The religious form of life, for example within the Christian tradition, is to a large extent structured by acts of interpersonal recognition. Persons are granted access to religious communities by other people, who also initiate newcomers into their practices and ways of life. Moreover, religious groups and institutions incorporate various hierarchical power-relations, whose existence and normative statuses depend on the attitudes of the members of the relevant communities. In religious contexts, God then appears as the supreme ruler who acknowledges human persons, loves them, and even creates their very being. Because of the involvement of such deeply efficacious metaphysical assumptions, the normative statuses and consequent relations of power within religious communities also gain a heightened importance. Of special significance here is the issue of moral responsibility in wielding the internal metaphysical power of interpretation that religious communities grant to their own authorities. As a result of their normative statuses, religious authorities are in a position to formulate influential textual interpretations as well as to effect various normative decisions and social practices based on them. In this paper, I will argue that religious identities create and sustain social contexts that are susceptible to theodicist pathologies of mediated recognition. To back up the argument, I provide a conceptual analysis which specifies some problematic structural features of textual interpretation and mediated recognition in religious contexts. The articulated features can then help us to better understand the claimed susceptibility to pathologies, and therefore, also to better detect them and to try to prevent them from occurring.

The paper applies selected methods of distant reading to the apocryphal text of the Gospel of Thomas. The applied methods are developed as a part of collaborative research project DiRECT: Distant Reading of Early Christian Texts: Explorations in Socio-Cognitive Interpretation (University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic) and include text network analysis and a version of topic modeling. Analyzing and visualizing the source text by using these methods, the paper offers a comparison of selected parables and Jesus' statements in the Gospel of Thomas with corresponding passages from Synoptic gospels. Because these methods allow a sophisticated and quantifiable comparison of the corpora of the early Christian movements, they thereby help to uncover and prove the differences in their theology.

One of the remarkable scholarly achievements in Otto's Commentary on Deuteronomy is the verification of literary and hermeneutical links with deuteronomistic, priestly,and redactional texts in the Pentateuch, together with evidences for scribal disputes between Pentateuch and Prophets. The paper will reflect on consequences of these insights for further scholarly research.

The number of the six stone jars in the Fourth Gospel is widely regarded as symbolic, in Jewish numerology evoking the idea of incompleteness and imperfection. However, the contextually related, likewise numerical remark concerning the capacity of the jars, as containing two or three measures each, undermines the hypothesis of symbolic significance of all these numbers. This paper, with the use of the tools of critical intertextual research, will offer a new understanding of the intended meaning of these quantitative remarks. Moreover, it will suggest a new interpretation of the symbolism of the whole Cana episode.

Early evidence of the textual history of 1 Samuel can be seen in some of the doublets of the Greek text that are present in practically all the manuscripts. In such cases the translation of part of the text – from one word to several sentences – is given twice: in the original translation and in a corrected form, which was presumably first added into the margin from where it later slipped into the text. In 1 Samuel, such doublets are relatively frequent. In some cases, the more original part of the doublet presupposes a Hebrew Vorlage different from the MT, thus preserving evidence for the editorial history of the Hebrew text. One of these cases is found at the end of chapter 3 where the Septuagint transmits a substantially longer text than the MT. A critical analysis of the text will show that the doublet in the Septuagint consists of two alternative forms of the redactional conclusion of the chapter and its connection with chapter 4.

The study of the Greek manuscript Vatic. Gr. 1190a. 1542, containing the text of an apocryphal legend about the struggle between Archangel Michael and Satan (Stanael), has revealed an uncommon phenomenon of the existence of Slavonic (Bogomil) apocrypha in some Greek-speaking environment. The plot of the legend was quite widespread on Balkans, but all the published Slavonic versions of the apocrypha are shorter than the Greek text we have (eddited by A. Miltenova in 1981). We can assume two possibilities of the origin of the Greek legend: 1. Translation into Greek of the so far unknown longest Slavic version 2. The story, initially written in Greek, was spread among the Greek-speaking population orally. Both assumptions, however, lead to the same conclusion: Bogomil apocrypha of this kind were probably more widespread than previously thought — not only in the Slavic environment. It is also possible that some features of the Bogomil worldview were inherent in the Greek folk tradition, reflected by this literary work.

The Beispielreihen of scriptural figures in Hebrews 11 famously includes a number of ambiguous characters, those whose commendable achievements are often equally matched by their apparent frailties and misjudgements. The list is a proverbial ‘mixed bag’. However, there are two individuals named within the discourse – Samson, and more notably, Jephthah – whose prior scriptural achievements seem particularly problematic, and whose presence within the cloud of witnesses seems questionable at least. This paper probes their inclusion within the Hebrews 11 retinue. It begins by engaging with the intra-Hebrews effect of such inclusion and the consequences for interpreting the text. The second part of the paper then turns to the ensuing reception of Hebrews, to explore how subsequent interpreters have engaged with the implied praise of such figures, and the ramifications of this for the text’s function.

| In this paper I advocate an alternative understanding of Jesus’ response to the question “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” in Mark 11:27–33. Instead of reading Jesus’ counter-question “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” as an implicit answer to the query posed by the religious authorities – as maintained by a large number of scholars, including e.g. Bultmann, Hooker and Schnabel – I argue that the commencing qualification “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things” (v.29), together with the concluding comment “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things” (v.33), show that Jesus’ counter-question is not intended, nor functions, as an answer. The same conclusion is further substantiated by examination of how counter-questions are used elsewhere in Mark’s gospel, as well as in Greco-Roman and rabbinic material. Form-critical analysis reveals that these alleged parallel traditions are substantially dissimilar from Mark 11:27–33, and should therefore not be adduced in support of the traditional interpretation. Finally, building on the insights of inter alia J. H. Neyrey, I contend, with reference to the function of questions in Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition, that the purpose of both question and counter-question in this context is neither the attainment nor the provision of information regarding the nature and origin of Jesus’ authority. Instead, for both the religious authorities and Jesus their respective questions are rather expressions of, and weapons in, the constant struggle to acquire honor and avoid shame that characterizes their culture. By responding with a counter-question that his interlocutors will not be able to answer, Jesus defends his own honor while simultaneously shaming his opponents

The large number of metaphors found in the Song of Songs cluster to form networks of metaphors with each other and with other metaphors found in ANE love songs more generally. These clusters reveal something about how they conceptualised reality, and specifically, the body of the lover. The metaphors in the Song of Songs reflect an underlying pattern also found in other ANE love song metaphors relating to the body of the lover. This paper will look at this network of metaphors in order to determine what underlies it cognitively, and what it reveals about how these poets conceptualised the lover’s body. I will utilise a cognitive linguistic approach to argue that the primary underlying conceptual metaphor – the ‘megametaphor’ or ‘extended metaphor’ – that underlies this network of micrometaphors in the Song and other ANE love songs, and unites them is: THE LOVER’S BODY IS A WONDERLAND. The metaphors in the Song and in other ANE love songs more generally share this conceptual metaphor, though the specific micrometaphors in the various texts conform to specific cultural and linguistic expressions, some shared and some novel. By ‘WONDERLAND,’ or perhaps better ‘WONDERWORLD,’ I do not mean landscape (though it includes this), but rather that, in the perception of the poet, each aspect of the lover’s body evokes an experience of wonder best correlated with and expressed by other experiences of wonder, in the land they live in and their world of reality. They are cognitively correlating their experience of the lover’s body with other cognitive experiences of wonder. For these poets, the enigma of the lover’s body is best expressed by other cognitive experiences of wonder and they use these metaphors to help us see this with a shock of new recognition.

Despite the significant impact of historical anthropology on the field of Classical studies and European historiography, this discipline remains underdeveloped in both ancient Near Eastern historiography and biblical studies. The project « AnthroPOA. Writing the Anthropology of the Ancient Near East » aims at filling this lacuna. AnthroPOA brings together scholars working in French, Italian and Swiss universities and centres of research. The proposed paper will present some of the major goals of the project, its methodology and the main issues at stake when trying to incorporate biblical studies within the anthropology of the ancient Near East. Three main lines of research have been selected so far as particularly relevant and worthy of examination: first, the necessity of replacing the classical topic of “cultural identity” with a model which prioritizes the concepts of cultural continuity and contiguity; second, a dialogue with the most recent areas of anthropological research (e.g. environment, materiality, “sensoriality”); third, and last, the processes which lead to the genesis of politics and the relationship between power and territory in antiquity.

The inaugural vision in the book of Isaiah (Isa 6:1-13) takes place in a cultic context which is both historicized and atemporal. The text appears to be highly constructed and seems to question and debate significant religious issues concerning seeing or not the divinity in the Jerusalem sanctuary. This contribution will analyze the text in its literary and historical context. It will lay bare strategies of both non-prophecy and non-vision and at the same time contradict such negative theology through the description and function of the Seraphim.

This paper examines how allegedly divine knowledge is transmitted according to two Thanksgiving Psalms attributed to a wisdom teacher (1QHa 5:12–6:33 and 7:21–8:41). The psalms are approached from the theoretical framework of divination where transmission of divine knowledge is understood having four integral components: (1) God that sends a (2) message and a (3) human mediator that transmits the message to (4) other human beings. Divination can be divided into intuitive and inductive divination based on the mean of inquiring divine messages. It is argued that the two Thanksgiving Psalms depict a wisdom teacher receiving his knowledge from God and reciting it to his audience. It is also argued that the transmission process includes both intuitive and inductive elements. Even though the wisdom teacher is depicted receiving his knowledge through divine revelation, the disclosure of the divine knowledge requires also personal skills and material objects. The divine knowledge is in fact produced through implicit exegesis. 1QHa 5:12–6:33 interprets mostly Instruction (4Q417 1 i) while 1QHa 7:21–8:41 brings several passages into conversation, starting from Jeremiah 10:12. In both psalms, the divine message is a deterministic two-ways teaching. However, in 1QHa 5:12–6:33, the perspective is cosmic whereas 1QHa 7:21–8:41 focuses on the diverse paths of human beings. While especially the explicit exegesis of the pesharim has been examined as a divinatory practice, this paper brings implicit exegesis and its application in poetic compositions into this topical discussion.

Heikki Räisänen (1941-2015), ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Helsinki, is probably the most famous Finnish Bible scholar. He became a very controversial figure in Finnish ecclesiastical and theological circles in the 1970s and 1980s (and remained such until his death), due to his popularization of historical-critical biblical scholarship and questioning of traditional Christian dogma. On the international level, Räisänen is best known for his contributions to the study of the Qur'an (Das Koranische Jesusbild, 1971), the Apostle Paul (Paul and the Law, 1983; Jesus, Paul and Torah, 1992), the New Testament and early Christianity (Beyond New Testament Theology, 1990; The Rise of Christian Beliefs, 2010). Based on Räisänen's Finnish-language autobiography and popular books, my paper outlines Räisänen's personal development from a Bible believer along the lines of the fifth Finnish revival, to an advocate of the salvation-historical view of the Bible, to a 'cultural Christian'. Attention is paid to some of the biblical arguments that shaped Räisänen's thinking as well as some of his central interpretive paradigms. Furthermore, essential background is provided for the intra-Finnish controversy that Timo Eskola's 2013 book Beyond Biblical Theology: Sacralized Culturalism in Heikki Räisänen's Hermeneutics (2013) has brought to the awareness of the international readership.

The Bible recounts that the children of Jacob were the eponyms of the Israelite tribes. Ostensibly there is no reason to doubt this attribution. On their trajectory to become a nation inheriting a land, according to the divine promise, the patriarch’s twelve sons became the eponyms of the twelve tribes. However, despite its intrinsic logic, scholars reading critically the Bible cast doubt on this trajectory. First scholars challenged the biblical narratives of Exodus, then the conquest of the Promise Land and the settlement of the tribes as narrated in the Bible. This presentation aims to take this lead further down and to claim that the names of the eponyms of the tribes are in fact regional names and not personal names. A few examples will be used here to illustrate this claim. Ephraim, a central tribe situated in the hill country is explained in a Midrashic form in the Bible: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes.” However, P,R,H “fertile, fruitful”, is not the root of Ephraim, it is E,F,R which means meadow or pasture. The suffix AIM in Hebrew is locative and not a personal name, similar to Yerushalaim, Shomrain (Ezra 4:10), Mahanaim, and She’araim. The root of Zebulun is Z,B,L means fertile. This is indeed the fertile plain in the north part of the country. The root of Naphtali is P,T,L means to meander and fits perfectly the topography of Galilee where the tribe of Naphtali was settled. The Israelite tribal eponyms are in fact regional names and therefore do not indicate a tribal ancestry of the Israelites.

The paper begins with three assumptions. First, Deuteronomy’s narrative and parenetic framing units (Deut 1-11 and 27-34) cannot be read without the legal core (Deut 12-26), but the core can be understood without the frames. Therefore, the core is older. Second, in agreement with E. Otto, B. Levinson, et al., the central focus of the legal core is updating (replacing?) an older Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22–23:33). Third, Urdeuteronomium was not a linear book or original “source” but rather a collection of legal traditions preserved on separate textual objects (sepharim), probably papyrus sheets. The paper investigates portions of the legal core often ignored in the scholarship for further indications of dependence upon the Book of the Covenant (literary or cultural). In light of recent scholarship on the nature of biblical law itself, the question is also raised here: Precisely what was Urdeuteronomium?

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs narrate the final speeches of the twelve sons of Jacob. In these speeches, the twelve sons of Jacob reassess and reinterpret their lives, and at the same time rewrite the biblical narratives. Rewritten biblical narratives typically address the issues created by the biblical texts by filling in gaps and answering questions raised by the biblical text. Sometimes they enhance the portrayal of biblical heroes by omitting embarrassing details. In this paper, I study how the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs rewrite and reinterpret the masculinities of the twelve sons of Jacob. I examine how the ideal behavior presented in the text is connected with the ancient ideals of masculinity, especially the ideal of self-controlled masculinity favored in Stoic philosophical writings. The speeches emphasize self-control with regard to sexuality, violent emotions, and aggression. Joseph emerges in the text as the ideal man, to whom the other brothers are compared and contrasted.

Within the context of the gradual formation of the New Testament canon, this paper seeks to highlight the import of the Letter to Philemon in terms of a synchronic analysis that takes the whole Pauline corpus into consideration. Because the Letter to the Hebrews is very generic and lacks a one-on-one style, Philemon can be considered the last significantly personal letter of Paul. The position of Philemon before Hebrews and the other non-Pauline letters hence lends credence to the maximalist view that all the epistles from Romans to Philemon were penned by the Apostle of the Gentiles, since it seems to function as a conclusion to the whole collection of both undisputed and disputed Pauline writings. Though Hebrews may have been considered of Pauline origin at the time the canon was put together, its different positions in various extant documents is a curious phenomenon. For this reason, the placing of Philemon and Hebrews in various codices and manuscripts is examined and the relation of Philemon to the preceding writings (all the way back to the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles) are analysed, both with regards to structural and theological considerations. As for Philemon’s theological outlook, it is legitimate to ask whether this letter echoes some of the main teachings laid down in the previous letters and to what extent, if any, can it be said to fittingly bring to a close basic tenets of this entire corpus of writings. It will be argued that the reasons for its present position in the canon are not to be found primarily in its relative shortness, or in its being addressed to a somewhat unknown individual, but to more relevant concerns that make it a powerful conclusion to Paul’s thoughts.

Widening the discussion of Dt 12 presented to the Berlin meeting in summer 2017, this paper explores the role throughout Dt 12-26 of key terms in the synoptic royal narrative, identified as prominent either by frequency or significant pairing, and finds further grounds for dating the central chapters of Deuteronomy to the post-monarchic period.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the literary and thematic connection between the works known as “the five Megillot”: the Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, and Esther. While each of the five Megillot has been studied in depth by scholars and exegetes in general and by feminist Bible critics in particular, until now there has been no attempt at a comprehensive intertextual reading between them, especially focusing on issues of identity. Similarly, the symbolic meaning of women’s presence in these five works has not yet been explored. Despite their stylistic differences, I believe that all five works have a common theme, a fundamental issue that lies at the heart of each work: the challenge of identity in the face of shifting reality. We can claim that all five texts discuss the issue of identity through the lens of gender, as four of the five have a central female character, while Ecclesiastes relates to women in a complex way and her absence from most of the text emphasizes her lack of presence. In my study, I will ask why the figure of the woman is immanent to the issue of identity.

This paper examines a mythologeme revolving around three principal characters – the (good) Grain-god, the (bad) Sea, and the (beautiful) goddess – that circulated across Anatolia and Egypt during the second half of the second millennium BCE in works such as the Song of the Sea, the Songs of Hedammu and Ullikummi, the Astarte Papyrus and - in some ways - the Tale of the Two Brothers. The presence of features incommensurate with the local culture and setting in both the Egyptian and Anatolian texts indicates that the mythologeme originated elsewhere. Following an analysis of the text’s primary elements, I suggest its place of origin, exploring its diffusion to and reception in Egypt and Anatolia. In conclusion, I discuss the way in which it may have further developed during the first millennium along the Syrian coastline.

The appearance of the “sons of Zadok” in several DSS (CD; 1QS; 1QSa; 1QSb; 4Q163; 4Q174), has attracted the attention of many scholars. Scholarly attempt to identify the “sons of Zadok” has been made complicated by the appearance of the “sons of Aaron” (1QS; 1QSa), or simply “Aaron” (CD; 1QSb; 4QFlor), in all but one of the above mentioned scrolls. It has been noted that the "sons of Zadok" were inserted in texts where the "sons of Aaron" had already stood. This paper tries to answer why the sectarian authors chose this specific designation, why they inserted it in these specific scrolls, and when they did so. On the methodological level, however, this study does not limit itself to the relevant DSS only. It begins with the Book of Ezekiel (in its both Hebrew and OG [as attested in Pap 967] versions) both because of its several mentions of the “sons of Zadok” and because of its great influence on the ideology of many DSS. This analysis then moves beyond inner priestly relations of the “sons of Zadok” with the “sons of Aaron” as members of the same community (yahad), as most scholars have done heretofore. We propose to look at the “sons of Zadok” in the context of the broader socio-political and religious history of Judea and, in particular, in relation to the institution of the Hasmonean kingship, in particular under Alexander Janneus (103-76 BCE). The results of our analysis have important implications for our understanding of the history of the Commmunity behind these DSS, in particular, and that of the Hasmonean rule, in general. Not the least, this paper will shed some significant light on the history of the priesthood in the period under discussion.

The talk takes a look at the occurrences of demons in Assyrian royal narrative texts, and tries to evaluate their role within this genre. Demons are relatively rare encounters in said corpora, and they usually occur only in cursing formulas. They take a more prominent role only in Middle- and Neo-Assyrian epical texts as well as in Sargonid royal inscriptions, culminating in the (in)famous equation of Babylonian citizens with the gallû demon under Sennacherib. While it seems quite probable that demons simply did not have a proper place in the plot structure of pre-Sargonid military reports, there might be some grounds to assume that they were assigned a slightly more important role under Assyria’s last dynasty. As the Sargonids partially broke with traditional textual identity of the Assyrian king and elevated this character onto a more mytho-heroic sphere, it stands to reason that some important enemies were elevated accordingly. Therefore, the talk will also discuss the possibility that the new stylization of the literary representation of the king as being located in a sphere between humans and gods sometimes demanded the enemies to be conquered to be located in a similar domain.

This presentation will focus on the expulsion of Ishmael and the rape of Dinah in an effort to give voice to the ways in which silence contributes to violence. We will examine the literary parallels between the story of Ishmael and Dinah with an eye toward the notion of expulsion and how each story functions within a larger narrative that gives voice to power and oppression. The paper will largely concern itself with the biblical stories themselves and how they fit into the larger narrative arc of Genesis, but will also seek to problematize the role silence plays in the power dynamics between the biblical characters.

According to Isa 8:18, the sons of the prophet Isaiah are supposed to function as "signs and portents" in some relation to "Israel" - whatever this latter would mean. The significance of the symbolic name of Isaiah's first mentioned ominous son, Shear-Yashuv, is thought to be fairly plain. The book of Isaiah itself, namely Isa 10:21, short-circuits the exegetical possibilities to a rather straightforward "a remnant will return", restricting the exegete's move with respect to the historical situation around 733 BC within the boundaries of an eventual positive, negative or ambiguous meaning (from a Judaean perspective). In this paper, I take another look at the symbolic name, Shear-Yashuv, placing it in the context of the other metaphors of the highly poetic Isa 7, in the context of Isaiah's other Samaria-related prophecies, and in the context of recent studies on the semiotics of Ancient Near Eastern (mostly Mesopotamian) omen-literature, arguing for the need to substantially revise the established interpretations of the original sense of the name "Shear-Yashuv".

The paper will present a Hebrew seal impression on a bulla of a priest, from the Temple Mount excavations, found during our sifting project

In Late Antiquity, healing stories were interwoven with the magic. During the rise of Christianity, a transition took place and numerous narratives and hagiographies of physicians known for their ethic and charity were appeared. Many of them were accepted as Christian saints of healing and called as Anargyroi which means without silver, because their service was free for the people in need of help. During their lives they served as physicians and after their death, the cult centers and hospitals were built in the name of them. They were performing both miraculous healing activities and a physician’s practice both. Most of them were from Anatolia. Besides many others; sisters Hermione and Eutychia, the founders of charitable hospitals in Caesarea Mazaca and in Ephesus; Zenais and Philonilla of Tarsus in Cilicia Pedias; Karpos the Bishop of Thyateira and Papylos the deacon; a team of doctors namely Kosmas, Damianos, Leontios, Anthimos, Eutropios; the most venerated Anargyroi brothers Kosmas and Damianos of Phereman near Kyrrhos; Orestes of Tyana; Stylianos of Paphlagonia, Zotikos the Orphanotrophos; Blasios the bishop; Kaisarios of Arianzos in Cappadocia are just a few of them. As an important center for the Christian communities from the beginning to the Late Byzantine period, Cappadocia churches still have the traces of Anargyroi. The aim of the present paper is to discuss their cult by the way of iconography of the Anargyroi in Byzantine Churches of Cappadocia.

“The term ‚intratextual’ denotes interactions of various layers of Genesis with texts now standing within the same book. ... such fractured intratextuality in the book then becomes a frequent focus on early Jewish intertextual interaction with Genesis.” (D. Carr). Different figures as Adam, Cain, Noah, Enoch encounter in different contexts, which belong originally to different traditions and correspond to different layers (P; non-P) of the Primeval history. The paper examines how some figures become formally and in terms of content capstones of the whole composition with important extensions in the ancient reception history. In several cases the first Jewish interpretations give insight in the reconstruction of the formation of the Primeval history.

The so-called Colossian hymn (Col 1:15-20) uses several metaphorical depictions of Christ. The poetic quality of these verses often poses a challenge to modern commentators and Bible translators, who try to get hold of the meaning(s) of these poetic descriptions. This challenge is especially prominent in the translation of Col 1:15, which places Christ in an ambiguous relation to creation. Do modern translation theories allow for maintaining the uniqueness of the source text? In order to discuss this question, I will compare the rendering of Col 1:15 in two Bible translations based on two different translation theories and approaches: (1) The 1978-translation by the Norwegian Bible Society, based on the Dynamic Equivalence theory of Eugene Nida, and (2) Bibel 2011 (by the same publisher), based on a literary approach to Bible translation. How were these different theoretical approaches carried out in the actual translation, and how do they affect the poetic nature of the source text in this verse? The renderings of each translation will be evaluated and compared to the source text, and it will be argued that theological bias poses a challenge for the translation of this verse.

Chronicles, on the surface, seems to be, mainly a book about Davidic kings of the past. In part, this is an expected outcome of strong tendencies in historiographic writing, and of grammars of identification of king and people. This said, close analysis of the book shows that reading Chronicles contributed much to an exploration and reconfiguration of the conceptual realm of leadership in Israel, which included a complex and sophisticated, even if for the most part implied, pragmatic reconceptualization of human monarchy, for the sake of imagining and construing a transtemporal Israel with whom the literati who read this book, within their own setting and their own world of knowledge and social mindscape, identified. This paper will explore through examples, mainly, some aspects of this reconfiguration of the conceptual realm of leadership and the role that memories of particular events and characters play in advancing it.

The Jewish collection of the Latter Prophets presents, from a canonical point of view, multiple contacts between the individual texts. Above all, the relationship between the beginning of the Book of Isaiah (Is 1) and the Scroll of the Twelve Prophets is interesting. Isaiah 1 and Hosea 1-3 present many points of contact that have been studied, both in terms of incipit and words and images recurring. Also Isaiah 1 and Malachi (the beginning and the end of the Latter Prophets) have multiple points of contact. In particular, the image (and the lexicon) concerning the father (or mother) and children relationship that appears both in Isaiah 1 (Is 1,2) and at the beginning and at the end of the prophet Malachi (Ml 1,6; 3,17-24). The same image also appears in the final chapters of Isaiah (Is 63.8; 65.20; 66.8.20). This is evidently a structuring clue to the entire collection of Latter Prophets. Other contacts between Isaiah 1 and Malachi are the reference to the lexicon of worship (Is 1,10-15; Ml 1,6-14 and Ml 2,13); the reference to the lexicon of the devastation of the earth (Is 1,7; Mal 1,2); the image of the "fruits of the earth" (Is 1,19; Ml 3,11) and finally the reference to conversion (Is 1,25.26.27; Mal 1,4; 2,6; 3,7; 3,18; 3.24).

