Mark Brett recently pointed out in an article in the internet that the roots of international human rights can be traced back into the ancient israelite texts of the Hebrew Bible. The term of a „Law for the Peoples“ was formulated in the Deutero-Isaianic Collection as a result of the experiences from the babylonian exile. In the first half of the 5th century B.C.E. we find a discussion about the principles of „ta nomima tôn anthropôn“ in the Greek and Persian world. The lecture will show that there was not only an „inherence“ of human rights in biblical texts, but that measures of international law have been formulated explicitly in the prophetic torah and in the Pentateuch.

The proposed paper deals with the Egyptian legal scholar ‘Ala’ al-Din al-Baji (d. 1314), whose works include a tract critical of the Five Books of Moses, and especially the Book of Genesis, which the author read in one or more Arabic translations, apparently of Melkite provenance. Although the work is also known as al-Radd ‘ala’l-Yahud, it is mainly Christianity with which the author takes issue. Al-Baji's aims and critical method will be explained on the basis of a series of quotations from his tract.

The heading authorship and many linguistic and conceptual commonalities in the 5th Psalter of David show a planned composition recognized in the concatenation and juxtaposition, as a unity in their redaction history through numerous connection of motifs: image of God, God’s kingship, Temple thematic and theology of the poor. However, difficulties appear in assigning the genre of Ps 139 and 144, likewise structural peculiarities in Ps 139, 144 and 145. Nevertheless, the accentuations and shifting of emphases in the unfolding of the motifs, lead to a theological development: JHWH’s Kingship mentioned in Ps 138, unfolded in his worship (Ps 145) goes beyond Space-Time. JHWH demonstrates transcendence in creation and history, shows his immanence in love for his creatures, and in demanding justice. The synthesis of wisdom and priestly thought, correlated with the worldview of universal space - unlimited time, argues for a developed theology probably towards the end of the Persian period. Taking up, that relationship to God connects closely to self-relationship and to the world, the investigation asks: are there one or multiple worldviews in the 5th psalter of David? Applying the conception of H. Lefebvre (perceived, conceptualized and lived space), my analysis describes the images of space-time; the categories of human and world conception are then ordered accordingly. How does David (paradigmatic figure) perceive his environment? How do these perceptions shape his conception of God? What does this mean for theology and anthropology in the 5th Psalter of David? These inquiries show the importance of space-time for OT Theology and Anthropology and the tension in the intra-inter-textual transdisciplinary discourse on the relationship of theology, cosmology and anthropology with philosophical, psychological and epistemological insights.

Most studies that investigate the issue of women leading the gatherings of early Christian communities usually consider women in Pauline communities and Acts and the emphasis is made on women in leadership roles and holding various offices like apostle, presbyter, bishop. In doing this scholars consider various kinds of evidence that only implicitly refers to women conducting the gatherings of Early Christian communities. This paper focuses on presenting and analyzing the evidence in related Early Christian literature that supports the practice of women conducting and presiding at the gatherings of Early Christian communities in the second and first half of the third century. Rarely scholars adduce the pertinent evidence from the Graeco-Roman World that supports the view that women led and presided at banquets including the banquets of various associations. From social-historical point of view the local early Christian community functioned as voluntary religious association that conducted communal meals.

As part of his attempt to recreate the situation behind the epistle to the Hebrews, Barnabas Lindars famously pointed to the testimony of the thirteenth chapter and to the various situational hints or details alluded to therein. Whilst Lindars makes some mention of the role of the leaders (13.17), however, his analysis of their function and relation to Hebrews’ audience remains undeveloped; indeed, 13.17 (and potentially 13.18-19 as well) have commonly been viewed as no more than throwaway remarks or casual assertions of ecclesial control. This paper, by contrast, considers how 13.17-19 might contribute to the shape and interpretation of the epistle, and attempts to draw connections with the preceding epistolary discourse. In particular, it will explore how the exhortations to submit to the congregational leaders – and implicitly perhaps to the author – are premised both upon the prior explication of the role and character of the Son, and the warning passages relating to his sacerdotal work. This is marked by common language and themes, along with a similar paraenetic tone to that found previously in the epistle’s hortatory material. Thus rather than being an afterthought or appendix, or merely an assertion of basic leadership principles, the exhortations of 13.17-19 offer a fitting climax to the prior epistolary content, and to the filial-orientated paraenesis that it sets forth.

Just about the whole Torah is presented as Travel Literature. The Exodus is the story of an ongoing long journey. However, the book of Genesis is characterized as a reservoir of different, shorter literary journeys. In this paper I will describe the sub-genre of Travel Narratives in general, and the various travel narratives in the book of Genesis in particular. Moreover, I will relate to their literary function, that is, why they were preferred in the composition of the patriarchal stories, and I will also try to answer the question: What sort of travel narrative repeats itself, and why? Finally, some conclusions as to the time Genesis was edited will be considered.

The story of Thecla concerns a young betrothed virgin who, upon hearing Paul preach, decides to pursue a chaste Christian life. Spurning her fiancé, and rebelling against societal norms, she finds that family and society contrive to put an end to her life. She is thrown into the arena to be burned and to face the wild beasts. However, through miraculous interventions, Thecla triumphantly overcomes the many ordeals that are sent to challenge her. The climax of the story sees Thecla don male apparel and receive Paul’s blessing to “Go and teach the Word of God.” It is not surprising that this text has been seized upon by scholars keen to highlight exemplary women and their important roles in early Christianity. However, in a culture of honour and shame, this elite virgin bears the ultimate humiliation through the exposure of her body. At one point she is tied naked by the legs between two bulls in an arena of fully clothed men and women: no aspect of her body is veiled from sight. There is no escaping the violent and hostile treatment that Thecla is subjected to. Anyone who reads the text participates in gazing upon a tortured, naked, sexualized woman. Within this paper I will explore how the Acts of Paul and Thecla is highly androcentric and marginalizing in its treatment of Thecla. I will then go on to provide a fresh analysis of the distinctive Christian message conveyed by her presentation. My reasons for exploring this come from a deep suspicion that a text that presents a woman’s body in what is essentially a voyeuristic and, indeed, pornographic, way assumes a male gaze at variance with a female view of a woman who is seen to be empowered and liberated.

Given the sustained attention shown to issues of gender in the Hebrew Bible over the last forty years, it is remarkable that the prima facie presence of a female pronoun for God in Num 11:15 has received so little recognition—despite the reference in v.12 to a maternal role for God that Moses is all-too-keen to avoid for himself. Although it was accepted by Rashi and Nachmanides, the arguments against a female pronoun today appear formidable. Some assume that the final consonant of the standard male pronoun—aleph-tav-he—has simply been lost, leaving us with what looks like the standard female form. Others point to the male grammar of the rest of the sentence as evidence that a female reading is unnatural in the extreme. The most common explanation, reflected in the lexica, is that the female-looking pronoun is actually a rare male form. Among the six or seven other examples of this alleged phenomenon is the use of the same pronoun to refer to Moses in Deut 5:27. But while the Masoretes suggest a vowel pointing that compensates for a ‘missing’ final consonant in most of these texts, the fact that they did not do so for Num 11:15 or Deut 5:27 should give pause for thought. This paper will argue that the female pronoun in Num 11:15 not only deliberately punctuates the male grammar of the sentence but functions as a catchword that allowed those who are being cited in Deut 5:27 to use Moses’ earlier rhetoric against him. If both passages allude to the maternal role that Moses is initially determined to avoid, then the female pronoun for God in Num 11:15 may finally be given the attention that it deserves.

The Fourth Gospel is the only biblical text that connects the five most prominent disciples of Jesus with Bethsaida, an Iron Age capital city which centuries later during the Herodian period emerged as a small culturally diverse fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Although the site had slipped from historical view by the 4th century CE, its location, discovered some twenty-five years ago, has led to significant archaeological discoveries and material finds that have helped to contextualize and to clarify the Galilean period of these five disciples, two of whom had earlier been followers of John the Baptist. These Jesus followers were Peter and Andrew, the two sons of Zebedee --James and John, and finally, Philip. In sync with the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection appearances, all five of the Bethsaida disciples left their homes and their work in the Galilee and relocated in Jerusalem. There, James the Elder was the first to be martyred, Peter and John assumed early leadership roles in the emerging Jesus community, while Philip and Andrew engaged in mission outreach. With increasing tensions between the Hellenists and the Hebrews and social/religious disruption in Jerusalem, the remaining four moved into the Diaspora and became known for their foundational contributions to the early Church. The aim of this study is to give a brief portraiture of each of th e five Bethsaida disciples and to document their contributions during the so-called oral period of the early Church, demonstrating how they, prior to Paul, moved out into the Hellenistic-Roman world with a kerygma shaped by their earlier association with the historical Jesus. In doing so, they set the patterns for resolving disputes and for formalizing essential teachings and practices for the next generation.

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In recent years the settlement pattern of southern Phoenicia during the Iron Age IIA has been discussed extensively. Settlement consisted of larger cities located along the coastal strip or in the fertile Acco plane, while in the highland areas there were medium-size fortresses that served to protect the border with the northern Kingdom of Israel. The Arameans, under Hazael, who had wrought destruction on numerous Israelite sites also put to the torch the Iron IIA settlements in southern Phoenicia. The destruction layers visible at Dor, Shiqmona, Tell Abu-Hawam, Tel Keisan, and Horvat Rosh Zayit bear testament to this devastation. However, while the destroyed Israelite sites were quickly rebuilt and reached their zenith during the reign of Jeroboam II, southern Phoenician sites during this period underwent a completely different process. In southern Phoenicia three main factors must be noted during the Iron IIB: (1) The Phoenician fortresses disappear. (2) Archaeological evidence from both Dor and Horvat Rosh Zayit show that they became Israelite sites instead of Phoenician. (3) Iron IIB occupational gaps were observed at Tell Keisan and Tell Abu-Hawam, and Achziv was either abandoned or drastically reduced in size. Therefore, it appears that the only southern Phoenician settlements to preserve their former identity during the Iron IIA to Iron IIB transition where Shiqmona, Atlit and Acco. These dramatic changes must reflect the might of Jeroboam II, who in the first half of the 8th century BCE ruled the northern Kingdom of Israel for over 40 years, and established Israel as the new dominant regional power following the defeat of Aram-Damascus by the Assyrians. That is, the Israelite territorial expansion under Jeroboam II, previously documented in the northeastern part of his kingdom, can now be shown to also include part of the area once under Phoenician rule in the Iron IIA.

As his last words – according to Mark – Jesus quoted the first verse of Psalm 22: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”. Why did Jesus choose this sentence? Does it express profound anguish, as the words as such would denote, or does it have an even hopeful aspect? The verse, taken as a separate sentence, has a very hopeless tone. To be forsaken by God is, at least for a devout Jewish man, the most dreadful fate he can imagine. Nevertheless, the reference to the first verse of the Psalm can be understood in another way. At least for the reader – or the listener – of Jesus' shout, the reference may create an allusion to the whole psalm. Psalm 22 as a whole is strictly a twofold prayer. In the first part the praying man does not seem to have any hope, but he is already as good as dead. But then, suddenly, there is a total change of mood, and the latter part of the Psalm is an overflowing thanksgiving, because God after all heard the pleas and did not forsake the praying man. Did Jesus – by quoting the first verse – still hope that God would act with him in the same way he acted with the psalmist? There is another synoptic saying, in Luke 18:7, which might be based on Psalm 22 and which might be an elaborated version of an authentic saying of Jesus. In this passage Jesus teaches about the certainty that God will answer to the pleas of his chosen ones. If Jesus taught – using Psalm 22 as an example – about how God answers and takes care, would he have forgotten this teaching, when he quoted the first verse of the Psalm on the cross?

The paper deals with the seventy bulls offered at Sukkot according to Numbers 29—a number unparalleled in any other Israelite festival for which no persuasive explanation has been adduced to date. In light of the a ritual from the ancient Syrian city of Emar (Emar 6, 373:36-38), it is suggested that the custom reflects an ancient Levantine tradition of sacrificing seventy sacrifices to the seventy gods—the whole pantheon—during the New Year celebration. The evident transformation of the seventy gods into seventy nations by biblical scribes may explain the late rabbinic midrashic tradition according to which the seventy offerings made at Sukkot correspond to the seventy nations.

Prior to WWII, Johannine scholarship devoted little time and attention to the gospel’s portrayal of the Jews. Even in the immediate aftermath of the war, when historians and theologians of the Jewish-Christian relationship frequently and increasingly raised critical issues regarding the gospel’s distinct portrayal, Johannine scholars rarely took up the subject. After the 1960s, however, the Fourth Gospel’s Jews became, and continue to be, a key feature of Johannine scholarship. This paper, in part, considers the historical, political, and theological motivations that have influenced these developments over the last fifty years. More specifically, this paper examines closely one key feature of Johannine scholarship on the gospel’s Jews: the frequent rejection of the entire Christian interpretative tradition as invariably hostile. Scholars of the last few decades frequently cite the internecine Wirkungsgeschichte of the Johannine Jews as the key reason why one now should direct critical attention toward John’s portrayal. Nonetheless, despite the central and motivating role that the Wirkungsgeschichte plays in these investigations, scholars frequently generalize and stereotype the entire Wirkungsgeschichte as uniformly negative, rather than investigate its diverse aspects closely. Recognizing the important place that the Wirkungsgeschichte must hold in examinations of the Johannine Jews, this paper questions the reasons for and effectiveness of such totalizing of the gospel’s Wirkungsgeschichte and considers the potential fruit that an analysis of the Fourth Gospel’s early reception in particular can offer to contemporary scholarship on the Johannine Jews as well as the Jewish-Christian relationship more broadly.

In June of 1938 the Vienna Symphony premiered an oratorio by Franz Schmidt, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln. A large-scale setting of text from the Book of Revelation, its powerful depiction of the end of days seems remarkably prescient in historical context. Although the composer could not have known how quickly war would develop, there are indications that he intended his work to present a timely message to his audience. On the occasion of the premiere, Schmidt commented: “It would be my greatest reward if this musical setting would bring today’s listener closer in spirit to this matchless poetry, whose relevance after eighteen hundred years is as great as the day it was written.” Schmidt’s musical setting—now recognized as one of the great oratorios of the 20th century—is like the biblical libretto itself: a richly symbolic text for a volatile and dangerous time. Key to understanding Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln is hearing how the composer uses leitmotivs, orchestration, and other devices to give a sense of progression to the opening of the seals. Building to the seventh seal, Schmidt presents the final aria of the Lord as a deeply satisfying resolution to the musical, spiritual and political challenges of the apocalyptic vision.

When the first Christian evangelizers arrived in the New World, they viewed the reconstruction of the indigenous people's economic lives as part of the justice required by evangelization. Yet their knowledge of economics was limited by their mainly theological and canonical education as well as by the undeveloped state of the science of economics. Given this, and given the fact that they saw the Bible as a source book of all truth, they naturally turned to Scripture in their attempts at economic reconstruction. There they found what they regarded to be a vision of the economy from the perspective of the early Christians, a vision which directed their attempts at the economic reconstruction of the New World. In our presentation we will examine the interpretation of this vision as found in the book of Revelation, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Pauline Corpus by three different evangelizers: the early Franciscans who worked in Mexico City; Vasco de Quiroga (1470?-1565), the first bishop of Michoacán, Mexico; and Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474-1566), author, bishop, and community leader in Mexico, Central America, and South America. We will examine how their interpretation of the early Christians' views on the economy impacted local indigenous communities. Finally, we will draw conclusions about the value of Scripture for economics, criteria for discerning the truth of an interpretation of the early Christians' approach to the ancient economy, and the importance of considering the practical impact of one's interpretation of the relationship between early Christianity and the ancient economy.

In the Bible we meet a number of terms that are repeated in various forms, to a point where they become termini technici. This is especially true in terms related to the root Q-D-SH exemplified by holy convocation; the holy city; the Holy One. Similarly, the root O-H-L seems to refer to a related group, a people or a nation in the expressions "tabernacle of the congregation"; "to your tents O Israel"; "the tents of Kedar". Likewise, the root B-H-R is so used as a technical term in "Jerusalem which I have chosen"; "my servant whom I have chosen"; "my people, my chosen". These terms continue to be employed in different variations among the educated elite in later periods of the Second Temple, the Mishnah and the Talmuds. Echoes are also found in correspondence from the Cairo Genizah in the period of the Geonim. In each period, however, these terms undergo changes. At times the changes are significant when the meaning of the term is actually reversed, such as in the case of 'Am ha-Arets (the people of the land), and at times they are minor, in accordance with the spirit of the period and the needs of the elite class. I shall explore the social meanings of some of these terms, according to the Bible, and to show how they were transformed in everyday life in the social systems in the Jewish societies of the Mishnah and the Talmuds in Late Antiquity, and Jewish societies of the 11th century CE reflected in documents from the Cairo Genizah.

The lecture aims to emphasize how the use of biblical texts in St. Clement of Rome's Epistle can be understood as an appeal to a new type of authority. The author observes that between the Saint Clements's patristic authority and the authority of biblical text quoted inside his Epistle is a mutual sustaining. The text shows that St. Clement uses different levels of argumentation, each with its level of authority, in order to convince the Corinthians about his message. Those levels of authority are: the authority of Old and New Testament, the authority of common church prayer and spiritual life and his own authority as a leader of the church in Rome and follower of the Apostles (42, 61). The author observes that St. Clement uses typological constructions (e.g.:37.3) in which he develops different Old and New Testament schemas. Seen from the perspective of authority, those typologies are built and used as a new type of authority based on the way the biblical quotations, scenes and images are understood together with a quotidian experience of the church members, as also with a very common experience. The second part of the lecture aims to show a unitary way to read and understand the types of authority used by Saint Clement in his text. Old and New Testament are read in the light of a new historic (5) or quotidian (6) experiences, or as recent experiences of holiness in the church. The textual authority is taken-over (mimetai, 17.1) by the church authority confirmed in a prayer and peace experience (63), completely different from the political authority which generates suffering (45). For St. Clement, the unity between those different types of authority is assured by the authority of Jesus Christ, the Savior.

This paper offers a discussion of the significance of the presence of a number of less expected books in two of the great uncial biblical manuscripts, namely that of the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas in Codex Sinaiticus, and of 1 and 2 Clement in Codex Alexandrinus. Based on reception-historical considerations, it is argued, using the tripartite model proposed by the late F. Bovon, that these texts should be regarded as "useful for the soul" rather than "canonical".

A text like Ex 4:24-26 shows in the literary context of chapter 4 some interesting insights for the legitimation of circumcision in the post-exilic discourse. Originally concerned with a blood ritual in a healing context, the small text is reused in the post-exilic discourse within a broader reflection on Mosaic Torah precepts concerning the offering of firstlings and their substitution by circumcision. Rabbinic texts (see Ned. 32a) proof a controversial discussion about the interpretation of this text due to its high quantity of gaps, but transmit clearly that it presents “the imperative of circumcision” as a Jewish ritual, which do not admit any delay since the day of Moses.

This study approaches the prayer in Isa 63:7–64:11 form critically and divides the text into seven sections. The subsequent analysis focuses on the Deuteronomistic language that pervades the text. Many sections feature terminology having to do with wrongdoing and retribution, and other expressions indicative of Deuteronomistic thought are attested as well. The terminological expressions differentiate themselves into strata or compositional layers that correspond roughly to the preexilic, exilic and postexilic periods. That is, the prayer dates to the 6th century B.C.E. with select sections more representative of the centuries prior and subsequent. The findings show that Deuteronomistic language (and by analogy the lexemes of other traditions such as P) can serve as the key to a more nuanced dating of a text such as Isa 63:7–64:11. The prayer in Trito Isaiah can be dated not simply to the Persian period but through it constitutive parts to earlier and later points within the epoch.

This paper supports the view that most of the royal psalms were either composed or substantially edited within post-monarchic com munities. However, scholars such as John Day who hold that it is most "natural" to assign a monarchic date to the royal psalms are correct that many royal psalms look like royal ritual texts. The paper therefore addresses the question as to why these psalms are written and presented as though they are archaic texts for use in royal rituals. Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth," is used as a comparative example of remembered ritual presented as ritual text. Owen's poem is presented as though it is an early twentieth century English funeral liturgy, but it is in fact employing funerary images in a very different discursive context. Owen reifies culturally recognised symbols of innocent, early twentieth century English religiosity, enabling him to feed into wider discourses about English experiences of war. Drawing on ritual theorists (including Maurice Bloch, Catherine Bell and Roy Rappaport) to discuss particular examples of ritual performative practice represented in royal psalms, it is proposed that such textual representation of royal ritual is an effective and affective means of cultural discourse, because of the power of ritual language (and the sensoria this language evokes) in creating its own realities, authority and hierarchies. This representation of ritual reifies and reinforces cultural memories of the power and divine favour of monarchy, but is sometimes used also to critique, break apart and challenge these memories.

An observed repetitive-progressive pattern of the terms used to describe the leadership of Jesus in Matthew 2, points towards the author’s clear intention to remind the first readers of the Gospel that the honorable birth and promised leadership of Jesus take place in dishonorable and adversarial contexts. Matthew makes use of recitation, thematic elaboration and recontextualization of prophetic texts in the Hebrew Bible to present Jesus as the counter image of the prevalent timocratic leadership preferences in the Mediterranean world of the first century. The infancy narratives in Matthew’s Gospel present Jesus, in stark contrast to Herod the Great, as the promised leader whose leadership is marked by: (a) divine legitimacy, (b) kenotic lowliness, (c) a determined focus on followers, and (d) transformative presence. Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as the child leader who will shepherd his people, provides his first readers with a clear alternative in the conceptual construction and praxis of leadership in contrast to that of the “Herods and Ceasars” of their world.

Felipe Godínez, priest, doctor of theology and dramatist, was tried by the Inquisition for Judaizing in his everyday-life, and convicted through an auto de fe in 1624. He was accused of introducing a Jewish conception of God’s essence and linking the relationship to the chosen people to the Ancient Testament notion of berit. In his theology, in his sermons, and, most importantly, in his dramatic output, especially in his two biblical dramas El arpa de David, now lost, and La reina Ester. What makes Godínez singular in the context of the Spanish Golden Age is that he justified theologically his everyday Judaizing, and translated his theology into artistic expression in his Comedias. We will try to prove in this paper that one of the main claims against him in the process, concerning God’s lack of freedom to break the promises He made to Israelites, to give them his help and assistance, was essentially true, as can be demonstrated by means of a detailed exposition of the notion of berit in one of Godínez’s later work, Las lágrimas de David, a rewriting of his earlier Comedia in which the conception of forgiveness is related to the biblical notion of ?esed.

This paper argues that later than the putative time of the stories and from the perspective of readers who identified, at least to a large extent, with the characters of Ezra and Nehemiah evoked by these books, the stories of the rejection of the foreign wives in E-N contributed to the construction of not only an image of an utopian 'pure' Israel and a memory of a ‘memorable’ attempt to implement it, but also as a reminder that implementing ‘utopia’ ran, not surprisingly, into problems. These stories served, at least for some ancient readers, a ground on which they could (safely) explore (perceived to be) utopian 'purifying' constructions and their unfeasibility (both basic and contingent) and thus contributed to their ability to re-negotiate the boundaries and even character of their ‘utopia’ as well. Considerations about how reading E-N in a way informed by Chronicles contributed to this process will also be advanced.

In John 10:26, the traditional English translation of the Greek particle hoti has been 'because', but does this translation choice fit the context best? This paper suggests that it does not and it explores another. While most uses of this particle do indicate a causal force, other instances require a resulting nuance such as 'so that' or 'consequently'. Some insight into John's meaning may be found in an examination of Aramaic usage of 'ci'. The history and the influence of current English translations on other translations will be investigated as well as the theological implications of the translation choice.

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Grammar of Death in the Psalms relative to verbs of motion The Psalter is a considerably more emotionally salient biblical book than any other part of the Scripture. Examining the emotional states of the Psalmist, his personal religious experience, and the way it is expressed in psalmodic literature is the objective of this paper. The Psalmist often finds himself in emotion-inducing situations, which give rise to intense emotional stimuli. The way he speaks of his personal and religious experience is parrhetic, unhindered and direct (cf.parrhesia). He speaks openly of his displeasure (fear,resentment,anger), or pleasure (joy,hope,gratification). His reaction to mortal dangers and the fear of death is particulary fascinating. The core of the Psalmist's emotional state is apprehension and unease in relation to his destiny. Existentialist anguish can be found in a number of Psalms, and not only within the lament group (cf.Pss 13; 22; etc.). His unease can be easily traced even in Psalms of confidence (cf.Pss 11; 16; etc.). Several factors form the pretext to thanatophobic overtones. One is the threat from his pursuers and enemies, whoever they may be (cf. Pss 13; 18). Another is the Psalmist's mortal fear of being abandoned by God. This he regards as a death sentence. The Psalmist's anguish becomes an important leitmotif. SUMMARY: The Psalmodic language of death carries a specific linguistic representation. While death is the ultimate cessation of motion, the dynamics of the linguistic representation of the Psalmist’s thanatophobia is anything but static. It is comprehensively conveyed by motional grammar and verbs of motion. Death is presented as departure; in directional terms it is downward movement (either to dust or to the Pit). In emotional terms it is physical and mental (psychomotor) agitation. Finally, the Psalmist's experience is inherent to his piety, which is more than 'cultic mode of speech'.

The logic of the process through which the Jewish preacher Jesus the Galilean was exalted and even turned into a godlike figure by some trends in the Nazarene (later, Christian) sect, has been a hotly-debated subject in the last decades. The theory of cognitive dissonance (advanced by Leon Festinger) tackles the logic involved in the reactions of an individual or a group within a context of frustrated beliefs. Whilst this theory has been applied by several scholars (J. Gager, U. Wernick, D. Aune.) to the study of early Christianity, as far as I know it has not been specifically applied to the discussion about the process of deification of Jesus. My paper would explore the possibility that the theory of cognitive dissonance (which entails the concoction of several ra tionalizations and the need of reinforcing the group in order to reduce dissonance) might shed some light on the process which led most Christians to consider Jesus as a divine object of worship.

The so-called War Scroll (1QM) was one of the first seven scrolls discovered in Cave 1 at Qumran in the late 1940s. It describes the forty-year war that the Qumran sectarians believed would take place between the forces of good and evil in the eschatological era. Partly a military manual describing how the war should be fought and partly a theological tract justifying it and predicting its results, 1QM has long been considered one of the core documents reflecting the ideology and beliefs of the Qumran community. There is one aspect of this text, however, that has been largely overlooked since its publication, and that is its poetic aspect. There is a series of prayers that are interspersed in the latter half of the text, and large segments of them (particularly in columns 10, 12 and 14) are often laid out as poetry when translated. It is clear that some of these passages share many of the characteristics of biblical and later Hebrew poetry (although there is certainly no agreement regarding what constitutes poetry in post-biblical Hebrew literature), and although some attention has been paid to the prayers in which they appear, much less has been paid to the literary features that make us think of them as poetry. This paper initiates a study of these poetic passages in 1QM (and parallel textual witnesses when relevant) that will focus on their literary aspects. It will discuss the issues involved in the characterization of this material as poetry and present a close analysis of some of the poetic material.

This paper reads Psalm 137 as survival literature, working with the rubrics of remembrance and imprecation. It looks to Kathleen M. O’Connor’s reading of Jeremiah as survival literature, and Tod Linafelt’s reading of Lamentations as survival literature, and highlights the different configurations of blame in each of these biblical books. These configurations (emphasizing human responsibility, and divine culpability in interaction with human responsibility, respectively) allow a community to reflect upon, and begin to make meaning out of, the experience of exile. The paper then examines Psalm 137, noting that in contrast to Jeremiah and Lamentations, there is no mention of human responsibility or divine culpability. The absence of any clear human responsibility (contra Jeremiah) or divine culpability in interaction with human responsibility (contra Lamentations) leaves the way open for the exercise of remembrance and imprecation as ways of “surviving” exile.

Invited

*Her name is Sulamith, she is the “beloved”, the “dove”, the “fairest among women”. For today’s biblical scholars she is a self-confident woman, in love with her friend. In the perspective of Ambrose, Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, however, she is the church, or the individual soul, longing for God. The paper unfolds the reasons for and the consequences of these interpretations. What would happen if the female lover of Song of Songs were not a woman who loves a man, but a human being who loves God? Why is it that allegoric readings have been rejected harshly at least after Herder? Two contrasting consequences seem to be feared: a) Allegorical readings mitigate and depreciate erotic love. Thinking of erotic love in other ways as of sexual love between two human beings seems to neglect and tame human sexuality for the sake of piety. b) Allegorical readings mitigate and depreciate the sanctity of God. At the end of the 19th century, Christian D. Ginsburg asked with sheer embarrassment: „Would not our minds recoil with horror were we to hear a Christian using it … to illustrate the love of Christ for his Church?“ But even more recent, Duane A. Garrett maintains: „Sexual language should not be brought into the vocabulary of worship and devotion ….“. So the main question is: Does an allegoric interpretation always mean to despise either eroticism or spirituality? In other words: What’s love got to do with the allegorical readings of the Song of Songs?

In keeping with the session theme on martyrdom, this paper will focus on early chiliast interpretations of Revelation 6:9-11. The paper will examine how this passage was used to support the view that martyrs ascended to heaven at death and how that interpretation was coordinated with chiliast readings of Revelation 20 as teaching a future millennium on earth.

The somewhat recently discovered Gabriel Vision is a Hebrew text, which in format closely resembles the Dead Sea Scrolls, with the exception that it is written in ink on stone rather than on parchment or papyrus. Reconstruction and interpretation of this fragmentary text has led to significant debate among scholars. Controversy has primarily centered around Israel Knohl’s hypothesis that the Vision describes a messianic figure, the Danielic “Prince of Princes,” who is killed and resurrected on the third day. Although most scholars disagree with Knohl’s interpretation of the text, nearly all agree that the Gabriel Vision does exhibit striking similarities with the book of Daniel (e.g., John Collins, Matthias Henze). It has even been suggested that the biblical book served as the primary source for the Gabriel Vision and that it is the key to understanding the overall message of the text (so, Daewoong Kim). In this paper, I will examine the purported parallels between the Gabriel Vision and the book of Daniel, as well as identify allusions to several other biblical texts. It is my conclusion that Daniel was but one among several texts used or known by the author of the Gabriel Vision. Further, some of these other texts have even stronger links to the Vision than does Daniel and when brought into discussion can improve our understanding of this enigmatic text.

The gospels contain numerous passages where the disciples fail to understand Jesus’ teaching. The common interpretation of such passages is that (1) the disciples are ignorant of Who is before them because they are so earth-bound in their thinking; the reader is supposed to recoil from their reaction and acknowledge the Passion; and (or) (2) the disciples did not want to deal with the implications of what they had heard, particularly about Jesus’ impending death; the reader is supposed to affirm the resurrection. The one thing that can be said about the disciples is that they are earnest in such faith as they have. A closer look at these passages in the total context of the gospel and of the human psyche presents another, larger meaning for them. According to Psychiatrist Milton Erickson, any person – bound up in his own concept of the world – can be brought to what he calls the “creative moment.” If something occurs that temporarily disables all of the person’s usual responses, suddenly a new response can come about, on a different conceptual level, and bearing sometimes blinding new insights. This is the essence of metanoia! I propose that in the gospel story: (1) the disciples begin in a truly earth-bound state of understanding, but earnestly seeking Jesus’ teaching on an emotional and intellectual level. This state of things is the necessary “ground” for what follows. (2) The resurrection appearances stun them into an inability to voice the usual responses of fear, unbelief, or any purely intellectual response. They are suddenly completely open to perceptions never before encountered and to Jesus as unique – indeed, divine. Hence the sudden and early worship of Jesus by his earliest disciples – and the psychospiritual importance of being earnest.

This study investigates the role of prayer forms in the rhetoric of the Book of the Twelve, focussing attention on the use of the cry of the prophet on the one hand and that of the community on the other. The cries of the prophet to the deity occur throughout the Book of the Twelve at several intervals (e.g., Amos, Habakkuk) where they are linked to the development of theodicy, while the cries of the people to the deity (e.g., Joel, Jonah) are linked to the development of penitence. The introductory pericopae in Zechariah represent a key point in the collection where the two prayer forms intersect, suggesting a relationship between these two themes as key to the message of the collection as a whole.

How does Pseudo-Philo present the Akedah, and what does this disclose about Jewish interpretation of Israel’s foundational narrative in the 2nd Temple Period? Pseudo-Philo's haggadic retelling of Israel’s scriptures is one of the earliest and most important examples of Jewish interpretation of Scripture from Early Judaism. The Akedah, Abraham's offering of Isaac (Gen 22), is referenced and elaborated upon at three critical junctions in Pseudo-Philo’s narrative. These include Balaam’s sacrifice (18.1–6), Deborah’s song (32.1–4), and the song of Jephthah’s daughter (40.2). An additional allusion to the Akedah in the speech of Kenaz (27.6, 12) further demonstrates the importance of the scriptural narrative to Pseudo-Philo. At each of these points, the faithfulness of God to disobedient Israel is anchored in the promises to the ‘fathers.’ This paper will explore the key motifs of 'covenant', 'sacrifice', 'blessing' and ‘mercy’ as expounded in Pseudo-Philo’s Akedah references, thereby shedding light on his hermeneutical logic. I will propose that the Akedah functions as a hermeneutical key for Pseudo-Philo and lays the foundation for his understanding of God’s mercy as rooted in the ‘fathers’ due both to their blameless character and to their obedient acquiescence. This paper will serve to reframe the discussion of the Akedah in Pseudo-Philo by moving it beyond the traditio-historical analyses of Daly, Davies-Chilton, Hayward, Levenson and Fisk into the sphere of theological interpretation of the text in its own right.

Both 1Maccabees and 2Maccabees portray the Sabbath law as a central point of contention during the struggle over Judean law and tradition in the second century BCE (e.g. 1Macc 1:41-50; 2Macc 6:4-6). The Hasmonean family in particular is at times highlighted as holding the Sabbath in high regard (2Macc 5:27). In every available source, there is no question of the commitment to the inherited traditions concerning the Sabbath. However, in two passages, 1Macc 2:29-41 and 9:43-53, the Hasmoneans are portrayed as acting in a way not supported by any extant writings associated with Judean legal tradition: they engage in battle on the Sabbath. 1Maccabees presents this as innovation on the part of the Hasmoneans. Josephus, who summarizes these events based upon 1Maccabees, even recognizes this decision as the basis for normative practice (Antiq. 12.272-277). 2Maccabees makes no such notice. As several scholars (e.g. Bar-Kochva, Doran) have pointed out, this event could hardly have been the first time in Judean history the issue arose. Yet, the report in 1Maccabees becomes the basis for law. This paper will try to solve the problem of how such a "late" narrative text comes to be regarded as law by Josephus. In doing so it will examine the interplay between 1Maccabees, 2Maccabees, and Josephus, and the various Sabbath texts in the inherited legal tradition.

Der Kolosserbrief enthält weder Zitate aus dem Alten Testament noch erwähnt er biblische Personen oder Ereignisse. Das ist im Epheserbrief anders. Insbesondere in paränetischen Kontexten greift dieser z.B. die Tradition des Judentums des zweiten Tempels auf (vgl. Kol 3,18–4,1 mit Eph 5,31/Gen 2,24 und Eph 6,2f./Ex 20,12), nach der die Ethik aus dem Dekalog abzuleiten ist (z.B. Philo, Dec 106-120; Jos, Ant 3,90-93). Die vergleichende Analyse des Schriftgebrauchs in diesen beiden Schriften der Paulustradition ist besonders aufschlussreich, insbesondere unter der Annahme, dass der Epheserbrief in weiten Teilen vom Kolosserbrief literarisch abhängig ist.

Psalm 23 is probably the best known and most loved psalm because of its easily imaginable ?connections with David, the father of psalmody. However, its careful parallel construction ?and multiple intertextual connections with all three segments of the Hebrew Bible suggest ?that it is the product of an accomplished post-exilic theologian rather than a shepherd king. In ?this paper the less well-known connections with Proverbs and Jeremiah will be investigated in ?order to attempt to substantiate the thesis that the theology of Ps 23 in its present shape was ?inspired inter alia by the book of Proverbs and that it in turn also served as a source for parts ?of the book of Jeremiah. Whether it represents a chokmatic revision of an earlier composition ?or the original genius of a wisdom composer will be tabled for discussion. ?

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The focal point of the Passover Sacrifice, as prescribed in the Bible, is the house. This is true for the first Passover in Egypt(Exod. 12:3–4)as well as of the Law of the Passover Offering for the generations—“It shall be eaten in one house: you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house…” (Exod. 12:46). The biblical requirement that the Passover Sacrifice be eaten “in one house” and the ban on taking the meat outside the house are unequivocal. Nonetheless, the mishnaic Sages interpreted these verses differently. According to their exegesis, the Passover Sacrifice may be eaten outside the house—in the courtyard or garden—and even in two or more houses. The Sages converted the “house” into a “company” and rules that the obligation is to eat the Passover Sacrifice in a single company, from which the meat may not be removed. The Sages expressed their treatment of a “company of people” as a “house” in two laws with spatial aspects. According to one of them, any meat from a Passover Sacrifice that has been removed from the company may not be eaten—just like the meat of offerings that have been taken outside the Temple or Jerusalem. According to a second law, the company is obligated to demarcate the space in which it will dine and set it off as a “closed area.” What is the significance of the substitution of a “company” for a “house”? The most obvious answer is the change in the conception of the Passover Sacrifice. The Passover Sacrifice as performed in Egypt was an offering meant to avert the “Destroyer,” and this deliverance is focused on the “home.” For the Sages, by contrast, the Passover Sacrifice is a “family feast,” which is eaten specifically in a “company.”

The study of the book of Acts against its Roman legal background has shown numerous parallels between the text of Acts and the juridical documents (protocols, commentarii/hypomnematismoi) from Roman Egypt. However, there is w hat looks like a striking difference between the narrative of Paul's trial in Acts 24 and that of the legal protocols. Acts has the exordia written down carefully, while the protocols would normally omit this part of the forensic speech. An ingenious attempt was made by Bruce Winter to explain this through the so-called N-documents. This does not seem entirely convincing. We have a direct parallel to exordia in Acts 24 in P. Flor. 61 (85 CE), and presumably in P. Paris 69 (232 CE) and P. Mert. 26 (274 CE). These suggest that at least on some occasions exordia could have been recorded and incorporated into the protocols and thus preserved in writing.

In 1984 a new and much better manuscript of the Latin Vision of Ezra was discovered, which has now shown that its original Greek text was probably written in the earlier second century, most likely in Egypt, as it is not that far in time from the Apocalypse of Peter, with which it shows a close relationship. In my paper I will compare Ezra’descent with those of other descents as analysed by Martha Himmelfarb in het Tours of Hell, but pay more attention to the Orphic tradition in which these descents are standing. I will look at several aspects, such as the frst-person singular, narrative, the question/response structure with the demonstrative pronouns, the grouping of the sinners and the measure-for-measure patters of the punishments. In other words, I hope to show that the Vision displays all the characteristics of an early tour of hell.

Following the legal abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, the morality of colonization became a focus of attention in some circles. William Penn’s example was much discussed in the new Australian colonies, and the peaceful example of Abraham was celebrated in literature supporting the cause of emigration, as for example in The Emigrant’s Friend (1848). The Colonial Office in London took a number of humanitarian initiatives, supporting the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) and requiring evidence of treaties with “Aboriginal Natives” in the Letters Patent of 1836 that established the colony of South Australia. Nevertheless, John Batman’s attempt at a treaty in Victoria was deemed unsuitable. This paper examines the fate of humanitarianism in light of the biblical models adduced at the time.

Jonathan Borofsky (b. 1942) is an American artist best known for his wall drawings, installations and public sculptures. His “Walking to the Sky” (Nasher Sculpture Center, USA, 2005), previous versions of which have been permanently installed in Germany and France, is most often seen as “a compelling tribute to the power of our aspirations and the resilience of the human spirit.” I shall argue, however, that the work might be seen as an example of the ladder-to-heaven motif (Genesis 28:12), pointing beyond "our aspirations and the resilience of the human spirit" to the divine.

In this paper I propose a different interpretation for a particular type of woman: the ’eshet medanim portrayed in four different verses in the book of Proverbs - 21:9; 21:19; 25:24; 27:15. Even though she is not mentioned in the chapters describing the "strange” or "foreign” woman (??? ???/?????), she probably belongs to the category of the negatively portrayed women discussed in the book of Proverbs. The figure of ’eshet medanim has not yet received full attention in biblical research. I suggest that the Massoretic reading (Qere) of the proverbs referring to ’eshet medanim as a Midianite woman might be an echo of or an allusion to a specific biblical type of a "foreign" woman. There are several episodes in the Bible relating to Midianite women associated with cultic practices. For that reason, I would like to suggest that hidden in the substrata of these proverbs one may sense concern and possibly even anxiety relating to this type of "foreign" woman. This attitude can be possibly understood as rising from the historical biblical memory of past traditions associating Midianite women with magic and divination that were generally also linked with idolatry. My interpretation will be demonstrated by presenting the stories of two Midianite women Zipporah (Exod. 4:24-26) and Cozbi (Num. 25:6-9), and one story of a Kenite (a Midianite tribe) woman, Jael (Yael) (Judg. 4:17-21; 5:24-27). Such an interpretation could shed new light on the depiction and stories of Midianite women in the Bible and add to the body of collected knowledge about the complex nature of Midian-Israel interconnections

Diachronic intertextual references are an important and often the only source of information for dating and interpreting texts in the Hebrew Bible. Regarding the Septuagint, intertextual references may also be important for dating and interpretation, but there is an additional question: Does the Septuagint translation refer to the same texts as the Hebrew original? In other words, did the translators recognize and repeat intertextual links in the Hebrew text, or does their translation remove, add, or change intertextual references? And how does intertextuality in the Septuagint affect the dating and interpretation of both the Hebrew and the Greek texts? This paper will take examples from Psalms 146-150 / 145LXX-150LXX to show how these questions may be answered. The selected psalms are likely to be late texts which directly refer to a variety of earlier texts in the Hebrew Bible. Such references can be shown in the Hebrew Masoretic text form as well as the Hebrew Judaean Desert Scrolls. However, the Septuagint does not simply refer to the same texts as the Hebrew text forms but shows significant differences in its intertextual references. This paper will present specific examples for such different intertextual references and their relevance for the overall interpretation of Psalms 146-150 / 145LXX-150LXX. The first part of the paper will focus on intertextual references in the Hebrew text forms of Psalms 146-150, the second part on intertextual references in the Greek Psalms 145LXX-150LXX, and the third part on a comparison of both. The paper will then provide an outline of the consequences of such a comparison both for the interpretation of the Hebrew and the Greek texts on their own and for their relation to each other.

Reference to the divine throne are oft-recurring in Byzantine hymnography. It has been occasionally noted in scholarship that such references constitute a Christian counterpart to Jewish merkavah mysticism. Less attention has been given to the footstool of the divine throne, even though the exhortation in Ps. 99:5 ("Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool, for He is holy!") constitutes the key-verse of several Byzantine festal hymns. In my presentation, I intend to present some examples of hymnographic exegesis of Ps. 99:5, and discuss their liturgical context, hermeneutical presuppositions, and theological intention.

The book of Jonah is theologically a very rich story about a prophet, the prophet's relation to God, and God's relation to his creation. The question is whether this richness is due to the redaction-history of the book with (many?) different authors or is the result of one single author's discussion with the prophetic tradition. In the first part of the paper I will show that the book of Jonah most probably is a literary whole (including the psalm of Jonah in chapter 2). In the second part I will examine the different appellations of God in the book. I will demonstrate that they are very consciously chosen in each position: They express the dynamic relation between God and his vis-à-vis (Jonah, the sailors, the people of Niniveh). This relational approach can show that Jonah, like his "predecessors" Elijah and Jeremiah, despairs of his prophetic appointment and experiences his God as increasingly distant.

The Traditio apostolica (TA) is among the first-rate sources for the study of Early Christian lit-urgy and ecclesiastical law. Ironically, our knowledge about that Church Order itself is very limited – not even its title is authentic. Due to the fact that the attribution to Hippolytus of Rome has been abandoned in recent research, all assumptions concerning date, localization and authorship are questionable again. On the other hand, unexpected possibilities arise from this situation, which allow us to find solutions not imagined before. In my contribution, I would like to attend to the crux interpretum of the anaphora TA 4. First, an analysis of the complex text-critical stratification can render the problem more precisely. Because an adequate interpretation of the phrase "terminum figat" seems impossible, potential parallels will be introduced in order to classify the exact tradition of the descent of Christ we have in TA 4. Especially the Syrian texts have some striking similarities to the former "Roman" prayer. The results – though only a detail from the enigmatic TA – fit well in the actual tendency to locate this influential Church Order in the Christian East.

Der hl. Paulus von Tamma war ein mittelägyptischer Anachoret, der wohl am Ende des 4. Jh. lebte. Von ihm sind eine Reihe asketischer Werke in koptischer Sprache und darüber hinaus hagiographisches Material überliefert. Die längre Fassung der vor wenigen Jahren herausgegebenen arabischen Vita des Paulus beinhaltet eine Episode, die ganz klar auf eine Konkurrenzsituation zwischen dem berühmten Archimandriten des Weißen Klosters Schenute von Atripe und seinen Klostermönchen einerseits und den Wüstenanachoreten andererseits schließen lässt. Im Vortrag wird ein Versuch unternommen, die betreffende Episode der Paulusvita in der Geschichte des ägyptischen Mönchtums des 4.-5. Jh. zu kontextualisieren.

coming soon

A number of interpreters have noted the peculiarity of some of the language with which Job finishes his opening cri de coeur in chapter 3, particularly Job’s emphasis on his lack of “rest” and “quiet.” Building upon Dell’s classification of the genre of Job as parody, this paper provides an examination of how the Joban poet uses terminology and motifs drawn from other biblical texts to present Job as “misusing” the form of a lament in vv. 20-23, setting up a powerful critique of divine promises and governance in vv. 24-26. This intertextual reading can help to illuminate the seemingly odd terminology and imagery in these verses.

Trees in the Bible have rich set of symbolic meanings. In some writers they are associated with longevity, strength, and blessing; other writers emphasize their links to the relations of the nations, their almost overweening size, and the paradox that something so apparently permanent can so easily be brought low, either by human action or divine. Greek and Roman traditions are no less complex, but in different ways. Trees can be emblems of the tamed or untamed worlds, either serviceable to man or outside human control; they can serve as proxy humans. At the same time, there is in Latin literature at least a tradition of amused condescension towards more tradition forms of dendrolatry. Christian Latin writers inherit all these various traditions. Working outwards from the description of Martin’s felling of the miraculous pine in Sulpicius Severus’ Vita Martini, this paper investigates some of the ways they negotiate these traditions. At stake here is the wider question of the relationship of Christian literature to its traditional counterpart, and how far it could claim to be its inheritor, fulfilment, or replacement.

During his intellectual expeditions into the depths of Scripture Philo often brought to light doctrines that seem to be marginal or even contradicting the surface of the literal sense. The doctrine of the Sun as an image of God was one among them. The Bible makes it very clear that any comparison of the invisible Deity to anything visible is utterly dangerous and strictly forbidden; the Sun is specifically mentioned in the list of objects forbidden (cf. Dt 4:19). At the same time, it is precisely the similarity between the most eminently visible entities and the invisible First Principle, which, in the wake of Plato’s analogy of the Sun (Republic VI), had become a central metaphor in the philosophical tradition of Hellenism. Philo speaks about the Sun and its God-like character in various contexts: my paper focuses on a passage in On Dreams (I 72-119). Starting from a passing reference to the greater luminary immediately preceding Jacob’s dream of the heavenly ladder (Gen 28:11), this section evolves into a small treatise on the Sun, made up of a series of interpretations of Biblical passages. The one Philo spends most time on explaining (92-114) contains a Mosaic regulation concerning garments taken to pledge, notably that they are to be returned before the Sun goes down (Ex 22:26-27). This is an opportunity for Philo to go beyond his general claim that the Sun’s similarity to God is in fact a genuinely Mosaic doctrine. I will argue that at this point Philo underscores this claim with an almost revolutionary zeal: denying people their due share of logos equals to condemning them to an intellectual darkness deprived of the light of God. Logos turns out here to include the proper interpretation of Scripture, which must not stop at the surface of the literal sense.

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, the founders of the Frankfurt School, delineated the concept of “the culture industry” in their immensely influential writing The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In this book, they described an all-powerful system which constructs an illusory notion of reality and thus guarantees the subjects’ continued subjection to the capitalist system out of what the people are led to believe is their own free will. The system is all around us but at the same time invisible, since it itself accounts for what is considered true or real. Most attempts to break the premises of this system are negated before even attempted, since “[T]he need which might resist central control has already been suppressed by the control of the individual consciousness.” Moreover, this system also has a mechanism to subsume subversive elements; such elements are “gathered together as culture and neutralized.” But what happens if we counterpoise this system with the no less systematic and overarching conspiracy of the archons in early Christian Gnosticism? Could (mid-twentieth century) Frankfurt have anything to do with (2-3rd century Alexandria)? This paper will present a comparison of the two concepts, underlining both similarities and differences and using each one to throw additional light on the other phenomenon. It will be seen that both the Frankfurt and the gnostic school of thought (or hairesis) attempted to dismantle a system of mass deception by underscoring how and to whose benefit this system functions. Whether this system is a divine or human construction will be seen to be less essential. The resulting portrait of the gnostics as ancient cultural critics, on the one hand, and the possible metaphysical premises lurking behind the materialist culture industry, on the other, could be proved crucial, and would serve as the focus of this paper.

This paper details the data management process for the databasing of geospatial and geometric archaeological data and the visualization and databasing of the 3D, real-time digital model of the archaeological site of Tel Azekah, the surrounding Elah Valley, the ancient border between Judah and the Philistine city of Tel es-Safi/Gath, and the objects yielded by these sites.

In De Abrahamo, Philo recounts the patriarch Abraham’s spiritual journey through allegorical exegesis of the Biblical text. This paper will seek to explore the vital role of contemplation that Philo gives to Abraham’s spiritual journey while at the same time attempting to identify the object of Abraham’s contemplative practice. I would propose that the object of Abraham’s contemplation varies according to the stage of spiritual journey he is situated in. Firstly, Abraham’s contemplation is focused on the natural created order. Secondly he dwells on the inner workings of his own soul. Thirdly, due to an understanding initiated by his theophanic experience, his contemplation is focused on the character and nature of God himself. Each stage of contemplative activity reveals, according to Philo, a spiritual dynamic that is taking place within the soul of the patriarch. Essential to this process is Philo’s insistence that God is intimately involved in the cleansing of Abraham’s soul and his progression towards virtue. Philo’s in-depth description of Abraham’s contemplative activity (throughout the stages of spiritual progression) seems to indicate that he expects this process to be a normative experience for the Jewish people, an experience that culminates in the vision of God.

This paper will argue that in Ezra-Nehemiah and Ezekiel, the concept of *torah* took prominence over *tsedeqah* as a foundational component in social identity formation. The former was constructivist, the intent of which was to define the main attributes of a "restored" society, particularly in the area of social group boundaries, and to redefine the dominant distribution of authority that preexisted the arrival of the immigrants (*golah* community). The law legitimated attitudes of prejudice, which can be seen in the biblical focus on intermarriage and intergroup social relations, but for the purpose of controlling the definitive qualities of a new, idealized social-political normative. Consequently, in this literature *tsedeqah* reflected little more than the individual's or group's actions that were in line with and supportive of that idealized normative.

This paper will investigate how identity formation in Ancient Israel - on account of a creation theology - is reflected in the Pentateuch, and how this feature of the Pentateuch influenced the views that are expressed in Ezra-Nehemiah on the issue of land. In doing so, the study will interpret the views in Ezra-Nehemiah as re-interpretations of the Pentateuchal theology of creation. The study will also show how this dynamic view of how post-exilic literature re-interpreted earlier authoritative material can serve modern-day post-colonial/-apartheid discussions on reconstruction (particularly in African contexts).

