative to this Manichean vision of the nature of texts and history? For the sake of balance and coherence, this paper aims at a rapprochement of the historical and literary methodologies, by indicating what they have in common. In believing that biblical texts transform readers, thus producing an ethical response on their part, aren’t we reintroducing the idea of reference back into language? Language was invented to speak of things that do not belong to the realm of language, to talk about reality. Even if there is actually a gap between texts and history called interpretation, we deem that texts reflect some aspects of reality. The contention between diachronic and synchronic approaches is unnecessary. We will illustrate the many parallels between Source Criticism and what Gérard Genette calls hypertextuality and intertextuality. Furthermore, certain aspects of Form and Genre Criticism are similar to the implied author’s ideological point of view. Tradition History and Redaction Criticism both work in a diachronic and synchronic mode, and are also attuned to some facets of new literary theories. Should we seek the author’s intention or the text’s intention? Balanced exegesis is done when we attempt to answer the why?, what? and how? of biblical texts. Ricœur’s triple mimesis is a good way in attaining this equilibrium: a careful understanding of the author’s real world (mimesis I), of the author’s textualized world (mimesis II), and of the reader’s re-figuration in his own world (mimesis III).

This paper shall discuss two prohibitions of adultery: the prohibition of sexual relations with the wife of another man and that prohibiting relations with a betrothed maiden, both found in two separate biblical corpora: The Holiness Legislation (Lev 18:20; 20:10) and The Deuteronomy (Deut 22:22-24). These prohibitions shall be compared with the attitude towards adultery in Ancient Egypt, based on Egyptian documentation referring to assorted cases of adultery and its consequences. It appears that adultery in Egypt was conceived as a sexual act committed with the wife of another as opposed to with an unattached woman; thus similar to the biblical definition. However, despite the existence of acts of adultery in Egypt, the documentation does not corroborate the Biblical legislator's apprehension regarding the abundance of acts of incest and adultery in Egypt (Lev 18:3). An attempt will be made to discover the roots of this seemingly exaggerated impression and its relation to the deed of Ham the son of Noah (Gen 9:18-25). In Egypt, adultery was viewed as a sin against the gods yet the individual was subject to material punishment in order to compensate the betrayed spouse. The adulterer thus suffered immediate consequences in this world whereas the penalty for his sin against the gods was thought to have manifested only later, in the afterlife. In the Bible, on the other hand, the legal authorities do not make any judgment relating to the involved parties, for only the Lord shall judge in a case of fornication. The sentence is carried out by the people but has been dictated by the Lord. The public's aspiration towards guarding the covenant with the Lord and 'putting away evil from their midst' emphasizes the striving of the nation towards a sanctified society from which individuals who defy fundamental moral values are rejected.

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The presentation will be on a book I wrote about the biblical Judith. In the first part I worked on the text, whereas in the second part I looked into the reception history. There can be found a lot of artists like poets and painters who hold a great fascination for this story. The fact is that the most interpretations of the drama of Judith and Holofernes were done on the scene where Judith is cutting off Holofernes' head. Especially in the pictures of the male painters Judith becomes a vamp, a mistress, who betrays her lover, an innocent virgin or the woman who is the greatest enemy for every man. In these pictures the story of the Judith heroine is not remembered, forgotten is the background of Judith's act to save her people with the help of God. Important for the male artists is the fact that a man is killed by a woman and this is the most terrifying fact that ever could happen to a (every) man! Every man should be warned by these pictures and enlightened about the danger which is hidden in every sexual relationship with a woman. In reaction to the artists, Sigmund Freud confirmed in his theories about the Sexuality of the Woman the deep hidden aggressive side in every woman against the man and warned the men not to trust women fully. Every man can become a victim like Holofernes. Finally every man is Holofernes. I discovered just two female painters who performed a real feminist interpretation: one was the Baroque female painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1653) and the other one is the contemporary female painter Minna Antova living in Vienna. These two women carried out an intepretation of Judith and Holofernes which is really opposite to the male reception.

Although the art of biblical narrative has been the topic of many studies, and although a substantial part of Biblical narratives consists of dialogues and direct speech, their specific function within the narrative texts has been widely neglected. Therefore it is the aim of my contribution to point out a new access to the literary analysis of dialogues and direct speech. I will start with an overview of the various ways biblical narrative texts make use of direct speech. Thereby I will focus on how direct speech is constructed and in which way it is embedded within the narration. If it is a dialogue, further emphasis lies on the interaction of the conversational partners. The accuracy of the observation then allows a categorisation of direct speech and dialog in biblical narrative texts. Furthermore, the different forms of direct speech and dialogues in biblical narrations are interpreted using the Bakhtinian concepts of dialogism, heteroglossia and polyphony (this will be shown in various examples). Thereby it becomes obvious that the use of direct speech leads to a significant modification of the texts. A differentiated observation and interpretation of direct speech and dialogues thus allows a deeper insight into the art of biblical narrative.

This presentation will provide an update on the ongoing work of the TheoWeb project, focusing on the process of acquiring content and creating the online database for its use. The research materials database will include some 18th century manuscripts held at Wesley College Bristol, and the teaching database will have various learning objects (both content objects and tool objects) for a module on the quest of the historical Jesus.

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The daily (or, more rarely, weekly) comic strip remains a staple in most newspapers. Although today’s university students are far more likely to view these strips on the internet rather than in print, they continue to constitute an important and highly visible element of popular culture. Over the years I have written and lectured extensively on the use of biblical themes, languages, images, events, and personalities--from both the Old and the New Testaments--in such strips. In this paper I propose to explore how they can be utilized to enrich the classroom, as a supplement to traditional textbooks and other printed materials. For the most part, cartoonists provide what we might call a literal, if lighthearted look at the Bible. On occasion, they furnish a larger interpretive framework by bringing in contemporary social or cultural references. Rarely, but to considerable controversy, a cartoonist takes a strong theological stand. In all of these cases, students can detect parallels with phenomena that have occurred frequently in the history of biblical interpretation, both in writing and graphically. At the same time, these cartoons, taken together, provide a useful gauge of today’s biblical literacy and sensitivities. For this presentation, I will make use of examples from the Old Testament and the New Testament, and I would hope to profit from lively discussion and feedback from other classroom teachers of the Bible and biblical studies.

CH Roberts argued in 1979 that the Jewish manuscripts of the LXX were written in distinctive styles of script that differentiated them from other ancient literary manuscripts. This paper looks at the palaeographical evidence of early Jewish manuscripts from Egypt and compares them with other literary manuscripts of Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. It offers a sketch of a typology of ancient Jewish LXX manuscripts and their relationship to ancient literary papyri.

An overview of the Freer Imaging Project, a collaboration of the Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Brigham Young University and the Society of Biblical Literature to produce new images of the Freer Manuscripts.

From medieval travelers' reports through the 19th and 20th century about the tribal life of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, there is evidence reported of a hospitality that includes sexual gratification on the part of the hospice. The frequency of the reported habit shows it to be a custom in its own right and not an isolated event. I propose to substantiate a thesis that sexual hospitality constitutes a cultural template. In the second place, I will try to apply it to the Hebrew Bible. In his book, Sex and Family in the Bible and the Middle East, Raphael Patai (1959) offers a survey of customs and traditions concerning family values and sexuality in the Ancient Middle East. He first brings to the fore the view that patriarchal hospitality was so highly regarded that it would override considerations of women's chastity. The guest's honor and protection were thus safeguarded to the extent of sacrificing the chastity of one's own virginal daughters. Gen 19 and Jud 19 are presented as case studies. Patai also proposes the hypothesis that other cultural templates may have been overlooked in considering the dichotomy of patriarchal hospitality vs. female chastity. The larger question raised by consideration of Patai is whether evidence of modern tribal life can be used as a model for ancient societies.

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Papias uses the technical term "chreia" in defense of Mark. This paper will suggest that (1) Papias argues for a rhetorical approach to Mark, and (2) Papias considers such an approach to be consistent with the form in which Mark received his message from Peter. The paper will provide an interpretation of Papias which accords with evidence found in the present Gospel. Care will be taken to distinguish rhetoric as a technique to persuade, and the specific idea of training rhetoric of the Classical tradition.

This paper engages the notion that from a social scientific point of view the temple attributed to Zerubbabel is a "biblical fact." I borrow this distinction made by Robert P. Carroll that our interest as biblical scholars has been trained on the text of scripture in order to extract its actuality when in fact all it may reveal is its textuality. Could it be that the Second Temple is a “textual fact”? I will treat of the evidence for a temple built by Zerubbabel by examining five aspects integral to the existence of the alleged temple. They are 1) the permission to build a temple, 2) the funding sources for its construction, 3) the materials available, 4) the architects and labor force, 5) the building itself.

Until recently, the rabbinic literature used to be the main, if not the only source for understanding Jewish demonology in Late Antiquity. This situation has radically changed in the last decades with the survey and publication of dozens of Jewish magic bowls and amulets from both Babylon and Palestine that threw new light on the whole subject. Having magical sources, i.e. products of actual Jewish anti-demonic magical activity, in hand, we can now tell what Jewish demonology – belief and praxis – actually was. The rabbinic literature became secondary source, and as such it should be reconsidered. A thorough analysis of the demonological traditions in the rabbinic literature reveals two main strata: instructions and narratives. As the first goes more or less hand in hand with the general view of demons and anti demonic behavior to be found in the magical stuff, the second challenges it. Demonological narratives largely widen the possibilities of patterns of relationships between humans and demons. Instead of the principally one magical deffensive-exsorcistic pattern, many others are found, in which a central role is given to the rabbis. The double essence of the rabbis as both men of law and holy men clearly reveals itself in what is found to be not so much demonic but rather didactic and self-promoting sages' deeds narratives, in which demons are only minor, secondary characters. The demons are controlled, pressed under the law, subdued to cooperate and even used by the rabbis in a way that gives the latters a ritual power hegemony of the kind they strove for within human society, in the demonic realm as well.

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Much thought has been given recently to Qumran biblical exegesis. This paper will compare various genres of Qumran writings with parallels in rabbinic literature, and will demonstrate the affinities and dissimilarities between them. Both groups attempted to resolve apparent inconsistencies, lacunae and similar irregularities in the biblical texts; both believed in the infallibility of God’s utterances; and both attempted to resolve this contradiction by revealing the divine intention using various exegetical methods. Using specific examples, I shall demonstrate that the system used by each group was quite similar, despite the fact that each group often reached halakhic conclusions that were not only quite different from each other but also contrary to the plain meaning of the biblical text. I thus argue that divergent halakhic conclusions need not be the result of different exegetical systems, but of the employment of diverse particular methods (common in rabbinic disputes) and different philosophy-theology. Neither the Mishnah nor Qumran writings reveal their exegetical methods. Without the amoraic discussions and Midreshei Halakhah we would be unable to reveal the biblical sources assumed to be the bases of mishnaic halakhot and the exegetical methods used to derive them. For the Qumran material there is no such assistance; we can thus only speculate on the textual problems behind their decisions. I shall then discuss the dissimilarities between rabbinic and qumranic exegesis system, the most significant being the principle of divine revelation as the source of qumranic interpretation. The paper challenges Fraade's contention that revelation logically eliminates exegesis. I explain this co-existence emphasizing the subtle psychological phenomenon of predisposition, attained through passionate faith, which enabled the Qumran scholars to believe they were communicating with the divine. In other words, they were “programmed,” to use modern jargon, for such an experience, and deemed their biblical interpretations to be divinely inspired.