This paper explores the ‘subversive’ poetic function of ‘the fantastic’ in the Exodus narrative, to which also Laura Feldt refers in her seminal work (The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha). However, instead of defining the function of the fantastic in narrative in part through the notion of cultural memory (Assmann), which tends to focus the formative and constructive work of narratives, this paper combines notions of ‘the uncanny’ in psychoanalytical poetics with a specific form of pedagogical theory, which argues that our subject-ness is always contested and interrupted. Feldt contends that the narrator is the only speaker who is never disoriented. However, even at the level of narration, narrator and narratees, there are confusion and disorientation. The narrator does not explain how the ha-Elohim, Elohim, Mal’ak YHWH, and YHWH, relate in Ex 3:1-5. The ‘name-formula’ in v. 14 is left unexplained, and so is also YHWH’s sudden appearance as the violent killer-god in 4:24-26, etc. To my mind, this begs for an explanation different from Assmann’s ‘cultural memory’. I agree that the purpose of the Exodus narrative is to express identity. However, while most models of identity-formation and education regard ‘identity’ as an external notion to be inculcated, the model I apply regards it as an internal phenomenon, closely connected with ‘subjectivation’, but also disruption and disturbance. Instead of seeing narrative of identity formation as something that creates norms (‘identity’), this study regards social structures and norms as pre-given ‘in’ the identifying ‘I/We’, in part as the unconscious and uncanny. The narrational attempt to create or explicate an ‘Israelite’ identity in Exodus redirects attention to these constitutive features by making them strange, unfamiliar and ‘new’. All this indicates that ‘identity-formation’ should be replaced by ‘the conditions of being subject’ as a perspective to explore the Exodus story.

In the Books of Isaiah and Ezekiel, the exile can be equated with the experience of hunger. Subsequently, the return from exile and the return to God can be equated with physical satisfaction and gustatory pleasures. This paper will explore the theme of God's ability to remove or withhold food for the demise (and sometimes the benefit) of humanity in connection with human personal and communal decision making in the Hebrew Bible. It will ask whether this divine trait, as it was understood by the authors of biblical texts, also had an impact on early Jewish ideas about the meal in the World to Come.

1. The aim of the paper is to review the main testimonies available to sketch a history of the negative theology in the Pre-Socratic thought. 2. In a first stage philosophers reflect a negative theology in two ways: 1) attributing to new philosophical principles adjectives that qualified the gods (f. i. Anaximander qualifies the ἄπειρον as ἀθάνατος and ἀγέρως, adjectives that characterized prototypically the gods in the epic), as if the new principles should be considered divine with more legitimacy than the traditional gods; 2) considering mere natural phenomena that were traditionally considered gods (f. i. Hipp. Ref 1.7.8 = Anaximenes A 7 DK, on Iris). 3. Xenophanes of Colophon configures an explicit negative theology, consisting of a critique of the Homeric view that gods behave like human beings (B 11, 14 DK), by means of an anthropological argument (B 16 DK) and a reductio ad absurdum (B 15 DK). A positive theology is also attributed to Xenophanes, but it will be attempted to emphasize that, to a large extent, this is still a negative theology. 4. The most explicit manifestation of negative theology among the Presocratics is the commentary of the Derveni Papyrus, whose author interprets an Orphic theogony as a philosophical cosmogony. He respects the poem and considers it true because it is from Orpheus, but it transpires that he cannot accept its literal meaning because it contradicts the fundamental principles of his philosophical doctrines, especially the denial of γένεcιc. For him there is no coming to be nor passing away of things nor of gods. According to commentator (col. 22.1-3) Orpheus practices deliberately the mere designation (ὀνομαίνειν), according to which Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus are mere names of the same god, intelligent air, Νοῦς-ἀήρ.

There are two apocryphal texts in a miscellany of predominantly juridical and polemical anti-heretical content. The topic of my proposed paper is to explain their inclusion in such a code. I believe it should be sought in the comparison between divine mercy and the human justice.

Scholars debate the rendering of Ἰουδαῖος in Johannine literature, noting that some instances seem to require the translation “Judean,” such as John 7:1, where Jesus chooses to remain in Galilee, instead of going to Judea (Ἰουδαίᾳ), for “fear of the Ἰουδαῖοι.” And yet, some instances seem to necessitate something other than “Judean,” especially where ’Ιουδαῖοι are said to reside outside of Judea – the basic argument being that Judeans who do not live in Judea are not Judeans. But this now popular view fails to consider that Judeans may have simply migrated to Galilee and maintained an identity, as well as customs, indicative of their regional origin. By drawing attention to specific archeological data—namely, the manufacture and distribution of stew-pots, pans, stone vessels, and knife pared lamps—this paper will, first, present evidence for the existence of different regional customs in the first century CE. As will be demonstrated, the physical evidence — such as Judean pottery in Galilee, etc.— also indicates that Judeans migrated North. Afterward, both John 2.6 and Revelation 2.9 and 3.9 will be interpreted in light of this information, while drawing attention to other textual data, ultimately arguing that Ἰουδαῖος as “Judean” makes historical sense, even in contexts where Ἰουδαῖοι are described as residing abroad.

A vexing question in the discussion surrounding the biblical Jubilee legislation is the relation it bears to other Near Eastern practices that are somewhat similar in social or economic function, or are denoted by etymologically related terminology. Opinions are divided on whether the Mesopotamian andurārum/mīšarum and the Biblical yôḇel/šmîṭṭā are historically related phenomena, convergent distillations of socio-economic and religio-cultural concerns, or disconnected and quite disparate customs with only superficial and piebald semblance to each other. Since the first substantial comparisons were made between the biblical Jubilee and fallow land practices ordained in the Hebrew Bible, and the proclamations or mentions of debt, slave, and land releases in Mesopotamia and Anatolia (Lemche 1979, Weinfeld 1995), new evidence has come to light. I will adduce evidence for andurārum practiced in the Middle Babylonian period in the kingdom of Ḫana, bridging the considerable gap between the Old Babylonian (early 2nd millennium BCE) and Neo-Assyrian (early 1st millennium) societies plaguing earlier attempts to compare practices. The Ḫana texts will serve as a basis for a reassessment of how mechanisms for social justice and economic readjustment in Mesopotamia and its environs can be brought to bear on the biblical Jubilee legislation, specifically the relevant passages in the Holiness Code, i.e. Leviticus 25 and 27. I claim that despite some fundamental structural differences between the Mesopotamian proclamations and the biblical legislation, the same conceptual distinctions regarding property rights and claims are operative within both institutions suggesting significant confluence, if not influence, or even shared origins.

This paper looks to the reception and influence of the Bible in the emergent postcolonial nation of the Bahamas, under majority rule since 1967 and independent of Great Britain since 1973. Particularly, it is those transitional moments in which I am interested, especially those experienced under the stewardship of Sir Lynden Pindling, the first black Prime Minister of the Bahamas, referred to as “Black Moses.” In what is currently (or still) a very Christian and biblically literate nation, the comparison may not seem surprising. Moreover, perhaps again not unexpectedly, Pindling employs such texts as Ruth and Exodus to embellish his speeches, meant to spur on the nation to independence. And yet, I am curious about the juxtaposition of Moses and the loose liberation theology of Pindling with the nature of the nation that emerged, specifically as it negotiates its present identity as a context that regularly receives strangers (cf Ruth’s “alien”). The paper considers the reception of Pindling’s biblical ideas on Bahamian culture, evidenced in his political speeches, and the juxtaposition of these texts of liberation with tourism and its regulation in the country. The perceived crisis of identity of Bahamian citizens, post-independence, provides the backdrop for this conversation. Indeed, I am curious as to whether the Bible can provide the cure for the identity crisis as well as it was able to provide the texts of freedom from British rule.

The Book of Malachi has been acknowledged by scholars as possessing artistic brilliance and merit. Its style is simple and clear, direct and forceful, with little demand upon the imagination of the readers. Several discussions focus on its literary character and historical setting with its classification as a series of disputation. It is evident; however that Malachi’s theological message is highly robust and imaginative than its form-critical readers have proposed. In keeping with long-standing and older prophetic traditions, Malachi constructed a robust theology of the theme of return as an incontrovertible and unifying aspect of the Book of the Twelve. The purpose of this paper is to examine aspects of the theme of return in the Book of Malachi in light of the obvious complementary and inadequate pattern of Judah’s repentance and incomplete restoration. As a people whose history is characterized by covenant failure and refusal to repent, the Book of Malachi present a robust conglomeration of persistent noncompliance and rebellion of the postexilic Judahite community thus making her guilty of unfaithfulness and unworthy of Yahweh’s restoration. At the outset, the paper will examine aspects of the theme of return in the Book of the Twelve and then three seemingly connected aspects namely, return to the right cult, torah compliance and Yahweh’s return in the Book of Malachi. In line with the thematic thread in the Book of the Twelve, what emerges at the end of this paper is that Judah’s hope of spiritual revitalization and complete restoration is her faithful and wholehearted return to the right cult and to Yahweh’s torah.

'Levona' (frankincense) is one of the oldest known spices in the ancient world. The etymology of the name is related to the white color of the resin or to the white smoke that the combustion produced. Frankincense was a very expensive material imported from the southern Arabian and the Ethiopian regions to the Egyptian and Mesopotamian trade centers along the 'Incense Route' starting from the 18th century BCE. Archaeological evidences of trade routes between southern Arabia and the kingdom of Judah appear in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE in Tel Be'er Sheva and Tel Arad. Evidence of sacrificing frankincense appears on a caption of a stone altar from 'Lachish' in the sixth century BCE and mentions the Aramaic word 'LVNT', i.e., frankincense. 'Lavona' is mentioned 21 times in the Bible, of which 9 times in the priestly literature, 6 times in the Prophecy literature, 3 times in Song of Songs, twice in Nehemiah and once in Chronicles. In most of the sources, 'Levona' is mentioned in ritual contexts. Despite its few appearances in the Bible, 'Lavona' was an important part of worship in ancient Israel. The lecture deals with the questions: What did the authors of the Prophecy literature knew about the use of 'Levona' in ritual and what use did they make with that knowledge? Are the ways of using frankincense in the prophetic literature reminiscent or similar to the way 'Lavona' was used in the priestly literature? What can we learn about the cult in prophetic literature, using the case study of the frankincense? An in-depth analysis of the practice of the use of 'Levona' in ritual in prophetic literature can serve as a window for further understanding of the cult in ancient Israel, its reference to different genres and its development under different historical circumstances.

In literature, lists often seem as the roughest and most boring material and therefore have a tendency to be skipped over. Yet, they are crucial elements not only in the literature of the Old Testament but also in ancient heroic poetry like the Homeric epics. Embedded into an epic or national myth they do not only serve as moments of retardation but they can function as important vehicles for the construction of identity, as can be shown by looking at the list of returnees in Ezr 2 and the Catalogue of Ships in Hom., Ill., II. Ezra is a story about the return and restoration of the "true Israel" after the Exile. Those who appear among the returnees in Ezr 2 were part of the Second Exodus and in the course of the narrative form a holy temple community that distinguishes itself from all the other foreign people in and around Jerusalem and Judah. The list of returnees therefore serves as a marker of identity and legitimacy. Only those that had part in the return can be considered members of the "true Israel". Similarly in the Catalogue of Ships, only those areas whose ships were named among the ones beleaguering Troy can be considered part of the Panhellenic community. Both lists incorporated into a narrative of national myth function as self-assertion for those that consider themselves affiliated with the listed groups. Although, both lists evolved out of a completely different context, it can be shown that they are essential parts of the narrative that help constituting collective identity. This paper aims at a comparison of the nature and function of these two lists embedded in their respective myth of "collective ancestry".

The first Davidic Psalter (Pss 1-41) contains various references to the temple and to Yahweh’s presence in Zion. As is perhaps to be expected in a context of conflict and deprivation, the temple is often referred to in these psalms as the place from where Yahweh’s help and blessings originate. As earthly representation of Yahweh’s presence, it also serves to symbolize his omniscience and ability to judge wickedness as well as the desire of the worshiper to linger there. The paper will provide an overview of the symbolic role of the temple in these psalms and attempt to draw connecting lines between the symbolic value attached to the temple and the presumed date of composition of this part of the Psalter.

More than any other New Testament text the Gospel of Mark has been the subject of orality studies, oral tradition criticism and more recently of performance criticism. Despite this considerable attention a number of significant connections (or intersections) between the various theories and methods concerning oral and textual transmission(s) of Jesus memories and the concomitant proposals of historical performances have yet to be explored. In this “state of the question” contribution, these “interconnected” issues are discussed. Some theoretical and methodological clarifications will be dealt with, as well as how we should deal with the historical data we have at our disposal. The final part of the presentation analyses some noteworthy divergences between various orality studies dealing with Mark, as for instance how certain dramatic devices in Mark's account (e.g. the references to screaming or other such acoustic intrusions), and implicit and explicit oral-textual cues are construed into different performative events and social memories. The possible pragmatic effects of these devices and cues will be contextualised with reference to the anonymity of ancient texts, the implications of ancient education and reading practices and some aspects of ancient performance entertainment.

In his 39th Festal Letter (367) Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373) introduces his historic lists of the Old and New Testaments with these words: "As I begin to mention these things, in order to commend my audacity, I will employ the pattern (tupos) of Luke the evangelist." In a remarkable display of intertextuality, Athanasius takes on Luke's voice and rewrites the preface to the Third Gospel to refer to his definition of the biblical canon against those who promote apocryphal books. Imitation of exemplars he called "the saints" features prominently in Athanasius's ethical exhortations, but he employs it also as a literary strategy. This paper examines both aspects of this theme and its exegetical implications, focusing on the Festal Letters but drawing also on other works, to explore the complex functions of "patterns" (tupoi) in Athanasian thought. The epistolary Athanasius, like many early Christians, imitates Paul, but, as we have seen, he also fashions himself after Luke in a moment of biblical "audacity." In turn, the bishop encourages his followers to seek virtue by imitating the "way of life" (politeia) of biblical saints and, above all, of Jesus. Christ, he says, provided "the pattern (tupos) of the heavenly politeia." Intriguingly, here Christ functions typologically, in a manner analogous to the events and rituals of the Old Testament, which Athanasius insists were merely "shadows" and "patterns" (tupoi) that should be transcended once the realities to which they refer are present. The historical narrative in which such patterns are embedded may be "marvelous," but it points beyond itself. Luke's and Christ's roles as tupoi suggest, however, the intertextual and multidirectional character of the literary, exegetical, and ethical imitation that Athanasius presents as hierarchical and linear.

The divine indwelling emerges as one intertextual theme in the speaker’s doctoral dissertation on the connection between divine presence and human praise (2017). That study inspires the present paper arguing that narratives from both Testaments, which involve both above elements, witness to such connection. The correlation often occurs in the context of divine indwelling expressed through literal and metaphorical concepts. These concepts picture human-divine interaction at the initiation of a new divine dwelling, in the OT God’s new house and in the NT God’s new people: like God’s new house was filled with divine glory-presence prompting praise (1 Kgs 8:10-11; 2 Chr 5:13c-14; 7:1-2), God’s new people was filled with Holy Spirit-presence prompting praise (Acts 2:4; 4:31). The dynamic, tension filled analogy between these literal and non-literal concepts facilitates metaphorical interpretation. Already the OT background reveals metaphors of divine ‘habitats’: Israel as growing landscape, building or city (Num 24:5-7; Isa 54:1-3; Zech 1:16; 2:1-5.10-13), or God’s presence as expanding eschatological glory (Num 14:21; Hab 2:14; Hag 2:9). The NT introduces with Jesus’ temple logion (Matt 26:61; Mark 14:58; John 2:19) a metaphorical redefinition of the literal temple concept, which is continued in Acts without Luke using temple metaphors, but various metaphorical verbal concepts: ‘baptized with Holy Spirit’ (Acts 1:5), ‘Holy Spirit poured out’ (2:18.33; 10:45), ‘Holy Spirit falling’ (8:16; 11:15), ‘filled with Holy Spirit’ (2:4; 4:8.31; 9:17; 13:52), the latter suggesting divine indwelling. The ‘metaphorisation process’ peaks in the Pauline letters with building metaphors (1 Cor 3:6.16; 6:19; 2 Cor 5:1; 6:16; Eph 2:21f). Ultimately, the Lord’s presence is considered ‘the temple’ (Rev 21:10-11). Thus, narratives in both Testaments, supported by their background, portray the divine indwelling through literal and metaphorical concepts as glory-infilling and Spirit-infilling in praise context.

This paper examines the attitude towards animals in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern legal codes. In the first part of my paper I will compare the tort laws in each system, looking at such issues as stealing, responsibility, shepherds, renters, and stray animals. I will also investigate the various types of damages covered by these laws. In this discussion I will try to reveal the existence of close affinities between the biblical and ancient Near Eastern laws in the area of tort laws pertaining to animals, a clear trend towards deterrence and appropriate compensation for injuries exhibiting itself. In the second section I will analyze biblical ordinances regulating human-animal relations without any parallel in other ancient Near Eastern law codes—the sole exception being the fine imposed for killing outdoor dogs. This evinced a series of statutes belonging to the ethical realm known today as “humane” laws, intended to protect and promote animal welfare. Finally, I will address the question of the origin of the divergence between the two groups of legal codes, demonstrating that this derives from the variant fundamental principles upon which they are based. While the ancient Near Eastern injunctions are attributed to the kings, who are held responsible for their formulation rather than the gods, the biblical legal code is founded on the notion that its statutes were given to Moses by God, Moses then delivering them to the Israelites. The fact that they incorporate torts and ethical principles that encompass the animal as well as human world is a function of God’s status as a merciful and compassionate Creator who is concerned about and takes care of all His creatures. This cardinal principle later found expression in the legal and philosophical thought of the rabbinic Sages and early Christianity.

The paper focusses on the spatial conception of "land" within the Patriarchs narrative Gen 12-36. What or which kind of spatial concept is reflected in the text? It is promised as oath on the one hand, but there are also pragmatic conceptions on the other hand: to possess land means to have a possibility to subsist. But is this the central aspect? Why are spatial questions so important for the Partriarchs? Why is it so important for Abraham to buy the field for Sarah's burial in Gen 23? What are the effects of the possesssion of land both, for Partiarch's daily life and religious thinking? The paper will further focus on selected texts. A conclusion will reveal the different spatial conceptions and understandings of "land" as they are reflected in Gen 12-36.

The Apocalypse of John can be described as a testimonial. Read from a deconstructive point of view, it appears as a testimonial that represents itself as a text instead of being presented by an exterior author. It represents itself as representing something, the testimony of Jesus, although the content of this representation is absent. This paper compares mechanisms of representation in the Apocalypse to mechanisms of representation in the painting of two pipes ("Les deux Mystères") by René Magritte. It aims at showing that both, text and painting, point to a representation within a representation, not to something outside text or painting. It thus problematizes the possibility to write about transcendent realities that remain ungraspable even if they are represented in a text.

I will argue that orality is not simply a utilitarian stage or alternative media in the development of the gospels. Orality is itself an emergent, generative competence, and it participates—as a component, catalyst, and canvas—within the emergent processes of human discourse that shape the use and the identity of early Christian traditions. In the paper I will address the following areas: a) orality as a functional component or an alternate mode of literary development, b) formalism and narrative dissonance, c) mouvance as a narrative trait and literary norm, d) the emergent quality of literature, e) Orality and the Phenomenology of Emergent Meaning, f) the emergent quality of human existence: gene and neuron, and finally g) The Gospel of Mark within the gravitational field of human discourse.

The interpretation of the Bible, like the interpretation of all texts, cannot be separated from questions of perceived and projected (social) identity. How we read is fundamentally shaped by who we perceive “ourselves” to be, and how we distinguish between “us” and “them” (“others,” or “the Other”). To demonstrate this link between interpretation and identity, this paper will explore one particular example: the diverse interpretations of Joshua employed by early 17th-century English preachers defending the Jamestown settlement and the Virginia colony. It will be shown that these authors nearly always identify their own society with the ancient Israelites in their readings of Joshua, and often also identify the native “Virginians” with the Canaanites, yet this does not always lead to the conclusions one might expect. In fact, a range of mutually conflicting interpretations and identifications are evident in this literature, some of which construct an unbridgeable chasm between the English and the natives, but others of which seek instead to bridge the division between them. Interpretation and identity are in all cases deeply intertwined, but the relations between them are dynamic and variable.

In Cicero’s De finibus we are introduced to the Epicureans’ cradle-argument, by the aid of which they ‘naturalized’ their philosophy of pleasure with a reference to the newborn child’s reactions. In the cradle, it was possible to observe the most basic impulses guiding human behavior, the pursuit of pleasure and the shunning of pain. In his idiosyncratic, allegorical exegesis of the Fall in De opificio, Philo simultaneously manages to inscribe this tradition into the Bible and to explain the origin of the Epicurean pleasure drive. If impregnation were to be successful, pleasure had, according to ancient obstetrics, to be involved, and, in the act, so Philo explains, this pleasure was transposed to the fetus. Consequently, every person begotten in the ordinary way was from the very beginning abandoned to desire. The only way to get rid of this flesh-bound impulse was through death when the soul was separated from the body. Circumcision was, according to Philo, a symbolic reminder that the innate pursuit of pleasure had to be brought under control – or ‘cut off’. In this paper, I argue that Paul’s metaphorical play with death and life in his argument in Rom 6 represents his take on this phenomenon of concupiscentia, which a later generation coined ‘original sin’. According to Paul, neither circumcision nor the law offers the human being much help. Instead, the reception of Christ’s spirit in baptism anticipates the salvific moment of transition from death to eternal life. A process of recreation – Paul calls it new creation – which enables the vindication of the desirous, sinful will of the flesh now begins. Rom 7 is a midrashic prosopopoiia retelling the story about fallen humanity from Adam until the coming of Christ. Rom 8 unfolds the effects of the Christ-event on the pleasure-driven desire.

In the literature offering theological interpretations of the Deuteronomistic History (DH), one kind of redactional theme/viewpoint has developed a monopoly, which is, the interpretation that relates to doom, catastrophe, sin and monarchy. Such viewpoint is espoused by Martin Noth (1943) and Frank M. Cross (1973). However, such reading conceals the voices of the marginalized people within these texts. In turn, messages in the DH on the theme of hope are rendered lost to the marginalized readers of those texts. Therefore, there is a need to re-locate the voices of these marginalized people in the texts and use these voices as tools to counter-read the dominant viewpoints in the study of the DH. The voices in the text can be the framework by which a hermeneutical paradigm can be established. In doing so, I will incorporate a comparative reading of the texts considered by Gerhard von Rad (1975) and Hans Walter Wolff (2000). I will show how elements of hope are enclosed in the texts to argue that there can be multiple perspectives of reading DH and not only from the perspective established by the Nothian school. Hence, the reading will propose Deuteronomistic hope hypothesis as a framework to a post-colonial liberative reading. My arguments will attempt to respond to the questions that will challenge the dominantly held assumptions: If doom and catastrophe, sin and condemnation, and privileging Davidic hierarchy are the themes of the DH, will such themes/theology serve the marginalized readers? Is there a possibility of reading the DH texts from the perspective of hope and liberation for the marginalized? Wungtei Buchem (Mr) PhD Candidate University of Sheffield, UK.

Although it is one of the best-known and certainly best-attested Gnostic texts, the Apocryphon of John remains an obscure and difficult work, not least with respect to its theology of the pre-existent Christ. This paper will therefore examine what evidence we have in the text regarding the Son or Christ-aeon. In all four extant versions of Ap. John, the Son is a majestic, terribly divine, pre-existent being. Yet the two scenes in which he appears both present numerous textual and interpretative difficulties, where scholars remain at loggerheads as to what on earth is happening in the text: first, the appearance of the revelator-savior as a sort of polymorphic hologram to John, in the frame narrative; second, the birth and chrism of the Son-Christ, in the text’s theogony. Moreover, we will consider the characterization of the Son as subordinate and begotten — like the elect — with respect not to 'Gnostic' theology, but Trinitarian speculations of the first centuries CE and their attendant development of metaphors of divine Sonhood, especially the Arian Controversy.

The opening verses of the eighth Psalm have long been recognised an exegetical puzzle. Textual issues regarding the explanation of the verb form תנה (1b) and questions concerning the relation of the “babes and infants” (2a) to the preceding and following clauses have defied consensus as to the verses’ meaning. In particular, the phrase אשׁר תנה הודך על־השׁמים has been translated in numerous ways, from “You have set your glory in/above the heavens” (NIV, ESV respectively) to “Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted” (RSV). This paper proposes an entirely new interpretation of verse 1b, taking into account linguistic evidence from both the Hebrew Bible and Ben Sira, as well as from the ancient versions. It is suggested that the phrase נתן הוד על is in fact idiomatic in Classical Hebrew, and concerns rather the transfer of authority to a chosen representative, which results in a novel perspective on the relation between God and the heavens in this verse. The second part of the paper will seek to support this reading theologically through discussion of the heavens’ role as God’s witness in the Hebrew Bible.

With deep roots in psychology, yet vigorously researched in interdisciplinary studies, narrative identity theory postulates that individuals form an identity through the integration of an internalized and evolving life story. In more recent studies on narrative identity, many have paid a great deal of attention to the well-being of an individual through two distinct means: (1) the individual’s ability to adopt new viewpoints and (2) their level of interpersonal relationships. In the first-person stories within the book of Nehemiah (widely known as the Nehemiah Memoir), Nehemiah tells of his own actions and statements which are at best, to the reader, troubling. For example, statements such as, “I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem” (Neh. 2:11), and “I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair” (Neh. 13:25). Although troubling, they are indicators in the narrative identity theory of an individual’s well-being. In this paper, I adapt the narrative identity theory to cast a helpful light on what the Nehemiah Memoir was saying, but also what effect on the readers the memoir (through the protagonist) was trying to achieve. By first examining key passages which portray Nehemiah’s state of mind, followed by an evaluation of their effects, it can be seen that Nehemiah seeks to recount his own story of being simultaneously resilient and lonely in order to apprise his readers of the difficult task of faithfully doing God’s work.