Was apocalyptic de facto Christian “magic” in the context of Coptic Christianity? With this question in mind, this paper examines (one kind of) religious experience(s) at Nag Hammadi. Christian apocalypses present “striking parallels with the techniques, formulas and motifs of magical revelation,” but interestingly “omit references to the preparatory ritual techniques” (Aune 2006). The present paper focuses on the Gospel of the Egyptians, the Apocryphon of John, the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul to re-examines how apocalyptic and magic traditions interact in the Nag Hammadi library. After identifying “apocalyptic” traditions behind all three texts, it focuses on certain magical Coptic texts (e.g. Berlin 954, Berlin 5565, Berlin 8313, Berlin 8314, etc.), to surmises the existence of typical Egyptian magical formulas in the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians. Likewise, the Apocryphon of John can be understood as a revelatory magic, which incorporates a list of magical names and a secret dialogue on the soul (Davies 2005). The Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, in turn, condemns magical enchantments. Last, in light of ritual theory, the paper illustrates how apocalyptic traditions were received and contextualized at Nag Hammadi through magical ritual experiences.

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It is generally considered that St. Ignatius of Antioch manifests only a scant inter est or little familiarity with the corpus of writings today designated as 'Old Testament'. His Letters present only three direct quotations from the Old Testament (Prov 3:34 in Eph. 5.3; Prv 18:17 in Magn. 12; Is 52:5 in Tral. 8.2), for paraenetic purposes, and few allusions to various themes characteristic to the Jewish Bible. All these create the impression of an indirect contact with the Old Testament, intermediated by some New Testament writings that Ignatius knew or by the oral tradition. However, we cannot suspect Ignatius for sharing the Gnostic view that the Old Testament could be ascribed to a different god than the God of the New Testament. He proclaims the importance of the Prophets "because they made their proclamation looking toward the gospel and hoped in [Jesus] and awaited him" (Philad. 5.2); he clearly knows and alludes to the 'proof from prophecy' principle (Smyrn. 5.1). Also, the enigmatic passage of Philad. 8.2, "For I heard some say, 'If I do not find (i t) in the archives, I do not believe (it to be) in the Gospel' and when I said 'It is written', they answered me, 'that is just the question'", reflects a specific hermeneutic of the relationship between the Old and the New Testament. Ignatius seems to have little use for the concept of an authoritative Scripture. For him, the real criterion for the validity of the Gospel was not the Old Testament, but the Christian community's contemporary experience of Jesus Christ. In conclusion, my paper aims to analyse the presence of the Old Testament's elements in the Letters of St Ignatius of Antioch and to identify his specific view on the importance of the Jewish Scriptures for the Christian doctrine and practice.

God invited Moses to take up the mission to lead the Israelites to exodus. At the beginning, he tried to find excuses not to take up the task. One of the reasons is that he was a poor speaker by saying that he was heavy in lips and tongue (Exod. 4:10). Can this be the reality? When Moses encountered Pharaoh and requested the release of the Israelites, he was rebuked by Pharaoh. The worst was that Pharaoh misread Moses’ intention as helping the Israelites to find excuse not to work diligently, and thus increased the workload of the Israelites. As a result, the Israelites suffered and blamed Moses for the sufferings. Moses felt despaired and complained that God should not ask him to execute such a difficult task. His reason was that he was “uncircumcised of lips” (Exod. 6:12; 30) which is different from the expression used in the preceding chapter that he was heavy in lips and tongue. Would these two expressions have the same meaning? Why did he use this expression? Would it be a euphemism or something else? Circumcision is an important theme in the plagues narrative. It is a ritual for requesting an acceptance from God. Those who have circumcised are appropriated in participating the Passover and escaping from slaughter. Therefore, I would argue that when Moses said he was uncircumcised of lips, he just wanted to say that he was not the appropriate person to take up the mission. Perhaps the reason was due to his past bad experience as mentioned in chapter two that he had been rejected by his people. Moreover, I suppose the use of the expression is probably a polite way to say no and to avoid upsetting God.

This paper explores the reception history of Exodus 24:3-8 in biblical literature, with a view towards illuminating the ritual use of text readings in post-monarchic contexts. The intertextual allusions to Exodus 24 within their ancient near eastern ritual contexts reveal an oral component of the process of Second Temple scripturalization. Exodus 24:3-8 is the first passage according to the internal chronology of the Pentateuch which features a ceremony in which a textual Torah artifact is read aloud to a group, and Joshua 8:30-35, 2 Kings 23:1-3, and Nehemiah 8:1-12 all seem to echo the reading ceremony in Exodus 24. These texts exhibit a post-monarchic interest in textual authority, and Joshua 8 and Nehemiah 8 specifically take up the Persian interest in Mosaic authority. Making use of ritual theory and comparative evidence, this study focuses on the unique features of the Exodus chapter that are paralleled within the ritualized readings, including the language used to describe the physical presentation of the book, the people's reception of and responses to the reading, the appeal to Mosaic authority in the reading, and naming of the document. While these reading ceremonies have frequently been named "covenant (renewal) ceremonies," they have not often been interpreted in light of Exodus 24. Further evidence in Jubilees demonstrates the prominence of Exodus 24 and textuality in the Second Temple Jewish imagination, supporting the influence of this portion of the Sinai pericope in Israelite cultures. By analyzing the parallels and differences in these ritual readings, this project will aim to shed light on the ritual role of written texts in ancient Israel and the gradual development of authoritative texts leading into the Second Temple Period.

The harsh punishment of the female culprit in a text that in its final form seems to assume the culpability of both the female and male perpetrators has for some time puzzled biblical commentators. How can Miriam and Aaron rebel against Moses (Numb. 12:1-2) and only Miriam be punished (Numb. 12:10)? Some have suggested that Aaron was not an original part of the story or that his role as the high priest had a bearing on the narrative. Others have claimed that Aaron acted merely as Miriam’s helper and thus spared her fate. This paper will argue that through the means of deconstructive critique Aaron could be perceived as establishing a moment of indecision in the text where two opposed readings become equally possible. In the character of Yahweh we see portrayed the mode of autocratic paternal reign that insists upon order and hierarchy, dooming the female perpetrator to disease and banishment (Numb. 12:10, 14). However, this neatly ordered structure is disturbed in the character of Aaron who shows allegiance to the female instigator (Numb. 12:11), even pleading for her innocence whilst persuading Moses to heal her (Numb. 12:11-12). Moreover, although Aaron is presented as the paradigmatic priest (Numb. 12:10-12), he problematizes the distinction between the offices of a prophet (Numb. 12:6), priest (Numb. 12:10) and that of Moses (Numb. 12:7-8) due to Yahweh’s confirmation of Aaron’s oracular function (Numb. 12:6) as well as Yahweh’s ability to commune with equal clarity with each of these offices both in Numbers 12 and the book of Numbers at large (cf. Numb. 18:8). Answering the question ‘what does Aaron do to help?’, it is claimed that within Aaron we are provided with a glimpse of an alternative authority structure of shared, multifaceted leadership based not upon hierarchy but allegiance with the female.

The book of Qohelet touches on a wide range of topics and comprises diverse literary patterns. Notwithstanding this stylistic diversity, scholars have discerned within the book two main literary patterns: a collection of proverbs and exhortations on the one hand and reflective passages formulated as a first-person monologue on the other. The author also incorporates three lyrical poems into the narrative sequence: the character of life and nature (1:3-11), the poem of ‘times’ (3:1-9) and the allegory of old age (11:7-12:7). As early as 1974, J. Coppens proposed to discern the phases of the book’s redaction by distinguishing between the three aforementioned principal literary patterns. Coppens notes that the reflective passages manifest a content driven process, yet he accords this no further elaboration beyond a brief remark. Over the years, scholars scrutinized the reflective passages. Some scholars suggested criteria for their categorization; some addressed their rhetorical facets; while others sorted them into sub-genres. However, they have not hitherto been researched from a content and structural perspective as an independent composition. In this paper I will seek to exposit the content and the method of the reflective passages distribution throughout the book of Qohelet as an independent composition. I will argue that the exposure of their order and content are key to revealing the fundamental premises formulated in the main body of the book. I will begin by defining the indicators that delineate the reflective passages in Qohelet. I will then describe their content and the method of their distribution throughout the book. Finally, I will show the connection between the content and order of the reflective passages and the conception of "World Order" in the book of Qohelet.

Over time different archives were discovered in Mesopotamia, in which clay tablets were well conserved. They are very important because they relate to Judeans, who had lived in Mesopotamia during the Persian period. The oldest source refers to the Judean King Yoyakin, who was deported to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem and lived at the Babylonian court. Other tablets (5th cent. B.C.E.), like the one of the Murashu archive, were mostly written in order to register economical transactions. These sources are very precious, especially because they offer a view on the presence and the situation of the Jews in the Diaspora in the Persian period, from which we have few sources. After a brief overview on this material I shall focus on the personal names, which could be a precious source relating to the identity, religious habits and the relations between the imperial power and the minorities. Can we assert a link between the names on the clay tablets and the names in the Hebrew Bible? Are there theophoric elements, which are not present in the Hebrew Canon (especially in the Book of Nehemia and Ezra)? If yes, what could that mean?

The Genre Apocalypse Reconsidered The Apocalyptic Imagination, first published in 1984, was conceived as a complement to Apocalypse. The Morphology of a Genre (1979). The earlier project was an attempt to define the genre apocalypse, not to give a full account of its history or relation to other literature. This paper will review the debate about the definition of the genre as it has unfolded over the last thirty years and clarify how the diachronic study of the Jewish apocalypses was intended to complement it. John J. Collins, Yale.

In Virginia Morris’s study of women killers in Victorian fiction, she argues that novelists of the subject often focused on “the ambiguous guilt and radical daring of women who chose to act for themselves.” As these violent women struck out against their male oppressors, they became characters in “part of a larger, legitimate gender battle—a power struggle between men and women—rather than simply individual examples of depravity or immorality” (Double Jeopardy: Women Who Kill in Victorian Fiction, 3). Much of Morris’s analysis fits well with the Victorian Jael created by John Byrne Leicester Warren (aka Lord de Tabley) in his dramatic poem 1873 poem, “Jael.” The poem is an extended monologue that relates Jael’s post-murder perspective as she “begins to think it over.” Such introspection results in an exploration of her motives that is both harshly critical of her act and sensitive to her socially inscribed gender role. The poem depicts Jael’s murderous blow as an impulsive and violent protest against her constricted role as wife and mother. At the same time, it undercuts the masculinity of Heber and Barak, suggesting that such weak men are as much to blame for Sisera’s death as Jael herself.

Burgeoning Holiness: Fecundity Let Loose in Ezekiel 34–36

This presentation will focus on the concept of the dispositif in relation to Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis. The term dispositif is derived from the apparatus theory, pioneered by Jean-Louis Baudry in the early 1970s. Apparatus theory is grounded in the notion that cinema’s technological base (appareil de base, all the machinery necessary to produce and to screen a film) is an ideological construct. Even though Baudry’s analysis, firmly rooted in Marxist theory, might still be relevant within the larger field of classic film theory, the concept has undergone some significant changes in the last 25 years. Tom Gunning’s 1986 intervention via his now famous coining of the term “cinema of attractions” and the role dispositif plays in his assessment of Early Cinema, has given new meaning to the disposif as a tool for analysis. In short, Gunning’s definition of the dispositif of the cinema of attractions hints to the fact that the interrelationship between a technology, a specific film form and a specific spectator can and should be historicized. Frank Kessler, in his 2006 appropriation of the term dispositif, proposes to retool the term in order for it to be a heuristic tool. As he argues, “a historical analysis based on the concept of the dispositif re-interpreted in a pragmatic perspective could actually take into account different uses of one and the same text within different exhibition contexts, or different historical framings” (Kessler, “The Cinema of Attractions as Dispositif”, 2006: 61). Taking my cue from Kessler, I will argue that in the case of the restored 2010 version of Lang’s Metropolis, the configuration of technology, text and spectatorship, results in a rereading of the film’s obvious religious themes, characters and imagery, within a contemporary context.

The panegyric Gregory the Theologian wrote for Basil the Great three years after his death is probably a revised and amplified version of an oration. Structured on a natural biographical thread that highlights the encounter of the two saints, the text includes biblical insertions, in a delicate equilibrium with the references to the heritage of the classical culture, mostly in the opening part, devoted to their studies in Athens. The classical hints are predominantly literary and mythological, but the etymological perspective is also present, in a skilful and subtle manner. The biblical mentions or allusions, on the other side, are multifarious, both in content and place of insertion. An inventory of these elements interwoven in the Panegyric on Saint Basil the Great is expected to widen its significance.

One of the principle distinguishing factors between ancient schools of philosophy was their imagination of the structure and order of the cosmic space surrounding them. Their unique conception of space also resulted in a distinctive notion of the role and purpose of humanity within that broader cosmology. This paper proposes to examine how two central philosophical schools of the first century ancient world integrated their view of human ethics with their imagination of cosmic space. First, we will examine the Epicureans, who held to a version of Democritus’ atomistic theory in which the whole of the cosmos is composed of tiny particles of matter. While typically, these particles move mechanistically downward within a void apart from the influence of the deities, they could also move in a “swerve,” which is an unpredictable movement to the side that ultimately breaks any sense of deterministic fatalism. This imagination of their own particular cosmos—-which interestingly could be held while simultaneously allowing for the possibility of an infinite number of worlds-—resulted in the view that freedom from pain and worry was the ultimate goal of the human life. Next, we will examine the Stoics, who held to a radically different cosmology, in which the cosmos is a single, living entity composed of an active and passive force that is shared by everything in the cosmos. This vision of their world resulted in a stark, deterministic view of the events of the cosmos, in which the goal of human life becomes action in accordance with nature. Finally, the paper will briefly conclude with a few suggestions for how these findings could be useful for further study within biblical literature, particularly highlighting the need for integration between conceptions of cosmic space and individual ethics in the early Christian community.

The exchanges of Ishmael for Isaac and a substitute for Jesus highlight the historical development of the phenomenon of narrative exchange in the Islamic exegetical tradition through the substitution of key figures. The Quranic account of Abraham’s testing (Q 37.100-109) leaves the sacrificial son unnamed, just as the ambiguous phrase in the crucifixion account, wa-lakin shubbiha lahum (Q 4.157), left exegetical space for reading a substitute on the cross. This paper explores the contextual frame in which the development of character substitutions mirrored that of narrative exchange in evolving Islamic thought, in light of Islam’s changing relationship to compilations of biblical lore and other “Jewish” sources. The isra’iliyyat and qisas al-anbiya’ narratives provided foundational material in early Islam. These sources significantly shaped Muslim consciousness vis-à-vis its Abrahamic brothers. In sources utilizing prophetic folklore, the identity of Abraham’s sacrifice was not resolved for roughly two hundred years, and the trajectory of accepting or rejecting Isaac follows the same path as that of the appropriate use or dismissal of Jewish contributors. Yet for the substitute of Jesus, the trajectory of narrative exchange is largely dependent on proponents of Jewish sources, and developed in approximately the same timeframe. By exploring the historical development of character substitution in the stories of Abraham’s sacrifice and Jesus’ crucifixion, this study follows the thought of those who accepted or rejected the Muslim converts (former Jewish rabbi) Ka’b al-Ahbar (d. 654) and (arguably Jewish) Wahb bin Munabbih (d. 732). The result of this development was the normalization of Ishmael (against Ka’b and Wahb) and acceptance of the substitute for Jesus (in agreement with Wahb). These exegetical narrative exchanges trace the historical development of the Islamic relationship to Jewish lore, illustrating that influence of Jewish narratives was dependent on the contextual frame of a developing, distinctively Islamic identity.

The Gothic New Testament, translated in the fourth century by bishop Wulfila, presents a potentially invaluable source of information regarding how the NT was understood in the early church. This is particularly the case where the translation does not follow the Greek exactly, but shows variation from the original. It is in these cases that questions of interpretation come clearly to the fore. One notable area where this may be seen is in the translation of concepts of 'knowing'. While Greek uses two principal verbs for 'knowing' and 'coming to know', namely oida and gignosko, Gothic uses at least six: witan 'to know', kunnan 'to know', ufkunnan 'to recognise', fraþjan 'to understand', magan 'to be able to' and leisan 'to know through learning'. The most important distinction is that between witan and kunnan. Evidence is presented accounting for the difference between these verbs with reference to the distinction between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description (Russell, B. 1917. "Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description" Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1910-11), a distinction which is not matched by that existing between ??da and ?????s??. On some occasions gignosko is also translated by fraþjan 'to understand', e.g. Jn 8:27, 10:6, where the knowledge referred to corresponds to another kind of knowledge, namely knowledge by inference. Yet in Jn 8:43, where the EVV from at least the KJV translate with 'to understand' vel. sim, the Gothic does not translate this way, but rather translates with kunnan implying knowledge by acquaintance. This paper sets Wulfila's translation choice in this case in the context of the broader themes and goals of the Gospel of John, seeks to explain how the different translations have developed, and explores the exegetical implications which follow in both cases for the passage in which this verse sits.

Although i (the square root of minus one) was generally accepted as a mathematical fact before the middle of the nineteenth century, Cambridge University regarded i with incredulity until well into the 1880s. In a different corner of the academic vineyard, Biblical scholars of my own vintage were taught to disbelieve in Hebrew numerical alphabets. Many of us will recall one dismissive sentence: ‘This usage is not Biblical; the first traces of it are found on Maccabean coins’ [J Weingreen, A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew (Oxford, 1959), 2]. A few of us will also remember how John McLeish restated the old orthodoxy [Number (London, 1991), 95]: ‘Some historians even ask how the Jewish nation survived for 15 or 16 centuries in spite of having no system of written numerals: the first Hebrew numerals known appear on coins of the Hasmonean dynasty in the 2nd century.’ Well, well! Orthodoxies crumble like the works of Ozymandias. Thus chemists have stopped believing in phlogiston, while anatomists have stopped believing in vestigial organs. For their part, more and more Biblical scholars have come to accept that the Hebrew alphabet possessed two numerical forms: one having the values 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 300 400, and the other having the values 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22. It is convenient to name these two forms, after the values of their final letters, respectively as ‘the 400 alphabet’ and ‘the 22 alphabet’. [text truncated]

One of the most intriguing aspects of the infancy narrative in Luke is the three-fold repetition of the description of the infant Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger (Luke 2:7, 12, 16). Why would the author emphasize such a description in his retelling of the birth? Many commentators point to Isaiah 1:3 as the source of Luke’s allusion. This paper proposes an allusion to Euripides’ Ion, in which the identification of Ion as a son of the god Apollo is connected to cloths left with the infant Ion. The body of the paper examines the plausibility of such a claim, by noting other allusions to Ion in Luke-Acts, namely Acts 21:39 and Ion 8, and examining the function such an allusion would have. Richard Hays’ multiple tests for echoes within Scripture provide the structure and the main questions for my discussion of this proposed allusion to Ion. In the end, I contend that an allusion to Ion offers an important possibility to explain the three-fold allusion to the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

The Books of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia are both sterling examples of how later traditions reuse sacred texts and traditions in their compositional techniques. One example, but perhaps the most intriguing within these often overlooked early Christian writings, is the manifold Melchizedek-traditions we find harmonized by the redactors of the texts. While these Melchizedek-figures ultimately derive from the text of the Hebrew Bible (Gen 14:18-20; Ps 110:4) and the New Testament (Heb 7), their guises within these two 3rd-century texts reflect how the redactors compiled numerous traditions together through their unique reading strategies. In order to reveal the intertextual techniques at work within these two texts, this paper will identify and detail the existence of twelve distinct Melchizedek-traditions within the chapters of the Books of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia. The content of these traditions and the functions ascribed to Melchizedek are often surprising, distinct, and even self-contradictory (ranging from a Melchizedek described as the supreme god to a more servile Melchizedek who functions merely as a low-ranking member of the cosmic hierarchy) and their differences and quantity further reveals how frequently the Melchizedek-figure was reused and rethought in antiquity. The key aspects of each tradition and the combined effect of the redactors' work will in this paper be used to situate the Melchizedek of the Books of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia within the Melchizedek-traditions of Second Temple Judaism and later times (including the Melchizedek-traditions found in Genesis, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (4Q400-407; 11Q17; Mas1k), 11QMelchizedek, Philo of Alexandria, 2 Book of Enoch, Hebrews, Josephus, and the Melchizedek-Tractate) comparing their interaction with, and reuse of, sacred texts and traditions, their reading strategies, and their compositional techniques.

While the book of Samuel opens with Samuel’s birth, Hannah plays a central role in the story. Her portrayal as an exemplary figure suggests that the reader is meant to identify her “double” in the text as a whole. She is presented as an ordinary woman of faith who initiates a transformation in her life by turning directly to God in a vow. As is well known, her hymn is a secondary addition to the narrative, which contributes greatly to the shaping of her character. Her two prayers contain a full circle of turning to God: from request (1 Sam 1:11) to thanksgiving (1 Sam 2:1-10). She is transformed from being an agent of her own change of fate into a woman of wisdom, leader, and prophetess. As such, she delivers eternal truths about God and His ways to those on pilgrimage. Who is Hannah’s “mirror image” in the book of Samuel? While two of the recurrent roots used in the story of Samuel’s birth—??"? and ??"?—appear to link key figures in the book—Saul, Jonathan, and Nathan—to Hannah, it is David, whose name is not linked with the opening narrative, whose character most closely resembles hers. Like Hannah, he turns to God in prayer when in distress and gives thanks for God’s intervention. Like her, he also presents his life experience as the basis for insights into God ways, stresses that those of faith must act righteously. Like her, he is a person of prayer, a poet, wise man, and prophet. The book thus marks him out—primarily at the end of the narrative—as the person who takes Hannah as his role model and imitates her behaviour.

Tithemi and its twenty compounds grammaticalize ten distinct events n the Septuagint and New Testament. This paper resolves the occurrences of tithemi and its twenty compounds according to the event that they grammaticalize and proposes procedures for deriving nine of the events from one base event through incremental changes in the conceptualizations of the events. The discussion then summarizes the relationships among the events and proposes a further basis for relating the events.

The only Priestly pre-Exodus narrative to be framed in explicitly chronological terms is the Flood account. Here I would like to suggest that P may be based in this unique case on earlier models that were in possession of a precise temporal framework in light of a recently published Akkadian text from Ugarit (RS 94.2953) and Berossus’ version of the Flood story.

Larger Jewish communities are known from several provinces and cities of the Roman Empire (e.g. Rome, Asia Minor). We read in written sources and on inscriptions about their synagogues, religious hierarchy, etc. Otherwise, from other provinces (e.g. Pannonia, Moesia, etc.) we have only sporadic literary sources and archaeological finds mentioning or connected to Jews. Based on them the historical reconstruction is more than difficult. A basic question of the research is, if it is possible to reconstruct any history/ies of Jewish community/ies, or we can speak only about Jewish individuals turning up in some settlements of the Roman Empire. In order to be able to come to conclusions, this paper focuses on some methodological questions of Jewish diaspora studies, such as identification of finds as Jewish, group of finds as connected to one community, Jews in Roman legislation, etc. Besides the methodological questions an overview of the most important finds is also needed, and will be done in this presentation.

Im 19. Jahrhundert wurde Chanukka, das Fest, das Jahrhunderte lang eher ein Nischendasein im jüdischen Festtagskalender geführt hatte, wurde in den zionistischen Strömungen in Österreich und Deutschland geradezu „wiederbelebt.“ Der Sieg des traditionellen Judentums gegenüber dem assimilierten hellenisierten Judentum wurde im Zionismus zu einem Symbol nationaler Befreiung. In Wien wurde am 20. Dezember 1883 die erste zionistische Makkabäerfeier durch die Studentenverbindung „Kadima" ins Leben gerufen. In den zionistischen Jugendbewegungen in Österreich und Deutschland wurde durch ihre Chanukka-Feiern als „Chag ha-Makkabim" (Fest der Makkabäer) oder „Chag ha-Chaschmonaim" (Fest der Hasmonäer) ein bewusster Kontrapunkt gegen die seltsame Verschmelzung von Weihnachten und Chanukka als „Weihnukka" der assimilierten jüdischen Bürgerhäuser gesetzt. Die Instrumentalisierung der Makkabäer im Zionismus sollte seinen Höhepunkt im Ersten Weltkrieg finden. Martin Buber (1878-1965) politisierte Chanukka 1914 in seiner Rede „Die Tempelweihe“ sogar so weit, indem er den Weltkrieg mit dem Krieg der Makkabäer verglich. In dieser Rede, die er bei einer zionistischen Chanukka-Feier gehalten hatte, bezeichnete Buber die Teilnahme am Weltkrieg als eine befreiende national-jüdische Erfahrung. So schrieb Heinrich Loewe (1869-1951): “Wenn wir als Bürger unseres Vaterlandes kämpfen, so leuchtet uns die Tapferkeit unserer Ahnen, der Todesmut der Makkabäer, der Riesenkampf eines Bar-Kochba und der Heldentod Hunderttausender unseres Volkes in allen Zeiten als glorreiches Beispiel voran!“ (Jüdische Rundschau 9. Jahrgang, Nr. 32, S.344) Der Vortrag wird anhand der zionistischen Artikel, Gedichte und Reden wie der Kampf der Makkabäer in der Zeit des Weltkrieges symbolisch herangezogen wurde und dass dennoch auch diese patriotischen Zionisten nicht vom Antisemitismus verschont blieben.

Ethnicity is a term rather too loosely used these days to designate different kinds of groups identities, for example, racial, physiognomic (e.g. Caucasian, black) and sometimes religious (e.g. Jewish). For the historian, anthropologist and archaeologist a fairly precise definition is desirable, one that does not merely identify a distinct social group, but does so on the basis of agreed criteria. My own definition derives from a historical perspective and recognises that the recognition of ‘ethne’ in antiquity was occasioned by the breakdown of national identities and the emergence of transnational ones (i.e. empires). The clearest examples available to the biblical scholar are the Roman empire and, to a lesser extent, the Achaemenid empire. Ethnicity is in these circumstances a useful tool in determining those populations governed by customs that offer a basis for the settlement of legal disputes. Where the participants behave according tom the same norms, legal administration can usually be left to such groups, a policy that nevertheless entails recognition of a leadership of such groups and an authorised structure of judges and courts which would, ultimately, have the authority of the emperor or imperial law to support its work. Hence, with the advent of the sovereign state in modern times, ethnicity is neither necessary nor useful, and tho is why the word has shifted towards genetic or religious categories. For the biblical scholar, two aspects of ethnicity are particularly important. One is the book of Ezra, in which the concept is applied very clearly (but this does not guarantee the historicity of the figure of Ezra!); the other is the search for an ‘ethnic’ Israel in the pre-monarchic and monarchic periods, where, in my view, the term has no useful application at all: ‘Israel’ can only be either a political or (less probably) a tribal designation.

This paper examines what is presumably the most ancient Muslim ascetic work which deals with the theme of “holy war,” the Kitab al-Jihad by Abd Allah b. al-Mubarak (d. 797). In the Kitab al-Jihad, the value of death itself emerges as a deep inspiration for the believer and the true objective to strive for on the battlefield. This aspect is – to a certain extent – quite puzzling, when we consider the general nature and “institutional” goals of military effort in Islam: defeating the enemy and emerging victorious. Without rejecting these secular aims, the ascetic warrior nevertheless reverses the perspective: real triumph is achieved only with personal “defeat,” the death at the hands of the enemy. The aims of the Islamic state as such have little to do with this profoundly individualist vision, which is more centered on the warrior’s intentions and personal devotion than on military strategy and obedience to a superior. This intriguing reversal of meaning concerning the military effort challenges the widely-accepted idea of the irreconcilable difference between the martyrs in jihad, who sacrifice their lives just for the advance of Islam, and Christian martyrs of the first centuries, who voluntarily suffer death just as a testimony of faith and refusal to give up their religion. In the passionate search for a final encounter with God, animating ascetics from both sides, several ideas present in Ibn al-Mubarak’s Kitab al-Jihad can be compared to what we find in the Christian “Acta Martyrum.” This literature will thus be used in comparison to Ibn al-Mubarak’s work, specifically taking into account the Syriac acts of the martyrdom of Shemon Bar Sabbae (d. 339), bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon killed during the persecutions of Shapur II.

“Echo” is a useful metaphor for exploring Mark. My approach presupposes that this Gospel retains features of oral literature, among them the use of modulated repetitions that give coherence to the narrative, but my goal is to go beyond literary criticism of these “textual echoes” to study the “contextual echoes” that resonate with the reader’s social experience. The best explanation of why Mark was so well received by early Christians (to the point of eliciting two “expanded versions” we now call Matthew and Luke) is because it sounded true as a portrait of their Jesus. Mark was produced and was recognized as canonical in a Tradition that was much more than “Oral tradition”, understood as a transmission of pieces of information. “Tradition” here names a set of beliefs and practices that defines a way of life. Mark resonated with this lived experience. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how students can deepen their reading of Mark by “listening” to a text resonating with other passages in Scripture and with Tradition. I have chosen Mk 10:42-45 because these teachings are extremely rich in textual and contextual echoes. Concretely, I want students to work out on the connections of 10:42-45 with its dramatic counterpart in 10:35-41; to relate 10:32-45 to the previous two repetitions of the pattern “passion prediction - disciples’ failure - Jesus’ teaching” (8:31-9:1; 9:30-50); and to listen to other textual echoes inside Mark (6:14-29; 15:1-15; etc.) and in the Old Testament (Dn 7, 9-14; Is 52,13-53,12; etc.). But I also want the student to go out from the world of the text to the worlds behind and in front of the text. Mark’s contextual echoes resonate with practices of the Church as an alternative polis that challenges the powers of the world.

Part of a larger project on Psalm 146 and its reception, this paper will focus on the quotation of Psalm 146:7-8 in the Messianic Apocalypse (4Q521). By way of comparison, attention will also be paid to the Septuagint translation of Psalm 146 and to the allusion to Psalm 146:3-4 in 1 Maccabees 2:62-63. The paper will pose the question of what happened to the meaning of the Psalm in these texts. Has it been enriched, changed, limited, made more specific, made more general, etc.? Has this stage of reception of the Psalm led to insights that may still be relevant for readers of the Psalm today? Attention will be paid, for example, to the fact that the Divine Name is prominently present in Psalm 146 but absent in 4Q521. Moreover, the general statements about the LORD (possibly remembering his past actions) in the Psalm are set in a future context in 4Q521. And does the reference to God's anointed one (Messiah) in 4Q521 mean that Psalm 146 is read in a messianic way? Is there any indication that he is the actor through whom God will perform his deeds? Moreover, while the Psalm is about praising God "as long as I am still there" and only speaks about the LORD himself as being king forever, 4Q521 expresses the hope that the Lord will give life to the dead and that he will honor them upon the throne of an eternal kingdom (the exact meaning of the phrase being debated). Is this the beginning of a rereading of the Psalm that includes the perspective of eternal life, as later famously expressed by Isaac Watts: "And when my voice is lost in death, Praise shall employ my nobler powers; My days of praise shall ne'er be past"?

The silent iconographic evidence from the Iron Age II Period (Late 8th-Early 6th century BC), depicted on the Hebrew seals and seal impressions (in contrast to the vociferous epigraphic discoveries), is often illuminated by the archaeological finds as exposed in the excavations. The Old Testament provides additional information in understanding the silent iconography. The paper will focus on a specific iconography and will point on a particular motif in light of the recent archaeological finds from the City of David in Jerusalem and the biblical source.

Scholars characterize the language of the OG version of the book of Job as a very 'free' translation in 'good' Greek, attesting to an evident effort at literary style. When a translator claims some 'freedom' in the way in which he handles his source text, as seems to be the case with the OG translator of Job, literary motivations are likely to be able to explain certain translational differences. What precisely the aspects of this 'literary character' of OG Job are, and how they relate to the Hebrew text, has not yet been studied systematically. In this paper, I aim to demonstrate the way in which the translator rendered his Vorlage in such a way that the result attests to OG Job being a literary creation in its own right, using Job 5,6-7 as an example. OG Job 5,6-7 contains a number of deviations when compared to the Hebrew of the MT. From the viewpoint of the use of stylistic features (i.e. identifiable characteristics that lend the text a certain ornatus), one observes that certain features of the Hebrew are retained (e.g. the chiasmus), lost (e.g. the anaphora) or altered (e.g. the parallelism), while new ones are being introduced (e.g. the epiphora). I discuss these features individually, before demonstrating how they interact with one another. Next, the use of these features in the OG as an aspect of the translation technique is shown to interact with other aspects of the translation technique of OG Job examined by scholars such as C. Cox. I then look at what effect these features bring about – ultimately asking if, and if so in what way, the effect of their use in the Greek text differs from that of the Hebrew.

In my lecture I will discuss two verbs that appear in the Bible only rarely: hagmi'ini (Genesis 24:17) and watte'ar (Genesis 24:20). These verbs occur more frequently in Mishnaic Hebrew and are not restricted in their meaning to their biblical context. As a result of their more widespread usage in Mishnaic Hebrew, their meanings in their respective biblical contexts are clarified beyond a shadow of doubt. In my lecture, I will show how we can correctly interpret the respective biblical verses on the basis of the usage of these verbs in Mishnaic Hebrew. Understanding these two difficult biblical lexemes according to their more widespread usage in Mishnaic Hebrew is further supported by the Held method, both as regards the immediate context of these verses, and their wider context. In the first example, the main evidence is found in Rabbinic Hebrew. In the second example, etymological evidence is also forthcoming from the ancient Semitic languages, but Rabbinic Hebrew provides the main semantic evidence. Rabbinic Hebrew was first used to interpret difficult words or hapax legomena in the Bible by some medieval grammarians. Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882-942 CE) authored a book called Kitab al-sab?in laftáh, which clarifies the interpretation of eighty-five rare biblical terms by utilizing Rabbinic Hebrew. This book was written as part of his polemic against the Karaites: Saadia wanted to prove that the Oral Torah was indispensable for understanding the Written Torah and to show that Rabbinic Hebrew has the same holy status as does Biblical Hebrew. After all, both languages are employed to convey the words of the Living God.

Background: All four gospels report JBaptist had disciples; but John is more explicit by mentioning Andrew and the unnamed disciple (John 1:35-40). In the Synoptics, Mark 1:16-18 has Simon Peter and his brother Andrew follow Jesus nearby the Sea of Galilee. Luke 5:1-11 (cf. 6:12-16) omits entirely the identity of Andrew as Peter’s brother, and replaces instead James and John as the two sons of Zebedee. Matthew 4:18-22 is similar to Luke, in that Simon is the first called disciple but, unlike Luke, Andrew is here identified as Peter’s brother. Objectives: John presents Andrew as a more important figure than his depiction in the Synoptics (John 1:35-51). In this lengthier story John mentions five characters: the unspecified disciple, Andrew and his brother Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael. More particular is the presentation of the first two disciples (1:35-40), namely, the unnamed disciple in 1:35-39 and Andrew with an explicit identification in 1:40. John hints that these first two disciples originally belong to JBaptist (1:35), that after they have heard JBaptist proclaiming Jesus as the Lamb of God (1:36) they follow Jesus (1:37), and that all this happens within the third day (1:35). Conclusion: If Harold W. Attridge’s “genre bending” merits validity, John’s presentation of Jesus’ first disciples seems to have bended the Synoptic call of Jesus’ first disciples and thus displays a clear awareness of these Gospel traditions. While the Synoptics pay more attention to Peter, James, and John as prominent representatives of the West, the Fourth Gospel focuses on Andrew and the unnamed disciple as the top tier of Jesus’ followers. Seen from this viewpoint, John’s Gospel presents its own story of the first disciples that is both distinct from and, at the same time, dependent on earlier Christian traditions.

Some (late) Persian apocalyptic texts labelled Alexander the Great with the epithet kilisayig, likely “the ecclesiastical” (Algsandar i-Kilisayig, with variations in the spelling of both names). This epithet is intriguing for two reasons: first, Alexander never had anything to do with the Church for obvious chronological reasons; and secondly, and more importantly here, because kilisayig together with its variants is not a Middle Persian word. It appears to be a corruption of “ecclesiastical” and has been duly translated so by most scholars (Gignoux, Cereti, Shapira). This paper discusses the likelihood that the epithet derives from a process of borrowing a Syriac term (in which case the epithet would come from Greek via the Syriac kelesa). It also considers if another, less-travelled path might be the correct one, taking us back to the Avestan word k’r’sa. Both paths have been suggested in earlier publications, but have not yet been set against a background of considering the role of aversion or hatred against Alexander. Beyond these specific questions, the paper considers the broader issues of the role and extent of contacts between Zoroastrians and Eastern Christians as well as the use of an Avestan word, that might be much older than Alexander and his “misdeeds” (from a Persian perspective), namely the role of the common root *PIE. If we are dealing with a borrowing from a Greek loanword into Syriac and further into Middle Persian, the epithet “the accursed” (-gizistag) for Alexander is easily explained: he is the then-current evil ruler of the Greeks at the time of the composition of the late Persian apocalypses (e.g., the Zand-‘ Wahman Yasn). Yet the ZWY also shows that there are many redactional layers. His “cursing” may have much older roots.

Die Prophetia Jeremiae ad Pashur in der koptischen und äthiopischen Kirche

The recognition that ascetics wielded considerable worldly influence is scarcely a new insight to scholars of late antiquity. Already Peter Brown in his seminal 1971 article on the Holy Man drew attention to the unique position ascetics occupied vis-à-vis their communities: set apart from society, they enjoyed a privileged vantage point with regard to its problems; having renounced all claim to worldly power, they could speak with the authority of heaven. Yet even in the Christian East, the setting of Brown's original article, ascetic authority took on a variety of guises, appearing differently in the urban contexts of Antioch and Edessa than in their rural surroundings. The Canons ascribed to Rabbula of Edessa, for example, contain guidance for local clergy and monastics, including the famous bnay and bna¯t qya¯ma¯, with regard to their involvement in disputes or legal affairs. The canons' prohibitions and regulations provide readers with a glimpse into the role these Christian "professionals" assumed amidst Edessa's urban society, much of which seems to have revolved around exercising functions frequently associated with Roman law. The canons do not forbid or even discourage service as arbiters, or even as advocates, as long as the suits in which they are involved were conducted justly, without resorting to bribery or receiving bribes, and without unseemly amounts of violence. Indeed, the depiction of judicial responsibility and the concomitant hazards ascetic judges might be facing coheres well with the kind of legal and judicial ethics Christian leaders elsewhere in the Roman Empire sought to inculcate in their subordinates. This paper accordingly plans to offer a glimpse at the intersection of Roman law and Christian practice in the Syrian realm, with an eye towards the complex and multifaceted nature of ascetic authority in these settings.

In Philo’s description of the prophecy of Moses one can find different text variations to the Septuagint text of Ex (14, 11-13; 16, 19; 16, 25; 32, 27…). Philo defines the prophetic statements there as spoken by Moses own authority, as a divine strength (“enthusiasm“) took hold of him. The textual variants will be presented, examined and questioned (are there textual variants to the Septuagint? other traditions…?). In most of his other writings, when Philo treats the subject of prophecy, he is very accurate with the use of the text of the Septuagint, but in these passages he seems not to adhere to this principle. And paradoxically these deviations are found in the treatise, in which he writes a hymn to the edition of the Septuagint and its exact and inspired translation of the Hebrew (Chaldean) text into Greek, - A paradox which needs to be resolved. In this presentation some interpretations perspective and resulting issues will be addressed.

The language of Amos represents a wonderful mixture of humour and threat, sarcasm and irony, hyperbole and prediction. Holding the fabric of this conversation together is his place within the prophetic minority – the Yahweh-only party. Making use of socio-linguistics, and my previous published work on Jeremiah, I take a closer look at the implications of such a group and their recourse to anti-language, over-lexicalisation, insider-humour and all the shades of irony one might expect. Typically of an anti-society group, Amos makes use of such insider-humour, redefining the boundaries of his alliance; type-casting the perceived enemies (the rich and powerful) and creating connections with other threatened groups (the poor and oppressed). Typically of an anti-language, Amos exaggerates the differences between insider and outsider, speaking in shades of irony of ‘ivory houses’, ‘the cattle of Bashan’ while appealing to his successful attempts to save the rich from the wrath of God. In reading Amos, we fall victim to the power of his rhetoric – seeing the rich and powerful as the enemies of society – destructive and wholly evil, and ultimately doomed. In the process we accept this view of a divided society with clear boundaries and obvious evils. But was this in fact the case? I suggest that Amos has presented us with a classic caricature of his society – exaggerating the depiction of the ‘enemy’ and their manifold sins. The rhetoric is persuasive but it allows no shades of grey – only the starkly polarised colours of black and white, rich and poor, oppressors and oppressed. Instinctively, as anti-language is intended to do, we are compelled to side with the poor. We are drawn into the world of Amos, and his anti-society, quickly accepting his definition of society, his depiction of reality, and his stark caricature of the rich.

The topic of ‘God and emotions’ has been highly debated in Biblical scholarship, especially from a theological point of view. In the past decade, some Old Testament scholars have adopted a cognitive linguistic approach, frequently arguing that the theological perspective in previous research often has blurred the linguistic data. Since the critique of previous research focuses on the disadvantages of a theological perspective, a more thetic, linguistic description of the subject ‘God and emotions’ is still lacking. Besides, since cognitive linguistic studies focus on emotion categories like ‘anger’ and ‘joy’, the meaning and conceptualization of particular Biblical Hebrew emotion words often remain unclear. The cognitive linguistic onomasiological study of the topic ‘God and emotions’ needs to be complemented with a semasiological approach. In this paper, a semasiological approach to Biblical Hebrew emotion words is presented and applied in order to describe the semantic components of divine emotions. The focus is on the Hebrew root qn’ (to be jealous of, envious of, zealous for), which occurs 85 times throughout the Hebrew Bible (42x with a human subject, 43x with a divine subject) First, the need for a particular cognitive linguistic semantic theory to (emotion) words – the theory of the prototype scenario – will be explained. Second, the value of this approach for describing the aspects (e.g. gender) of divine emotions will be analyzed by means of a case study of the Hebrew root qn’. The case study will show that the cognitive linguistic theory of the prototype scenario, when applied to particular emotion words, produces both linguistic and theological clarity with respect to the topic of ‘God and emotions’.

In the ancient Near-Eastern texts, the importance of the First Event is enormous. Personal divine creator(s) or the proto-elements of creation define the shape, structures and the destiny of the world and the relationships of its inhabitants. Cosmological prologues may be added to texts of various content, from sacred hymns to wisdom texts to dynastic chronicles to magical healing spells and so on. This is because the life, development and death of everything that exists have been defined by their beginning. Heiopolitan, Hermopolitan, Theban, Memphite and some other cosmological traditions of ancient Egypt tell their own stories about zep tepi, the moment between non-existence and the first throb of the cosmic pulsation, which set in motion the sacred mechanisms of the universe. The Hebrew Bible is very receptive to many of Egyptian concepts. Biblical authors may transform them, re-write them anew to adapt them to different theological world-views, but they are still attracted to them. Although Egypt might be portrayed as a religious and ideological arch-enemy of the Israelite people, Biblical cosmogonies, which lie at the very centre of the Biblical concept of the world, draw on the Egyptian ideas about the subject of the great beginning. The paper examines these multi-dimensional relationships between the texts of the two cultures.

In scholarship on Galatians the meaning of Paul's "weakness in the flesh" (Gal. 4:13) has been variously interpreted as either a disability or an illness of some kind. As Paul recounts his initial visit with the Galatians he states that they did not "spit at him," which metaphorically refers to rejection, but here in this context is linked to spitting at evil spirits that may accompany disability or illnesses. In my paper I will argue that Paul's "weakness" was the result of persecution (and so could be related to disability or illness that resulted from persecution), but the main focus will be on the rhetoric of cursing (cf. 1:8–9; 3:1; 3:10–14; 4:29–30; 5:10, 12) and blessing (4:15; 6:16) in the letter. I think that a fruitful way to read this cursing language is in relation to the suffering and persecution mentioned throughout the letter, including the suffering of Christ on the cross. Ultimately, it will be argued that Paul is trying to rhetorically shape things so that the Galatians do not perceive their own suffering or Paul's suffering as a curse. This is because the Messiah endured the curse (3:10–14). Just as the Galatians did not spit on Paul when he first arrived but rather identified with him in his feeble state of weakness, so now Paul is calling the Galatians to endure their suffering (cf. 3:4; 4:29) in solidarity with him (4:12) and to remember the blessing (4:15) they had when they communed with the suffering Paul.

This paper examines the use of exemplars in the Epistle to the Hebrews to show how its author created models worthy of emulation within contexts of suffering and death. Like many Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian authors before him, the author of Hebrews utilized the rhetorical device of exempla to strengthen his argument and exhortation. Three groups of exemplars surface in Hebrews—each defined by near-death experiences, endurance in suffering, and faithfulness to God. The first group, figures from Israel’s past (11:2–40), connected the recipients of the epistle to their ancestors in God’s family who were plagued by affliction in the face of death. These figures acted in faith in times of difficulty and faced death with the assurance of God’s promise and hope beyond this life. The second group consisted of the community themselves as the author recounts their own faithfulness during a time of suffering in their past (10:32–36). As similar afflictions continued to plague their community (12:5–11; 13:3, 13), the author encourages them to demonstrate the same attitudes and behavior that marked their previous ordeal. The third exemplar is Jesus Christ, who faced the same and even more severe trials, yet modeled endurance and obedience to God (2:9–18; 4:15; 5:1–10; 12:2 –3; 13:12). Jesus’ endurance in suffering and obedience to the point of death provides a model of behavior for the community. They are to look to his example in such times and not be afraid to follow him—even if it means affliction, shame, and possibly death. By presenting these exemplars the author offers hope beyond death, honor in the midst of public shame, and a model of behavior in times of struggle. The author’s use of exemplars, it is argued, tells us something of the problem being addressed in the epistle.

In large parts of Deuteronomy, Israel is idealized as “contrast-society” to other nations and groups. This paper especially focuses on the post-exilic redactional layers of Deuteronomy, which deal with this contrast in a very special way. Because of the expected interpretation by the others as their own success and strength in Deut 32:26-27, Jhwh declares not to destroy his own people. This wrong interpretation is contrasted by Deut 29:21-28: The foreigner, coming from a distant country, will interpret Israel’s destruction in just the right way. In these verses, Israel is described from the others’ perspective. This change of perspective can also be illustrated in Deut 4. The paper will demonstrate that especially in Deut 4:6-8 this view as external and neutral perspective is used to solve inner-Israelite conflicts regarding the relation of prayer and law. By regarding Israel as a great nation on account of their extraordinary wisdom, the other nations support the construction of an Israelite identity.

Personification is the act of attributing human characteristics to non-living things. This attribution of human properties to inanimate or abstract entities functions as a subtype of (verb) metaphor. Thus forming part of metaphorical language, personifications produce special dynamics, mainly when verbs which are more literally used for human or animal actions or noise are used within the metaphorical construction, i.e. “The wind began to scream”. This example already leads us to the book of psalms which is full of figurative language including a huge amount of personifications. Within these metaphorical utterances, terms of nature are used, e.g. “The mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs” (Ps 114:4), but also abstract terms, e.g. “Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps” (Ps 85:14). After a general overview of the personifications in the psalter, a number of specific phrases will be analyzed with the aim to investigate the special dynamics of verb metaphors. The methodological background of this research are the guidelines of the metaphor-analysis proposed by Ruben Zimmermann and the conceptual blending theory of metaphor applied to biblical texts by Pierre van Hecke. Finally, examples will be given as to how these analyzed personifications in the psalter are used and reused in Christian literature.

This paper takes its cue from genealogical theorists who argue for the subversive and rebellious functions of genealogies within political contexts. Drawing upon Van Henten’s view of Judith as an alternative leader to Moses and the author’s own work on Judith, the paper argues that Judith’s genealogy not only legitimates her as savior of her people, but also legitimates her deconstruction of the strict Deuteronomic/retributional theology which her people clearly espouse. Judith’s subversion of this law enables her not only to rise above the Judaean’s mentality and become their savior, but also frees God from the strictures which this law imposed on divine behavior. In the process, this wise woman teaches the faithful (but fearful) post-exilic community to think differently about themselves and their God, and to stand up and be counted in the face of various challenging, life-threatening situations.

Following a war the leaders of the combatant sides were wont to perform acts that symbolized the new situation that was created in the wake of the war. In the ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Bible the victors would document their triumph and the defeated their surrender by means of actions that epitomized their new situations. The defeated would don sackcloth, bind themselves with cord, while the victors would erect monuments of triumph, spread salt on the defeated city or change its name. The victors would hang the defeated or their heads in public areas and document these images in carved reliefs that were erected in significant places. At the same time, some triumphant leaders would treat the defeated honorably, such as King Ahab of Israel, who took the defeated Aramean king Ben Hadad onto his chariot. In my remarks I shall lay out a catalogue of the above-mentioned symbolic acts, examine how widely they were used. I will seek to establish a hierarchy of such acts in order to obtain a scale of values by which to assess their relative power and by that means to determine whether the acts were chosen with regard to their suitability to a particular event. Finally, I will investigate whether it is possible to classify the various symbolic acts chronologically and geographically, in order to obtain a list of symbolic acts organized according to time and place for the ancient Near East.

This paper addresses the issue of how a psychological hermeneutic compared with a theological hermeneutic illumines the interpretation of Psalm 1

Eve figures prominently in paintings, reliefs, mosaics, church-wall murals, print forms, book illustrations, and—as noted by Katie Edwards in her recent book Admen and Eve: The Bible in Contemporary Advertising—in modern advertizing designed to “tempt” (female) consumers to buy the product in question. Generally speaking, Eve appears in visual representations as a negative figure beguiled by the serpent and occasionally even being identified with it, imposing her will on Adam and tempting him to eat from the forbidden fruit. This characterization is not based on Genesis 3 but rather on an exegetical tradition that first appears in ancient Jewish literature, was passed on through Christian patristic writings through to the medieval period, and has now been inherited by modernity/postmodernity. Through the generations, Jewish and Christian exegetical traditions have attributed responsibility for the “fall” in the Garden of Eden primarily to Eve. This dominant interpretive tendency whose mark is still visible today, adduces Eve as primarily to blame for (the) “original sin” and its consequences. Herein, an apologetic is customarily made on Adam’s behalf and Eve directly blamed as being easily seduced, lustful, alluring, and solely responsible for the sin—and thus also the exile from the Garden of Eden, human suffering, and death. In this lecture, I endeavour to concretize the way in which these exegetical traditions are exemplified in medieval art, which can be understood as a visual interpretation of the biblical text and illustrate the influence they have exerted on art through to the twenty-first century.

A Survey of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha in the Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition

Among the small hidden pearls in Syriac literature are the stories about Guria, Shmona, and ?abbib, who suffered martyrdom in Edessa in the wake of the Diocletian persecution. The text about ?abbib, published in 1865 by W. Wright, tells that this martyr was buried in the same grave as Guria and Shmona, whose martyrdom was at this time known solely from a short Greek version. In 1896, however, F. Conybeare published a translation of a longer Armenian version, and in 1899 Ignatius Ephraem Rahmani published a Syriac version from a 15th century manuscript found at St Mark Monastery in Jerusalem. This edition led to a thorough discussion among philologists. In 1911 E. von Dobschütz published an extensive study, on the basis of which he concluded that the Syriac text was to be considered the original, and that the Armenian was translated from a Syriac, not Greek, manuscript. The St Mark manuscript von Dobschütz considered to represent a revised version of the mid-fourth century original, which he, besides, thought to be very much influenced by the established forms of martyr biographies. F.C. Burkitt in the introduction to his edition, in a work called Euphemia and the Goth and published in 1913, takes a more positive attitude towards the historicity of the story. He removes a few inconceivable details while pointing to a number of particulars that grant reliability to the narrative at large; also, the few biblical quotations, mostly from Matthew Ch. 10, agree rather with the Old Syriac version than with the Peshitta. The paper will discuss the arguments of the different opinions.