The well known alphabet-ostracon form Kuntillet Adjrud does not only show the fact of early writing in Ancient Israel, it also displays a very good example of the art of (nearly) calligraphic writing. Recently, a similar ostracon has been found from the time of the Judean monarchy, showing even more aspects of a very meticulous way of writing in a "normal" and a "shorthand" form.

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Do early Jewish and Christian traditions of eschatological salvation include the possibility of an inferior or diminished state of ‘being saved’ for certain individuals? This appears to be the case in both 1 Corinthians 3.10 – 15 and 1 Enoch 50.1 – 4. While no formal awareness or dependence between these documents is argued for, the possibility that they represent either a common eschatological tradition or similar rhetorical strategy is explored in this paper. Each passage is evaluated in its own literary setting with a view to determining its author’s rhetorical objective. The results are compared in order to ascertain whether Paul employs an eschatological description of ‘being saved without honor’, which also appears in early Jewish literature and, if so, whether he does this on grounds uniquely his own.

This paper formulates a general hermeneutical approach towards biblical texts from the perspective of the canon. First, it is necessary to clarify the basic methodological framework: A reader-oriented and text-centered perspective are characteristic issues. Then the paper proposes to use the canon as a guide in intertextual biblical studies-following Martin Buber, the program is formulated as "interpreting biblical texts as texts of the Bible." The next important aspect focuses on the privileged status of the canon and acknowledges the creation and providing of identity as the most important function of the canon. Concluding considerations refer to the different materializations of the concept of "canon" in the Jewish and the Christian Bible(s) as well as to the relationship of Christian Bible and Jewish TaNaKh. Finally, an outlook sketches the methodological ensemble of "biblical interpretation" in the lines of intertextuality and the canonical perspective.

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While recent years have seen an increase in the study of the concept and social reality of the family and family life in the world of the New Testament, little attention has been paid to the more specific inquiry of the role of children in that setting. Indeed, references to children are rare both in the New Testament as a whole, and specifically relevant here, in the Canonical Acts of the Apostles. Yet a careful examination of the Apocryphal Acts shows that children are featured there more prominently, providing the researcher with information about the families of the apostles, allowing for the study of the role of gender in the early Christians' attitude towards children, showing children as recipients and participants in the new order of grace initiated by the coming of Christ, and depicting children in several other functions. Nevertheless, also the material in the Apocryphal Acts has not yet been examined with regard to the study of children. Based on a survey of references to children in both the Canonical and the Apocryphal Acts, this paper provides a classification and analysis both of motives connected with children and of references to events involving children in these texts in order to contribute to the establishment of the literary function of children in the New Testament and in related extra-canonical literature.

Whereas prophecy in the Biblical tradition refers to an extensive historical memory and projects well into the future, together with an analysis of the present, prophecy elsewhere in the Ancient Near East seems especially focused on the immediate situation, with limited historical reference. The somewhat related "apocalyptic" texts help to fill out a picture of the historical consciousness of the prophetic circles, as does the continuing influence, or "reuse," of prophetic announcements.

A year ago, I investigated the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 for its possible intertextuality with the story of Ruth. This year I will attempt an intertextuality study of genealogies with an eye, once again, on female characters. The curious reference to myths and genealogies in 1 Timothy will also be considered.

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The role of the Beloved Disciple in the narrative of the Gospel of John has received a great deal of attention throughout the history of Johannine scholarship. This paper will propose that the Beloved Disciple serves the literary function of showing special access to events in the narrative. The Beloved Disciple appears in places where the narrative would otherwise be disrupted when the reader is left uncertain of where the narrator is getting his information. This consistent pattern will be viewed against the practices of other ancient writers, particularly Josephus, as well as Greek and Roman historians. When this comparison is made, it will be seen that the author of the Gospel of John presents the Beloved Disciple in a way which suggests that the author is showing that it is the Beloved Disciple who had access to the events narrated.

A scribe had as primary task the faithful copying of the text before him. This does not mean, however, that he had no influence on the final format of the text. The 4th c. Codex Sinaiticus is a good example of a Greek bible in which the scribes exercised considerable freedom in the formatting of the text, without the noticeable presence of a strong scribal tradition. This paper will address the question to what extent the three scribes copied text divisions from their exemplar. Is Codex Sinaiticus witness to a transmitted scribal tradition of paragraphs and subparagraphs that may go centuries back or do we find text-divisions that are merely the result of the scribe's whim? By means of examples from both the Septuagint and the New Testament section of the codex the practice of the various scribes will be illustrated.

There is wide acceptance among scholars that Hebrews was written as an encouragement to believers who were in danger of denouncing their faith in times of persecution and suffering. In Hebrews these believers are encouraged by being reminded of the incomparable excellence of the object of our faith: Jesus Christ. Therefore Hebrews first of all contains an exposition of Jesus as the highest king, prophet and priest who is the perfect and complete fulfillment of God's covenantal promises of the Old Testament (Heb 1-10). From this basis the author of Hebrews then proceeds to exhort his readers to live by faith in Jesus, assuring them that by faith they will be able to endure and to persevere in times of suffering (Heb 10-13). It is striking, however, that in this last section of Hebrews a sub-theme emerges alongside the main exhortation of endurance and perseverance. It is the theme of joy (Hebrews 10:34; 12:2; 12:11; 13:17), which is linked to other supporting themes, eg. confidence, expectation, and reward (10:32-36), the endurance of Christ (12:2), discipline (12:11) and diakonia (13:17). In this paper the place and function of joy and its relation to other themes in these last chapters of Hebrews are investigated by means of a thought structure analysis and semantic analysis. From the results of these analyses the message of Hebrews is described as more than encouragement towards endurance and perseverance. It is also a message of joy.

The Greek sentence in Lk 1:37 of NA27 is translated by the vast majority of English versions of the Bible as follows: “Since (because or for) nothing will (shall) be impossible with God." The issue centers on the translation of the prepositional phrase para. tou/ qeou/, which means “from God." The above translation of most versions seems to rest on two elements: 1) the preposition para, with the genitive, which means “from", has the same meaning as with the dative, which means “with", or Greek variants containing the phrase para. tw Thew, which may mean “with God", are reliable; and 2) the translators' decision as to the meaning of rhema results in that translation. All of them understand the noun as “thing", and not “word"; they seem to suppose that the sentence “nothing from God will be impossible" does not make good sense. It is also noteworthy that some of English versions interpret the future tense of the verb to convey present time. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the prepositional phrase in Lk 1:37 of NA27, para tou Theou, is the original reading and the phrase should mean “from God." This study will also show that the meaning of the noun rhema is to be “word" rather than “thing" in this verse and the future tense refers to future events: the birth of Jesus. It will thus be shown that the sentence in Lk 1:37 should be translated as “No word from God will be impossible (disabled/ made void/ disempowered/ emptied of its power)."

In this paper I want to clarify if, and how Jesus' spirit possession and exorcistic activity could have been perceived in antiquity as magic involvement. I contend that an adequate understanding of magic is difficult to gain within the matrix of modern culture which feels threatened by the perceived 'irrationality' of magic and which defines magic as contradictory to a scientific perception, explanation and manipulation of reality. The ethnological discourse on the understanding of contemporary foreign cultures-drawing on the work of E. Sapir, A. Dundes, and R. Horton-can provide insights into the meaning and function of magic in antiquity in general and in Early Christianity including the perception of Jesus in particular.

Instead of assuming that the Pastoral Epistles are written against opponents and then try to identify them, I argue that the letters’ rhetoric works to create opponents out of ‘those who are different’ through ‘othering’ them in various ways. The widows referred to in 1 Timothy 5 were in one way or the other different; perhaps they taught an alternative doctrine or challenged the traditional oikos-codes. The author is constructing them as ‘others’ in order to limit their influence and put them in their place. To get a better understanding of what is going on in the description of the young widows, I will suggest that he deploys a topos from his contemporary cultural encyclopedia connecting women to gossip in a twofold way: 1) There is a strong tendency in ancient literature to draw caricatures of women’s speech; whatever came out of her mouth was most likely nonsense, vain babbling or gossip. 2) A woman was also supposed to be responsible for behaving in a way that did not generate gossip about her. If she got a bad reputation that could be damaging for her relatives, kinship group and even the whole village where she came from. Both these concerns are reflected in 1 Timothy 5, which constructs a worst case scenario conveying what might happen if the young women enroll in the widows’ order: they will walk around among the houses, being gossips and busybodies, saying things they should not. They are told to marry, bear children and manage their households, and not put their reputations at risk.

The shared cocktail of sometimes bizarre traits exhibited by the Greek Novels and the Apocryphal Acts has long been noted. Most recently Cooper (Virgin and the Bride, 1996: 45-6) has seen the use of novelistic motifs by the Apocryphal Acts as a deliberate attempt to invert ." . . the ideology of eros and the city's regeneration . . . seen in the ancient novel." It is the author's contention that the two sets of texts might actually be ideologically closer than previously believed. Both deploy the rhetoric of gender to signal their distance from certain societal norms. Instead of polarizing them into social and asocial standpoints, as Cooper has done, it is perhaps more fruitful to envisage them as existing at different points on a continuum of subversion. Gender can thus be shown to play a vital role in the construction of identity for smaller social groupings within the larger Empire. This strategy will demonstrate the fallacy of establishing a deep divide between Christian and so-called "pagan" social assumptions. Christianity did not exist in a vacuum. By identifying commonalties and subtle differences between Christian and non-Christian narratives one can perhaps start to recapture a sense of the richness and complexity of cultural discourse in the first few centuries CE.

Egypt is recognized as a major source of magic in rabbinic midrash of late antiquity. The texts refer to the magic prevalent in Alexandria and they mention magic bundles, tablets, and dogs. The presence of the Osiris myth in midrashic texts has been recognized since the 19th century. However, so far the reference to the Egyptian Osiris myth has been utilized in a diffuse manner and some elements of the myth have been neglected altogether. In midrash, remnants of the myth are applied to the recovery of Joseph's body, bones and his coffin, which are supposed to travel with the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. Within the different cycles of the myth, we find "magic dogs." This brings to mind the god Anubis who watched over the embalming of the deceased; in midrash, embalmers are routinely called "magicians." It is Moses who is confronted with the task of finding the coffin of Joseph, who is buried in a royal tomb or in the Nile. The magical devices employed by Moses to raise Joseph's coffin are different in the text-witnesses; MS Oxford 151 (Neubauer) mentions a "bundle" (Mekhilta, Lauterbach ed., p. 176)," which could refer to a magic bundle (as suspected by Heinemann, Agadot ve-toldotehen); other texts have tablets that Moses inscribed with the Tetragrammaton. This paper will attempt to explore references to Egyptian magic in midrash in their proper Egyptian context.

Exegetes do not agree about the question to what extent the divine speeches answer Job’s charge with respect to the content. Does God examine the accusations and questions of Job in his answer or does he ignore them? This paper explores to what extent and how God goes into the speeches of Job. I will argue that God answers Job’s charge by depicting a ‘counter-image’. Some special attention will be paid to the position of the wicked in God’s reply. Their light is withheld (38,15) and it belongs to the divine task to tread them down (40,12). Do therefore also the divine speeches suppose a retributive thinking?