With his associates in Wittenberg, Martin Luther was actively involved in publishing the New Testament, and in due course the complete Bible, for the last twenty-five years of his life (1522–1546). In successive editions of the New Testament, from the inaugural September-Testament onwards, Luther provided the text of Scripture in contemporary German, introducing it through explanatory prefaces which gave orientation to its various books or corpora; for the 1530 revised New Testament and subsequently, supplementary marginal notes were also included; and from the start the text of the Book of Revelation, uniquely, was punctuated by illustrations engraved successively by several graphic artists. The resulting combination of preface, text, marginal gloss and illustration was to characterise Revelation in Luther Bibles till the final edition of his lifetime (1545) and beyond: over this quarter-century, Luther’s rendering of Revelation was corrected, revised and annotated, a longer positive second preface substituted for his initial disapproving one and Cranach’s original set of twenty-one accompanying woodcut illustrations replaced several times and enlarged to twenty-six. In the present contribution I will critically evaluate this evolving interpretative achievement in visualising Revelation for users, with special emphasis on the way the Revelation illustrations help render exegetically explicit, for reader-viewers, Luther’s visualisation of the book. Mindful both of Luther’s rationale for the use of images and his convictions on translation, I will assess the extent to which the innovative and influential interpretative efforts of Luther and his collaborators may, retrospectively, reveal a debt to various precedents and predecessors, exemplify a process of design, from conception to production, and demonstrate significant development in their component parts.

Papias of Hierapolis is an early second-century Christian commentator whose five-volume work of Exposition of Dominical Oracles has unfortunately been almost completely lost, aside from quotations by later authors. Due to his antiquity and his apparent comments about the origins of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, most of the scholarly attention has naturally focused on Papias’s relation to the New Testament. This paper, however, turns attention from Papias looking backwards to Papias looking forwards, building on my work on a new edition of the fragments of Papias for the Oxford Early Christian Texts series with the most complete set of testimonia to date (over seventy). More specifically, this paper looks at how Papias was received as an author in his own right by authors ranging from the second to the fifteenth century, focusing in particular on his reception as a chiliast, gospel commentator, student of John, and a teller of gruesome tales about Judas the traitor.

The study of color terms allows us to make assumptions whether or not there is some correlation between psychological, social and symbolic elements of language itself. These words provide information and clarify other terms, while some of them are subordinated to others in the hierarchy of a semantic field. We will analyze the terms taking into account their discursive context. The meaning of a word in the sentence depends on its context, its extratextual context and other data. Once this is determined, it is necessary to take into account the extratextual context that will allow us to determine the real coloration of the object, or at least, approach it as much as possible. Considering the above, this presentation will focus on the use of both אָדֹם and אָדמוֹנִי in the Hebrew Bible. אָדֹם appears in the description of the skin of animals (a cow in Num 19: 2 and horses in Zech 1: 8), but also when describing the skin of the young man (Songs 5: 10). In a similar use, אָדמוֹנִי appears when describing the skin of both Esau (Gn 25: 25) and David (1 Sam 16: 12, 17:42). In these verses, both אָדֹם and אָדמוֹנִי are usually translated as "red", "reddish" or "ruddy". Analyzing the extratextual context of these verses (the structure of cattle sacrifice rituals or the ideal of young and strong men in Ancient Near East culture) is essential in order to obtain a more concrete meaning of the nuances these color terms represent in the biblical text.

Parody and lawbreaking at Purim are often characterised as joyful outbursts in celebration of redemption that are sometimes deemed to spill over into blasphemy. This paper approaches such Purim parodies as profanation, as formulated by Giorgio Agamben. Where the term blasphemy indicates being scared of or interested in offending the divine or the devout, the term profane is instead focused on what the ‘blasphemous’ or ‘profane’ act does to law and order. Profanation is interested in freedom of human participation in the world and in unconstrained creativity. This paper considers that which may be considered blasphemous at Purim – drunkenness, the parodying of biblical and liturgical texts – to consider these acts as set in a longstanding Jewish tradition of human participation. Such participation is constructed as a non-totalitarian version of divine sovereignty that I argue can be drawn on for understanding the importance of profanity to redemption and Purim.

The opening words of any great literary work set the tone, direction, and themes for the rest of the piece. This is true for the Gospel of Mark. The earliest manuscripts of Mk 1:2-3 cite Isaiah to introduce a combined quotation of Mal 3:1 (or Exod 23:20?) and Isa 40:3. This combined quote stands out noticeably in those opening lines because never again in the rest of the narrative are the Jewish scriptures cited in such a way. But how these two verses were understood and utilized diverges in our earliest sources, especially the lines from Isaiah 40. At times, scribes who copied these words in our extant manuscripts either lengthened the Isaiah quote or altered its attribution. For example, Greek Codex Washingtonius (032/W) and Vetus Latina Codex Colbertinus (VL 6, it-c) continue the quotation of Isa 40:3 to include the next five verses. And even earlier before that stage of activity, Matthew and Luke had already diverged from Mark in their own significant ways regarding this quote in their parallel passages. And additional variant readings with the Isaiah quotations arise in each of these Synoptic parallels. Still later in the Fourth Gospel, Isaiah 40:3 again appears early in the narrative associated with John [the Baptist] but unlike the Synoptics the quote now comes from his own mouth. And Codex Washingtonius has another singular reading with the quotation of Isaiah 40. These quotes of Isaiah and their variants are even more intriguing when observing how attributions to Isaiah fluctuate and vary in the manuscript tradition of OT citations in the Gospels. This paper will examine these interrelated text critical issues to address larger, broader issues of Old Testament citations in the Gospels and the history of the interpretation of those passages.

The expressions “listen to me” and “my judgment is” in the speech of Actes XV testifies to the authority of James the Just within the assembly of Jerusalem. “It seemed good to us”, in the letter which he sent on behalf of the assembly to the communities of the Diaspora, is a clever turn to inform of a decision; it is nowhere else in the New Testament, except for Luke's preface, and both texts have a lot in common: The speech and the preface give high importance to the written document and to the Scripture. Yet the leaders of the people were taking their authority from their adherence to the written prescriptions of the Torah read every Sabbath in the synagogues, as specified by James in his speech. The speech of Acts is of liturgical concerns (David's tent, invocation of the Name, the prescriptions of ritual purity) whereas the Third Gospel is focused on prayer, liturgy, priesthood and Jerusalem. No reference is made to God in the preface, but to the Holy Spirit in the letter sent to the communities of the diaspora in Acts. However, in both cases the writers did not give up their own authority to the benefit of the divine authority but they tended to paint themselves as partners. The priestly class exercised spiritual, moral, political authority on the people ; the speech of James and the preface dedicated to Theophilus seem to be under this influence.

In this paper, research of the inclusio poetical figure will be traced from the early third century C.E. up through the seventeenth century, providing a diachronic perspective of inclusio research within the Hebrew Bible. Inclusio, or envelope figure, is a well-known rhetorical device in which the beginning is repeated at the end, thus bringing structure and poetic beauty to the text. Modern scholars have recognized inclusio structures throughout the Hebrew Bible, in both longer and shorter literary units, and in both poetic and prosaic genres. However, the study of inclusio did not begin with modern Biblical scholarship. As early as the third century, both Jewish and Christian sources began to call attention to poetical devices found within the Biblical text, and one of the devices they noted was inclusio, albeit by several different names. Amongst Jewish Rabbinical and Masoretic sources, inclusio was recognized as bringing poetic beauty, and also viewed as a mnemonic tool. Early Christian rhetors, on the other hand, were guided by attempts to analyze the Biblical text by way of secular classical rhetoric. As these studies are traced from the third century up through the Renaissance, a valuable perspective is attained which will inform and guide our understanding of inclusio within Biblical scholarship today.

The literary development of 1–2 Kings continues to occasion much debate, including the long story of Solomon’s Temple dedication (1 Kgs 8). The quest for clarity is complicated (or aided) by the textual witness of the Septuagint (LXX). Like LXX Joshua and LXX Jeremiah, LXX 3–4 Kingdoms reflects noticeable differences—both qualitative and quantitative—when compared to the Masoretic text (MT). Such differences may be observed in 1 Kgs 8. Of particular interest is 1 Kgs 8:1–11 where the LXX presents a noticeably shorter text than its Hebrew counterpart as reflected in the MT (vv. 1–5 contain the most noticeable differences). Interestingly, most of the material attested by the MT, but absent in the LXX, have been observed to bear the marks of Priestly editing. Does the Greek text reflect the earlier (pre-priestly edited) text form? Does the variation simply reflect the translator’s desire to compose a chronologically stylistically consistent text? Or does the variation between the texts evince the presence of two discrete literary editions? If the LXX bears witness to an earlier (shorter) text form, what exegetical, theological, or social concerns lead to the expanded MT? Additionally, what do these variations tell us about the literary development of 1 Kgs 8? Did the editing of 1 Kgs 8 continue into the second century BCE? These are the questions I will set out to answer in this paper through a close textual comparison of MT 1 Kgs 8:1–11 with LXX 3 Kgdms 8:1–11, along with the synoptic account in 2 Chr 5:2–14 and ancillary comparisons with 4QKgs(a).

In 1974, W.D. Davies argued that, while the Fourth Gospel does not necessarily reject the ‘land of Israel,’ it simply does not care much about it to begin with. The spatial dimension that is most central to this Gospel is the “vertical” one, i.e., Jesus’s heavenly origin, not the “horizontal” one having to do with ‘real’ land. The Gospel’s take on the land serves only to advance the Johannine replacement motif. The other dominate approach to the topic has been from the perspective of ‘symbolic geography’ (e.g., Meeks 1966; Fortna 1974; Bassler 1981; Neyrey 2002). In this approach, Galilee and Judea, for example, are understood only to represent places of Jesus’s acceptance and rejection, while the possibility of both regions being Jesus’s patris (John 4:44) functions as a symbolic foil to the Johannine portrait of Jesus’s true origins “from above.” The aim of the current paper, however, is to advance the discussion of John’s relation to the ‘land of Israel’ by approaching ‘land’ as a fundamentally ethnic category in antiquity (Satlow 2015), which functioned within a range of discursive constructions of Jewish identity. By surveying a variety of evidence from the Second Temple and rabbinic periods, I will suggest that many Jews, for whatever reason, were actively engaged in (re)interpreting their ancestral association with the land. The land as an ethnic component of Jewishness is not “replaced” or left behind in John, but rather provides the impetus for John’s strategy of reorienting, or even better, re-territorializing, the land toward a land “not of this world” (John 18:36) in light of its presentation of Jesus. Rather than being at odds with contemporary understandings of Jewishness, this re-territorializing strategy puts the Fourth Gospel firmly within the discursive trajectory of other ancient ‘diasporic’ expressions of Jewish ethnic identity.

To many modern day feminists, the women of the New Testament represented an adherence to a patriarchal systematic ideology that only served to disenfranchise women. This assessment represents a failure to recognize that women who became adherents of early Christian ideology promoted a radical departure from the authority of paterfamilias exercised in Greco-Roman culture, into which Christianity was birthed. This cultural phenomenon had a significant effect on how female converts cared for both their own health and the health of women in general, in the Greco-Roman world. These women acting as evangelists, missionaries, and simple female converts promoted a new way of female human consciousness, particularly as it applied to the care and authority over their own bodies. Females who were “followers of the way,” the early term for Christians, were women who acted as proponents of a feminist movement that was willing to defy paterfamilias in order to advance health care for the physical and psychological needs of women, in a fashion that had never before been experienced in the Greco-Roman world, a world where women lived in virtual subjugation to the authority of men over their bodies. This presentation will explore how early Christian women changed the face of women's health care in the ancient world, through the enculturation of Christ’s teachings, within a new feminist consciousness, positively effecting both the health and wellbeing of Greco-Roman women, both Christian and Pagan, alike. Lastly, this presentation will explore how female utilization of Christ’s teachings, during a period of evolving consciousness within a significant transition in psycho-spiritual change, demonstrated the efficacy of Christ’s philosophical, psychological and spiritual teachings, in ways that began to free women from paterfamilias and move them into a new and conscious exploration of authority over their own bodies and minds.

To mark the publication in mid-2018 of the first volume (Aleph) of the revised version of the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, this paper will introduce some of the key new features in the revised edition (DCHR). The nine volumes will contain 100,000 improvements, including the addition of 2000 new Hebrew words (bringing the total to 5500 words not in BDB). 3500 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) have been identified for the first time, 660 verbal nouns appear in their alphabetical place, and 330 denominative verbs are labelled. There is a new section for each word, listing all synonyms (e.g. 53 for be strong, 41 for desire, 27 for trap, 20 for rejoice), and another identifying the semantic field to which each word belongs. DCHR contains 35,000 emendations of the biblical texts (8 times more than HALOT), and is 25% longer than DCH and 4 times the length of HALOT. At 5 million words, it is the equivalent of 50 standard-sized books.

The influence and effect of the book of Deuteronomy in the New Testament writings is widely accepted. One of the New Testament books that contains the most quotations, references and allusions to Deuteronomy, is the book of Hebrews. Several ground-breaking studies on the influence and effect of Deuteronomy in Hebrews have been done, including the following: • Allen (2008), in his very informative PhD thesis (Deuteronomy and Exhortation in Hebrews: An Exercise in Narrative Re-Presentation), investigates the way in which the book of Deuteronomy operates within the paraenetic sections of Hebrews, and argues that Hebrews becomes a “new” Deuteronomy that challenges its predecessor’s contemporary hegemony. • Steyn (2007:152-168; Deuteronomy in Hebrews) gives a synopsis of quotations, references and allusions attributed to Deuteronomy, as well as a brief discussion of certain motifs from Deuteronomy in Hebrews, namely covenant, Moses and priesthood. This paper endeavours to contribute to the study of the influence and effect of Deuteronomy in Hebrews by investigating the influence of another possible Deuteronomic motif in Hebrews, namely the motif of “life”. References to “life” are found throughout Deuteronomy. Markl (2014:71; This Word is your life: the theology of ‘life’ in Deuteronomy), who outlines “life” (חיה) in Deuteronomy (the only study done on this subject in recent literature), calls it “one of the key theological concepts in the book”. With this paper I argue that traces of this motif are present in Hebrews, and I demonstrate how these traces function within the book. The paper first defines the (multifaceted) concept of “life” in Deuteronomy. This is followed up by combing through the text of Hebrews to identify traces of this motif in the words and concepts that the writer employs, as well as the overall theme of the book. In conclusion, the findings are synthesized to give a panorama of this motif in Hebrews.

This paper will explore the significance of recent theoretical developments in cognitive linguistics and translation theory, as well as a general move in translation circles towards more direct or stimulus-based translations. Reference will be made to an Afrikaans translation Die Bybel: ‘n Direkte Vertaling (BDV) [The Bible: A Direct Translation] as an example of this approach, since Ernst-August Gutt’s notion of a direct or stimulus-based translation embodies the skopos of this translation. This paper will also explore the concept of a translation brief which plays an important role in the functionalist model of Christiane Nord that can be seen as a helpful theoretical framework for identifying, negotiating and documenting all the variables to be taken into account when embarking on a translation project. I will further argue that an understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of metaphorical language and its cultural situatedness is crucial for determining an appropriate strategy when faced with the problem of translating ancient texts. I will try to show that the key to unlocking metaphorical language and retaining ambiguity lies in finding the relevant communicative clues of the ancient source language text and retaining those in the translation of ancient texts for the modern world.

Since the publication of my The Crowds in the Gospel of Matthew in 2002, scholarship addressing the Matthean crowds has continued to proliferate. In particular, Matthias Konradt's Israel, Church and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew (2014) and Uta Poplutz's Erzählte Welt: Narratologische Studien zum Matthäusevangium (2008) and other works have advanced fresh perspectives on the question. This paper will offer an overview of this recent research, and a response to these findings.

Anthropology must certainly be the dominant discipline keeping itself busy with research on spirit possession. The resurgence of interest in spirit possession and possession phenomena in Biblical Studies will naturally result in cross-disciplinary research where these phenomena have been studied for decades. But neither anthropology as a discipline nor the anthropological study of spirit possession contains a single or unified approach. At least five prominent perspectives in anthropological research on spirit possession can be identified. A brief introduction of each perspective shows that depending on the research perspective, spirit possession take on completely different characteristics and features. In view of the different perspectives it is no longer possible to simply turn towards anthropology for the study of spirit possession. These perspectives point towards the challenges in cross-disciplinary research which should not only take the experiences seriously but also develop theoretical perspectives for making sense of such experiences. The implication is that the cross-disciplinary study of spirit possession faces is not only the challenged of the available data but also the available theoretical perspectives. Anthropological research on spirit possession cannot randomly be cited as if it deals with a single phenomenon from a unified perspective.

You happen to be called Lewis Carroll. Your friend Porphyre Églantine has written his own speech for a wedding. He requests that you polish its text for him. Well! You do your stylistic work without adding any factual material of your own. Is that a big deal? No! Like many other writers, Porphyre is unafraid to seek assistance. He is, and remains, the author of his own speech. Nonetheless, since he wants to acknowledge your assistance in a whimsical manner, Porphyre invites you to involve yourself cryptically in one or two words of the text. You therefore pounce on a dictum of Willard Quine with which Porphyre has begun his speech, and wickedly attribute it to ‘Carlos Willer’. Now, then. We often encounter in academe the kindergarten idea that II Peter must have been written either by Simon-Peter-Cephas working entirely on his own, or by another writer working entirely on his own. Will a careful study of the Greek text of II Peter reveal the fact of an assisted author? Will it also reveal the identities of his assistants? And were those assistants on the boat in John 21? Here are three fascinating questions which we shall address in Helsinki.

How does one map the moral topography of virtue in a narrative? In one sense, the contours of virtue are evident in the commands, exemplars, and values reflected in the story. To give a full description of virtue, however, it is necessary to unearth the logic undergirding and connecting these moral claims. The question then becomes, “How does one gain access to this grammar of virtue?” Inspired by W. Meeks’ metaphor of ethnography in his The Origins of Christian Morality, I propose to describe Luke’s concept of virtue in the following manner. I first attend to the diverse ways in which Luke makes moral claims in the narrative. For each moral claim, I then investigate the warrant for each norm. This analysis reveals that Luke employs a variety of warrants; in fact, Luke can even use different warrants for the same virtue. It is important to express these warrants, as much as possible, in emic terms, so that the resulting description of the moral terrain expresses Luke’s moral logic in Luke’s language. The end product of sorting through these claims is an ethnography of virtue for the Gospel of Luke, with which we are able to understand the construction of identity and community in what is the longest book of the New Testament.

This paper applies the model of evolution as a learning process (Watson & Szathmary 2016) to the problem of the success of Early Christianity. The structure of social networks is identified as the most important factor, which, in turn, influenced the generation of memorable ideas and the use of religious elements as symbolic identity markers. In early Christianity, weak social ties enabled large-scale cooperation across geographically and sociologically distant groups and individuals. As a consequence, the social composition and structure of the movement favored the emergence of innovative theological ideas. Some of these ideas functioned as powerful symbolic identity markers, which further enhanced solidarity in cooperative associations of varying sizes between groups. Finally, both memorable ideas and social identity markers found their ways in great numbers into literary compositions.

Insufficient scholarly attention has been given to the child Jesus’ transition into adulthood in Luke’s Child Jesus in the Temple pericope (Luke 2.41–52) in light of similar developments into maturity in the ancient literary world with which Luke and his audience were likely familiar. Where scholars cite parallel stories, emphasis tends to be on ages of children becoming adolescents or adults, considering the comment that Jesus was the age of twelve (v. 43), or on similar child sage motifs (vv. 46–7). In this literary-critical paper I argue that Luke’s story prominently expresses a coming of age theme or tradition of which, inter alia, these elements are components. Furthermore, I suggest via a comparative analysis that Telemachus’ development in the Telemacheia (books 1–4 and part of 15 of Homer’s Odyssey) provides a fitting comparison to Luke’s pericope with some significant narratological parallels and a shared coming of age theme which can illuminate our reading of the Lukan account. A crucial element to both stories is the active, independent, and elusive characterisations of the young figures in setting on and experiencing maturation journeys. Both youths: slip away without their mothers’ knowledge; are referred to as παῖς and τέκνον in contexts of journeying without parental awareness; listen to their elders and present witty responses resulting in amazement; are characterised by a concern for fatherly affairs and are portrayed as having a strong paternal association; pose corrective responses to their mothers whom marvel at their enigmatic behaviours and words; are depicted on a necessary journey; are reunited with their distressed mothers; return home; demonstrate experience developing into adulthood, all of which contribute to a coming of age theme. I consider whether apparent allusions or resonances could be accidental correspondences or deliberate emulations of the Homeric tradition.

This paper investigates the repetition of vocabulary and character referents in the Gospel of Mark to develop God’s changing relationship with God’s house (οἶκος), Temple (ἱερόν), and sanctuary (ναός) and those charged with their oversight. The introductory discussion establishes the continuity of reference among these edifices and situates God’s relationship with them in the past, present, and future of the story world of Mark. An examination of the contexts of their occurrence then clarifies God’s past positive and present negative relationship with the house and its chief priests (2:23-28; 11:15-19), God’s present negative relationship with the Temple and the chief priests, scribes, and elders, Pharisees and Herodians, and Sadducees exercising a teaching office within it (11:1-11, 15-19, 27-33; 12:18-27; 13:1-8; 14:48-52), and God’s present negative and coming positive relationship with the sanctuary and those charged with its oversight (14:55-59; 15:29-32, 37-39). The concluding discussion identifies the edifice and overseer with whom God chooses to be in a positive relationship.

As is well known, the accounts of the planting of the first vineyard and the discovery of wine following the Flood do not occur in any of the versions of the Mesopotamian flood story. While the fusion of these two motifs in Genesis 9 has thus traditionally been attributed to the biblical author, ancient Greek texts also combine the two themes. This paper discusses these Greek sources in the biblical context for the first time, exploring their origins and relation to other ancient Near Eastern Flood versions, and then evaluates their implications for the complexity of traditions and formation of the biblical narrative.

This paper will examine the construction masculinity in the Early Christian text the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. This text contains discussions of gender and sexuality that have intrigued exegetes. As such it has been the topic of feminist and non-feminist readings for several decades, discussing the nature of women, femininity and (female) sexuality. While female sexuality is closely intertwined with the power of the opponent, it has become clear that the text has a more nuanced discussion of sexuality than appears at first sight. In particular, the construction of masculinity has not been sufficiently discussed. As a text that was produced by men for men, masculinity is not unimportant to the text. This paper will examine masculinity as predominantly portrayed by the Testaments of Reuben, Judah, Issachar, Naphtali and Joseph; each of which show different aspects to this identity performance. While all five books focus on sexual desire for women as an obvious feature of masculinity, the way they suggest dealing with these desires and the way these desires manifest and influence men construct alternative forms of masculine sexuality. In Naphtali male sexuality is further described specifically as it relates to homosexuality and natural order. Judah and Issachar add other specific features to this construct, such as physical prowess, and spiritual and ethical simplicity. Joseph as the ‘good man’ fleshes out the construction of the perfect male, also introducing some traditionally effeminate characteristics. The Testaments construct a variegated and nuanced masculinity to match their nuanced depiction of sexual desire and femininity. As such they bear witness to a form of early Christian masculinity that is less extremely hegemonic than that found in other ancient texts.

Hilma Granqvist conducted anthropological / ethnographical field studies in Palestine during the 1920s. She was not the first woman to do so. Many women were involved in exploring the Land(s) of the Bible, like Granqvist in ethnography but also, e.g., by composing travel reports (even when disdained as less scientific), contributing to other fields, such as botany, and through leading roles in fundraising, collecting (including, importantly, biblical manuscripts), and even by participating in excavations. Within Palestine, surprisingly many local women were active in larger archaeological projects (e.g., under Bliss at Tell el-Hesi or at the Harvard excavations of Samaria). Thus, this paper contributes an overview of women exploring the Land(s) of the Bible in the long 19th century, with consideration of historical background (in a variety of countries involved), in particular: society, images of women, politics, changes in technology and science, and developments in archaeology. Whereas Granqvist was initially interested "to find the Jewish ancestors of Scripture" (British Museum, biographical details), she ‘detached’ from this aim, researching contemporary Palestinians. In this paper, it also appears that a number of these women were not motivated by ‘the Bible’.

In this contribution, I investigate the distribution of variant spellings in the Dead Sea Scrolls using principles and methods from data analysis and data visualisation. Current studies of orthography in Classical Hebrew focus primarily on the Hebrew Bible, either specifically on the diachronic evolution of spelling within the Hebrew Bible (Andersen and Forbes; Freedman et al.; Dershowitz et al.) or on the synchronic distribution of spelling re-occurrences in either block spellings or cases of rapid alternation (Barr). Despite much attention for the peculiarities of the orthography of the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance in grammars of Qumran Hebrew, there is to date no large-scale quantitative study of orthographic variability in Scrolls research. This contribution fills that gap. Firstly, I measure the inner variability within the bounds of individual books. How much variation could one reasonably expect within a single book? I demonstrate a specific, computational method to extract spelling variation and visualise it. To do so, I present multiple aggregate models of spelling homogeneity or uniformity. Secondly, I systematically investigate the variability on the level of lexical items by constructing unique spelling profiles whose homogeneity can be compared. Are specific lexical items more prone to vary than others? Which parts of speech are most heterogeneous? This also leads to challenge of theoretically and practically distinguishing between orthographic and morphological variation. Thirdly and finally, I answer the following question: can the variable spellings be grouped in specific spelling traditions or schools? Are the spellings haphazard or do they tend to vary in more or less homogeneous groups that could possibly reflect spelling traditions (or rules?) within specific schools of scribal activity along the lines of propositions by Freedman and Mathews. In conclusion, I reflect on future avenues for research on orthography both within Scrolls research and within Digital Humanities at large.

Synagogue buildings often display the words of Psalm 118,20 concerning the entrance of the righteous through the gate of the Lord. Some of them, for example the New Synagogue of Berlin, have chosen for the comparable words of Isaiah 26:2 welcoming the righteous nation. In the context of the Book of Isaiah, which begins with addressing Israel as ‘sinful nation, people laden with iniquity’ (Isa. 1:4) and complains about its ‘wild grapes’ (Isa. 5,4), it is not self-evident to identify ‘the righteous nation’ of Isaiah 26:2 as the people of Israel. This paper argues that the concept of the people of God is in fact redefined in the book of Isaiah. The Lord forms a nation for himself so that they might declare his praise (Isa. 43:21). He promises to the restored Zion that its people shall be all righteous (Isa. 60:21). The profile of these righteous becomes clear in the characterisation of the servants of the Lord (Isa. 65-66), the offspring of the righteous one (Isa. 53:11), among whom also foreigners are welcomed (Isa. 56:6). In the book of Isaiah righteousness seems to function as the key identity marker for the people of God. This causes the expulsion of the incorrigible wicked ones, but at the same time opens up perspectives for all peoples who want to enter and to participate. This paper will also discuss how the redefinition of the people of God in the book of Isaiah is to be related to the promise of an everlasting covenant with Israel (cf. Isa. 54:10; 55:3; 61:8).