The name Israel suggests that El, the oldest Semitic term for God, may have been the original God of early Israel, but by the eighth century BCE El had been equated with Yahweh. Along with the name, Yahweh inherited various traits of El. Iconography of that time demonstrates that both Israel and Judah took for granted that other deities besides Yahweh existed, and many seals testify to the fact that the state religion of Northern Israel, i.e. “official” Yahwism, was affected by the prevalence of solar symbolism. The celestial-solar character of deities was often emphasised by the addition of solar discs (Mullen 1980:84). This paper presents two examples of polytheistic iconography relating to the theme of transcendent messenger activity in the Bible, one dating to about 900 BCE, the other to the Ptolemaic period. The first example is of an ostrich with a sun disk at the neck. Such images of ostriches, representing “The Lord of the Ostriches” appeared on scaraboids in Israel and Judah at the time of transition from the tenth to the ninth century. In Palestine ancient Egyptian motifs with solar connections such as uraei and falcons were virtually omnipresent by c. 925 BCE (Mullen 1980:84). Such concepts of divine mediation continue into the Ptolemaic age. For instance the second example, a Gnostic gem dated to ca. 200-100 BCE, provides evidence of solar motifs from Egyptian religion which facilitated concepts of Jewish angelology. The god Bait seated on a throne (representing Horus the falcon) has a sun-disk and uraeus on his head. It is proposed that these motifs provided the foundation for the conceptual changes in Jewish angelology which eventually led to the ancient world’s accounting of divine mediation from God to mankind.

Ravelry is an international knitting and crochet forum with over 3 million members. There are many groups on the forums about more than just knitting or crochet. From perusing the forums, I have learned a lot about US members’ culture and daily living and the large role of the different churches in this respect. I remember one thread in particular where the complaint was that the church had no role model for a functioning family. This is true, because the Holy Family as depicted in tradition is a model of a dysfunctional family. A poor, inept father who is too old to beget a child by his young wife, a mother who has a very strong fixation on her son and an child who ends up on a cross between other felons with his relatives looking on from afar. Not to mention John 3:16. How did we get to this Family? It seems to be there from the beginning of the gospel of Matthew with its genealogy. That list starts out as proof of Joseph’s royal descent and then seems to annul its conclusion about Jesus by the bump in the road that casts doubts on Jesus parentage from both sides. This genealogy, together with Luke’s can be held responsible for a lot of suffering today as the outcome of its reading through the centuries. Here, I am going to focus on the father, whose role is so minimal after a grand opening.

This paper discusses male circumcision. It focuses on both the theological and legal implications of the practice of male circumcision in South Africa. Traditional male circumcision in South Africa is practiced among several tribes, including amaXhosa, baPedi, baTswana and vhaVenda. The paper focuses on the amaXhosa in the Eastern Cape, baSotho in the Free State and the people of Limpopo (baTsonga, baPedi and vhaVenda). The practice of traditional circumcision is done in such a way that young men are removed from their usual environment to a secluded area, normally referred to as the initiation school, where they undergo the rite of passage into manhood. During that period the young men are taught how to behave as matured adults when they return to their communities. The actual cutting of the foreskin is just one of the things that the young men go through while in seclusion. The paper has five sections. First, it deals with the procedure and purpose of male circumcision. Second, it discusses Biblical justification for the ritual of Circumcision. The third focus is the legal implications of the custom of traditional circumcision. Fourth, the paper deals with issues of contextualization and circumcision. And, finally, the paper deals with the role of African Biblical hermeneutics in dealing with the issue of traditional circumcision.

*Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, was highly appreciated in the Early Church. The Church Fathers often used her as an example to illustrate various theological truths and spiritual interpretations. The paper will focus on her as symbol of the church; first of all, the house of Rahab is a type of the church and symbol of church unity, and the fact that she and her family were saved also pointed to the inclusion of the gentiles into the church. The red cord which Rahab had to hang from the window plays a very important role in Rahab’s salvation; in typological interpretation it is a symbol of salvation through the blood of Christ. Therefore the story of Rahab (Jos. 2; 6:17.22-25) is compared to the great deeds of the God of the Israelites, who saved Noah in the ark and led his people out of Egypt.

Samuel's initiatory prophetic experience narrated in 1 Samuel 3 has already endured much scholarly debate. Not the least of the issues addressed is the experience reflected in this narrative and the reason for, or purpose served by, its ambiguous representation. Is it a dream (vv. 3—4), an incubation scene (v. 3), a waking revelation (vv. 6—10), or a bit of each? Should 1 Samuel 3 be read as a prophetic call narrative or as an account of the peaceful transfer of leadership? Is this leadership conceptualized as primarily priestly or prophetic? Recent papers of the SBL PTAC section argue that (1) Samuel's identity as a prophet (????) resulted from editing (DtrH) of a prior Samuel narrative that featured an early form of priest-visionary (Marvin A. Sweeney, 'Samuel's Institutional Identity in the Deuteronomistic History', 2011); (2) The main objective of 1 Samuel 3 was "to lay the foundation to [Samuel's] prophetic reputation", so YHWH could then use him as an agent provocateur ; a rather sinister role that has a complex relation with the Deuteronomic concept of prophecy, exemplified in Deuteronomy 18 and 28 (Serge Frolov, '1 Samuel 1—8 The Prophet as Agent Provocateur', 2011); (3) "Samuel’s failure to recognize Yahweh’s voice leads Eli to authorize the word against his house and to accept his overthrow" (Stephen C. Russell, 'Samuel’s Theophany in its Ancient Context', 2013). I propose to examine the bearing of these findings on those of my earlier work regarding 1 Samuel 3, namely that it depicted a waking experience, with features of dream accounts and incubation rituals all carefully manipulated to highlight Samuel's progress from a "boy" to a Moses-type "trustworthy prophet" (Numbers 12:6—8).

In Jeremiah 1, i.e. in the beginning of the book of Jeremiah, the textual differences between LXX and MT are striking: According to LXX-Jer 1 (and its Hebrew Vorlage) the book contains first and foremost words of God spoken through Jeremiah. According to MT-Jer 1, however, the book presents itself as words of and about Jeremiah. MT-Jer depicts itself as a narrative about the prophet Jeremiah. LXX-Jer (and its Hebrew Vorlage) wants to communicate the word of God through the mouth of the prophet. Furthermore, the two versions describe opponents and the target audience of the prophet different. This presentation will argue that protomasoretic redactors changed the profile of the book deliberately.

According to the Quran, God raised the mountain above the Israelites when establishing the covenant with them (2:63, 93; 4:154). In the latter version God says, “We said to them, ‘Do not transgress the Sabbath’ as We made a firm covenant with them” (la ta'du fi'l-sabt wa'akhadhna minhum mithaqan 'alizan). Yet in the very next verse (4:155) it states explicitly that they did indeed break the covenant. In the earlier version (2:65), presumably directed to a Jewish audience, the Quran has, “Certainly you know of those among you who transgressed the Sabbath when We said to them, ‘Become apes, skulking.’” This obscure reference is filled out somewhat in 7:163-66, where the inhabitants of a town by the sea “become apes, skulking” after having somehow broken the Sabbath in relation to fishing – the actual transgression is not specified. Still elsewhere, God curses “People of the Book” by making some of them into apes and pigs. Scholars have searched in vain for a pre-Islamic tale that may have informed these Quranic references. This presentation will re-consider the motifs of covenant, Sinaitic revelation and Sabbath observance in Jewish, Christian, and emergent Islamic practice in order to offer a different explanation.

Xenophon of Athens (ca. 430-354 BCE) was among the first Greek writers to give significant attention to the economy. In addition to writing the Oeconomicus, he also wrote Ways and Means (Poroi), a work that addressed the ongoing financial crisis in Athens following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. This paper will give attention to some of the key aspects of Xenophon’s economic thought in his various works. (This paper is for the first project.)

Terminator 5 is currently being filmed, thirty years, and three sequels after Cameron's The Terminator first appeared in cinemas. Through three decades of change, Terminator's apocalyptic visions of the end of the world, good vs. evil, and humans vs. other have not lost their appeal. There is now a range of scholarship available examining how The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day use material from the book of Revelation, but focus on the later instalments of the series is lacking. Therefore, this paper proposes to build on this previous Terminator scholarship in two ways. First, it will focus on the repeated use of themes and images from the book of Revelation within all four Terminator films in order to examine how they have developed since The Terminator's 1984 inception. This discussion will highlight how the blurring of categories, dialogue with the past, and confusion of good vs. evil have heightened as the franchise has progressed. Secondly, it will use this exploration of the use of apocalyptic themes in the Terminator films in order to re-read the text of Revelation itself. For example, the character of the Terminator will be bought into dialogue with the Son of Man figure, and the relocation of film scenes will be compared to Revelation's use of the Hebrew Bible. This will suggest fresh interpretations for the text of Revelation, demonstrating how its use of images and motifs is more akin to Terminator sequels than The Terminator itself. Ultimately, it will demonstrate that the enduring appeal of the Terminator franchise and the book of Revelation is not their presentations of the future, but rather their dialogue with the past.

Diaspora studies has fruitfully investigated the ways diaspora communities have arranged themselves in new and different environments, have imported old maps only to superimpose them onto new landscapes, etc. Much of this has been aimed at questioning a nationalist paradigm, according to which a coherent collective identity is entirely dependent on territorialism. From this same (nationalist) perspective, in a Jewish cultural context diaspora has often been understood to equal no-place: Jewish place in the diaspora is properly in its sacred texts, in study, in learning; in utopia (the messianic future) and – so the nationalist thinking goes, a collective identity can properly be established only in a place of one’s own conceived of as territory. In the absence of sovereign control over one’s own territory, a collective does not properly (or coherently) inhabit an identity. Alternately, the romantics (Heinrich Heine, and following him, George Steiner a.o.) have valued that model, only positively considering textuality as homeland. However, in this paper I discuss briefly that the rabbinic sages of the Mishnah and beyond precisely refused this alternative and developed a theory of diasporic spatiality by ritualizing the residential community, thus making possible 'Jewish place' in diaspora. This approach is diasporic by virtue of insisting on the inherent multi-dimensionality of space.

T?s?a, the so-called “Olympian Sacrifice“, is a common feature of ancient Greek religious activity, involving the ceremonial slaughter of animals, followed by sacred meals. The central act of this custom is the ritual burning of bovine or caprine thighs (µ???a) and hips/tails (?s???). Despite more than two hundred years of learned debate, modern scientific opinion has not taken full advantage of the abundant archaeozoological data. Carefully excavated layers of sacrificial remains from the Artemision of Ephesos, dating back to the Protogeometric period, have provided the opportunity for a reassessment of the Greek ritual of burnt offering, based on detailed archaeozoological analysis and referring to all available literary and iconographic sources. Synthesis of this evidence clearly indicates a sacrificial tradition of burning cut-out caprine and bovine thigh bones (ossa femoris, patellae), wrapped in two-ply omental fat (????? d?pt??a) and the likewise defleshed caudal part of the dorsal spine (ossa sacralia, caudalia, maybe including the last vertebra lumbalis). This interpretation has been fostered by experimental attempts. The archaeozoological evidence does not support proposed connections between “Olympian sacrifice” and the Central European—in particular Alpine—tradition of burnt offering, the latter being characterized by burning of the victim’s head and feet. However, similarities in ritual practice between Jewish sacrifice, especially sacrifice on behalf of a priest's institution (Leviticus 8:22-8), and Greek ??s?a are evident, even if not yet confirmed by archaeozoological records. Obeying divine orders, a ram’s whole intestinal fat, including the kidneys, its fat tail and the right hind-limb had to be burnt on the altar. Further investigations in sacrificial residuals might help to clarify possible coincidences in the origins of Western Semitic and Greek burnt offerings.

After Zadok, the most important priest at the start of the Davidic line of monarchs, Bnei Zadok were mentioned in the biblical book of Ezekiel. The Dead Sea Scrolls mention Bnei Zadok and in the Pharisee-Sadducee debates of the rabbinic sages we find Zadok. There have been numerous discussions of the identity of these figures. My contribution is not through its reevaluation so much as via the introduction of a late Second Temple figure named Zadok into the above list of sources. Traditionally the Zadok of the Sadducees became linked to the Zadok of Avot deRabbi Natan in which such a personality is introduced alongside Boetheus as disciples of Antigonus Ish Soho. This in turn reopens the question as to whether the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Sadducees of early rabbinic texts returned to the same Second Temple personality or whether their traditional perspective of the Davidic Zadok still hold true. What this paper will introduce is yet one more Second Temple Zadok into the above mix. It will then speculate as to the probability that the disparate groups of Second Temple Judaism all had the same person in mind and if so why. What do conflicting claims and traditions of these various groups tell us about the reliability of tradition within the various groups? Which literary form proves to be most reliable: attestations to named sources; late legends, (that is, where they form part of longer stories) or legal material. Priestly genealogical lists will also be consulted.

*

Although the alternation of law and narrative is a distinct characteristic of the book of Numbers, it is striking that only two festivals are integrated in the narrative setting of the book: The Pesach in Num 9:1-14 and the Sabbath in Num 15:31-35. While the Pesach is celebrated explicitly by all Israelites before the departure from Sinai, keeping the Sabbath is recounted merely in an implicit way in the story of the condemnation of the wood-gatherer. But both narratives are connected by including a particular addition or innovation. In both instances a decision is adjourned for a short time, since the existing regulations are obviously incomplete (Num 9:8; 15: 34). Therefore there is need for further provision. The following decision is based on an additional revelation by God to Moses (Num 9:9; 15:35). Both cases are legal applications, in which an innovative aspect is included. Following Simeon Chavel and others both cases form a coherent group with Lev 24:10–23; Num 27:1–11. Although similarities between these texts obviously exist, the cases have differences in particular in terms of legal hermeneutical and literary history. The same holds true if one considers the passages on the Pesach and the Sabbath alone. The paper discusses the literary history and the legal hermeneutics of these passages against the background of the alternation of law and narrative in the book of Numbers in general.

The Deuteronomic Kingship Law (Dtn 17:14-20) has been well-researched and consensus has been reached that its scope differs from that of other perspectives on kingship in the Bible. Its relation – or lack of it – to kingship as presented in the Deuteronomistic History or the Psalms has been the subject of quite a number of articles and monographs, and it is agreed upon to a great extent that kingship is democratised through the use of the term "brother" in this law (Dtn 17:15; 20). What, however, are the implications of the theological concepts underlying this term in its application to the kingship context as presented in its Deuteronomic form? Although the Kingship Law has typically been treated along historical lines as a result of its often simultaneously shedding light and casting shadows on our reading of the Deuteronomistic History, this paper will be focusing on a lexemic approach to the text with, in addition, specific attention to two theological constructs "endemic" to the Book of Deuteronomy, namely Cult Centralisation and, understood in a particular way, also Privilegrecht. These two constructs are powerful Deuteronomic instruments of persuasion and as such worthy of our attention within this particular leadership context.

Over the last several years I have worked on three inscriptions that have become a part of the secondary literature on Paul’s assemblies for all the wrong reasons—the Erastus inscription that allegedly informs us about social stratification in the Corinthian assemblies, the Junia Theodora inscription that allegedly informs us about female leadership in the Kenchreai assembly, and the customs house inscription that allegedly informs us about the social profile of the Ephesian assemblies. In this paper I use these examples of bad epigraphic interpretation to develop suggestions for better practice. A more robust use of inscriptions in Pauline studies will require us to pay more attention to the artifacts themselves. It will also require us to recognize the institutional imperatives and individual desire that tend to hijack our interpretive projects.

The lecture focuses on the commentary by R. Meir Leibush Malbim (1809–1879) on one incident—the division of the kingdom. I begin from the notion that we need to take a direct look at the text and focus on a single, complete passage, rather than citing scattershot examples from all over the commentary. The fundamental principle behind Malbim’s exegesis of this story is binary opposition. Throughout he contrasts two types of monarchy—“limited” and “unlimited.” From time to time he supplements this binary opposition with other pairs of contraries: two types of prophecy, distinguished by the possibility that the prediction will not come to pass (v. 15); two groups among the northern tribes—the educated stratum and the people at large (v. 16). I will examine additional facets of his commentary on this story and see how they fit in with the fundamental idea: providing a legal and halakhic background to the events, distinguishing among near synonyms, exposing the characters’ motives, clarifying the meaning of the terms applied to the characters, and dealing with redundancies and contradictions. All of these are meant to serve what I see as the overarching goal of Malbim’s commentary—demonstrating the thematic and formal perfection of the biblical text.

Jubilees’ narrative culminates in the revelation of the feasts of Pesah and shabbath. Events of the exodus from Egypt are not detailed in the narrative, and some events are referred to in the legal part only. On the other hand the narrative is enlarged upon a new element, namely that of the working of Mastema and its demonic hosts. Mastema is not an independent power, its working is subordained to divine will actuated by angelic mediation. The law of the feast of Passover (without the mention of Massot) follows the narrative of the exodus from Egypt, without a reference to etiological elements of the biblical narrative. While Pesah in Exodus is definitely a memorial day (cf. Ex2:14) Jubilees refers to it as an immanent law, an eternal decree engraved upon the heavenly tablets, ordained forever (cf. Jub 49:8). Pesah is here a ritualization of an immanent divine law a propos of a divine rescue from a demonic invasion, that of the killing of the firstborn (Jub 49:2), a ritual that is to be kept in the future as a protection against demonic plagues (Jub 49:15). In Jubilees’ narrative Pesah is juxtaposed with another immanent law, that of the Shabbat existing from the creation (cf. Jub 2:17-33). Keeping this law following the entering the Promised Land will be the means for Israel for a gradual purification from sins – at the same time a process of riddance from Mastema and its impure demonic host.

The opening of Trito-Isaiah unfolds a concept of sedaqa which in its universal orientation is unique for the Old Testament. It is unique, because it unfolds the meaning of a universal understanding of sedaqa without hesitation and with full consequences. This perspective is explored in view of the individual at its limits. The perspective of belonging to the nation of God is exemplarily for all humankind opened up for foreigners and Eunuchs, the ones at the boundaries of the community. Central condition is a life lived in accordance to sedaqa. The text shows a reciprocal approach to this condition. Foreigners and Eunuchs who practice sedaqa by keeping the Sabbath and holding fast the covenant are thereby ritually integrated into the nation of God. The outcome of this is that the house of YHWH is called a house of prayer for all people (Is 56:7). On this background the paper will focus on two questions. First, a central aspect of the paper will focus on the question of the understanding of sedaqa, which is a main topic in the whole of the Book of Isaiah. Here, it will be of main interest which concepts of Proto-Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah are received, continued and modified. Second, the significance of the redaction history of Is 56:1-8 as the opening of Trito-Isaiah will be analyzed. What is the intention of a text which shows such an exposed understanding of sedaqa regarding the composition of the whole Book? In order to answer this question it will be necessary to take into consideration not only questions of redaction criticism regarding Trito-Isaiah but also regarding the whole of the Book of Isaiah.

Q. 9:30 is the only passage in the Quran that mentions the term “Ibn Allah,” which is understood as "Son of God." The passage states, “The Jews say, 'Ezra is Ibn Allah'; and the Christians say, 'The Messiah is Ibn Allah.' That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah kill them; how deluded they are.” Early Muslim exegetes understood that the Jewish community does not claim that Ezra is the Son of God, and so they suggest that the circumstances of revelation is when a Jew or a group of three Jews come to Muhammad making this statement. Some classical exegetes suppose that there was perhaps a Jewish sect that made this claim. Al-Maqdisi (d. 966) states that Palestinian Jews made such a claim, while Salih al-Hashimi (d. 1269) gives this mythical sect a name, calling it “al-Mu’tamaniyyah,” and goes on to state that Christians borrowed the concept of the Son of God from them. Beyond Muslim literature, there is no evidence that Jews claim Ezra is the Son of God. With the emergence of Western scholarship on this topic, it has been suggested that it is perhaps a misreading from apocryphal works. This paper argues that the term “ibn” is rooted in the word “bny,” which means to build. The biblical book of Ezra uses this term and its morphological permutations, including the term “ibn” to mean building the Second Temple. It is argued that the passage may be understood as the Jews stating Ezra is the Temple of God (an allusion to the Second Temple) and the Christians state that the Messiah is the Temple of God (an allusion to the Bodily Temple as in the Gospel of St. John).

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Why is a pelican symbol of Christ and what has to do a unicorn with the Virgin Mary? Answers to questions like these can be found in Physiologus, a short Greek work most likely written in the second half of the 2nd century AD in Alexandria. It is the earliest allegorical interpretation of nature with respect to biblical motifs and Christian theology, which was widely used from ancient times (e.g. by Clemens of Alexandria or Origen). In Middle Ages, the flowering time of Christian allegory, the work was translated into almost all cultural languages and from this moment on it circulates in the new form of so well known bestiaries across the world until today (see e.g. J. L. Borges’ “The Book of Imaginary Beings” or J. K. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”). In this paper I will focus on the imagery of early Christian rituals (esp. of the eucharist and baptism) as they are found in allegorical interpretations of beasts in the Greek Physiologus and trace the way of selected motifs from the New Testament to this first Christian interpretation of nature in context of early Christian literature and theology. A special attention will be given to the pelican, which is one of the most famous symbols of the eucharist, and to impressive baptismal imageries in the chapter on the eagle, on the snake and in some other chapters. The aim of the analysis is to explore the theological roots of the ritual imagery of Physiologus and to show that this work of early Egyptian Christianity is anything but ‘unsakramental’ as argued by E. Peterson (1959).

The Book of Hebrews depicts a world of dynamic interrelationships between physicality, perceptions, rhetorics, and actions. This paper examines Heb 3–4 through the lens of critical spatial theory.

Herders Schrift „Lieder der Liebe. Die ältesten und schönsten aus Morgenlande“ (1778) gilt weithin als wichtiger Schritt für die allgemeine Durchsetzung eines nichtallegorischen Ver-ständnisses des Hoheliedes. In der Tat hat Herder, dessen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung der Bibelkritik kaum zu überschätzen ist, heftige Kritik an „willkürlichen Hypothesen“ über eine moralische, politische oder theologische Intention des Hoheliedes geübt. Dass er aber zugleich die „Pedanten und Wortkrämer“ kritisiert, die eine allegorische „Anwendung“ der Liebesgedichte „untersagen“, wurde wenig beachtet. Offensichtlich war die Wirkung von Herders Schrift auf die Hoheliedexegese einseitig. Der Vortrag sucht die Argumentation des zweiten Teils des Buches nachzuzeichnen und zu fragen, von welchen Voraussetzungen Herders Votum für ein nicht-allegorisches Verständnis geprägt ist und welche Perspektiven sich aus der kritischen Beschäftigung mit Herders Schrift für die heutige Hohelied-Exegese ergeben. It is widely granted that Herder’s book „Lieder der Liebe. Die ältesten und schönsten aus Morgenlande“ (1778) was an important step for the common acceptance of the non-allegorical understanding of the Song of Songs. Herder, whose influence on the development of biblical criticism can hardly be overestimated, was indeed a passionate critic of “arbitrary hypotheses” about a moral, political or theological intention of the Song of Songs. That he also criticized those “pedants and hairsplitters” („Pedanten und Wortkrämer“), who prohibit an allegorical application of the love lyrics, was hardly recognized. Obviously, the influence of Herder’s book on the exegesis of the Song of Songs was onesided. The presentation seeks to trace the argumentation of the second part of the book and to query, on which assumptions Herder’s vote for a non-allegorical understanding depends and which perspectives arise from the critical study of Herder’s book for the present exegesis of the Song of Songs.

When one looks at the history of interpretation of the Hebrew Bible's wisdom literature, the Book of Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) has tended to attract more philosophical readings than any other canonical text. One reason for this phenomenon is surely the book's own quasi-philosophical nature and the way in which possible parallels to its thought can easily be found in the views of both ancient and modern philosophers and philosophies. However, since most commentaries on Qohelet that do note philosophical perspectives in the reception history tend to be limited either to providing a short overview of failed attempts at finding alleged Greek philosophical parallels or to proposing (post-)modern philosophical counterparts and heirs, a history of philosophical interpretations of Qohelet that includes it all and that spans the entire period of the book's reception does not currently exist. This is the gap this paper seeks to fill, albeit ever-so briefly. Starting with possible philosophical responses to Qohelet in the Apocrypha and early Jewish and Christian philosophical commentaries, the discussion moves on to early and late modern comparative-historical attempts to relate the book to Greek/Hellenistic philosophy before finally concluding with 20th and 21st century trends seeking to clarify the text from various fashionable philosophical perspectives (e.g., inter alia, pragmatism, existentialism, nihilism, structuralism, hermeneutics, post-structuralism, deconstruction, post-modernism, philosophy of religion, critical theory, social philosophy, etc.)

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This paper describes a prototype Virtual Research Environment (VRE) for the study of rhetorical patterns in classical Greek and biblical texts. The project is currently in development and supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The VRE incorporates digitized manuscripts and textual content available online, open source tools, as well as commercial software such as Logos. I present a case study that compares rhetorical figures (parallelism and chiasmus) in Plato’s Sophist with similar patterns in the Book of Genesis. Sequences of topics in several branches of the Platonic definition of techne (art, craft, technique, and the root of our own word, “technology”) set forth via explicit instructions in the Sophist are delineated and then used as a framework, template, or basis of comparison with the organization of topics and ideas in Genesis 1-3. This exercise shows that the serial ordering of the topics in the two narratives is nearly identical. These exemplary texts illustrate the potential for the prototype VRE to assist with the identification of rhetorical forms that operate in and across a number of philosophical, religious, literary, and cultural texts. The case study also shows how new techniques for visualizing and organizing textual data have the potential to: reveal previously undetected patterns and connections among passages, books, and collections; help users mine and extract new information from texts; and generate fresh insights about literature that has had a central and enduring influence on our scholarly traditions. The demonstration highlights how new technologies can help scholars pursue old questions in innovative ways, and how digital techniques raise novel questions that cannot be addressed using more traditional methods.

In this brief introduction we will discuss various terms which are used to designate denigration, hatred, and persecution of Jews and Judaism.

The paper will sketch the portrait of prophetesses in ancient Greek sources with a particular attention on the Pythia. The portraits will be set in their historical context, with a focus on fifth-century Athens, so as to allow us to better assess the issue of gender and authority with relation to prophecy. A brief outline of women’s position in ancient Greek culture will be given, particularly highlighting the fact that women were barred from public spaces and that subsequently their voice had no authority whatsoever and was not even supposed to be heard., a model in relation to which the role of the Delphic prophetess seem to stand in blatant contrast. The oracle of Delphi - to which the Pythia gave voice- was an absolutely central institution in ancient Greece and beyond, and the prophecies of Apollo, uttered through the Pythia’s voice, were eminently pivotal in ancient Greek politics, warfare and myth. The influential and authoritative voice of the Pythia therefore stands out as particularly significant and a set of informative questions may be asked. First of all the issue of sexuality, as in the case of the Pythia a particular relation can be seen between her virginity and her mantic speech. The question of authoritativeness will come equally to the fore, as Delphic traditions suggest a tension between Apollo and the Pythia in terms of prophetic authority. This is also conducive to exploring the question of mythic taxonomies in our sources, with an attention to normalization in Athenian versions, as in the portrait of the Pythia in Aeschylus’Eumenides. A countering example could eventually be tackled in the feature of Cassandra as a frustrated prophetic voice, where the warping of her prophetic gift seems to stand in relation to her untamed female voice.

1 Peter 2:17 contains the only mention of the emperor in 1 Peter (“Honor the emperor”). Some contend that this command fits best in an historical context in which the recipients of 1 Peter are experiencing some form of imperial persecution and in which they are to resist imperial demands. Others argue that this command would not have been included in 1 Peter if the imperial cult were widespread or if intense persecution of Christians had broken out. The purpose of this paper is to consider the Sitz im Leben of this command and then to discuss the implications of that Sitz im Leben on our understanding of the date of 1 Peter.

While it is common for scholars to understand the Enochic Book of the Watchers as refashioning some form of the scriptural flood story, a key implication of this perspective is often not stressed—that Watchers transforms the gibborim of Gen 6 into cannibalistic giants. As is well-known, the phrases describing the gibborim (they are “of old” and “men of renown”) can reasonably be understood as positive descriptions, giving a brief impression of legendary warriors of a by-gone age. Watchers refashions the sons of the angels in a profoundly negative way, in part because this change solves an exegetical problem evident in Genesis itself—how to understand the relationship between the sons of the angels (6:4) and the rise of evil that led to the flood (6:5). The nature of their crimes, killing and eating humans, and the emphasis that the giants drank their blood (1 En. 7:5), can be understood at least in part as reflection upon Genesis 9, which states that in the post-flood world humans may eat the flesh of animals but not their blood and they may not murder other humans. The prohibition against eating blood in Genesis 9, the association the chapter makes between eating blood and murder, as well as the whole issue of bringing up the consumption of meat in the first place, all take on additional significance if one imagines the antediluvian crisis in the manner described in the Book of the Watchers. There is an exegetical logic to this composition’s transformation of the legendary gibborim into monstrous cannibals.

In this lecture, I will present a new perspective vis-à-vis Amarna monotheism, which emerges from a previously overlooked source — the Egyptian classifier system. The essence of Akhenaten’s religious beliefs has been the subject of much discussion and debate since the end of the 19th century, beginning with Petrie’s depiction of the Aten as “the energy of light” to the most recent contributions of Hornung, Assmann, and others. One of the central issues in this regard is the “degree” of monotheism (i.e. monotheism versus henotheism and monolatry) attained by the Amarna practitioners. This matter has major ramifications for the question of the relation between Atenism and the religion(s) of the Hebrew Bible. Until now, attempts to answer this question have made use of two types of data. 1. Textual material: Texts relating to Amarna doctrine 2. Iconographic and archaeological material: The two-dimensional representations of the Aten and the royal family, the idiosyncratic representations of the king and queen in three dimensional art, as well as other archaeological finds, have been studied as instances of “self representation,” and their possible ideological and religious meanings have been considered. By researching all occurrences of [DIVINE] classifiers, among others, in the corpus of the Amarna texts, I believe I may be able to shed a new light on Akhenaten’s belief system, and on the much-debated question — is the Amarna religion a leap from polytheism to exclusive monotheism, or is it merely a case of monolatric praxis?

In our paper we will explore the meaning of Covenant (Hebr. Brit) in the New Testament as compared to the way Rabbinics understand this term. The tension between the notion of “Law” vs. “Grace and Truth”, will be traced through the way Jews and Christians during this period viewed Moses and Jesus as the two central figures representing “Covenant”, link between Man and God in the light of the establishment of the “New Covenant”. In addition, we will trace Anti-Semitic readings in later periods to see how the idea of the “New Israel” runs in this way like a red thread through Christian Theology, throughout the ages.

The dating of ancient documents is more art than science, but at times it appears to verge on conjuring. The principal reason for such divergence is that different criteria for determining the date are accorded significantly different weight. Too often an a priori decision is made about the date of a document and then the criteria which support that position are foregrounded; arguments are sometimes marshalled against the contrary evidence and approaches, or in some cases such material is simply ignored. There is an inevitable circle in the reasoning from various criteria to date and back again. That cannot be helped, but what can and must be done is “to tread that circle deftly and warily.” This paper will use the Letter of James as a case study to explore the methodological problems involved in dating ancient documents. Arguments have been made for dates as early as the 30s and as late as the 150s. This paper is not aimed at advocating a particular date—that has been done many times—but at elucidating the assumptions and practices of those who have done so. Without explicit and self-aware consideration of such assumptions and practices there is nothing to be done but to end up caught in a vicious circle.

From the beginning of time when God either exiled his creation or destroyed their world there was always someone left behind as a surviving witness, starting with Cain. Noah survived to build a new world after the flood, Abraham survived Nimrod's fire in the midrash, Isaac the Akedah, and Lot's daughters the destruction of Sodom. Dinah, the only survivor of Shechem had a baby Asenat, who, according to the midrash, married Joseph. Despite there being no surviving witnesses (Exodus 14:28) Pharaoh, according to the midrash, survived the Crossing of the Sea (Exodus Rabbah, The Mekhilta De Rabbi Yishmael and Pirkei De Rabbi Eliezar and Otzar Hamidrashim). Presumably the artists who depicted the biblical scenes in the Sarajevo and Mainz Haggadot were influenced by the midrash. The ultimate survivor who bears witness is Serach, daughter of Asher who in midrashic sources (BT Sotah, Genesis Rabbah, Ecclesiastes Rabbah, Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Masekhta Vayehi Beshalah, Petihtah) survives from the time of Joseph's death, reincarnates herself as the wise woman in 2 Sam 20, and is still around in rabbinic times (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana), perhaps never dying, having entered the Garden of Eden alive (Otzar Hamidrashim). The artists who depict Serach follow her throughout these stages of her life—including one which depicts her skull. For the sages she serves as a witness, exemplifying the people of Israel who in Zechariah 3:2 appear as "a brand plucked from the fire" and in Jeremiah 31:2 as "the people escaped from the sword". Serach, an example of a constant survivor, is a figure that holds out hope to the dispersed Jewish nation. Even though God has exiled them, He will ultimately redeem these survivors.

Cyrillona (fl. ca. 396) is one of the earliest Syriac Christian authors whose writing survives and one of the first expositors of the Separated Gospels. Among his five extant works are three paschal poems that explore the sacramental and symbolic significance of the words and acts of Jesus at the Last Supper. Of these, perhaps the most exegetically striking is Cyrillona’s memra On the Pasch of Our Lord (Pasch). Robert Murray wonders if Pasch “might be called a midrash on John 14-16”—a suggestion worthy of examination. Certainly Pasch contains the earliest substantive Syriac exegesis of key Christological texts from John 12 and 15. But Cyrillona roves far from the Gospel of John in his consideration of Christ’s passion and resurrection, of the endowment of the Holy Spirit, and of the Eucharist. My paper will examine the exegetical character of Cyrillona’s Pasch and particularly his exploration of the Johannine symbols of the vineshoot and grain of wheat. I will discuss how his symbology is distinctive not only for its length and detail, but for its originality. I will also discuss the probable liturgical context of this memra and it’s importance to the author’s exegesis, transforming Pasch into a true “catechesis in images” (Theodor Bolger).

This paper focusses on the purity/impurity system as one aspect of the manifold metaphors in the book of Lamentations. It analyzes these metaphors both as aspects of inner-biblical reception of Priestly writings and Ezechiel, and in examples of further interpretation in rabbinic literature and medieval Jewish commentaries.

Pork consumption by the Philistines has long been identified as the origin of the biblical taboo. Other traits such as undecorated pottery, four-room pillared houses and collared-rim jars are reluctantly abandoned as ethnic markers of an Proto-Israelite ethnicity in the Iron Age I. The difference in the proportion of pig bones retrieved from Israelite and ‘Philistine’ sites represents the last clue for the existence of a distinct Israelite identity before the campaign of Pharaoh Shishak in the Levant, but a recent article by L. Sapir-Hen, G. Bar-Oz, Y. Gadot and I. Finkelstein in ZDPV 129 (2013) rings the death bell for this last marker of proto-Israelite identity. This contribution offers a comprehensive multicausal scenario for the emergence of the pork taboo in Persian Yehud which renders the notion of ethnic boundaries in previous periods irrelevant, although there are good reasons to expect the search for an Israelite ethnicity in the Iron Age to continue unabated.

More than 50 Jewish papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt contain biblical texts - most in Greek, few in Hebrew. This lecture will present them, and characterize broad aspects of the various conclusions that can be drawn from these findings. This presentation is part of a research project "A collection of texts on Jews and Judaism on perishable material from Egypt: 530 BCE to 650 CE" conducted by Prof. Tal Ilan and Noah Hacham.

Several female prophets are mentioned in the Bible. Hardly any of these is acknowledged by medieval Islamic sources as such. At the same time, Muslim tradition recognizes some other women as prophetess. Perhaps most intriguing of these is Eve, the first woman. Eve is often presented in Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources in a negative light, as a temptress and cause of the expulsion from Paradise. While her image in medieval Islamic sources is more complex that that, still one wonders how did this unique Islamic view of Eve emerge? I argue that this was the result of developments concerning matters which did not relate directly to Eve as a character in Islam, and/ or were not necessarily intended to glorify Eve's image. These matters include, for example, (a) theological discussions regarding the definition of a true prophet, (b) inter-religious polemics and even (c) limiting women to the domestic sphere. My paper will trace the emergence in Islam of the idea of feminine prophecy, and how themes such as the above have led to the emergence in Islam of Eve and other women as prophetesses. At the same time, it will also consider to what extent the emergence in Islam of this idea has contributed towards a more flexible image of Eve and other women.

The paper investigates the international context of biblical law by looking at the stipulations regulating asylum (Exod 21:12-17; Deut 19:1-13) and comparing them with Greek legal inscriptions (e.g. IC IV 41, IV.6-10; IC IV 72 I.39-44; IG VII 4251). It will be shown that the biblical concept is closer to Mediterranean regulations than to ancient Near Eastern concepts so that it might be possible to integrate the biblical legislation into a Mediterranean legal koiné. In a further step the ancient concepts from Greece and the Hebrew Bible are subjected to a postcolonial critique investigating whether the ancient laws of asylum can contribute to the current discourse about migration and asylum.

Welcome to an open discussion concerning the future themes of the SBL International Meeting Synoptic Gospels Section. In the next years we plan to have one or two special sessions dedicated to themes suggested by the participants. So far disability and/or healing has been proposed. What do you think of this theme? Do you have plans to do research on healing in the Synoptics or some theme close to it? What themes are you interested in? Join us for the discussion and tell us about your own research plans on the Synoptic Gospels.

A graffito on wall plaster has been discovered during a salvage excavation (June-August 2011) on the shores of Lake Geneva in Nyon (VD), Switzerland. The wall plaster in red-ocher is common to the Roman discoveries of old Nyon, the Roman colony named Noviodumum. The inscription does not seem to be a Latin inscription. It may be Aramaic cursive letters. The close comparison with other Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions may give a palaeographical date: 1st-2nd century CE. But several hypotheses of decipherment are available. If this identification is right, it would be the oldest inscription in Aramaic script discovered in Switzerland.

The theme of friendship plays an important role in John. In the whole narrative, the verb phileo occurs 13 times. In NT the verb agapao is usually employed to express the idea of love. In John 5:20; 16:27; 20:2 agapao and phileo are used interchangeably. In the Farewell Discourse Jesus teaches his disciples that the highest form of love is to lay down one’s own life for his friends (15:13). The ideal friendship to die for one’s friends is cited as an illustration of true love. In the dialogue between the risen Lord and Peter by Lake Galilee Christ asks him three times if he loves him. In the first two questions Jesus uses the verb agapao (21:15, 16), while he uses phileo in the third question (21:17). Peter responds in the affirmative, using phileo each time (21:15, 16; 21:17). Here phileo and agapao are used interchangeably, for the highest form of friendship is equal to self-sacrificing love. This peculiar emphasis on friendship was understandable in the situation the John’s community was placed in. After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the community was left behind in the hostile world. Those who professed Jesus as Messiah had been expelled from synagogues (9:22, 34; 16:2). Those abiding in Jesus (13:1; 15:9-10) were hated by the world (15:18-19). They were persecuted by the Jewish majority (15:20-21). The solidarity among the believers was crucially important in this situation. The community members were reminded by the Spirit of truth (15:17, 26; 16:13) to keep the Commandment to love one another by laying down their own life on their brothers’ behalf (13:34-35; 15:13-17).

The paper explores the difficulties of penetrating the dynamics of the reciprocation of honour in the Roman Empire. Whether it was Roman rule of the barbarians in the Latin West, the ruler’s handling of public challenges to his honour, or competition between the local elites in the Greek East, the rituals of ‘honour’ and ‘dishonour’ were subtle and complex. Such studies give us acute insight into the agonistic culture of the first-century AD and the social problems that the apostle Paul faced in redefining for his converts the operations of reciprocity, boasting in ancestral and personal achievement, and handling social dishonor. However, in coming to grips with the ambiguities of Graeco-Roman honor, attention must be paid to the interaction and interrelation between the inscription and the iconography of the monument, as well as its place within the city’s sacred space. Honorific inscriptions also should understood within the dominant eulogistic conventions of the day if social historians are to fathom what might make the inscription distinctive and historically revealing, as opposed to stereotypical. Three case studies spanning the Latin West and the Greek East will be investigated: (a) the triumphal inscriptions, monuments, and iconography of the Romans at La Turbie (Monaco, France) and Susa (south of Turin, Italy) involving barbarian conquests and treaties; (b) the inscription of Cornelius Gallus at Philae (Egypt), and its relation to the Augustan obelisks at Rome and Julian boasting culture; (c) the ‘honour’ and ‘dishonor’ of the epigram accorded to Nikias, an agonothetes, by his fellow officials at Isthmia. The paper argues that these documentary texts throw light on Paul’s understanding of ethnic relations and the ‘indebtedness of love’ to the socially marginalised, his teaching on justification and glory in a Gentile context, and the role of ‘honour’ and ‘dishonor’ in the believer’s life.

One of the classical concerns for Johannine studies since A. von Harnack’s 1892 article has been the unity and integrity of the Prologue. This paper first describes the parameters of the historical discussion identifying eight categories where scholarship has focused arguments on this question. This historical research provides the foundation for the second segment of the paper, proposing a new methodological model for this question; one that incorporates suggestions made by many scholars but thus far pursued by none–the relationship between the themes presented within the Prologue and their function within the text of the Gospel. The third segment describes this new method of reading, which I call the Helical Method, based on a synchronic approach to the text. This two-prong method examines eight individual themes from the Prologue as they develop within the text and whether the intersection of these various themes amplifies segments of the Gospel. The final segment of the paper examines one of these themes to demonstrate how a theme can attract additional meaning and attention in its appearances throughout the Gospel. This study in textual readings and oral presentation techniques is designed to address Harnack’s proposal and determine whether the Prologue functions as an interpretive guide for the larger text of the Gospel.

Traditionally, when scholars have interpreted the Christological themes embedded within the Martyrdom of Polycarp, they have emphasized Jesus Christ as a martyrological example to be followed. This approach is rooted in the phrase “a martyrdom according to the Gospel” (Mart. Pol. 1.1; 4.1; 19.1; 22.1) and has led to collecting numerous parallels with the Gospel passion narratives. For example, Polycarp enjoyed a last supper before his arrest on the “day of preparation,” was betrayed by a household member, was interrogated by a “Herod,” entered town on a donkey, etc. No doubt, a mimetic theme of imitatio Christi courses its way through the Martyrdom. But there are other Christological strands that weave their way throughout the Polycarpian account, and some of them echo biblical imagery beyond the Gospel narraties. Various Christological titles include Lord, Christ, Son, Teacher, King, Master, Savior, Shepherd, and Eternal High Priest. The King (9.3; 17.3; 21) superintends all events, and the Lord specifically chooses those who suffer and are martyred according to God’s will (20.1; cf. 2.1; 7.1; 14.2; 15.1) and sovereign design (6.2; 12.3). The narrative expressly refers to those who are “elect,” a notion connected not only with those divinely chosen for salvation (16.1-2; 22.1; 22.3) but also those divinely chosen for martyrdom (20.1; cf. 6.2; 14.2). In this paradigm, Jesus Christ is not merely the object whom the believer intentionally follows (by imitating Gospel details), but he is also the subject who directs all human affairs (18.3), including martyrdom (14.2). Trust in this Christologically-focused sovereignty helps form a distinctive sense of “nobility” and composure within the narrative (2.1; 2.2; 3.1; 3.2) and stands in contrast with the approach of Quintus in chapter 4.

The philosophical works of Moses Maimonides (d. 1204) have already been successfully contextualized with the preceding Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions (cf., e.g.. H.A. Davidson, J.L. Kraemer, S. Stroumsa, O. Leaman, K. Seeskin, A.L. Ivry). However, the mystical treatises of Maimonides’ descendants, all written in Judeo-Arabic, have not been studied with comparable diligence. Yet, previous scholarship has argued convincingly that there has been intellectual exchange between the Islamic mystical tradition (Sufism) and what seems to be its Jewish coinage, which flourished mainly under Maimonidean patronage. While Sufi tendencies in these Maimonidean works, especially "The High Ways of Perfection" by Abraham Maimonides, have been repeatedly mentioned by scholars of the Jewish mystical tradition, most notably Gershom G. Scholem, scholars have not considered these Jewish pietistic-mystical texts to be part of the intellectual legacy of Sufism. In light of the interior and exterior transformation process and the complex interdependence of Judaism and Islam, the proposed paper will deal with the terminology describing this Pietist movement which "was not a marginal sect, for it enjoyed widespread popularity under the leadership of the greatest political and religious figure of the time, Abraham [Maimonides])" (P. Fenton). A more specific question to be dealt with in order to address uncertainties about the cultural/religious identity of this pietist group is to what extent it is appropriate to speak of this specific form of Jewish mysticism as "Sufi-like mysticism" (e.g. E.R. Wolfson, C. Sirat), "Jewish piety of the Sufi-type" (e.g. S.D. Goitein, M. Loubet), "Jewish Sufi-Dialogue" (e.g. D. Lobel), or even more nuanced as "Jewish Sufism" (E.P. Fishbane, P.S. Alexander, P.B. Fenton, N. Ilan, N.Ch. Hofer).

Trotz der berechtigten Aufmerksamkeit für die Situation in den galatischen Gemeinden müssen, ausgehend von den theologischen Aussagen im Präskript, gerade auch die konstruktiven hermeneutischen Grundannahmen und Methoden ermittelt werden, die den paulinischen Schriftgebrauch in diesem Brief bestimmen. Auswahl, Auslegung und Verwendung der zitierten Schriftworte lassen dabei auf ein apokalyptisch geprägtes Schriftverständnis schließen.

The BYU-Oxford Syriac Corpus project aims to assemble and annotate a comprehensive corpus of Syriac literature. Thus far, over seven hundred texts comprising six million words have been added to the corpus. However, before the project is completed, many thousands of additional texts, comprising tens of millions of words, need to be added to the corpus; and these texts then need to be proofed, linked to a dictionary, and grammatically analyzed. This paper seeks to answer the question of how this (and similar large-scale corpus projects) can be utilized by researchers while in preparation. In particular, the paper will discuss how existing digital humanities text analysis tools can be utilized to conduct research in historical linguistics, lexicography, history of ideas, prosopography, historiography, biblical studies, inter-textual studies, and authorship studies.

What is King Solomon doing in the Song of Song? Not only is the Song fictionally attributed to King Solomon, he also features several times within the work. Modern exegesis has offered three basic explanations: 1) H. Ewald’s Hirtenhypothese or Love-Triangle, which sees King Solomon as an intruder into the romantic and faithful love of a shepherd girl and her shepherd boy; 2) K. Budde’s theory (based on W.G. Wetzstein’s Syrische Dreschtafel) of an upwards or downwards travesty as part of a marriage festivity rite (or, in another form, on the model of Greek bucolic); or 3) a Solomonic allegorizing redaction (O. Loretz; W. Rudolph), in which all mentions of the fabulous King are seen as glosses to be deleted from the “original" text. The Love-triangle theory has largely been abandoned. The travesty theory, it will be argued, lacks historical credibility. If an allegorizer has therefore been at work, then these “glosses” or insertions must be treated as signs of inner-biblical exegesis and interpreted accordingly. In line with M. Fishbane’s work, which emphasizes that the movement from traditio (handing down) to interpretation of the traditio begins within the Scriptures (i.e. inner-biblical exegesis, re-written Bible, Fortschreibung, etc.), it will be argued that the appearance of Solomon in the Song has to be read in the light of the pre-existent, written traditum of Israel. As such the ascription of the Song of Songs to King Solomon might already be witness to inner-biblical reception history.   

Why the Ethiopic Bible is not a “Minor Version”

Over the last decades, both rhetorical criticism and interpsalmic exegesis have established themselves as vital strategies in the interpretation of the Psalms. My paper combines these two approaches and demonstrates that structures of persuasion exist not only within the discourse of individual psalms, but also among adjacent poems. As part of a larger project which seeks to outline the rhetorical shape and function of Pss 42-49, I will focus here on three particular Leitwörter which serve both to unify the collection and to advance its rhetorical purpose. These reoccurring lemmata are ydh (Pss 42/43, 44, 45), ?r? (Pss 46, 47, 48), and yr? (Pss 46, 47, 49). Interpsalmic exegesis has been criticized for over-reading thematic or semantic links and for attributing too much significance to what could simply be a coincidence in the arrangment of the Psalter. What is needed, therefore, is not only to identify such links, but also to demonstrate their potential significance. This evaluation must be performed first within the boundaries of their own composition and only in a second step within the discourse that emerges between adjacent poems. As a model for this procedure, my paper begins by situating and assessesing these three Leitwörter within their respective compositions. As I will argue, all three are crucial in their own poems, as indicated, for instance, by their frequency and placement. Moving toward a unified reading of Pss 42-49, I will proceed from this evidence and demonstrate the ways in which these lemmata connect and progress these seven poems rhetorically. Since many studies and commentaries stop at the identification of these semantic connections, the rhetorical interplay and function of these Leitwörter has been overlooked thus far.

The influential scholar Ulrich Luz rejects the view of the Gospel of Matthew as an ancient biography, since he does not find any information about the education or the development of Jesus in the narrative from chapter 3. This conclusion does not give a fair description of neither ancient biographies in general nor the Gospel of Matthew in particular. Matthew actually deals with the development of Jesus and picks up an important theme in ancient Greek biographical writing. This gospel gives a portrait of Jesus Christ, who is the good leader of Israel (2.6, 9.36, 23.10). A biographical-narrative reading of Matthew, which takes the biographical genre seriously and pays attention to the narrative development of the story, sheds light on the presentation of Jesus as a good leader. In ancient Greek biographies which give portraits of a good leader the education of the protagonist is sometimes underlined (e.g. Philo’s Moses and Plutarch’s Numa) and sometimes lacking (e.g. Isocrates’ Evagoras and Xenophon’s Agesilaus). The important theme in ancient biographies seems to be to show the reader that the leader was prepared and appropriate for the leadership position, because of his virtues. This is exactly what we find in the section of Matthew’s story between the birth of Jesus and the beginning of his public career. In 3.1–4.11 the author shows the reader that Jesus has virtues such as righteousness, obedience, and self-control. This section also underlines the preparation of Jesus through the influence from John the Baptist and the empowerment of the Spirit. In this way the Gospel of Matthew conforms to ancient Greek biographical writing, though from a Jewish perspective, when it deals with the preparation of Jesus for his leadership and underlines his virtues before he begins his ministry.

Uriel Birnbaum 1921 in Wien erschienenes Buch In Gottes Krieg ist ein frühes Zeugnis für eine moderne jüdische Kunst, die in der Auseinandersetzung mit der Moderne im biblischen Judentum neuen künstlerischen Ausdruck sucht. In 240 Sonetten deutet er das Erlebnis des Ersten Weltkriegs als Gericht Gottes. Anders als bei den Expressionisten zerfällt für ihn die grauenvolle Wirklichkeit des Krieges nicht in fragmentarische Verse, sondern er baut in der strengen Form des Sonetts eine Einsicht von der wirkenden Gegenwart Gottes im Krieg auf. Das Motto aus dem Prophetenbuch Jona, geworfen zu sein in das Herz der Meere, verleiht durch seine Anspielung auf die Rettung Israels am Roten Meer die Zuversicht, dass das Gericht ein rettendes sein wird. Aus dem lyrischen Werk wird so eine religiöse Botschaft. Uriel Birnbaum "In God's war", 1921 published in Vienna, is an early reference to modern Jewish art, which searches new artistic expression in its engagement with modernity in biblical Judaism. In 240 sonnets Birnbaum interprets the experience of the First World War as a judgment of God. Unlike the expressionists he does not decompose the horrible reality of war in fragmentary verses. In the strict form of the sonnet he is building an insight of the presence of God acting in the war on. The motto of the prophet Jonah, to be thrown into the heart of the seas, gives in its allusion to the salvation of Israel at the Red Sea the confidence that the judgment will be a saving one. It is a religious message that emerges from the lyrical work.