Psalms of Solomon 11 has often been examined with focus on its contribution to the understanding of redemptive ingathering in the Second Temple period. Ryle and James expertly showed that Psalms of Solomon utilized Old Testament sources for a systematic presentation of the redemptive ingathering concept. I would like to build on their research and to take it a step further. It is my thesis that Psalms of Solomon 11 functioned as an apology for God and his righteousness. The author of Psalms of Solomon used Old Testament passages, such as Joel 2 and Isaiah 35, strategically to prop up an ingathering concept and Jerusalem tradition that intentionally and purposefully exonerate God from any guilt associated with the collective memory of destruction (PsSol 2). God delivered Israel out of his pity and mercy (PsSol 11:2, 9) even though Israel as covenant breakers rightly deserved the judgment of the Day of the Lord. God used his miraculous works of deliverance (PsSol 11:5-7) so that Israel might have another chance to offer proper worship (PsSol 11:8) for the sake of divine glory.

The custom of dispatching an individual's hair and fringe (of a garment) is attested in thirteen Mari letters connected with prophecy and oneiromancy. Not without merit, most would agree that these items were used in later extispicy sessions conducted on behalf of king Zimri-Lim to either confirm the divinatory message or determine whether action should be taken regarding it. Nevertheless, information garnered from other Akkadian texts in which hair and/or fringe are featured, show that these are intensely personal objects. We also learn that the initial act of cutting off something is in itself a ritual fraught with meaning. It confirms the irrevocable character of what has been given. ARM 26 153 is also informative. Here we find that items destined for dispatch, such as a clump of soil, could be divided into portions. This implies that the quantity of the items was large enough so as to allow for multiple uses. Even though it is true that the hair and fringe could be utilized in several extispicy sessions, this need not be their exclusive use. Additional Akkadian texts show that hair and fringe were frequently employed in incantation/malediction rituals performed by professional cursers. Whatever the final assessment may be, the cutting off and subsequent relinquishing of hair and fringe exposed these prophets and oneiromancers to a variety of potential dangers that the king was free to exploit for his benefit if ever the need should arise. This in turn suggests that at Mari these professions enjoyed a unique set of occupational hazards which left their practitioners vulnerable to risks far greater than what may have been previously imagined.

This paper offers a new approach to two of the most prominent persons of Early Christianity who have so far been viewed in terms of conflict or exclusion, especially in feminist criticism. By drawing on the concept of virtual history and applying post-modern theory and autobiographical biblical criticism, encounters between Paul and Mary Magdalene are envisioned that open up new vistas at the interface between Pauline Literature and the Gospels and prepare the way toward a post-feminist hermeneutics.

Most of the translations of 2 Kgs 17:1 mention that "in the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea started to rule." However, Hoshea took the throne from Pekah and started to rule "in the twelfth year of Jotham the king of Judah" according to 2 Kgs 15:30. Since Ahaz became the king of Judah in the 17th year of Pekah (16:1-2), and Pekah ruled 20 years (15:27), Hoshea must have become the king of Israel in the fourth year of Ahaz. However, the seeming discrepancy of eight years can be solved only by another translation. Hoshea started to reign in the fourth year of Ahaz. "The twelfth year of Ahaz" corresponds to the last year of Hoshea, namely the 9th year of Hoshea. The eight-year reign (12-4) ended in the 9th year of Hoshea. "Hoshea ruled 9 years" in the inclusive reckoning. The following translation may be suggested. "In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah had been king in Samaria over Israel nine years." Since the author already mentioned the beginning of the reign of Hoshea in 2 Kgs 15:30, the author wanted to write the last year of Hoshea in 2 Kgs 17:1 "In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah had been king in Samaria over Israel nine years," and to supply the events leading to this last year of Hoshea in 17:2-5. Therefore, if all these events are translated into pluperfect, there is no need to consider 2 Kgs 17:1 as a mistake, and there is no more discrepancy between 15:30 and 17:1.

One of the first goals of the Pericope-group has been to build a database from which Bible scholars would be able to draw data with regard to unit delimitation in biblical texts they are working on. There is an urgent need for this kind of data because on the one hand different colometrical division and paragraphing are a major cause of dissent among exegetes, whereas on the other hand textual data with regard to unit delimitation in ancient manuscripts has been neglected in almost all scholarly editions of the Bible. Unfortunately several attempts to find funding for the database have failed, as was reported at previous meetings of the Pericope group. A new proposal for the implementation of an affordable, yet powerful database on unit delimitation in ancient manuscripts of the Bible has been put up for discussion by me on the Pericope web site and will shortly be further discussed during the business meeting. From a methodical point of departure it is important to know what exactly should be incorporated in the database. Drawing from previous publications by myself and others I shall try to illustrate the importance of text demarcation for exegesis. Differences of opinion with regard to the evaluation of various traditions will be discussed. I intend to defend the position that no data should be excluded out of hand. Proposals for the database which were put forward during previous meetings will be integrated in this paper (e.g. the importance of the pausa-forms, as has been stressed by Revell and Sanders). This introduction to the database proposal will be accompanied by screenshots of the preliminary database and by printed examples of some of its records.

Genesis 2:4-4:26 is usually seen as a narrative about the bliss and commission that the first human couple received in Jahweh's garden, their failure to live up to responsibilities and the dire consequences of their rebellion against Jahweh. As such it is text of disappointment, animosity and conflict. This paper explores the text as a narrative of joyful discoveries and expectations, inviting the reader further into the book of Genesis. As a continuous narrative, set between material usually assigned to a priestly origin, the text displays a unity. At the same time it can be divided into three subtexts (Genesis 2, 3 and 4), each displaying characteristics of a climactic narrative. In each of these narratives joy is expressed in a distinctive way. Expressions of joy are used in significant positions and with special functions within each of the narratives and within the larger text of Genesis 2:4-4:26. Joy persists even when paradise is lost, It sets the tone for worship.

Die Tradition zaubernder Frauen reicht weit in den griechischen Mythos zurück. Das Paper untersucht den tiefgreifenden Wandel, dem das Bild der „Zauberinnen’ unterliegt. Zu diesem Zweck wird die Rezeption des Mythos von Kirke und Medeia neben die dokumentarischen und literarischen Quellen gestellt, die weibliche Zauberei belegen. Während die literarischen Quellen ein geschlossenes Bild weiblichen Zaubers ergeben, sind die dokumentarischen Quellen der Zaubertafeln wesentlich unspezifischer und zeigen, daß Frauen und Männer gleichermaßen zaubern. Abgesehen von der spezifisch weiblichen Domäne Schwangerschaft und Geburt gibt es kein spezifisch weibliches Zauberobjekt. Obwohl Frauen und Männer - etwa beim Liebeszauber - unterschiedliche Ziele verfolgen, ist es schwierig von einer spezifisch weiblichen Zauberpraxis zu sprechen. Vielmehr sind verschiedene antike Diskurse über Frauen und Zauberei mit unterschiedlichen Paradigmen auszumachen. Auffällig ist die Ambivalenz bei der Bewertung weiblichen Zaubers. Auf der einen Seite steht die im Zaubervorwurf enthaltene potentielle Bedrohung von Oikos/domus und Polisordnung durch das Weibliche, das in gewisser Weise suspekt bleibt. In diesem Kontext wird die allgemeine Angst vor Bann und Fluch zur Konstruktion der Geschlechterrollen instrumentalisiert. Auf der anderen Seite steht die mit der Zauberei eng verbundene von Frauen praktizierte Heilkunde zum Nutzen des Haushalts. Erst allmählich wird die Heilkunde gleichsam entweiblicht und als schädliche Zauberei gebranntmarkt bzw. der weibliche Beitrag in diesem Bereich marginalisiert.

The Gospel of Philip is one of the most important works of Nag Hammadi Library. It probably originates in Syria, and it is a collection of various teachings usually considered to be Valentinian Christian by nature. The material collected in the Gospel of Philip is highly polemical towards Jews and Gentiles alike. "The Hebrews" are considered to be orphans and clearly spiritually inferior to true Christians. The Jewish religious symbols, like temple and circumcision, are, however, given also positive meanings, although they are interpreted in a quite radical fashion. Gentiles are also polemized: they are said "never to have lived", and naturally they are inferior to Christians as well. The practice of animal sacrifice is criticized, and gods accepting animal sacrifices are identified as evil "powers", trying to deceive men. In my paper I'm going to study these polemical passages in the Gospel of Philip and examine, how the Christian identity is defined in the means of contrasting Christians with Jews and Gentiles. I'm going to argue that the group behind the gospel is a group of Syrian Valentinians with firmly Jewish roots.

Research on the book of Isaiah is highly contested, and has undergone a paradigm shift in the last twenty years. In particular, the diachronic study of the composition of the text has been supplemented by that of its compilation by a scribal elite in the Persian or Hellenistic periods, and by literary approaches. My work, as part of a larger project on Isaiah, is situated in the latter context; I am interested in how the book functions as poetry, and how poetry responds to catastrophe. This entails very close reading of selected passages. In this paper I intend to look at two dramatically contrasted eschatological visions, programmatically introduced in ch. 2, with which the book may have once begun. The first (2.2-4) heralds an era of peace and justice under the universal aegis of Torah; the second (2.6-22) predicts the terrifying advent of the day of the Lord, and the reduction to impotence of the symbols of human pride. The two visions are structural opposites: I will examine the rhetorical techniques through which they are interconnected and confront each other; the presence or absence of gender; and their relationship to the fundamental problematics of the book.

Conceptual analysis is called such because it includes a methodological focus on the conceptual aspects of texts in exegesis. In brief, this approach views the nature of texts as conceptualized linguistic-semantic entities; it pays attention to the information gained from both the surface of a text and the subsurface textual level; it attempts to reconstruct the infratextual conceptual system operative in the text; and it utilizes a set of terms-concept, composition, and structure-in a distinct way from other critical methods. Questions emerge: what influences the methodological development in the contemporary period has for the arrival of this approach; how it is related to other text-centered methods, especially in their employment of technical terms; and how exegetes go about identifying and determining a text's concepts and thus reconstructing a coherent relationship among them. In addition to addressing these questions, the paper will demonstrate how conceptual analysis works in an actual exegesis on Numbers 28:1-30:1 (English 28:1-29:40). In so doing, the paper intends to show how exegesis of a text and conceptualization as a method complement and even enhance each other.

The 1908 oratorio Ruth by German composer Georg Schumann (1866-1952) is a powerful example of a biblical story's transformation into a different medium. Schumann's retelling will challenge many of our traditional assumptions, both conscious and unconscious, about the book of Ruth. Music is midrash: it retells the story in a different language. Music has the power to read between the lines and fill in the gaps, and to create an inner world of the heart and mind. While the librettos fill in various gaps from the original story, the music continually, wordlessly and through various techniques, fills in the gaps of people's feelings. Schumann's libretto, which he wrote, is a mix of extended biblical passages-Ruth together with, notably, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs-with "biblicized" verses blended in. Naomi's role is greatly expanded, and she has several long solos. For dramatic purposes, Schumann makes Naomi a towering, tragic figure. He makes Ruth a woman of great passion, as heard in moments of Isolde-type music (as in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde). This oratorio has an unusual history. It was popular in Germany until 1936. The Nazis refused to allow a performance in 1942. Schumann saved the music by altering the libretto (the new setting is China) and re-naming the work Lied der Treue, and the altered work was performed three times. The original Ruth was subsequently reconstructed and performed for the last time until now in 1946, with Schumann conducting on his 80th birthday. The work was recently revived and performed in Berlin, in November of 2003, a performance I attended. This paper will include musical excerpts and a PowerPoint presentation of archival material related to Schumann's music and life.