This paper attempts to shed new light on the little known Canaanite goddess Sheger, who is mentioned in the Balaam inscription, one of the most important inscriptions found in Transjordan. She is mentioned as well in Ugarit and in the Phoenician onomasticon. In all likelihood, Sheger is the consort of ‘Ashtor, and should be recognized by her more common manifestation, i.e., ‘Ashtoret, the goddess of animal fertility. It is noteworthy that both feminine divine names are found in the demythologized biblical parallel shegar ’alefekha ve ‘ashtarot ẓonekha “the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flocks” (Deut 7:13,28,51; 28:4,18). Sheger appears with ‘Ashtor in the Balaam inscription significantly in the context of a list of animals. It is ‘Ashtor’s function that has been an anomaly. In Ugarit, he plays a secondary role to the other male deities like Ba‘al, Mot and Yam, though he does take Ba‘al’s place in his absence. There may be more behind this relationship regarding the divine order and its geographic worldly boundaries. ‘Ashtor appears in the Transjordanian context in the Balaam inscription and particularly as ‘Ashtor-Kemosh, the patron deity of King Mesha, the great sheep herder. It would seem that that area, known for its pasture land, may indeed be his domain. In fact there might even be mythic symbolism distinguishing between the agricultural character of Cisjordan under Ba‘al’s rule as opposed to the animal rearing/herding domain of Transjordan under ‘Ashtor. This recognition of the natural ecology is strengthened by the place names Phahil “breeding ram”, Ashtorot and Karnaim, as well as the toponyms Botzrah, Lidvir, Naveh and Deir-`Alla

This paper focuses on the question of word order in the Septuagint within the linguistic framework of Post-Classical Greek. The reflection of Hebrew word order is one of the constituent criteria for the characterization of any Septuagint book as a literal translation. Deviation from Hebrew word order, in this view, is seen as a sign of freedom on the part of the translator. What, however, may have motivated this freedom? How "free" could translators really be in their stylistic choices relating to word order? In this paper, I will compare three books with different translation characters and traditionally dated to different times — Genesis, Job, and Ecclesiastes — to show how insight into the development of the Greek language can help our understanding of the Septuagint's translators and their techniques.

The Psalms make extensive use of metaphors to denote characteristics of YHWH as well as situations which the psalmist experiences. Some of the metaphors are not particularly meaningful to Zulu youth living in South Africa in the 21st century. Thus, when they were invited to compose and perform their own translations of some biblical praise-psalms, the young people introduced new metaphors which spoke to them in their Zulu culture and context. However, the translations followed the literary-rhetorical approach of Ernst Wendland, and sought to be close to the original Hebrew text in using poetic devices which achieved the same functions as those in the Hebrew. Moreover, as the Zulu community prefers oral communication for important messages, the translations utilised principles of orality and performance, thereby maintaining some of the significant oral features in the Hebrew text. Hawkes (1972) suggests that in predominantly-oral societies, rhythm and metaphor are essential, and that “Poetry nourishes the imagination by means of new combinations of thoughts”. The compositions of the Zulu youth show such new combinations as well as the use of literary rhythm to provide memorable and meaningful translations. Hawkes also notes that “Metaphor can … create new reality”, and this was found to be the case, when novel usage of imagery provided exegetical insights. Further, the ambiguity apparent in many psalms “gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language” (Empson) and again this was found to be the case. As Hawkes notes, often the audience must “complete the meaning” from their own experience, and consequently the Zulu youth introduced new interpretations to some Hebrew expressions, which spoke into their situations. The results suggest that valuable insights can be obtained if community members are invited to use their indigenous oral art to translate biblical psalms.

In my lecture today, I will present additional results from the research that I began last year, the first findings of which were presented at the SBL conference that took place last year in Berlin. In this research, an attempt was made to re-examine roots from the book of Ben Sira that are classified as homonymous and polysemous and to examine the relations between them. The re-examination will be carried out in light of the method suggested by Prof. Chaim Cohen in his article in the Shalom Paul Festschrift Birkat Shalom (2008) concerning homonymic and polysemic roots in the Bible. The examination of the roots in Ben Sira will include a comparison with Biblical evidence Below, a few roots from the vocabulary of Ben Sira that are traditionally classified as homonymous. They were re-examined, and some of them will be presented in my lecture today. I ʾmn = to believe, to be faithful; II ʾmn = to educate I btsr = to pick grapes; II btsr = to prevent I hgy = to ponder; II hgy = to remove I hll = to praise; II hll = to lighten up I zhr = to caution; II zhr = to lighten up I chbr = joining; II chbr = to perform magic I chrsh = to plow; II chrsh = to plot; III chrsh = to be silent

Nearly 100 non-royal inscribed and/or carved stelae from known or suspected mortuary contexts have been catalogued from the Phoenician Levantine coast. This study reexamines the earliest iterations of the phenomenon, focusing on those that come from provenanced settings in the Iron Age II-Persian periods (ca. 1000 – 300 BCE). Beginning by reviewing the important contributions of Cross (2002), Sader (2005), Doak (2015), Hays (2015), and others to our understanding of this corpus, the paper then offers a reconstruction of the semantic constellation surrounding the appearance of these mortuary stelae in the Phoenician Levant in the Iron II period. The seeming interchangeability of image and inscription, the sparse grammatical markers in those bearing text, and the parallels with wall carvings in Phoenician contexts in Sicily and Sardinia bearing haunting human imagery (perhaps portraits of the deceased, perhaps images of divine or semi-divine beings) all offer an opportunity to read these inscribed objects not simply as markers of family or personal status and identity, but also as a performative element in the transition into ‘deadness’, or even as a new home for the deceased.

The Akedah, the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, is without question one of the most prominent biblical motifs in late ancient exegesis. Patristic writers in particular cherished the typological valence of the passage: Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son at the behest of the deity could be said to foreshadow God's equally willing sacrifice of Christ in the Incarnation. Contemporary scholarship has traced these theological themes in considerable depth. By contrast, another strand of interpretation has received far less attention: the exemplar function of Abraham's "sacrifice" for late ancient families who had lost a child to death. Death in infancy or childhood was a common occurrence in late antiquity, as scholarship by Roger Bagnall, Bruce Frier, Tim Parkin, and others has amply demonstrated. Consolation literature -- or writings designed to encourage parents' acquiescence to a child's passing -- accordingly proliferated in late antiquity. From the third century onward and well into the Byzantine period, these writings, whether addressed to the individual bereaved or to a congregation in which many families had suffered a similar fate, frequently call on parents to emulate Abraham. Like the latter had willingly, even cheerfully, late ancient sources averred, sacrificed his son, so parents ought to regard their dead children as sacrifices demanded by and earmarked for God. Indeed, authors pointed out, unlike Abraham, Christian mothers and fathers did not have to go to the trouble of tying down and personally wielding the knife against their offspring; their pious assent to a child's death was all that was required for them to participate in and reap the merits alongside their patriarchal exemplar. This paper explores the developing discourse of sacrifice surrounding Genesis 22 as applied to parental bereavement in ancient Christian sources.

Relations with the king, considerations of the oppressed, and ruminations on order within the cosmos are among the socio-political and religious power dynamics that Qoheleth references in Ecclesiastes. Contemporary Biblical Criticism has often examined texts through the lens of social-political authority with consideration to topics such as the center and margins of power. Scholars wrestle with how these texts position themselves juxtaposed with these considerations. These power deliberations related to Ecclesiastes have not fully examined the impact of Qoheleth’s polemics, in the text, against apocalyptic thought and the corresponding impact upon the authors construct of social power. This paper gives attention to selected texts within Ecclesiastes that treat the power of royalty, the marginality of the oppressed, the established order with this life, and polemics against apocalyptic thought. The purpose of this investigation is to examine how Qoheleth uses the aforementioned concerns to communicate a message for the audience regarding these socio-political and religious dynamics.

Interpreters have long noted the similarity between the wars of ambush in Josh 7-8 and Judg 19-21, raising questions of literary dependence and inner-biblical composition. The stories share unique motifs, including the language of ambush itself (Josh 8:2, 12; Judg 20:29); the description of the advance for battle (Josh 8:11; Judg 20:34); the enemy’s lack of knowledge of the ambush (Josh 8:14; Judg 20:34); and the smoke that ascends to heaven as a signal (Josh 8:20; Judg 20:40). They also share the same general setting of Benjamin with an emphasis Bethel. In Judg 20-21 the tribes led by Judah repeatedly worship and receive oracles at Bethel; while in Josh 8 the citizens of Bethel join Ai in warring against Joshua. The paper will explore how Bethel acquired such a contrasting role in these parallel narratives and what the motive of the authors may have been.

The importance of the Syriac Cave of Treasures for understanding the qur’ānic account of Iblīs’ refusal to worship Adam, has recently been confirmed by a number of scholars, who have shown how the Qur’ān engages with a number of texts in retelling this story. Material from the Cave of Treasures appears in various Arabic texts, such as the Kitāb al-majāll, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Qalēmentōs traditions. Despite this, they do not appear to have been studied and no translation exists in any Western language, of the Arabic text, that appeared in Bezold’s Die Schatzhöhle (1888). A new critical edition of, and commentary on the Cave of Treasures, by John Reeves, expected to be published in the next few years, will correct this, by including the Arabic material. Although the Arabic texts are not simply translations of the Syriac, they use material from the Cave of Treasures and were clearly influenced by its style. They would thus appear to be important witnesses to the oral tradition that preserved these narratives and therefore invaluable in understanding the links between this cycle of stories and the qur’ānic text. This paper analyses the Arabic material that appears in the text published but not translated by Bezold and evaluate the relationships between the Syriac – Arabic – Qur’ānic recensions, focussing on the description of the fall of the Devil and his naming, as in the Cave of Treasures, III,6. The significant amount of scholarship the qur’ānic recension of this particular episode has recently attracted makes this a good choice of narrative for analysis. This paper not only sheds light on this one qur’ānic narrative but addresses the broader question of the interaction between biblical, extra-biblical and qur’ānic; textual and oral texts, and highlight the importance of Syriac and Syriac-related studies for qur’ānic research.

Children’s Bibles have a centuries’ long history of social reproduction in Judaeo-Christian religious communities. As stories intended for initiates - intended to interpret the Bible for those on religious establishments’ periphery (children, women as caregivers, newly converted adults) - children's Bibles express an agenda beyond simply making children interested in the Bible. As opposed to formal Bible commentaries, produced and consumed by the religious and scholarly elites, these books connect Bible-informed ideologies with the routines of everyday life in ways focused on the experience of an audience at or on the margins of the religion’s centre. This assumes the child as convert and the children’s Bible or Bible storybook as preferencing the introduction of contemporaneous social values over Bible content transmission. These Bibles could therefore always easily accommodate “straying narratives” (Ruth Bottigheimer) and excision of socially problematic thematic content (child abandonment in 1 Sam 1; fratricide in Gen 4; rape in Gen 34; child sacrifice in Judg 11; etc.) without raising questions about faithful adherence to the source text. This is well documented by Ruth Bottigheimer and Penny Gold. However, both historiographers predict the emergence of a “new generation of texts” representing “a return to canon” by the end of the twentieth century. This paper will use the “Author’s Note” in Ellen Frankel’s award winning 2009, "JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible", to describe how this new generation of biblical texts works and point to their predictive relevance to any understanding of 21st century religion and society.

This presentation stems from the research findings of my dissertation chapter investigating the meaning of rûaḥ in the book of Proverbs. Drawing upon cognitive linguistic approaches, I found that the word rûaḥ in Proverbs pertains primarily to human mentality and temperament. Within this subset of cognitive usage, however, I also observed an implicit apprehension about people governing their rûaḥ. Based upon my findings, I argue that the book of Proverbs regards human rûaḥ as a psychosomatic hazard that must be moderated and cultivated for the proper acquisition of wisdom. The ethical impetus for this concern in Proverbs is twofold: (1) rûaḥ acts as a psychosomatic “organ” that transmits and maintains vitality throughout the human person, thereby connecting their physical health and respiration with their psychological health and temperament; and (2) Proverbs depicts human rûaḥ as mutable in its ethical character (cf. 11:13; 16:18; 17:27), but also volatile to control (cf. 14:29; 16:32; 25:28; 29:11) and susceptible to breaking (cf. 15:4, 13; 17:22; 18:14). As a result of the psychosomatic nature of rûaḥ, any disequilibrium of rûaḥ presents a distinct threat to the well-being of the human person in their totality and, subsequently, the didactic character-building goals of Proverbs.

This paper examines the idiom of wailing and gnashing teeth that is found in Matthew and Luke. Given that this expression, as found in the mouth of Jesus, is formulaic, symbolic, involves eschatological projection, and is found within Matthew’s apocalyptic chapter (Ch. 24), one can identify it as apocalyptic in nature. After identifying some erroneous presuppositions that are often brought to the interpretation of eschatological, judgment texts in which the clause occurs, the paper turns to a fresh look at the idiom and, as a result, moves away from popular interpretations. The idiom occurs in an independent clause with set formulaic wording. The two actions of wailing and gnashing teeth must be examined not separately, but as a single idiom. The idiom should not be understood as action of those receiving judgment. Drawing on Ugaritic parallels, it is most likely that this was a funerary expression in the mouth of mourners. Therefore, this idiom does not support a conclusion that the recipients of judgment existed in a continued state of anguish.

The reader’s attention in Mark’s gospel rarely leaves the human body. Broken and healed, hungry and fed, bleeding, leprous, bruising itself with stones or being beaten and executed by its enemies; the story of Jesus’ ministry and mission is written out with letters formed from the human body. Pain goes unspoken, as it must (Scarry). Yet the passion narrative—the story to which Mark’s gospel seems always to be headed-- begins not with suffering but with the anointing woman’s speechless act, intended to give Jesus physical pleasure. Like the gospel’s pain, this pleasure is unspoken, yet an integral part of the words of the gospel, as Jesus points out (Mark 14:9). This paper will examine the role of the woman’s gift of physical pleasure as a backdrop to the suffering that follows it in this gospel, with special attention to the relevance of gender, words, and wordlessness.

Psalms 120–134 are sometimes called Pilgrim Psalms (or Songs of Ascent), and K. Seybold has suggested that they should be understood as individual stages of an actual pilgrimage. Unfortunately, such historical conclusions are difficult to draw. It is more promising to evaluate the rich collection of religious imagery and traditions found in the psalms and—with regard to the topic of centralization—in particular their spatial concepts. The Songs of Ascent feature a horizontal worldview with a stark opposition of center and periphery. This paper delineates their concept and compares it to the concepts of other psalms, especially to the Zion traditions in the Psalms. Subsequently, it relates it to the ones of several other theological approaches, namely the Priestly Code, Deuteronomy, and Chronicles, as well as some examples from the Ancient Near East. The dichotomy of center and periphery seems to be a fundamental part of the religious perception of the world and may well antedate religio-political attempts toward cult centralization. On a methodological level, the examination of spatial (along with temporal) concepts is proven to be a valuable tool to compare and distinguish various texts and approaches.

The paper will respond to the lectures of D. Markl, T. Römer, R. Müller and R. Achenbach and line out perspectives on future research on the Pentateuch and Biblical Law.

Within the Deuteronomistic History collection, some key ideas expressed programmatically in the book of Deuteronomy are explored in more depth in succeeding books. Micah’s creation of an ’ephod and teraphim for use in his household shrine in Judges 17-18 and Saul’s consultation of the dead prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 28 deal with the prohibition of consulting the dead found in Deut 18:10-11 and 26:14 and the need for aniconic representation of both YHWH and other deities found in Deut 4:10-19, 28, 35,39 and 5:7-9. Both narratives will be the focus of an examination of how memory of the past has been adapted by the authors or subsequent redactors of Judges and Samuel in order to condemn what once were acceptable religious beliefs and practices. Inferentially, the authors or redactors wrote at a time when religious belief and praxis were in flux. Ideas that eventually became cornerstones of Judaism were advocated by the scribes who produced or modified Deuteronomy, Judges, and Samuel but were contested within the larger community and targeted audience, requiring their programmatic reinforcement by presenting them as already unacceptable in Israel’s early history.

Already in the early 80s, Cheryl Exum called attention to a characteristic feature of biblical poetry, namely the juxtaposition of metaphors or similes that are linked to different source domains. In a pioneering study on extended similes in Isaiah 28–31, she demonstrated that metaphorical expressions appearing in close proximity may interact in a number of ways, ranging from mutual reinforcement to disambiguation. Drawing on more recent developments in cognitive metaphor theory and in the study of biblical metaphors, I intend to refine Exum’s approach. In this paper I shall explore a cluster of metaphors in the book of Hosea. The section 7:3–12 displays a bewildering array of images. Passions are likened to fire in an oven (vv. 4-7); the nation is depicted as poorly baked bread (v. 8), but also as a silly dove (v. 11); the punitive acts of YHWH are, finally, described in terms of catching birds with a net (v. 12). The analysis seeks to answer two overarching questions: 1) How do these metaphors and similes interact within the literary context? 2) How does each metaphor employed connect and contribute to themes or patterns permeating the book of Hosea? I will also discuss various implications for the interpretation of individual metaphorical expressions within Hos 7:3–12, as well as for the interpretation of the passage as a whole within its wider literary context.

The booklet of Amos, in the Book of the Twelve, is the only one that contains a Call Narrative following the pattern of the "typical scene" that can be found in the cases of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. This peculiarity gives this Call Narrative a doubly specific role: Does Amos's Call Narrative concern only the booklet of Amos, and thus is meant to characterize only Amos, its protagonist? Or does it impact the whole Book of the Twelve, in which case it is part of the composite portrait of the prophet that emerges from the whole Book of the Twelve. The answer to these questions is not straightforward and should therefore be explored methodologically and exegetically, all the while keeping in mind that this particular narrative may well be a formal element connecting the Minor and the Major Prophets.

In contrast to Enlightenment-influenced, epistemological-only approaches to biblical studies that are prevalent in Euro-American contexts, the author advocates for engaging the Majority World and the “epistemologies of the South” (de Sousa Santos 2015, Segovia 2015). This “multi-epistemological exegesis” merges the strengths of diverse ways of knowing for meaningful, hybridized results. This approach is an ethical path forward in light of today’s global realities. In African knowledge systems, ontology is privileged. As a result, Western biblical scholarship is often “sterile” with regard to the questions asked in African contexts. Because the nature of the question determines the research methods, an expanded exegetical toolbox is utilized to develop hybridized theological knowledge. To evaluate the soundness of hybridized interpretations, the author proposes an adaptation of anthropologist Paul Hiebert’s centered set theory, where classical Western exegetical methods are understood in relationship to other epistemologies. An intercultural case study on the “generational curse” within the Decalogue in Exod 20:4–6 demonstrates the value of hybridity. Through dialogue with “participatory inquiry,” the American author and Christian Maasai theologians of Tanzania, East Africa, developed a fusion of horizons regarding the covenant curse phrase, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation” in the Decalogue. On one hand, phenomenological generational curses are prevalent within the Maasai worldview. On the other hand, the Enlightenment-influenced epistemology minimizes the attention of curses as a phenomenon. Multi-epistemological exegesis demonstrates that insights develop for those who are willing to risk and dialogue with distinctively different ways of knowing and worldviews.

The Didache mentions several different offices in the communities of the Didache: bishops, deacons, prophets, apostles and teachers. The Didachist deals with this topic extensively in the chapters 11-13 and 15. In research of the Didache it is often noted (following Harnack and Weber), that the communities of the Didache are experiencing a conflict between different types of offices. Charismatic offices (apostle, teachers, and prophets) are still hold in higher regard (cf. Did 15:2) over locally bound offices (bishops and deacons). But simultaneously bishops and deacons are starting to gain influence in the communities. My paper is using data provided by voluntary associations to challenge this idea. Voluntary associations show a great variety of types of offices. It is not unusual for an association to have several methods of appointing, electing and choosing officers. For example, the Herakliasts from (an eranos association) from Liopesi used four different methods of choosing and legitimizing their officers (election, appointing, lot and offices for life based on merit). Furthermore, I will show, that it is not unusual to have “charismatic offices” (e.g. priests, prophets, teachers) and “administrative offices” (e.g. epimeletes, tamias, grammateus) in voluntary associations. My goal is not to label the group(s) addressed by the Didache as voluntary associations and neglect their Jewish heritage, or specific circumstances in the Didache itself. But the documents of associations provide helpful data to understand how offices in the Didache might be understood.

In South Africa the current political clamor for de-colonization portrays the contribution of the missionaries as negative because there is a perception of collusion in the imperialist exploitation of the indigenous peoples of South Africa. However, John Langalibalele Dube, the first President of the black liberation movement inaugurated in 1912 publicly expressed thankfulness and appreciation of the missionary contribution. Although by the time of his death in 1946 his pacifist Christian values were no longer a dominant part of the ideals of the desperate African National Congress, it is significant that after the transition to democracy in 1994 Nelson Mandela himself acknowledged that the leaders of the ANC would not have been able to achieve freedom without the missionary impact. The diachronic development of imperialist motivations as a result of synchronic events such as the discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa necessitates a nuanced denouement of the missionary contribution. Even amongst the missionaries the practical application of Bible interpretation was not without radical disagreement. The phenomenon that the biblical text can be applied in vastly differing cultural contexts makes it vulnerable to ideological interpretation and has resulted in a wide range of church affiliations. This paper attempts to assess the long-term impact of the introduction of the Bible to South Africa in the context of the seminal historical period of colonial land-grabbing and trampling on the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples. The deep-seated sense of loss of motherland is currently expressed in the postcolonial hermeneutic trend of black liberation theology to search the biblical text for a way to reduce the stark gap between the rich and the poor. This phenomenon is considered in terms of aspects of the views on biblical hermeneutics of Breuggemann, Rowland, Mosala, West, and Pope Francis.

In this short letter from the first of the Nag Hammadi Codices, an anonymous writer informs Rheginos about the nature of Christ, cosmos, humankind, and the post-mortal body. Almost all earlier studies consider the letter a second century Valentinian writing, but here another historical context is suggested: Egyptian monasticism, perhaps even the Origenist controversy from the last decade of the fourth century.​

Almost all the scholarly debates on Jesus’ command βόσκε/ποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατά μου in John 21:15-17 solely focus on Peter, interpreting the phrase either as the rehabilitation of Peter as one among the disciples for mission by undoing his denial (Bernard, 1928.2:691-692; Brant, 2011:283) or as Jesus’ authoritative commissioning specific to Peter to lead the community (Bultmann, 1971:713; Schnelle, 1998:318) or as both Peter’s rehabilitation and Jesus’ authoritative commissioning (Brown, 1966-70:1113; Bruner, 2011:1233) and not on Jesus’ own role and function. However, the purpose of the present paper is to redirect the focus from Peter’s to Jesus’ leadership and to investigate how Jesus’ dialogue with Peter and the transfer of leadership reflect Jesus’ own leadership function. This paper intends to study exegetically Jesus’ conversation with Peter in John 21:15-17 to explicate Jesus’ leadership. The phrase λέγει αὐτῷ in vv.15-17 indicates that it is Jesus who speaks and transfers his own leadership through the shepherd metaphor to Peter. The term ποίμαινε in its biblical perspective is a leadership term used to refer to leadership of people in various respects (e.g., Sheehan, 1964; Jeremias, 1968). Each time Jesus inquires of Peter’s love, he commands Peter to feed/tend his lambs or sheep which suggests that Jesus’ specific understanding of leadership is grounded in love (ἀγαπάω, φιλέω) and makes love for Jesus an indispensable prerequisite for leadership (Minear, 1983:94). Jesus’ authoritative commission to Peter after his denial demonstrates Jesus’ approach to lead others with integrity. Jesus’ interrogation and command ultimately aim at empowering Peter through his conversion and assertion of love. Thus, this paper intends to argue that Jesus’ interaction with Peter in John 21:15-17 envisages Jesus’ leadership in the first sense rather than Peter’s and illustrates the specific leadership style of Jesus. Jesus challenges, strengthens and transforms Peter to lead the community of disciples.

Birth and death are inevitably bound together. Both mark a definite change in the status of a human being, and death can be interpreted as a reversal of birth. But how was this change conceptualized in Mesopotamia over time? What actually happened in the moment of an individual's birth or death? I seek to answer these questions on the basis of selected texts and I argue that the conceptualization of birth and death are closely related.

Emile Durkheim notes that characteristic of all religions is the division between the holy and the profane. Furthermore, he understands that religious symbols and ideas are actually symbols for society, and the its moral order (Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life NY: The Free Press). In my proposed paper, I examine the way these ideas (and others) are expressed in the way the Mishnah understands the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel was a sacred universe in Mishnah’s “imagined collective”. The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and there was no hope to return to or rebuild it through a military victory. Those remaining in the Land of Israe would continue to be bound to their universe by the ancient system of obligations, which their ancestors accepted as their covenant with God. This was manifested through the only remaining element, the holy Land of Israel. This reciprocity between Israel and God, the close parity between these two partners in the charge of restitution, is what Mishnah seeks to convey. The Land of Israel became the conduit for the rabbinic Jew to God. If the Land of Israel was sacred, then the land outside Israel was viewed and defined as profane. The sacred universe desacralized all other lands, placing that which resided in them within the category of “outsiders” and thus labelling them as a potential threat to the holy cosmos. The outsider could take the form of people or objects or land. For Mishnah’s redactors, the profane or outsider was of interest primarily when it served the needs of the “insider”, and specifically the rabbinic Jew. This essay will examine how the redactors of Mishnah viewed, used and drew the boundaries of the profane lands to serve the needs of Mishnah’s world and its members.