In Biblical Hebrew, the terms for compassion (racham) and womb (rechem) are closely related. Given that the latter term is connected with motherhood and the female body in the Hebrew Bible, the question for this paper is whether God’s acts of compassion through these connotations undermine his masculinity and/or maleness. Texts such as Deut. 4.31, 2 Kgs. 13.23, and Jer. 13.14 treat compassion and destruction (shachat) dichotomously, with the use of destructive force arguably underscoring the deity’s powerful masculinity. Does God’s masculinity subside in the face of his compassionate acts, or do they implicitly reconfigure masculinity itself, as I shall argue? Within God’s destructiveness, his shachat, there lies a paradox: on the one hand the forcefulness of this act highlights his warriorlike masculinity, but on the other, it can be used to destroy and diminish God’s people, which problematizes the discourses surrounding the fertile covenant promise that Israel will increase in number. In a number of texts, it is precisely God’s compassion which ensures the growth of the people and the inheritance of land (Isa. 14.1, Jer. 31.20, Ezek. 39.25). There is arguably then a connection between God’s virility, often assumed to be masculine or male, and womblike compassion; see especially Isa. 46.3-4. Therefore, I intend to show that God’s compassion is indeed part of gendered discourse, but that these discourses actually challenge and reconfigure hegemonic perceptions of maleness and masculinity and help construct God’s wombed textual body.

Animal-human interaction is part of the core of human culture and comprises a vast subject of human history. Part of that history includes the role of animals in religious symbolism. Animals have been sources of food, companions, and competitors to humans, but also are a symbolic canvass on which humans have depicted their struggle to understand and control the forces of nature. This complex interaction of animals as a source of life and a companion on the one hand and as a manifestation of untamed nature on the other have given animals an ambivalence which lends them to being incorporated into religious symbolism. Over the past decade, scholars of culture and religion have intensified their efforts and taken into view the relationships between humans and animals. Their studies have included historical dimensions of this relationship in cultures of the past. Some research has been conducted that addresses human-animal interactions in European settings, and to some extent also in the Ancient Near East. Yet comparable studies are still a desideratum for the Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity and the early medieval period. This paper begins to address representations of human-animal interactions in literature at the intersection of extra-canonical and hagiographical texts in Syria and the Caucasus. It explores the symbolic value of these interactions with attention to dimensions of the sacred and how it is represented and controlled by humans or animals, or both, in interactions with one another. The paper studies aspects of the literary and rhetorical function of the representation of the approach of animals and humans to one another. At the same time, it considers questions of the ecological and economic relevance of the animal-human relationship in the given cultural setting of a text.

The linkage of mishpat and sedaqah, either with the copula or as a parallel word pair, is widely recognized to be a hendiadys referring to justice toward the poor, with some of the connotations of ‘social justice’ in English. It is frequent in the Prophets and the Psalms, but it is extremely rare in the Torah, with only one precise attestation (Gen. 18:19; but Deut. 33:21 is close), even though many of the laws of the Torah have the manifest object of encouraging the practice of justice for the poor and people of weak social standing. Why is this? It will be argued that the expression refers primarily to the responsibility of the ruler, and that although certain writers after the fall of the native monarchies, represented, e.g., in Ezekiel, extended it to individual patronal responsibility, the association with kingship was too strong for the expression to be acceptable in a document representing the official commitments of the leaderships of the Israelite (Judaean and Samarian) communities under Persian rule.

Scholarship in recent years has commented on the significance of the Psalms for early biblical interpretation (Kannengiesser), while lamenting the paucity of work in this area (Tanner). This is especially true in the second century, exemplified by the light treatment of the Psalms for understanding Irenaeus’s interpretation and argumentation. Modern interpreters of Irenaeus often reduce the Psalms to a pastiche of proof-texts that simply provide emphasis. This presentation begins to reassess the function of Psalms in Irenaeus, and finds a much greater depth of interpretive complexity. By examining the voice of David as a key witness for Irenaeus, we find many direct speech introductions to Psalms that add to the Psalms polemical impact. David is often portrayed by Irenaeus as an authority on key arguments. He is the recipient of special revelation regarding the Son, because “the framer of the universe made a promise to David” of an eternal king. (Adv. haer. 3.10.3). While there have been focused treatments like Psalm 21 by DeAldema, or Psalm 2 and 109 from Basevi, these lack interaction with broader themes for Irenaeus’s use of Psalms. Understanding Irenaeus’s holistic use of Psalms in this and other ways, contributes to Irenaean studies and the history of interpretation by demonstrating the very different relationship the writers of the second century had with the Psalms - a relationship that affected how they read the rest of scripture.

Read through the hermeneutical lens of social memory theory, the Gospel of Mark can be regarded as an artifact of collective memory. While recalling the Jesus story from their memory and experiences, the "Mark People" also disclose their self-understanding and grant insights into their processes of identity construction. The way Jesus is remembered as teacher and healer, in parables and miracles, beginning with his baptism and ending without appearance stories does not go without reason. Hearers and readers of Mark’s Gospel are prone to ask themselves what the founding story has to say about Jesus and about those who remember him. They might even ask themselves how they are supposed to tune in. As Biblical scholars today, we are both readers and teachers. Thus, we might add the question of how these new hermeneutical insights on the Gospel of Mark can inform our teaching. The paper will explore these questions from the perspective of a Markan scholar who sometimes suffers from being an expert for university didactics, too – especially when it comes to didactic reduction and the choice of certain a Gattung or pericopae.

The aim of this presentation is to investigate the manner in which a variety of early Christian writers appropriated the language and imagery of the Old Testament priesthood in the making of a Christian "priesthood." In the third century it became common for Christian writers, such as Cyprian and Origen, to adopt the language of priesthood in their exposition and defense of Christian leadership. Regulations regarding clerical conduct, including the prohibition of second marriages to clergy, reinforced and relied on this rhetoric of priesthood. My examination will extend into the fourth century. I will argue that new Christian practices, such as the requirement that the wives of clergy be married as virgins and the prohibition of sexual intercourse to higher clergy in the west, continued this tradition of appropriating biblical regulations to develop new models of ecclesiastical authority.

The reconstruction of the opponents of 1 Timothy has played an important part in our understanding of the letter’s gendered instructions. Interpreters have understood the instruction to women to be silent (2:11-12) as evidence that women are speaking publicly. They have understood the description of the freedoms of young widows (5:13) as criticism of the autonomy unmarried women were finding in the church. Interpreters see the instructions given by the author as a window into events taking place in the recipient church. In this paper, I offer two alternative ways of understanding the function of the prescriptive language of 1 Timothy. I use the first parallel (a portion of Livy’s History) to suggest that exhortations to modesty could function as criticism of the opponents’ viewpoints. The allegation of immodest women casts aspersions on the opponents regardless of the behavior of the women. The second (Plutarch’s Advice to Bride and Groom) suggests that household order could serve as part of the on-going cultivation of a virtuous life. The cultivation of virtues will help the readers avoid potential problems that could otherwise arise. These two options are not identical, but neither one assumes that the instructions of 1 Timothy must be directed toward an existing conflict over the behavior of women. 1 Timothy might also address a real conflict and employ gender stereotypes to paint a negative portrait of the opponents. On the other hand, it may simply acknowledge potential problems that it addresses through the cultivation of standard virtues. Either way, the rhetoric is not necessarily designed to constrain women who found liberation in the Christian message. Instead, it may use gender norms to blame opponents or to motivate virtue.

In comparison to the other so-called eighth century prophets, literary studies on the book of Micah dealing with its wordplay, rhetoric, and drama have just recently flourished. While newer commentaries have touched on its poetry (F.I. Andersen & D.N. Freedman, 2000; P.P. Jenson, 2008), the “two sides of the same coin” of biblical poetry has not yet been thoroughly explored, viz., “pervasive parallelism and metaphor” (A. Berlin, 1997). This research attempts to fill in this gap by examining the pericope of the so-called ryb metaphor in Micah 6:1-8. In Micah 6:3-5, YHWH as a sovereign suzerain king expresses his disappointment in vassal Israel through the historical recall of the exodus and the promise of the land (see M.Z. Brettler, 1989). While seemingly silent at first on YHWH’s accusations, the corporate response of Israel to the complaints of the deity centers on the different offerings they could give, culminating in child sacrifice (Micah 6:6-7). Do these words embody a passionate collective remorse or is this a case of buying off the deity and rivaling the “saving acts of the Lord”? To answer this tricky question, this research will first consider looking at the metaphor YHWH IS KING from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory, specifically blending theory (M.T. DesCamp and E. Sweetser, 2005). Afterwards, it shall analyze the poem by employing the complementary insights of Adele Berlin on the aspects of parallelism, viz., grammatical, lexical, phonological and semantic (2008), and of Robert Alter on intensification and narrativity (2011) to see how the rhetorical questions, puns, repetitions, hyperbole, etc. in the text demonstrate the complex relationship between YHWH and Israel. Finally, it is hoped that the exploration of this text by focusing on metaphor and parallelism will help the readers understand it better and respond to it in a more relevant way.

In addition to providing a hermeneutical framework for the contributions in Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel (Bieringer, Pollefeyt and Vandecasteele-Vanneuville, 2001), the editors also proposed an alternative hermeneutical approach that recognizes the anti-Jewish elements in the text but attempts to go beyond them. This approach recognizes anti-Jewish elements in the FG, holds that these are unacceptable from a Christian point of view and acknowledges that there is no convincing way to reinterpret them in ways that could save the core message of the FG. Nevertheless, it also considers the alternative world projected by the text and its “inclusive horizon” (Ricoeur, 1976; Schneiders, 1991). The editors’ applied the approach to Jn 8:31-59. However, the editors’ post-conference proposal of the alternative hermeneutics did not have much impact in the reviews and in the ensuing literature on Johannine anti-Judaism. This paper attempts to critically revisit the proposed alternative hermeneutics and to investigate what it has to offer the interpretation of anti-Jewish texts like those in John’s Gospel. By way of example, I will examine this approach with regard to a text considered as the basis for exclusive Christian claims (Reinhartz, 2011), namely "No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6b). Recent publications on Johannine meals (Smith, 2003; Kobel, 2011) do not deal with this Christocentric text. I argue that the exclusive words in Jn 14:6b need to be understood in light of the Greco-Roman symposium which aims to consolidate group identity. Yet, while the common identity of the Jesus-believers in John may be affirmed, the dangerous potential of Jn 14:6b for Christocentric supersessionism remains. In light of this observation, I will investigate how the hermeneutic proposed by Bieringer, et. al. can help discover the alternative world projected by this text and how it can contribute to Jewish-Christian dialogue.

The Fourth Gospel has been considered to be a spiritual gospel that has a negative view of the world. At the surface level, this notion can be easily attributed to the gospel’s use of contrasting word pairs like “not of this world” – “of this world” or “above” – “below” (8:23). The first part of the pair is associated with the divine Creator and the second with creation that is either separated from or is at enmity with God. Might this dichotomy between the “above” and the “below” have contributed to a Johannine spirit Christology that favored docetism? Does Käsemann’s (1968) proposition that John is naively docetic in nature find support in John’s bipartite cosmological language? In this paper, we shall explore the Johannine spatial cosmological word pairs and their function in the gospel through narrative-critical and spatial point of view analyses in conjunction with the insights of Pennington (2004) in his analysis of OT cosmology. We will demonstrate that the Johannine word pairs “not of this world” – “this world” or “above” – “below” cannot be interpreted as promoting the spiritual with a concomitant denigration of the material. And consequently, they cannot be considered as docetic markers.

In his 'valuable' - as Irenaeus calls it (Adv. Haer. III.3.4) - Letter to Philippians, Poly carp of Smyrna clearly alluded to Pauline Epistles, such as Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and 1, 2 Timothy. Moreover, the passage from Phil 3:2, with its reference to Paul's 'letters' in the plural, seems to suggest that Polycarp knows of a collection of Paul's letters. Especially, Polycarp mentions Paul in three contexts in this letter (3:2; 9:1; 11:2-3). Each mention of Paul's name begins a cluster of Pauline citations and allusions (explicitly from 1 Tim. 6:10; 1 Tim. 6:7; 2 Tim. 4:10), which means that Polycarp consciously seeks to imitate the literary style and ethical example of Paul. He is conservative in that he makes reference to traditional material, but he is neither non-creative nor unoriginal because he applies such traditional material to the situation caused by the sin of Valens and the resulting social disorder. His Epistle is intended to encourage the Philippians to live according Christian virtues, and he recalls mainly those which contribute to the unity of community. In fact, his Letter is a powerfully creative response to the rhetorical situation that he faced. Likewise the Apostle Paul, Polycarp is concerned about 'wrong' teaching and practice, and he made unity and reconciliation his primary goals. In spite of the use of strong language about his adversaries, Polycarp gives no indication of separation. Although his list of errors is quite scathing, he calls for moderation and repentance, denoting episcopal care in the manner of Pastoral Epistles. In this respect, we think that Polycarp has much to tell us about the early reception of at least some of Paul's Letters. To be sure, he is a more important theologian than some modern scholars have allowed.

Modern commentators remarked that the celestial journeys presented by the Nag Hammadi Platonizing Sethian treatises were meant for the ritual enactment of celestial ascent. But how did the readers of these Sethian texts remember the characters, places, divine hierarchies, luminaries, aeons, and the aeonic copies which populated the celestial and supra-celestial regions described by Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes the Stranger? How did the religious experience encrypted in the narratives of these texts translate in the reader’s reception? Sethian authors often depicted their texts as coming from sacred books, written by those who received their revelations, and placed on mountains. The art of memory, initially presented in Rhetorica ad Herennium (3.16-24), a work written in the first century BCE and attributed to Cicero, instructed ancient rhetoricians to increase their mastery of artificial memory by associating a fixed series of backgrounds or places with various series of images or objects, subject to change and adaptation. This paper argues that the creation of the celestial and super-celestial worlds Zostrianos travels to, as well as their recreation through reading and further ritual enactment could have not taken place without help from the art of memory. As such, it suggests that readers of Zostrianos and Allogenes the Stranger memorized the narrative and spatial trajectory of the heavenly trips in minute details, using the art of memory. Its mnemonic devices allowed the readers to internalize the narrative of ecstatic travels, and reproduce this experience in a ritual setting.

In his 2011 commentary on Job 38-42 (Word Biblical Commentary 18B), David Clines has masterfully demonstrated the ambiguities of the conclusion to Job’s suffering as expressed in Job 42:6. Clines concluded that the Book of Job reveals Job as a hero who will not bow to God as ‘cosmic bully’ (pp.1217ff.). Significantly, the one thing on which all the characters in the drama of Job agree is the aseity of God. Job’s comment that God ‘has made me a mashal to the peoples’ (Job 17:6) may reflect more than an offhand remark. In this paper we explore the possibility that the ambiguity Clines has so effectively analysed, may be a deliberate rhetorical device in keeping with the extensive use of irony and sarcasm throughout the work, designed to provoke the reader/ audience to choose their own conclusion.

Originally a Graeco-Roman genre, Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles have come down to us. These are a collection of utterances that were composed or edited under various circumstances, probably between the 2nd century CE and the 6th century CE. The original Sibylline Books that Jews and later on Christians used to write the Sibylline Oracles are now lost. Therefore, evidence for the sibylline genre outside the collection is virtually none-existent. However, in the 1920s a papyrus was discovered in Oslo (P. Oslo II 14) whose content Wilhelm Crönert identified as sibylline. Unfortunately, the papyrus was too damaged to reconstruct a conclusive text. Thanks to the edition of a newly discovered Cologne Papyrus (P.Köln Inv. 20380) at the hands of Michael Gronewald containing the same text, new light can be shed on the circulation of sibylline material in Hellenistic Egypt. In my paper I aim to analyse possible parallels between the Oslo/Cologne papyri and the Third Sibylline Oracle.

This paper proposes that the different dates and chronology in the sequence of events in the account of Noah’s Flood in the LXX and MT/SP are not variants due to scribal errors. As is well known, the text in the LXX is similar (not the same) as the MT/SP. For example, in the LXX the rains begin and the ark comes to rest on the 27th of the months in question, and the MT/SP these events take place on the 17th of the months concerned. Also, in the LXX the mountain peaks appear in the 11th month and in the MT/SP the mountain tops are visible in the 10th month. I will discuss some of the key differences between the two accounts and outline a theory that separate calendars are being referenced. The presentation will put forward a new interpretation of how one of the elements of the Deluge in the LXX should be read in order to support this hypothesis. It will draw on other accounts of the Flood in post-biblical literature in the discussion.

This paper will explore the social impact of Roman Imperial statuary on the early Christian community of Thessalonica, giving specific consideration to the cuirassed statue type and Paul’s rhetorical use of armour language in 1 Thessalonians 5:8. In general, honorific statues of the imperial family were deployed by the provincial cities of the Roman Empire (rather than imposed from above) to embed themselves within an imperial patron-client relationship with the emperor. Though the imagery was often diverse and complex, a key pattern of imperial portraiture accentuated the patriarchal protectiveness and security provided by the Emperor with corresponding feelings of security and gratefulness on behalf of the population. The use of cuirassed statues—an emperor or victorious general in parade amour—reflects a particularly vivid iconographical representation of patriarchal protectiveness through a graphic representation of power and victory. Defeated and subjugated enemies of Rome, trophies, and potent mythological images of divine beings were inscribed on the cuirass to enhance the sense of a divinely sanctioned peace secured for the cities of the empire. In the context of a provincial capital like Thessalonica, the use of armour language by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, it will be argued, represents a contrasting vision to this imperial typology. The deployment of armour language by Paul, in part, represents the rhetorical use of vivid speech (ekphrasis) to recreate before the eyes of his listeners a new image of the cuirass consistent with their lived experience in a provincial capital of the Roman Empire. The themes of faith and love (and salvation), which Paul inscribes on his armour, redirects them to consider the death of Jesus as a counter-sign of victory and triumph—their savior and benefactor—thereby reinforcing an important set of alternative values for the guidance and support of the fledgling community of faith.

This paper examines the interpretative afterlife of Jer 1 in early Jewish literature. It employs a comparative approach to trace the history of reception of the portrait of Jeremiah in Second Temple period texts and rabbinic literature. Emphasis is placed on the early Jewish interest in the lineage of Jeremiah, both as articulated in Jer 1 (son of Hilkiah) and as created in midrashic texts (Jeremiah as a descendent of Rahab the prostitute). Early Jewish texts also reflect an interest in the circumstances surrounding Jeremiah's conception, birth, and prophetic identity. These themes are examined both as responses to exegetical issues found in the text of Jer 1 and as part of broader themes regarding early Jewish conceptions of the identity of Jeremiah, the nature of prophecy, and destruction of the Jerusalem temple

The story of Jehoshaphat’s victory over the Moabites and Ammonites, told in 2 Chronicles 20, bears features of a grotesque, judges Klaus Seybold in a monograph of 2006. He names exaggeration and pointed emphasis on a single message as key examples. He concludes that the grotesque impression is the result of predominant theological presentation, vanquishing the proper “geschichtsbezogene Erzählkunst” (history-related art of narration). In opposition to that, the “grotesque” features of 2 Chronicles 20 are not side effects of the presentation of theological thought, but a means to convey exactly this message: “Confess (the name of) the Lord (2 Chronicles 6), and you will be safe.” The Jehoshaphat story is closely linked with the account of Asa, fighting “Zerah the Cushite” in 2 Chronicles 14. Raymond Dillard claims in his commentary on 2 Chronicles that the two stories form a chiasm. The Asa story itself quotes rather directly from 1 Samuel 17, namely, from the narration of David fighting Goliath. This story bears the same features Seybold identifies as “grotesque” as 2 Chronicles 20 does. Thus 1 Samuel 17 acts as hypotext to 2 Chronicles 14. As 2 Chronicles 14 and 20 are closely related, it is possible to extend the intertextual link between 1 Samuel 17 and 2 Chronicles 14 to 2 Chronicles 20. This leads to the conclusion that the “art of narration” employed in 2 Chronicles 20 is not in decline, as Seybold rates it. On the contrary, reduction, simplification and hence intensification contribute to the overall impression of Chronicles as “paraenesis”. The grotesque becomes a rhetorical means to transport a theological message.

A great shock, when we read the book of Job, is that Yahweh gave Satan permission to kill Job’s sons and daughters. Most scholars have insisted that the fourth disaster depicts the death of all Job’s children in Job 1:19. However, the author of this book is extremely careful in approaching this thing. The author chooses the word meaning children carefully, because the readers can understand this word with another meaning. Also, the author seems to show his or her intention by using literary structures in this book. Most scholars have agreed that the book of Job has notable literary structures. Among literary and intentional characteristics of the book of Job, the most prominent feature is repeated contents as a parallel structure in the first and the last parts of the book. The prologue and the epilogue of this book make the skeleton of certain functions. So, the structure, namely the framework, shows the author’s special intention to readers of this book. In my opinion, the prose parts of this book, the framework, seem to show the positive changes of Job’s family as an ideal family. It also means Job’s children did not die in the fourth disaster. To support my assertion, first, I will discuss the meaning of the word na‘ar in Job 1. Secondly, I will explain the special structure of the framework. It is helpful to understand why the word na‘ar means servants in Job 1:19. Third, I will compare between the stories of Job and Abraham. These two families had similar experiences such as ‘loss of family members.’ The result of this study will not only reveal the author’s ultimate purpose of this structure in the book, but also help us know what an ideal family Yahweh wants.

Many scholars have made estimations of the significant number of the population suffering from starvation during the time of the writing of 1 Corinthians. Yet, it is habitually taken for granted that verses 11:17-24 refer to some of the wealthier members of the believers' assembly in Corinth who had died because of the problem of ”unworthy behavior” in relation to the Lord's supper. Although common, this interpretation has a weak foundation in the text. The issue of the letter is that Corinthian Christ-believers split in to fractions, with some eating their own lavish meals while other sit hungry (11:21). This problem would by no means be solved by the injunction that the wealthy eat ”at home,” before the celebration of the Lord's supper, as the established but somewhat creative interpretation goes (cf. 11:34). On the other hand, if those of lesser means are encouraged to go into the houses where the Lord's supper is celebrated, as Ma. Marilou S. Ibita (2005) suggests, and the wealthier are exhorted to wait and share (11:33), this would make a significant difference to the present situation of scarcity and malnutrition of the Corinthian poor. Scarcity and malnutrition can be lethal conditions. According to Paul's rhetorical argument, the Lord's supper is a celebration of the death of Jesus, until he comes, and therefore no one should despise the lesser members of the ”church or God” (11:22). Thus the meaning of discerning the ”body of the Lord” may be to recognize its lesser members (cf. 11:29) in the distribution of a scarce food supply.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul reaffirms the belief in the resurrection of Jesus, which also functions as a justification for the Christian faith. Towards the end, he describes the victory over death through Jesus, which includes the saying ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ in 1 Cor 15:54-55. It is well known that this saying alludes to Isa 25:8 and Hos 13:14. The function of this intertextual reference remains dubious however, especially since there seems to be no explicit reason why Paul might want to combine these two OT passages. This paper argues for a deliberate intertextual allusion that takes the context of Isa 25:8 and Hos 13:14 into account and shows that Paul’s theological interpretation of the resurrection has a twofold nature that is both comforting and admonishing.

The weight of the debate on the Persian imperial authorization of the Torah is shifting towards a position where it is generally accepted that the promulgation and acceptance of the Pentateuch as Torah happened in the Persian period and was most-probably influenced by some imperial pressure, but that the primary need arose from the Yehudite community itself. Jean-Louis Ska (Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch, 2006, p. 226) summarizes this position as follows: "The primary purpose of the Pentateuch, for whoever reads it as a whole, is not to regulate life within a province of the Persian Empire but to define the conditions of membership in a specific community called ‘Israel.’ .... The internal justifications are therefore dominant. .... Instead of letting itself be assimilated or become just another province in the vast Empire, Postexilic Israel wanted to safeguard its identity. Persian politics gave it the opportunity to do this." Does this view bring Pentateuch studies and studies on identity negotiation in Chronicles within hearing distance?

The love story between Joseph and his wife Aseneth was the creation of Hellenistic imagination about the life of this acclaimed patriarch and beloved son of Jacob, and his Egyptian wife (Gen 41:45). Catalogued by biblical scholars among Pseudepigrapha under the name “Joseph and Aseneth,” this romance was a part of sacred texts among Eastern Churches, with the major manuscripts preserved in Armenian and Slavonic. Two fifteenth century manuscripts in South-Slavonic translation are regarded by majority of scholars the best witnesses of the story’s Greek original and closest to the Hellenistic tale. In one of the manuscripts (Slav. 306) it is included in the collection of Vitae making it a part of the Orthodox Holy Tradition. The Slavic Orthodox literary heritage was inclined to keep biblical, apocryphal, and pseudepigraphal material alongside each other in the same collections. The literary heights of which the South Slavonic “Joseph and Aseneth” copies were product, was short living. With the firm establishment of the Ottoman Empire in the area literacy declined, but the textual tradition found its way into oral tradition and was transmitted by illiterate Slavic speaking people of Balkans. In this paper I will focus on the preservation and dissemination of the South-Slavonic “Joseph and Aseneth,” in folk literature on the example of their love story, “Lines on the Palm of the Hand” recorded at the end of nineteenth century in vicinity of Mostar (Herzegovina).

The little-known Catholic Reformer Frederich Nausea (1480-1552) was archbishop of Vienna between 1541 and 1552. He is mainly noted for his attempts to reconcile Protestants with Catholicism, for advocating the reintroduction of married clergy in the Roman Catholic Church as well as communion under both species for the laity and for his role at the Council of Trent, where he eventually met his death. His exegetical scholarship, however, remains mainly unresearched. In 1531 Nausea published in Cologne his Anonymi Philalethi Eusibiani in vitas, miracula, passionesq[ue] Apostolorum Rhapsodiæ, a collection of lives of the apostles (including Paul and Barnabas), “which may be regarded as the first attempt at a collection of apocryphal literature” (Wilhelm Schneemelcher, “On the History of Research into the Apocryphal Literature” in New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1, ed. by Wilhelm Schneemelcher and Robert McLachlan Wilson, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003, p. 66). The following year his Latin commentary on Tobit came out. His later works, too, reflect his interest in biblical exegesis, not in the least due to its polemical force in debates with Protestants. This paper examines Nausea’s biblical exegesis John More’s English translation of Nausea’s sermon on the Eucharist (A sermon of the sacrami[n]t of the aulter, London: Rastell, 1533), and argues that Nausea’s use of exegetical arguments published in the context of the Marburg Colloquy (1529) and the literary debates around the Eucharist among Protestants reflect only a partial understanding of the subtleties of the positions within Protestantism and were thus quite ineffective as apologetic means.

Hebrews 3 renarrates the story of Israelites in the wilderness. Why this emotionally appealing story appears in the middle of the theological argumentation? How does the author thereby try to affect his audience? In this presentation I will analyze emotions in Heb 3:7–19 as cognitive expressions. I will concentrate on the renarrated story and its function as a part of the author’s persuasive strategy. To this end, I will apply deixis analysis of emotions and modern argumentation analysis. My deixis analysis of emotions combines traditional deixis analysis (Karl Bühler) with emotional deixis (Robin Lakoff) and emotional structures of stories (Patrick Hogan). Moreover, I will ask their function in the argumentative structure (Stephen Toulmin). Emotions motivate people to change their thoughts, values, and behavior. Stories affect emotions. Therefore to study argumentation, one must study stories and emotions. The uses of demonstratives are sometimes emotional. Moreover, narrative time and narrative place are emotional and are connected to neurological process of attachment. In Heb 3 there are lots of references to time, place and persons. My claim is that every reference carries an emotional meaning and is meant to affect the listener’s emotions. In order to concretize the analysis, I will use the diagram familiar from traditional deixis analysis. Understanding how the author manipulates emotions (pathos) does not suffice; one must perceive his reasoning (logos) as well. Toulmin’s model for argumentation analysis will show the argumentative “logic” of emotional structure of the section. The emotional structure of the discourse in Heb 3:7–19 serves the author’s argumentation. The most powerful way to convince the audience is not by cold logic but by telling a story that impacts on their emotions. The retold wilderness experience is an example how to do it.

The biblical story of Sennacherib's campaign against Jerusalem has been discussed in numerous publications. The majority of scholars concur with the suggestion of Stade, that the narrative was constructed by two different sources: a chronistic record labeled 'A', and two prophetic stories labeled 'B'1 and 'B2'. Stade's hypothesis was further refined by Childs. The Stade-Childs hypothesis has been challenged during the last decades by the Synchronic school. Smelik claimed that there is only one source, and that the repetitions are a literary device to amplify the message of the story. Evans has systematically shown that Stade's division is artificial.He suggested identifying different sources, but he did not pursue his findings. Independently, Young has forwarded a different division based on literary grounds. The works of Smelik, Evans and Young (and many others) ignore historical diachronic considerations. Smelik dates the whole text to the Persian Period (5th century). Young dates his two sources very close to the events (701 BCE). Diachronic studies clearly show that there are different strata, composed in different periods for different purposes.. I will reassess the narrative using combined research methods (historical, literary, syntactic, intertextual, and evolution of religious ideas), in order to identify different strands which are intrinsically interwoven. I suggest identifying three main literary strands from different historical periods, carrying different messages to their audience: 1. The original sayings of Isaiah from the days of Sennacherib's siege (701 BCE); 2. The decade following the Murder of Sennacherib (681–671); 3. The Babylonian siege on Jerusalem in ca. 588 BCE. Finally, the Deuteronomist incorporated the story from Isaiah in the Book of Kings making a few minor changes to the Isaiah text.

To interpret the concept of Torah and that of Sedaqa, it appears worthwhile to place them within a wider context of religious notions in the different traditions of the Hebrew Bible. That kind of analysis may help to shed light on the similarities and differences between the two notions and to try to answer such questions as why the right hand of God is associated with the concept of righteousness. Although the semantic development of Torah and that of Sedaqa can be traced in the biblical texts, the possible cultic and/or mythological background of these two notions can be perceived even in texts from the post-exilic era.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul uses specific strategy against his personal rivals. Paul believes his leading position within Christian group is authorized by God. The apostle argues that any attempt to challenge his status (i.e. his honor) is in fact rivalry against the only honor bestower – God. Questioning God's line of authority within the in-Christ community, Paul's opponents jeopardize the group's unity and sustainability. It turns out that challenging Paul, they work against the Christian group's interests. These rivals are pictured by Paul against the community, and further, outside this community and finally, opposite to God himself. «Selfish brothers» become enemies of Christ.

In its creation-narrative (Genesis 1,1-2,4) the Latal-Lectionary, edited by Daneli et alii in 1997, shows many textual particularities. It is very different from the main Georgian manuscript traditions, as edited by Gigineishvili et alii(1989). Where available, the Sinai-manuscript 34, dating from 10-11th. comes near. It sometimes looks as an abridged form of the Septuagint version. However, how are all these particularities to be explained? We’ll compare them not only to the other Georgian traditions, but also to all other versions: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, old-Dutch and also to Lectionaries in that versions. After all, this comparison will reveal that the judgment of M. Tarchnishvili in his Geschichte der kirchlichen georgischen Literatur p. 324 about the value of lectionaries for the textcritic of the Bible has to be revised.

First, in 1:19 he states that “this will turn out for my soteria, which may indicate his expectation of release. Secondly, in v. 22, he tells the Philippians that the outcome of his situation involves his choice (aireo), a choice he will not make known to them (gnorizo). While some soften Paul’s language here to “prefer” and “know”, I will demonstrate that this is flawed. Finally, in v. 25 Paul states that his confidence (pepoithos) and certainty (oida) of his release to come to Philippi. A variety of solutions have been proposed for this dilemma including: this is after the trial; Paul has received news of his release; he is considering suicide or voluntary death; he has received a word from God; his language is speaking of his preference not choice; he is being rhetorical to demonstrate that he puts the Philippians ahead of his own needs; he is considering bribery. I will argue that the dilemma in the text may be equally well resolved if Paul has a plan of escape in place if the trial goes unfavourably. This not only satisfies the demands of the text, but can be supported with other arguments including: escape was well known and plausible (if dangerous); Paul has used escape before (2 Cor 11:32); Paul has friends on the inside (Phil 1:13; 4:22); he is sending Timothy and Epaphroditus away from the situation (Phil 2:19, 23, 25); and he himself is certain that he is coming soon (Phil 1:24-26; 2:24).

Whereas earlier studies discussed emotional responses to miracles monolithically—i.e. all are seen as expressions of Wunder—a meaningful pattern emerges across the Synoptic Gospels when a distinction is made between amazement and fear/being troubled. The latter is characteristic in what can be termed epiphanic episodes. Amazement is typical for exorcisms and healings. Analysis of characters and setting confirms the differentiation. In private settings established followers are afraid or troubled at special revelations of Jesus' transcendent nature. In public settings characters relationally more distant to Jesus are amazed at his healing power. The Synoptics have a common distribution pattern for the types of miracle stories. In the first half of their narratives, two or three epiphanies of Jesus, interspersed within the mass of other miracles, reach a peak in the transfiguration. At the end of the narratives are a few (or one) miracle stories, all being epiphanies—Jesus' resurrection appearances and related angelophanies. Interestingly, the patterns of differentiation of miracle types and distribution hold true for a diverse body of material: stories in the triple-tradition, double-tradition, special Lukan, special Matthean, shared Luke-Mark and shared Matthew-Mark material. Surprisingly in John too, though emotional responses are rare, a similar correspondence between characters, settings and types of miracles and a comparable distribution pattern are found. Could common patterns of story-telling, incorporated in an earlier phase of the Jesus tradition, be exerting a sustained influence on the said diverse body of material in the Synoptic Gospels?

In this paper I propose that Deuteronomy 25:5-10 has precursors in Leviticus and Numbers. The levirate marriage picks up the topic of the right to an inheritance of daughters (Numbers 27:1-11) and the related problem that when a daughter marries, the inheritance of her father might switch to another family (Numbers 36:6-12). Furthermore, within the Decalogue orientation of the Deuteronomic law, Deuteronomy 25:5-10 is related to Deut 5:21a and picks up the prohibition of Leviticus 20:21: While it is generally forbidden to take the wife of the brother because this would dishonor him, in the special case of Deut. 25:5 it is even commanded to marry the wife of the brother to preserve his name.

John is written with plain expressions and an easier vocabulary. However, no other book in the NT could be compared to John due to its complexity, both in its styles and structures. Its complexity of styles, repetitions, duplications, and seemingly distracted structures have steadily confused the readers. From the modern-linear perspective, its complex phenomena are supposedly caused by historical strata (or literary seams) by means of redaction, addition, and revision through many generations, which is assumed by that the literary matrix of writing an ancient text like John, regarding formulating its structure-styles, is the same as one in our modern days. Based on this sense, Johannine aporias are treated as signs of multi-revisions. In FD, aporias have been also considered. Particularly, there are repetitive expressions both in John 14 and 15-16, arising of the question in terms of how the repetitions and duplicated contents occur. In 14:31, the conversation of Jesus would be over when Jesus says “Get up, let’s go from here,” but why is another discourse presented in John 15-16? Additionally, what is the function of John 17? These aporias are related to the issues of structures and styles in John, leading us to support either the side of undermining the unity of John or one of respecting an authorial (John’s) way of literary composition. Bultmann, Stagg, Painter, Boyd, and others have negative views that there is no organized structure and designed arrangement in FD. On the other hands, O’Day, Segovia, and those scholars who consider a chiastic structure such as Brown, Keener, Ellis, and Brouwer have observed certain traits of the literary construction. If it is approved that FD reflects a chiastic structure, how could it help to solve those aporias? Additionally, can we relate the structure of FD to the whole structure of John?

This paper will discuss reception of the Virgilian corpus in the later Roman empire through late antiquity. The methodology of Virgilian references in prose literature will be a special topic of consideration. When is direct quotation (as opposed to allusion) considered appropriate, even aesthetically preferable in Latin prose? Case studies from pagan and Christian authors will be analyzed. Finally, a couple newly discovered Virgilian quotations in Jerome's translation of the Latin Bible will be presented and discussed.

In depictions from early modern times referring to 2Sam 24 and 1Chr 21 usually a triad has been visualised: a scourge or flagellum representing pestilence, a skull representing famine and a sword representing war (sometimes also stalks of wheat for famine). This triad of sword, famine and pestilence occurs frequently in Jeremiah and Ezekiel (see Jer 14:12; 21:7.9; 24:10; 27:8.13; 29:17.18; 32:24.36; 34:17; 38:2; 42:17.22; 44:13; Ez 5:12.17; 6:11.12; 7:15; 12:16 a.o.) and reflects three aspects of the divine punishment: The sword represents a political disaster, the famine stands for a natural catastrophe and the pestilence refers to a lack of health of the individual. This paper puts up for discussion whether visual metaphor exists or not. It aims however to demonstrate, that the visualisation of the triad of sword, famine and pestilence is conceptual and categorical. The triad was often represented in visual art from the early modern period and used to visualize divine punishment but also forgiveness and reconciliation (e.g. in the Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Vienna with frescoes from J. M. Rottmayr depicting St. Charles Borromeo begging the Holy Trinity to end the plague).

Ezekiel 35.1–36.15: The Idea of the Mountains in the Book of Ezekiel

Chronicles redefines the relationship between Solomon of Israel and Huram (Hiram) of Tyre from that of cooperative equals (a parity treaty in Kings) to that of happy unequals (Solomon as a generous, but authoritative suzerain and Huram as his loyal client). Even more fascinating is the melding of the Tabernacle and the Temple in the international diplomatic correspondence between the two leaders. The choice of building materials and furnishings reveals an impressive acquaintance with the legislation governing the construction of the Tent of Meeting in Exodus. Given that both Solomon and Huram actively participate in the effort to make the Temple more Tabernacle-like, the narrative raises questions about the international status of the Torah in the alternative reality Chronicles creates.

Die Apostelgeschichte zeichnet ein hoch differenziertes Bild des paulinischen Auftretens in verschiedensten Kontexten – sei es in einer jüdischen Synagoge Kleinasiens oder auf der Agora Athens, vor dem Hohen Rat in Jerusalem oder beim römischen Statthalter in Cäsarea. Diese Darstellung ermöglicht es zu prüfen, wie in lukanischer Sicht die jeweilige Kommunikationssituation, in der Paulus seinen Sendungsauftrag zu erfüllen sucht, den Rückbezug auf die Heilige Schrift beeinflusst.

While agreeing with the intuition of other scholars that Rizpah’s name is crucial for her appearance in 2 Sam. 21 this paper will take a different route in investigating its symbolism. Against the theories offered before it will argue that ritspah bat ’ayyah – a glowing coal, a daughter of light/ lamp - taps into the registry of ominous cross-cultural idioms related to endangered heirs and confronts David regarding his breach of an oath given to Saul to protect his male descendants (1 Sam. 24:21-22). Since the focus of the vow exacted from David addressed the perpetuity of Saul’s house formulated as his seed and his name, concepts that in their socio-religious significance overlap with those subsumed under the glowing coal metaphor its violation is exposed by Rizpah’s extended vigil. Overlaid with ritspah bat ’ayyah, a double cryptonym for annihilated offspring, the mount-side solitary mourning implicates the king in the Sauli-cide, and thus in the act of oath breach, becoming an impetus to take measures against punitive cataclysms on David’s own house and a second wave of penal plagues on his nation. In support of this reading the paper will consider: 1.) the development of 2 Sam. 21:1-14 around the issue of remnants and broken oaths; 2.) glowing coals as a cross-cultural cipher for endangered heirs in ANE; 3.) archaeological evidence on the cultic significance of lamps; and 4.) the Deuteronomist’s use of the ner ideology in connection with David and his dynasty. Thus it will be argued that in the precarious matter of regal succession in 2 Sam. 21:1-14 the use of ritspah bat ’ayyah - a fossilized formula for heirs/ remnants in jeopardy – is uniquely correlated with the concerns of the Gibeonite episode and thus is not accidental.

Greek Psalm 90 [91 according to the Masoretic Text] is an astounding text. But it is not the text only that is so outstanding, it is its extraordinary transmission and reception history as witnessed by a vast variety of archaeological objects. Moreover, Vv. 11-12 are cited in Luke 4:10-11 (par. Mt 4:6] by the "diabolos" but not V. 13 (with the four animals). This paper sheds light on the various approaches of (early) Christian writers and their interpretations of Greek Psalm 90:11-12 [and 13] in Luke 4:10-11 and how they dealt with 90:11-13 (!) as a unity.

One of the enduring issues relating to the reconstruction of various ancient Jewish institutions, including synagogues, through the writings of Flavius Josephus has been that of methodology. While many scholars speak of synagogues as being portrayed ‘as they were’ by the historian, others speak of idealized and rhetorically-shaped versions of such institutions. However, current spatial theory provides a new way of combining these two tendencies. According to the Thirdspace theories of Edward Soja, all spaces are experienced as a trialectic of space ‘as it is’ (perceived or firstspace), its ideal (conceived or secondspace), and the combined experience of both actual and ideal space (lived or thirdspace). This paradigm allows the scholar to map the interface between the actual and the ideal in such a way as to embrace and understand both aspects. Using this theory, I will analyse various texts that provide potentially relevant data for the study of ancient synagogues. Firstly, I will address the synagogue of Caesarea Maritima narrative in B.J. 2.285–92. This synagogue was experienced as bound space at both the community and geo-spatial levels, as the Syrians transgressed both the synagogue itself and the entire Land of Israel through their incursion of the synagogue in this medial city. Secondly, I will discuss the more complicated issue of intercultural ideals (i.e., secondspace) in the use of the term 'hieros' for synagogues in numerous texts (B.J. 4.407–8; 6.122; 7.44–45, 143–44) as a case in which Josephus is using the ideals of his Roman readers rather than his own ideals. Thirdspace theory illuminates the relationship between the space as it was, the space as conceived, and the space as it was experienced, all of which allows for greater understanding of both Josephus’ truth claims and his rhetorical shaping of this history, thus eschewing simplistic, purely historicised readings.

The aim of this contribution is to highlight how Nonnus of Panopolis inserts topographical sites, historical persons and mythological characters that are typical for the classical and Hellenistic Greek culture into his Dionysiaca. Through the mirror of late antique epic, special attention will be paid to the relationship between Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean world. By implementing various poetical techniques, as it will be argued, Nonnus absorbs and transforms outstanding events and traditions of the Greek past into his own late antique era and thereby participates in the shift of Greek culture towards the East.

In Romans 9:7, almost all English versions follow the KJV, agreeing with the Vulgate. The translation is problematic, because it reverses the referential scope of sp??µa and t???a, contradicting 9:8. NRSV’s, “and not all of Abraham's children are his true descendants,” either ignores the placement of sp??µa and t???a, or admits of a solecism, of p??te? being attributive to t???a. However, the verse can be understood without entertaining a semantic anomaly or solecism, merely by construing the syntax differently. Pauline usage of sp??µa in Romans 9:7-8 refers to Hebrew ????? as occurs in the patriarchal promises. The contextual argument is that the promise applies to a narrower subset than the totality of Abrahamic (or Israel’s) descendants. Interpretation of the clause structure of Rom 9:7 is constrained by the masculine plural p??te? in the middle, which cannot be attributive to either sp??µa or t???a since they are both neuter. This requires p??te? to be a subject with the same antecedents as in v. 6, and ?t? was read causally. The issue has a simple and grammatical resolution by taking the ?t? of 9:7 as complementizer, not causal. Secondly, the sentence should end with ?ß?a?µ, and the verbless clause p??te? t???a go with what follows. Resultant translation of 9:6c-8: “For not these, all who are part of Israel, are Israel; nor is it that they are the offspring of Abraham. All are children, but, ‘In Isaac your offspring shall be called.’ That is, not these, the children of the flesh, are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for offspring.” The scriptural citation in the passage is no more abrupt than elsewhere in the Pauline corpus. This reading deserves consideration since it relieves the passage of the glaring anomaly noted above.

“War is what makes nations,” added the Bismarckian Julius Wellhausen to the second edition of his ambitious Israelitische und jüdische Geschichte nigh two decades before the onslaught of the First World War. Though not nearly as overt as Alfred Bertholet’s Religion und Krieg and Altes Testament und Kriegsfrömiggkeit, Otto Eissfeldt’s Krieg und Bibel, Hermann Gunkel’s Israelitisches Heldentum und Kriegsfrömmigkeit im Alten Testament, or Rudolf Kittel’s Das Alte Testament und unser Krieg, Wellhausen’s academic oeuvre—as with those of many German mandarins—beat the early drums of nationalism nonetheless, instruments crafted already in German Romanticism. His colleague and confidant Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff could even recall Wellhausen’s later grief for having no son to sacrifice upon the altar of war. Exploring his affinity for a “heroic” book of Judges, a distaste for “late Jewish” texts especially marked by aversion to combat, and a description of war transitioning from the province of religion to that of civil society, this paper will analyze the chauvinistic dimensions of Wellhausen’s monumental Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, “Israel,” and Israelitische-jüdische Geschichte and situate his historiography in fin-de-siècle Germany, a context characterized by international exchange and national jingoism alike. Through the topic of war particularly, this study will engage Wellhausen’s more implicit assumptions of religion and state more generally, the two being tightly bound together. Beyond that philhellenism which prevailed throughout Wilhelmine Germany, the paper at hand will demonstrate how concerns of the present made their way into portrayals of the past, how Israelite history became a German one writ small.

Biblical scholars have produced a variety of arguments in terms of the literary relationship between the book of Job and the second part of Isaiah, so-called Deutero-Isaiah. The general methodology in such a comparative study has usually been the intertextual study between corresponding texts considering many verbal and thematic similarities, which has been more prevalent than before, since Michael Fishbane’s book, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel, introduced the methodology to biblical scholarship. In the inner-textual study which by and large relies on the linguistic affinities, verbal patterns and unique terms widely gathered from parallel verses have been proposed as definite evidence by which the two books have a distinctive relationship in the Hebrew Bible. However, the specific literary association between texts would principally be founded upon several misconceptions. Firstly, based on the formal theory of intertextuality, scholars have addressed the literary dependence by saying that the earlier book has directly influenced the writing of the later book throughout the process of the author’s literary edition. Secondly, the author utilized as the origin of similarity the Israelite’s literary tradition such as the wisdom tradition and prophetic tradition. These assumptions, as I suppose, have restricted understanding the nature of resemblances in texts and the genuine relationship between texts. Accordingly, although, in recent decades, scholars have identified the distinctive relationship between Job and Deutero-Isaiah with numerous verbal parallels and common themes, their claims to address the distinctive relationship seem to be doubtful. Thus, my claim in this paper as an alternative of previous researches is that those resemblances between two biblical materials are produced by and originate from the shared ideological and cultural background from various oral and written texts.

Every narrative develops its own geographical agenda and its own cultural code. This is also true with regard to the seven cities of the communities addressed by the seven messages in Revelation 2-3. Ephesus is presented according to the narrative setting, which means that it is portrayed as the place where a Christian community lives and acts; Ephesus is, even more than that, presented according to the reasoning of a heavenly / godly perspective. Interestingly enough, the main and most important city of the Roman province of Asia is mentioned in first place, but important data from ancient cultural encyclopedia are not included neither with regard to the city itself nor to the Christian community. The paper will address the narrative portrait of the city via the message to the Christian community in Ephesus and ask for the place in the narrative world. It seems that not only the city is mentioned first among the seven cities in Rev 2-3, but it seems to be that the self-understanding of its community is of high self-estimation which is put under severe critique. If the first love is missing, the community will lose its counterpart in heaven which comes along with a loss of salvation (2:5). It might be asked if this is also an indication that the city of Ephesus with all its power is also an entity in quest. Further, the place of those who will conquer is a better place compared with Ephesus, it is the tree of life in Paradise (2:7). Again, the meaning of Ephesus is taken into question.

At Ephesos, two monumental sites are associated with the worship of the Roman emperor. The first is a large terraced area erected on mighty substructures to the west of the Upper Agora. In the center of the terrace a temple, completely destroyed today, once stood. This area is generally identified as the imperial cult temple for Domitian and subsequently for the Flavian dynasty. A second, massive cult area was erected during the course of the second century to the north of the Harbour Baths. The identification of this structure as the provincial temple for Emperor Hadrian in the guise of Zeus Olympios is primarily based on the dating of the architectural decoration and the colossal scale of the temple. For both the so-called Temple of Domitian and for the so-called Olympieion, however, decisive evidence for a secure identification as imperial cult temples is so far lacking. In recent years, extensive geophysical surveying has been carried out at both sites. Furthermore, excavations on the terrace of the so-called Temple of Domitian have brought new evidence to light, particularly regarding the destruction of the temple and the altar, and the late antique usage of the area. The results support the assumption that the area was deliberately destroyed. Subsequently, prestigiously equipped buildings were set up on the former terrace, the function of which has not been unequivocally clarified. Their installation, however, is clearly Christian. In the presentation, all of the known imperial temple sites at Ephesos will be introduced in relation to each other, and the indications for their identification will be critically evaluated. In addition, the results of the surveys and excavations will be presented and the consequences for the construction, usage, and also the destruction and transformation of the temples will be discussed.

At a class on Kabbalah I gave at our synagogue the other week someone got very offended when I described apocalyptic as ancient science fiction. I was trying to make the point that science fiction in our world occupies the same niche as apocalyptic, as the revelation of strange worlds, and hence of the strange possibilities that open up to the human mind- or time-traveller. I was influenced by Jeffrey Kripal’s argument in Authors of the Impossible (2010) and Mutants and Mystics (2011) that the paranormal is enacted in story, and that the sacred is displaced into different kinds of alternative reality. The person who objected was incensed because science fiction is “fiction” and the ancients really believed in their otherworldly adventures. Irrespective of the truth of this assumption, it raises the question of the relationship of fiction and reality, as well as the past and the future. Laura Feldt, in her wonderful book on the fantastic in biblical narrative, has argued that fantastic stories, particularly the Exodus and the Elijah-Elisha narratives, disorient the reader, and are there for the sake of the future, their re-enactment and recapitulation. They are the future in the past. Through fiction we have the opportunity of inhabiting other, and often counter-intuitive, realities which may seem more true than our everyday lives. We learn to live in these fictional worlds, as Thomas Pavel has shown, through a process of bringing to bear our empirical knowledge and gaining insight from those worlds. A reader of fiction is suspended between belief and disbelief, hesitates as to what is veridical. Science fiction may be a metaphor for the mind, for the limitless possibilities of human imagining, just as the biblical writers stretch the boundaries of the possible and irretrievable.

Der Schriftrezeption kommt bei dem Versuch, einen vermutlich innergemeindlichen Konflikt durch die Betonung einer institutionell verfassten Gemeinschaft mit klarer Rollenverteilung zu lösen, nur eine sekundäre Rolle zu. Obwohl ein durch das „Alte Testament“ geprägter Gedankenhorizont vorliegt und die „Lehre“ mehrfach betont wird, steht die autoritative Funktion der „paulinischen“ Tradition im Zentrum der Argumentation; ihr wird die Autorität der Schrift bei- bzw. untergeordnet.

Rewriting the Exodus Narrative was one of the main means to anti-semitic polemics in pagan Greco-Roman literature from Manetho to Tacitus and beyond. The Jews were ridiculed as godless lepers and worse. In this way, anti-semitic authors tried to implant into the Jewish cultural memory and the extra-Jewish recognition of Judaism an inacceptable component. They intended to destroy Jewish identity both inside and outside Judaism by way a destructive form of antisemitic intertextuality. Not only this strategy but also many of the anti-semitic topoi of pagan Greco-Roman literature continue to have an effect as of today.

Leviticus Rabbah has been described by Burton Visotzky as a miscellany of rabbinic tradition, which differs from the mainly halakhic midrash Sifra. But Leviticus Rabbah is not entirely haggadic. It uses halakhic questions and topics very often in combination with narratives to illustrate the right behavior or encourage a certain practice. In a case study and close reading of a chapter in Leviticus Rabbah I will illustrate the hermeneutics of Leviticus Rabbah, its special focus on rabbinic learning and teaching and the meaning of halakhic commandments in the context.