Jude 12 blames false teachers who are “blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear feeding themselves”. Since the teachers participated in common meals, they seem to work as full members of the church. The danger which they caused was likely focused on their presence at the meals since during the gatherings teaching and prophecy took place. Besides, the words “feast with you without fear feeding themselves” indicates problems concerning their behavior at the meal-table. It is often interpreted that the teachers behaved selfishly like the persons in 1 Cor 11:20-22 who did not attend the needs of their poorer brothers and sisters. Yet the shocking character of the opponents’ teaching is so strongly emphasized in Jude 11 that just the gluttonous behavior was unlikely the central problem. The teachers are compared with Korah’s sons who rebelled Moses which indicates that their teaching is against the Mosaic law. Therefore, I contend that the central problem could be in connection with the Jewish food laws. I assume that the teachers opposed in Jude are Christians who do not follow food rules which the Jewish Christian author of Jude regards necessary. This type of Christians can be found e.g. in Colossians. In Col 2:16-22 the rules concerning food and drink are called as regulations which ‘refer to things that perish with use’ and ‘human commands and teachings’. So the author takes an uncompromising stand against all such regulations. Jude and Colossians have also diverging attitudes towards angel veneration. While Jude condemns the persons who “slander the glorious ones”, the angels (8), Colossians oppose those who insist in the worship of angels (2:18). The purpose of this paper is to show that the persons opposed in Jude could be itinerant teachers from the community among which Colossians was written.

The Deuteronomistic History presents Jeroboam b. Nebat as an apostate of prototypically Ephraimite stock who is almost single-handedly responsible for the schism between Israel and Judah and the eventual fall of the north to Assyria. Much of this arises, however, from dramatic reworking of the early literary sources concerning Jeroboam's historical activity. An analysis of these sources-focusing upon a separation of the Deuteronomistic and early compositional layers in 1 Kgs 11-12 -- suggests that Jeroboam was selected by Ahijah not to lead a northern secession from the United Monarchy but to replace the Solomonic circles in Jerusalem and retain the integrity of the kingdom. This paper will explore the possibility that Ahijah's selection of Jeroboam was based on the latter's own association with the city of Ephratah (MT 1 Kgs 11:26), the hometown of David, and his affiliation with the influential Perezites, David's patrilineal clan. It was only after a broader public rejection of Solomonic circles at the Shechemite assembly (1 Kgs 12:1-24) that Jeroboam strengthened his ties to northern communities and traditions, alienating the Shilonites who had once supported him. The resulting castigation of Jeroboam among the Shilonites provided the basis for the Deuteronomistic rhetoric that transformed him into the archetype of northern treason against the house of David.

An example of the use of biblical motifs as similia similibus in a magic bowl, in particular the motif of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah in the midst of the fiery furnace (Daniel). The text will be presented with a translation and annotation.

Ever since the nineteenth century the concept of 'magic' has been used to describe a manipulation of the transcendent world by a sorcerer. The border with 'religion' appears a fluid one. The Magical Papyri do not only give an impression of the use of magic, but also offer us important information on the interaction between Judaism and its pagan surroundings. The present paper studies this interaction on the basis of the Eighth Book of Moses (P. Leid. J 395 = PGM XIII). Its text has been published by Albrecht Dieterich (1891), and Karl Preisendanz (1931), and is offered in an English translation by Hans Dieter Betz (1986). Morton Smith presented an analysis of the composition (1984 & amp.; 1986). This paper aims at an evaluation of its importance for our knowledge of Hellenistic Judaism, and argues that this particular text is important for our understanding of the interaction of Jewish religion and pagan cults.

Early Christian thought can aptly be described as an ongoing discourse on power and weakness. The paper tries to describe the contribution of Hebrews to this discourse. It makes use of new insights into discourse analysis.

Most studies of Hebrew pre-Exilic seals have concentrated almost exclusively on deciphering and interpreting inscribed seals. The treatment of the iconography on the stamp seals was confined to a mere description. Iconic Hebrew pre-exilic seals are especially intriguing as they reflect independent artistic minds and also illustrate the influence of foreign figurative designs. This paper attempts to analyze a few stamp seals found in the Moussaieff collection. Both the iconic aspects of the seals as well as their epigraphic features will be discussed. The combination of image and text provides insights into the role of the seal stamps for their original owner. Furthermore, it opens new vistas to understanding pre-Exilic Hebrews and their choice of ornaments and symbols.

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This workshop will explore a selection of factors that interrupt the learning process: self-doubt, inertia, lack of imagination, lack of confidence/trust, physical or emotional discomfort, and a sense of exclusion from the group. Insights from multiple intelligence theory, the use of multi-sensory input and changes of roles will be involved in the seeking for "answers."

Ovadia Sforno's (c. 1470 – c. 1550) commentary on the Torah is a sequel to Medieval commentary, yet at the same time, marks a new beginning. That Sforno is following in the footsteps of Medieval commentators who preceeded him is clear from the fact that he largely bases himself on Biblical verses and on existing commentary tradition, although he does not usually mention the name of his predecessors. The fact that he marks a new beginning in his commentary can be seen through his ideas, which are influenced by those of the Renaissance, thus Sforno emphasizes the love for man in general, and not only for fellow Jews. Sforno, who was born in Cesena, Italy, differs in his perspective from Medieval Bible commentators, especially from Ibn Ezra and Ramban. The image of man that he presents, and his overall approach to mankind, is typical of the 16th century, when the superiority of mankind was celebrated, and so, for Sforno "all humanity is considered as a treasure to You" (ie. to God) (Deu. 33:3). Yet, Sforno emphasizes throughout his commentary in general, and in his introduction to Psalms in particular, the dependency of man upon God. This paper examines how Sforno related to Pentateuchal poetry: did he recognize in it special characteristics such as rhythm and rhyme or unique metaphorical usages? Sforno, like many other commentators who wrote on the poetic passages in the Bible, did not differentiate systematically between Pentateuchal prose and poetry, nor did he treat them in substantially different ways; ie. Sforno, like many other Medieval Bible commentators, did not recognize the uniqueness of Biblical poetry, and did not define it as a genre in its own right.

Drawing on psychoanalytic criticism and studies in ancient Greco-Roman ideas of masculinity and femininity, this paper focuses on the filial, manly, feminine and motherly aspects of Jesus’ portrayal in the New Testament Gospels.

Using textanalytical oriented intertextual theory this lecture intends to formulate a new understanding of early Christian pseudepigraphy which does justice to both: the claim of the pseudepigrapha to be orthonym writings and the fact of their later origin. Several examples drawn from the Pastoral epistles will serve to demonstrate the effective working of literary strategies exclusively characteristic to works that falsely trade under the name of a well known author combining concealed intertextuality (as e.g. the concealed onomastic reference to Paul as author) and intended intertextuality in various forms of fictional self-references. This specific intertextual structure of Pauline pseudepigraphy demands a reading in close connection with the orthonym epistles and leads in numerous cases to a modification of the possible meaning of the alluded Pauline originals. In some cases the emerging (fictional) self-modification of Paul is to my opinion clearly intentional. It can thus be used as a hint to competing interpretations of the Pauline letters in the post-Pauline decades and must lead to a critical hermeneutic of pseudepigraphy that is aware of the process of restricting the understanding of the original Pauline texts with the means of fictional self-references.

This paper deals with the question of the function of pseudepigraphy. I want to examine why authors when writing an apocalypse decided to pass it on not under their own but under the identity of a prominent figure of the past. Normally, we answer this question with reference to the ancient tradition that in case of a certain discipleship an author would have chosen a figure to which he has a special relationship. Yet, I would like to ask if there are any other explanations of this phenomenon: Possibly, an author did not only want to strengthen the authority of his work but also had an interest regarding the content and interpretation of his scripture. By analysing e.g. II Baruch and IV Esra I will demonstrate that the choice of a certain pseudonym has a direct influence on the understanding of the whole work.

This paper combines a rhetorical-critical reading of Paul's letter to the Galatians with insights from social cognition theory. It claims that the core issue of the letter is not that Gentile Christ-believers wanted to be circumcised because they feared God's judgment of the unrighteous. Instead they sought to avoid negative societal exposure, marginalisation and suffering by way of becoming members of the local Jewish communities. Having demonstrated through rhetorical-critical text analysis a disparity between Paul's and the addressees' idea about "the truth of the good news" for this particular situation, causal schemata and role-adoption theories are used to explain the dynamics of the disparity. It is argued that the two basic outlooks on the Christian life that run into each other are not, as often argued, the inclusive view of Paul and the exclusive view of the "judaizers." Rather, it is Paul's claim that one should adopt the role of the crucified Christ together with his highly competitive and success oriented view of the Christian life that collides with the "normal" Christian life of the Galatian Christ-believers. The disagreement between Paul and the Gentile Christ-believers in Galatia was not on whether or not the crucified Christ was sufficient for salvation but rather whether or not the crucified Christ demanded an imitatio Christi crucifixi from his followers.

Das Verhältnis der Rechtfertigungsbotschaft des Paulus zur Thora ist ein Thema, das die paulinische Exegese schon seit alters begleitet. Die Bedeutung der Thora für die Praxis der von Paulus gegründeten und unterstützten Gemeinden hingegen bedarf einer neuen Reflexion. Hier setzt mein Beitrag an. Denn je deutlicher aus kultur- und religionswissenschaftlicher Perspektive wird, dass die paulinischen Gemeinden an sich eine eigene Gemeinschaftsethik leben, desto schärfer müssen die einzelnen konkreten Gemeinden mit ihren Bedürfnissen, Fragestellungen und ihren kulturellen Bedingungen, unter denen sie ekklesiae theou sind, in den Blick genommen werden. Mein Beitrag geht als Testfall von der Gemeinde in Thessalonich aus. Hier sind konkrete Gemeindebelange sowie die Begründung der Gesamt- und Einzelethik so mit dem Nomos-Gedanken verbunden, dass die Gemeinschaftsethik der thessalonischen Gemeinde geradezu als christliche Weise einer ‘halachischen’ Lebensweise beschrieben werden kann.

Although Japan never became a Christian nation, impact of the Text can be seen in unforeseeable and unpredictable ways. The late-nineteenth century Japan was profoundly shaken by the arrival of modern western scientific knowledge and technology shortly after the opening of the ports in 1854. Following a coup d’etat by the lower rank warriors, sovereignty was returned from the warrior-style Tokugawa Shogunate to the aristocratic Meiji Emperor. The entire nation had to grapple with modernization and the challenge of shifting from a feudal agrarian society to a modern industrial and technical one. Japanese society was faced with the challenge of drastic social, political, commercial, legal, and educational change. It ran the risk of being colonized if a modern nation was not speedily established and there was an impact of the Text in this critical era of Japanese history. In order to catch up with western civilization, literary reform and simplification were considered to be prerequisites. The question of literary style was paramount. The Japanese Bible emerged as the prime example of this literary reform and simplification. It was highly regarded as the greatest achievement of Japanese translation in the modern period, and a work which directly led into the Golden Age of translation, that was to last for the next twenty years. The lasting and profound impact of this translation of the Bible into Japanese can be seen in two distinct ways: Firstly, it can be seen through the impact it had on a variety of influential figures in modern Japanese history. Secondly, it can be seen in the influence it had on the development of the modern Japanese language.