While the debates on the formation of the Pentateuch go on unabated, most scholars regardless of school or theory note that the Pentateuch is a narrative, albeit an uneven one. The idea of a story from creation to the (near) conquest may be understood to be a late innovation bringing together the different parts of the Pentateuch through the promises to the fathers or something found early on in all of its sources, but it is there. One of the main reasons for this contemporary narrative understanding of the Pentateuch arguably lies in the in-breaking of synchronic or narrative methods during the 1970’s and forward, which in turn reacted to what was understood as the fragmentary and hypothetical nature of the historical-critical methods. Consequently, David Clines lead the way in reading the Pentateuch as a narrative with a certain theme in his famous study of 1978, The Theme of the Pentateuch. Less known is perhaps that several similar studies have followed up to our days that develop or depart from Clines’ original arguments, such as Thomas Mann’s The Book of the Torah (1988), John Sailhamer’s The Pentateuch as Narrative (1992), Arie Leder’s Waiting for the Land (2010), and others that may be added to these. However, none of these studies feature to any large extent in the present debates on the formation of the Pentateuch despite the presupposition of its narrative character. This paper surveys several such narrative studies of the Pentateuch to unearth the contributions that can be gained from them, to point out some typical cul-de-sacs that show up, and to offer some critical suggestion on how to move research on the Pentateuch forward.

At the end of A Valentinian Exposition, a Valentinian Christian tractate from Nag Hammadi Codex XI dealing with cosmogony, anthropology, soteriology, and eschatology, we find five fragmentary liturgical texts, which have been read as supplements to the longer preceding text. Scholars have labelled them as follows: On the Anointing, On Baptism A, On Baptism B, On the Eucharist A, and On the Eucharist B. It has been thought that these liturgical texts were utilised catechistically to complement the detailed theological teaching that appears in the main tractate, possibly serving during Valentinian initiation rites. More recent Nag Hammadi scholarship has demonstrated that there is good reason to believe that the Codices were produced and utilised by Egyptian (probably Pachomian) monks. Much of the material within the so-called “Gnostic” Nag Hammadi texts can be shown to fit particularly well within such a context, but how would the monks have engaged with liturgical material such as the fragments from Codex XI? In this paper I will re-examine the fragments with this fourth-century monastic context in mind, and consider how apparent Valentinian initiatory material might have been interpreted by a Pachomian readership.

In the Book of Numbers, the organization of space is a crucial issue. The sanctuary is described to be settled in the midst of the camp. Three of the twelve tribes each flank the four sides of the sanctuary during the wilderness journey and, thus, constitute it as a centre. The location of the sanctuary in the middle of Israel is furthermore emphasized at the beginning and at the end of the book (Num 2:17; 35:34). Read from the perspective of centralization, the book is full of aspects related to this subject: the centralization of cult, cult-personnel, ritual, purity/holiness, blessing, administration etc. Seen from this angle, the non-centralized issues or decentralizing tendencies in the Book of Numbers, e.g. the tent outside of the camp (Num 11:26), the relation between Transjordan (Num 32) and Cis-Jordan (Num 34), and the decentralized living space of the Levites (Num 35:2-7) become even more interesting – especially since the overall concept remains centralized (cf. e.g., the mention of the high priest in Num 35). This dynamic is not only remarkable in conceptual respect, but also in regard to its (religious) historical contexts, because most texts from the Book of Numbers are considered to be of rather late origin. Against this background, the paper aims at answering the following questions by analyzing the selected texts conceptually and in diachronic respect: (1) What is the significance of centralization in the Book of Numbers? (2) How does it relate to other ideas of centralization in the Hebrew Bible? (3) How does it relate to the (religious) historical setting of the Persian period?

Nehemiah’s wall was built in the late Hellenistic period (Finkelstein 2008), suggesting a terminus post quem under the Hasmonians for the completion of Ezra-Nehemiah. It was likely not written at once, however, but over a long period of time, perhaps from the reign of Artaxerxes II to the late Hellenistic period. If so, we may better understand the celebration of Sukkot in Nehemiah 8. As is widely recognized, the description of the festival in Nehemiah 8 differs from the holiday’s prescriptions in both Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Unlike Deuteronomy 16, Nehemiah instructs Judeans to collect branches to build booths on the roofs and courtyards of their homes “in all of their towns,” not just Jerusalem (Neh. 8:15-16). Unlike in Leviticus 23:40, the people are to use the branches they have collected not to carry them in procession with joy, but rather to use them to build booths. Besides differing from Pentateuchal passages, Sukkot in Nehemiah also contrasts with descriptions of Sukkot in second temple texts. In both Josephus and in the books of Maccabees, the people are described as processing joyfully around the temple, carrying leafy boughs and the fruit of the citron, while wearing wreaths upon their heads (Jub.16:30). These descriptions of Sukkot described in second temple texts (except Nehemiah) remind one of Dionysian processions in celebration of that god of the grape harvest. Dionysus was the patron deity of the Ptolemies, and he was assimilated to the Ptolemaic lineage. The “Great Processional” in Ptolemaic Alexandria, dedicated to Dionysus, was the primary Ptolemaic religious observance. I suggest that before the Hasmonians, but in resistance to the Ptolemies and their linkage to Dionysus, that Nehemiah requires that the holiday of Sukkot be celebrated alone in the quiet of home.

Research has identified various sapiential elements in the book of Jeremiah. However, to date, scholars have barely attempted to identify quotations or variations of familiar proverbs from didactic Wisdom Literature that appear in Jeremiah. The primary proverb identified as corresponding to a proverb in the book of Proverbs is: “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). In my lecture, I would like to reexamine this matter and present additional verses that may suggest the correlation between Jeremiah and didactic Wisdom Literature. I will explore four additional verses in Jeremiah in which a correlation to familiar proverbs is identifiable: Jeremiah 5:27 and 17:11 both compare wealth obtained through crooked means to birds, with the first verse presenting a situation that contrasts with the accepted doctrine of reward and punishment and the second verse providing a more traditional depiction of this same doctrine. These verses express a similar idea to the theme presented in Proverbs 23: 4-5 and in the Instruction of Amenemope (Chapter 7: 9, 10 – 14 , 5). Furthermore, Jeremiah 17:9-10 deals with man’s inability to know the thoughts within another man’s heart, in contrast with God’s unlimited knowledge, and this is similar to the idea and structure of the proverb in Proverbs 24:12. Finally, Jeremiah 50:34 presents the nation’s salvation from the hands of the Babylonians in terms identical to those used to describe the salvation of the weaker classes in society from the hands of their usurpers in Proverbs 23:11. During my analysis, I will pay close attention to the significant correlation between the parallel phrases, presenting the differences between the verses and their meanings and offering an explanation of the manner in which these proverbs are integrated into Jeremiah’s prophecy.

11Q11 is a set of four apotropaic and exorcistic compositions from Qumran, intended to be uttered on four days of a 364-day year. These days are most probably identical with the four annual liminal days, the equinoxes and solstices, when human communities were believed to be especially exposed to demonic attacks. Song 3, uttered at the spring equinox (identical with Passover in the 364-day calendar), was written against a horned demon. The demon is said to originate from heavenly and earthly beings, which seems to allude to the Enochic tradition of the Watchers, who were heavenly beings who had descended from heaven, mated with human women, and became the originators of impure evil spirits (1Enoch 6-11, 15). The figure of the horned demon is akin with that of the Mesopotamian gallu that appears to humans and causes (sudden) death. The demon is described in the handbook of demonology, Utukkū Lemnūtu (“The evil utukku-demons”), a work that likely influenced the Enochic tradition. The horned demon of 11Q11 seems to be related to the depersonalized figure of the “destroyer” (ha-mašḥīt), who entered the house and struck the firstborn on Passover night during the final plague of Egypt (Ex 12:23). The book of Jubilees, an authoritative work at Qumran, gives a systematic elaboration of the origin and working of evil demons in human history. Unclean demons originated from fallen angels (Jub 19:8-10) and led by Mastema, intervene in human history. The narrative ends with the Exodus from Egypt and the description of Passover, which is a ritualisation of an immanent divine law, a propos of a divine rescue from a demonic attack on the firstborn (Jub 49:2-3). The ritual is to be kept annually at Passover as a protection against demonic plagues. The exorcism of 11Q11 offers a practical example for it.

The Jewish view of their canonical books is the various degrees of inspiration, where the Torah is dictated by God to Moses, while other prophets have various degrees of inspiration. Christianity typically holds the dual authorship concept, where the human author writes under the inspiration of a divine author. In Islam, there is no concept of a human author, but a sole divine author, who inspires the human prophet who, in turn, simply utters the very words of God without any amendments or agency, which is similar to the Jewish view of the Torah. When comparing itself with other scriptures, the Qur’an claims that some Biblical books were themselves of a similar nature. Although the concept of a divine author is prominent amongst most Islamic schools, the Ismā‘īlī understanding of Qur’anic inspiration is different. Their concept is that the revelation comes down as spiritual light, and it is the task of the human prophet to translate these spiritual lights into the language of the people. As such, their notion of inspiration may seem similar to the Judeo-Christian. The difference, however, is that because the original revelation is spiritual light, then it requires a divinely appointed imām to interpret the human words back to its original spiritual truths, as the human words are merely symbols of these spiritual truths. This paper looks into the Qur’anic concept of “kitāb,” which is typically understood as book, but not necessarily so, according to Daniel Madigan’s The Qur’an Self Image. Based on the root “ktb,” which means to arrange in order, this paper investigates the Qur’anic concept of revelation (tanzīl) and inspiration (waḥy) philologically, as the terms used in the Hebrew Bible correspond to flowing waters (nozelim) and to reveal or to instruct (ḥwy).

Since the discovery of Greek polychrome sculptures in the late 19th century, colour has become a subject of growing interest in a variety of scientific disciplines, from physics, anthropology and art history to psychology and philology. The concept of colour nowadays is very different from that contemplated in antiquity. Until now, although studies about colour terms in the Bible are being undertaken, no exhaustive research has been conducted on the presence and meaning of the term colour in the biblical corpus. Therefore, the present paper will analyze the respective Hebrew, Greek or Latin terms that used to designate ‘colour’ in the Masoretic Text, Septuagint and Vulgate, what function they play in the text, and which concept of colour emerges. Curiously, MT does not use the term colour, although recently it has been thought that עין ʿ ayin, has that value. LXX uses two terms to refer to the colour: χρῶμα and χρόα which are repeated seven times (Exod 4,7; 34,29-30; Esth 15,7; 2 Mac 3,16; Wis 13,14; 15,4). In contrast, the Vulgate only employs a lexeme: color, however, its frequency is much higher: 31 times (Gen 30,37.39; 31,10; Exod 39,3.5; Lev 13,2.3.4.10.21.26.32.36.39.42; 14,56; Num 11,7; Judg 5,30; 1 Chr 29,2; Esth 1,6; Job 28,16; Prov 23,31; Wis 13,14; 15,4; Sir 43,20; Lam 4,1; Ezek 23,14; 27,18; 2 Mac 3,16; 2 Esd 6,44; 14,39). At first glance the Vulgate presents a greater chromaticism than the previous versions of the Bible. The analysis of the contexts will allow us: a) to deduce what colour means in Masoretic Text, Septuagint and the Vulgate; b) to establish a comparison with the concept of colour in antiquity; c) to understand the reason as to why the Vulgate has a need to support itself with the lexeme colour to translate pericopes where χρῶμα or χρόα or

The paper will discuss the apocryphal Homily of John Chrysostom on How Archangel Michael Defeated Satanail which is attested in Slavonic, Greek and Romanian redactions; folklore and iconographic traditions of the Byzantine Commonwealth are to be taken in consideration. Previously neglected data will be included in the analysis of the storyline, comparing and contrasting it to the narrative patterns of some other apocryphal compositions (e.g. The Sea of Tiberias).

Deciphering medical prescriptions in the Babylonian Talmud often turn out to be counter-intuitive, since modern translations and dictionaries usually accept Geonic definitions of rare terms and Rashi's understanding of passages as definitive and reliable. This often leads to finding exotic medical practices in the Talmud, such as snapping one's fingers 60 times over an abscess, with the inference that Talmudic medicine is unique and governed by 'irrational' approaches and not in line with other systems of medicine in late antiquity. This paper will propose that such translations usually represent a lack of understanding of Talmud medical recipes, which usually follow patterns similar to prescriptions from the same region, although the Talmud often reports abbreviated versions of prescriptions which must be interpreted in the light of comparative data.

The textual relationship between the Bible and the Qur'an has been a controversial issue to which many scholars have contributed so far. The problem, however, has been hardly taken into account from the perspective of the scriptures’ self understanding. How the qur’an represent its relationship with the Bible? On the other hand, the scholarship on the Qur’an’s self-image is often concentrated on the Qur’an’s self-representation of its nature and identity. The way the Qur’an thinks of its purpose, its audience and its relation to other texts is yet neglected. In this research, we shall focus on the Qur’an’s self-image of its relation to the Bible. The Qur’an makes the claim of being a “clarification for the Book”, Clarifying (yubayyino) some parts of the Bible/Divine Teachings for the audience. In order to find the exact type of "clarification" Qur'an makes, it is required to study both the qur’anic verses which implies the clarifying status of the Qur’an with respect to the Bible and the qur'anic narratives of biblical stories. Here, we aim at addressing the former. By appealing to the Semitic rhetoric used in the flow of these texts, we have tried to focus on more than six Qur’anic phrases which have the implication that raison d'être of “qur’anic revelation” is to elucidate controversial parts of the old scriptures the. The analysis proposed here attempts to highlight one of the most important dimensions of the Qur’ān’s relationship to the biblical tradition, which may help Christians and Muslims to be able to read their scriptures together and will make room for further comparative studies of common narrative of both scriptures.

Several studies in recent years have sought to articulate the significance of the tribe of Benjamin for historical and literary study of the Hebrew Bible. This paper suggests that the received text of Genesis 35–50 both reflects and illumines the complexities of Israelite identity in the pre-exilic, Babylonian, and Persian periods. The fact that Benjamin is the only son born to “Israel” (other sons are born to “Jacob”) points to Israel’s origins in the land that came to be called “Benjaminite.” Between Josephites to the north and Judahites to the south, Benjaminites preserved a unique identity within the polities of Israel, Judah, Babylonian Yehud, and Persian Yehud. In Genesis 35 and 42–45 in particular, the silent character Benjamin finds himself in the middle of a tug-of-war between his brothers, particularly his full-brother Joseph and his half-brother Judah. The conciliatory message of the narrative of Genesis 35–50 for later communities comes into sharper focus when we see the compromise between tribal identities embedded in the text.

The most popular genre of Hittite historical writing, attested, even if sporadically, from the very beginning of the Old Kingdom to the very end of the Empire Period is what the Hittites themselves named pešnatar ("Manly Deeds"). The "Manly Deeds" record, in varying degrees of detail, the settlement of political conflicts by the Hittite king, mostly in the form of successful military campaigns. The "Deeds" are often but not always arranged chronologically and depict, as their name suggests, the deeds of the reigning king - or in several famous cases, the deeds of his father and grandfather. The genre undoubtedly reached its peak with the 3 historical works attributed to king Muršili II - the "Ten Years Annals", the "Comprehensive Annals" and the "Manly Deeds of Šuppiluliama". These compositions, representing the pinnacle of Hittite historiographical writing, were also intensively copied by later scribes, perhaps in acknowledgment of their quality. Concurrently, and in contrast thereto, contemporary cuneiform historiography seems to have lost its appeal. Compositions belonging to the genre documenting the deeds of Muršilis successors are only poorly preserved. Consequently, they were relatively neglected in modern scholarship, certainly in comparison to other, better preserved forms of historical writing such as the "Autobiography" of Ḫattušili III or the monumental hieroglyphic inscriptions of Tudḫaliya IV and Šuppiluliyama II. My presentation will review some of these lesser-known texts and address some of the questions that originate from them.

Last year’s paper explored the Edict of Cyrus (2 Chr 36:22-23) situated at the end of Chronicles and its possible function as a canon-conscious and programmatic conclusion to both the book itself and the entire Old Testament. This year’s paper will expand this exploration by contending that similar elements of canon-consciousness are evident at the ending of the Old Testament (Chronicles) and the opening of the New Testament (Matthew)—possible elements which will potentially aid in formulating a canon theology. Both Chronicles and Matthew begin with detailed genealogies (1 Chr 1-9; Matt 1:1-17) and end with a commission (2 Chr 36:22-23; Matt 28:16-20)—the only two books in the entire Christian canon to follow such a pattern. The ending of Matthew, moreover, seems to be intentionally modelled on the ending of Chronicles, in which Jesus, like Cyrus, asserts his authority over all the earth, commands his disciples to “go”, and gives the promise that the divine presence will accompany them in their mission (cf. Beale: 2004, 176). It is my contention that Matthew understands Jesus’s commission for his disciplines to “go” and build the church as the fulfillment of Cyrus’s decree, in which also both the Old and New Testaments are bound together in a peculiar manner. Just as the Edict of Cyrus functioned as a programmatic conclusion to both Chronicles and the Old Testament, so does the Great Commission function as a programmatic introduction to the New Testament. The genealogies which open and the commissions which close both Chronicles and Matthew are arguably canon-conscious structural markers intended to bind the Christian canon together and subsequently reflect an early awareness of a two testament canon which was understood as authoritative for the church.

Scholars comparing Heliodorus’ 4th C CE opus to contemporary Christian fiction highlight how Christian authors were influenced by classical thought and paideia. They point to common themes such as virginal and suffering bodies and the defense of chastity as examples of common concerns in both genres. While fruitful, this approach fails to consider influences traveling in the opposite direction. In this paper, I argue that Heliodorus’ representation of the afflicted Theagenes and Chariklea stemmed from the same socio-cultural constructs of gender and class as the Christian authors of martyrologies. In this way, their heroically suffering bodies become the vehicles of their salvation. This paper analyses the incarceration of the protagonists in Book VIII of the Aethiopika, a section that exhibits Heliodorus’ views of both class and gender through sōphrosynē. This narrative is syncretic and integrates both Hellenic and Christian literary traditions: the attempted murder of Chariklea arguably reveals a debt to The Martyrdom of Polycarp. This comparison is justified by the wide spread knowledge of martyrologies by the 4th century generally, and the geographic locations of both stories specifically. Pagans would have heard of these Christian narratives, even if they had not read them. In Book VIII, both hero and heroine are tortured, and the heroine is nearly executed by fire. The torture of Theagenes and Chariklea is recast in salvific terms that show a considerable debt to martyrdom narratives, even if Heliodorus weaves the protagonists’ resistance into archaicizing aristocratic values. Sōphrosynē is simply represented as a hybrid virtue in this novel, incorporating aspects of both the classical Greek virtue and Christian ideal. This study reveals a more complex exchange of thought in Late Antiquity, and invites a revaluation of literature based on its intents and narrative, rather than the author’s religious self-identification.

This is a paper about translation technique in LXX Amos. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate stylistic features in the Greek rendering of the Hebrew text of Amos and then to discuss the importance of those stylistic features for studying and evaluating this Greek translation. The study will focus on the language in the Greek rendering of the Oracles to the Nations in Amos 1:3–2:6, but it will also address the translation of other passages and point out stylistic features in them. In the conclusion of the paper I will attempt to point out the importance of the stylistic features in the Greek translation for reading the Greek text and for textual criticism.

The chairs of the Unit, in cooperation with the steering committee and the Working with Cultural Objects and Manuscripts (WCOM) project, set up an online survey for Qumran and Dead Sea Scrolls scholars (to be implemented during spring 2018) to gather data in the field regarding the ethics and policies as related to the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is a brief summary of the survey results, in order to invite discussion in the session.

Analogy between biblical narratives is an important and meaningful literary device. Uncovering analogies significantly contributes to a deeper understanding of the biblical narrative, and often sheds new light on each individual text. There is a dual straightforward resemblance between the David and Goliath narrative (I Sam 17) and Nebuchadnezzar's Dream narrative (Daniel 2). David, who defeats Goliath, parallels Daniel, who is victorious over the wise men of Babylonia; and Goliath, who is defeated and falls, parallels the wise men of Babylonia, who fail in their attempts to decipher the dream. However, the analogy between the two narratives is much broader. Goliath, who falls to the ground in his metal shields, also parallels the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which is made entirely of metal. Despite the comprehensive analogy, which is supported by lexical, symbolic, and content similarities, the likeness of the two narratives has not received the attention it deserves in biblical scholarship. The analogy is reinforced by the similar use of symbols in the two narratives: the enormous statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream is made of metals and symbolize the 'Four Kingdoms' that will rise and fall one after the other, is similar to the giant Goliath who is wrapped in metal and copper. David's stone, which defeats Goliath, and the stone that shatters the statue in the dream, both represent God's sovereignty. The use of this symbol is also apparent in the Golden Calf narrative (Ex. 32): the stone tablets that are given to Moses on Sinai represent God, while the Golden Calf represents human handiwork. In this lecture, I will outline the analogy between narratives, analyze its literary contribution, and elucidate the impact of the symbolic use of natural stone as a representation of God, and artificial metal as a symbol of man.

Publications about textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible provide different numbers of Hebrew manuscripts. One of the figures given is 5000. This information is meaningless because the number is approximate and the reference to the manuscripts is unspecific. Neither the types of manuscripts are indicated, nor is it clear if singular pages which have survived from complete manuscripts are counted. Does this figure include Dead Sea scrolls as well as other “ancient” manuscripts, or does it cover only medieval manuscripts? Are the unvocalised Tora and Megillot scrolls comprised or not? What is the time limit for manuscripts assessed, and should the manuscripts written within the book print age be counted? Another issue is the use of the manuscripts in the textual criticism, and with it is connected the lack of any accepted nomenclature of manuscripts utilised in editions and studies. Every author and every edition employs own systems. While this practice is not per se an impediment for the research, it is methodologically justifiable to ask if a uniform system comparable with that used in the New Testament textual studies should be established. If yes, how could it be organised, and what information should it feature? Yet another topic is the question what textual information from Hebrew manuscripts should be featured in textual edition. Should every deviant trait of manuscript text be mentioned in an edition, or would it be better to treat manuscript variants in distinct studies, and then to cite in textual editions only “filtered” information provided in manuscript descriptions? In the latter case, extensive textual studies should be conducted before a textual edition of any type could be approached. The paper discussed the questions mentioned above, establishes a typology of manuscripts, and seeks to put different aspects of Hebrew Bible manuscripts studies in relation to each other.

With the development of disability readings of the Bible, the parables of Luke 14:7-24 have been assessed anew with an attempt from scholars to cast off traditional ableist interpretations of these important Lukan references to disability. James Metzger (“God in the Parable of the Snubbed Host”), for example, has argued that the Lukan gospel in general reveals Jesus representing “ablebodied infantilization of the disabled” in his healings of the woman bent-over (13:15) and the man with swelling (14:5) which is “thus mirrored (in) the ableist householder in (the parable in) 14:15-24.” Likewise, Markus Schiefer Ferrari (“(Un)gestörte Lektüre von Lk 14, 12-14”), has also assessed these parables within the broader context of the Lukan portrayal of Jesus likewise arguing that a disability sensitive reading of these parables is important because of the long history of interpretations that have been propelled by, at worst, unconscious discrimination of people with disability, or, at best, limited sensitivity to the possible range of the bodily experiences of humanity. And yet, in contrast to Metzger and Schiefer Ferrari’s reflections on these parables, the recent Baylor University volume, The Bible and Disability: A Commentary edited by Sarah J. Melcher, Mikeal C. Parsons, and Amos Yong, overlooks the parables of Luke 14:7-24 altogether. Given this omission, this paper seeks to consider once more the implications of a disability reading of the Lukan parables of Luke 14:7-24. What, if anything, can a disability reading of these parables reveal to us about attitudes towards disability in the early Jesus movement? In what ways can interpretations of these parables seek to reinforce and promote the aims of disability readings of the biblical texts in defying categories of normalcy and homogeny?

Two questions have persisted concerning the parables of Jesus since the time of Adolf Jülicher’s landmark study and the subsequent work of Dodd and Jeremias: i) should the parables be cut from the frames in which we find them in the synoptic gospels? and ii) to what extent are allegorical interepretations appropriate? Of particular importance is the parable of the sower. It is one of only three narrative parables in all three of the synoptic gospels and appears in all three in a closely ordered block of pericopes. Furthermore, it comes complete with a general discussion of Jesus’s use of parables and a tutorial on the interpretation for his disciples. And that interpetation, which is allegorical, is prefaced in Mark’s account with the questions: “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you know all the parables?” In 4:2, Mark claims that Jesus “taught them many things in parables” and concludes the section once again emphasizing that Jesus taught “many such parables” (33). Mark sees this as so characteristic of Jesus’s teaching that he can even claim that Jesus did not teach anything without a parable and that he then regularly explained the parables to his disciples in private (34). Whatever one’s preferred solution to the relationship between the synoptic gospels, it is clear that all three evangelists chose to highlight the parable of the sower in the same complex frame and with the same allegorical interpretation. I propose a reconsideration of these two problems in the parable of the sower in light of recent works by Klyne Snodgrass (2008), Craig Blomberg (2012), John Dominic Crossan (2012), Amy Jill Levine (2014), Ruben Zimmermann (2015), Ernest van Eck (2016), Charles Hedrick (2016), and John P. Meier (2016).