The current paper is a continuation of a work in progress on the anthropological framework of the Nag Hammadi treatises. Having studied Valentinian and so-called Sethian works, it is time now to focus on the texts of the so-called Thomasine tradition.

The note of 1 Macc 9:54 that the high priest Alcimus ordered the destruction of the wall of the inner temple court is taken by most scholars as a description of a historical event. This paper, however, suggests that the note should rather be read as part of a pro-Maccabean propaganda which serves to defame Alcimus. It is argued that, in a historical perspective, not Alcimus but Judas was responsible for serious damage at the temple precinct as a result of his unsuccessful military operation against the Seleucid Acra (6:18–54). The author of 1 Macc tries to downplay this event and to villainise Alcimus by calling destruction what was actually restoration. The paper ends with a comparison to two other passages in 1 Macc (4:44–46 and 5:55–62) which shows that the suggested understanding of 9:54 fits well the strategies of legitimisation and delegitimisation that can be found throughout the book.

The Cairo Genizah preserved a reservoir of lost aggadic traditions. As the canonization of aggadic Midrashim continued well into the second millennium, some aggadic works were lost in transmission, and did not made it to the printed editions of the 16th century and on. However, in many cases the lost midrashim we find in the Genizah can be tagged as 'more of the same'. They rarely contain a novel perspective, different than those preserved in more canonized works. In this paper I intend to present a fragment of a lost Midrash containing a fairly early rabbinic tradition that conforms to the Septuagint against the Massoratic text: The Egyptian midwives who saved the Israelites babies. As presented in the Genizah fragments, the tradition seems to reflect the concept or actual social group of 'God-Fearers', and to go against the tendency to merge the otherness of women and gentiles. Tracing the history of this neglected tradition in later Jewish works the text demonstrates a case of a virtual loss of a perspective and not only an accidental loss of a tradition. I will point out some other cases in which medieval anthologies and Genizah fragments preserve rabbinic perspectives that are not part of the "Jewish collective memory" as shaped by the most canonical representations of rabbinic Literature: The Babylonian Talmud and Rashi's commentary. This special Genizah fragment, that also has unique features in terms of its style and form, preserved early traditions. These traditions echo Second Temple Literature and give stronger voice to positive representation of women and non-Jews. It demonstrates images of blurred boundaries. As such it may be seen as a peeping window to perspectives that precede the process of dominantization of later rabbinic perceptions.

The famous "biblical" verses that silence women in the churches, namely 1 Cor 14:34-35, are found in all the extant New Testament manuscripts. Yet textual critics still debate the authenticity of these verses. Already J. Weiss (1910) observed that verse 33b has "doceo" in vg and ??????? in G. Weiss also pointed out that verse 33a is a self-contained statement without 33b and that the repetition of ?? ???? ?????????? in 33b and 34 does not read smoothly. In addition to the observations of Weiss, the method of transcriptional probability (G. Fee, 1987; P. B. Payne, 2009) undermines the authenticity of verses 34-35 in 1 Corinthians 14. The present study aims to contribute to the ongoing text-critical research on the question of the authenticity of 1 Cor 14:34-35 by focusing particularly on the problem of the connectedness of 1 Cor 14:34-35 to its preceding context, that is, verse 33b. The claim of this paper is that verse 33b is most likely a connecting element which was created for the insertion of verses 34-35 between 14:33a and 36. The paper presents the actual external evidence of the oldest and the most relevant manuscripts (P46, ?, A, B, Fuldensis, D, F, G, ms. 88* and P123) that contain 1 Cor 14:33b-35 and shows that verse 33b in none of them is seen as belonging to verses 34-35. Scribes would consider 33b to be a part of 33a. Manuscripts ?, A, B, Fuldensis, D, F, G, ms. 88* clearly read 1 Cor 14:34-35 as a separate paragraph. P46 and P123 are damaged and require reconstruction. In those manuscripts, where verses 34-35 are found after verse 40, 33b is left with 33a. Thus verse 33b proves to be a key to the text-critical analysis of 1 Cor 14:34-35.

Examining the depictions of world formation and cultural development in Philo and Mesopotamian cosmologies Jürgen Ebach (Weltentstehung und Kulturentwicklung bei Philo von Byblos) argues that Genesis 1-11, in contrast to Philo’s depictions of human cultural development in terms of progress, depicts human cultural activity (Cain’s building of a city, Noah’s construction of the ark, Noah’s viticulture and the tower of Babel) in a way that emphasizes diminishing of life because humanity asserts independence from heaven, rather than growth toward fullness. Key features of Genesis 1-11’s description of human activity are depicted with the verb bnh (Cain, Noah’s altar, Babel). Scholarship has also argued that Genesis 11:27-12:9 should be read in the light of the tower of Babel episode (e.g., Awabdy, 2010), often with reference to the repetition of šm. Klingbeil (2004) calls attention to Abraham’s building an altar in the context of the Babel narrative, but focuses on the altar (mzbh) and not the verb bnh. This article will examine the use of bnh in pre-patriarchal and patriarchal narratives and argue that the patriarchal building of altars depicts a world formation and human development that conforms to the demands of heaven and so presents a theme that stands in opposition to the diminishing of life that proceeds from cultural efforts of human autonomy on the earth. Literature mentioned in the abstract (only presented for this purpose, not to be published with abstract): Awabdy, Mark A. “Babel, Suspense, and the Introduction to the Terah-Abram Narrative.” JSOT 35.1 (2010): 3-29. Ebach, Jürgen. Weltentstehung und Kulturentwicklung bei Philo von Byblos. Ein Beitrag zur Überlieferung der biblischen Urgeschichte im Rahmen des altorientalischen und antiken Schöpfungsglaubens. BWANT 108. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1979. Klngbeil, Gerald A. “Altars, Ritual and Theology—Preliminary Thoughts on the Importance of Cult and Ritual for a Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures.” VT LIV.4 (2004): 495-515.

Scholars have held an orthographical view of transliterated variants in the Four Gospels. They have tried to single out “the correct spelling” from “corrupted spellings” and “the right spelling” from “erroneous spellings” on the basis of the assumptions that the correct spelling is the original spelling and that the single correct spelling has temporal priority. “The single original” hypothesis has functioned as a criterion for textual criticism. From the perspective of linguistics, however, the transliteration leads to phonological variants due to four linguistic factors. This requires multiple originals hypothesis in transliteration and reconsideration of criteria of textual criticism.

In the preface of his translation of the Book of Judith, Jerome exhorts his readers: “Receive the widow Judith, example of chastity, and with triumphant praise acclaim her with eternal public celebration. For not only for women, but even for men, she has been given as a model by the one who rewards her chastity, who has ascribed to her such virtue that she conquered the unconquered among humanity, and surmounted the insurmountable.” Prior to Jerome’s time, the reception of the Book of Judith was rather limited but those patristic writers who refer to its heroine praised her as a perfect model for all, but especially for women and even more particularly, for widows. The most elaborate early interpretation of Judith is found in Ambrose’s writing On Widows (De viduis) where she is acclaimed not only for her chastity and proper conduct but also for her bravery and other manly virtues. In this paper I discuss the different aspects and characteristics of the Biblical Judith as they are perceived in the writings of Ambrose, Jerome and other early Christian authors, including Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Methodius, and Basil of Caesarea. I show how Judith is used as a rhetorical tool in teaching what the proper place and conduct of women, especially widows, is within the early Christian movement.

What did the term “Aram” mean to the people of Syria speaking Aramaic? In the Sfire inscriptions from the 8th century BCE, we find references to a number of Syrian states such as Bit-Gusi, Bit-Salal, KTK, Arpad, but also “all of Aram.” Does Aram here have the connotation of being an ethnic term, or is it referring to something special. It seems that “all of Aram” here simply includes every Aramaic state not specifically named in the listing of Syrian states. If this is the case, being an Aramean is not just somebody who speaks Aramaic but the term seems with being confined to a minor unity to embrace all of Syria. It thus makes it possible that “Aram” is a generic term including ideas of ethnically coherence and identity. It thus opens up for a renewed discussion about ethnic and political identity in the pre-classical ancient Near East.

Moses’ death scene is re-imagined in a variety of ways in rabbinic midrash and in musical settings. Two Jewish composers, of the 19th and 20th century, incorporate rabbinic midrash in their librettos, portraying a Moses who is not ready to die and who argues eloquently with God. The first composer I will discuss is Marcus Hast, a chazzan in Victorian London who wrote a secular oratorio called The Death of Moses in 1893. The other composer is Kurt Weill, whose lengthy 1937 opera The Eternal Road features a death scene for Moses. The librettos of both works, based on several rabbinic midrashim, acquire great poignancy and depth through the music. In both settings, the Shema prayer is included. Traditionally a Jew’s last words before death, it is included in other musical works about Moses by Jewish composers or librettists. The inclusion of this prayer merges the past and present, myth and reality. The death of Moses was a major theme in Romantic and post-Romantic literature. George Eliot wrote a poetic narrative ‘The Death of Moses’ (1908) which quotes some of the same midrashic sources found in these librettos. Rainer Maria Rilke’s Der Tod Moses (1922) also quotes these sources. And one of German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s final poems, smuggled out of a concentration camp before he was hanged by the Nazis, was ‘Der Tod des Mose’. Musical excerpts will be played.

he purpose of this paper is to analyze the discourse function of the phrase apekrithe kai eipen in John’s Gospel. This phrase is used more than 30 times to introduce a number of reported speeches in the Johannine narrative. Most of the occurrences are present in the dialogues between Jesus and the disciples or potential believers (e.g., Nathanael, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the crowd, and Thomas) or in the interchanges between Jesus and his opponents. In the majority of the cases, “Jesus” is the verbal subject of apekrithe kai eipen. Regarding the instances of apekrithe kai eipen in this Gospel, a number of modern English Bible versions include only one verb and leave out the other verb in their translations. The implication of these translations is that the verbal combination apekrithe kai eipen is mere pleonasm and has no pragmatic purpose within John’s literary scheme. Building on the studies of Stephen H. Levinsohn and Steven E. Runge, this paper will show that the seemingly “redundant” phrase apekrithe kai eipen carries out certain pragmatic functions in the Johannine narrative. More specifically, it serves to introduce the important speeches that expound theological truths to the addressees or counter the criticism from them. The result of this paper will have implications on how to translate apekrithe kai eipen in John’s Gospel.

The NIV presents Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers in nine sentences, each in the simple past, so that none of them particularly stands out, apart from the background comment ‘he was a Samaritan’, which is attached to the end of the seventh sentence with ‘and’. Two inter-sentential conjunctions are used: the reorienter ‘now’ (11), which leads the reader both to expect changes in the scene and to find some connection to the context; and ‘then’ (19), which suggests that Jesus’ concluding words represent a new point in the story—the climax, perhaps. In contrast, the Greek text imposes a number of constraints on interpretation that mark certain events in the story as more significant than others and tend to confirm Michael Wilcock’s contention that “the healing of the ten lepers … sums up the whole of what Jesus is saying both to his disciples and to the Pharisees in the section from 16:1 to 18:14”. They include an imperfect in 17:11, a genitive absolute in 12, a continuative relative clause in 12, the combination of egeneto and a temporal expression in 11 and 14 to introduce the specific circumstance for the following foreground events, the positioning of the background comment at the end of 16, the combination of apokritheis and eipen in 17, the naming of Jesus only in 17, and the use of the ‘distinctive’ connective de only in 15 and 17. These constraints lead the reader to ground the pericope in the events that were described before it, to concentrate less on the healing per se and more on the response of the Samaritan leper (15-16), and to take particular note of Jesus’ authoritative pronouncement (17-18).

One requisite of a community’s social construction of reality is a shared mapping of “space” that the community “inhabits”. Such a mapping both reflects and reinforces other structured realms of their socially constructed reality. And, as Mary Douglas has argued, it is in the “fit” experienced across those realms—including the realm of shared ritual practice--that members of the community gain a compelling sense of the “given-ness” of that reality. Mishnah, authored and promulgated by the nascent rabbinic movement c. 130 years after the destruction of the Judean Temple State by Rome, is a study of an ideal and utopian system of Torah-law, in which a Temple State still (again?) operates, and by means of the rituals of which an ideal taxonomy and mapping of space and territory takes place--- as an ordered place and, as it were, in which the rabbinic student of Mishnah lives “imaginatively”. This paper explores the relationship between utopian legal constructs in Mishnah and its ideal mapping of space, with special attention to the example of Mishnah, Tractate Kelim 1:6 to 1:9a.

The recent publication of "T&T Clark Handbook to Social Identity Formation in the New Testament", edited by J. Brian Tucker and Coleman A. Baker, brings together a compendium of essays investigating the formation of social identity among the early Christ-movements. In this excellent volume, much emphasis of the social identity formation theories focuses on inter- and intra-groups social relations. Yet one area that remains to be considered in greater depth is the relationship between space and identity formation. This paper attempts to highlight how a consciousness about spatial assumptions, spatial metaphors and symbolic boundaries could play significant role in the formation of social identity of the early Christ-movement. Using Paul’s epistle to the Philippians as a test case, this paper examines Paul’s choice of spatial language such as imprisonment (Phil 1:12-14), kingship (2:5-11), astrological (2:16), and political (3:20) metaphors. By employing what Edward Soja describes as "Thirdspace" in which the combination of actual lived spaces and textual analyses of imagined and figurative spaces are investigated together, this paper aims to demonstrate how spatial analysis further contributes to the understanding of social identity formation of the Christ-movement in the city of Philippi.

Though ostensibly set in the distant, biblical past, the mutability of children’s bibles provides an opportunity for writers, illustrators, and their publishers to reflect and comment on their own contemporary context. Invariably, children’s bibles contain the ideology of the people and nations who produce them. These bibles demonstrate a direct articulation of ideology, accessible to both children and their parents. My paper will explore how national ideology becomes embedded in children’s bibles, with the contention that the desires of adults are encoded in what they transmit to their children. Specifically, I will look at nationhood and nationalism as made manifest in American children’s bibles from the nineteenth century, focusing on families and genealogies as a means of exploring the relationship between religion and the nation state. Children’s bibles provide a particularly fertile ground for investigating the relationship between religion and the state. While contemporary children’s bibles increasingly attempt to represent pluralism as an ideal, I want to argue that many children’s bibles from the nineteenth century provide a model of an idealized Christian state. Though the phenomenon is certainly not limited to children’s bibles, one often finds therein an analogy between the nation and God’s chosen people of the Old Testament. These children's bibles present the child’s obedience to God as analogous to obedience towards parents, community leaders, and, finally, the nation. The church ostensibly produces obedient citizens and thus the authors of these texts draw a correlation between state and church. Through the genealogical representation of families, my paper will explicate the ways in which these bibles attempt to educate children not only into faith but also into society.

The importance of garments and gowns is not a modern phenomenon. Therefore the relevance of textile traditions (considering their presence and absence) can be traced over many thousands of years. The present paper starts investigating the most reduced level in the taxonomy of clothing, which is in a way the opposite of splendid textile usage: Nudity. Regarding ancient media both texts and images can be used as sources in order to establish a careful interpretation of different "nudities". Focusing on iconography three main lines of visual nudity can be identified: a. sacred nudity (cult), b. nudity as a sign of social or military inferiority and c. athletic-aesthetic nudity (nearly exclusively in the later epochs). The presented images are to be compared with relevant passages taken from the Hebrew Bible as a 1st Millennium BCE composition. Examples for both texts and images are provided - scenarios of a historical development are discussed. Complex constellations will also be taken into account: The connotation of nudity changes dramatically throughout the Metal Ages. Furthermore traditions of increased attestations of showing and hiding nudity in the same epoch are to be analyzed.

This paper will review the contribution of authorial creativity in the rhetorical development of fictional dialogues and monologues in the fourth gospel and its tradition. When authors thus knew that they were employing careful techniques to put Jesus on stage, as it were, as a spokesperson for their beliefs about Jesus, creating a Jesus who was “larger than life”, did they intend docetism? This paper will examine what evidence we have pointing to their intent, arguing that it shows that docetism was not intended, though the resultant creation rendered a docetic hearing possible. The paper will also review what evidence, if any, is to be found in the text of antidocetic concerns, concluding that none is unambiguously antidocetic.

Several passages in the Gospels speak of Jesus, in the context of healing someone or delivering someone of an evil spirit, being angry. To some translators and commentators (and even some copyists) his anger is difficult to motivate and out of character, and they suggest that Jesus was sorrowed rather than angry. I suggest on the basis of modern-day parallels that in the context of exorcisms anger is intelligible. In some cultures today heightened emotion is considered necessary for an exorcism to be plausible and effective and I consider it likely that when the Gospels speak of Jesus' anger they reflect the circumstances around his exorcisms accurately. It is easy to overanalyze words spoken in anger, however, and I argue on the basis of both New Testament passages and modern-day parallels that one should be careful about assuming that when Jesus displays anger at something that he necessarily considered it a supernatural agent. The demonic was not clearly defined, and in both healings and exorcism it was not unusual for the healer to express anger at the personified ailment. Anger is a social emotion that will normally be directed at an agent felt to have moral responsibility. Because of the emotional intensity involved in an exorcism (as in other forms of faith healing), personification of the patient's condition is expected.

This paper examines and discusses Stephen D. Moore’s suggestion that that the use of Imperial themes and motifs in Revelation create a self-perpetuating cycle that lead to one Imperial power being replaced by another. This paper presents an alternative reading of the book of Revelation: firstly acknowledging as significant the text’s status as apocalyptic literature, written as a device of inspiration and subversion against reigning powers. Such literature is shown to deliberately employ imperial themes and motifs in order to subvert imperial rule; it serves as fantasy, exposing the ‘hidden structures of false power’ and suggesting an alternative. This leads to a reading of the text using Scott’s theories of hidden transcripts. As a hidden transcript, the text serves as an anti-authoritarian device that reflects popular feelings toward an oppressor through symbolism and codes. It represents a community’s secret longing for a day of victory over their oppressors; ultimately, the inversions and mimicry of the text serve to equalise and level class structures rather than reverse. In order to facilitate a reading that truly represents this and allows the text to speak for itself, this paper suggests an understanding of the book of Revelation as a dramatic work grounded in the performance art of the Roman Empire. This paper engages as an example Revelation 5 in the manner of a recitatio of the early Empire, highlighting the discontinuity between what is seen and heard, before further exploring the ramifications of such a reading. Though in its early stages, such a reading of Revelation returns an ambiguity and depth to the text that certain postcolonial methods are lacking, whilst acknowledging its impact as a complex literary work that seeks not to provide answers, but rather a vision of hope that stands as an alternative to the forces of empire surrounding it.

The Gospel of John has long been recognized as having pericopae re-arranged out of what would seem their expected order. It is further clear that the first chapter includes material in common with the Synoptics. However, the Fourth Gospel re-purposes this material to suit the editorial needs of the book, needs very much independent of those in the Synoptics. This re-purposing has consequences for the Gospel writer's portrayal of John's ministry. The present paper considers this re-purposing in the light of the structure of John 1 and how this textual context impacts on the syntactic force of the prepositional phrase in John 1:26.

This contribution aims at showing some ways according to which a written text becomes, or does not become, Scripture in a given group. Only examples from Jewish, Christian, and derived traditions will be analyzed, since those are the traditions the author is familiar with, but the supposition is accepted that analogous mechanisms can be active in similar processes in different religious realities. This paper will examine examples of two major categories of cases. In the first category are the cases in which there is already a set of writings which are considered Scripture by different groups or sub-groups of people belonging to a certain religious complex (in such a way that they all consider themselves to belong to a specific tradition, distinct from other ones). Two examples will be briefly described, to see which authority, and in which ways, can decide which texts are Scripture and which are not. In the second, larger category the author will try to analyze what can happen when a new text becomes recognized as Scripture—or fails to do so. Also in these cases the aim is to identify authorities and mechanisms that allow such recognition.

For many, it is a truism that the first mention of deaf people using sign language in the ancient literature is that by Plato in his Cratylus, usually dated to his middle period in the early 4th century BCE. Even mentions of deaf people themselves before this time are relatively few and far between, providing little information about the causes and implications of their condition, their possible social locations, and their ranges of interactions with the wider hearing community and any other deaf people around them; left to simply contemplate such levels of evidence, we might even feel moved to ask whether a signing 'Deaf community' could even have existed in these early periods? We should note, however, that working with few data is in fact the norm for those wishing to study the history of the Deaf communities of the past. With any records and accounts generally being recorded by non-community members--i.e., the hearing--getting at the kinds of details about lived Deaf experience that would illuminate this area of the ancient world requires different tools and assumptions not generally present within biblical scholarship. In this paper, we survey the possible ways in which contemporary scholarship on Deaf spaces may allow greater insight into the lives of those whose communicative experience was primarily visual and allow us to build the fullest possible picture of the way that a 'Deafhood' was both experienced and regarded in the ancient world.

This paper will address broadly the issues of language and socio-historical setting for the Aramaic texts from Qumran. Should these texts be considered a distinctive corpus within the broader scope of the writings composed or preserved around Qumran? Why were they written in Aramaic? It will be argued in this paper that the question of language is best answered in tandem with the overall profile of topics and scenarios addressed in Aramaic works like Daniel, Aramaic Enoch, the Visions of Amram, Tobit, and the Genesis Apocryphon. Building on the observations of other scholars, this profile points to a body of literature with recurring themes addressed to an international Hellenistic-period audience, both within and outside of the land of Israel.

Isaiah 60 is one of the most picturesque visions of the Bible: the eschatological pilgrimage of the nations to Mount Zion, illuminated by the glory of God. Its great importance for Jewish and Christian theology however contrasts with the impression of mediocre literary quality. The chapter is a speech, directed to Jerusalem. But who speaks? According to G. von Rad it is divine speech. But this literary form “is not consistently realized” since God is mentioned sometimes in the first, sometimes in the third person. It therefore seems mandatory to distinguish several speeches (God’s, the prophet’s, a part with a mixture of both voices) or different literary layers (a basic text and editorial expansions). This paper tries to explain the peculiarities of Isaiah 60 by a different methodological approach. Indeed, this text may be considered a narration, not of passed, but of future events, and be studied with the tools used for narrative texts. In order to understand prophetic speeches such as Isaiah 60 it is particularly important to analyse their point of view. Change of grammatical person, instead of indicating change of speaker, may express a change of perspective. God says “I” when telling the events from his point of view, and “He” when assuming the perspective of another figure. This change is most conspicuous when Zion is commanded to lift up her eyes and to see the multitudes flowing towards her (according to F. Stenzel she is the “reflector” the narrator uses in order to tell the events from a different point of view). The narrative analysis sheds light even on other phenomena (e.g. the change between “to go” and “to come”) and reveals that what up to now is considered lack of artistry, in reality is a literary technique that contributes to the richness of prophecy.

Over the last century there has been a large number of new proposals concerning the structure of 1 Corinthians, including a flurry of contributions in the last few years. These include suggestions of compilation (Weiss 1910, Schmithals 1973), deliberative rhetoric (Mitchell 1991), ring composition (Bailey 2011, Milinovich 2013), Jewish argumentation (Ciampa and Rosner 2006, 2010), and kerygmatic argumentation (Malcolm 2013), among others. Many proposals bring associated claims of a central theme for the letter, whether “unity,” “holiness,” or something else. It seems timely to review these contributions, consider areas of emerging consensus, and reflect upon the significance of these issues for the current study of the letter and Paul.

This paper will outline the evidence that John the Baptist had a preferential option for the poor. It will particularly focus on John’s diet as indicative of his attitude towards poverty. James Kelhoffer has argued that ‘Mark 1:6c cannot ipso facto be assumed to portray John as a poor wilderness dweller or an ascetic.’ Kelhoffer stated that locusts were permitted as part of a Jewish diet in Lev 11, and were included in the diets of other ancient people, being consumed by poor and wealthy alike. He concluded that locusts were therefore not just the food of necessity for Bedouins and other poor people but were also consumed by the wealthy. This paper agrees with Kelhoffer that locusts were consumed in antiquity by wealthy and poor people alike, but it will provide alternative readings for two texts that Kelhoffer has used to support his argument, and argue instead that these texts provide evidence that locusts were regarded as the food of the poor. This paper will then ask whether John the Baptist would consume locusts if he knew them to be part of the diet of the wealthy when Jesus remembered that John taught people to eschew luxurious lifestyles (Q 7:24-25). Jesus identified himself as a glutton and a drunk, a description entirely centered on food and drink, but these were characteristics that he did not associate with John the Baptist. When John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was the ‘expected one’ Jesus responded by echoing a number of prophecies from Isaiah including that the ‘good news’ would be preached to the poor. It is therefore likely that John the Baptist’s diet cohered with his own teachings about poverty, with Jesus’ recollections of him, and with those with whom he associated.

One of the many difficulties associated with reading the story of Esther is how to make sense of the image of a devout and model Jew, Mordecai, who willingly gives away in marriage a Jewish girl under his care to a non-Jewish man. As the story now stands, the fact that Esther was not known as a Jewish girl seems to have played in her favour. It is my submission that when read in the context of the grip of a powerful empire, the vow to identity secrecy of Esther 2:10 (repeated in 2:20), shows Mordecai succumbing to the pressure that demands identifying with the powerful overlord in order to survive. By use of textual disparity and plot inconsistencies, I wish to show how the shadow of the empire dictates not only the interpretation of biblical narratives but also the manner in which biblical traditions were shaped and formed. I will argue that the vow to identity secrecy represents the zenith of cultural subjugation by the powerful empire on a powerless colony and that its inclusion and emphasis serve to illuminate the power relations obtaining at the expense of the clarity of the story plot. It is my contention that biblical narratives, as exemplified in the story of Esther took unusual turns as per the dictates of empirical hegemony and, as such, cannot be read adequately independent of such fundamental dynamics.

Die Beziehung zu Gott bestimmt das Leben der menschlichen Person. Für die Kirchenväter ist die Heilige Schrift (byblos) eine göttliche und personale Realität, von der sie sich stets „ernährt“, die sie zu vertiefen sich bemüht haben und an Hand deren sie die Wahrheit (kanon tes aletheias) überprüft haben. Die Heilige Schrift hat ihre Bildung geprägt und sie ins praktische Leben eingeführt, aber sie ersetzt nicht Christus, indem ihr die direkte Erfahrung Gottes und der göttlichen Wahrheiten, die die Kirchenväter bekannt haben, fehlt. Die expliziten Autoren des patristischen Textes sind vor allem Leser des Wirkens Gottes in der Welt und in diesem Sinne auch Leser der Bibel. Der implizierte Autor des inspirierten Textes lässt diesen auf sich wirken und so einen Dialog mit dem Leser entstehen. Person bedeutet Energie (energeia) und Geist (pneuma) und der interpersonale Dialog vermittelt diese Energie und diesen Geist. Der inspirierte Text bietet uns jedes Mal neue Sinngehalte (logoi), d.h. neue Perspektiven, was seinen personhaften, d.h. lebendigen Charakter zeigt. Durch den inspirierten Text (hai hagiai graphai) spricht Gott immer öfter zu uns und wir vertiefen uns immer mehr in die Worte und Sinngehalte Gottes. Deswegen ist es ein Proprium der Methode bei den Kirchenvätern hinsichtlich der Rezeption des biblischen und patristischen Textes, das bereits in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten zu finden ist. Die Interpretation der Bibel bei den Kirchenvätern hat eine liturgische Orientierung und findet in einer Liturgie statt, deren Kernpunkte Anamnese und Epiklese sind, um die personale Anaphora zu erreichen.

Some Problems Related with the New Edition of Vol. III "Apocalypses" of "Antike christliche Apokryphen"

The Sibyl is one of several composite and legendary female prophets that occupied the imaginations of Greek and Roman authors from Heraclitus to Pausanias and beyond. Her role in this large body of literature develops three rhetorical topoi that are key to her characterization: 1) her frenzied mental state during prophecy, 2) her sexuality, and 3) divine force and violence upon her. These three topoi, along with traditions that trace the Sibyl’s origins to primeval history and to specific locations in Greece, Asia Minor, or Italy, are the building blocks for creating the believable persona of the Sibyl in the Jewish (and Christian redacted) Sibylline Oracles. For the Jewish and Christian oracles, as in classical Greek and Latin traditions, the Sibyl is a female character whom male authors use to think about other topics. While classical authors use her to consider how the gods interact and communicate with humans, Jewish diaspora authors use her as the ultimate “Other” who could voice eschatological prophecy from an outside culture. In the process, they redefine unsuitable aspects of her character—her origins and source of inspiration—to make her a prophet of the true God and place her in biblical history. They retain the violent, sexual, and mad parts of her person because they are integral to prior rhetorical imaginings of her character. This paper examines the Sibyl’s character and rhetorical power in the Sibylline Oracles by analyzing the rhetorical topoi and her image-creation, especially in her self-descriptions that punctuate the revelations in the books.

During the 2012 excavation season in Limyra, an ancient city in the south-west region of Lycia in Asia Minor, a building remarkable in many respects was discovered. Although only a small part in its north-east area could be brought to light so far, a few elements suggest that the edifice was used as a public building for the Jewish community of this city; maybe it was even her synagogue. In its north-east corner one room was equipped with precious materials such as marble wall revetment and windows with glass of at least four different colors. Moreover, a square water basin was built in supplied by collected rainwater, which was channeled through a terracotta pipe into the basin. Some elements suggest that the basin was used for bathing. The entry to the building led from the main street into a vestibule, which was originally partially open at the front. Its original floor cannot be ascertained, yet at a later period, it was raised to its current level by means of secondarily used stone slabs and pillars, which were deliberately broken for this purpose. The two slabs are chancel screens decorated with images of a menorah, with one of them additionally displaying a shofar, the other a lulav. The unusual appearance and the fittings of the building, as well as the chancel screens raise the question of the structure’s function and meaning. Although this cannot be answered with certainty after the first excavation campaign, the combination of the different features suggests that the building has to be connected with the Jewish community of Limyra. The chancel screens – even laid down for secondary use – indicate that a synagogue was once located in the immediate vicinity; therefore it is not improbable that the building was itself this synagogue.

Tension between religious communities often arises with regard to rituals and cultural practices, but a recent case from India illustrates that the translation of sacred texts can also be a source of controversy. In 2000, the Bible Society of India published a translation of the Bible in the Kurukh (Oraon) tribal language. Known as the Nemha Bible, it translated the Hebrew word ra‘anan (green and verdant) as “sarna” (tree, grove of trees). While in terms of lexicography this is an accurate translation, it later became the object of great controversy, because Sarna is also the name of the traditional tribal religion still practiced by many adivasis (tribal people) in this region. In the fall of 2008, Sarna adivasis staged massive protests in response to the use of the word “sarna” in Deuteronomy 12:2, wherein God commands the Israelites to destroy the sites of Canaanite idol worship. Sarna adivasis read the verse as a call for Christians to destroy their religion. In this presentation I propose that the Sarna adivasi leaders used the controversy as a social and political tool to strengthen their sense of cultural and religious identity and make specific political demands. This incident demonstrates that the act of translating the Bible not only affects the Christian community for whom it is intended, but it also impacts members of other neighboring religious communities.

That Christianity (and its sacred texts) is showing significant growth in Africa, particularly Africa, South of the Sahara, is well-documented. Also, the mushrooming of charismatic and neo-Pentecostal churches (and their unique interpretative strategies) on the African continent is a fact. That Biblical Studies as a discipline (and its focus on biblical criticism) is losing popularity within educational settings is also a harsh reality. Within the latter settings, some of the scholars choose to fore ground contextual approaches in their biblical scholarship. Within the broader Bible-conscious interpretative landscape, biblical criticism seems to remain a foreign concept and/ or exercise. The following questions are worth asking: Within a biblical criticism-unconscious context, one which sets great store by reader-friendly and many a time spiritually-focused bible interpretations, does and can biblical criticism have a place? If so, what is its meaning and more importantly, what is its role? The preceding questions among others, will form the main core of the present paper

Idealized imprints of genealogy, reproduction and fertility abound in the Hebrew bible, from the promises of descendants to Abraham in Genesis, to the edicts to pass down torah to one’s children in Deuteronomy. The valorization of women’s fertility has been well documented and critiqued by some feminist scholars; this paper seeks to widen the field and explore how men’s reproductive prowess is normalized, and how failures in masculinity are concealed and reimagined. The text suggests a norm in which lines of descent from male generation to male generation are maintained, and the passing on of ones name appears as a kind of continuation after death. Male non-production poses a threat to this chain, and destruction of offspring is cast as a threat in the afterlife (Isaiah 14:9-22, Jeremiah 11:19). Failures to reproduce are repaired by mechanisms such as levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Genesis 38, Ruth) and the erection of monuments (2 Samuel 18:18) or reconfigured in striking ways, such as YHWH’s promise to the eunuch (Isaiah 56). Drawing on Lee Edelman’s notion of ‘reproductive futurism’ and the resulting embrace in queer theory of ‘failure,’ this paper will emphasize how biblical ‘failures’ in masculinity are concealed and corrected, as well as being projected onto female characters and subjectivities. This will add additional critical lenses for thinking about masculinity, reproduction, and perpetuation of the male name in biblical texts, and will offer opportunities to further resist the coercion of biblical women into maternal roles.

Formulae and Literary Structure in Ezekiel 34–37

That the Gospel of Mark stands at a crossroads of orality and literacy is by in large taken as fact. As a result, the presence of transliterated Aramaic words and phrases in his Greek text presents us with a hermeneutical problem: why does Mark labor to include what appears to be aural extravagance within a literary landscape? This paper evaluates the presence of transliterated Aramaic words and phrases in the textus receptus of Mark’s gospel and proposes a methodology for assessing their literary and rhetorical value. Emphasizing the simple yet remarkable fact that Mark’s text is, indeed, text we will propose criteria by which we may evaluate and categorize the instances of transliterated Aramaic based on their speaker, their context, and whether or not the evangelist translated the Aramaic for his intended audience. Our conclusions will be aimed at formulating a workable hypothesis under which the above problem may be appropriately addressed. Finally, we will briefly attempt to justify our conclusions in light of contemporary Marcan scholarship.

Stating that most prophetic books have as one of their thematic structures a movement from judgment—often times against foreign nations, but also against Israel and Judah—toward salvation is banal. In these prophetic texts god’s judgment is expressed in a number of different ways, e.g., oracles against the nations. One form of prophetic judgment that has as yet not been catalogued by biblical scholars is annihilation. Annihilation can be distinguished from genocide in that genocide constitutes the annihilation of a specific people group, e.g., Edomites, while annihilation constitutes the destruction of all living things. The prophetic texts about annihilation do not conform to a specific genre, but are connected by similar terms and phrases, and most of all, by a description and/or threat of annihilation. There are ten annihilation texts in the Hebrew prophets: Isa. 10:23, 24:17-23, 28:22, 34:1-4, Jer. 4:23-26, 25:28-33, Amos 7:4-6, Zeph. 1:2-2:3, and 3:8. Some of these texts have been grouped together before, but all ten texts have never been considered part of the same prophetic phenomenon. Annihilation texts can be further subdivided into two categories: (1) annihilation of all creation and (2) annihilation of all living things. The difference between category (1) and (2) is that ‘all creation’ includes a destruction of things such as “the heavens,” “the earth,” and/or “the sun, moon, and stars.” Category (1) includes Isa. 24:17-23, 34:1-4, Jer. 4:23-27, and Zephaniah 1:2-2:3. Category (2) includes Isa. 10:23, 28:22, Jer. 25:28-33, Amos 7:4-6, and Zephaniah 3:8. Yet, annihilation texts are always negated in the final form of the text. Annihilation is always averted. The negation of such a heinous judgment fits with the thematic movement from judgment toward salvation often used in the prophetic books, mentioned above.

Signs of original sin which transfers guilt and punishment from generation to generation are not infrequent in the Bible and in rabbinic literature. S. Levy claims that principles of original sin existed in the corpus of Jewish texts including the Bible but in normative Judaism they did not develop in the same manner as Christianity. This paper will examine the criteria used by Augustine to explain the transfer of original sin through Adam and criteria used by the rabbis to explain the transfer through Eve. 1) In the Bible there are verses which express the transfer of sin from fathers to children and verses which make a connection between the human situation and sin, as if sin is the natural consequence of being born of woman. Although it is possible to understand these verses as a tendency to sin and not that in each person there is sin from the time of conception, other verses emphasize that humans do carry such a tendency. 2) In rabbinic literature and also in the Bible, human beings do not die free from sin rather sin itself is considered to cause death. The Garden of Eden story, particularly as interpreted in rabbinic literature, indicates that Eve brought sin into the world and through her it was transmitted to all subsequent generations of humanity. This is similar to Augustine's description of how original sin became embedded in Adam and was transferred through him to all subsequent generations. In both cases the source of the sin is located in the generative organs. In Christianity baptism removes the stain of original sin from each individual in the subsequent generations while in Judaism giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai removed the stain of Eve’s sin from the Jewish people.

“Ephesus: Amazonum opus, ciuitas in Asia ubi requiescat beatus euangelista Iohannes” (The Venerable Bede, CCL 121:171). Surprisingly, the Venerable Bede combined pagan (Plinius, Nat. Hist. 5.115) and Christian motives in this description. How did ancient Christian authors perceive this metropolis of both emperor’s cult and Christian faith? Are there differences with regard to the perception of the non-Christian cults, before and after 325 CE? The paper will deal with ancient commentaries on Acts, Ephesians, and Revelation; in addition, ancient writings on Christian history also will be studied.

Matthew 25:31-46 describes the core of Caritas Christiana. Postcolonial and Empire Studies attentive to the relationship between Christianity and the Roman Empire have cast opposite ethical evaluations of this pericope, considering it either an instance of resistance literature (Warren Carter) or as complicit with Empire (Musa Dube). More recently, Fernando Segovia has analyzed such disagreements and, skipping to grant a final conclusion, closely underscores textual ideological tensions. In the present paper I expand the debate on the emancipatory potential of Matthew by analyzing and comparing artistic representations of Caritas Christiana and Caritas Romana. My contribution proceeds in two steps. First, I diagnose the problem by showing how opposite ethical and political evaluations find expression in two contemporary strands of interpretation: whereas liberationist approaches emphasize the identification of the "son of man" with the "poor," conservative renderings focus on the notion of the "son of man" as the judge and the idea of the American nation as "Christian" and "righteous." Such diagnosis calls, in my view, for creative ways to deconstruct the aforementioned tensions both at the textual and the history of interpretation levels. In the second part, I suggest a way out of such interpretative impasse. Here I pursue a constructive move in deconstructive fashion by arguing that the ethical standards set up in Matthew 25:31-46 as "Caritas Christiana" (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked...) are ironically best fulfilled in its original context and in the history of interpretation by non-Christian sources such as the myth of Pero and Cimon. Using as an example Renaissance paintings of both textual traditions (Caritas Christiana vs. Caritas Romana) I offer a queer reading of graphic representations in order to suggest a deconstruction of the dichotomies imbedded both in the text, and in the history of its interpretation.

Historical-critical, Literary, and Socio-Scientific Studies have approached the political import of Revelation in the past by introducing the category of “Empire” at the center of analysis. The Roman Empire functions as the backdrop of Christian formation, as a cultural signifier against which Revelation’s political proposal is defined. Ideological criticism typically goes a step further by assessing Revelation’s resistant strategies in terms of the present context. Furthermore, Postcolonial and Queer Criticism apply a hermeneutics of suspicion which divests Revelation of its potential radical ideology. The present paper surveys how these different approaches have evaluated the political impact of Revelation in the past and the strategies they follow to bring such conclusions to the present. Despite the central role that the Roman Empire plays in all these approaches, hardly any attention has been paid to present imperial formations. “Empire” is a central category of analysis in Postcolonial and Queer Criticism, but it almost exclusively refers to the “Roman Empire.” The question of “North-American Empire,” that is, of the proper contextualization of the contemporary geopolitical context in which the text is appropriated, is dismissed. I shall proceed in two steps: First, I survey “ethical evaluations” of the book of Revelation in terms of Empire presenting scholarly interpretations that either term Revelation as literature resisting Empire or complicit with Empire. Second, I contextualize such ethical evaluations in the context of the present Empire in order to put forward an emancipatory reading.

My paper examines the representation of Yhwh’s wrath in the Hebrew Bible in comparison to the way angry gods are depicted in ancient Greek and Mesopotamian texts. Whereas the Bible features a male god exclusively, in other ancient literature we find descriptions of both male and female deities in states of rage. In Aeschylus’s Eumenides, for example, vindictive anger is personified as the Furies, a grisly hunting party of desolate female spirits. I will examine the characterization of male and female divine wrath in selected texts, tracing any differences in the way this anger is triggered, manifested, or appeased depending on the gender of the deity. I will also consider whether these deities’ wrath is expressed differently depending on the gender of the god or human who provoked them. In this respect, it may be significant that the biblical God is only able to direct his anger towards humans, since as a (more or less) solitary deity, he is not presented as engaging in emotionally charged relationships with other gods. On a broader level, I look at metaphors used to describe the enraged deities. Are males or females more frequently imagined as a warrior, animal, spurned lover, avenging parent? Based on the conclusions drawn from this comparative investigation, I will return to the biblical text and discuss to what extent Yhwh’s wrath may be said to be distinctively masculine. Scholars have noted ways in which the God of Israel appears to have absorbed or incorporated characteristics of lost female deities. If it is possible to delineate the contours of female divine wrath, I will also consider whether the male deity of the Hebrew Bible has taken on any aspects of rage that can be regarded as distinctively feminine.

Rabbi Shmuel Yerushalmi (Kreuzer) (1921-1997), a disciple of Lithuanian Yeshivot in Jerusalem, translated from Ladino into Hebrew, the Me’am Lo’ez - the commentaries on thirteen books of the Hebrew Bible, written by ten different authors, in the years 1732-1899; thus bringing the said commentaries to the attention of the contemporary Hebrew-reading public, no longer familiar with Ladino. Moreover: Rabbi Shmuel Yerushalmi wrote his own commentaries on the rest of the books of the Hebrew Bible, not discussed by the Ladino scholars, following the same method and sources used by those Ladino commentators. Shmuel Yerushalmi elaborated on Jeremiah, 1:1 discussing the prophet’s place of birth: Anathoth; not Jerusalem; thus he could preach to his contemporary Jerusalemites. Yerushalmi next dealt with the prophet’s father: H?ilki’ah, who – according to RaDak (Rabbi David Kimhi (c.1160-c.1235) - was the high priest who discovered the Book of the Law (the Torah) in the Temple, in the days of king Josiah (2 Kings, 22). Following Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzh?aki (1040-1105), Shmuel Yeruslami wrote that the Prophet Jeremiah was a descendant of Rahab, the harlot of Jericho: she whose life had been sinful - repented; her descendant Jeremiah was to reproach his contemporary Judean people, who were descendants of honest and decent parents, yet their everyday doings were evil. Because of his just deeds, the reign of Josiah was the time when three prophets were active: Jeremiah, Zephaniah and H?uldah. Yerushalmi elaborated on Jeremiah’s hesitation to accept his calling: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak for I am a child (Jeremiah, 1,6)” and the Lord’s reassuring answer. Jeremiah was to preach not only to the people of Judea, but also to the Gentiles.

The figure of the martyr is often held to be the ultimate paradigm of Christian discipleship; the one who is prepared to follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Rev. 14.4) to the point of giving up her life for the sake of the gospel. Rudimentary martyr devotion in early Christianity prefigures the more elaborate Cult of the Saints which developed in later centuries, and it is therefore unsurprising that most of the early Christian figures remembered as ‘saints’ were also ‘martyrs’. While ‘the saints’ in the earliest Christian documents refer to the people of God as a whole, the term came to be associated with a subset of Christian individuals who led particularly ‘saintly’ lives or exhibited ‘holy’ deaths. In this paper, I will argue that the development towards a more technical and exclusive usage of ‘saint’ is anticipated in the Book of Revelation, where already ‘saints’ are ‘martyrs’ and ‘martyrs’ are ‘saints’.

This study discusses the means of interpretation of the Holy Scriptures by the au thor of Barnabas' letter. The author asserts a unity between the Old and New Covenant which lies in the spiritual dimension of the Law. However, it is the New Covenant that brings the true perspective of the Law's interiorization for those believing in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence, the New Covenant fulfills the Old one, and the central hermeneutical key is an Christological one. Concerning hermeneutical methods, it seems the author has mainly an allegorical thinking. Even with typology, although the use of the term typos is rather a technical one, allegorical elements are blended. The scarce use of the term parabole has also an allegorical, hidden meaning.

In the first chapters of Acts we are presented with the story of the infant Church, a narrative that reminds the reader of the Genesis story, one that shows the Spirit creating again. I will argue that Luke has consciously composed his narrative with the Genesis account in mind, with a desire to convey the history of the early days of the Church in Jerusalem as the New Creation. This later developed into the idea of her being pre-existent in God’s mind, the fulfillment of Creation and its ultimate goal. The Church as being in the mind of God from the Creation, and even its existence before that, is an idea found in early Christian Fathers, such as Origen, the author of the Shepherd of Hermas, and with strong echoes in Rabbinic Judaism. My paper will focus on exploring the Book of Acts as a witness to this idea, bidding to show how Luke has shaped his narrative as a history of beginnings, indeed a new Creation story. Both Christian and Jewish sources will be taken into account in an attempt to discover how this underexplored idea is both rooted (or hinted at) in the Scripture and also influenced early Christian theology and the doctrine of the Church. This interpretation, although having had a limited influence, is significant in understanding early attempts to explain the role and function of the Church in a time when Christians were still a long way from determining their identity as the New Creation.

My paper would examine the concept of impurity and its creation and spread in Leviticus and compare this to depictions of plague, outbreak, and contamination in science fiction. Leviticus treats impurity as something that is real an d bodily manifested and its effects as potentially deadly and community-destabilising, just as science fiction treats invisible or fantastical notions (invented diseases, psychic plague, possession) as real and dangerous. I would compare Levitical models of impurity to the 'classic' model of zombie outbreak (as exemplified in, e.g., the works of George Romero), invasive transforming aliens in works such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Thing (1982), and Star Trek: The Next Generation, demon possession in the television series Supernatural, and the representation of decay and entropy in horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft and William Hope Hodgson. This comparison poses various questions: where does impurity come from? Do SF works differ from Leviticus in figuring impure contagions as alien rather than as a natural result of contaminating human bodily processes? How is contagion imagined to spread physically-through contact, penetration, proximity? Does an actor need to commit a wrong (moral or technical) to incur contagion? In what instances can a wrong committed by one actor come to impact a wider community? And, ultimately, what is it about the concept of impurity and contagion that makes it so compelling to ancient Israelites and modern SF authors alike?

This paper emerges from the concept of law and righteousness as joint principles of ordering cosmic space. The pragmatic face of this alignment is found in imagery of weather, agriculture and social order, hence nature and society provide the practical sites of cosmic order. Exploration of this framework contextualises a moral anthropology which draws on the symbiosis between natural and human worlds and which in turn promotes discussion of cosmic order as that which gives meaning to experiences of chaos. The paper explores these views with reference to aspects of cartography which offer a reading lens for interpreting the spatial poetics of Psalms

In 1960ties and 1970ties some Slavic scholars associated the concept of apocryphal works and elements with the well-known precepts of Bogomilism as an ideological and social tradition that contradicted an ‘official ideology’. This understanding later has been fully revised as a result of the establishment of the medieval literary process as a mixture of canonical, quasi-canonical, and non-canonical elements (Alexander Naumov, 1976). The relationship among these elements, is simultaneously much more complicated and much more homogeneous than it was thought to be only ten-fifteen years ago. The presentation poses some questions about the correlations and similarities among apocryphal, exegetical, and catechetical medieval literature in the context of Mediterranean World and their reception in Medieval Bulgaria (10th–14th cc.). Examination both of the history of the texts and of their perception provide a basis for a general concept that the prevailing part are works (original ones as well as translations) which convey the Christian creed in a manner accessible for newly baptized peoples. Some of Slavonic non-canonical compilations (i.e. historical and apocalyptic works, 11th–13th c.) gave utterance of political ideas and protuberances of political thinking, especially during periods of crucial historical events, invasions, wars and conquests. Finally, the author tries to make a survey of the chronology and sources of translated and original texts which should be termed as parabiblical literature (Emmanuel Tov, 2002) or paratextual literature (Armin Lange, 2010). These texts functioned in the medieval Bulgarian written tradition after a continuous evolution, after having spread throughout the Middle East, Georgia, Armenia, the Byzantine provinces, and Southern Italy. Translations from Byzantine Greek to Old Church Slavonic were transmitted to medieval Russia, Serbia, Croatia and all over the Balkan Peninsula. In this sense medieval Bulgarian literature is a mediator for all Orthodox Slavic literatures in the passing through them the apocrypha.

The study of paradox has been one of the most misunderstood or neglected areas in contemporary biblical scholarship for the latter half of the 20th century. However, there has been a renewed interest due to the innovative approach and breakthrough pioneered by Kripke in the study of paradox of circularity, and its application to biblical paradox by Min. This paper presents and extends this new perspective and paradigm of circular rhetoric and its interpretive validity for the case of the mystery of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in John 1:15 and 1:30 in the primitive Christianity. Some well-known examples of biblical paradox of circularity are surveyed and analyzed. Two proof methods in John 8:12-20 are analyzed and discussed to establish the exegetical basis and validity of circular rhetoric and interpretation. A few noteworthy features in biblical paradox including the rhetoric of circularity, nonmonotonicity, and modality are noted and discussed. One similar and parallel example on biblical paradox in the contemporary New Testament scholarship is found in the work of Cullmann on the two-stage coming of the Kingdom of God, expressed in temporal-modal logic of “already” and “not yet” in tension (Luke 17:20–30), in the framework of the salvation history. The current study provides a promising new prospective and paradigm, with many groundbreaking results toward the study of Johannine literature in the light of biblical paradox and circular rhetoric.

This paper discusses an unpublished fragment from the now lost book of questions-and-answers on Scripture by Sabrišo bar Sarošwai, an East-Syrian scholar from the tenth century. This fragment, preserved in a florilegium in manuscript Cambridge, University Library, Oo. 1. 29, f. 270b, addresses the question of the genealogy of Melchizedek. In his dealing with this issue, Bar Sarošwai provides the names of Melchizedek's parents as well as some additional extra-canonical information on this scriptural figure. The paper presents the text and addresses the question of the material's relation to the previous tradition of treating the figure of Melchizedek in Syriac literature. The paper also addreses the general problem of handling apocryphal material in the East-Syrian tradition of Scriptural exegesis.

As Peter Nagel puts it, Thomas 83 “ist ebenso tiefgründig wie unverständlich.” It seems that the Coptic text is incomprehensible because it is corrupt. The text makes much more sense if we emend it according to the proposal of Berliner Arbeitskreis für koptisch-gnostische Schriften. The content of the emended saying may be divided into four statements: (1) there are visible images; (2) the light of the visible images is concealed in them and, therefore, invisible; (3) the light of the father will be visible; (4) the image of the father will be concealed by his light. Thus Thomas 83 clearly opposes the divine image with the mundane ones. The images that are visible to the human being are the images in Platonic sense, i.e. the objects present in the phenomenal world. The idea that there is light within the phenomenal objects would not be confusing for the readers of Thomas, since a number of Thomasine sayings teach that the light is already present in the world, and yet no one can see it. The “image of the Father” is most probably the image of God lost by the humanity after the Fall. The light that will conceal the image is Adam’s splendor that the righteous ones will regain in the last times. When saying 83 points out that the Father’s image will be concealed in the Father’s light it seems to describe the blinding radiance of the righteous. The point is that the light will be so bright that it would be impossible to see anything else.