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss why animal metaphors for God are neglected by scholars interested in Old Testament theology. The anthropomorphic picture of God dominates to a degree that one may get the impression that while metaphors for God as a person are theologically relevant, animal metaphors are only used as a figure of speech. But are there any good reasons for claiming that the Old Testament uses different kinds of metaphorical language when God is described as a shepherd and when God is described as a lion?

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In dialogue with the results of the project: "Reading the Bible in the Global Village" (Helsinki 1999; Cape Town 2000) the opening lecture asks for the specific role of the Bible in the Academy. What kind of knowledge should be generated to call exegesis a scientific approach? In the Netherlands there is a long tradition that the academy has to deal with philology and history, leaving the theological problems to he denominational institutions. This seems a sound approach, but consequently the mechanisms with which biblical texts were adapted to modern times and with which groups of readers were in- or excluded kept out of sight. The important paper of M. H. Goshen-Gottstein at the Edinburgh IOSOT-Congress (1974) demonstrated already thirty years ago that the boundaries between pure textual studies and adaptation of the texts for identification fade away. With the help of a case study, the famous text of Joshua 10, 12-14 "Sun, stand still at Gibeon and Moon in the Valley of Aijalon" and its role in the Copernican System controversy some suggestions are made how biblical studies could look like in the 21st century.

This paper deals with the reception of biblical narrative in magic in an African context today.

Rev 12 contains several elements of Greco-Roman as well as Jewish-Apocalyptic legends of the endangered birth of important persons. This paper will draw special attention to the imagery of the woman clothed with the sun against the background of the Roman Imperial cult. Thus, this investigation contributes to our knowledge of the historical and theological point of the first Christian apocalypse.

With the integration of Israel and Judah into the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires, there arose a new factor in the development of the Yahwist religion: Ishtar, the principal Goddess of the victorious enemy. But Ishtar, in those times a violent and bloody Goddess of sex and war, shows a different profile in her ancient figure as Innana: Her divine career began as a Goddess of good, abundant life, as a Goddess incarnated in the sweet and nutrious power of the date palms. In this aspect, she comes close to the main Canaanite-Hebrew Goddess, Asherah, a tree-goddess with essentially life-giving power. This paper attempts to point out possible reasons for Asherah’s loss of power within the Yahwist religion, at a time when Yahweh was defeated by her terrible “sister”, the Assyrian-Babylonian Ishtar.

2 Esdras is a composite work that contains two documents. Chapters 3 to 14 comprise the Jewish apocalypse 4 Ezra. Chapters 1-2 and 15-16 are later Christian interpolations, dating from the third century. Of particular interest in both the Christian and Jewish documents is the use of female imagery, namely the idea of a maternal figure entrusted with the raising of her children, the believing community. This maternal figure is identified as Mother Zion (10:44), but in the Christian interpolations could easily be understood as Mother Church, a figure who plays a crucial role in early Christian documents such as 2 Clement and Visions 1-4 of the Shepherd of Hermas. Drawing on social scientific methods that inform the construction and maintenance of a symbolic universe, this paper will address the use of maternal imagery to personify corporate identity in 2 Esdras.

No other pair of emotions is as strongly contrastive as that of hatred and love. Hatred is an evil source of negative feelings and destructive actions. Jewish-Christian tradition has always preached love as the proper attitude and mindset of the faithful, and rejects hatred to the utmost (Lev 19:18; Matt 5:44; Rom 12:19). Hence the prickly problems of the average bible-reader when he comes across some textual passages in the Old Testament where the believer is summoned to hate (Amos 5:15), or where hate is considered to be a consequence of true wisdom (Prov. 8:13). Most shocking, however, is a text like Psalm 139:22, where the poet makes mention of his perfect hatred towards his adversaries. Here we are supposed to understand hatred as an element of piety (M.A. Beek). However, especially since 'nine eleven,' more than ever we firmly distrust the phenomenon of religious hate. The more intriguing is the question how to understand and value the utterance of hatred in this psalm. Do we sense here something like 'the temper or the Maccabean wars' (C.A. Briggs)? Or do the final words of the psalm ('see if there is any offensive way in me,' vss. 23-24) entail a necessary theological correction of the preceding verses? My contribution will concentrate on the exegesis of Psalm 139:22 in highlighting the semantic and theological contents of this pronunciation, and its place and function in the psalm's context.

Among the new approaches to biblical theology is postcolonialism. Prophetic and critical wisdom literatures in ancient Israel and early Judah offers a paradigm for understanding the justice of God in biblical theology. The assault on priestly and royal institutions by prophets and the negation of foundational sapiential teachings of the traditional, conservative sages provide the basis for a new moral paradigm given expression by postcolonial hermeneutics. In postcolonial theology, there is a significant movement towards the establishment of social justice for the poor and marginalized in native cultures that have gained liberation from oppressive colonial systems but still suffer under the economic yoke imposed by first world empires in Europe, America, and Japan. Postcolonial hermeneutics has the potential of dismantling first world imperialism, but only if the Western church and the academy are willing to provide the settings in which its cry for life may be heard.

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This paper examines the two sections of Ezra-Nehemiah which narrate the reading of the law of Moses in Ezra and Nehemiah, the so-called ‘Ezra Story.’ Historical interpretation of Ezra-Nehemiah requires the identity of Ezra in both sections, which requires that Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8-9 were once one story that became ‘separated.’ This is unnecessary, if the problematic assumption of the need to establish the historical identity of the character Ezra is removed. Instead, a literary approach is open to the possibility that Ezra is a character, that is, a literary device. Ezra, which in Aramaic means ‘helper,’ in both Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8-9 is the “helper” of the Law of Moses (note Ezra is descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, in Ezra 7.5). Both stories offer the reader an interpretation of history in which it is the law of Moses that defines Israel, not the ruler of Jerusalem. This paper will show that this hermeneutical basis allows for an interpretation of both Ezra stories that keeps closest with the overall narrative of Ezra-Nehemiah.

Ann Graham Brock has convincingly demonstrated that the authors of early Christian canonical as well as apocryphal texts used the character of Peter as caution for their claims of orthodoxy and legitimacy. In this connection, the replacement of Mary Magdalene by Peter as Philip's colleague in the Coptic version of the Acts of Philip is very eloquent. Building on Brock's insightful suggestion, I would like to analyze the authoritative role that the Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic collections of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles ascribe to Peter. In such schematic descriptions of the missionary activities and subsequent martyrdom of the apostles and evangelists, Peter is described as the leader of the twelve and the companion of each apostle during the first steps of his mission. This systematic enhancement of Peter's figure corresponds to a deliberate strategy of legitimization presumably pursued by the late antique Egyptian Church, an Eastern Christendom that emerged from the blood of the martyrs and inherited of Peter's apostolic prestige through the agency of Mark the evangelist. The same appreciation of Peter is found in other Monophysite rewritings of earlier apocryphal texts, and such a "puzzling" feature provoked some confusion at the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in Egypt and Ethiopia.

In Genesis 37, Jacob’s sons once again enter the spotlight after their massacre of the Shechemites (Genesis 34). As the tale develops, it becomes clear that the relations among the brothers are far from harmonious. Therefore, after Joseph has told them his dreams, the brothers depart and go to shepherd their father’s flock at Shechem. During their absence, Jacob summons Joseph to go and look how his brothers and the flock, are faring. On his arrival in Shechem, Joseph sees that his brothers have left. When wandering aimlessly in the vicinity of Shechem, he is being found by ‘a man’ (Genesis 37:15). This unidentified stranger tells him that his brothers have left for Dothan. In the paper presented I will discuss the identity of this ‘man’ as he may have been perceived by Joseph. In order to do so, I will refer to and draw arguments from several texts dealing with the story of Jacob and his sons (Genesis 25-50).

This lecture will present a selection of passages expressing a new understanding of the prophecies of the book of Zechariah compared with the MT, the fragments from Qumran, and other versions. Although the translation of the Hebrew text seems to be very literally some passages reveal an actualised or generalized understanding. E.g., the dualistic message of some passages is changed into a universalistic one.

Most of the ca. 1400 Aramaic Idumean ostraca are payment chits. The largest grouping among these are some eighty pieces for the sons/house of Baalrim. They are source material for onomastic, economic, and chronological investigation and invite comparison with comparable social groupings in Israel/Judah.

This paper explores a dimension that is difficult to reconstruct and hence has not figured as prominently in recent discussion as have some others. The various units delimited in manuscripts is examined to try to determine how this influenced the way in which manuscripts were read, and as a consequence how various pericopes were interpreted. A range of manuscripts from the early centuries of Christianity is examined, especially the major Greek codexes.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness that unit delimiters in ancient texts can be an invaluable aid in determining the structure and understanding of those texts. It is equally true that researchers working in the field sometimes find it very difficult to interpret the exact implications of those delimiters. A case in point is the presence (or absence!) of petuh_ot/setumot in manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient manuscripts dependant on or related to the Hebrew Bible. In some texts (cf. for instance Num. 6:22-27) petuh_ot/setumot occur with startling regularity. In other texts (cf. for instance the Book of Ruth) they are practically absent. Moreover, unit delimiters may occur regularly in one witness of a specific tradition, but infrequently in another witness. The Book of Habakkuk is an excellent example of this sporadic appearance of unit delimiters in various traditions. In the Masoretic tradition for instance the first setumah appears only between 1:17 and 2:1. However, Habakkuk 2 contains six petuh_ot/setumot and Habakkuk 3 only two. What exactly, then, do these delimiters signify? And how can they aid modern exegetes in determining the structure of the book? These are the questions that will be investigated in this paper. Taking the startling differences of opinion in modern scholarship about the structure of the book and the resulting differences in the interpretation of the book into account, these questions become important. In the end the question really is: how can unit delimitation provide modern exegetes with a way forward in interpreting ancient texts?

The distinction between insiders and outsiders which is found throughout the New Testament is particularly strong in the Pauline epistles as well. The insider-outsider contrast was used, in short, to divide people into opposing groups, but also served various other purposes. It can on the one hand be understood against the background of a variety of processes of identity-formation in early Christianity, contributing constructively to the formation and construction of identity. On the other hand, the insider-outsider binary fed on and at times contributed to a negative energy and formed the core of an Othering-process, and led to stereotyping, vilification and even violence. After a discussion of the insider-outsider contrast, in the setting of early Christianity, it will be demonstrated how this mechanism functions in one of the Pauline epistles, and comments will be offered on how to avoid the problems of vilifying others while "identifying the selves", today.

“For at the window of my house I looked through my casement” (Proverbs 7:6) Who is the figure looking through the window towards the street? It may be a father instructing his son; a worried mother; or perhaps the personification of wisdom. This figure is opposed to the “foolish woman,” who is none other than the strange woman wandering the streets, seeking an innocent youth to entice by magic spells; a youth who does not realize that she will lead him to Sheol. As she clings to her safe observation post at the window, the indoor figure appears fearful of the strange woman’s strength. As she walks the streets, laying her plots, the strange woman appears daring. Her provocative dress recalls her house, lined with precious cloth and carpets; her bed emits a heady, intoxicating perfume, and her husband is far from home on business. We may assume that Proverbs 7 reflects a poetic-symbolic pattern of two women, representing wisdom and temptation, engaged in a dialogue, and competing for the heart of the young innocent. The window from which the first woman looks serves as a screen, at once separating the two while allowing inside and outside to observe and reflect each other. Wisdom and life at its most civilized face, against wild nature, with its otherness and flouting of social conventions. Order implies disorder—“Stolen water” will always taste sweet to the thirsty soul, and “bread eaten in secret is pleasant” to the hungry (Proverbs 9:17). The patriarchal tradition underlying most of the tales of the Hebrew Bible posits an opposition of the two female types: the “honest woman” and the “whore.” At first glance it seems that the separation between the two female figures cannot be bridged; yet a second look reveals mutual reflection and double images—each completing the other.