Incised on a seventh-century silver pendant found by Gitin in the northeast acropolis at Tel Miqne-Ekron is a scene of a female astride a leashed-lion with a male worshipper standing opposite her. Since the time of its discovery, scholars have almost unanimously identified the female in question as Mesopotamian Ishtar, leading some to suggest that the pendant demonstrates the presence of Ishtar veneration in the area. Identifying the female as the goddess Ishtar is largely governed by an interpretive principle that assumes a high degree of overlap between the formal/morphological qualities of the scene and its 'meaning'/semantics in relation to analogous motifs from Mesopotamia. In other words, because the figure is depicted almost identically to Mesopotamian Ishtar, so the argument goes, the figure must be Ishtar, and because the Ekronite pendant ‘contains’ Isthar, Ekronite communities must have worshipped the goddess. But is Ishtar the best and only interpretation? Indeed, is identifying the female on the pendant as Ishtar even the correct interpretation? This paper proposes that there are defensible alternatives for the interpretation of the mysterious Ekronite woman that extend beyond Ishtar. It proceeds in two parts. First, the paper reviews the traditional Ishtar interpretation. Second, other evidence that is generally left out when identifying the female figure will be brought forth to bolster an alternative interpretation. By way of conclusion, the paper raises a number of questions regarding the method of iconographic interpretation in scholarly circles and asks whether or not the normative mode of interpreting iconographic material is as reliable as usually presumed.

One of the most widespread methods of imparting and cultivating theological knowledge is by way of liturgy. Prayers routinely incorporate references to the attributes of the deity. Numerous biblical psalms, conventionally classified as hymns or praise, include assertions about the powers and virtues of God—the creator, protector, healer, savior, etc. In the Hebrew Bible there is a well-known grammar of such attributes, describing the deity in the third person and employing participles and relative clauses in order to convey the pertinent qualities (see, e.g., Gunkel’s Introduction to the Psalms [trans. Nogalski; 1998], 31-32). Such elements are also characteristic of many so-called wisdom psalms. They are also characteristic, for example, of the Babylonian hymn to the sun-god Shamash, which has a distinct affinity to what is ordinarily understood as wisdom. In the book of Job the companions adopt the trope of enumerating divine attributes in order to remind Job of traditional theological norms as they seek to impress them upon him. Job, however, reacts by parodying the teachings of both the hymnal literature and its adaptations by his companions. The rhetorical means by which Job makes such theological protestations will be examined in this paper.

In this paper the field of trauma studies, a new interdisciplinary conversation, will be applied to the book of Isaiah. Insights from this field point to passages that anticipate disaster, as well as offer ways of surviving disaster. Of particular interest are texts that emerged from experiences of collective devastation and exile. The book of Isaiah draws its readers into the darkest valleys of destruction. The first part is full of oracles hammering its audience with images of corruption and warnings of imminent doom. The prophet’s oracles offered a reality check for the Isaianic interpretative community who reflected on the significance of his words for subsequent generations. The ‘Song of the Vineyard’ in Isaiah 5:1-7 is a masterpiece. The prophet sings about his friend’s failed attempts to grow good grapes in his vineyard. As the text progresses, the reader gets to know that the owner of the vineyard is YHWH and that the vineyard, with its sour grapes, is his people. As the interpretative community puts on the prophetic mantle it answers the questions about the causes of collapse. YHWH is the one who will allow his people to be trampled and Judah to be plundered. The ‘Song of the Vineyard’ is a text that describes God’s use of traumatizing penalties to enforce obedience. In the development of a theological hermeneutic for trauma the exegete cannot avoid dealing with both the victim and the perpetrator of violence. It is the latter that presents a special challenge to the exegete, precisely because God is often described as the agent of trauma. Maybe this Song that attributes suffering to God’s punishment can be understood as a representation of trauma that serves as a mechanism of survival, recovery and resilience.

In this paper I will analyze the constructs of the Other as the narrator and as the recipient in the Letter of Aristeas and in the Third Book of the Sibylline Oracles, as well as compare them (as the two texts stem, arguably, from two different geographical and social contexts) to present their strategies of using the imagined outsider for the validation of the Jewish identity in the Diaspora. Conjuring up a figure of an outsider and having them speak about the Jews is a common practice in the Jewish literature of the Second Temple Period. This form of self-validation in the mouth of a non-Jew finds its fullest expression in two pseudepigraphical works from the Hellenistic Period: the Letter of Aristeas and the Third Book of the Sibylline Oracles. These two texts were not only written entirely from an outsider’s perspective, but were also made to appear as written for outsiders. In the Letter of Aristeas the narrator and the recipient are both distinguished Greek court officials, whereas in the Third Sibyl the narrator is a “pagan” prophetess who introduces herself as Noah’s niece (and therefore can be interpreted as a representative of the universal mankind), whose prophecies are addressed chiefly to Greeks. As numerous scholars agree, both of these works were actually written for a Jewish audience, which underscores their importance for the construction of a literary identity of the Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenistic Period. While the narrator and the recipient in the Letter of Aristeas are both distinctly Greek figures, who are ready to appropriate elements of Jewish heritage into their worldview, the Third Sibyl goes one step further by appropriating the well-known figure of the pagan prophetess, connecting her to the Jewish tradition and having her speak to the Greeks from a position of authority.

The historical survey in the confessional prayer in Neh 9:6-37 differs from other biblical historical surveys. It does not open with the Israelites’ descent to Egypt, enslavement, and release from slavery (e.g., Judg 6:7-10; 1 Sam 12; Pss 78, 106), but with Abraham. It also differs in its treatment of Moses. The second unit of the survey (vv. 9-11), which describes the enslavement in Egypt and the Exodus, makes no mention of Moses, the protagonist of the pentateuchal Exodus tradition. Rather, through the use of second-person singular verbs, the description highlights divine mercy for Israel. Moses’s absence here is consistent with his “removal” from other biblical texts that narrate miraculous events, such as the crossing of the Reed Sea (Exod 15:1ff.; Josh 2:10, 4:23; Ps 78:13, 114:1-8, among others). This trend continues in rabbinic literature. The sole mention of Moses in the survey is found in v. 14b: “and You ordained for them laws, commandments and Teaching, through Moses Your servant.” This refers not to Moses’s taking the Israelites out of Egypt and leading them in the wilderness, but only to the tradition of the giving of the Torah by Moses. This portrayal of Moses is related to the survey’s reference to the divine giving of the Torah (and the Sabbath; vv. 13-14a), which is not mentioned in other biblical surveys of Israelite history. This lecture will attempt to show that this represents the stabilization of pentateuchal authority in Israelite life during the restoration period and the importance assumed by its public reading and study.

In the discussion regarding the phrase ”an angel of Satan” in 2 Cor 12:7, several possible interpretations have been supplied throughout history. The suggestions are many, such as a demon, migraine, blindness, or human opponents. Recent scholars have narrowed the discussion down to either a disease, or Paul’s opponents. The purpose of my presentation is to argue that Paul was aiming these harsh words towards the people who were undermining his authority in Corinth. I explore this interpretation by using primarily two sociological theories that have not been used on this text before, but have been used on other New Testament texts. Using a modified Socio-Rhetorical method, I employ theories concerning group identity and group formation and apply them to the wider context of 2 Cor 10–13. My thesis is that Paul creates a sort of ”prototype” of himself and an ”anti-type” of his opponents, and in this way, he is showing the community in Corinth what it is to be a true believer of Christ. By behaving in the proper way, a person is considered being an ”insider”, while any deviations from this behaviour, makes you an ”outsider”. I also apply Howard Garfinkel’s Status Degradation Theory on the text and trace Paul’s use of different words to label his opponents—in effect showing the community in Corinth that these people, Paul’s opponents, are not to be trusted. In fact, they belong not to Christ, but to Satan, and are doing his bidding by being ”Satan’s angels”. Using these theories I propose that when Paul says that he has an ”angel of Satan” beating him, he is referring to his opponents.

Academic research on the parables and other Gospel stories has been for centuries focused on the meaning of words in their literary context. When the analysis has been carefully done, the Sitz im Leben, the context or setting of the story or the entire gospel, has been defined in order to form a view of the community that used these stories, or in order to interpret the particular story from the point of view of the supposed community. This has led evidentially to the ¬¬- often unmentioned - view that the western academics are the best experts in understanding and interpreting the often quite strange parables and other words of Jesus. My book The Gospel of the Poor (Lambert Academics 2017) challenges this view. By telling the Gospel stories in African villages or in Palestinian towns showed me that people living in poverty or suffering from occupation do hear and understand the texts differently, at least if they have not been told beforehand the “right” meaning of the story. In my paper, I want to rise discussion about the usefulness of this kind of inter-contextual study to the study of Synoptic Gospels. Do people living in poverty and in a culture much closer to the NT times than most of the scholars understand the stories in such a way that needs to be heard also in academic studies? It would be useful for the participants to read the Gospel of the Poor before attending the session.

In this paper, I propose that the ontology of new materialism offers an innovative and original approach for analysing biblical texts from an ecological perspective. New materialism is perhaps best understood as an ontological model, but has been applied in a range of scientific, philosophical, political, and literary contexts since its emergence in the 1990s. In short, new materialism seeks to conceptualise the world, and indeed the wider universe, from a non-anthropocentric perspective by acknowledging the agency of both human and non-human entities, and the inherent interconnection and interdependence of all things. In these respects, then, new materialism appears to be compatible with the principles of ecology established in the last century. There is therefore potential to use new materialist ontology to examine biblical texts from an environmental perspective. I shall begin by discussing three principles that are central to new materialist thinking; (1) non-human agency, (2) interconnectedness, and (3) scale. I shall then show how these three principles are compatible with, but different to, the contemporary ecological theory upon which ecological hermeneutics has been founded. Finally, using the depiction of the physical world in Jonah 1:4 in exemplification I shall demonstrate how the ontology of new materialism might be applied to produce innovative interdisciplinary ecological readings of biblical texts.

Paradoxically, God’s answers to Job in Job 38–41 consist – namely at the beginning – to a large extent of questions. In scholarship, these questions are unanimously recognized as ironic. But what is the aim of the irony in this part of the book? Attempts to identify the rhetorical effect and aims of the irony in God’s bipartite speech often lack theoretical foundations. Therefore, in my paper I will firstly compare theories on the function of irony in philosophical, linguistic and literary perspective and secondly propose a set of criteria in order to identify elements of irony in biblical texts and to evaluate their rhetoric function. Thirdly, I will examine Job 38:1–39:30 based on the proposed methodology and by this offer an interpretation of the rhetoric of irony in God’s first speech.

In Job 7:11-16, it is made quite clear that the suffering of Job is not merely physical, but psychological and spiritual as well. His psychic torment is manifested here in the dreams and visions (7:14) that mock his fond hope that his bed would be a source of comfort (7:13), and this mental distress is compounded by his sense that the source of this violent attack on his inner life is God. In order to give expression to this conjunction of physical, psychological, and spiritual distress, the poet exploits the well-known polyvalence of the Hebrew noun nephesh. In 7:11, “mar naphshî” can be taken to mean “the bitterness of my soul,” an inner bitterness that forces Job to speak out in protest, and in 7:15 “naphshî” can be taken as the subject of “wativchar,” thus “my soul has chosen strangling,” or “I [myself] have chosen strangling.” Yet the fact that nephesh can sometimes mean “throat” and even “breath” suggests in the former case a wordplay with pî, “my mouth,” and in the latter case an ironic second meaning that “my throat has chosen strangling.” Thus by alluding to both physical and non-physical senses of nephesh, the poet is exploiting the richness of the language at his command to embody the conjunction of physical and psychological distress. This interpretation of Job 7:11-16 is set, in this paper, in the context of the ambiguous use of nephesh in the book of Job as a whole, in which Job’s attachment to his nephesh, that is, his “life,” is at stake (Job 2:4, 6). Brief suggestions will also be offered on how terms such as polyvalence, ambiguity, and indeterminacy can most accurately be used in the exegesis of the book of Job.

No Gospel presents Jesus as providing a systematic, philosophical discourse on the topic of forgiveness. That God can and does grant forgiveness and that humans are to forgive under certain conditions are both presupposed by the Gospels. More specifically in the Synoptics, in addition to three narratives that recall Jesus’ controversial announcements that he can forgive some people’s sins without them showing any acts of repentance for those sins (e.g. Mark 2:5 [and parallels]; Luke 7:48; Luke 23:34), Jesus is remembered as teaching his disciples to forgive those who sin against them (Matt. 18:21-22; Luke 17:3) and that they ought to forgive others so that their Father in heaven may forgive their sins (Mark 11:25; Matt. 6:12, 14-15; 18:35; Luke 6:37; 11:4). This paper, with the aid of several new social-scientific approachs to parables, will argue that Matthew’s parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23-35), Luke’s parable of the two debtors (Luke 7:41-43) and the three parables collected in Luke 15:4-32 (the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son) presuppose the divine-human connection assumed when people were described as forgiving others. Evidence from Second Temple Jewish literature and non-Jewish authors indicate that certain general assumptions about the conditions for announcing or offering forgiveness existed. The Matthean and Lucan parables investigated in this paper are more properly exegeted when recognizing these assumptions rather than imposing upon them anachronistic claims that they are evidence that Jesus offered a new paradigm about forgiveness wherein a person should forgive others regardless of whether God has.

In a 2015 article, Shawn J. Wilhite compared and evaluated the views of Michael Holmes, Paul Hartog, and Candida Moss concerning the interrelationship between “imitation” and intertextuality within the Martyrdom of Polycarp. Wilhite sought to analyze and synthesize these scholarly perspectives from the last decade, by investigating the three themes of “in accordance with the Gospel,” twofold imitation, and the narratological Gospel mirroring, as found within the Martyrdom of Polycarp. He argued that the notion of “a martyrdom according to the Gospel” encompasses both narratological elements and ethical facets. The purpose of this paper is not only to distinguish but to hierarchize the thematic importance of emulating the normative essence of Christ’s self-donation and the secondary accoutrements of replicating the narrative details of Christ’s passion. In the Martyrdom, the latter are subservient to the former, and the Gospel tradition echoes are fundamentally framed by a Pauline quotation and an associated Pauline theology of imitatio Christi. This hierarchization relieves tensions in Wilhite’s paralleling of the twofold imitation model with particulars of the narratological mirroring. The narrative particulars may fortuitously highlight an imitatio Christi, but emulating the norm of Christ’s self-donation essentially constitutes a gospel-martyrdom. Beyond the examination of “imitation” culled by Wilhite, we will also analyze the parallel concepts of participation, discipleship, being taught by the gospel, and walking by “the word of Jesus Christ.” In addition, we will convey new insights into the interconnection of “a martyrdom according to the gospel,” the “cup of Christ,” saving the elect, and defeating the Evil One. In the final analysis, a “martyrdom according to the Gospel” emulates the character of Christ, the impetus of his offering, the purpose of his death, the manner of his suffering, and the result of his triumph—as particularly focused through the imitative prism of altruistic self-donation.

One of the key characteristics of the Roman world, emphasised in recent scholarship, is its interconnectedness. The roads and waterways that crossed the Roman Empire were catalysts for travel and intercultural interaction. As a result, inhabitants of the empire often constructed their cultural and religious identities in an ongoing dialogue with other cultures and traditions. Travel narratives provide an excellent source to study these complex processes of identity-formation. In this paper I will explore how the authors of Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana and the Acts of the Apostles construct multi-levelled identities for their protagonists and how these identities interact with the local traditions these protagonists encounter on their writings. Combing the work of spatial theorists with concepts drawn from modern theories of globalisation, I intend to show that the identities of the protagonists in these works assume the shape of “global mélanges,” which incorporate and interact with a range of local traditions. By so doing, I aim to challenge the Rome-centredness of much previous scholarship on these writings. Whereas these earlier studies have argued that Rome is of central importance for how the Life of Apollonius of Tyana and the Acts of the Apostles portray the identities of their protagonists, I will argue that Rome does not take centre stage in these processes of identity-formation, but serves as one out of many local traditions that contribute to the cultural/religious identities of the protagonists in these writings.

In its polemics against aspects of Jewish and Christian anthropomorphism (God’s omnipotence and moral perfection, divine filiation), the Qur'an strives to construct a negative theology of its own. Yet, some verses, when taken at face value, seem to contradict the new Islamic message. Thus, when approached linguistically - and not theologically or through modern translations -, some segments in verses like Q 43:84 read “And it is He who in heaven is a god and in earth is a god”. We also learn in Q 33:57, that God curses “those who hurt God and his Prophet”, while another potentially embarrassing passage in Q 66:12 –“and We blew into it/him”–, might suggest that God breathed directly into Mary’s private parts. Such semantic possibilities were evidently discarded. In examining this category of delicate verses, I will show that: 1) they are rare or unique in their formulation; 2) given their distinctiveness both in form and meaning, some early manuscripts exhibit corrected scribal errors associated with some of these unusual verses; 3) to avoid embarrassment in Q 66:12, the explanation provided by Muqātil ibn Sulaymān in his Tafsir contains an unnoticed Biblical element that can be traced back to the Protoevangelium of James. I will also briefly consider the opposite phenomenon where semantic avoidance prevents the formation of specific themes (accusatory laments, God’s repentance) and motifs. As a case study, I will argue that the Prophet’s saying mentioning “the dog returning to his vomit” is reminiscent of Prov 26:11 and 2 Pet 2:22. It is to be found within the hadith genre only, for reasons analogous to those that motivated the pious rewriting of Jesus’ threat of vomiting the lukewarm in Codex Sinaiticus: to avoid inappropriate expressions of the divine.

Much has been published about the rabbinic midrashic interpretive system, but I believe that we may still discover new aspects concerning the sophisticated philosophy behind the system. The rabbis converted the concrete principle behind many significant Torah rules into an abstract legal rationale. For example, they replaced the concrete injunctions of the Torah "to rest from work" on the Sabbath with various legal abstractions, such as whether one has created something on Sabbath or not. Digging a pit is forbidden because one has created a structure, but doing it in order to use the excavated earth for covering something is not deemed so. Similarly is the prohibition to “transfer from one domain to another” and the legal method of its circumvention. A host of consequential rabbinic halakhot of biological and genealogical aspects are founded on abstract considerations not on their concrete attributes. Complex legal fictions are the basis of ordinances, vital for the economic enterprises. This sublimation offered them an effective system to interpret the Torah decrees both in more severe and more lenient manners, maintaining at the same time their theoretical formal adherence to the sacred immutable texts. In contrast to the modern attitude that permits to read into classic texts the reader’s response, without considering the author’s intent, the rabbis contended that their interpretation corresponds to the divine intent, even if the text did not mention it, or even bluntly contradicted it. Concurrently, the system stimulated the profound and constant study of the Torah to reveal its hidden intellectual and spiritual treasures.

There is wide agreement that what we may call the A-List of biblical history as recounted in Samuel-Kings and then reframed or brought up to date in Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah is poorly represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran. In fact, the role of David as the great king is arguably overshadowed by the powerful depiction of David as a luminous wise scribe and lyric composer in the Qumran Psalms Scroll (11QPsa). This paper will begin with a brief review of the evidence and previous explanations that have been offered for it. Most commonly the picture is explained by presupposing that the Qumran movement considered its own history as taking the place of the histories of Israel and Judah as well as Yehud as recounted in the Hebrew Bible. While there is certainly some truth in this, alternative explanations will be explored including some radical challenges to entrenched frameworks. In particular, the paper will walk us through a scenario suggesting that despite its formative place in the Bible that has reached us, the Deuteronomistic History and works such as Ezra-Nehemiah may not have been read and copied as widely as customarily assumed. This is not to say major events were not known. Many key players are certainly mentioned but we need not presuppose that the all too familiar comprehensive script of the larger narratives were inevitably read and copied widely. At the very least the Qumran evidence invites further critical reflection which I hope to stimulate with this paper.

Where Deut 12 and related texts represent with the unnamed maqom a more open concept of cult centralization (which is why the Samaritans could read Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch as their basic authoritative document), and the Book of Kings represents an especially Judean but not necessarily Judah-exclusive perspective on cult centralization, Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah developed in last-Persian or Hellenistic times a distinctive Jerusalem-centered picture of the "Israelite cult". Jerusalem is understood as the exclusive representation of the one maqom mentioned in Deut 12. This means at the same time that the argumentative depictions of the cultic centre in Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah are directed against other possible Jahwistic sanctuaries, of which Mt. Gerizim the most well known and important one. Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah differ however in the way they use the relevant texts and in itself ambivalent concepts of cult centralization from Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch (especially the priestly writings) and the Former Prophets. The different ways of accessing cult centralization will be addressed in this paper, with an emphasis on Chronicles` and Ezra-Nehemiah`s argumentation.

Dreams are a special form of visions in which the envisioned aspects are conveyed in longer narrational sequences. Within the sequences God delivers hints to the receiver’s behavior in the specific situation. This paper deals with the unique form of the the dreams which belong to the novel of Joseph and their narratological function. Two observations are striking concerning the function of the dream accounts within the novel of Joseph: 1. In Gen 37-50, Joseph is characterized on the one hand as a dreamer but on the other hand as a oneirocritic (dream reader) which means that he represents both functions in one person. In former investigations, the differentiation was used as argument for source criticism. But within the story the two characterizations geared to each other. Starting from narratological observations, this paper will line out the function of the dreams in comparison to other dream accounts of the Hebrew Bible and from other ANE sources to show the unique inner logic of the dream accounts within the novel. 2. The dreams of the novel of Joseph need to be interpreted. Therefore an oneirocretic is necessary. Within the Hebrew Bible this concept is rather unusual and one needs to ask the question if the reference to oneirocretic traditions in Egypt is used to evoke the local color of the novel or if it is a hint to the origins of the story in a Jewish community in Egypt as assumed in the latest diachronic analysis of the novel.

The Palestine History and Heritage Project aims at producing balanced and critical historical texts and materials related to Palestine and each of its regions from prehistoric times to the present. Our historical perspective is inclusive of the variety of cultural, religious and ethnic traditions reflected in Palestine’s complex history; not least that this history might speak to a common heritage for all who live in Palestine. To do this successfully, we need to write a region-oriented “people’s history”, describing each region in its distinctive anthropological, social and cultural forms; we need to describe these smaller and larger regions’ everyday culture based on theories of “lieux de memoire” (memory and heritage sites), rather than letting history of empires and world religions take center stage. Pfoh and Thompson have in their introduction to the project outlined 14 such regions, e.g. Acco, Lachish, Shechem, Jerusalem, Pella, etc.

The present paper profiles the work of the Danish theologian and semitist Johannes Pedersen (1883-1977) in the context of his time. Pedersen published his highly influential work on ancient Israel in between the two World Wars (1920-1934). His book, Israel I-IV, and its reception mirrors its turbulent time. It is a product of the first post-war period, and in a way also a prelude to the Second World War. Israel I-IV, which was later translated into English, was hailed as an impressive achievement in the understanding and appreciation of the world-view of the Hebrew Bible texts. Biblical students and scholars found inspiration in Pedersen’s interpretation of the texts on their own terms. His presentation included a vivid and appealing combination of the exotic and the familiar in the biblical universe. Danish and Nordic Old Testament scholars in the period between WW1 and WW2 were deeply influenced by Pedersen’s work. The impact of Pedersen’s Israel should also be viewed against the general background of the culture and mood of the epoch. Cultural evolutionism and optimism on behalf of modern European culture were not highly regarded in the aftermath of the WW1. European culture was not necessarily the peak of evolution. Other more exotic cultures past and present were now perceived as relevant voices with a potentially important message for the day. Accordingly this paper maps the overwhelmingly positive reception of Pedersen in this perspective.

The Tel Dan inscription has come to be read as an apology of Hazael legitimating the extension of his domain into Dan. This is true of only the initial stage in the inscription’s ‘biography,’ however. The Tel Dan inscription also came to materialize the opposite of the surface meaning of its text at a later stage in its history. This reading can be borne out by a broader analysis of the text’s monumentality – the combined qualities of the inscription by which it afforded meaning to the community interacting with it. While the semantic content and rhetorical structure of the inscription are the most obvious meaning-making components to modern scholars, this was not necessarily the case for an ancient audience. Rather, the spatial integration of the inscribed object and its ritual manipulation would be more apparent sources of meaning in an ancient context. Because monumental inscriptions were socially embedded in these ways, their meanings were subject to change and must be studied in historical sequence. This paper proposes a two-stage history of the Tel Dan inscription’s monumentality. The text was initially produced and integrated at Dan to legitimate Hazael’s control there. When Israel recaptured Dan, however, the inscription was intentionally destroyed in an act of ritual deactivation. Furthermore, some of the pieces appear to have been reintegrated and displayed as a counter-monument at significant ritual zones at the site. This reversed the intended meaning of the text, instead materializing the defeat of Hazael’s kingdom and the resurgence of Israel.

Martin Dibelius’s view of the Letter of James as paraenesis has been rejected rightly yet only partially. While scholars now agree that the Letter has some structure and coherence, the label “paraenesis/paraenetic” continues being attached to the Letter (Holloway; Allison). This paper shows how unhelpful and unfitting the concept of paraenesis is for the study of the Letter. I suggest that it is time at least to carefully spell out what it means to say, if one chooses to say, the Letter is paraenetic. The first part of this paper reviews critically the concept of paraenesis. I argue that, as the Lund account of paraenesis (2000) partially admits, paraenesis is an invention by biblical scholars that has been unduly reified. Problems abound. First, because the concept has evolved over decades it is unclear what the term means precisely when scholars use it. Second, despite the Oslo account (2001), there is no consensus in defining it. Third, there is some circular reasoning in scholars’ discussions of “paraenetic” writings. Fourth, some defining characteristics of paraenesis do not fit the so-called paraenetic writings or sections. The second part discusses the Letter of James in relation to paraenesis, especially the view that paraenesis merely reminds the audience of what they already know. Some of James’s teaching, however, is unconventional and even striking. Three examples here: first, the sitting arrangement at the synagōgē (2:1-6); second, James 4:4 (parallel to the saying is not found anywhere); third, the idea that the elders can induce both healing and forgiveness of sins through their prayer for the sick (5:14-15; no parallel anywhere). Central to the rhetoric of James is the purpose to persuade the audience of the author’s unconventional assertions. At the end I will propose categories more promising than paraenesis for the study of the Letter.