The present research paper investigates the Greek translation of the Second Book of Reigns from the perspective of the methodology of content and context related criteria newly developed within the context of the Louvain school of Septuagint studies and textual criticism (Ausloos and Lemmelijn). The paper begins with a brief review of the contemporary research on the translation technique of LXX Reigns, followed by an exposition of the characteristics of the translation of the Second Book of Reigns employing the content and context related criteriology. By means of illustration of concrete examples in ????????? ?', we can have a better understanding of the translator's character in terms of his literalness, freedom, faithfulness and creativity as he renders his Hebrew Vorlage into Greek. Where the Septuagint differs from the Masoretic Text, the current investigation of the LXX translation technique enables us to distinguish between deviations in the Greek text which are to be attributed to a different Hebrew Vorlage and deviations which are attributable to the translator's creativity. The aim of this paper is to present a draft of the picture of the translation character as manifested in ????????? ?'. This can then serve as a piece of the puzzle of the LXX translation technique of the four Books of Reigns, a project which the candidate is striving to accomplish in her doctoral research.

The Tanakh and the Quran share many narratives, among them certain stories relating to David and his son, Solomon. But whereas the Tanakh’s presentation of its stories is in a generally detailed, chronological format, the Quran only summarizes or refers to specific aspects of the greater narrative(s). This would seem to indicate that the Quran presupposes that its readers are aware of the general details of a story, or have access to such. I argue that over the period of time, certain developments in Islamic theology clashed with the Quran’s presuppositions, and led to the eschewal of certain earlier assumptions or exegetical material. In this presentation, I would like to examine excerpts from two narratives: Q. 38:21-25, which refers to David’s being forgiven for some error, and Q. 27:44 which refers in the most truncated way to an aggadic story of the encounter between Solomon and the queen of Sheba. Several researchers have covered some exegetical material regarding David’s error. There has been no previous in-depth examination of Q. 27:44 and how its exegesis might have changed over time. Here, I will examine the works of select exegetes from the classical to the modern period, charting the changes in interpretation and examining the possible reasons that precipitated such change.

The aim of this paper is to underline the dynamics of connections and plural interpretations in the Gospel of Thomas, having as starting point the analysis of the concept “Kingdom of Heaven” as it appears in Logia 3, 22, 49, 82, 107 and 113 in the Gospel of Thomas (NH, II, 2) as well as the text as a whole. The paper’s main purpose is to highlight the combination of historical and exegetical research in understanding the Gospel of Thomas. My focus is in part directed towards deciphering the text’s organization and the manner in which the intra-textual analysis of Logia 3, 22, 49, 82, 107 and 113 can shed light on the theme of the ascension of the soul. It is only through an unbiased reading of the complex network of themes developed in the Gospel of Thomas that one can have a better understanding of the multiple meanings encapsulated into one Logion. In other words, one should read the Gospel of Thomas as a unitary whole. This type of approach not only opens new avenues of research on the Gospel of Thomas, but can also provide new solutions to old interpretative problems with this text.

This paper aims to investigate the variety of Christian attitudes towards the Temple as found in the late first and early second century writings of the Apostolic Fathers. I will argue that these attitudes were based on the formative theology of the different early Christian trajectories emanating from the earliest Jesus movement which left no single unified Orthodox attitude. The Temple of Jerusalem represented a critical problem to the different Christian groups in terms of their identity and relationship to the Jewish roots of Christianity, which was a central problem in the literature of the Apostolic Fathers. It is beyond the capacity of this paper to investigate the origin and nature of all Temple attitudes in the Apostolic Fathers so I will focus on specific texts, namely the Epistle of Barnabas, 1Clement and, briefly, Ignatius of Antioch. In each text I will explain the Temple notion, its place in the text's theological framework and the historical situation it reflects. The study will provide three entirely different attitudes coming from three different backgrounds. That is, Alexandria, Rome and Antioch respectively. These text were chosen because they are theologically independent, contemporaneous (around the end of the first century) and extremely different in their opinions regarding the Temple. These different attitudes should show that the Temple was a central theme in the struggle of Christian identity that required serious endeavours to form an early Catholicism by reconciling some of these attitudes as in Luke-Acts.

Classically, it has been held that the Apostle Paul opposed the rite of circumcision and thereby departed radically from the Judaism of his day. In order to appreciate the contours of Paul’s invectives against circumcision, however, it is critical to understand particular aspects of the practice during the apostle’s own time. This includes consideration of the physical dimension of the rite. Yet, in New Testament studies, attention to the physical aspect of circumcision has often been neglected. In an effort to better address this topic, this paper will seek to examine the question of how circumcision was historically performed. A case will be made that among Jews of Paul’s day, not one but two forms of circumcision were conducted – milah and periah. It will be argued, moreover, that in Gal 5 and Phil 3, Paul expresses objection to the more radical of these two procedures, periah, which he considered to be a form of mutilation. In addition, it will be suggested that it was only following the popularity of the gospel of Christ and influx of Christ believing Gentiles into and alongside Jewish communities that the rabbinic authorities officially defined circumcision to be periah. It will be ventured, moreover, that with a rise in the practice of periah, Roman tolerance for circumcision waned and the rite was ultimately limited or banned. Finally, thoughts will be offered regarding the modern practice of circumcision and contemporary efforts to proscribe the rite. This paper will argue that Paul would have been in partial favor of such efforts not because he dismissed the rite of circumcision but rather because he opposed the dominant form of circumcision currently practiced, that is, periah.

Angie Motshekga, is reported to have said; “South Africa is not ready to have a female president...” Such a statement was uttered by the president of the Women’s League of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). Perturbing about her statement is the fact that it presumes that South African women are presently incapable of leading their country as president. Also, given the attractive literature on women empowerment in South Africa, Motshekga’s view comes both as a disappointment and a disempowering factor. As such, this paper investigates an empowering possibility that the Deuteronomistic Athaliah in 2 Kings 11 could provide to the women of South Africa. In doing so, Athaliah is elevated from the negative light in which she is presented by the patriarchal Deuteronomistic historian. Drawing from a reconstructed Athaliah as well as from the leadership of selected women politicians, the present paper ultimately argues that women are capable of leading South Africa as president.

Several Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha texts bear witness to a trajectory that envisions a heavenly savior in human form. Chief among these texts should be the oft overlooked Tobit, a late third century BCE writing whose charming story of undeserved suffering has usually been identified as its focal point. Escaping the notice of interpreters has been the book’s groundbreaking adaptation of Israel’s Angel of the Lord tradition. Tobit profoundly engages this tradition with an extended angelic appearance that borders on a fully human incarnation. The Angel of the Lord makes its first appearance as a human in the Torah, but these accounts are brief and leave the angel’s human condescension relatively undefined and mysterious. Tobit extends these Torah materials by radicalizing the angel’s human appearance with a distinct ethnic profile. Now for the first time the Angel of the Lord appears as a simple Israelite with a nearly seamless human experience. Tobit also subjects the angel’s saving mission, often central to its Hebrew Bible tradition, to speculative development. Here the angel as an Israelite informs, empowers and delivers in ways that address the righteous suffering of a few non-descript Israelites. Close examination reveals that Tobit’s angelology does not stand alone but gives fuller expression to the type of mediatorial speculation found in several other Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha traditions. Yet, while these other texts do express in sometimes startling ways the beliefs of some Jews in the Angel of the Lord’s saving appearances, only Tobit asserted that God’s chief heavenly agent undertook a redemptive mission as a common Israelite among Israelites.

Paul's objection to the circumcision of non-Jews turning to God in Christ has been conceptualized in terms of a binary relationship between works and faith. This contrast has been developed and understood to characterize the difference between Judaism, which Paul supposedly left, and Christianity (however labeled), which he promoted. Following a discussion of relevant features arising in Josephus's account of several Jewish teachers' views on circumcision of the non-Jew Izates, includig his mother and other characters in the story, a comparison will be drawn with Paul's teaching of non-Jews. Several central translation and interpretive decisions in Pauline studies will be challenged and new alternatives proposed, including the topics of "faith" for pistis (and faith "alone" too), "works of law" for ergon nomou, and the relationship between circumcision and Torah-observance, among others.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the manner in which the authority of Jesus is described in terms of his control as leader over the possessions of his followers in the Gospel according to Matthew. In Matthew Jesus is depicted as an authoritative leader who not only commanded that his followers sell or abandon their possessions (19:16-29), but who also utilised the possessions of others for his benefit (21:1-8). The language, expression and rhetoric of Jesus as it is presented by the author of Matthew will be compared to analogous commands of Hellenistic (e.g. wandering Cynic and Stoic preachers) and Jewish (e.g. those Qumran community) leaders in order to determine the control they had over the possessions of their respective followers. The paper will specifically examine the depiction of the authority of Jesus in Matthew in regards to those who heeded his call to renounce their possessions (4:18-22), as well as for those who decline to do so (19:22). The following questions will also be addressed. In which socio-political context did the demand for the renouncement of possessions normally occur in the ancient world? What type of leaders made these demands and what were the underlying social function and goal behind them? Were they general demands or only addressed to selected potential followers? It will be argued that for Matthew the demand to relinquish all possessions and to follow Jesus served to emphasise his ultimate authority as a leader to a specific group of his followers.

Inserting David: Royal Dynamics in Ezekiel 34 and 37

The Apocalypse of Thomas: A Text with Many Faces

When Ambrose of Milan (339-397) provided a definition of hymns as “praises of God with song (hymni laudes sunt Dei cum cantico),” his views of the hymn were similar to the perspectives offered in Greek-speaking antiquity. Yet in Ephrem the Syrian’s madrashe one discovers hardly any such glorifications. The Syriac madrasha as a poetical form features an ample variety of different topics. On the one hand, it presents, illustrates, and explains Christian doctrine and defends dogma against perceived attacks of the heretics. On the other hand, it describes or alludes to historical events. The madrashe for the dead that are part of the East Syriac Liturgy of the Hours, which are ascribed to Ephrem, do present themselves in the form of hymns. Nevertheless, they offer rather lyric reflections on death, which one may characterize as praises only with difficulty. This paper traces the characteristic form of the Syriac madrasha, which was of great significance for and influence upon the Byzantine kontakion. It spells out what made it so attractive for ancient hearers and readers.

As against the standpoint that the fourth Gospel tends to downplay John and subordinate him to Jesus, I seek to prove that this Gospel highlights his importance, presenting him as the reliable witness to the messianic identity of Jesus. By qualifying him as someone who is 'sent' from God and 'comes' (1:6-8), two verbs associated with the divine Jesus, and as 'a man', the Gospel makes John the only reliable human witness to both aspects of the messiah - his divinity and his humanity. John's reliability unfolds against the backdrop of a theatrical trial court discussing the 'case' of Jesus. At its first session (1:1-18) John is called to testify to Jesus' divine identity as 'logos' and to his humanity as 'the Word became flesh'. The second session (1:19-28) aims to establish John's reliability as witness and lays the ground for the third in which he is asked to point at the 'defendant' and identify him explicitly (1:29-34). By designating him 'the Lamb of God' and 'the Son of God', John describes the two facets of Jesus' identity and affirms his status as the witness who proclaims the essentials of Christology. The trial ends with the defendant's acquittal and triumph over his prosecutors: John's disciples follow Jesus and thereby lay the foundation for the nascent church (1:35-37). As reliable witness, John's last direct testimony addresses his parallel activities with Jesus (3:22-36) by contrasting his baptizing with water and the supremacy of Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit and the promise it already embodies in the present. Whereas scholarship widely holds that the fourth Gospel conveys an alleged polemic between the Christian community and John's disciples, I hold that the high-ranking status this Gospel assigns to John, as Jesus' reliable witness, is what conversely occasioned the need to distinguish between the two.

In synchronic studies, the argument of some structural literary feature is frequently used to support the claim of literary integrity of the text under discussion. On the level of the end-text, it is quite often true, also from the diachronic point of view. But if competing literary features are observed in one text, the question is provoked, whether a single authorship can be proved for all those complicated macro-structures. The paper will briefly discuss two prominent examples from the book of Genesis, the Bethel-episode in Gen 28:10-22 and Jacob’s nightly combat in Gen 32:22-32. The focus is set on the feature called the repetition of words and phrases or Wiederaufnahme, called also inclusio or envelope structure, sometimes even with chiastic nature. This will show that without further observations, the argument of a literary feature can be used to favor both the unity as well as the disunity of textual layers in these passages. The positive effect of additional (mostly comparative) analyses can still be demonstrated. The paper will end with a brief discussion on the question whether a diachronic picture of Hebrew literary features can be achieved, and what could be the use of it.

The Letter of Jude is not one of the most influential books of the New Testament, although in the last couple of years some important publications have been produced. Traditional research based on the historical-critical methods focused mainly on the identity of the author, the identity and teachings of the opponents and the relationship of Jude with 2 Peter 2. In comparison, very few publications based on a gender-critical approach have seen the light. In this paper I will on the one hand review critically the themes and methods of publications done by female authors and publications based on a gender-critical approach to the Letter of Jude; and on the other hand compare it with publications based on historical-critical methods and whether they acknowledged the research based on gender exegesis. A logic outcome of the paper will be an evaluation of the achievements of gender studies in recent years and the contribution feminism has made to biblical studies.

The perhaps most well-known section of the New Testament is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, the first of five discourse units in the Gospel of Matthew. At the centre of the Sermon on the Mount we find the most famous prayer of the New Testament, the Lord’s Prayer. This paper argues that the Lord’s Prayer is best understood from a discourse perspective. Rather than approaching the Sermon on the Mount from the traditional atomistic perspective of Form Criticism, where each text unit is thought to have had a separate existence and then been brought together to reflect the perspective of a “Matthean community,” this paper argues that the Lord’s Prayer is best understood when the Sermon on the Mount is perceived of as a coherent and structured unit whose totality interrelates with the each part of the Prayer. The analysis of the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the Sermon will be approached first from a bottom-up co-textual analysis that brings attention to each level of rank ranging from the ranks of the word, phrase, sub-clause and clause to those of the paragraph, the chapter, the whole Sermon and the Gospel of Matthew as a totality. A top-down analysis is then applied, where the analysis first takes into account the whole Gospel of Matthew as the makro-level discourse unit whose totality provides the greater context for the Prayer. From there the analysis again moves down through the ranks back to the level of the word. It will be argued that this approach brings to the reader a well-founded basis for understanding and interpreting the Lord’s Prayer, demonstrating that the Prayer is not just inserted into the context of the Sermon but coheres with and relates to the Sermon and the Gospel of Matthew as a whole.

Discussion of early Christian texts on post-mortem or post-parousia existence has sometimes underestimated the degree of continuity with ideas in the surrounding culture because scholars have tended to neglect imagery in epigraphy, especially when depicted pictorially rather than in words. This illustrated paper offers a case study based on Paul’s promise that Christians will undergo bodily transformation into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body (Phil. 3:21). This is compared with imagery of bodily transformation in epigraphy, from the territory of Philippi and its surroundings, depicting post-mortem heroization or divinisation of the dead.

This paper consists of the summary of a comprehensive survey of the terms koinonia, koinonos, and koinoneo, in some 370 papyri and 100 inscriptions dating from V B.C.E. to VII C.E. It seeks to address a lacuna in modern scholarship, which has so far concentrated its attention on the use of the terms in literary sources and on their supposedly intrinsic theological significance, especially in Pauline literature (cf. Groenewald 1932; Campbell1932; Seesemann1933; Endenburg1937; Hainz 1981; and Baumert 2003). Recognising the methodological problems and ideological leanings associated with earlier research, this study investigates a broad spectrum of primary material (i.e., papyri and inscriptions) from the perspective of the lingua franca of Paul and his communities. Leaving aside basic semantic and etymological questions, it focuses on the pragmatic usages and contextual connotations of these cognates in a wide range of documentary contexts, such as civic or religious decrees, commercial or marriage contracts, property leases, etc. Thereby it purports to broaden current philological understandings of the terms, draws attention to unsuspected or overlooked connotations, and highlights potentially relevant examples vis-à-vis Paul’s letters.

Literary analyses have recognised the prevalence of imagery and in particular of metaphors in the book of Daniel. This paper shows that the author of Daniel 2 not only employed metaphors to describe King Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the night but he also strategically used synecdoche to underscore the personal nature and the urgency of the message in line with some known prophetic utterances (2:38//2 Sam 13:7; Ezek 22:24). While the colourful image in the vision took the form of a man, its parts (body-parts) represented imperial kingdoms, but only the head had a double referent – King Nebuchadnezzar as well as his kingdom, Babylon. It is argued that the use of synecdoche in 2:38 was a deliberate strategy on the part of Daniel not merely to point to the king’s pre-eminence among the imperial rulers but to capture his attention. However, in the light of the reception of Daniel in both Christian and Islamic traditions as a prophet, it is argued that Daniel’s re-imagination and interpretation of the king’s dream served not just to confirm him as a wise man in Babylon but to introduce him as a prophet.

The laws-corpus in Deuteronomy shows a differentiated diachronic development. The final structure of the book maintains, however, a depth significance, if one analyses and understands the work in its synchronic dynamic. This dynamic is definitively characterized by a mixture of laws and narrative. Only by searching the continuity between the narrative frame and the juridical parts is it possible to identify the hermeneutical approach of the book as a whole.

L'apocalypse de Judas

This paper investigates the reception and use of the pentateuchal festival laws in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah 8. A comparison between the pentateuchal laws and the passages in Ezra-Nehemiah provides significant information about the use of the Pentateuch in the contexts where Ezra-Nehemiah was written. The comparison shows that the pentateuchal laws used by the author(s) of Ezra-Nehemiah may differ considerably from the MT, LXX and SP versions. This is particularly evident in Neh 8:13-18, which seems to refer to details concerning the celebration of the Sukkoth that are not preserved in any of the known versions of the Pentateuch. The heavy editing in Ezra 6:19-22 implies that there were varying positions on who should be included in the celebration of the Passover.

The presence of the Magi in the famework of Jesus’ Nativity is one of the most important example of religious intercultural relations, which was deeply used by Christian propaganda in order to promote the diffusion of the new religion among Oriental peoples, in particular in Iran. In this relation the subject of Jesus’ polymorphism in the meeting with the Magi and its Mazdean background will be dis¬cussed in the light of some Late Antique iconographical cycles and according to few very fitting Byzantine, Syriac Armenain and Mediaeval sources (like Marco Polo).

The exact meaning of the word anataxasthai in the prologue of Luke’s Gospel remains uncertain and can only be indirectly assumed. The paper discusses the meaning of the word on the basis of the attestation of the word in ancient texts and documents and making use of the resources of the modern Linguistics. A refined understanding of the meaning of the word is suggested through an analysis of the semantic relations of the word diachronically and synchronically and through a pragmatic approach of the word regarding Luke’s use of it in the socio-historical circumstances of his writing: According to these, Luke refers to the written notes that were circulating in the communities of the early Church about Jesus and he declares the intention to serve the same tradition in his own narrative way.

The Acts of Peter and the Twelve is a composite text incorporating older traditions grounded in the experience of mysticism. But in its current iteration, the Acts are actually critical of mystical journeys and juxtaposes mysticism with service to the poor. What, then, is such a text doing in the Nag Hammadi Library?

Among the Old Testament oracles against the nations, Jer. 50-51 stands out as the longest and possibly the most horrifying one. These chapters portray Babylon as the ultimate enemy of YHWH and his people Israel, a portrait that contrasts with its positive role as God's agent in earlier parts of the book. The oracle offers a kaleidoscope image with its ever repeated message of doom by divine vengeance, culminating, inter alia, in the characterisation of Nebuchadrezzar as tannin, 'monster/dragon' in Jer. 51, 34. The contrast with the title 'my servant', given to this king in other texts (Jer. 25, 9, Jer. 27, 6 and Jer. 43, 10), can hardly be stronger. The motif of the devouring dragon seems to recur in Jer. 51, 44, which has led some scholars (Aitken, Carroll, Holladay, Van Hecke) to conclude that Jer. 51, 34-44 form a separate unit in the structure of Jer. 50-51. In my paper I deal with two issues, both concerning the place and function of the tannin-motif in Jer. 51: a) to what extent is the dragon motif present in the section of Jer. 51, 34-44, and b) what is the contribution of the dragon motif, with its strong associative effects, to the overall-message of the oracle against Babylon?

The 'vision of the end of days' appears twice in the Bible: in Isaiah 2:2-5 and Micah 4:1-5. Similarities in topic, structure and language support the assumption of a literary connection between the two, i.e. one prophet was familiar with and even quoted the other, though not by name. The question therefore arises: Who quoted whom? In this paper I claim that Isaiah quoted Micah, while changing the vision in accordance with his own ideas. Regarding the question: Is the message of Micah’s vision one of 'separatism' or 'tolerance'? I prefer the 'tolerance' one: 'For let all the peoples walk each one in the name of its god…' (Mi. 4:4). The story of The Peace Vision of the End of Days not only enables, but even encourages two readings. In my discussion of the biblical text I focus on tendencies revealed by these readings. The text in its current form is at the center of my interest as a reader. The difficulty in defining the vision’s message stems from the double meaning borne by several of the formulaic expressions appearing in the vision: The expression 'In the (end of the?) days to come' may be understood as referring to the distant future or to the near future. The Torah which goes out of Jerusalem may be the Torah of Moses, or a specific Torah (the Torah of peace, for example). The expression “He will teach us of his ways” may also be understood in two ways: either God will teach the peoples some of his ways or he will teach them all of his ways. [text truncated]

Many of the lengthier suras of the Quran appear to contain disconnected passages, sometimes linked through its poetic structure, sometimes not. Sura 27, the Sura of the Ant, is a mid-length sura (93 verses). I will focus particularly on the first 44 verses, which recount two narratives, one concerning a few scenes in Moses' career, the other about Solomon. In the middle is the strange story of the ant, which gives the sura its name and somehow shapes the whole. A tiny ant fears that Solomon’s armies will trample her and her community. She shouts an alarm, which the great king hears and understands. It amuses the king, bringing him to laughter. The ant narrative does not correspond to any Solomonic narrative in the Bible, but everything else in this sura concerning Solomon and Moses does. I shall explore how the ant provides the interpretive link for the whole sura. This paper (part of a larger work in which I use methods derived from literary criticism to interpret the Quran) will explore this link as a means to access the sura’s meaning. What, if any, is the rhetorical difference between Quranic stories that overlap the Bible, and those that do not?

Scholars have increasingly recognized that the preponderance of formal apocalypses and apocalyptically oriented literature that has come down to us from ancient Judaism was penned in Aramaic not Hebrew. Statements of this kind may be found as early as the Uppsala conference on apocalypticism in 1979 and as late as the Enoch Nangeroni meeting in Milan in 2012. John J. Collins’ The Apocalyptic Imagination represents an important waypoint along this journey in the quest for the ancient Jewish apocalypse. However, because the majority of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls were not critically published until relatively recently (DJD XXXI, 2001; DJD XXXVII, 2009), Collins explanation of the origins and development of the apocalypse could not fully account for or integrate much of this Aramaic apocalyptic heritage. Of the diversity of ancient Jewish and Christian texts treated in The Apocalyptic Imagination, the Enochic tradition and Daniel 2-7 were the only representatives of what is now recognized as a much larger constellation of some thirty Aramaic works attested in the Qumran collection. Among these is a cross-section of nineteen Aramaic texts that have a penchant for dream-vision revelation. This paper proposes that the new data brought by these Aramaic dream-visions engenders at least three insights into the origins and development of the apocalypse. These include: (i) revisiting the idea of the inception of the apocalypse/apocalypticism in the dream-vision form; (ii) tracking the early growth of apocalyptic dream-visions within other literary genres; and (iii) recognizing the surge of evidence for apocalypses with a strong priestly bent. As such, this study may be seen as response to Collins’ more recent assertions regarding the need for genre boundaries to be organic and accommodating of new evidence.

It is now 105 years since the publication of the original Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. This paper makes comparisons between the very popular second edition of 1917, which is almost identical to the 1909 edition, and revised editions published in 1967 and 2003. It focuses on the treatment in all three versions of the subject of “the Pretribulation Translation of the Saints" or “the Rapture”. It notes the increased incidence of references to these subjects in the later editions, and, in particular, the use of the term ‘Rapture’. It relates this phenomenon to the works of modern pretribulational writers and their opponents. This paper complements my earlier paper on the treatment of the subject of Israel in the three editions, which I presented at the EABS conference in Leipzig in 2013.

Wie kein anderes Buch erwies sich die Bibel über nahezu alle Epochen hinweg als kulturprägend, als Kulturgut par excellence, als das Buch der abendländischen Kultur. Bis weit ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein gehörte das Wissen um biblische Geschichten und Gestalten, die Verwendung biblisch geprägter Worte und Redewendungen, ja ein gewisser „Bibelton“ zum allgemeinen Bildungsgut. Es verwundert daher nicht, dass biblische Texte, Themen und Metaphern auch im Zuge des Ersten Weltkrieges Eingang in die Kriegsrhetorik und -predigt fanden. Auf Seiten aller kriegsteilnehmenden Staaten stellten Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften ein konstitutives Element im Kriegsgeschehen dar. Besonders der Hebräischen Bibel bzw. dem um einige griechischsprachige Schriften erweiterten Ersten Testament kam bei der Kriegsdeutung eine Schlüsselstellung zu. Am Beispiel der Hirtenbriefe Fürstbischof Leopold Schusters (1842–1927), der von 1893 bis 1927 der Diözese Seckau vorstand, wird der Beitrag der Rezeption alttestamentlichen Texte, Themen und Metaphern im Verlauf des Ersten Weltkrieges nachgehen, diese exemplarisch analysieren und in den Kontext der Kriegstheologie des österreichischen Episkopats stellen.

This paper examines the concept of sarx in the narrative of John’s Gospel. While the term is traditionally coupled with pneuma as constituting one of the basic dualisms in the gospel text, it is particularly the relationship to the body (soma) of Jesus that will be the focus of attention here. Soma in John is not used in a collective sense (as in Paul) or in a ‘quotidian’ sense (as in the gospels), but is used in reference to Jesus’ dead (19:31.38.40 and 20:12) and resurrected body (2:21). Sarx, on the other hand, is used in a sense similarly to Paul’s mythological-cosmological understanding of sarx as negative (3:6; 6:63; 8:15), with the exceptions of 1:14 and the ‘Bread of Life’ discourse (6), where sarx is regarded as the embodiment of salvation. It is precisely this particular feature of sarx as embodiment that is of interest here, and what, if any, the relation to the understanding of Jesus’ body in the fourth gospel is.

Hebrews 3–4 has often been studied for its introduction of the wilderness generation or pilgrimage motif, for its use of the OT, and for the typological development of rest. These features are all significant and certainly warrant future investigation, but Heb 3:7–4:11 begins with one of the features unique to Hebrews in the NT—the Spirit speaking Scripture, which is rarely more than a passing mention in previous studies. Since the author very carefully selects his speakers (e.g., the anonymous speaker in Heb 2:5 who sets up Christ as the ideal representative of humanity), this choice must be explored. This, and the Spirit’s other quotation in 10:15, are the only times that the community is directed addressed. In this carefully crafted “word of encouragement,” this is not incidental. Further, studies that do mention this often limit the role of the Spirit in this passage to speaker of Psalm 95, but it seems reasonable to extend his agency. This paper will argue that it is grammatically plausible that the author envisioned the Spirit as the primary divine agent until 4:11. If the Spirit’s agency is extended, then he is one who becomes angry with the wilderness generation and swears they shall not enter his rest (as the first-person references in the quotation suggest). His extended agency will be demonstrated through lexical connections between the quotation and subsequent development by the author in chapters 3 and 4, through linguistic discussions of “participant reference”—identifying agents by noting typical language usage, and through thematic connections in the remainder of Hebrews (e.g., 10:29) and other literature (e.g., Isaiah 63).

According to a 2011 survey (by the Pew Research Centre on Christians in Africa) nine out of ten Christians believe that “God would grant prosperity to all believers who have enough faith”. The emphasis on faith makes prosperity discourse plausible amongst Christians and sanctifies economic hierarchy of wealth over poverty. A lack of faith is often cited as the reason why Christians are not getting the returns allegedly promised in the Bible. Proof texts – plucked out of their literary and cultural contexts – give the impression that prosperity theology is firmly grounded in Scripture. In the context of ‘emerging economies’ wealth creation and prosperity are appealing concepts in African societies. The South African government is sold on the idea that its BRICS membership holds prosperity for the country’s poor and unemployed. While some economists think that South Africa’s BRICS membership (in partnership with Bazil, Russia, India, China) makes very little commercial sense, others have observed that South Africa’s inclusion is an astute political move giving China an economic foothold in Africa. Moreover, South Africa’s inclusion is significant because it has transformed this economic block into a truly global entity and South Africa serves as a gateway for BRICS trade and investment into the resource-rich nations of Africa. Is this yet another ‘scramble for Africa’ guised as a ‘win-win’ concept? Is BRICS Africa’s new hope for prosperity? Is an increase in manufacturing goods the answer to Africa’s hunger and poverty; or is it another opportunity for instant gratification and ‘get rich quick’ opportunities for a selected few? In the light of these questions and the observation that material prosperity is believed to be a sign of God’s blessing for many Christians in Africa, the prophetic call for a ‘theology of enough’ is an urgent one.

An affiliation of the Egyptian Jewish-Hellenistic (perhaps Oniad) composition Joseph & Aseneth with the Book of Judith of Judaean origin, which was apparently written in support of the Hasmonean dynasty, has hitherto never been suggested. It is quite revealing however to read these two books against each other and at the backdrop of a competition between the Jews of Judaea and those of the (Egyptian) Diaspora. I argue that the pro-Oniad J & A constitutes a response to the pro-Hasmonean Book of Judith. Putting this hypothesis to work can not only explain J & A’s beclouded purpose but it can also elucidate some obscure details and can clarify its similarities with the Book of Judith: for example the notion that a woman is the hero(ine) in both stories. If the Book of Judith was written for the purpose of glorifying the Hasmonean dynasty and their heroic actions of ridding Judaea of the Seleucid domination and purifying the Jerusalem Temple, then J & A, I contend, was written in response to it; as if to say that the Jews of Egypt too have their heroes and also a Temple (when conceding Bohak’s interpretation of J & A). J & A accordingly, constitutes an expression of self-confidence on behalf of Egyptian Jewry vis-à-vis their Judaean co-coreligionists. But it might also, more particularly, be interpreted as a competition between loyalists of Onias’ Temple and loyalists of the Jerusalemite Temple. On a much broader level this paper aims at exploring the relationship between the Jews of the Diaspora vis-à-vis those of Judaea.

The seven epistles St. Ignatius wrote on his road to Rome are witness of the living faith of the second Christian generation. Ignatius explicitly denied his equality with the Apostles and wrote pastoral letters on behalf merely the authority of a future martyr. His most important challenges were not for the 'Godbearer' the future torments and death, but the docetist and judaizing interpretations given to the Gospel. This paper focuses unto the three most important passages concerning how Ignatius interprets the Gospels. In Eph. 19-20 he focuses the 'oikonomia' of incarnation, which more than a simple historical act, it involves the whole kosmos to a threefold mystery, 'wrought into the Silence by God'. This event is actualized in the Christian celebration of Eucharist. The second text (Tral. 9) focuses on the historicity of the birth, passions and resurrection of Christ as contemporary to Pontius Pilatus (cf. Magn. 11). Finally, the third passage (Smyrn. 1-3) broadens the latter image into a dogmatizing formula of the divine humanity of Christ, as springing from David´s seed, but Son of God too, 'according to the will and power of God'. Recollecting the testimony which Luke gives of the appearances of Jesus to the apostles in Jerusalem (Luke 24, 34-47), the Syrian bishop underlines the substantiality of Resurrection as the motivation for the courage manifested in preaching Christ until death. The literal and occasional typological exegesis of the biblical school of Anthioch may find its roots in the Ignatian struggle to confirm the verity of the Gospels. His theology amounts to something more than a scientific discourse: it is existential. Instead of resolving to merely search for Christ "in the archives", he chooses to confess the Christian truth and faith as the righteousness manner in which a community may pray (Phil. 8:2).

Die Vielfalt an Formen und Methoden, mit denen der Apostel die Heilige Schrift in seinen Briefen zur Sprache bringt, hat in der exegetischen Forschung eine nach wie vor offene Diskussion ausgelöst, nach welchen Gesichtspunkten solche Formen und Methoden im Einzelnen erfasst und voneinander unterschieden werden können. Für das Fachgespräch ist daher eine Verständigung über die anzuwendende Begrifflichkeit und Kriteriologie unverzichtbar.

It has long been recognized that there is a close relationship between the prayer of Jonah (Jonah ??2:3-10) and certain psalms. The precise nature of these connections has not been defined ?satisfactorily, however. In this paper it will be argued that Jonah’s prayer is not simply a ?separate psalm which was borrowed from another collection and inserted into the narrative of ?this prophetic book. It can also not be described as a haphazard collection of citations from ?different psalms. It will be argued that it is a very precise composition made by someone or by a ?group of persons with the express purpose of creating links to certain psalms in order to ?propagate specific theological views. As such it reflects the editing activity of a group of post-?exilic theologians who sought to establish connections between the Psalter and other segments ?of the Hebrew Bible. The nature and theological implications of the similarities between the ?prayer of Jonah and the psalms with which it correlates will be investigated.?

The nature of the servant and his task in Isaiah 42:1-9 remains ambiguous. Several proposals concerning his identity have been voiced, including Cyrus, a Davidic Messiah, the prophet, and the people of Israel. Central to his task is the promotion of justice (mispat) whose content has received an abundance of scholarly interpretations. Some argue that the servant is a king who proclaims edicts or establishes true religion, whereas others argue that he is a wandering missionary who preaches salvation to the whole world. A closer look at the biblical interpretations of this passage reveals a series of subtleties. The Septuagint version explicitly identifies the figure with Jacob and Israel (v. 1). At the same time, the portrait of him has apparently been harmonized in light of the messianic oracles of Isaiah 1-39. For instance, “the coastlands wait for his torah” in v. 4 is rendered as “nations will hope in his name” (cf. LXX Isa 11:10; 26:8). In the New Testament, vv. 1-4 is cited in Matt 12:18-21 as a reflection of Jesus’ public ministry. The textual form, however, fits neither the MT nor the LXX and some of the variants may stem from Matthew’s own exegetical activity to shape the portrait to fit his overall theological concern. The paper will examine the biblical interpretations of Isaiah 42:1-9 and consider in what manner the later reception of the passage may help us to interpret the figure and his task.

This presentation will focus on the need to identify a possible me thodology for the analysis of the various patristic exegesis of the Bible. Can this great patristic legacy be systematized in a unitar way? Are there some specific features to be identified?

“This world” can often be a harsh reality. How do people cope with these harsh realities? In this paper it is argued that a spatial reading of Psalms 135 and 136 illustrates the poets of these poems’ ability to imagine “another world” (or maybe rather “an other world”) where they reconstruct reality by re-interpreting and re-applying the historical traditions of ancient Israel in new circumstances. They thus create a new lived experience of “this world.” Confronted by a harsh “Firstspace” (to use terminology coined by Edward Soja) these poets imagine a new “Secondspace” dominated by YHWH as creator and savior which enable them to experience their “Thirdspace” as a life of faith worth living. In my spatial reading of the two poems attention is paid to the poems as ‘twin’ psalms, their function in their immediate context and the broader context of Book V of the Psalter, intertextual links between the two poems and other ‘historical’ psalms conspicuously present in Books IV and V of the Psalter (cf. Pss 105, 106, 107, 108, 135, 136), and Israel’s historical traditions as described in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets.

The paper examines some of the theological consequences of a translation error in Jer 38:32 LXX (31:32 MT). The Old Testament phrase comments on Yahweh’s reaction to the failure of the Israelites to maintain loyalty to him. Although one can never be absolutely certain about the Vorlagen of the Greek translators, it is probable that in this case the Vorlage was identical to the MT consonants and that a translation error can be identified. Whereas the MT text of the phrase in question corresponds to the general tone of the Book of Consolation by attributing to Yahweh a positive attitude to the Israelites, the Old Greek text depicts Yahweh in an opposite manner, viz. as being no longer concerned with the lapsed community. The subsequent endorsement of the Greek translation of that particular phrase by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (8:9) contributed to the development of a polemical strategy of using texts of the Hebrew Bible as arguments against Judaism. While later stages of this phenomenon, represented by Acts 7 and multiplied in patristic exegesis, are well known, the present case offers an opportunity to get a better glimpse of an earlier phase of this polemical trend.

Extensive excavations in the area between the harbor street (Arkadiane) and the Church of Mary at Ephesos brought to light numerous buildings already in 1900. These are chiefly very richly appointed peristyle houses, comparable in architectural type to the well-known imperial-period terrace houses in the center of the city. Recent geophysical surveys have demonstrated that these structures are not individual dwellings, but rather a comprehensive multi-unit development that forms, along with the Church of Mary and the so-called Byzantine palace, the center of late antique Ephesos.

The role of genealogies became ambivalent in imperial times. Claims to agnatic lineage were increasingly challenged so that the respectability of relatives, paternal, maternal and by marriage, within the household came stronger into focus. Notwithstanding an increasing ambivalent role, genealogies were still invoked, and played a much less ambivalent role in the construction of masculinity. Within this socio-political context, the genealogical tenor within the NT is reconsidered beyond the gospels’ grounding of Jesus genealogies in Abraham (Mt 1:1) or Adam (Lk 3:34-38), or Abraham’s centrality in Hebrews’ genealogy of faith (Heb 11:8-19). This paper explores the increasingly complex interplay between genealogy, masculinity and power in a few NT texts with reference to the imperial context.

The Hebrew Bible describes the widow as the weakest in the society. And yet, in the story of Elijah, it is a widow who is assigned, in the name of God, to feed the prophet in a time of famine. We may find here the image of the generosity of the widow, as many commentators think, but beyond that, once she gives her last survival resource, she is obliged to become dependant on Elijah and his promise of miracle. In the name of religion and culture, the woman is deprived of her independence. How to understand such narrative that reflects our current context in which the weakest are forced to abandon their last resources to stronger? This paper proposes a socio-historical reading of this story in order to understand the political, social, and religious issues behind the composition of such text.

This paper compares the concepts and functions of bodies of light in Second Temple apocalypses and contemporary science fiction. In several Second Temple apocalypses, a body of light is presented as a future form of embodiment available to the righteous. Texts from Daniel, 4 Ezra, 1 Enoch, and 1QS shall be examined in order to determine the nature and qualities of the bodies imagined. In order to assess its value for these texts, one must consider both the qualities attributed to the light-body and features by which it differed from a standard (normate) body. To this ancient Judaic conceptualization, I shall compare the use of light-bodies in recent science fiction. Focusing on functional correlates, i.e. examples in which the light-body represents a desirable transformation (the Star Child of _2001: A Space Odyssey_; extremely advanced aliens in _Star Trek_; regeneration in _Doctor Who_), one can explore the persistence of this concept. To that end, discussion of the limitations of light-bodies in science fiction shall help sharpen our understanding of their function the meaning in both the ancient and modern contexts. Throughout, the paper shall historicize the concept of what a (any) body is, and also engage underlying issues of metaphor and representation.

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The paper will address archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence concerning Emperor Cult in private dwellings. The topic will be approached by these and other questions: How were Roman Emperors venerated in private dwellings? Were there special loci within the dwellings where the cult actually happened? Was only the household involved or people from outside as well?

Water is a major concern of the biblical material. We encounter primeval waters, mysterious rivers and springs, mists in the air, wells, mythical floods, and so on. All this in the first book! This paper examines 3 distinct types of water in Numbers: the bitter waters of Num 5, the purifying waters of Num 19, and the drinking water provided in Num 20. It traces the various anxieties around these three types of water, and how they might contribute to a ecological understanding of Numbers.

In Psalm 127:3 children are called “a heritage from the Lord,” and “a reward.” The following two verses go on to describe children as “arrows in the hand of a warrior” (v. 4) and that with which a man fills his quiver (v. 5). On the surface, some may question the ethics and efficacy of comparing children to arrows or to any object intended for violence. In contrast, this paper follows psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott’s object-relations theory in order to argue that Psalm 127:3-5 advocates for a greater sense of love and respect for children by engaging them in object-relations. Object-relations theory posits that individuals relate to objects by first discovering them, then attempting to destroy them, and lastly loving them more if the objects survive (Winnicott: 2005, 115-124). Psalm 127 introduces, or discovers, children in v. 3 by portraying them as objects, specifically “a heritage from the Lord” and “a reward.” In v. 4 the text then attempts to destroy the concept of children by instrumentalizing them as arrows, which are intended to cause and undergo destruction. Rather than destroying them, though, v. 5 claims, “they [children] will not be put to shame when they speak with their enemies in the gate.” Regardless of whether the children confront their enemies at their own gate and successfully defend themselves (cf. Alter: 2007, 450), or the children traverse to their enemies’ gate and successfully defeat them (cf. Gen.22:17, Jud.5:8-11), the children ultimately receive a substantial blessing by surviving the attack. Thus, the discovery, attempted destruction, and resulting survival of children in Psalm 127:3-5 completes the process of object-relations. Read through this lens, the existence of object-relations in the text presents children as a strong and capable entity intended to receive love and respect.

Initial reading of the narrative depicting Bil'am ben-Beor in the book of Numbers, gives the impression that Bil'am is of less ability to communicate with the Divine than his she-ass. Yet, many rabbinical commentaries compare Bil'am to Moses. It is easy to read the comparison as an extreme polarity between the two characters: the first, who is considered as "The Prophet of all Prophets" (Moshe Rabeinu), while the other is a man who is reprimanded by his she-ass. The paper analyses the Narrative of Bil'am and shows how it fits with the teaching of what 'True-Prophecy' is supposed to be and to embody according to the Hebrew Bible.

One finds a proliferation of transworldly beings in Jewish literature of the Hellenistic period. This development is not limited to apocalypses and apocalyptic texts, but it is particularly pronounced in these texts. Indeed, interest in angels and demons as well as the geography of heaven and hell is often considered a quintessential feature of apocalypses and apocalyptic texts. Several theories have been offered to explain the use of angels and demons in apocalyptic texts and these theories are not all mutually exclusive. In this paper I consider subsets of both the data and the theories used to explain them. I examine the function of malevolent spirits in sectarian texts from Qumran in light of modern sociological theories about apocalypticism. I emphasize the role of dualism in the authors’ ability to reconceive existing cosmological/metaphysical concepts in innovative ways.

Although the church permitted no translations of the Bible into Spanish in the Medieval period, Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible carried the unique lifeworld of Al Andalus. A history of the translation and interpretation of Isaiah 11 is particularly in structive of a key role Andalusian lifeworld played in the infusion of a differently balanced sensorium in the leading intellectual culture of the Middle ages, influencing many other cultures in Europe through Bible translations of the16th century and later. Ibn Ezra and Rabbi David Kimhi's translation/commentaries on Isaiah, marked by the flavours, accents and metaphors of the Andalusian lifeworld, were later transferred to southern France. Copies may have been known to Casiodoro de Reina, (1520-1594) the Hieronymite monk of Seville turned Protestant whose Spanish Bible translation has had a great influence from his time to our ours. In 1552 the Inquisition burned him in effigy in Seville, but his translation was published in 1569. Whether or not de Reina was directly influenced by the Jewish commentators, Martin Luther's German Bible of 1545, and the Dutch Statenvertaling translation of 1637, show marks of Andalusian sensorium. Academies of southern France may have been key conduits for the transmission of the old Andalusian lifeworld, for many Jewish scholars fled there. David Martin, educated in Montauban and Nimes published a French translation in 1702 reflecting this same tradition. Notably absent was any impact on English translations, until the Jubilee 2000 translation, itself a translation of de Reina's Spanish Bible. Anthropological research by Constance Klassen et. al. on the shifting sensorium suggests that the Iberian peninsula was the last part of Europe to experience the shift toward the visual mode of knowing observed in the 19th century. Our research suggests the same, emphasizing the importance of this study for translators.

Balaam's fourth oracle (Num 24:15-24) presents one of the most difficult texts in Numbers from a text-critical standpoint. Much of this difficulty stems from the variants present in the LXX text, some of which can neither be satisfactorily explained as translational freedoms reflecting a text similar to MT nor as corruptions caused by misreading a text similar to MT. This variance remains particularly poignant, as LXX-Numbers generally reflects the strict translation of a Vorlage essentially identical to MT. More importantly, the LXX version of this pericope has left a unique mark in reception history, since its version is presupposed by the gospel of Matthew. However, no later Hebrew text identically matches LXX's presupposed Vorlage. This variation in the reception of the text may reflect the recensional development of Num 24:15-24 away from a text similar to, yet distinct from MT, toward a text in the proto-Masoretic tradition. This paper will treat the variations between the LXX and MT (and other relevant traditions and reception such as Qumran) and reflect upon the possibility of reconstructing a Hebrew Vorlage of LXX that was distinct from MT for this passage. Finally, parallels between reception and recensional history will be considered.

A frequent question regarding Genesis 34 is how to understand the nature of the sexual encounter between Dinah and Shechem. In a society in which the majority of rapes continue to go unreported and in which survivors of rape who do report are often shamed, many feminist scholars have argued that Genesis 34:2 clearly refers to an act of rape by current definitions. Other scholars have pointed out the ambiguities of the text or even argued that the violence committed against Dinah was that done by her brothers against the people of Shechem. Popularly, the events depicted in Genesis 34 were rewritten by Anita Diamant who portrayed, though not with scholarly vigor, the relationship as a consensual romance. Both historically and in some contemporary scholarship, Dinah is still blamed for the events because of the only action she takes in the story-having gone out to visit the women of the region. Other scholars argue that the text is best understood, at least from its own perspective, from a group rather than individual ethic. It is with this last group that this paper is most closely aligned. Through an examination of the language used, particularly the verbs in 34:2, and comparison with similar or related narratives and laws, this project will establish that, for the narrator, the question of Dinah's personal consent or fee lings following the sexual encounter are entirely irrelevant to what is a male story. From a post-modern feminist perspective, the real horror of Genesis 34 is not whether Dinah was raped or that further violence was carried out, including violence against women, in her name, but that she is not expected to have a voice or bodily autonomy in the first place.

This paper is part of a larger study on Priestly traces in Jeremiah, and it presents the creativity of bringing diverse pentateuchal references together to enforce the prophetic message. Five prose passages in Jeremiah specify the constitutive event of the God-people relationship by the formulae: “in the day I freed them from / I brought them out of / I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt” (Jer 7:22; 11:4, 7; 31:32; 34:13). These formulae recall obliging the people to the divine covenant through specific commandments. Yet there is no mention of the revelation event at Sinai (or the Deuteronomic, Horeb). Rather, the prophecies draw on the Exodus as the actual event when commandments were given to the people and their obedience was demanded. This paper argues for the non-Deuteronomic roots of these Jeremian formulae. Tracing their stylistic origins, leads to exposing a Priestly phraseological basis and thus possibly a Priestly covenant conception. The latter are intertwined with Deuteronomic covenant phrases and conceptions within one and the same prophetic passages. This tendency to harmonize diverse pentateuchal traditions has far reaching implications for the study of both Jeremiah and the Pentateuch.

The importance of Psalm 2.7 in early Christianity is evident from its citation in several, often otherwise unrelated works of early Christian literature (for example, in the Epistle to the Hebrews 1 and 5, in 1 Clement 36 and in the Acts of the Apostles 13). The utilization of this Psalm in these diverse contexts has been the subject of a recent book by S. Janse (Leuven 2009), who investigated Jewish and Christian uses of the entire Psalm up through the writings of Justin Martyr. The most notable use of Psalm 2.7 is in the stories of Jesus' baptism and transfiguration (compare too 2 Peter 1, fragments of so-called 'Jewish-Christian' gospels and the Apocalypse of Peter 17). Most of these narratives, however, present a conflated text of Psalm 2.7 and Isaiah 42.1 (along with Deuteronomy 18.15 in the case of the Transfiguration). Taking into account the composite nature of these citations (both source-texts of which were also used in early Judaism; see, for example, the use of Psalm 2.7 in 4QFlor 10–14), and extending the investigation beyond Justin to include slightly later texts (such as Pseudo-Clementine Homilies 3.53) and later texts that preserve earlier material (such as Apostolic Constitutions 2.32), this paper is able to better situate the place of Psalm 2.7 — and its conflated form — within early Christianity. An understanding both of the origin of this composite text and just how these early Christian authors used this conflation of the Psalms and the Prophet to express their christological beliefs and to bolster these beliefs among their audiences is only possible by investigating the entire breadth of texts in which it is utilized. This paper offers a compendious presentation and assessment of this very evidence.

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Despite the frequent prophetic criticism concerning Israel’s handling of its feasts and the Sabbath, the Biblical portrayal is to a large extent that of a community acquainted with the (Pentateuchal) festival laws. The rhetoric of criticism actually presupposes a profound knowledge about the festivals on the side of those criticized. However, besides this portrayal, some short notes have survived within the Biblical books that give voice to a minority report: acquaintance with the same feasts but a diverging approach to them. The present paper traces these relics of a different tradition and compares them with extra-biblical attestations for Sabbath and festivals in communities of Judaean origin. The question then arises how the Biblical prescriptions and (non-Biblical?) reality interrelate.

Despite the reticence of biblical narrative to lay bare the inner life of its characters, various words and techniques hint at inner motivations and intentions. One such phenomenon is the case of the double request in the sequence “request-refusal-request”. Most requests in biblical narrative are met with immediate acceptance or refusal, without much attention to the emotional situation underlying the text. But in a number of instances we find the unusual situation of an offer being made and refused, only to be followed by a repetition of the offer together with the verb patsar, “to urge” or “to press”. In most cases this is met with accession by the one who had previously refused, but in a few instances there is a second refusal. The pattern assumes a change of attitude on the part of the offerer or the recipient (or both). The verb patsar intimates an understated emotional reaction which must be unpacked in order to grasp the dynamics of the interchange. What is the emotional state of the offerer that causes him to press his point, and what internal change has taken place in the recipient which leads him to accept the offer? This pattern of refusal with the verb patsar imputes to the character under consideration greater emotional depth and a more subtly nuanced persona. It occurs twice in Gen. 19, once with Lot as the offerer and a second time with him as recipient. Other cases to be discussed are Jacob and Esau in Gen. 33, Saul and his retainers in 1Sam. 28:23, as well as situations where the urging is met with a second refusal, such as Absalom and David in 2Samuel 13:25, and Elisha and Naaman in 2Kg. 5:16.

This paper briefly outlines the origins of canonical approaches including James Sanders, Brevard Childs, and Rolf Rendtorff, before turning to the canonical approach of John Sailhamer. Points of contrast between Childs, Rendtorff, and Sailhamer are made in relation to their proposed canonical texts and the development of these canonical texts. Although they all rely to a greater of lesser extent on the text of BHS, Sailhamer’s approach lends itself to exploring LXX texts, including their different early orderings exactly because of their early pre-Masoretic origins. Moving beyond these earlier approaches, the book of Daniel becomes a test case, critically challenging the assumption that BHS or even Baba Batra 14b represents the (earliest) canonical form of the Hebrew Scriptures. The point is not the rather historically dubious position that the placement of Daniel is to be here or there, but that thematic considerations and not the date of composition have led to its various placements, what I have called elsewhere canonical intertextuality.

The question of whether the Song is about human love/desire or about the love/desire in the divine-human relationship lets emotions run high – at the beginning of the reception history of this text as similarly again in recent scholarship. This paper will reflect on what is at stake with the alternative of “literal” - “allegorical” and then draw the attention to the sensuality of the Song. This sensuality is one of the most important characteristics of the text and helps to understand why the Song is read so differently. A variety of ancient texts show that in antiquity sensual language was employed both to describe the relationship among human lovers and to describe the relationship between the divine and humans. Furthermore, sensuality is crucial in most intimate experiences – which are crucial both in human love/desire and in (some) humans’ encounter with the divine (as indicated, for example, in the significance of sensual aspects in ancient Israel’s cult). Despite these overlaps, of course, for every text one can and should ask how it was meant originally. In the case of the Song, this paper will argue that the Song originated as text describing human love affairs. Nonetheless, at the same time it will be argued that to judge an interpretation with regard to the alternative of “literal” or “allegorical” only is one sided, as an “allegorical” interpretation paying attention to the sensuality of the Song might do more justice to the text than a “literal” that does not.