This paper deals with the relation between Roman state and magicians. In antiquity someone praying to the gods for help or shelter could as well use his piety for hurting another person by causing a curse upon him. The worship of the imperial effigy caused a new problem: The power of the imperial and therefore also divine image could be abused for a curse. People were especially afraid of the statues of those emperors who had been judged of damnatio memoriae. Their faces were painted with black colour in order to prevent others from harm (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 9,11,2). On the other side, invocation of a god could also provoke a damage to the emperor. Pliny explains the falling of Domitian with the curses of some senatorians which have been heard by Iupiter (Plin. pan. 94,1). According to Tacitus the death of Germanicus goes back to a malediction (Tac. ann. 2,69). It is interesting that the only court speech we have from imperial times dates from a trial of magic. In 158 AD the poet Apuleius is accused in Oea/North Africa. His marriage with a wealthy, but much older widow had aroused the suspicion of her family. We do not know exactly about the accusation and to which law it refers. But in the time of Tiberius "astrologers' and others had been exiled from Rome by a senatus consultum (Coll. 15,2,1). Tacitus even mentions several senatus consulta expelling astrologers and magicians out of Italy, some of them being sentenced to death and executed (Ann. 2,32,2). A similar resolution from 52 BC however is called by him "harsh but to no effect" (atrox et irritum; ann. 12,52,3).

One of the goals of the project “Through the eyes of another” was to explore the relationship between scholarly and popular, ordinary readings of the Bible. This paper uses the threefold distinction of Ricoeur (the movement from a first to a second naïveté via a process of distanciation, confrontation and dialogue) to describe, not only scholarly readings, but also popular, ordinary readings of the biblical text. The analysis of some of the reading reports in this paper shows that what occurs in “local” studies contains, potentially at least, all the various elements which Ricoeur identified as going to make a fully reflective apprehension of the text.

This paper will approach the question of the historical Jesus from the perspective of social memory theory. For over a century institutional historical Jesus research has emphasised the role of the evangelists' present in their apprehension and depiction of their past—the 'authentic' life and teachings of Jesus. The past, however, also plays a role in how people and communities understand and navigate their present. Consequently, it is important that quests for the historical Jesus consider the interaction between past and present—between Jesus on the one hand and tradition and community on the other—when doing historical investigation into the life of the pre-Easter itinerant Jewish teacher. Two emphases immediately present themselves. First, we will examine the use of the Jesus tradition in the later Jesus movements, tracing the social tensions extant in mid-first century Palestine and illustrating how the Jesus tradition was shaped to address these tensions. Second, we will look at the Jesus traditions' roots in the past—in the life of Jesus—and suggests ways in which the history of Jesus' life limited the lengths to which the tradition could be altered and adapted to fit present concerns. Thus, social memory theory prompts us to shift our focus from sifting through Jesus traditions distinguishing between 'authentic' bits and those added by the later church to a method in which we analyse the relationship between past and present.

Two main questions motivated this research: firstly, what differences can be detected in the way leading figures and groups are presented by the different gospel writers, and, secondly, what historical significance, if any, can be attached to such sociological differences? The aim of this study is to inquire whether the sociological differences constitute significant evidence which could point to the relative chronological sequence of the three writers. the parallel passages to be analyzed in this study cover the Synoptic Gospel material from the arrest of Jesus to the burial of Jesus. The figures and the groups to be checked are: Pilate, Herod, the soldiers, the centurion, Barabbas, the Jewish leaders, and the people/the "crowd."

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The Sitz im Leben of the circumambulation of Jericho in Joshua 6 is to be sought in a cultic practice originating in that city, either in Late First Temple or early Second Temple times. During the Second Temple period there was a large Priestly population in Jericho, which played an important part in the 24 Priestly courses of the Jerusalem Temple. It is therefore logical to assume that the Jericho Priests may have exerted some influence on the Temple cult. This claim is backed up by reference to the Second Temple Sukkoth rite of circumambulation of the altar, which, like the circumambulation of Jericho, was performed once during each of the first six days and seven times on the seventh day. In both cases, the seventh-day circumambulation was followed by a “breaking” – in Jericho, of the city walls, and in the Temple, of willow branches at the foot of the altar.

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This paper will detail the archaeological finds that support a habitation presence at Bethsaida during the first century period that is critical to the conversations about the relations between Jews, Christians and polytheists. Focusing on the limestone vessels, the glass finds, coins and other small finds that are indicative to the first century. These small finds will illustrate the habitation of the site during this time was more than a meager transient population but show evidence of a larger urban population that was engaged in widespread trade throughout the region, particularly with Tyre. The paper will also include discussion of architectural features that may have existed during this time. These features include several key installations that appear to have been “reused” from earlier periods of occupation, including that of the Iron Age. The recent excavations have indicated that there may have been considerable reuse of the structures outside the Iron Age gate complex, such as the roadbed extending from the outer gate, and several walls whose remnants remain atop earlier Iron Age walls. This new compilation and analysis of materials will aid in the visioning of what the society of formative Judaism and Christianity in the Kinneret area may have been.

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This passage offers the only place in the prophetic corpus where there appears a phrase that represents a grammatical inconcinnity which is repeated several times and then never occurs elsewhere. Contemporary translations have come up with various means of treating the noun in apposition with a noun as an adjective, e.g., "apostate Israel" (REB), "rebellious Israel" (NAB), "disloyal Israel" (NJB). The time-honored BDB suggests that the grammatical reading is "apostasy, Israel." This paper reviews various ancient and modern interpretive attempts to explain this curiosity before offering a new solution.

In recent decades, a scholarly consensus about fundamental questions of the history of ancient Israel has ceased to exist. Instead, fierce controversies about its beginning, its unity and its possible sources have been arisen, extending to different areas like biblical exegesis, archaeology and historiographical methodology. It seems, however, that the numerous aspects which Hebrew linguistics may contribute to these discussions have been widely neglected so far. The paper will address some of these issues. 1.) Apart from being the language in which most of the sources are written, the Hebrew language is in itself a reliable source for the history of ancient Israel. 2.) Obviously, the use of Hebrew was an important marker of identity. To the modern historian, therefore, it may serve as a means for defining the term "ancient Israel", from both the synchronical and the diachronical points of view. 3.) Since every change in the life and structure of a certain society leaves traces in its language, insights into the history of the Hebrew language may help to discover fractures in the course of ancient Israelite history. 4.) On the other hand, the history of Hebrew provides an important measure for the degree of continuity in ancient Israelite history.

Die Lektüre von Röm 13,8-10 stellt u.a. folgende Anfragen: Welche Rolle spielt der Kontext für das Textverständnis: die politisch-soziale „Konfrontation’ in Röm 13,1-7.8a? Warum bringt Paulus hier überhaupt den Nomos ins Gespräch? Besteht, was Funktion und Bedeutung des Nomos betrifft, eine Strukturanalogie zu Röm 3,(21-)31, wo Paulus ja den Nomos „hinstellt’? Ist der Nomos (uneingeschränkt) positiv angesprochen? Inwiefern ist die Zusammenfassung des Nomos im Liebesgebot traditionell vorgegeben? Warum sind die zitierten Nomos-Gebote in V.9 auf den Nächsten beschränkt, während die Gott betreffenden Gebote nicht repräsentiert sind? In welchem Verhältnis stehen die „Liebe’, das „dem Nächsten nichts Böses tun’ (vielleicht steht dahinter ein profaner Gesetzesbegriff, vgl. Cicero, Off 3,5,23.27) und der „Nomos’? Liegt das auf einer Ebene, oder sind Korrekturen impliziert? Hat der Nomos in Röm 13,8-10 überhaupt noch eine eigenständige Bedeutung, oder ist er nicht eher ganz einer „christlichen’ Ethik eingeordnet – damit ethisch neu-interpretiert (analog 3,31: Nomos als „Zeuge’ für Christus christologisch-hermeneutisch neu-interpretiert)? Welche Funktion besitzt der Nomos dabei (Veranschaulichung, Orientierung, „Material’ der Ethik, Suche nach Gemeinsamkeit mit den jüdischen „Vorgaben’)? Zu beachten bleibt: Die Tora beabsichtigt eine „Gesellschafts-Ethik’ (societas), während Paulus eine „Gruppen-Ethik’ (communitas) formuliert, die möglicherweise als solche in die societas wirkt.

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This paper will present an assessment of the international project “Through the eyes of another”, particularly focusing on the intercultural exchange involved. The speaker, who was not directly involved in the formulation or implementation of the project, was asked to react to the project, indicating its strengths and weaknesses.

The phenomenon of those who join themselves to God goes back many years. Examples are in abundance. Are the Samaritans also part of this proselytism - do they also fit into the category of joining themselves to the people of Israel? In my lecture, I will discuss the following points, especially the historical phenomenon of the 'God Fearers' in relation to the Samaritans. The term 'God fearing,' which appears a number of times in the Hebrew Bible, is unclear. Is it an adjective alone or does it have social-religious affiliations as a characterisation of certain groups? Do the Samaritans fall into the category of being 'God Fearers'? 1) An obscure verse in Isaiah enabled the sermonizer of Bamidbar Rabba to grade the different categories. 'God fearing' is at the bottom of the scale. Samaritans are not mentioned and they are not found to be part of the Jews. 2) Post-exilic Judaism was tolerant of accepting and even encouraging proselytism. Were Samaritans object of this interest? Apparently not. 3) In the first century CE, Paul encountered idolatrous 'God Fearers' in the synagogues at Antioch and other places. He called them: hoi phoboumenoi ton theon, 4) The finding of the pillar at Aphroditias in Minor Asia sheds light on the 'God Fearers'. 5) To the sermonizer, 'God Fearers' are on the same level as true proselytes. The Samaritans, on the contrary, are not true 'God Fearers' (yir'ey 'elohimi) and therefore are not true proselytes as they continued to worship idols: 'They feared the Lord and served their own gods' (2 Kgs 17.33). The sermonizer used the Hebrew root yr' in the characterisation of both. The sermon opposes Rabbi Akiva's position that the Samaritans are true proselytes. In my lecture, I will analyze the possible reasons that motivated the sermonizer to blame the Samaritans for idol worship.

Although Judaism has an essentially anthropocentric attitude toward animals, viewing them as a means to serve the human race, the Sages assigned them a legal status, followed the Torah in setting limits to their permissible exploitation, and even ruled that the ban on cruelty to animals is a Torah prohibition. The Sages’ and commentators’ concern for satisfying animals’ needs goes beyond their physical requirements to include their emotional needs as well. At the same time, the midrashim and commentaries do not agree about the rationale of the precepts that require human treatment of animals—whether they are intended for the benefit of human beings, for the benefit of the animals, or perhaps for both. Another related question is whether the Lord displays compassion for animals. Despite a number of texts that reject the assertion that the Lord’s mercies extend to animals, the dominant voice among the Sages and traditional commentators emphasizes His compassion for them. Some midrashim and commentaries even hold that sometimes human beings are rescued only by virtue of this divine compassion for animals. Other midrashim expound the fundamental difference between the limited and partial compassion of human beings, which is extended only to their fellow human beings (excluding animals), or the limited compassion that men display exclusively for men (but not for women), and the Lord’s equal and inclusive compassion for all His creatures, male and female, human and animal, with no discrimination based on gender or species. Despite this abyss between divine compassion and human compassion, various texts demand that human beings emulate the divine attribute and treat animals mercifully. We also find that the Sages and traditional commentators assume that a person’s treatment of animals reflects one’s personality and may influence one’s destiny: human beings are punished or rewarded for how they treat animals.