There is no doubt that “wisdom” has to do with human understanding, which is a particular form of human knowledge and behavior. Starting from the twentieth century, western scholars began to investigate the wisdom materials in the cultures which were neighbor to Israel. And it has been well discussed that the ancient Near Eastern wisdom was partly entered into Israelite wisdom. This paper will first outline the intellectual context of Qoheleth. The book is not a secondary edited collection, which presents an inner unity and stands firmly in wisdom tradition. The paper will then examine the Chinese translations of Qoheleth. Through the translations, attention will be given to the ways, in which the concept of wisdom in Qoheleth was accepted in China. It will be argued that Qoheleth’s “wisdom” in China has a twofold meaning referring to both knowledge and virtue.

This paper seeks to demonstrate the centrality of pneumatology to the construction of Christian identity in the Epistle of Barnabas, considering how the author of Barnabas utilizes the past, present, and future work of the Spirit to delineate a distinct identity in contrast to the epistle’s constructed Jewish identity. First, this paper analyzes three examples in which the epistle claims the great heroes of the Jewish faith for Christianity on account of their looking forward to Christ by means of the Spirit. Second, this paper examines the epistle’s understanding of the Spirit’s role in the present dispensation, focusing on how the Spirit not only foresaw those who would become followers of Christ but also continues to call them to obedience in light of the fact that the Spirit has been poured out upon them. This latter point, third, has implications for solving the puzzle of the epistle’s eschatology through careful attention to its pneumatology. At each step, this argument is concerned to show how a proper understanding of the work of the Spirit, past, present, and future, provides a unified and heretofore neglected means by which the epistle fashions a unique Christian identity.

The story of the Gerasene demoniac (5:1–20) is indeed an interesting one in the Gospel of Mark. One of the more subtle yet significant themes that can be seen in this passage is that of the secrecy of Jesus’ identity. Although reasons for the Messianic Secrecy vary among scholars, it is clear from the eight specific counts of Jesus’ own words in Mark that secrecy is indeed an important motif. In the story of the Gerasene demoniac, however, the importance of secrecy is seemingly reversed, as Jesus specifically instructs the healed man to go and tell people of his demonic deliverance. Why does Jesus not follow suit as he does in the other eight instances of healing and deliverance? What is different in the characters or setting that could influence this difference? What is Mark trying to convey through this apparent break in the theme of secrecy? This paper will focus on the latter half of the pericope to address these questions, eventually addressing the theme of Mark’s Christology in this passage. An argument will be made through an OT intertextual narrative analysis and comparison of the characters in this pericope, making connections between the exorcism/drowning in Mark 5 to the salvation/drowning account in Exodus 14. This will be done all the while delving into the historical background and literary context, examining the Greek grammar, analyzing the lexical and semantics nuances of certain terms, comparing the text with its synoptic parallels, and recognizing the social-cultural influences. Through these procedures, this paper will assert that Mark shows Jesus intentionally pausing his normal pattern of secrecy in order to relay the self-revelatory nature of YHWH in Exodus, which in this passage ultimately serves to imply the inclusion of the Gentiles in his plan of salvation.

The understanding of the Lucianic characteristics is essential when reconstructing the oldest attainable text of the Old Greek, particularly in the Historical Books of the Septuagint. In the kaige-section (10:6-24:25) the Hebraising corrections at their best have influenced the majority of the Greek manuscripts. The Lucianic manuscripts, once in a while, as only witnesses have preserved the Old Greek. The search of revisional and Lucianic readings is therefore preferable to begin in the non-kaige-section (1:1-10:5), which is the object of this paper. This paper shows some reviser´s characteristics such as syntactical, morphological and other stylistic features. They are observable in several part of speeches, which are added, omitted, rewritten or transposed. A characteristic is not constantly an individual part of speech itself but a text context where it is used. To recognize a Lucianic reading requires special criteria, internal and external. A Lucianic reading is often stylistically and logically a better reading for the reviser aimed at improving the text. However, the question is whether the reviser accomplished this aim. In addition, if the Lucianic reading is secondary in relation to the Old Greek, the reading is not always Lucianic. The secondary reading might be attested in the Vorlage text of the reviser. The number of manuscripts that agree with the Lucianic manuscripts, may offer a clue of that. However, any external criteria, which lays importance only on a number of manuscripts and an individual manuscript, is insufficient. All readings need an evaluation case by case and by their own merits. This may reveal what happened to the text.

For Muslims, the Quran is the holy book of God, but this is not the only holy book. The Quran names many other sacred books, including the Bible. Belief in these scriptures and their prophets clearly is mentioned as a necessary part of Islamic faith. Though there are some different implications for the term “prophet” in the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Quran, they have much in common as well. This paper aims to (1) emphasize the figures of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad in the Quran, though Muhammad is mentioned fewer times than the others; (2) examine how Moses and Jesus are highlighted in the Quran, respectively as rational and irrational aspects of the faith. The former is related to the Covenant and the latter to the Word; (3) use several Biblical references to show the commonality between these three texts; (4) discuss how Muhammad is an outstanding example of harmony between Moses and Jesus in the Quran in order to avoid an anti-rational understanding of faith. It thus concludes with how these various aspects come together to present a comprehensive and dynamic image of faith, which encourages everybody to enjoy their share of it. Methodologically, I focus on the Quranic and Biblical texts themselves. However, I use the idea introduced by Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) and Sayed Haydar Amoli (1319-1385) about Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. The conclusion, which is the big gap among these three religious traditions, does not emerge from the sacred texts, but the hermeneutics applied on them, which in turn, are impacted by an interpreter’s limits. A greater outcome is that the meaning of book and tahrif (distortion/alteration) as well as the scope of mutual cooperation to enhance Abrahamic spirituality will be promoted.

This article presents and shares my fieldwork findings and contributes to practical theological conversations about the nature and practice of knowing the ‘other’, from the perspective of collecting, coding, discerning, observing, analysing, interpreting, and in, particular, discovering new concepts from the narrative or data emerging out of the experience of the participants’ and the researcher. I discuss a contemporary enquiry driven by desire for plausible and genuine reflection, deep into the everyday lived human and religious phenomenon. I discuss the perspectives in the men’s narratives and what that means. This includes different positions on seeking asylum and the process of renegotiating identity, which includes sexual violence. I explain how the analysis of the stories is carried out in conversation with scriptural material and, the extent to which this strategy it is supported by the available evidence and, how what the participant’s say possesses other theological virtues. The central ideas in these different contributions hinge on the question of how human stories and the story of/about God interact. It is through the narrative expressions (what the participants say) that I have observed stories that suggest their constant interpretation and analysis, which explains their desires for social change and deeper relationship with God. In this research, I distinguished between different layers of meaning, for example, the analysis of the text and the themes within that have evolved and, I employed a framework for epistemic appraisal between the epistemic statues of different shows of courage, strength and tremendous reliance; in the hope of contributing to a serious appraisal of the epistemic statues of some of the themes that run through Scripture, especially those that speak about transformation, wrestling, lament, desire, pleasure, multiplicity and multiple overwhelmings. KEY WORDS “structure, perspective, tone, role assignment, audience justification” Scripture, policy making

The Table of Nations (Priestly composition, Gen 10*) and the story about the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), which follows immediately, share certain commonalities. Common points include first the theme of humanity’s dispersal and its ethnic ramifications and second the expression šēm, which in Gen 10 is used as personal (and geographical) name and in Gen 11:4 as appellative (“renown, reputation”). Yet, in the Table of Nations šēm, Shem’s name, may also have this latter meaning (“great name, reputation”); this makes good sense insofar as Shem is considered to be the ancestor of five nations (regions) of great importance in the Levant during the first half of the first millennium BCE (see Gen 10:22). However, the two accounts also contradict one the other. The cause of humanity’s spreading over the world and of the inner differentiation in nations, tribes, and languages is different. According to Gen 10, this development seems neutral or positive. In Gen 11:1–9, however, it results from humans’ hubris, namely, the attempt to reach the divine realm, to “make themselves a name,” and from God’s countermeasure, confusing their language and scattering them over the whole world. The linguistic and thematic commonalities between the two units are striking and may favor the idea that one composition depends on the other and react to it. What is the literary-historical relationship between the two compositions? The question is only rarely put forward in scholarship, because the two accounts are predominantly interpreted in their own respective contexts, J and P, whereupon the former is considered to be presupposed by the latter. But treating the texts individually allows us to reexamine the question of their relationship.

Among the many issues surrounding the fourth servant song of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the identity of the suffering servant is still a fundamental question to answer. To identify the servant of the fourth servant song, this paper examines the main arguments for the identification under two main headings: the collective views (Israel; a pious minority within Israel) and the individualistic views (a historical figure; the prophet himself; the Messiah). Seemingly, each view has its own weakness. The view that the servant is ‘Israel’ cannot explain the equation of sufferer and beneficiary. The idea that the servant represents a “pious minority” of Israel is unlikely when we consider that both impious majorities and pious minorities shared the suffering of the exilic situation. Equating the servant with a historical personage is difficult, because it is hard to pinpoint a historical figure whose identification can survive scrutiny based on the details of the servant song. That the prophet himself is the servant is hardly likely. When both ‘we’ and ‘he’ (the suffering servant) are mentioned together in prophetic speech, the prophet belongs to the group, ‘we’. With regard to the messianic view, the most serious obstacle is the conflict of the suffering servant’s image with that of the royal Davidic Messiah. Among the five views, I will sort out the messianic view as the most plausible option arguing for the complementary relationship between the royal and suffering images of the Messiah.

It is well known that the Old Testament book of Daniel has been translated several times into Old Church Slavonic, but so far, there has not been a thorough investigation of the subject. The full text of Daniel is part of the Slavonic Catena in Prophetas and appears also in the so-called Judean Chronograph, while some quotes are used in the Slavonic Prophetologion. The book also served as the main core of Hippolytus of Rome’s Interpretation In Danielem. Finally, some passages have been included in De Antichristo. Some hypotheses have been expressed about the function of the different translations. After an examination of all Slavonic witnesses, I will argue that a revision of Ivan Evseev’s conclusions is needed.

Who gets to tell the stories when they do not originate from one's own culture and context? New Testament parables have intriguing and unique contexts in Africa and the Middle East because they often resonate differently from the western world of which I am a part. On the one hand, I argue that experiences of the Good Samaritan, for example, that have been told to me in Africa and that I have also encountered in Israel-Palestine resonate much more authentically with Lukan authorial intent than my own cultural understanding. On the other hand, can I, as a white, female feminist Westerner and outsider to Africa and the Middle East, tell those stories without objectifying the story tellers; is it possible for me to be an effective ally?

Scholarship on Syriac Christian responses to the challenge of Islam has so far mainly focused on the most obvious corpus, apologetic and polemic texts, leaving other literary genres where apologetic concerns may be more implicitly present largely unconsidered, such as Biblical exegesis. This paper argues that the West Syrian scholarly bishop Dionysius Bar Ṣalībī (d. 1171), who authored both the most comprehensive Syriac biblical commentary as well as the most comprehensive Syriac disputation against Islam, provides a unique vantage point for exploring the dynamics of implicit and explicit apologetics vis-à-vis Islam. As a test case, we will study how Bar Ṣalībī in both contexts deals with Jesus’ words and deeds seemingly at odds with his divinity, i.e. his expressions of fear of death (Mt 26:39 par.), godforsakenness (Mt 27:46 par.), ignorance (Mt 24:36 par.), impotence (Mt 20:20-23 par.), and inferiority to the Father (Jn 14:28). For each of these five pericopes, we will compare Bar Ṣalībī’s interpretations in direct reponse to Muslim objections in the disputation with those in his Gospel commentaries, to assess the (dis)continuity of Bar Ṣalībī’s apologetic concerns in both genres. As a result, light will be shed on the impact of the Islamic context on the Syriac Christian reading of the Gospels.

Many verses in the Book of Proverbs discuss the behavior required from sons toward their parents. They are warned against inappropriate behaviors such as: cursing (20:20; 30:11), causing grief (10: 1; 17: 21, 25; 23: 25), stealing property (28: 24; 29:3), and contempt (15:20; 23:22; 30: 17). Most of the warnings of the author of Proverbs against offending parents concern father and mother living under the same roof, their validity in the case of a single parent living by himself being self-evident. But in one verse - "he who torments his father and chases away his mother is a son who causes shame and brings disgrace" (Prov 19:26), the term "mother" should not be understood as completing the father to signify parents, but as a widow. Examination of the different behaviors of the son ("משדד" and "יבריח") and the time of their occurrence indicates that in this case, the son acts violently toward his father and mother in their lives, and after the father's death he harms his mother even more because of her new status as a widow and her property rights, so that she is forced to flee the house. This interpretation has not been discussed in previous studies and is based on a semantic linguistic analysis of the terms in the verse, and on ancient Near Eastern legal sources. The chasing away of the mother in Proverbs 19:26 and its motives are clarified in light of §172 in the Laws of Hammurabi, which deals with sons behaving in exactly the same way – chasing away their widowed mother from her home. The discussion is based on the assumption that the author warned against incidents firmly anchored in the social and legal reality of his own time and place.

This paper is part of a panel, "Silence is Violence." Tarana Burke started the #metoo movement “to empower women through empathy,” and part of its power is in connecting women’s stories of harassment, assault, and violence in a communal narrative. This prominence of feminine solidarity is anticipated by historian Sharon Bloch's Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, which shows that in the patriarchal society of early America, one of the key ways sexual violence was reported and redressed was through networks of social connection among women. These examples, and their emphasis on homosociality and communal support among women as a key function of voicing violence perpetrated against individuals, frames a site of exploration for the voicing of violence in biblical texts. Many characters who are victims of violence are denied voice either by the narrator or by other characters (e.g., Dinah, Tamar). But for those who do speak, what are the circumstances that enable them to come to voice? Are there communal structures in evidence that play a role in naming perpetrated violence? Both Song of Songs and Lamentations strikingly feature the voice of an assaulted woman. This essay examines the emergence of speech after violence in both texts, exploring the social relationships that enable speech to emerge, as well as the patterns of silence that persist. It argues that sociality and communal identity (realized, or unrealized) are key components of the voice of an assaulted woman.

In this paper, I explore the significance of the metaphorical expressions that are used to characterize the actions of the prophesying women in the Septuagint text of Ezekiel 13:17–23. Ezekiel 13:17–23 is a section that has generated significant scholarly interest. The Masoretic text describes a group of women who seem to prophesy but also manufacture obscure instruments to trap people or souls. However, the Septuagint offers a reading that is considerably different since the references to trapping are replaced with verbs that refer to metaphorical perverting or twisting. My primary argument is that the text uses metaphors to create a threatening image of the women who are able to lead people away from God. In the Greek text, the twisting and turning of the victims is used to conceptualize the actions and results of prophesying women. Metaphorical expressions of Ezekiel 13:17–23 cannot be interpreted in isolation since they follow each other, which enhances the image of the women as a threat. Furthermore, the conceptual metaphor “life is a journey” that is communicated more clearly in verse 13:22 seems to connect the metaphorical expressions of the section. The paper argues that the relations of the metaphors need to be studied. This is essential for the assessment of the threat that the text seeks to communicate. Moreover, the paper suggests that in the case of Ezekiel 13:17–23 it is necessary to go beyond the Masoretic text and ask how metaphors and the nature of threat are presented in the LXX.

When comparing the citation formulae in biblical Chronicles in the Masoretic Text with the Septuagint, the last formulaic citation (2 Chronicles 36.8) presents a problem, where it may be seen that the Septuagint has substituted the standard Chronicles formula as found in the Masoretic text (“the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah”) with the one found only in Kings (the book of “the kings of Judah and Israel”). Furthermore, the burial site named only in Kings, and only in connection with Kings Amon and Manasseh, has been inserted into Chronicles from Kings in connection with King Jehoiakim, plus a few additiona details. Additionally, when looking at the unevenness between Chapters 1 Samuel 16 and 17 where David is called to sing and play the harp for Saul, and then in the next chapter where he kills Goliath, Saul asks to meet this hero who has saved Israel. It is as if Saul had never met David before. This points to two sources for the two narratives, but in the Septuagint 2 Samuel 17 the verses 12-32, wherein lie the discrepancies, are eliminated. Both instances point to a rationalising process, tidying up a problem area, which is not altered in the Masoretic Text. The old idea of “lectio brevior potior,” the shorter reading is to be preferred, has been challenged in recent scholarship. In my own research from a different angle, I have come to this same conclusion, realizing that “lectio difficilis potior” is more likely to be nearer to the original, at least in these instances. This has led to further enquiry into the Septuagint itself, which has resulted in several lines of enquiry and a whole lot of questions rather than reaching any definitive answers.

The current anthropological discussion of ontology, inspired especially by Philippe Descola’s Beyond Nature and Culture (ET 2013), has so far had little impact on Biblical exegesis. In this paper I propose that Descola’s ontological categories may throw new light on Genesis and the rest of the Bible, including the relationship between Gen 1 and Gen 2-3.

Recent socio-historical studies of the Persian Yehud have revealed that the Levites, the second-tier temple personnel, probably had their own social, economic, and religious interests distinguished from those of the priests. Against this backdrop, this paper endeavors to look into the way the Chronicler, most likely a Levitical scribe, treats the pentateuchal tradition of the wilderness sanctuary, the priestly Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle). According to the recent Pentateuch discussions, the building of the Tent of Meeting is the ultimate goal of Pg as well as the conclusion of the source. In Pg, therefore, the Tent is the center of the cosmos where the creator is present permanently. In Chronicles, however, the priestly Tent is treated ambivalently. On the one hand, the daily sacrifices are continuously made before the Tent (1 Chr 16.39-40), which is located in the high-place of Gibeon for a justification of Solomon's sacrifice there (2 Chr 1; 1 Kgs 3). On the other hand, the cultic significance of the priestly Tent is much reduced in Chronicles. An alternative tent built by David in Jerusalem holds the Ark, while the priestly Tent remains as a high-place sanctuary even without the Ark. The former’s cultic significance and continuity to the Solomonic Temple are emphasized, whereas the latter is eventually abandoned by David in favor of Ornan's threshing field (1 Chr 22.29). The Chronicler also reformulates the Davidic tent as a Levitical cultic place in a sharp contrast with the declining priestly Tent. Such an ambivalent treatment of the Tent of Meeting in Chronicles can be understood in a larger framework of the Levites’ social and ideological struggle against the dominant, Zadokite priestly group.

The notion of the law (Torah) in the Hebrew Bible has developed into a system that, in some biblical texts originated in the Persian period, represents almost everything of religious and cosmological significance. The same can be said about the transformation of the tradition of “Li” in ancient Chinese culture. This transformation occurred around the 4th century BCE when the notion of “Li” gradually developed from a specific ritual behaviour to the all-inclusive collective concept. This presentation will read Ps 1:1-2 which in particular reflects the collective concept of “Torah” in the context of the notion of “Li” in “Duke Zhao Twenty-Five Years”. The presentation will discuss how the notion of “Torah” in Ps 1:1-2 and the notion of “Li” in “Duke Zhao Twenty-Five Years” provide insight into each other.

In the “Deuteronomistic History”, there is a widespread dynamics between “us” and “them”, discerning between Israel and “the others”, that is, those who threaten Israel’s peculiar relationship to YHWH. These texts are also characterized by a language filled with stereotypes and clichés. This paper explores the role of gender in ethnic/religious encounters in 1 and 2 Kings, focusing on presentation of Jezebel. Characterized by various identities, Jezebel has been labeled “the ultimate other”: She is daughter of a Phoenician king, queen of the Israelite king Ahab and mother of the Israelite king Joram. She is a foreign woman, loyal Baal-worshiper, powerful wife and oppressor. Jezebel makes sure that YHWH’s prophets are killed and that some criminals make the vine-grower Nabot of Jisreel stoned to death (1 Kings 21:8-10). And like most in this story, also Jezebel is a victim of violence: she is killed and thrown to the dogs (2 King 9:7;10;32-37). To scrutinize the significance of gender to ethnic/religious encounters, I will relate the role of Jezebel to that of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31), Elijah (1 Kings 18-19), Nabot (1 Kings 21) and Jehu (2 Kings 9). The theoretical focus relates to postcolonial and intersectional studies, which both have proven rewarding in analyzing questions of identity, gender and power, highlighting, for instance, the complexity of identity formations and the related topic of the construction of “the other”. I shall apply the cultural critic Homi Bhabha’s concept of hybridity, which is developed as a critique of constructed dichotomizations (including stereotypes and clichés). The analysis of the complex relationship between “us” and “them”, will be expanded with an intersectional perspective, which adds a sensitivity to the fact that there are different ways of being female- or gendered.

Eugene Nida and Charles Taber, two experts in biblical translation, suggest that the Greek term σάρξ is used only incidentally with reference to people in the New Testament. They maintain that ‘mass object’ is the primary sense of the concept. In their perspective, the “figurative usage can greatly complicate the analysis of certain phrases” (Nida & Taber 2003). This paper turn the tables and asks how ‘ordinary’ readers make sense of the translations of σάρξ in passages where ‘people’ is the primary sense of the concept. It appears that the Greek concept σάρξ belongs to the semantic domain of anthropology or cosmology, while the English concept ‘flesh’ (Ger. Fleisch; Swe. ‘kött’) belongs to anatomy. The association ‘mass object’ seems to be triggered by the well-established translation of the Greek term into English, rather than by the Greek text itself. According to George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling (2012), the human mind works in mental cascades. A concept or combination of concepts trigger a chain of associations which together form a mental construct in which the concepts are incorporated. The interpreter has generally difficulties in resisting the chain of associations once triggered, and to choose only a selected part of the mental construct which they together form. Without any doubt, this phenomenon constitutes a challenge in the task of translation when the translator tries to transfer the semantic structure of the source text by means of concepts and phrases that only partially cover the same semantic field or belong to different semantic domains. The passages that will be investigated include Luke 24, John 1, Romans 8 and Galatians 5. The readers are asked what the respective author was trying to convey by means of the passage, and about their own emotional reactions to the phrasing.

A growing consensus in the study of Rom 7 is that an allusion to the fall in Genesis lies behind the event depicted in verses 8–10. However, the Adamic interpretation of this allusion has not proven sufficient to establish a resultant consensus concerning the identifications of either the event or the speaker in Rom 7:8–10, let alone the relationship of these verses to the remainder of the passage. We must therefore rethink the nature of the allusion. The principal verbal correspondence between the Genesis text and Rom 7:8–10 is the verb exapataō in verse 10. The speaker of Rom 7 is said to be deceived in the event just as Adam and Eve were deceived in Eden. Scholars typically place the focus of the deception in Rom 7 on the one who is deceived, resulting in the speaker being identified as Adam or as one in the Adamic flesh. However, I shall argue that, although there is an allusion to Gen 3, the allusion does not function principally to identify the one who is deceived. Rather, the function of the allusion is to characterise the one who deceives. In support of this reading I shall consider how Paul uses the verb exapataō throughout his letters, concluding that in every passage there is a shared context of false teaching. When there is also an echo of Eden, this allusion serves to draw a parallel between the serpent in the garden and the actions of the one teaching falsely in the present. The allusion is therefore not Adamic, but Edenic. Paul’s characterisation of the event of verses 8–10 in terms of deception presents the event as an occasion of false teaching, and, more specifically, functions to rhetorically denounce those teaching falsely in the present.

It is quite interesting to see that the verb qds (to be/become holy) occurs most frequently in Chronicles (32X), Leviticus (31X) and Exodus (28X). What is reflected in the Chronicler's usage of this concept, and with which Pentateuchal traditions does he engage on the matter? And furthermore, what implications do the results of such an investigation hold for the Chronicler's relationship with the Pentateuch? These questions will be discussed in the paper.

The Slavonic name, Їѡсифь прѣкрасни, which is the translation of the Greek, Ο πάγκαλος Ιωσήφ, refers, in Slavic and Greek church traditions and texts, to the "Joseph of Genesis" or the "Patriarch Joseph." In English, it is rendered as either the “Handsome Joseph” or the “Most Beautiful Joseph.” Joseph was a beloved biblical character in medieval Slavic texts and numerous Hellenistic stories about him found a home in Slavonic manuscripts. A number of these manuscripts are imaginative re-tellings of the so-called Joseph Story in Genesis (37-50). The embellishments and omissions in this biblical episode follow the earlier Hellenistic precedents, such as Joseph’s wail on his mother’s tomb, or the striking of his cup with the finger. A similar body of texts on Joseph has been preserved in Syriac, often with the same motifs. However, an excellent dramatic text, History of Joseph, which is known in Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic, did not find its way into the Slavic Joseph traditions. This presentation will argue that the omission of this text was due to its omission in the Greek Joseph tradition, which in turn has its cause in a particular Greek translation of the Septuagint of Gen 44:5 and 15.

Love (φιλαδελφία), manual labour (ἐργάζομαι), a quiet life (ἡσυχάζω), decent behaviour toward outsiders (εὐσχημόνως) and self-sufficiency (μηδενὸς χρείαν ἔχητε) are, though seemingly different issues, squeezed into only two short sentences in 1 Thess 4:9-12. Scholars have puzzled over such a collection of various issues and their brevity, struggling also to clarify with confidence the contextual specificity of the text that Paul is addressing. Despite scholars’ nuanced exegeses, the precise meaning of the text still remains ambiguous. An indispensable key for a more plausible interpretation of 1 Thess 4:9-12 is tracing the religious, social and economic context of Paul’s recipients based on clues both in the whole letter and in archaeological and historical sources which glimpse at historically invisible plebs’, in particular craftsmen’s, everyday lives in Thessalonica. Furthermore, another key is delving into the Thessalonians’ social behaviours and relationships through socio-economic and social psychological lens. I suggest, on the basis of the above historical and social scientific exploration and reconstruction, that there was intractable conflict between believers and non-believers who had built camaraderie as fellow labourers in tabernae, social clubs, like voluntary associations, and households, and therefore that Paul had in mind responding to the conflict in 1 Thess 4:9-12 in three ways: mitigating harassment from outsiders, minimizing its detrimental social and economic effects on the believers, and thus sheltering solidarity and reciprocal relationships. This is a case study in which the deep interrelations among theology, social behaviours or relationships, identity and socio-economic factors can be revealed. It is likely that Paul’s thought and the Thessalonians’ belief systems with regard to intergroup and intragroup ethics, such as reciprocity, are not unrelated to their socio-economic status and situations. I expect that this study may pave the way for further research on socio-economic factors influencing community ethics and social identity in Pauline letters.