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The tradition that we term "biblical," namely those books that eventually ended up in the canon of the Hebrew Bible, was formative for the development of Second Temple Judaism as well as rabbinic faith, practice and literature. Whatever may have been the understanding of canon among the various groups of Second Temple and early rabbinic Jews, these particular books took a leading role in shaping Judaism. This paper will investigate the manner in which the various genres and classes of literature of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism preserved and transmitted the Bible, and how they understood the text, canon, authority and function of these books. Further, we will discuss the role of the biblical heritage in emerging Jewish ritual and law.

In early to mid-20th century biblical scholarship, the notion of “Spätjudentum” (“Late Judaism”) was well regarded as a designation for the Second Temple Period. Nowadays, “Spätjudentum” is usually considered to be—at least implicitly—a supersessionist Christian term, but it was also used by Jewish scholars. This paper will explore the origins of the term in the 19th century, the usage during its heyday, and the circumstances for its abandonment.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828), one of the greatest Viennese composers, is known best for his song cycles, his symphonies and works for piano and chamber ensembles. Like so many of his large scale works, his Biblical oratorio, sometimes called „Sacred Opera“, titled „Lazarus oder die Feier der Auferstehung“ remained a fragment. He composed it in 1820, but it was first performed not until 1865. It depicts Lazarus’ death and burial in some length, but breaks off before Jesus’ arrival. Therefore, Lazarus’ resurrection itself is lacking, too, ironically defying the work’s optimistic subtitle. The libretto used is not the Biblical text (as e.g. in Mendelssohn’s oratorios) but a freely dramatized version by August Hermann Niemeyer (1754–1828). On top of the biblical figures Niemeyer invented further personae: Nathanael, Jemina, and a Sadducee named Simon. It has often been discussed why Schubert’s work lacks Lazarus’ actual resurrection, without ever finding a conclusive answer. The paper proposed intends to take a wider focus. It will investigate both Niemeyer’s dramatization of the Biblical story and Schubert’s music in the light of recent narratological analyses of the Biblical text. How are we able to understand Niemeyer and Schubert’s reading of the Biblical story? For a fair investigation, exegesis and theology of the early 19th century will be included in the discussion.

This paper posits that the social historical method has been particularly popular among post-Holocaust, post-1968, liberation-theological oriented, feminist, and politically left-leaning German exegetes because it has enabled them to resist and to offer alternatives to the socio-political, economic, and religious status quo in German theological and exegetical discourse. The work of German Old Testament professor Willy Schottroff (1931-1997) illustrates this dynamic, which traces its roots back to Gerhard von Rad and the Confessing Church during the Nazi-era. To Schottroff, the social historical method is a historical approach that recognizes its hermeneutical interests in favor of justice and “die kleinen Leute,” i.e., the disempowered and oppressed. It exposes a traditionally defined historical criticism as endorsing the status quo in society, politics, economic, and religion. As such, the “sozialgeschichtliche” approach must be understood as a contribution towards the development of a Lederhosen hermeneutics.

The tradition of the spiritual senses has been an inspiration for major recent theological endeavours (like that of Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Sarah Coakley). Many consider Origen as the “founding father” of this theological tradition. He found substantial biblical evidence for the existence of a spiritual sensation in Prov. 2:5, which, according to him, speaks of a 'divine sense.' However, this rendering differs significantly from both the MT and the LXX, which speak about 'knowledge of God.' Therefore, a venerable theological tradition seems to stem from a rather “idiosyncratic” reading of the biblical text. This paper investigates how the translator of Origen’s text might have arrived at his/her translation. My conclusion is that although it cannot be accepted as a good translation of the Hebrew, it grasps important elements of the deeper theological structure of Prov. 2; thus, it represents a possible interpretation of the text.

Isaac’s blessings in Genesis 27:28-29 and 28:3-4 differ in language, style, and content. The former blessings relate to economic prosperity and power, while the latter relate to land and offspring, and are defined by Isaac as “Abraham’s blessing” (28:4). The diachronic approach relates each text to a different source while the synchronic approach claims that the blessings were formulated by one author. The synchronic approach indicates that either the two passages represent different formulations of Isaac’s post-factum selection of Jacob, or the blessing in Genesis 28 expresses Isaac’s selection of Jacob, while the blessings in chapter 27 relate to the birthright. While chapter 27 indeed relates to the birthright, the notion that the blessings do not include a facet of selection is hard to accept – specifically due to the background of Isaac’s preference of Esau (25:28). This lecture will introduce an innovative interpretation of the nature and meaning of Isaac’s blessings, and the relationship between the two episodes. My analysis is based on a literary study of the blessings with specific attention to stylistic features and context. I will demonstrate how the varying nature of the blessings reflects Isaac’s plans regarding the inheritance of each of his sons, in light of the causal link between the two episodes. The blessings in chapter 27 are birthright blessings, reflecting the notion that both sons are included in the chosen family. The blessings in chapter 28 are the blessings of Abraham which reinforce Isaac’s perception that Esau might not be an heir. Therefore, while Esau is not overtly rejected, Jacob is distinctly chosen as an heir by Isaac, in view of the consequences of Esau's blessing, and Jacob's departure from Canaan. The relationship between the blessings also sheds light on the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau later in the narrative (Gen. 33:1-16, 37:6-8)

In fall 2013, I taught a new graduate seminar for the first time, “Science Fiction and Theology.” The course discussed several SF films and television series: Star Wars, Star Trek, the Matrix trilogy, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and more. A wide range of theological issues and biblical connections raised in these examples of SF were examined: the nature of humanity; construction and experience of the Divine; relationships between nature and humanity, nature and the Divine, and humanity and the Divine; role of culture; gender; religion; rituals; perceptions of reality; the problem of evil; violence; use and abuse of technology; function of mythology; the concept of shalom and the creation of alternative futures; and the quest for meaning. In addition to classroom discussion, students wrote three essays and one final research paper. In this paper, I will reflect on the process of teaching this varied material—both pedagogically and in terms of its content—and student interaction and responses, providing concrete examples from the course. The depth and scope of theological investigation made possible through careful analysis of these selections from Science Fiction open up many possibilities for future research, teaching, and pedagogical considerations.

In der jüdischen wie in der christlichen Tradition wurde das Hohelied beinahe durchgehend in einem allegorischen Sinn als ein Gedicht über die Liebe zwischen Gott und seinem Volk bzw. zwischen Christus und seiner Kirche verstanden. Die moderne historisch-kritische Exegese hat diese Deutung als falsch verworfen. Sie sieht im Hohelied die poetische Verdichtung erotisch-sexueller Liebe zwischen einem Mann und einer Frau. Noch bis vor wenigen Jahren galt diese Position als unumstößlich. Doch inzwischen ist der Konsens zerbrochen. Einige neuere Forschungen behaupten, dass die engen sprachlichen und motivischen Verbindungen vor allem zu prophetischen Texten darauf hindeuten, dass hier metaphorische Rede zweiten Grades vorliegt. Demnach geht es im Hohelied - wie die jüdische und christliche Tradition behaupten - um das Verhältnis zwischen Gott und seinem Volk. Der Vortrag will die Pro- und Contra-Stimmen zu Wort kommen lassen und in die Diskussion einführen (Vortrag auf Deutsch mit englischem Handout oder umgekehrt). Weitere Referentinnen und Referenten: Meik Gerhards: Herder und die Anfänge der historischen Kritik. Kritische Überprüfung zu einem folgenreichen Umbruch in der Exegese des Hoheliedes Nina-Sophie Heereman: "Behold King Salomon ...!" (Song 3:11). Are there traces of inner-biblical reception history in the Song? Gianni Barbiero: Das Hohelied - Eine Allegorie? Am Beispiel von Hld 8,5 Annette Schellenberg: The sensuality of the Song - a bridge between 'literal' and 'allegorical' interpretations

The Figure David and his Importance in Ezekiel 34-37

Der Vrotrag geht darauf ein, in welcher Weise Paulus im Römerbrief – im Kontext seiner Präsentation des Evangeliums für Juden und Griechen für eine Gruppe von Christusgläubigen, die ihm weithin unbekannt ist – die Schrift und die Christusbotschaft einander interpretieren lässt. Um eine zirkuläre und so letztlich willkürliche Verhältnisbestimmung zu vermeiden, lohnt ein Rückgriff auf das klassische Modell von Verheißung und Erfüllung.

Second-century CE Ephesos teemed with both images of the Emperor and bodies of enslaved persons. This presentation investigates the interchange between imperial authority and enslaved work in the religious imagination throughout the city. Beginning in the late first and early second centuries, architecture, public art, and inscriptions throughout Ephesos display a rhetoric of imperial authority. Sacrifice, in particular, emerges as one rhetorical subject that helps to reinforce this authority. Yet depictions of sacrifice and regulations about its mechanics mask a fuller historical picture of the roles enslaved persons took in sacrificial rites. This presentation analyzes on the one hand the so-called Parthian reliefs with an eye toward depictions of enslaved women and men. The imperial sacrifice/adoption cycle scene, in particular, instrumentalizes sacrificial personnel suggesting that the imperial men at the center of the scene orchestrate the ritual participants as extensions of their own religious power. On the other hand, inscriptions regulating sacrifices in the city deploy a different picture of what such practices should look like: ritual specialists, many of whom were enslaved, teach elite males who hold honorific priesthoods how to sacrifice. Pitting these two portraits of the proper performance of sacrifice against one another reveals a contestation around the role of enslaved ritual specialists in Ephesos.

There is a marked positive tradition in Judaism in relation to a king in Israel, but along with this tradition is another voice, which negates the monarchy and prefers community over state. I have written a book on this topic (Jewish Religious Anarchism) and here I will present one of its chapters. Abarbanel (1437-1509) served as state treasurer of Spain. After the expulsion from Spain (1492) he found refuge in Italy, where he also served in high-ranking economic positions. It seems that this life history brought him to write his known commentary on the Bible, in which he sharply criticized monarchical rule in Israel. A number of researchers (such as Leo Strauss and Warren Harvey) claim that Abarbanel was "the most definitely anti-political Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance," as he opposed the centralized state in principle and suggested instead the democratic republic, such as that of Napoli. In his commentary he probed the sin of "the generation of dispersion" and found that it was the sin of one human ruling over another. His viewpoint was: if humankind would receive the power to rule, they would never be satisfied with what they had and would always strive to increase their power and to gain control over others. Later in the century his contemporary, Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, who studied in Rome University, wrote a commentary on the Bible, in which his view negated in principle the sovereign state. Recently, in a doctoral dissertation, written by Menachem Ratson (of the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University of the Negev), it was proven that Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164), a Spanish sage who wrote a comprehensive commentary on the Bible, also espoused an "anarchistic" position, by negating in principle the centralized rule of a king.

Moses is the only lawgiving prophet in the Tanach. All subsequent prophets critique what they see as divinely revealed failures of the Israelites to fulfill their obligations of covenant with Gd according to Moses' laws. In addition, some consider Israelite failures as contributing to the various historical national crises --resulting in catastrophe or salvation -- of their time and place. Since both Moses' laws and the prophetic messages claim their authority and powers from the same Gd, any conflicts between them may reveal interesting differences existing within the community's understanding of its customary behavior as covenanted with Gd and as sufficient for Divine favor, help, and salvation. The later prophets, or the Tanach's representation of them, show some also considered the contexts -- social and legal -- into which their prophecies and critiques would be understood. So there is always a query as to how much of the divine message the individual prophet has modified to his perception of what the people will willingly hear. The prophets and prophecies I wish to discuss are: Bilaam, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and, tangentially, some aspects of Jesus prophecy.

With a recent publication of Rethinking the Ethics of John (ed. Van der Watt and Zimmermann), John's ethics has finally received its due attention from Johannine scholars. Scholarly interest on John's ethics is, however, quiet recent and just emerging that there is no consensus either on the appropriate method or the appropriate subject matter including the definition of 'ethics'. To further our understanding in John's ethics, we cannot simply borrow the meaning of ethics from a dictionary or modern ethical textbooks because they do not fully take into account of the unique genre and theological/christological foundations upon which the Gospel of John was written. Thus I suggest the definition of ethics as follows: "the conscious outworking of one's worldview (which influences one's thinking, attitude, and thus behaviour towards God and other human beings) that is defined and transformed by one's personal encounter with Jesus Christ and the Christ event, and which further enables one to imitate Jesus." In this definition we are faced with two important questions; (1) how does John shape his readers' worldview?; (2) what are the essential ethical traits that John wants his readers to embody? In this paper I will argue that John uses the literary device, misunderstanding, especially in chs.1-12 to challenge the readers to come to terms with the identity of Jesus and to reevaluate their old religious convictions in light of new insights gained from the Johannine characters' misunderstandings of Jesus' words (2:20; 3:4, 9; 4:10-15; 4:31-34;6:32-35, 52,etc.). Then I will further investigate how one's transformed worldview enables one to imitate Jesus largely in three aspects (love/unity (13:34-35; 17:11); missions (17:18; 20:21); one's response to the State (18:36)).

Most critical scholars who analyze social dimensions of the Gospel of Mark’s apocalyptic discourse employ social scientific models to locate Mark’s first-century audience, and claim that the gospel was written to those suffering social marginalization under ruling elites. Alternatively, this study employs literary analysis and metaphor theory to investigate how apocalyptic discourse functions as persuasive rhetoric to shape the identity of a community. I argue that the rhetoric of the narrative intends to combat the danger of misunderstanding Jesus’ call to discipleship and consequently becoming alienated from him and his true followers. Rather than reading the text as a reflection of the social status of the intended audience, I look for the nature of the ideal audience produced by the narrative. I do this in three steps: (1) I consider how the narrative describes discipleship in terms of family/household-terminology, which implies a restructuring of this social concept in Mediterranean antiquity. I demonstrate that this familial metaphor and its rhetoric is set within the framework of apocalyptic discourse. (2) I demonstrate that the climax of the pericope 8:27-33 (ta tou theou vs. ta ton anthropon inpired by Satan) functionally and rhetorically structures Mark 8:27-10:45. Throughout this unit, apocalyptic discourse functions through narration and characterization to encourage certain attitudes and behaviors among those who wish to belong to Jesus’ fictive kinship group. (3) I consider hermeneutical implications of the relationship between the world of the narrative and the world in front of the narrative.

From the time of Bernhard Stade, scholars generally have recognized Mic 1–3 as the earliest unit in Micah. For many years scholars conceived of this unit as originating with the eighth century prophet while the remainder of Micah belonged to later centuries. Hans Walter Wolff was the first to suggest deuteronomistic updates to Micah 1–3 as a project of the exilic period. Later scholars such as James Nogalski, Aaron Schart and Jakob Wöhrle have followed Wolff’s observation of a deuteronomistic layer in Micah 1–3 and suggested redactional models of their own. These redactional models lack a substantial consideration of ancient scribal practices. This paper will consider the prophetic and scribal groups that formed Micah 1–3. It will argue that there are two primary levels in Mic 1–3. The earliest level dates to the time of Micah (eighth century) and his prophetic cohort (1:8, 10–15*, 2:1–11, 3:1–12). After the destruction of Jerusalem, Micah’s eighth century prophecy that Jerusalem would be destroyed (cf. Mic 3:12) received renewed interest and was reinterpreted by deuteronomistic groups who completed the second level of Mic 1–3 by attaching a new introduction to the collection of Mican sayings (1:1, 3–7, 9, 12b, 13b, 16). These updates reframe Mic 1–3 by suggesting that Micah’s prophecies were the correct prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction in 587 BCE. This evaluation of the process by which Mic 1–3 was formed will take into account the most recent scholarship on ancient scribal practices. It will incorporate Jörg Jeremias, David Carr, and Karel van der Toorn’s recent work on scribalism in the Hebrew Bible. By considering these valuable contributions to scholarly understanding of ancient scribalism, the paper will shed new light on the process by which Mic 1–3 was formed and add to the ongoing conversation about the redaction of Micah.

Als zumeist unmittelbare Übersetzung aus dem LXX-Text sind die altlateinischen Zitate der Kirchenväter neben den spärlichen Überresten der handschriftlichen altlateinischen Überlieferung wichtige Zeugen der Textgeschichte des Buches Josua. Insbesondere die patristischen Zitate ermöglichen es, für verschiedene Lesarten chronologische und geographische Ankerpunkte der Verbreitung zu setzen, und so vielfach wichtige Indizien für die textgeschichtliche Verortung von Varianten und in weiterer Konsequenz von Textformen zu sammeln. Sie erweitern dabei das von griechischen Kirchenvätern gebotene Zeugnis in nicht geringem Maße. Der Beitrag möchte diese Möglichkeit an einigen typischen Beispielen aufzeigen und hiervon ausgehend textgeschichtliche Folgerungen diskutieren. Diese betreffen zum einen die Charakterisierung der sog. ägyptischen Rezension, als auch das Verhältnis dieser Textform zur syrisch-antiochenischen Rezension, in der dem altlateinischen codex Lugdunensis traditionell eine herausragende Zeugenstellung beigemessen wird.

Literature on the use of diatribe in the Graeco-Roman world is well known. I build on this to examine the use of representation of the thoughts of others, real or imputed, and how this is marked or implied in the text.The Letter to the Romans will be examined alongside the Discourses of Epictetus as recorded by his disciple Arrian. In the Corinthian letters it has been recognised that Paul regularly reflects the beliefs of others to which he himself does not subscribe. The interpretative challenge is to identify whose voice we are hearing and the implied author's response to that voice.The editor of the Discourses frequently adds quotation marks to make such representation clear bu in the original text such aids were lacking. I suggest that by listening to the representation of different 'voices' in the Discourses we may identify interpretative strategies which work well in our anaysis of Romans.A modern theory of communication called Relevance Theory will be adduced to give support to this study but jargon will be avoided.

Throughout his epistle to the Romans, Paul advances a new ontological reality in Christ. He accomplishes this by skilfully employing a number of prefixes (e.g. sun, sug, and sum) that define the faith-union of the believer with his/her Lord. All of this constitutes a theological solidarity whereby the faithful are drawn into the identity and experiences of Christ. Thus for Paul, the end time community constitutes a new ontological reality in the midst of falleness. As such it recapitulates the suffering ~ death ~ glory paradigm of Jesus in the here and now (Rom 6:4-14, 8:17 & 29-30, 12:2). Moreover, this “already” of the Kingdom has more work to do, not only in the life of the Church, but also in the very fabric of existence as a whole. This is true because Paul sees the eschatological gift of the Spirit (Rom 8:23; cf. also vs. 14-17) as setting in motion a theological trajectory that will ultimately affect the entire cosmos (Rom 8:18-22).

What does Q say about Wisdom and what is the relationship between Jesus and Wisdom in this tradition? It is necessary to discuss the following texts: Q 7:18-35 (Lk 7:18-35//Mt 11:2-19); Q 11:49 (Lk 11:49//Mt 23:34); Q 13:34-35 (Lk 13:34-35//Mt 23:37-39); Q 10:21-22 (Lk 10:21-22//Mt 11:25-26) and Q 11:31 (Lk 11:31//Mt 12:42). The particular texts of Q 7:18-35 (Lk 7:18-35//Mt 11:2-19) and Q 11:49 (Lk 11:49//Mt 23:34) are of most importance for determining the figure of Wisdom in this source. The study will conclude that the Q tradition witnesses a major development in the inclusion of Sophia in the Christian tradition. The figure of Wisdom emerges as a central character in the Sayings Source. She is the one who sends the prophets, including John the Baptist and Jesus. Sophia adopts a motherly, protective role for her ‘children’ as they, like her in the past, experience rejection and opposition. Q demarcates strongly between the identities of Wisdom and Jesus; Jesus is perhaps her greatest representative since he is greater than John the Baptist, Jonah and even Solomon. In this capacity Jesus also shares a special relationship with God the Father, and in some respects he plays some of the roles traditionally attributed to Wisdom. So in presenting Jesus in this way the Q tradition was itself moving towards a Wisdom Christology, but this is not certain. As far as we can reconstruct this source, Q betrays strong Wisdom influences but not yet a clear Wisdom Christology. Once Sophia became associated with the Jesus tradition, further developments would follow. Since Mark never refers to the person of Jesus as ‘Wisdom’, it may have been developed by one of his redactors, Matthew.

Since the commencement of the scientific excavation in 1987, Bethsaida rose to become one of the most important archaeological sites which is investigated at present. While exploring the tell which was inhabited at least from the early Bronze Age (3050 BCE - 2700 BCE) to the Middle Ages (ca. 500 - 1500 CE) various remnants of human activities have been disclosed. They reflected not only the daily survival of the inhabitants but have in cases brought an insight into the religious life of the community or its single representatives. Most striking was the discovery of the cult place at the city gate, dating to the Iron Age and connected with the city of Geshur. The question of interpretation of the cult place, one of the best preserved in the region, and the kind of offerings performed here is still discussed, as Rami Arav proposes a water ceremony instead of the commonly accepted incense ceremony. Close to the altar, inside the city gate, liturgical vessels have been found. Some were inscribed carrying a symbol very similar to the sign of the Phoenician goddess Tanit. In the Persian and the subsequent Hellenistic and Roman periods close to the Iron Age high place a sanctuary with a temple of the Phoenician type was constructed. Terracotta figurines discovered during excavations in the temple area together with remains of solid inventory such as a basin with a channel for leading away the fluids, a possible offering place and ceremonial benches suggest such identification. An analogy may be found in the Phoenician city of Tyre. The usage of the same area for apparently religious purposes through such an extended period of time indicates a tradition in the interpretation of this specific spot as holy.

Where chapters 26 and 36 of the book of Jeremiah describe how the prophet's life is threatened, in chapter 28 it is his honour and his credibility that are at stake. Chapter 28 is an important chapter in the book of Jeremiah because it embarks on the difficult problem of how to make a distinction between true and false prophecy. The authors want to convince the readers that listening to the wrong prophet will lead to the complete destruction and disappearance of the kingdom of Judah. In chapter 28, they do this in a very intriguing way. They postpone the outcome of their story deliberately in order to mislead the readers. Not to deceive them but in order to teach them not to put their trust in a prophet who enjoys temporary success by prophesying what his audience wants to hear. Special attention will be paid to the literary structure of Hananiah's prophecy in verses 2-4 and that of his second prophecy in verse 11, to the ambiguities in Jeremiah's reaction in verses 6-9, and to the difference between the MT and the LXX in regard to the designation of Hananiah, in the MT as 'nabi', in the LXX as 'pseudoprophetes'. Also the question as to why Jeremiah does not react after Hananiah's second prophecy will be discussed. This investigation will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between narrative art and ideological message in the book of Jeremiah.

By a variety of canonical exegetes, such as Childs, Sanders, Stuhlmacher, and Ratzinger, the canon is appealed to as a hermeneutical tool. This paper asks the question: how do these exegetes understand the notion of "canon" precisely and how is it reflected in their actual exegesis of texts. By relating the canonical theory of these scholars to examples of their exegetical practice light is shed on both their understanding and use of the canon in exegesis and by comparing them to one another, additional insight is gained in the functioning of the canon in four distinct canonical approaches. The paper will use examples from the exegesis of the canonical Gospels of the four scholars to compare their exegetical practices to one another.

As a critique of cultural and ideological hegemony, the book of Daniel has earned its reputation as resistance literature, placing in full view the social and historical conditions attending imperial domination and subjugation. In Daniel 1, the marginalization of Jewish identity and religious heritage brought about through imperial domination and cultural assimilation together with the possible complicity on the part of Jewish officials and religious leaders gives rise to a dissenting voice, Daniel, an exiled Judean living and working in a foreign court. This paper examines the genesis of Daniel as a political activist, from his earliest defiance as a youth to his subversive critique of imperial oppression and condemnation of Jewish religious leadership. In Daniel 1, the protagonist Daniel emerges as a herald of social change and transformation, contesting hegemonic power and the dominant religious authorities of his day. In this, Daniel resembles contemporary political activists, such as W. E. B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela, whose refusal to bow to aggressive imperialistic systems of aggression and discrimination would allow others to stand.

This paper will focus on the role of Biblical Criticism when a decolonial perspective is utilised as a discursive model within the South African context as part of the Global South. The question is whether there is a place for Biblical Studies if the decolonial critique of Christianity’s role in coloniality is as radical as Ramon Grosfoguel, Maldonado-Torres and Walter Mignolo portray it. For example, what will a decolonial reading of the Book of Esther entail, or is reading the Biblical text anathema within decolonial critique? The paper will proceed as follows (with the Book of Esther as the object of research): (a) exploration of the meaning of “coloniality” and the “decolonial turn”; (b) decolonialty’s radical critique of Christianity’s role in proclaiming “universality” in its various guises; (c) a search for a role for the biblical scholar (in my case, Old Testament scholar) in terms of (i) a non-universal Christianity and (ii) over against a provincialized Eurocentric perspective on what constitutes the discipline properly (iii) within a specific geographical space in the Global South.

There are some Pauline texts that allude to calendric ritual (Rom 14:5, 6; Gal 4:10; Col 2:16, 17). The aim of this paper is to examine these texts in light of the gospel message as presented in the Pauline writings. These texts relate to the Old Testament calendars that gave structure to the religious experience of the people of God. The gospel in Pauline writings is presented in a theological transition between an old system that is represented by old religious symbols and rituals and a new system that is represented by new symbols and rituals. It is in this context that this paper seeks to understand the relationship between the Gospel and the allusions to calendric rituals. Ritual theory and Biblical typology will be among the methods that will be combined in this investigation in an attempt to understand the calendric rituals in the light of the Gospel. This study will be of benefit to communities that face a similar type of transition when they are confronted with the Gospel message.

This paper will present a detailed analysis of the fourteen 9th-century continuous text Greek manuscripts that contain Paul’s epistle to Philemon. The analysis will be both palaeographical and textual in nature. Full palaeographical details will be provided on each manuscript. Also, full quantitative analyses will be done in order to determine textual relationships among the 9th-century manuscripts of Philemon and relationships to earlier and later manuscripts. Based on preliminary research, these manuscripts seem to mark a transition in the textual history of Philemon, being mixed in both textual character and palaeographical details. Manuscripts to be analyzed include: 010, 012, 018, 020, 025, 044, 0150, 0278, 0319, 33, 1424, 1841, 1862, and 1900. The results of the study will be compiled into a preliminary textual apparatus, which is part of a larger PhD dissertation on the textual history of Philemon.

This paper examines the patterns at the macro-level found in the depiction of kings in 1–2 Chronicles and makes an attempt to apply narrative film theory, cognitive film semiotics in particular, to the understanding of those patterns in this biblical narrative. The alternating and contrasting depictions of kings in 1–2 Chronicles contribute to several macro-level patterns. They might helpfully be explained by the concept of Parallel Syntagma, among Grande Syntagmatique. This intra-filmic device is recognized as a filmic grammaticality by which the filmmaker ensures that his/her intention of the narrative could be recognized by the spectator viewing a film straight through. In reading the narrative, also, it is highly likely that readers employ a documentarizing reading strategy for 1-2 Chronicles. According to cognitive film semiotics, a narrative documentary film claims to be read in the deictic relation to its external spatio-temporal context, though it does not mean that the film actually tells about extra-filmic reality. In its original social context, the intended reader (audience) may have been conscious that 1-2 Chronicles had been given specifically to him/her, as a documentarizing reading was triggered by an operation as an interactive motion of external and internal actants. Thus, acknowledging the effects of Parallel Syntagma in a documentarizing reading of 1-2 Chronicles as suggested by cognitive film semiotics will help us comprehend the narrative better with hitherto unexplored and useful insights.

In recent times, most exegetes regardless of whether one is conservative or liberal agree with the late date of the book of Revelation, namely around AD 95-96 under Domitian. Without exception, these scholars interpret Revelation in the light of the Domitianic persecution. However, several scholars insisting on the early date of Revelation have produced a totally different voice against this dominant phenomenon. Of course, the Neronian persecution between AD 64-68 comes to the fore to them. Then, few questions naturally arise on the date and its related interpretation: What is correct argument between the early and late date in terms of the internal and external(esp. Irenaeus, Eusebius) evidences? What is the significant difference in interpreting Revelation when one chooses one option? If the role of the emperor Nero or Domitian provides the absolute clue for the historical background of Revelation, what is the function of the unbelieving Jews called the synagogue of Satan(Rev. 2:9; 3:9) as another important persecuting power in Asia Minor? How is the teaching of the Nicolaitans(Rev. 2:15) as a threatening syncretistic heresy to the first recipients related with the persecution by the emperor? This paper is aimed at searching the date of the book of Revelation. When the external evidence is not certain, the date should be determined particularly by examining closely the internal evidence. In order to investigate the date of Revelation, firstly the external arguments are analyzed critically. Then, an exploration about the internal arguments is done. Finally, interpretive implications of the early date are scrutinized in connection with the role of the unbelieving Jews and the Nicolaitans. Through this study, the early date of AD 66 between the great fire in Rome and Nero’s suicide on the basis of the external and internal evidences and its interpretive implication are suggested.

Scholars interested in the status of women in the ancient world have not neglected their roles in the Talmud. Though many suggestions have been put forth, few have addressed the female prophets known from the Hebrew Bible. Seven women are labeled as prophetesses in bT Megilah 14a, only three of which are noted as such in the Hebrew Bible. Throughout the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis not only add four women to the list, but also neglect others who are recorded in the biblical text. The women selected are all shown to provide salvation for the nation of Israel, and therefore are treated as the only biblical heroines. As these women feature in a corpus that typically abstains from treating individual females, their multiple appearances indicate they serve a greater purpose than as casual biblical characters. The argument presented in this paper is that the rabbis utilized the female heroes of the Hebrew Bible to exemplify the proper attitudes and behaviors expected of a pious human being.

It is very difficult to determine what percentage of the population in the ancient world was disabled. However, Chrysostom said that life abounded with people who were maimed. But one should bear in mind that there is no generic word in Greek or Latin that fully corresponds with the English word “disability”. One should therefore be careful not to make anachronistic assumptions about disability, and one should not approach the subject from a modern perspective or use modern medical categories of impairment to discuss the disabilities of the ancients. In this paper we will examine Chrysostom’s views on disability. However, in order to grasp Chrysostom’s views on disability, one should also understand the world in which he lived. Ancient communities acted brutally towards deformed children. It will be shown that a disabled person had no status at all in ancient communities. People with physical abnormalities were often subjected to even mockery. As expected, disability has also raised numerous theological questions, and we will explore how Chrysostom dealt with these questions. Throughout all centuries the question was asked whether God caused disability or not. Some saw disabilities as sin. Chrysostom also had to answer the question how God can be called just and good if everybody does not suffer the same punishment for the same sins. In this paper we will also explore the position of the disabled within the Church.

Phillys Trible, Athalya Brenner u.a. haben vor dreißig Jahren die Texte des Hohenliedes als «female voices» erkannt und damit einen neuen Blick auf die Gedichtsammlung ermöglicht. Othmar Keel ist es ungefähr gleichzeitig gelungen, dank Auswertung der levantinischen Ikonographie den Metapherncode der Lieder zu knacken. Diese epochalen Leistungen werden zur Zeit auf fragwürdige Weise zurückbuchstabiert. Meik Gerhards glaubt aufweisen zu können, dass das Hohelied nur als allegorisch zu lesende Gedichtsammlung Eingang in den Kanon fand und darlegen zu müssen, dass es auch so gelesen werden müsse. Das tut Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, indem er, inspiriert von prophetischen Gott-Hure-Allegoresen, erneut patriarchale Muster in die Hoheliedtexte hineinliest. Solches Vorgehen wird weder dem heutigen exegetischen Stand gerecht, noch den Bedürfnissen der Rezipientinnen und Rezipienten an der kirchlichen Basis. Diese neopatriarchale Offensive in der Exegese ist für die jüngste Zeit beispiellos und ruft nach einer kritischen Debatte.

Much has been written about the phenomenon of "speaking in tongues" as it is discussed by St. Paul in 1 Cor. 14. There is disagreement as to whether St. Paul is referring to human languages or something else. While many attempts have been made to clarify this issue, very little attention has been given to the light which the Old Testament and Patristic sources can shed on the subject. The purpose of this paper is to take a new look at these sources and examine the manner in which they can help us understand what exactly "speaking in tongues" meant and what implications it may have for us today.

The lack of exhaustive comparative models derived from collations of manuscripts and Patristic citations keeps us from a most accurate understanding of the relationship between Patristic Citations and the manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. Only complete understanding of affinities of the extant manuscripts and their relation to each other can one make decisions as to how a Father fits into the transmission history of the Greek New Testament. An understanding of the transmission history of the Greek New Testament but gives proper explanation to the manuscript traditions of the Church Fathers based on their relationship to individual manuscripts. Until this type of comparative system can be established, it is necessary that Patristic citations are treated descriptively instead of comparatively. Premature application of statistical analysis leads to a misrepresentation of Patristic Citations which adversely affects our understanding of the Greek New Testament. This paper will focus on Origen of Alexandria's use of the Pauline Epistles and how the misuse of Patristic citations can lead to false assumptions of the early New Testament text.

In modern research, as most prominently in two volumes by Johann Maier, rabbinic knowledge of and reactions to writings of the New Testament, were reduced to an absolute minimum. This has changed in recent years, especially with books on Jesus and the Gospels in the Talmud by Peter Schäfer and Daniel Boyarin, Schäfer’s The Jewish Jesus, or Holger Zellentin’s Rabbinic Parodies. The by now widely accepted thesis of a much longer redaction history of the Bavli and the growing research into the social and religious history of Babylonia and, more generally, religious interaction in Late Antiquity, greatly contributed to this development. The lecture will summarize these developments and evaluate recent theories.

After 1900, in the first two decades of film production Jewish film topics were of mainstream interest in the cultural metropolis of Vienna. Most of these films either dealt with the Jewish experience through history or Biblical stories that were put on the screen for the first time. The biblical women and men became living moving images and part of modern visual culture. Due to the shifts in the role of gender and women after the fin-de-siècle and with reference to psychoanalysis women were at the center of these fiction films. The paper discusses a number of these films with relation to Jewish-non-Jewish relations and the role of the representations of biblical women as the new femme moderne.

Previous scientific research has viewed the Upper Agora as dedicated to provincial administration and the imperial cult, initiated in the proto- or early Augustan period, and based on models like the imperial fora in Rome. The overall architectural layout and functional determination of the area would thus have been conceptualized and implemented by central authorities. But there are some facts which do not fit this hypothesis. The question of chronology is crucial in this regard. For instance, the temple located on the long axis of the square, which probably was dedicated to the imperial cult or to deities with particular affinity to the ruling dynasty, was not among the first buildings erected on the spot, as it has often been assumed, but may be the last one. Consequently, the definitive appearance of the Upper Agora, circulating in the guise of well-known ground-plans, seems to have a rather complicated history. Obviously, it did not go back to imperial will alone (or to that of the emperor’s local confidants). A new research project argues that, on the contrary, the Upper Agora emerged from a long-term formation process in which various actors, pursuing different goals, may have played a role.

The unknown author of Hebrews uses the hapax legomenon therapon in his reference to Moses as a “servant” when he contrasts Moses with Jesus in Heb 3:1-6. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, whereas Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. The term therapon is known in the LXX (especially in Exodus) and has also been associated with the priests of Asclepius and those of the Pharaoh. Several questions arise: Why did the author of Hebrews choose this particular term? How did it differ from similar terms in the same semantic domain? Are there any implied connotations with cultic service in the sanctuary by using this term? Is there any evidence through the author’s choice of this term of closer alignment with an Egyptian setting? The paper intends to investigate these questions against the background of the usage of this term in Greek literature as well as against the literary context of the book Hebrews.

In this paper I will study female prophecy in three biblical texts, Jdg 4-5, 2 Kgs 22 and 2 Chr 34 and in a number of letters from Mari. The focus will be on how female prophets are constructed in the various texts in their contexts. For the scholar of the ancient Near East, Hulda looks like a familiar character, but with several twists, particularly in the construction of her authority. Debora's combination of 'judge' and prophet is even more 'peculiar'. In particular the construction of the position of women in society in the pericope is rather ambiguous, including that of Debora herself. As I will argue, this ambiguity is characteristic of Second Temple construction of female prophecy.

Christian Protestant tradition tends to identify the canon simply with the holy text. Other denominations and book religions recognise canonicity also outside of the holy text. Scholars need concepts of canon, canonicity, and canonization that take heed of this situation. One way to explore canonicity beyond even the Protestant type of holy text, is to map the interaction between canon and canonical commentary. This presentation sketches such interaction historically in three different “strong” scriptural canons (the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, the old Confucian Five Classics, and the European Bible with the gloss). A taxonomy is proposed, taking the canon, the commentary, and the canonical community as primary constituents of a canonical ecology. Further, by way of examples the presentation points to typical biblical canonical dynamics, namely those of associative harmonisation and of expanding orthodoxy. The presence of these dynamics in canonical ecologies pose a challenge to, say, biblical studies taught in institutions and cultures that recognise some sense of canonicity or classical value in biblical texts. So, what would be a defendable critical canonical approach to biblical literature? Scratching the surface of this profound question, this proposal points first to the option of an archaeology of canonicity in the text, and secondly to a notion of custodianship of biblical literature that is focused upon public and humane concern.

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Festivals were commonly viewed in the ancient Mediterranean as an opportunity for humans to participate in the life of the gods, who are perpetually feasting. Thus Plato (Laws 653d) says that festivals are a gift from the gods, allowing humans “to be made whole again” by “participating in the festivals alongside the gods” (suneortazein en tais eortais meta theon). The concept of divine mimesis is used to explain the banqueting, liturgy, leisure, and reenactment of divine exploits that accompanied festivals in the Hellenistic world. In this paper, I examine Philo’s interpretation of the Jewish festivals in light of this tradition. Special attention is paid to: a) the ways in which Philo attempts to distance Jewish feasting from Greek feasting by characterizing the former as askesis, b) Philo’s use of rewritten bible traditions in his descriptions of the festivals, c) Philo’s numerological understanding of the festal calendar, especially in relation to other Hellenistic numerological thought, and d) the possible relationship between Philo and apocalyptic traditions (such as Jubilees) in which Israel’s festivals are depicted as having a heavenly pre-existence, so that Israel’s festival observance is understood as imitatio angelorum.

John Collins' work on the much debated label "apocalyptic" has opened up and shaped the fields of Second Temple and biblical studies during the last three decades. For instance, spatial and, with it, sapiential dimensions are now regularly being taken seriously as a way to re-explore texts previously subjected to a myopic focus on time and eschatology. At the same time, it is precisely the understanding of time in Second Temple literature that stands in danger of being overlooked, as if the discourse about eschatology in relation to "apocalyptic thought" is simply oriented towards the future. The resulting assumption has led many biblical (especially New Testament) scholars to distinguish Jesus and Paul from Judaism by maintaining that the early Christian movement involved a breakthrough in the understanding of time that superceded anything thought possible within a non-Christian Jewish context. The paper problematizes this assumption and calls for a reconceptualizing of the temporal dimension of "apocalyptic", while noting some of its implications for contextualizing claims associated with the Christian movement in the first century.

Obvious and tantalizing connections can be made between biblical narrative and science fiction, both being filled with otherworldly beings, travel between earthly and heavenly realms, mind bending, temporal displacements, and supernatural occurrences. The Book of Ezekiel is rife with imagery that could be and has been construed as “proof for intelligent life in the universe.” Especially the appearance of the divine chariot has invited creative minds to shout “UFO!” In this paper I want to look at a different angle and address the aspect of social criticism that is representative for a subgenre within science fiction. The latter chapters of Ezekiel speak of a renewed earth populated with a very peculiar society. This is generally understood in utopian terms, as a blissful return to Edenic conditions with an end to war, disease, with peace and prosperity ruling forever and ever. It is especially instructive to read this alongside some well-known sf and alternate society examples that deal with isolated or larger redesigned, and rather dystopian, societies – be they Stepford Wives, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1984, the Matrix, or some outstanding Star Trek episodes (in all its incarnations) that deal with stagnated controlled societies without free will. Ezekiel’s end-scenario displays elements similar to all these. In this paper I will explore what this means in the religious context of Ezekiel as opposed to the contemporary secular stories.

A common misconception of the development of Brevard Childs’ thought is that he first started out as a historical critic, interested only in diachronic questions, and later took a more theological turn, eschewing diachronic analysis to focus exclusively on the final form of the text. This view, however, misunderstands the way Childs’ appreciation of the final form was grounded in a certain kind of diachronic consideration, one which factored the reality of the theological source of the tradition into his appreciation of its nature. It was this that led to his later development of final-form interpretation. My thesis is that the real development in Childs' thought involves less an abandonment of the uncertainties of speculative reconstructions in favour of the church’s traditional and apparently more objective text than a growing appreciation of and confidence in talking about the ontological reality of God as a factor in the Bible’s creation. This thesis can be illustrated by comparing the only two full-length scholarly commentaries written Childs, both of which roughly bracket his career. His first commentary on Exodus was written during the 1970s, before he had even coined the term “canonical approach,” the second commentary on Isaiah was written in 2002 towards the end of his life, at a time when the term “canonical” had started to become problematic for him. This paper will demonstrate that in both commentaries Childs worked with the same exegetical logic. The difference is that in the latter commentary Childs’ relative decrease in confidence about the reliability or usefulness of diachronic reconstruction is accompanied by an increase in his confidence in using theo-ontological categories to describe the forces at work in the production of the text. For Childs, factoring in this theological dimension has hermeneutical consequences.

There are significant differences between the anointing episodes in Luke 7:36-50 and in John 12:1-8, and the relation between them has been much debated. I propose that the episodes testify to a similar Christological emphasis as well as a different one which may indicate that one or both evangelists were aware of the work of the other. There is reason to assume that the Lukan as well as the Johannine anointing stories are meant to confirm the messianic identity of Jesus. They both differ from the Markan and Matthean accounts in singling out Jesus’ feet as the object of the anointing. This is due to a common emphasis on Jesus’ messiahship as inherently being servanthood, as the feet represent servants. One important difference between the episodes is that in Luke a sinful woman anoints Jesus while in John the pious Mary performs the act. The latter corresponds to Mark and Matthew and confirms that Jesus is the Messiah of the faithful Jews. The former shows that Jesus is the Messiah even for sinners and outcasts – a Lukan theme. These corresponding and differing details of the anointing episodes should be interpreted Christologically and the inclusion of them by the respective evangelists may indicate Luke’s awareness of John’s Christological feet emphasis or vice versa.

This paper will look at the literary reception of Ezekiel’s prophecies concerning Gog and Magog, encompassing the use of the material in medieval European literature and folklore and in works by Dickens and Tolkien. It will examine the usefulness of modern theories about rewriting and intertextuality in relation to this literary afterlife.

The Jews of Greco-roman Egypt were full members of the Greek social class, thus they are mostly attested on Greek and, to a lesser extent, on Aramaic papyri and ostraca. However, especially in the countryside, they were living among Egyptians, and had some social interaction with the natives. Consequently, we meet some Jews in the contemporary Demotic sources. The aim of this paper is to give an insight into the nature of the Demotic material attesting Jews of Egypt, and to show through two examples how it enlarges our knowledge of them. The first one is a Demotic attestation of Dositheos son of Drimylos, the renegade Jew of the Third Maccabees, and the second one is an ostracon from Tell el-Yehudieh with names of Jewish builders.

As is well known to those who study Hittite texts, they all originate from royal archives, reflecting the concerns of the ruling elite and the Hittite royal administration. In many cases, Hittite rituals found in those texts also fall under the category of administrative texts, since they were prepared and copied for administrative use, prescribing the enactment of the rituals whenever time demanded their performance. In this paper I will first try to define the category of royal ideology relating to Hittite cultural texts, and then present the cases showing the manifestation of royal ideology in such categories as hierarchical performances, level of purity prescribed to the performance of rituals, and the use of cloths and specific instruments. Most crucial in hierarchical performance is the relativeness of royalty to the divine presence, in contrast to other participants in the rituals. This paper will relate to textual evidence, but for illustrative purposes will also use some Hittite artifacts demonstrating royalty in ritual contexts.

*The Easter accounts of the gospels presenting women as the recipients of the first commission to announce the resurrection seem to have caused gender trouble for patristic exegetes, since this portrayal stood in contradiction to the dominant gender constructions and power structures in a patriarchal setting. Several examples of patristic readings show the strategies that were developed in order to maintain the established gender roles where women were forbidden to teach. Pejorative gender stereotypes discredit the apostolic testimony of the women at the tomb that is seen as a compensation of Eve’s disobedience or representing the church’s apostolic mission. A special focus will be laid on the moralistic and typological interpretations of the noli me tangere. Especially the Latin fathers’ readings contributed to the image of the Magdalene as sinner in the Western tradition. However, there are also scholars standing out from the mainstream exegesis.

After very brief comments on still existing approaches to the “Son of Man” problem in the latest scholarship, the presented exposition firstly delineates the relevance of such a research in the Gospel of John, allowing its margins to bear some reflections on putting this exegetical problematic in the focus of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Further on, beating the drum for its central attempt – to read all the twelve Son of Man sayings in the context of a synchronic approach to the Gospel of John and thus to come out with the significance of this expression for Johannine Christology – it calls for a modification of usual atomistic approach in hitherto interpretations under the similar title. For, only after the recognition of place and function of these logia within the Gospel’s literary body, as it is further argued, they are to be more correctly put in a comparison with those relevant passages that eventually echo attributes of the Son of Man figure in Jewish tradition (Daniel 7, 1 Enoch 37-71, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch) and early Christian literature (Synoptic Gospels Acts, Revelation). Conclusion runs as follows: the endeavour of reading John’s Son of Man sayings on a synchronic level shows more clearly unique meaning of 'Son of Man' as a revealing figure, whose appearances in the narrative flow of the Gospel may also reflect its significant role within the Johannine community.

The function of Jewish female prophets remains unsettled. Only four women are portrayed as prophets (Miriam, Deborah, Huldah and Noadiah) in the Hebrew Bible and very little concerning the messages they deliver is known. Merely the message delivered by Huldah is preserved in 2 Kgs 22:15-17 (2 Chr 34:23-28). The later ancient Jewish texts continue dealing with women accessing divine messages with polemics. While more texts attest to women appear to receive divine messages, e.g., Miriam in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum and the figure of Sibyl in the Sibylline Oracles, their transmissions of these allegedly divine messages are not believed. Female prophets are also known in ancient Greek texts. The most prominent example is the Pythia of Delphi who appears as one of the most respected prophets of ancient Greek world. Her messages are generally not contested. Meanwhile, the figure of Cassandra is treated in mixed ways in the texts. While her prophecies appear truthful, she is not believed in the ancient Greek texts. Rather, she is accused of being crazy (e.g., Trojan Women, 169-173, 307-308). In this paper I will compare the Jewish and Greek female prophets analyzing what is the interplay between gender and disbelief in their prophetic messages. In particular I will ask what influences the depiction of female prophets as unreliable and sometimes insane figures.

Contemporary archaeology, especially contemporary archaeology of the time of National Socialism and the Second World War, is focussing a rather short period in time. But this archaeology is getting more and more important, because only a few survivors of the concentrations camps are still alive, who can bear witness of the terror of the Nazi regime in general and in particular of the terror in the concentration camps. Concentration camps are archeological sites which were crime scenes - places where a terrorist dictatorship with a racist ideology degraded people to inferior beings. They were forced to slave labour, they were tortured and murdered. Archaeologists have to become active participants in preventing such cruelties from being repeated. The excavated concentration camp crime scenes can serve as memorials for the victims, they can warn and admonish. They can help to teach young people about National Socialism, especially when they lack a direct connection to this periods via parents or grandparents. Archaeological research offers the opportunity to provide artifacts and objects to the memorials and museums to create or enhance places of learning and remembrance.

Nowadays, a PhD student is led by the digital technologies. The actual connected world should be a precious allied to him, however there is still a need for progress, especially in the field of Ancient Jewish Literature. Indeed, numerous documents or resources are not easily reachable online and results lack consistency. Regarding Rabbinic Literature, the major part of digitalized open sources comes from Israeli’s websites, involving that the user has to be fluent in Modern Hebrew (for example: mechon-mamre.org). Usually, the origin of the manuscript used is not even mentioned. If the student wants to know where the sources comes from, he or his university often has to provide a financial subscription, frequently expensive. That is why the student is pushed to do his researches with classical tools: paper editions, indexes, concordances, etc. This is an obvious lost of time. If the student has to consult a precise Hebrew manuscript, for instance The Ottiyot of Rabbi Akiba, he will be confronted with a major issue. Hebrew manuscripts are not indexed the same way even in an unique catalogue: sometimes with the Hebrew title, sometimes in translation or some other times in different transliterations. A standardisation of the results would be a better solution than compiling all the catalogue elements. At the end of a PhD based on a text edition, the crucial question is: how will you publish it? Digital option would be the more efficient way, nonetheless it subsists a lack of formation for social sciences students. Therefore, the most of this production is made by paper edition, which means a partial spreading. To resume, the aim of this paper is to show how a contemporary PhD student, with a classical biblical formation, has to juggle between classical resources and digital data and to point progress to complete.

In June 2013 the London-based artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin published Holy Bible, a reprint of the King James Bible with superimposed images taken from the vast photography collection held at the Archive of Modern Conflict. The pairing of (literally) underlined biblical passages with graphic, surreal and disturbing images is consciously intended by the artists to reflect the Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir’s perception of the Bible as both a record of divine violence and a foundation for the oppressive actions of modern governments. This paper will respond to Broomberg and Chanarin’s work by addressing a number of key questions that emerge from encountering Holy Bible. These include: What methods guide the various pairings of image and text, and can broad patterns be discerned across the span of the book as whole? Might Holy Bible positively aid scholars within the academy currently thinking about the depiction of violence in biblical literature? Or might Broomberg and Chanarin’s alignments of text and image be too easily dismissed as a form of selective proof-texting? Finally, how should we make sense of suggestions, raised in media sources such as the BBC and Guardian newspaper (UK), that this is a blasphemous artwork? Holy Bible is one of the most provocative interfaces between the Bible and visual culture to have emerged in recent times and it will be argued in this paper that grappling with its strange and unsettling dynamics is a valuable task for those concerned with the relationship between violence, art and the biblical.

Ezekiel 36.23c–38 in the Structure and Composition of the Book

This paper focuses on the textual development of the Torah in the period after the appearance of the earliest evidence of the Torah text in 250 BCE. The many branches of the Torah are described as found in biblical manuscripts, translations, tefillin, and rewritten Bible compositions. An attempt is made to describe their development, and attention is also directed to the sacred and authoritative status of these texts.

Catholic Anti-Semitism developed step by step from the early Christian writings of the Gospels and the Church Fathers, and it reached one of his peaks in the Middle Age at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and its aftermath. It was passed on by Catholic representatives and theologians as well as by preachers. There are three men that cannot be ignored in this respect: Pope Paul IV (1476-1559) forced the Jews in his bull "Cum nimis absurdum" to live in ghettos, and he renewed the command of the Fourth Lateran Council that forced the Jews to wear specific clothes when appearing in public. The famous and notorious preacher of the Augustine Order, Abraham a Sancta Clara (1644-1709), identified the Jews with Judas Iskariot and preached against both full with hatred. To him Jews were “stubborn people” and “outrageous beasts” like the traitor of Christ. The founder of the "Wiener Kirchenzeitung", Sebastian Brunner (1814-1893) preached and wrote against Jews, the Talmud, and what he called "the Jewish hatred of the Cross". He strongly opposed the political emancipation of the Jews. Later the National Socialists considered him one of the important men of their own anti-Semitic tradition.

The proposed paper will present the project “Gottes-Rede im Johannesvangelium” (by 23th of June funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF as Hertha-Firnberg-Project at the University of Vienna). “Gottes-Rede” – that is Theo-logy in the strict sense of the word – has come less into view in New Testament scholarship compared to Christology, ecclesiology and pneumatology, soteriology and eschatology. The project focuses on the Fourth Gospel as an example for a specific New Testament document and its statements on God. My main research questions are: What does the Gospel of John say about God? This means: What does Jesus as “the only one who is God” say about God in the Gospel of John? Which images, motifs and tradition can be depicted? Which general aspects can be summarized in a synthetic approach analyzing (ho) theos in the Gospel of John? For this purpose the Gospel’s present final form will be analyzed. The last verse of the Prologue (John 1:1-18) explicitly reveals Jesus as the exegete of the Father: “No one has ever seen God, (the) only one who is God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he reported/interpreted/revealed.”. Assuming that the prologue functions as opening of the Gospel and therefore decidedly gives a reading guide, the words of Jesus concerning God ought to be examined, since they work on an intratextual level. In the paper I will present my motivation for choosing the Forth Gospel for a study concerning Theo-logy as well as the state of research in the johannine God-theme. Furthermore I will elaborate my methodical approach and my research questions as well as the aims and the expected benefits of the project that should result in a full and synthetic view of “Gottes-Rede” in the Gospel of John.