A fragment of a frieze, discussed below, was found during archaeological excavations on the artificial hill called et-Tell, situated north of the Sea of Galilee. Circumstances as to the find are not known, but the stone was certainly connected with some architectural constructions which was outstanding in the local context. A photograph of it was reproduced by father Bargil Pixner already in 1985. The item, however, has not yet been published. It constitutes one of the most important documents among carved stones found on et-Tell and its vicinity to the present, as it may be dated early in the first century AD. In the following arguments towards the above dating will be presented from the heart of the Roman Empire as well as from the neighbouring Hauran.

The focus of this paper will be one of the elements of the so-called ‘messianic’ or ‘eschatological’ banquet, something often referred to as a coherent motif in New Testament and Early Jewish Literature (Cf. Dennis E. Smith, Symposium to Eucharist (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), pp. 166ff.) . After documenting that there is no such thing as a 'coherent' theme that can be referred to with 'eschatological banquet' in the writings of the New Testament, an attempt will be made to focus on one possible difference between New Testament traditions which occupy themselves with eschatological eating and drinking and traditions from the Hellenistic Umwelt, which are concerned with 'utopian meals' (Cf. Matthias Klinghardt, Gemeinschaftsmahl und Mahlgemeinschaft (Tübingen: Francke, 1996, pp. 163ff.). The suggestion will be made, that, whereas traditions occupying themselves with eschatological eating and drinking from the Umwelt of the New Testament are very interested in foodstuffs, most New Testament texts occupying themselves with this 'theme' do not show any interest in exactly this constitutive aspect of meals. Finally an attempt to account for this phenomenon will be offered, which will argue that the fullness of the age to come had apparently more to do with koinonia than with a fullness expressed in foodstuffs.

Almost three decades past, Nils A. Dahl called attention to the lack of scholarship devoted to the study of God in the New Testament and in earliest Christianity, dubbing it the "neglected factor." Since Dahl's remarks, a handful of studies have been devoted to filling of this void. Yet there has been little concentration on the study of God in the Gospel of Mark. It remains a neglected factor. In light of this, this paper seeks to contribute to the filling of this void by addressing the role which God plays in the narrative of the second Gospel. The paper utilises the methods of modern literary criticism, particularly those used to discuss the presentation of characters in narrative, and describes the modes through which the text presents God. While the application of literary criticism and characterization are not new to the study of Mark's story, these have not been fully applied to the study of God in the Gospel. Moreover, this paper will argue that the presentation of God in Mark is the foremost purpose of the narrative and that other concerns, i.e. Christology and discipleship, are aspects of this presentation. Reading the narrative from an audience perspective, this paper will also propose how a listening audience of the first century is shaped by the presentation of God, and how said audience might respond to the God of Mark's Gospel. Thus, this paper demonstrates that 1) God plays a crucial and active role in the narrative; 2) Mark's Christology and view of discipleship are better understood as aspects of the presentation of God; and 3) the presentation of God in Mark may serve as the fundamental purpose of Mark's Gospel.

The purpose of this project is to translate, correct, and update, C. Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum (Second ed., Halle 1928), still considered to be the most authoritative and accurate dictionary of this Aramaic dialect. Syriac is the literary Aramaic dialect of the city of Edessa (Orhai), and a dictionary of Syriac is a necessary tool for anyone who deals with either Semitic languages, Aramaic studies, or eastern Christianity. While there exists a Syriac-English dictionary, it is geared to reading texts and not to the scientific study of the language. The Lexicon Syriacum was designed to fill this need and did this well in its two editions (1895, 1928). However, the last 75 years have seen extraordinary advances in our knowledge of Aramaic and other Semitic languages. As a result, the Lexicon Syriacum is now greatly out of date and must be revised. Additionally, the fact that it is written in Latin has made it a closed book for most modern readers. The proposed project intends to do the following: 1. Translate the dictionary into English 2. Update the etymologies and cognates. Syriac has a large number of loanwords from both Semitic and non-Semitic languages. However, most of the loanwords cited from Akkadian in Lexicon Syriacum are either incorrect or non-existent. The Persian loanwords did not take into consideration the Middle Persian dialects. No distinction between the various Jewish Aramaic dialects is made, and cognates from Rabbinic Hebrew are practically never cited. For most of the entries, cognates from the closely related middle Eastern dialects of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic are not cited. 3. Correct and update the references to outdated text editions. 4. Cull additional entries from text editions of the past 75 years, as well as from the scholarly literature. 5. Reorder the dictionary entries in strict alphabetical order to facilitate finding a particular word. A new dictionary of Syriac based on a large computerized database is not in the offing for the foreseeable future. Rather a more circumspect, less audacious, and feasible project has been suggested here, viz. the production of a corrected and updated Syriac-English dictionary based on Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum which will serve scholars during the twenty-first century until an entirely new dictionary can be produced.

The book of Ezra contains a number of references to written documents. Probably the most well known is the Hebrew edict of Cyrus, permitting the Jews to return from their captivity (Ezra 2-4). Also commonly discussed is the Aramaic decree of Cyrus, said to have been found in Ecbatana in the time of Darius (Ezra 6:2-5). In the past, there has been much debate about these two ordinances, particularly concerning their relationship and their authenticity. The most widely held view is to see the Aramaic document as an authentic decree, but the one in Hebrew as a literary invention. However, not everyone agrees. On one end of the spectrum, the authenticity of both ordinances has been defended by some. On the other end of the spectrum, it has recently been suggested that both could be literary inventions. In this paper I will explore and build upon the latter hypothesis, arguing that neither the Hebrew edict nor the Aramaic decree of Cyrus ever actually existed outside the book of Ezra. Instead I advance that these documents are fictive and designed to serve a rhetorical purpose in their narrative context. I will argue in favour of this view by reading the story of the two ordinances of Cyrus in Ezra 1-6 in conjunction with classical stories about lost and found books. In classical studies, such stories are widely understood to serve rhetorical purposes in their literary contexts and are generally not thought to refer to books that actually existed. I will advance the view that the story in Ezra 1-6 closely resembles these classical stories, and hence can be understood as serving a similar purpose in the biblical literature.

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Ancient Israel could only save its traditions by ever and again reading and interpreting anew and differently its inherited stories, the history it experienced, and its law. The paper tries to explore what lessons could be learnt today from such a caring and at the same time creative way of dealing with tradition and how this could be described methodically. It is self-evident, that one would no longer ask for "the" meaning of the text, since this would entail a serious reduction in relation to the narrated text having developed over such a long period of time. Proceeding differently and abstaining from asking for one single meaning opens the opportunity to not only pick up Ancient Israel's stimulating way of dealing with texts but to even carry it on. This has to be happening within defined boundaries (a sort of "game rules") that will be set by the way the text functioning the first time, its history of reception and the expectation context of present times. From a theological point of view such a process should draw the line from the past to our times and include at all times the freedom of god to reveal himself.

This paper argues that early Christian rejection of the temple in Jerusalem originates not in later sacrificial and salvific interpretations of Jesus' death, or even his proclamation of judgment and destruction on the sanctuary during the last week of his historical ministry. Rather, the roots of this tendency in early Christianity are to be traced to the ministry of John the Baptist. John's cultic movement outside and in opposition to the temple system was a major catalyst for Jesus' public ministry, and informed attitudes to the temple and its cult from the origins of the Jesus movement. The ministry of Jesus was premised on the conviction that the preparation of Israel for the coming of God's reign could not be accomplished through the Jerusalem temple cult.

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This paper focuses on the pre-Maccabean Hebrew evidence as found in the Judean Desert and reconstructed from the LXX. The relations between the textual sources in the first century B.C.E. are relatively clear, but for the two previous centuries, for which we do have textual evidence, we have to content ourselves with hypotheses. These hypotheses relate to the various representations of an ever-changing text and to their relation to the text of still earlier periods.

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In the book of Tobit, God isblessed for being the source of the event which makes people rejoice and consequently also profoundly is the source of rejoicing. Blessing is in this deuterocanonical book an important theme (37 occurrences in 26 verses in Tob; 48 in 27 verses in Tbs). Therefore, I will firstly explore how the idea of blessing in general is developed: who blesses whom and why? Thereafter, I will analyse more specifically the blessing of God (with the reasons why God is blessed). Against this backdrop, I will study the link between blessing and rejoicing, as it occurs in Tob 8,16.

The so-called 'Great Magical Papyrus of Paris' (=PGM IV) is the single most comprehensive handbook for magical practices known from the ancient world. This paper will briefly discuss its provenance, its contents, the history of its research, and its relevance for biblical studies. In view of Hans Dieter Betz's recent edition of and commentary on the 'Liturgy of Mithras,' this important section of the papyrus will receive special mention, as will the so-called 'Hebrew formula.'

The Johannine Epistles give no elaborated account of salvation. This paper tries to compile a comprehensible soteriology where the bits and pieces that relate to one another all over the Epistles are knock together. The possible constructed circumstances and false teachings of the deceivers which influenced the theological doctrine and ethical behaviour of the community and led to the schism in the community determine the structure and content of the soteriology. Only the basic aspects of soteriology are taught by the elder. These basic aspects are nuancedly presented from theocentric and christocentric perspectives which are closely interwoven with different themes. From the content it seems that the theological perspective dominates with the Christological perspective as complimenting. The soteriology is metaphorically presented from the perspective of the household of God the Father. The paternalistic Old Testamentic image of a household figures here where the Father determines the way of conduct. The elder refers to three of God’s characteristics (God is light (1:5), [God] is righteous(2:29) and God is love(4:8)) according to which God’s children have to direct their lives after ‘they have been born into the family of God’ where they have and experience ‘eternal life’.

A number of seals and bullae from Israel and Jordan (both provenanced and unprovenanced) have come to light over the years, which may refer to political associates and the family of Gedaliah, who was appointed governor by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Some of these artifacts belong to the famous Shlomo Moussaieff Collection. Inspite of recent attempts to dismiss this connection, when studied closely, a good case can still be made to connect them to the babylonian governor mentioned in the books of 2 Kings and Jeremiah. The latest discoveries in the field support this conclusion.

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Many gospel texts and especially Jesus logia need a new critical approach on the level of meaning. The paper will argue that apart from both literal and symbolic meanings texts may be interpreted and understood as spiritual. It will refer to mysticism as a current, central to religion and the history of Christianity but neglected in bible criticism. It will focus on some concepts like pistis/pisteuô, pneuma, psyche (- tithêmi, - sôizô, - phylassô, - apollumi, - heuriskô, etc.), ekstasis, phobos, telos. Although the approach is labelled as new, in many cases it will refer to old understandings.