The jurist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) is often regarded as one of the founding fathers of International Law, and of the First Dutch Empire in the seventeenth century. He first develops his natural rights and contract theories in On the Law of Prize and Booty (De Jure Praedae), and publishes its twelfth chapter as Mare Liberum (The Free Sea) in 1609. Legal scholarship considers this treaty a response to a set of eminently practical problems faced by the Dutch East India Company. This paper argues that the purpose of the Dutch jurist is deeper than a merely legal and economic dispute between the Dutch and the Portuguese (at that time under the Spanish Crown). It is, in fact, a theological treaty that promote the Protestant faith against the Catholic one. Following his arguments, the Portuguese merchant ship Santa Catarina is, indeed, a “Ship of Fools”, a symbol quite common in early-modern iconography. It is related to the Biblical “foolish virgins” (Mt 25: 1-13), and serves to parody the “Ark of Salvation”, as the Catholic Church was styled. This paper intends to analyze the interpretation of the Bible in a legal work, and the reason why we may say that Grotius’ work became one of the most effectives of the Protestant Reformation.

Coming soon

The pericope about Jesus' entry to Jerusalem is present in all canonical Gospels. However, the Lukan text has some specific features. In his own material, which does not have parallels in other Gospels, Luke introduced a citation about the cry of stones. This paper evaluates various interpretations of Lk 19:39-40 from the perspective of critically controlled ecological hermeneutics. What is the meaning of the citation in the original context of Hab 2:11? What meaning is given to it by Luke? Is it possible that he wanted to highlight the importance of non-human beings in the praise of the Lord? Do the ‘courageous stones’ stand in opposition to timorous disciples, who ran away scared, when Jesus was betrayed? What could be the implications of Lk 19:39-40 for Luke’s original audience and for modern readers? All these questions should be analysed in a critical way, against the background of the literary structure and theological themes of the Third Gospel, and in the context of modern interest in ecological issues.

In his comprehensive monograph, The Jubilee from Leviticus to Qumran (VTSup 115; Leiden: Brill, 2007), John S. Bergsma describes a shift in conceptions of the Jubilee year, from the Pentateuch’s socio-economic legislation to eschatological/messianic representations in Second Temple writings. Bergsma notes in passing that Lev 25 lends itself to such eschatological interpretation, but does not expand upon this observation. The current paper extends some of the lines of inquiry raised in Bergsma's work: the significance of sabbatical legislation within the Covenantal construct of Israel's exclusive servitude to God; the relationship of Lev 25 to sabbatical laws in Deuteronomy; and the relationship between Lev 25 and presentations of the Jubilee year in Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. In particular, I examine the use of the word ??? in Lev 25-27, proposing that the use of the root ??? in Lev 26 offers insights into the significance of the sabbatical legislation in ch. 25 and may shed light on the redaction history of these chapters.

Erich Auerbach describes the Bible as a text that subjects its reader tyrannically. At the same time its stories are fraught with implicit background that is not externalized. Auerbach claims that Biblical stories, such as the binding of Isaac, do not court the reader’s favour; they demand the reader’s subjection to the text and the shaping of her life around it. “If we refuse to be subjected we are rebels”, he writes. This paper summarises Auerbach’s analysis of Gen 22 in which he shows the story’s implicitness, its mysterious placelessness, which is at the same time totalizing. The paper then engages with Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp’s reading of Gen 22 in the graphic novel “Testament”. The graphic novel turns the biblical story into a Science Fiction narrative, with 3-dimensional characters, a contemporary plotline, dialogue and images. If we follow Auerbach in seeing Akedah as a vague and implicit story demanding interpretation and subjection, the graphic novel seems to respond to this demand, filling the biblical story’s void, transforming it into a Science Fiction piece. It would seem as though “Testament” subjects itself to the Bible. However, the graphic novels rebels on several levels. In its structure it rebels against linear storytelling: the biblical story and its parallel, set in a dystopian near-future, exist simultaneously. On the level of plot, Rushkoff’s protagonists are dissidents who rebel against the status quo. Is “Testament” rebelling against “what’s there” in the Bible or is it rebelling with the Bible? This paper highlights Rushkoff’s and Sharp’s interpretive moves and discusses whether an act of interpretation is an act of subjection to the Bible or an act of rebellion against it, and whether the Bible’s potential to become a meaningful SF narrative is inherent in it or in its interpreter.

The purpose of this paper is to reconsider what constitutes the Proverbs tradition in the late Second Temple literature, and to examine those texts that are of primary significance for the understanding of its status and role. The Wisdom of Solomon shows that the Proverbs tradition and the figure of Solomon had a Nachleben in Greek-speaking Judaism, where it became merged with the influence of Hellenistic philosophy. Fresh Hebrew evidence for the tradition is provided by the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to the Book of Proverbs manuscripts (4Q102–103, 103a), two wisdom texts make prominent use of Proverbs 1–9. In 4QWiles of the Wicked Woman (4Q184), the passages on the evil women have been reworked in order to solve the question of righteous sin (Michael Lesley 2012), while a ”Torah-adjustment” to the instruction of Proverbs can be observed in 4QBeatitudes (4Q525) (Elisa Uusimäki 2013). Thus, all the aforementioned compositions reused and added something new to Proverbs. They enhanced the gradually increasing authority of Proverbs; the source was regarded as worth interpreting to a contemporary audience, in both Palestine and the Diaspora. On the other hand, they should also be included in the Proverbs tradition in an era when there was no fixed canon and the status of the ketuvim was in a state of flux. Finally, the focus on Proverbs 1–9 in 4Q184 and 4Q525 might suggest that this unit was circulating as a study tool of some sort.

In this lecture I will discuss the midrashim that evolved around Deborah and Jephthah's daughter, two women involved in the war stories of the book of Judges. In the Hebrew Bible the roles and the images of these two women are entirely different than in the midrashim. The midrashic commentators, however,structure those images in a way that shows their similarities. In so doing,they express an interesting worldview concerning everything connected with the female image and role, as against those of the male. I shall try to show the differences between the Hebrew Bible and the Midrash in the midrashists’perceptions of Deborah and Jephthah's daughter, beginning with the Bible.

Apophatic theology and cataphatic theology occur both in the corpus Johanneum to describe the character of God. Apophatically the Gospel, as well as the first epistle of John, state that “nobody has ever seen God.” While cataphatically, Jesus teaches in the Gospel that “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” and in 1 John we read that after the parousia has taken place “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” This essay focusses on the cataphatic phrase “we will see Him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). This investigation is, due to the variety of interpretations of this particular phrase as well as the spirituality which it could have evoked among the readers of this epistle. In order to get more clarity the investigation starts to investigate what the seeing of a divine being in the Graeco-Roman world meant and comprises of. The same applies for Judaism and the New Testament. This phrase is then, with this inter-textural background in mind, investigated in its immediate linguistic, literary, historical and Johannine eschatological contexts.

Images of an apocalyptic nature are foreign to many of Africa’s mythologies. Sure, there are stories in which mythic animals appear, but these cannot be group together under a common rubric such as apocalyptic images. The traditional African worldviews were much more interested in the here and now of everyday existence. The introduction of the Bible to the African continent led to transactions taking place between traditional and new ideas. In some instances the traditional was allowed a level footing with what was view as essentially a superior culture. In many cases, however, the European culture overran and undermined traditional African views. This paper investigates how apocalyptic literature was, and is received in the (South) African context. The focus specifically falls on representations from the book of Daniel in works of art. By studying this medium of communication I wish to draw attention to how on the one hand traditional mythologies informed an understanding of a foreign concept such as apocalyptic literature. On the other hand I wish to establish how this medium of expression borrowed from the very culture that presented these new ideas in order to come to grips with a new phenomenon.

Zech 8, the final chapter of what has traditionally been called Proto-Zechariah, depicts the restoration of Jerusalem and culminates in a global motivation to pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The final verse promises that any Judean will be encircled by ten pilgrims from different nations and tongues, who will humbly grasp the hem of his garments and like novices they will beg him for permission to follow him. ‘For’, they shall argue, ‘we have heard that God (Elohim) is with you (plural, i.e. with your people)’. Evident as the phrase ‘God with you/us’ may sound today, is a rare Hebrew expression, certainly with the name Elohim, which is fitting in this universalist setting. It is not the only instance where this notion of ‘God with someone’ yields submission and acknowledgment of authority and leadership. Yet it may be the only place where it happens through a vision of universal acknowledgment of the authority of the Judeans, because reportedly, God is with them. This paper investigates the notion that ‘God is with us/you’ as powerful rhetoric to exercise authority and leadership both in this passage and in similar instances outside Zechariah.

Many are the books that explain the obvious traces of oral transmission in the years that precede the writing of the text of Mark’s gospel. But since we lack clear information about the concrete circumstances of this oral transmission and about the concrete way the gospel was performed as a whole in this pre-textual stage, the value added by performance criticism and by “performing” the gospel nowadays is most of all pastoral and catechetical. In this paper it is argued that in order to perform the gospel, one first has to do narrative criticism of the text, because it is through insight in story and discourse that the performer can prepare the oral performance. This becomes especially visible in those passages where the "subtext" cannot be found at first glance or where the interpretation depends on the understanding of the whole of the gospel. By looking more closely to some examples in Mark that may give rise to plural interpretations – for instance the round characterization of the disciples; Mark 14:36; 15:34; 15:39; 16:8 – we will examine the possibilities for performance and ask the question of the validity of different performances of the same text. In doing so, we hope to contribute to the issue of "performance as test of interpretation" (D. Rhoads).

This paper explores the role of prophets in Jewish life during the Second Commonwealth and the place prophecy had. The relationship of prophets and prophecy to apocalyptic and to the burgeoning sects and groups of Judaism in that era will be explored with a view of elucidating the different paths that Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity took vis-à-vis prophecy. The thesis of the paper is that Christianity’s acceptance of prophecy as real and that there were genuine prophets active in the Church had a profound effect on the theology and sociology of the early Church but also on nascent rabbinic Judaism as it reacted against the claims of the Early Church.

The proper name of God ???? (YHWH) is given particular distinction throughout the Hebrew Scriptures in comparison to appellations or titles attributed to him. Nevertheless, the pronunciation of the biblical name of God became a persisting taboo. Biblical interpretations, philosophical influences, and religious ordinances within Judaism and subsequently Christianity silenced the utterance of the name. The earliest indications of non-pronouncement of the divine name par excellence among Jews appeared in the 3rd–to–2nd century B.C.E. By the 3rd century C.E. the utterance of the sacred Tetragrammaton had become a capital offence. It is generally held that the name “disappeared” for some centuries before its being rediscovered by Renaissance humanists. This article attempts to demonstrate that, despite the religious inhibitions, the Tetragrammaton remained an “effable name,” namely, utterable, at least in some circles. A more systematic investigation of the various Greek renderings of the Tetragrammaton is attempted. These renderings are found in amulets, inscriptions, literary works, etc., dating from as early as the first Christian centuries until today. It will be shown that some forms of the Tetragrammaton were actually accepted and used more widely in the Greek religious and secular literature since the Renaissance and especially during the Modern Greek Enlightenment. Also, it will become sufficiently clear that there is no unique or universally “correct” rendering of the Hebrew term in Greek. Of special note are two Greek reconstructions of the Tetragrammaton, one as was heard and written down by a Greek-speaking author of an “adversus Judaeos” work in the early 13th century in South Italy and another one written down at Constantinople in the early 17thcentury—both of them presented for the first time in the pertinent bibliography.

Science fiction and religion differ from the practice of science in two important ways: first, effective scientific research is based on observation and interpretation, while science fiction and religion make extensive use of narratives. Second, science fiction and religion both alter and even suspend empirical laws in order to make thematic points. Science fiction does this by either extrapolating known physical principles in hypothetical directions or by rewriting them entirely to achieve a particular effect. In religion, the process takes the form of miracles or divine beings with magical powers that can violate the laws of physics. I propose that science fiction and the Bible are subordinate to what we may call the “narrative method.” In science, facts are paramount and the system is open-ended, in that any hypothesis can be disproven should enough empirical data appear supporting an alternative explanation. There are no final conclusions, only tentative ones. In the scientific view of the world, events play out following natural laws and without conscious direction, and the scientific method is designed to evaluate these laws and explain how they work, not to give them meaning. In the narrative method, facts are secondary to story. Since a story closed-ended, its facts need only to be internally consistent rather than having to accommodate all empirical laws. Only information which is relevant to the story’s plot and theme is important. In the case of the Bible and science fiction, the physical universe is highly fluid, not only allowing for the miraculous, but frequently requiring it. As a result, both biblical and science fiction texts using the narrative method are less likely to be accurate representations of the empirical world, but at the same time are able to provide thematic meaning in a way that texts using the scientific method cannot.

In the Hebrew Bible, blessings and curses are prominently present. As Anne Marie Kitz points out in her recent work 'Cursed Are You: The Phenomenology of Cursing in Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts' (Eisenbrauns, 2013), curses play a vital role, for all members of ancient society, in coping with life. Likewise, blessings serve to protect the beneficiaries from possible evil. The efficacy of both actions is best illustrated by the euphemistic use of the blessing when relating the cursing of God (e.g. in the story of Naboth and Ahab, 1Kgs 21:13). Following the work of Kitz, I will argue in this paper that the composers of the biblical text were influenced by the ideology underlying blessings and curses when making stylistic choices with regard to them. A case study of the verbs "barakh," "to bless," and "'arar" and "qalal," both "to curse," in Genesis 1-11 will make this clear. In this passage, several stylistic patterns can be distinguished for the occurring blessings and curses. These patterns can be subdivided into individual, that is, typical of curses or blessings only, and relational forms, that is, connecting both actions with one another. Furthermore, patterns may be consistent throughout the passage or transforming. Especially the latter is of interest here. Whereas previous research suggests that blessings and curses follow typical, even stereotypical, features (the features referred to do not necessarily coincide with the features as addressed in this paper), this paper will argue that also the deviations from the pattern are ideologically motivated and thus, equally important as the pattern itself.

This paper aims to explore the ecclesial nature of patristic exegesis , which is often overlooked by the modern readership. The awareness of belonging to the Body of Christ and the mission of preaching the Word for the edification of this Mystical Body are tightly linked to one another in patristic thought. Thus, whereas the first part of the study analyzes some of texts of the Fathers whereby the ecclesial framework of the Scripture's reading and interpretation is illustrated, the second part focuses on specific aspects of patristic exegesis that best exemplify the ecclesial nature of their interpretation. John Chrysostom considers that the Church keeps together faith and kerygma, thing that can be easily noticed about the Fathers, who did not interpret and preach the Scripture for academic or didactic reasons, but put exegesis into the service of Christian life. Therefore, these authors did not use a double hermeneutic - one for specialists and one for people of God. In Irinaeus' view, the Scriptures are trees full of fruit in the Garden of Eden, i.e. in the Church. Tasting the Scriptures' fruit with an uplifted mind leads to heresy. Only the ecclesial framework of the Scripture's interpretation can guarantees an edifying exegesis. Furthermore, a large part of the patristic exegesis consists of homilies - sermons held in the church for the congregation. The superficial manner in which the Fathers sometimes approached certain biblical texts, while focusing much more on others, highlights the pastoral purpose of their exegesis. They interpreted the biblical texts that were the most relevant for the spiritual needs of their audience. Consequently, in patristic thought, the aim of exegesis does not limit to "intentio auctoris", but has in view the "acquisition of virtue", as Gregory of Nyssa expresses it. Patristic exegesis is simultaneously "in Ecclesia" and "pro Ecclesia".

In my talk, I will try to demonstrate how the Isma'ili author and missionary Ja'far b. Mansur al-Yaman (d. c. 960) makes use of biblical quotations to explain the secret dimension of the prophetic role in human history. According to him, it is only in light of the Isma'ili cyclical vision of the history of humanity – from the creation of the first man to the end of time – and the complex structure of the universe, that one is able to decipher the hidden aspect of the prophetic mission. I will base my presentation on an analysis of selected paragraphs from the Sara'ir al-nutaqa' and Asrar al-nutaqa' (both titles can be translated as "The Secrets of the Speaking Prophets") which are attributed to Ja'far. The two texts provide an esoteric, Isma'ili interpretation (ta'wil) of prophetic stories and are exceptionally rich in biblical quotations and pseudo-biblical references. Unlike other Islamic sources that use biblical quotations for polemic reasons, the author of these texts interprets passages from the Bible and Gospels as legitimate parts of a universal esoteric truth, consciously avoiding the usual accusations of falsification ascribed to Jews and Christians.

The synoptic gospels are not a monolithic body in comparison with John. A careful reader is able to spot several pericopes that contain unexpected differences among the first three evangelists and visible similitudes of some of them with the fourth. Luke agrees with John against both Matthew and Mark, suggesting that a relationship of some type exists between these two gospels. This may indicate a dependence of John upon Luke, although the textual evidence against such a hypothesis are consecrated and generally accepted by modern biblical scholars. The fact that Luke agrees closely with Matthew and Mark in those pericopes that he shares only with them, but deviates from their traditions in the direction of the Johan’s account in almost every pericope that he shares with all three of his co-evangelists would seem to suggest that this is a critical problem that should be re-examined. The case study of this research paper is focused on the Passion Narratives as reported by both Luke and John, compared to Matthew and Mark. This fragment include 25% of the pericopes Luke has in common with the other two synoptic authors and at the same time a large number of the Lukan divergences from the Matthean/ Markan traditions and the Lukan agreements with John against Matthew/ Mark occur in these passages. The suggested solution for this tension is a certain familiarity of Luke with some form of the developing Johannine tradition or even to his acquaintance with an early draft of the original Gospel of John.

In his new book “Two Shipwrecked Gospels” (SBL 2012) Prof. Dennis MacDonald tries to reconstruct a lost source behind the three Synoptic Gospels, which is “Q-like” but not Q of IQP. Indeed it is plausible that Mark, Matthew and Luke share an earlier source, and still more plausible that Luke used Matthew. But how can we be sure about the reconstruction of this lost book? Several years ago Q was reconstructed by Ron Price (USA) on the same premises: Mark (and not only Matthew and Luke) used Q, and Luke used Matthew (and not only Mark and Q). However, his reconstruction looks like very different. Not only sources of the New Testament authors are important for a reconstruction but also their purposes by writing/compiling books about Jesus. One main problem is that we cannot know what purpose had an author absolutely unknown to us. Certainly there are more problems because we can know neither the real extent of a lost source nor its exact wording. Must we remain sceptical? It seems to be a sound way to deal with the Synoptic Problem in two methodological steps: firstly, we have to bring forward solid arguments for certain chronological order and relationships of existing and lost texts; secondly, we have to find portions which belonged originally to a lost source rather than to be invented by Mark, Matthew or Luke. It would be enough for understanding Synoptic Gospels on the level we really need. Critical comments to some points of reconstruction of Dennis MacDonald will be added.

The Quran and the Bible in Arabic may be called “entangled.” On the one hand, the Quran recollects many biblical narratives that were available orally to the Prophet; on the other hand, the emergence of the Muslim scripture as a distinct and noticeable book presented an impetus to Christians to submit their own to writing in the form of biblical translations into Arabic. This entanglement can be also seen in various other aspects. Some translators clearly shaped their translations according to the linguistic precedents of the Quran. It is not uncommon to find Quranic vocabulary and proper names in Arabic Bibles. Such instances constitute an almost conscious inter-textual allusion to the Quran, the revealed text of the religious majority. One of the most conspicuous examples is encountered in the Joseph narrative in an anonymous translation of the Pentateuch (based on the Peshitta), preserved today in Ms. Sinai, Ar. 2; here, the Arabic of Gen. 37:9 is strikingly similar to the Quranic version in Q. 12:3. In my contribution here, I attempt to gather and analyse similar examples in Ms. Sinai, Ar. 2, as well as other translations of biblical portions in Arabic, of both Christian and Jewish provenance.

The past decade or so has witnessed a change in the way scholars attempt to reconstruct the process that culminated in the emergence of the Hebrew Bible. Many of the assumptions and theories that long remained unquestioned are now under detailed scrutiny. This has furthermore resulted in a change in preferred vocabulary, and concepts such as "sacred" or "authoritative" texts or "S/scripture" are used for texts that were gradually gaining a "special" status in the late Second Temple period, instead of Bible or canon. This paper concentrates on the concept of "sacred texts" or "sacred scripture". Catherine Bell reminds us that "'Scriptures' as sacred texts vary widely in terms of cultural constructions of textuality as well as their cultural understandings of sacrality." Importantly, nowhere in the Dead Sea Scrolls, are texts explicitly referred to as "sacred". How appropriate, then, is it to link the attribute "sacred" to certain texts in a pre-canonical period, in a historical setting where the term was not used by those living, writing, and reading theses texts? If applied, what is the phenomenon we as modern scholars are attempting to identify? In addition, what can we know about how texts became "sacred" and what qualities or properties of a text are described with this concept in the late Second Temple period? This paper will approach the issue by combining textual and historical data with theories of "sacred" developed in Religionswissenschaft.

Each year a number of young boys die in South Africa from complications related to ritualistic male circumcision. This situation has often raised fierce debate between the tribes which traditionally practice it to prepare teens to adulthood and the state on the one side, and vis-à-vis other tribes which do not practice male circumcision in the country. Even within the tribes that hold on to this rite of passage people are questioning if they should not leave the traditional way of doing male circumcision to opt for a more modern and hygienic manner through health facilities. But, for custodians of the culture male circumcision would lose its significance if rituals and all the cultural practices accompanying the rite are removed. Some Christians have joined the debate by interpreting male circumcision as an outdated Mosaic Law for Old Testament people that should not rule Christians today, whereas the advocates of male circumcision hold to it as the mark of their cultural identity and covenant with God. The New campaign launched by the Government of South Africa requesting male circumcision as a means to curb HIV infection has rekindled the controversy, bringing new arguments to the debate. One should remember that HIV is a very sensitive issue in South Africa as more than 5 million people live currently with the virus and HIV-related diseases remains the major cause of death among children and adults. The present essay intends to bring into dialogue the above text of Galatians and the cultural context of South Africa by answering the question, does male circumcision count for anything?

Spatial theory and disability studies stand to overlap in numerous ways, not least of which may be in studying the corporeal spaces (body parts, composition, and meaning) of abled and disabled persons. Within biblical studies, the corporeal spaces in Second Isaiah emerge as a potentially potent source for a productive investigation of this sort. The body of the Servant in Isa. 53, for example, has been recently identified by Jeremy Schipper as one that should be considered disabled. Interestingly, the corporeal space of this character is readily and diversely referenced (face, mouth, hand, etc.) throughout the whole of Second Isaiah. Furthermore, no two bodies are referenced with more frequency or diversity than those of the Servant and God. Based on these observations, the present study argues that Second Isaiah invites a comparison between the corporeal space of the Servant and the corporeal space ascribed to God. The richness of such a comparison is further amplified when all of the lexical references (hands, eyes, etc.) to these two corporeal spaces appearing in Second Isaiah are identified and compared in terms of Henri Lefebvre’s three-fold categorization of space (perceived, conceived and lived). While not exactly equated, the comparison of the corporeal spaces of both characters is striking. As a result, the question posed near the outset of Second Isaiah, ‘To whom might you liken God?’ (Isa. 40.18), meets with an answer that is heretofore overlooked (or rejected) by most scholarship: Liken God to the disabled Servant.

The appearances of children in Paul’s writings are taken to be largely metaphorical. These are conventionally interpreted through the lens of the ancient moral philosophers and models of paideia. Children are widely imaged in biblical commentary instrumentally as metaphors of ‘spiritual’ educational progress, often bearing the pejorative association of ‘failure to progress’ or as the example of what should be ‘put off’ or ‘left behind’ in the pursuit of ‘spiritual maturity’. This paper challenges assumptions of reading Paul’s ‘children’ only as educational instruments, cautioning against over-reading Western Enlightenment childhood aspirational values, and offers alternative models from the Pauline corpus for recognising children through a more nuanced and multivalent socio-historical lens. From this I propose a more subversive reading of some of the main ‘childhood’ texts, both for Paul’s first century cultural context and for our own, which I suggest offer a greater congruence with Paul’s cruciform and revealed gospel and the broader discursive intent of 1 Corinthians.

This paper argues that 4 Ezra 14 represents the climax of the sensory revelations experienced by Ezra, and as such, that this is the episode which finally facilitates Ezra’s understanding of divine wisdom. The ingestion of the fiery cup (14.38–41) allows Ezra for the first time to understand divine revelation without an angelus interpres. Tasting, as opposed to seeing or hearing, represents a more direct interaction with the sense-subject, that is, with the divine realm (Lieber 2006). Ezra’s revelations escalate throughout the text, from hearing, to seeing, and finally to tasting. The first three episodes are only auditory. In the pivotal fourth episode, Ezra at last sees a vision of a woman, with whom he also converses; Uriel describes how Ezra experiences this revelation “as far as it is possible for [his] eyes to see, and […] as much as [his] ears can hear” (10:55–56). Episodes five and six extend these visual qualities using language that emphasizes the visuality of these experiences: “and I looked, and behold…” (11:2, 3, 5, 7, 10; 13: 3, 5, 8, etc.). In each of episodes one through six, however, Ezra is incapable of making sense of what has been revealed to him. It is only when Ezra tastes heavenly food in the final episode, the cup filled with the fiery liquid, that he is able to transcend mortal understanding. I argue that 4 Ezra 14:38–41 participates in the hitherto undefined literary trope of hierophagy—-food given by an immortal to a mortal which transforms the eater in some way. The narrative depiction of the transformation of Ezra’s understanding from mortal to heavenly engages a literary trope that communicates the ramifications of eating other-worldly food. In tasting the divine liquid, Ezra surpasses ordinary hearing and sight, and consumes God’s meaning directly.

Several of the documents from Qumran portray the Jerusalem temple and its priesthood as defiled, which in part belongs to the characteristics of the present evil age (e.g., CD 4:17-18; 5:6-8). The defilement of the temple is also a recurrent theme in some apocalyptically oriented writings in the Second Temple Period (e.g., Jub 1:10; TLev 9:9-10; 14; Pss.Sol 1:8; 2:3). In my paper I will first situate the criticism of the priesthood and the temple in the sectarian writings against the background of temple imagery in Jewish apocalyptic writings in general, analysing the apocalyptic overtones in the discourses. Second, I will examine what these kinds of accusations aim to do to the audience’s self-perception and identity formation as an end time community, in particular in light of the common employment of the temple as a metaphor for the community. For this I will utilize social identity approach, particularly social categorization theory.

This paper explores the paradox that, within the Bible, although the sea is often understood as infinite, this is counterbalanced by many, often indirect, acknowledgments that it is also subject to effects from other agents. The apparent boundlessness of the sea can lead to a perception that it is capable of functioning as a ‘cosmic dustbin’ absorbing limitless waste (something which is related to the terracentric conception of space which regards the sea as ‘away’). This is found both in the Bible and in our mistreatment of the sea. Nonetheless, the Bible counters this with sometimes quite audacious statements of the sea’s malleability and vulnerability to other agencies, such that it may be dried up, frozen, stirred up, muddied and so on. In many of these passages, the relation of the sea as we would conceive it to the waters thus described may be questionable, but nonetheless, there is also an aspect in which we may learn from the conceptuality present here in acquiring a proper sense of the sea’s subjection to influence from other forces and agents. The most striking statements of the sea’s vulnerability relate to scenes of judgment in which it, like the rest of creation, is subject to divine wrath and terror at Yahweh’s coming. Such judgment passages reflect a notion of creation which sees everything, not only as subject to God’s rule, but as intimately interconnected and sharing the same future including the fate of bearing the consequences of human action. This hardly needs to be translated into modern terms for its pertinence to be seen.

Note: The paper will be read in German language, but the handout will be availabe in English translation.– Among the forms of textual references between biblical books (intertextuality, allusions etc.) are also “double figures”. This expression refers to texts that appear in the same or similar form in two (or more) books. Unlike most of the “usual” intertextualities, which will often only be noticed by hearers/readers, who are familiar with the traditions, such relations are evident. They should be highlighted prior to any other form of textual relations, because such cardinal knots between Bible books set impulses that might control the reading and understanding in terms of the interrelation of the authoritative writings of the (later) Bible canon. This thesis will be considerered canon-theologically with the Psalter, for it has strong references back to Torah and Nebi’im in its structure and layout. The focus will be on two knottings: 1) the double tradition 2 Sam 22 // Ps 18 (in association with other phenomena), which inscribes the Psalter a book overarching analepsis (flashback) to the books of Samuel. 2) Psalms 96; 105; 106 are (partial) included in 1 Chr 16 with minor modifications and arranged to form a new song (collage). Judging from the “head position” of the Psalter overviewing the Ketubim, we seem to find an overarching prolepsis (flashforward) to the books of Chronicles. If this is correct, the Psalter is both analeptically (Sam / Nebi’im) and proleptically (Chr / Ketubim) knotted. It is denotative that canon-theologically the backward connection is produced in the front parts (Books I-III), the forward one in the later parts (Books IV -V) of the Psalter.

This paper focuses on how Contextual Bible Study (CBS) – a method ripe for greater use in New Testament Studies – can be critically refined and methodologically streamlined to successfully foster new ways of reading and interpreting New Testament texts. This paper will begin with a critique of the current methodological practices and trends of CBS, followed by an introduction to how my own research has thus far reflected upon and revised the theoretical, methodological and practical realities of such an approach, primarily by drawing upon existing practices in sociological and anthropological qualitative and fieldwork-based studies. This will include an overview of my current research in which I have been exploring a selection of specially chosen Biblical passages with a group of coal miners in South Derbyshire, UK. The participants in this study have been collectively exploring a variety of Biblical passages that closely relate to their unique profession and cultural heritage. Of the ten texts explored throughout the duration of this CBS project, the group’s examination of The Workers in the Vineyard produced a particularly interesting and surprising array of readings, for example the group were eager to relate the workers’ experiences of ‘fair pay’ to their own experiences of contract disputes. The main emphasis of this paper will therefore be on this culturally-embedded reading of Matthew 20:1-16. By paying close attention to both methodological considerations and real examples of contextual Biblical interpretations this paper seeks to illustrate the vast potential of CBS to not only enhance Matthew studies but also New Testament studies as a whole. This paper will ultimately show how a rigorous methodologically focused CBS program can provide an exciting opportunity for New Testament texts to be seen through fresh eyes and thus paving the way for the emergence of new, previously unseen, interpretations.

For Julius Wellhausen the exile marked a decisive turning point in the construction of Israelite collective identity: Israel went into exile as a people and retur ned as a religious sect. This assessment which was taken up by many exegetes and historians of Israel led to the definition of post-exilic Israel as a religious community, a Kultgemeinde, based on a shared faith, adherence to the law etc. While there is a growing number of critical voices the concept of a Kultgemeinde is still quite common place in OT exegesis and is supposed to be found in a number of Persian period texts. The paper will look at the criteria that different Persian period texts provide for belonging or not belonging to Israel. It will try to show that the boundaries of Israel as a collective entity were indeed in dispute within Persian period Yehud triggered by the question of the Israelite-ness of the populace in the area of the former Northern Kingdom. But while there was no consensus regarding their status the same underlying criteria for defining an Israelite is used either to include or exclude the Samarians from Israel - not the religious requirements of a Kultgemeinde but the social construction of a common descent that finds its expression in the system of the twelve tribes of Israel and that the different texts have to grapple with in order to apply it to the position they try to establish.

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When compared with the centralised model of sacred space (camp and tabernacle, land and temple), the Kingdom of God appears unstructured in its description and orientation. Whereas God’s presence is particularly located in the holy of holies in the central model (with places for priests, Levites and ordinary Israelites), the Kingdom does not designate an ideal segregation of space, or work according to a system of ritual purity and ‘sheer difference’, as for instance in J Z Smith’s analysis of the maps of Ezekiel 40-48. And yet, definitions of sacred space, whether focussing on the more ontological ‘irruption of the sacred’ (Eliade) or the human systemisation of space (Smith), are viewed in connection with the divine, and clearly the Kingdom, belonging to God, fits this definition. If we understand the Kingdom as a mythical (sacred) space of orientation (Tuan), rather than according to Dalman’s ‘divine rule’ definition, we may consider the type of spatial thinking associated with the Kingdom, and also where God is placed within it. Or, to put the question another way, we may investigate the difference God makes to the Kingdom’s construction (Latour).

The last few decades saw significant shifts in scholarship on the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament with their ramifications for various religious and theological questions: the diversity of approaches has increased, so have the available (literary and material) sources of the Ancient Near East and their scholarly discussion. Publications in the field have discussed for example the relationship between Old Testament Theology and History of Religion or Unity and Diversity (see the respective volumes of Jahrbuch für Biblische Theologie). In addition, the significant discussion on Jewish and Christian perspectives of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament affects any theological reflection. Unfortunately, the variety of diachronic and synchronic approaches has not always facilitated fruitful dialogues between these approaches. This paper reflects on the implications for theology proper by focusing on the sources for theology proper and on their methodological penetration. In particular, this investigation discusses possibilities of how the various approaches in their diversity contribute to the reflections on theology proper. It discusses the necessity of this variety in light of older approaches to Old Testament theology in general and to theology proper in particular.

The prophet Nahum acted in a time of crisis for the people of Judah. They were threatened and dominated by the Assyrians as the world power. This dominance left the Judean people dismayed and discouraged. In this time of crisis Nahum addressed the people of Judah with a strong worded message of encouragement and motivation. As a master of rhetoric and image, Nahum attempted to install trust in YHWH as the Sovereign power and also appealed to the imagination of the people to perceive the victory that YHWH will achieve on their behalf. Nahum also used metaphors effectively to create insight in the powerlessness of the Assyrians as opposing power both to YHWH and the people of Judah. A final aspect to be treated in this paper is to illustrate how Nahum as leader in his society used language and image effectively to create a reality check for the people of Judah and the enemy of how pride will be turned to humiliation through the intervention of YHWH.

Among the most exigent priorities of the Synoptic Gospels is the moral formation of new Christian communities in early imperial, urban settings. At the center of this transformation is the moral concept of devotion to others even at one’s own expense, a concept poignantly instantiated in the “love command”, the metaphor of servitude (Mark 10:43-44), and the prioritization of the weak, the poor and the marginalized (e.g., Luke 14:12-14). An important dimension to the contemporary understanding of this priority of the Evangelists is reckoning with the points of tension with the “popular morality” of Greco-Roman society. In sketching the moral world of the New Testament, scholars have commonly focused on the elite sources of thought (e.g., the Hellenistic schools of philosophy) to which ordinary people “in the street” had little direct access, and neglected the wide array of economic, social and political forces that shaped and reshaped individual moral outlook in ways at once more subtle and more powerful than the influences of the philosophical schools. Utilizing literary evidence as well as recent studies of daily life and popular morality in early imperial Rome, the present work will isolate and examine three vectors of moral influence upon the outlook of the “ordinary” city-dweller: the dynamics of neighborhood associations (renewed under Augustus), the culture of euergatism, and the growth of social mobility in the early empire with the concomitant yen for economic and social advancement. I conclude by forming an imaginative sketch of the struggles of Quintus, a fictional freedman, textile dealer and member of a Christian house church, as he negotiates his aspirations for Roman citizenship and membership in the Equestrian order in the light of the concept of “costly devotion to others” that lies at the center of the morality of the Gospels.

The post-exilic writings collected in Zechariah attracted many apocalyptic readers of scripture in the Second Temple period. But apart from examination of the relationship of Zechariah to the Synoptic passion narrative, relatively little work has explored the significance of Zechariah for the New Testament. One exception to that neglect, the collection of essays The Book of Zechariah and Its Influence, contains papers from a 2002 Oxford colloquium. That collection, however, contains no treatment of Zechariah and Hebrews. The omission may not be too surprising, given the paucity of explicit citations. Yet connections between Zechariah and Hebrews are not absent. Both Daniel Stökl and I have argued that Zech 3 and its interpretation in Second Temple Judaism provide a significant context for understanding Heb 3 and 4 and the portrait of Jesus as high priest. This paper, however, will move beyond that previous work to explore a range of connections between Zechariah, its interpretation in Second Temple Judaism, and Hebrews. Both Hebrews and Zechariah share connections to Yom Kippur and to the fast day Tammuz 17. The language of the “great high priest” recalls the “great priest” of Zech 3:9, and Zechariah speaks of a priest on or beside the throne (Zech 6:13). The language concerning the Branch (Zech 3:8; 6:12) influences the language and argument of Heb 7:14-17. The phrase “the spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29) recalls Zech 12:10. Finally, Hebrews 13:20 stresses the blood of the covenant (Zech 9:11) and the image of the shepherd (Zech 13:7).

Literary sources report about destructions of synagogues and Jewish communities and other forms of persecution in Late Antiquity. This presentation will ask how the archeological report relates to this evidence. Next to burn- and destruction-layers in synagogue sites, the reuse of Jewish items in other contexts as well as the remodeling of Jewish symbols will be considered.

Die paulinischen Ausführungen in den Korintherbriefen erwachsen durchweg aus einer Auslegung biblischer Texte im Lichte der Christusbotschaft – auch wenn dieses Fundament in verschiedenen Briefteilen auf je andere Weise sichtbar wird. Es ist deshalb darzulegen, wie die Differenz der Erscheinungsweisen durch traditionelle Vorgaben, thematische Besonderheiten, Eigenarten der Gesprächssituation und spezifische Mitteilungsabsichten bedingt wird.

The study of the composition of the Book of Psalms has gained much scholarly attention since the groundbreaking dissertation by Gerald H Wilson in 1985. One of the clearest signs of redaction was the addition, or use, of four doxologies in Pss 41, 72, 89 and 106. They all share a number of features, but not two are identical. As they are considered to belong to the very latest stages of redactional activity, dividing the Book of Psalms in five parts, often interpreted as an intended allusion to the Torah (thus, the collection being, in some sense “David’s Torah”) they are important for any understanding of the intention behind the final collection of the Book of Psalms. One aspect that has not yet been thouroughly studied, though, is the presence of the double Amen-sayings in all but one doxology (Ps 106:48). As double Amen-sayings are very rare in the Old testament (only three attestations outside the Book of Psalms), but common in the DSS material, as in the Gospel of John, this paper will focus on the function of the Amen-sayings in those texts in order to shed light on the possible rationale behind the redactor’s use of the double Amen in the final shaping of the Book of Psalms.

In der chr Neuerzählung, des Weges, wie David die "Stätte" für den Tempel zu Jerusalem gefunden habe, lebt in später judäischer Perspektive die altisraelitische Tradition vom Suchen und Finden der "Stätte" bzw. des je und je sich enthüllenden "Ortes" der Gottesgegenwart wieder auf. Ziel schon der Einheit 1Chr (11f.) 13-17 - die vorausblickend auf 1Chr 21 gelesen werden muss - ist der maqom, der "Ort". Die Frage stellt sich: Ist denn Jerusalem schon, oder wird es erst durch den künftigen Einzug Gottes in sein Heiligtum (2Chr 6,40-7,3) zu dem Ort? Die von Chr angestossene Suche nach dem "Ort" oszilliert zwischen "Utopie" und "Topologie", zeitigt eine ungeahnte Nachgeschichte und gewinnt in der jüdischen Gebetsliturgie einen prominenten Stellenwert.

The paper addresses the issue concerning what role oral and/or literary factors played in the production of Chronicles’ description of the temple craftsman Huram-abi (2 Chronicles 2:12–13[13-14]). It begins by examining the parallel description found in 1 Kings 7:13–14 in order to determine if the Kings passage served as the Vorlage for Chronicles in this description. It then examines the role that other traditional material, especially material preserved in the Pentateuch, may have played. It demonstrates that the material in Pentateuchal texts regarding the tabernacle has played a formative role in the passage. It then evaluates how the tabernacle material’s influence on the Chronicles passage reflects the dynamics of oral and/or literary features.

In recent years a number of scholars have utilized concepts and theories of “utopia” to study 1-2 Chronicles and Chronistic historiography. In this line of inquiry, scholars such as Joseph Blenkinsopp, for example, have understood Chronicles to have been an “ideal counterreality” to the Judean literati’s perceived sociohistorical reality in the fourth century BCE. From a heuristic standpoint, this is an interesting and perhaps fruitful approach to certain types of literature in the Bible. In this paper, using Israelite kingship as a test case, I will assess the use of utopia as a concept specifically for historical-critical studies of Chronicles and Yehudite historiography. I will argue that, although thinking with “utopia” is probably helpful for studies of prophetic literature or other types of texts, it has less import for studies of Chronistic historiography in ancient Yehud. Doubtless, Yehudite literati read Chronicles alongside the authoritative books of Samuel-Kings, and this, I submit, ultimately problematizes understandings of Chronicles as utopian historiography; the obvious (and necessary) intertextual and counterbalancing relationship between Chronicles and Samuel-Kings, especially with regard to the monarchy and kingship, precludes seeing Chronicles as a truly utopian work in its primary sociocultural context.

Paul refers to his ?a??? in two (or possibly three) of his letters (Gal 6:12; 2 Cor 10:13, 15; cf. the variant in Phil 3:16). The usage in 2 Cor 10:12–17 is especially puzzling to commentators. In this paper I argue that greater attention to the nuances of Paul’s usage in Galatians helps us to understand the possible signification of the occurrences in 2 Corinthians. The similar epistolary contexts of the two letters (conflictual situation, the presence of ‘opponents’ in the community, Paul’s apostolic self-defense) suggest the possibility of an equivalent sense for Paul’s appeal to a ?a??? in each case. While in Gal 6:16 the term is clearly linked to the response of the Galatian Christ-believers to Paul’s proclamation of the new creation (see Gal. 6.15), most commentators read 2 Cor 10:13, 15 with reference to either the geographical or specifically apostolic aspects of Paul’s ministry in Corinth. In contrast to these views, I argue that the Pauline ?a??? in Corinth is primarily the Pauline gospel itself (see 2 Cor. 10.14, 16), understood as the key criterion against which the behaviour of Paul’s opponents, Paul’s apostolic ministry, and the response of the Corinthian Christ-believers, is to be judged. Thus, the term in 2 Corinthians 10.13, 15 should not be translated ‘field’, nor understood only with reference to Paul’s foundation of the Corinthian Christ-assembly. Instead it refers to a Pauline version of what later become known as the ‘rule’ of faith, by means of which the actions of Paul, his opponents and the Corinthians can be appropriately judged.

In the last 30 years of New Testament scholarship about the historical Jesus and his teachings and ministry, one of the most fruitful avenues of study that has shed increasing light on the actual historical character of Jesus and his ministry is evaluating Jesus as a sage, a conveyor of godly wisdom, and evaluating his parables, aphorisms, and riddles as early Jewish wisdom speech. This paper further explores this trajectory of New Testament scholarship, focusing both on the issue of the character of sapiential language and how it should and should not be evaluated, and the unique use of that language by Jesus to talk about God’s coming eschatological Dominion or Kingdom. While previous Jewish sages had told parables about God’s eternal kingship or reign, before Jesus’ time, apparently none had used wisdom speech to describe God’s current in-breaking eschatological work of salvation among God’s people. And yet Jesus offers up a sort of revelatory wisdom that is not self-evident. He is not drawing wisdom from the analysis of nature or human nature (like e.g. the writers of Proverbs), but rather from God’s special revelation about his salvific purposes for humankind. Jesus then was an apocalyptic sage, much like Daniel, offering a wisdom that God had to reveal or else it could not be known, even through detailed study of nature and human nature. Focusing on Mark 4 and the parable of the sower, this paper reveals how ancient parables work, and what they tell us about Jesus’ teaching ministry, and indeed his own intentions and self-understanding.

As a dedicated prophet of the Lord, residing in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Hosea strongly denounced societal corruption and religious apostasy. Suddenly, his prophetic mission took an unforeseen turn, through marriage to Gomer, a woman who would abandon her husband, family and faith. Emotional extremes in this story of love lost, found, forsaken and forgiven have perplexed scholars and readers for generations. This personality profile, based on the Enneagram, examines the relationship between the prophet, Hosea, and his wayward wife, as expressed in Hosea chapters 1 to 3. From an Enneagram perspective, Hosea aligns with most biblical prophets as an exemplar of a highly principled type One, an upright champion of integrity and propriety. Within a One, a relentless critic works to police personal oversights and point out others’ mistakes. United in holy wedlock, this censorious type One (Hosea) clashes with his wife, a dramatic, romantic type Four (Gomer). Seeing things differently, imaginative Fours yearn to express themselves in contradictory, unconventional ways. Needing to feel special and unique leads them to bend or ignore rules of ordinary, polite society. Through countless studies of relationship dynamics, psychologist Helen Palmer, uncovered volatile emotional lives among One-Four couples. She described cycles of push-pull tactics that are confusing and heart-wrenching to both partners as Ones criticize and Fours over-dramatize (Palmer, 1995, 263). Yet, for Enneagram authors, Don Riso and Russ Hudson, Ones and Fours have much to learn from each other. Through opening the heart to compassion, Ones learn to trust intuition rather than rules, while Fours find beauty in the sanctity in divine Love with a higher purpose. (Riso, Hudson, 2000, 321, 325). Reviewing Hosea’s marital woes through the lens of the Enneagram holds promise for comprehending the course of love in this story, specific, universal, troubled and true.

This paper examines the important concept of knowledge found in Qut al-qulub (“The Nourishment of Hearts”), an early Sufi guidebook on mysticism and morals by Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996), and al-Hidaya ila fara'id al-qulub (“The Right Guidance to the Religious Duties of Hearts”), a Jewish classic on ethics by the Andalusian jurist Bahya Ibn Baquda (d. after 1080). In the Sufi tradition, two types of knowledge ('ilm and ma'rifa) are often discussed. The former designates acquired, intellectual knowledge, while the latter signifies gnosis or mystical knowledge which is bestowed through first-hand experience of God. In general, Ibn Baquda seems to differentiate between these two terms in accord with their general use among Sufis. Both al-Makki and Ibn Baquda state that 'ilm is "the life of hearts," and regard ma'rifa as the goal of the path to the Divine. Throughout both works, the importance of the true understanding of the essence and meaning of God, tawhid, is emphasized. This paper goes on to examine two other concepts, reason and nafs (self or soul), as the paths to acquire the experiential knowledge of tawhid, and identify where this putative parallel breaks down. In the Qut al-qulub, reason is described as twofold. It can be useful and harmful, since reason belongs to this world, with nafs and Satan. This is significantly different from what Ibn Baquda believes. To him, reason is vital. Humans are rational beings and he insists that the basis of the heart's obligations lies in reason, and uses nafs interchangeably with the heart, as opposed to the body. Through an exploration of rational knowledge and experiential knowledge, this paper discusses the meaning of faith in the two influential books on ethics and spirituality in their respective traditions.

The image of the stone that has seven eyes, which appears in Zech 3:9; 4:10, has puzzled many scholars. Some say it is a plummet, building block or a special jewel. Others say that the seven eyes are seven jewels, seven planets or just a symbolic image. The interpretations are many. Is it possible that the image of the stone was based on known iconography from the time and place of Zechariah? In my paper I deal with these varying interpretations, and suggest that the most reasonable solution may be based on images from Babylonian cylinder seals.

Scholars have remarked upon the difference between the language employed in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and its prose. In terms of grammar a couple of variations may be mentioned that are characteristic of the poetic genre. These are the less frequent usage of the definite article, the object marker, the relative pronoun and the wayyiqtol verb-form. Sappan went as far as to say that one may talk about a Dialectus Poetica separate from the standard language of Biblical prose. It is not necessary to hold such an exaggerated view to notice these variations. Watson, in his well-known manual on Hebrew poetry, enumerates nineteen characteristics or indicators of the poetic genre. These indicators in poetic texts are often explained as the defamiliarisation or foregrounding of the language. The different defamiliarised aspects of Hebrew poetry may be grouped on the basis of the level of language they affect. Some of these may pertain to sound, words, and form of words and others to the ordering of words. Therefore, one may suggest a four-fold classification of poetic aspects on the grounds of phonological, lexical, morphological, and syntactic considerations. The lexical and morphological defamiliarisation concerns the choice of one word over another or one form over another, whereas the syntactic defamiliarisation is concerned with the arrangement of words in a certain way. This paper retains a two-fold scope. First, to offer a brief presentation of syntactic defamiliarisation within the Hebrew poetic text of Proverbs 1:20-33 by highlighting and explicating the unmarked (or standard/non marqué/unmarkierten), marked (marqué/markiert, that is the departure from what is standard) and canonical (or predominant) order of clause constituents. Second, to argue that on the basis of the results of this presentation it is possible to offer some further evidence regarding the chiastic arrangement of Proverbs 1:20-33.

Islamic polemical works against Christianity from the ninth to the fourteen centuries refer to al-Tawrat, al-Zabur, and al-Injil as the Quran considers them inspired books. Paul and the Pauline letters, although not explicitly mentioned in the Quran, are also referred to in these polemical works to a much lesser extent. This paper sheds light on the picture of Paul as he is envisioned in Islamic polemical works. It then examines some features of citations taken from his letters and the purposes they served in these works.

Between 2010 and 2013 and under the auspices of Kinneret Regional Project (www.kinneret-excavations.org), a team from Bern, Helsinki and Leiden Universities, joined by Wofford College in 2012, has been excavating a synagogue from the Byzantine period at the ancient village site of Horvat Kur, a hill located ca. 2 km west of the Lake of Galilee. Though only partly preserved, the building shows a number of unique features, like the first "Seat of Moses" ever found in situ in the north of Israel, an enigmatic, decorated basalt stone table, two very different coin deposits and a quite unusual architectural layout. The paper will present the latest results of the excavations at Horvat Kur, including results from the 2014 study season targeting at the preparation of the final report about the finds and findings in the synagogue building and its surroundings.

In the seven peristyle houses that form the insula of Terrace House 2, a broad variety of different evidences for private worship and house cult has been uncovered. The documentation extends from architectural settings like cult rooms and cultic niches with paintings or statuettes, and small finds like little altars and images of deities to ritual objects like thymiateria and deposits of offerings. This rich material will be discussed in its character, in the topography of the houses and in the role they played in the inhabitant’s’ life.

This paper describes the characteristics of this corpus, its language and its translation techniques, which move between literal and free renditions, following various textual or exegetical traditions, sometimes keeping stereotypic equivalence, and in other cases seeming to find bizarre solutions to the Hebrew text. For example, the same Hebrew term kil'ayim appears thrice in one verse, but is translated in three various ways. Similarly, the verb ??? whenever it comes together with the noun ??? is contextually rendered in various meanings. In some cases we find adaptation of the halacha and in others we find an anti-halachic tendencies. Here and there the translator neglects the text ad loc. and refers seemingly to the text of Deuteronomy instead. We shall demonstrate various peculiarities of this translation and offer to them a due explanation. The paper concludes with consideration of the text-critical value of this corpus with due illustration.

Brothers are an important feature of the book of Genesis, and familial and brotherly relations play an important part in the book. The literary dimension of the sibling relationship, and the family nexus, have often been explored for each of the narratives found in the book. However, the literary organisation of the topic of family in the entire book remains to be examined. As regards families, the different stories of Genesis refer to one another, creating thus a complex and dynamic pattern of relationship. Bonds and enmities, rivalry and solidarity, secrets and treasons, split and reunion. a lot is happening. The intertextual references take part in depicting and establishing the family network, and this in turn provides a certain picture of the family. This presentation aims at exploring the links established between the different family narratives in the book of Genesis, and studying how this literary construction establishes a certain definition of families and family relationship.