Mark (16.8, NIV) relates how the women went out and fled from the tomb “trembling and bewildered”, as a translation for tromos (some mss: phobos, fear) and ekstasis. We find ekstasis at a few places in NT and translated variously as ‘astonished’ (Mk 5:42), ‘awe’ (Lk 5.26), ‘amazement’ (Acts 3:10), and ‘trance’ (Acts 10.10, 11.5, 22.17). Bauer (Wörterbuch z. NT) translates the term as ‘Aussersichsein, Verwirrung, Staunen, Entsetzen’, each of them with a negative connotation, but also as ‘Verzückung’ that has a positive connotation (ecstacy, rapture). But even ecstasy has been interpreted negatively. Often ecstasy has been interpreted as an abnormal and unwanted condition. In mysticism and spirituality, however, ecstasy is a necessary condition to experience the Divine. The paper will investigate the possibilities of restoring ekstasis in its positive, spiritual connotation as ‘ecstasy’ or ‘rapture’, referring to the recent Encyclopedie van de mystiek (ed. J. Baers et al., Kok / Lannoo, Kampen / Tielt 2003). Some references will be made to the LXX use of ekstasis. A similar treatment will be given to phobos in terms of as ‘awe’. The paper will conclude by proposing an alternative rendering for Mk 16.8.

The addressees of 1 Peter were living in an unfriendly environment. They were aliens and strangers, not only because of their Christian faith, but also because they were not citizens of the areas in which they lived. Their alienity made them prey to animosity from the citizens. This article endeavours to make a construction of the animosity the first readers of 1 Peter experienced. It then establishes the ethical code given in 1 Peter for their attitude towards and response to this animosity, and this Petrine code is compared with guidelines for response to animosity in the rest of the Bible. Finally, utilizing the ethical code in 1 Peter, the outline for an ethical code for Christians' response to animosity in present day societies is proposed.

King David had enemies, before and during his reign. The Books of Samuel describe so many wars between David and his enemies that many that Wulfila refused to translate these books into Gothic (341 CE) in order not to give the Gothic people any impulse for waging wars. Targum Jonathan also had to deal with the stories of war, albeit in a completely different setting. The Targumists took animosity for granted, being a daily reality in the Roman Empire. But some things could not be said. God never was a directly involved party in wars: when the Hebrew used the phrase 'enemies of the Lord,' the Targum translated 'enemies of the Lord's people'. Furthermore, King David was not a man with feelings of animosity in his heart: the Targum makes him as righteous as possible. What were the Targumists' motives to make these subtle changes? And what is the theological result of these changes? Do these changes result in a step towards reconciliation?

Religious flagellation starts in the eleventh century (Peter Damian). Despite the huge controversy raised by this practice, it has been widespread and loaded with quite divergent significations. It faded in the catholic convents and monasteries in the 1950s. How can we understand this history in relation to the more general theological theme of atonement?

Sometimes Christianity has been presented as a very solemn faith to the point of being gloomy. People have been so set on attaining the joys of heaven that they have forgotten the joys of earth. Luke would not have recognized such a way as truly Christian. Joy runs through his two volumes. It is clear that he understood Christianity as a faith that filled the whole life with joy. This paper investigates the occurrence and development of the theme of joy in Luke's writings. With the announcement of the birth of Jesus, a new era has dawned. Joy fills the scene. In the infancy stories in Luke 1:14 and 2:10 the dominant mood is that of joy. This mood persists throughout the Gospel as joy at the acts of Jesus (13:17 and 19:6). Joy is also the mood of people (18:43 and 19:37). There is joy in the finding of the lost (15:5-7, 9 and 32). There is joy at the knowledge that one's name is written in heaven (10:20). Luke adds a final accent when the disciples return to Jerusalem with great joy after the ascension (24:52). This also denotes the beginning of the age of the church. Joy persists even when the church is exposed to suffering. When we consider the circumstances of the early church, with its difficulties from without and within, with its daunting task of evangelising the world with limited resources, with membership consisting largely of insignificant people, it would not have been surprising if there had been gloom and pessimism. However the theme of joy that Luke stresses is significant. The early church was surely a joyful church.

Das dem König Ahas in Jes 7,14-17 gegebene sog. Immanuelzeichen wurde in der Forschungsgeschichte auf verschiedene Weise ausgelegt. Mit diesem Beitrag wird nun der Versuch unternommen, es anhand der Entwicklungen der Kommunikation zwischen Jesaja und Ahas in Jes 7,1-17 und der Zeichen zu verstehen, die in Jes 7,11 dem König von Jesaja angeboten werden. Dabei wird ein Schwerpunkt auf die altorientalische Zeichengabe und -deutung gelegt. Im letzten Schritt versuche ich, die aus diesem Ergebnis resultierende Entwicklung des Immanuelgedankens im weiteren literaturhistorischen Prozess nachzuzeichnen.

1 Timothy 2:11-15 is an allegory in which the virtues faith, love, holiness, and temperance are portrayed as the children of those women in Ephesus who will be saved. Evidence for this new reading of “childbearing” in 1 Tim 2:15 is widely found in Greek mythology and in the literature of Plato, Philo, and the Gnostics. In each volume we find the idea of virtues and vices as children. For example, in the allegorical interpretations of Philo, the supplanter Jacob says to Rachel “You have greatly erred, because I am not in the place of God, who alone is able to open the wombs of souls, and sow virtues in them, and make them to be pregnant and to give birth to good things” (Leg 3. 180-87). The idea of the human soul giving birth to virtues and vices is characteristically Platonic. We therefore have precedence and background for the idea of Ephesian women giving birth to virtues in 1 Tim 2:15. The advantage of this new reading of 1 Tim 2:15 is that it more clearly exposes the coherence between “saved through childbearing” and “saved by faith.” It therefore avoids patently non-Pauline notions like the salvation of women based upon their ability to bear children in the literal sense. The means of salvation for women remains the same as the means of salvation for men.

The Freer Codex of Paul was severely damaged prior to its discovery and the damage was of such a nature as to reduce the utility of convention imaging. Using multi-spectral imaging, the Free Imaging Project was able to recover more information from the Freer Codex of Paul than possible with conventional imaging. A review of the technology and its results are the focus of this presentation.

Paul's account of his preaching in Corinth in 1 Cor, 2:1-5 has puzzled interpreters. Some view it as a digression in Paul's argument, others as an autobiographical account. It is clear that Paul intends to contrast his proclamation with that of certain missionary rivals who have made use of the art of rhetoric. Yet, the hyperbolic language by which Paul describes his demeanor ("weakness, fear, much trembling") is not sufficiently explained on the hypothesis that this passage embodies Paul's renunciation of rhetoric. In keeping with the theatrical metaphor which Paul develops throughout 1 Cor. 1-4, Paul portrays himself in 2:1-5 as a well known figure in comedy and mime: the befuddled orator. In literature influenced by the mime, one repeatedly meets with this character, usually a simple man, who has been thrust before the assembly or dragged into court, and finds himself weak in the head and trembly. Because the figure of the befuddled orator was so firmly established in popular consciousness, one might ridicule an opponent by portraying him as an example of this comic type. The figure of the befuddled orator was used in self-parody long before Paul by Hegemon of Thasos and Plato's Socrates. Paul follows this precedent in making himself and his manner of speaking the object of parody. The point of Paul's self-parody is to call into question the values of the elite in Corinth, their definition of what is vulgar and what is noble, what is ridiculous and what is serious.

In recent years there has been some discussion about the literary and spoken dialects of Aramaic that underlie the complex linguistic situation in the texts on the Jewish magical bowls from Mesopotamia. In this paper I will discuss various options for aligning the linguistic variety in the bowls with our knowledge of the social and geographical dialect distribution in this period and try to assess their possible chance of success in dealing with this old problem.

Since the emergence of Pentecostalism and connected movements the idea of a “second blessing” has become prominent, particularly when associated with manifestation of the “gifts of the Spirit”. It has generally been seen as given for empowerment, but this purpose may be interpreted as part of the process of sanctification. In this case the associated charismata become secondary, and the “baptism” may then be one of a series of events, “fillings” with the Spirit, and not unique in itself. If it is a sanctifying work of the Spirit, its essence is generating a closer relationship and likeness to Jesus. This then means that it produces a kenosis, or emptying, similar to that of his; it is the emptying of the person’s own will, or spirit, so that there is increasing conformity to that of Christ. This emptying means that the power of God may be applied more effectively. Particularly since prophecy is one of the charismata, this principle may be applied to the experiences of the Old Testament prophets, who experienced their role as a weakening, and through that were effective.

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This paper will attempt an exploration of the implicit hierarchical oppositions that under gird the command given by Paul to "pursue love." This paper will playfully ask questions of the motivating force behind the pursuit by invoking Nietzsche, and suggest that it is a "bitter-sweet" robbery that forces love to run and the reader to give chase. However, the focus will ultimately fall on the space, the gap of deferment that propagates the movement of pursuit. This paper will then attempt to show that the chasing after each other (this movement between love and the reader), and the necessity of escaping each other is the "becoming space" between them, and that it is this space, which continually produces their meaning whilst always, and already betraying a subversion from within.

The presentation builds on my article, “The Laws of Hammurabi as a Source for the Covenant Collection (Exodus 20:23-23:19)” recently published in Maarav 10 (2003): 11-87. This lays out new and detailed evidence indicating that the Covenant Collection may rely rather directly upon the Laws of Hammurabi (LH). Presuming this, the present paper investigates how the author may have used LH as a source to create the goring ox and negligence in Exodus 21:28-36. The goring ox laws of LH 250-252 provide the introductory foundation (Exod 21:28-29, 32). This was expanded with a rule that if the victim is a child the case is treated as if the victim were an adult (v. 31), based on LH 229-230 (compare similar laws in LH 115-116, 209-210). LH 229-230 were also influential in the composition of the negligence law in Exodus 21:33-34, which is in close proximity to the ox laws in vv. 28-32. The principle of topical attraction or association in the writing of Near Eastern law is responsible for transforming a case of a house falling to that of an animal falling. Verse 30, which gives an alternative penalty to that in v. 29 may be a later addition, but it is consistent with LH 250-251. The last verses of the passage (vv. 35-36), which return to goring oxen, are inspired by another cuneiform source (cf. Laws of Eshnunna 53). The foregoing conclusions correlate well with literary critical conclusions (cf. L. Schwienhorst-Schönberger, Das Bundesbuch [1990]: 129-162). which, without reference to LH, see vv. 28-29, 32 as the original core with other material as additions. This paper, however, argues that the perceived strata derive for the most part from the work of a single author and his sources.

The concept of magic, in most of the dominant strands of western history, is marked by a distinctly negative attitude towards its content matter, albeit alongside the allowance of a legal and welcome counterpart. This counterpart has many forms and names in the Hebrew Bible, Imperial Rome and proto-orthodox Christianity, ranging from ritual commandment, to religion, to act of faith. The dichotomy of magic and its counterpart has shaped most of later thoughts on the topic up to the first modern approaches, especially by James Frazer. There is general agreement that Frazer's evolutionary triad of magic, religion, and science cannot be upheld against a critical reflection of our Judeo-Christian heritage concerning this topic. Fritz Graf, in his classic study 'Magic in the ancient world,' proposed that there are two possible attitudes when approaching the study of magic in antiquity: either to reconstruct the ancient notion of the term in its respective field and to discard Frazer's along with all other ethnologic concepts (the path Graf chooses); or to create a contemporary definition of the term and to discard the antique and Frazerian elements. I will attempt to lay out the problems and perspectives inherent in both of Graf's possible attitudes when introduced to the phenomenon of 'magic' in the classical rabbinic literature. In other words, I will try to first pet the cat with, then against its grain in order to approach the relation of the Rabbis' concepts to their practices.