The aim of my presentation is to show how the theoretical and methodological principles of the Digital New Testament project are put into practice. I wish to demonstrate how the word for word Finnish translation of the Greek source text is edited and stylized to meet the ideals formulated during the pilot project called DigiMarkus. I will concentrate on the questions of sentence structure as well as vocabulary. My primary example are verses 3–6 of the Colossians. In the word for word translation those verses form a single, very long and complex sentence. I will analyze how this sentence can be turned into five shorter and more readable sentences. I will also deal with the problem of antiquated words that are probably unintelligible from the point of view of our fictional model reader. For example, I have dispensed with the word armo, in English grace, because ₋ as I will argue ₋ this central Christian concept has become problematic in the Finnish context.

Since the very beginning of historical critical exegesis on Judg, the distinct character of Judg 6:7-10 within the Deuteronomistic introduction to the Gideon story has been noticed and highlighted. Although few scholars advocated the literary unity of Judg 6:1-10 (e.g. Martin Noth) the discovery of 4QJudg verified the others’ assumptions and provided evidence for the late insertion of the nameless prophet’s words. Going beyond this evidence, Judg 6:7-10 serves as a famous example of the methodologically close interdependence between literary criticism and textual criticism. In this case it becomes obvious that textual criticism does not only affect the so-called Endtext but also its previous stages. Going one step further, Judg 6:7-10 may also put the Former Prophets’ redactional history up for discussion. The striking and unique literary connections between Judg 6:7-10 and Josh 24 (i.e. Judg 6:10 and Josh 24:15, אלהי האמרי) raise questions which may challenge several explanations regarding Josh 24 and its function in the context of the Former Prophets. Is it possible to trace back both texts to the same tradition? If yes, this would result in a late dating of Josh 24, and any supposed pre-Deuteronomistic Hexateuch connections including this chapter would turn out to be obsolete. If not, it has at least to be explained which motives may have caused the interpolator of Judg 6:7-10 to exactly take up the formulas and ideas from Josh 24. In each case empirical evidence of textual history sheds new light on a key text of Former Prophets’ redactional history.

In this paper I will show how ancient Hebrew poetry in the Bible (including Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of the Sea) was constructed using ring composition dating back to Sumerian texts. This widely used structure, what I call the parable blueprint, is provable and is all about hidden comparisons for a wisdom purpose. It was used for genres other than just poetry. I will give examples of the structure in non biblical texts as well.

In post-exilic times the political structure of the sub-province Judah had to be reconstructed. Two conditions for concepts of leadership and political structure had to be met in this period: 1) Different from pre-exilic times, the king could not be a member of the Davidic dynasty (or another member of the Judean community) any longer. The most important element of pre-exilic political leadership was therefore missing. It was thus mandatory to find a concept that would make up for this gap of power and leadership. 2) Judah was a small part of the Achaemenid Empire. The Achaemenid king demanded loyalty and taxes. Any realistic concept of political leadership had to take this dependency on the foreign power into account. In my paper I will scrutinize the role of the concept of kingship in Ezra/Nehemiah. I presuppose that we can trace different ideas about political structure in the book on the account of the redaction history of the text. I will ask what happened to the concept of kingship within the different layers of the book. Had the pre-exilic concept been developed into a new one? If so, what traditions of kingship were used? Or was the concept of kingship refuted? If so, how did they conceptualize new forms of leadership? Who had to take over the functions of the ‘king’? How were the reconstructed forms of leadership related to the Achaemenid political structure?

From a bird's-eye view, what are the most central topics and concepts in early Christian texts in Greek from the first three centuries and how do these texts differ from other Greek texts from the same period? Is it possible to extract the topics and concepts from the texts by using semi-automatic computational tools? And when being successful in this, what would findings from this research reveal about cultural evolution of early Christianity and its distinctiveness in respect to religious cultural evolution in general? In a way of answering these questions, the paper introduces selected methods of distant reading currently developed by the DiRECT project. The distant reading here designates a palette of methods drawing on computer programming tools from the area of natural language processing and information retrieval. The important prerequisite for adopting this approach in given field is the fact that the input data are now available online in a machine readable form.

The Greek 2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms) presents special problems for a critical editor. While the translation is fairly literal and the Hebrew Vorlage is not too different from the MT, the textual history of the Greek text is quite complex. The latter half of the book (probably from 10:6 onwards) has undergone the Hebraizing kaige revision and sporadic kaige-type readings can be found all over the book. The Lucianic (Antiochene) text has escaped many of the kaige readings but they evince heavy revision of a stylistic nature. Many manuscript traditions present a mixture of text-types. The complex text-historical situation requires the editor to set aside rules of thumb and apply a wide range of criteria in making the critical decisions. These include the nature of the witnesses, traits of the kaige revisers and the Lucianic reviser, and translation technique. This paper presents difficult cases esp. from 2 Sam 10–11 and 24 that have to be reckoned with when producing the critical edition of 2 Samuel for the Göttingen Septuagint.

Similarities between the sectarian rule texts found in Qumran (D, S, and Sa) and Paul’s instructions to his groups of Christ-believers were noticed early after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Research comparing the yahad with Greek and Roman voluntary associations began to be published in the 1960s. Since then, two major monographs have dealt with the latter relationship, those of Moshe Weinfeld in 1986 and Yonder Moynihan Gillihan in 2012, as well as a number of interesting articles. Much of the discussion has focused on questions of influence. During recent years, a wealth of inscriptions from voluntary associations has been published, and more is to come. In this paper I wish to revisit the issue by focusing specifically on how norm infringements are dealt with, or more precisely, analyse mechanisms of retribution and repair for trespasses. Comparing rule texts, association laws and Pauline reproaches, I will ask about possible effects and ultimate goals, given the diverse contexts these texts represent. The varying roles of hierarchy and honour in these contexts will be considered with the help of commitment (or costly) signalling theory, the valuable relationships hypothesis, and game theory (reputation).

Ps 89:15 is one example of allegedly "abstract" nomina (also צדק ,דבר etc.) appearing like active persons. In 2016, Erhard Gerstenberger published a study by comparing such formulations to Sumerian texts. He understands these nomina as impersonal forces acting in some autonomous distance from YHWH. In a similar direction go earlier interpretations by exegetes speaking of a "genius" (e.g. Keel, Hossfeld/Zenger). In my paper, I will include examples with and without pronominal suffix (relating to YHWH), abstract nomina and concreter ones (anger, night, arm, mouth, etc.), in order to gain a more complete and nuanced understanding.

This verse has been the subject of many heated exegetical debates aimed at shedding light on its elusive meaning. This study does not intend to offer a new interpretation of the meaning of “thorn in the flesh, angel of Satan”; it rather focuses on the text itself, by examining exegetically the various ideas and words communicated in it, paying special attention to grammatical forms, linguistic remarks, syntactic analysis (including the punctuation of some sentences), and textual criticism. It also assumes that the interpretation of 2Cor 12:7 has to occur within the context of St. Paul’s thought sequence, especially when it reaches its apex in the last verses of this unit, where the key words found throughout the entire context are used extensively (weakness, strength, boasting). The study provides original and persuasive arguments in favor of the old interpretation, the one adopted by St John Chrysostom, who considered the “pseudo-apostle” opponents of St Paul as the concrete referent in the metaphor “thorn in the flesh”.

This paper is an attempt to illuminate further Isaiah 5:8-10 & Micah 2:1-3 from a tribal perspective. It is generally recognized that the issue of land was of fundamental concern to the eighth-century prophets. However, an adequate explanation has never been given of the values and ethos of the prophets as reflected in their critique of the process of accumulation of land in the hands of a few rich people. Traditional interpretation of the texts has been dominated by questions relating to land tenure, land rights or land ownership patterns. Scholars usually connect the issue of land during the eighth century BCE with the economic issue of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. The commitment of the prophets to fight against land grabbing and the growth of large estates is also largely believed to have been motivated by their concern for the protection of the increasingly impoverished peasants. Though we cannot deny that the economic issue is profoundly associated with the issue of land the concerns of the prophets appear to be much more than economic. In light of the experiences of the tribal people in India, whose socio-cultural values, traditions and customs have been and are being destroyed in the context of alienation and displacement from their lands, some fundamental questions concerning issues encountered by the victims of land acquisition in the eighth century Judah have been raised. A new light has been thrown to reveal that land issues during the time of Isaiah and Micah can be connected not only with economic issue, but also with social, cultural and religious issues of the alienated people. The prophets could also largely be seen as the defenders of the traditional communitarian ethos and values which were being eroded during this time.

In my presentation I will investigate scriptural interpretation in 2 Baruch. I will show that 2 Baruch draws on the biblical sapiential tradition (Job and Qoheleth) and integrates it with the Jewish apocalyptical ideas (Daniel). I will explore linguistic components in 2 Baruch that find their home in biblical wisdom and in Daniel, as well as the ideological kinship. Both Baruch and Job are deeply involved with the human quest for wisdom. Like Job, Baruch has a series of conversations with God. Baruch is modeled after Job in that they share a formidable problem in preserving the reliance on the traditional wisdom. Particularly, Job’s theological skepticism of the familiar wisdom doctrine throbs beneath the text of Baruch’s disputation about divine justice in 2 Baruch 14. Like Job claiming his suffering to be innocent, Baruch is unwilling to accept the principle of God’s retribution about the Babylonian sacking of Zion. If Job resists it on a personal level, Baruch resists it on a social level. 2 Baruch describes God as quite different from the deity whom Job and Qoheleth envision. God offers Baruch a way out of Baruch’s theological impasse. Most fascinatingly, the resurrection scene in 2 Baruch 49-51 seems to forge an apocalyptic response to Qoheleth’s thought of death. While Qoheleth says that the righteous people’s “work,” “knowledge,” and “wisdom” are all forgotten (Qoh 9:10), Baruch’s God opposed view of them (2 Bar. 50:4, 51:7). Two different kinds of “many” in terms of the Torah in Daniel 11:33-34 is interpreted in 2 Bar. 14 and 41, where they either withdraw from or cling to the Torah. The portrayal of the two-stage glorification of the righteous group in 2 Baruch appears to be a revisionary exegesis of the eschatological bliss of maskilim in Daniel 12.

My essay deals with the afterlife of Daniel 4, focusing on how the satirical portrayal of imperialism as animalizing human society in Daniel 4 shapes its exegetical stream in Pseudo-Philo (135 B.C.E. – 70 A.D.) and 3 Baruch. Both Daniel 4 and its literary reflexes conceptualize in common the hierarchical imperial Babel as the great social evil that degrades humankind. The authors of Daniel 4 and Pseudo-Philo envision God as hostile to the imperial social system that defies the sovereignty of God, regarding the theriomorphic metamorphosis as God’s judgment on rebels (pace H. Jacobson, A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, 1996). The dehumanized form of the imperial society in Daniel 4 finds a closer analogy in 3 Baruch (1st to 2nd centuries A.D.). Transferring the context of Daniel 1 and 9 to the fabric of 3 Baruch, Baruch’s heavenly journey alludes to the motif of bestial transformation in Daniel 4. In Daniel 4 the subordinates of Nebuchadnezzar are depicted as the birds and the wild beasts in the monarch’s dream vision. Nebuchadnezzar, the head of their society, turns out to be a monstrous animal-hybrid more detestable than the natural animal-forms of the subordinates. Similarly, the animalized congregation of the first heaven in 3 Baruch refers to the subjugated workers (“the faces of oxen,” “the horns of stags,” “the feet of goats,” and “the haunches of lamb” [3 Bar. 2:3]) under the rule of their political leaders at Babel (“dogs” and “stags” [3 Bar. 3:3]). They are not simply the “result of an editorial elaboration” (pace A. Kulik, 3 Baruch, 2010) but also two separate groups that are divided into governing class and exploited class. Unlike the lower group in the first heaven, the upper group in the second heaven is identified as planners and controllers of the tower construction.

In my dissertation I will study the gender of Jesus in the Gospel of John. I do this from a queer theoretical point of view. Queer theory pursues to deconstruct the norms about sex, gender, and sexuality. It resists all fixed categories, including the identity categories that are attached to Jesus. Queer studies take a step forward from gender theoretical biblical studies, yet focusing on the important question about Jesus’ persona. Queer studies challenge previous Jesus studies by including the questions about sex, gender, and sexuality – but without stating anything fixed or certain. // Jesus’ persona still fascinates people, and as an answer, queer studies offer new theoretical tools and new perspectives. For example, Jesus’ masculinity and femininity, sexuality and relationships, are feasible research topics. The Gospel of John is intriguing source material for queer interpretations because it includes unique figures (such as Lazarus and beloved disciple), and unique textual forms (the prologue). Yet my main focus is on Jesus’ gender. By approaching the Gospel of John from queer theoretical perspective, I argue that the godliness of Jesus, and his relationship with God, has great effect on his persona, most of all, to his gender. Jesus is a man, but he is also a God – how can a human/God hybrid be a male per se? // Queer theory has no established methodology, thus, every scholar has to find out their own ways of using queer theoretical approaches in theology. My own approach is based on critical close reading and hermeneutical analysis. I will combine Jesus and queer theoretical perspectives in a new and re-imaginative way to produce new theological research, and to show in which ways Jesus could be queered in the Gospel of John. My queer theological research will produce multidimensional interpretations, where intersectional dimensions are tied together.

The siege of Samaria, which constitutes the longest story involving the Prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 6:24-7:20), has commanded a great deal of scholarly interest. The presentation concentrates on the king’s surprising threat to the life of Elisha son of Shaphat and the ensuing narrative developments (2 Kgs 6:31-33). In this episode, there is unparalleled tension between Elisha and the king of Israel. The function and meaning of this passage will be examined through the prism of other Elisha stories in the Book of Kings and their place in the book.

This presentation will discuss the epigraphs erected by the two sides in the military clashes that took place in Yemen circa 525 CE. In doing so, it will explore the impetus behind the texts and analyze their polemicizing content as a reflection of their cultural and religious context. Furthermore, I argue that their material circumstances were an attempt to mirror their social context and—in some cases—attempt to shape the outcome of the war as it progressed. The generals of the Jewish king, known in later sources as Joseph dhu Nuwas, left several vast inscriptions incised on rock describing their victories over and destruction of the Christian inhabitants in the area of Najran. These texts are polemical in nature and have an air of expediency since they were created on the road towards the next military encounter and recorded events which had just transpired. And with good reason as the Yemenis a year later lost the war, and their territory was annexed by the Ethiopians. The Yemeni inscriptions describe a mid-point in the war in which their authors thought they were winning. Their advances were quickly quashed by the Ethiopians, and the great epigraphs are a testament to the initial optimism on the Yemeni side. The inscriptions were found in situ in the 20th century. The Ethiopian king Kaleb had a long elaborate inscription written describing the ultimate victory over the fearsome heathens across the sea. It employs biblical phrases and terminology, casting the war, and victory, in a distinctly religious light. This epigraph is currently in the treasury of the church of our lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, Ethiopia, but exactly how it ended up there is somewhat unclear.

Abstract: The Infancy Gospel of Thomas 12:1-4 and the Recognitions of Pseudo-Clement 3:1-14 both present complex figural interpretations of the parable of the sower. Unlike many texts often considered in biblical reception history, however, these writings provide at most minimal explicit interpretations of their biblical intertexts, instead relying on implicit narrative cues in the form of their diction, settings, dialogue, and plot structure to establish intertextual connections. Careful attention to these cues shows that both of these texts offer rich interpretations of the parable of the sower that also function implicitly as exhortations to their hearers. Specifically, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas connects the fruit-bearing seed in the Lukan parable of the sower to almsgiving through its diction and plot structure and by establishing an intertextual link between the parable and Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand in Luke 9. In doing so, it implicitly exhorts readers to an imitatio Christi by feeding the poor and reconfigures the context in which readers will hear the parable in Luke 8. The Recognitions of Pseudo-Clement, on the other hand, uses an alternation between private and public settings and corresponding contrasts between Peter’s private and public speech along with the content of Peter’s speech (which explicitly cites the parable of the sower) as a paradigm for preachers, showing them the different ways they are to behave towards different kinds of hearers of the word in different settings, and supplying them with a reason why: the needs of the different types of souls who will hear the word. The complexity present in such narrative texts, which superficially appear simplistic, suggests an abundance of little-considered patristic interpretation waiting to be probed.

In context of Ancient Near Eastern literatures, there are a few instances of narrated inscribed artifacts intended for eternal preservation. These artifacts are to a greater or lesser extent of fictive character, frequently created by gods. The aim of the present talk is to investigate how these artifacts along with their inscriptions are conceptualized in different cultural environments, based primarily on Sumerian, Akkadian as well as Hebrew texts. In literate cultures, when fictive scriptures are thematized as part of a narrative, the description of their materiality and production draws on real models comparable to the fictive artifact. However, in case eternal accessibility or divine creation should find expression, the description tends to apply metaphoric language. Beyond the artifacts also tools used for their production might obtain inconceivable or unrealistic material properties. The scope of the imagery these texts make use of diverge according to the significant differences in document production perceptible in the Ancient Near East. Furthermore, the concepts of these adapted metaphors are culture-specific and thus only restrictedly transferable. Beyond presenting the evidence from the literary inheritance of different eras, similarities and differences of culture-specific conceptualization of this imagery will be discussed. Furthermore, a historical development of conceptual mapping of the presented network of metaphors within the Ancient Near Eastern culture area will be addressed. The analysis of some passages from Sumerian hymnic compositions, the Akkadian Gilgamesh epic as well as Jer 17:1 and Job 19:23-23 will serve as starting point for the investigation.

In her article “Roots in the Air,” American-Israeli poet Shirley Kaufman (1923–2016) observes:" I think in a sense all art is a coming to terms with the past. The literary imagination feeds on many sources. … What do we do with the Bible as literature?" Reading Kaufman’s poetry reveals that in “coming to terms with the past” she frequently means “coming to terms with the Bible.” Marge Piercy notes that "Midrash is the entrance into the canon through the back door. In the patriarchal world of the texts, we miss the voices and ideas of women. So we put them back in." However, while the early midrashists regard Scripture as a sacred text and its interpretation a form of divine revelation, modern poets use the biblical texts as a springboard for their own ideas. Kaufman’s reading of biblical texts can be viewed as belonging to the midrashic- poetry tradition being established by Jewish-American women as part of the Jewish feminist wave. Following what Adrienne Rich named "re-visioning" and Alicia Ostriker's called an act of "invading past tradition in order to change it," Kaufman rewrite biblical women empowering them by making use of her/their own words. In this paper I would like to explore Kaufman’s approach to reading the Bible as an elaboration (on) its feminine characters via three devices: a) dramatic monologues, in which the woman speaks for herself b) description of a specific circumstance that gives us a glimpse into the character’s thoughts and feelings; and c) interweaving the biblical context with contemporary reality. By analyzing Kaufman’s biblical poetry, I will illustrate how she adds psychological and political interpretation to the biblical women. Hence, her reading of the Bible from a contemporary point of view, brings the biblical women into the present world, giving them a fresh new meaning.

This paper will discuss the Understanding of the Eucharist in the Acta Johannis. In the Acta Johannis is a clear talk of a Eucharistic celebration in two places and twice the question arises as to whether we are dealing with Eucharistic allusions. Once this is the case with a banquet, another time with a series dance. We can compare the Eucharistic material in the Acta Johannis with the findings of the Didache and Justinus Apologia, but we have only to perceive them as examples of practice in the second century and not as a line of development. The clear ambiguity of the Eucharistic understanding in Acta Johannis has come to the fore with two questions. On the one hand, the relationship between doxology and anamnesis: when and how was the celebration of Jesus' bestowal dedication to death joined with the now generally accepted, initially eschatological focus of the celebration? On the other hand, has it come to the connection between bread and wine: while the wine was originally interpreted as an indication of the completed Kingdom of God? Finally, we will try to answer the following questions: What purpose and meaning does a Eucharistic Mark have in both Acta Johannis and how do these passages help to understand the whole philosophical and spiritual context of this church?

In Classical Hebrew literature, the verb TLH signifies different modes of suspension in cases where humans are the objects that are “hanged”. It can refer to strangulation by hanging, impalement, and crucifixion. The use of the verb in Lamentations 5:12, where officials are said to have been “hanged by their hands” (BYDM NTLW), is interesting and scholars have debated its meaning in the passage without arriving at a consensus view. The renderings in ancient Greek, Syriac, and Aramaic translations seem to denote crucifixion, but scholars have been reluctant to follow this interpretation of the colon. Many regard the expression as a reference to either the strangulation of the officials, or a way of humiliating and torturing them. Iconography has even been enlisted to support the latter interpretation. Other scholars suggest that Lamentations 5:12 has the public exposure of officials’ corpses on stakes in view and, in this regard, they mention Neo-Assyrian sources that describe or depict the impalement of dead or living enemies. This line of interpretation of the Hebrew passage that interacts with a combination of Neo-Assyrian written and visual sources merits closer consideration. Accordingly, this paper examines a passage from the inscriptions of Sennacherib that documents the “hanging” of Ekron’s elite during the Assyrian king’s expedition to the Levant, as well as the visual representation of the impalement of three figures in the Lachish reliefs. The discussion of these sources suggests that “hanging” functioned as an image of impalement in the larger cultural environment in which Lamentations was penned. The phrase SRYM BYDM NTLW in Lamentations 5:12 can be taken as a Hebrew instance of such impalement imagery that expresses ideas that are comparable to those conveyed by the images in the Assyrian sources.

To most, the printed Greek New Testament starts with the Complutensian Polyglot (1514-1520) and Erasmus' Novum Instrumentum (1516). However small portions of the Greek New Testament had been printed earlier. After a brief overview of these, the paper will focus on the most surprising specimen: an almost random part of the Gospels (John 1-6) found in Aldus Manutius' 1504 edition of Gregory Nazianzen's Carmina. The technical device Aldus developed will be explained, and placed within the intellectual history of the time.

The relation between the Book of Wisdom and the Letter to the Romans has been a subject of academic interest since the 18th c. In my paper, I will discuss the possibility of, what can be called 'a hypertextual reworking' of the Book of Wisdom in Rom 2. In the first part of my paper, I will focus on the depiction of the method I am using in my research project concerning the hypertextuality between Wisdom and Romans (a grant from NCN Poland, 2017-2019). I will reflect on the question whether the comparison of the texts is justified and, if it is, on what basis. Then, I will focus on the juxtaposition of the texts from the Letter to the Romans (esp. Rom 2:12.17.21-23) with two statements from the Book of Wisdom (Wis 2:12.16). I will discuss the similarities of the texts - both on the lexical and the ideological level. I will reflect on the subjects to which the authors of both Wisdom and Romans refer. Who is reproaching whom for the transgressions of the law? Who is boasting that God is his Father in the Book of Wisdom? Are the subjects in Romans and Wisdom similar or do they differ greatly? Is it a coincidence of motifs or do Paul employs the ideas from the Book of Wisdom on purpose? Does he follow blindly Pseud-Solomon's, Wisdom's author, thought or is he reworking it? And if it the allusion is intended, what are his reasons to include Wisdom thoughts in his writing? Finally, I shall attempt to answer the question how the hypertextuality Wisdom-Romans may help the reader to understand Pauline thought. In what way does a comparative reading changes the reception of the Letter to the Romans? And, lastly, can we really understand Romans without Wisdom?

This paper explores patterns of authority and leadership in the literary unit comprising the books of Samuel and the first two chapters of 1 Kings. This literary unit is usually outlined according to successive centres of power: Eli, Samuel, Saul, Dawid and Solomon. Apart from each of these leaders being divinely appointed and installed according to the text, each of these leaders display a distinctive leadership style vertically, i.e. towards their subordinates. Most of them are also depicted first as subordinates themselves, using distinctive language and behaviour that suits their position relative to their superiors. Even more interesting is the horizontal line of succession, i.e. the transition of power from one leader to the next. The biblical text gives evidence of a variety of power transitions. On a macro level the literary unit establishes a climactic pattern: From the smooth transition of power between Eli and Samuel, through the loyal resistence of David against Saul, to the open revolt in the Succession Narrative that culminates in the dramatic seizure of power by Solomon.

The paper deals with a thesis which came up in biblical scholarship already in the 19th century and has been revived in the last decades by several scholars. They suggest that when Psalm 89 talks about David and the anointed one, it does not have in mind the individual Davidic king but the whole people of Israel as the heir of the dynastic promise to David. This thesis with its arguments is critically discussed. In Ps 89, there is in fact a close connection and a community of destiny between the Davidic king and the people, but there is no clear evidence within the psalm that suggests identifying the anointed one with the people. Rather, the psalm clearly distinguishes between the two. Therefore, Ps 89 can justifiably be interpreted as a royal psalm, lamenting the fate of the Davidic dynasty. The second part of the paper focuses on the textual and reception history of Ps 89. In three instances (vv. 4, 20, 51), there is a textual diversity regarding the grammatical number of the referenced character. Thus, in textual history, an individual and a collective interpretation of these verses exist in parallel. The reception of the psalm in Isa 55,3, in the Septuagint, in 4QPsx, and in the Targum of Psalms demonstrates the obvious tendency in reception history toward a collective interpretation or at least an amplification of the collective and national dimension of the psalm. Consequently, although the thesis of the collectivization of the Davidic promise in Ps 89 has no strong basis within the psalm, it is appropriate in so far as the collectivization is an observable phenomenon of reception.

In Rom 11:35 Paul presents a quotation the origin of which is unclear. The apparently unanimous scholarly view is that in some way or another it derives from Job 41:3. Yet the wording of Paul's quotation considerably differs from the reading of the Septuagint. Scholars have referred to targumim or to Hebraizing revision of the Greek text in order to explain the origin of Paul's wording. In this paper, I will examine the explanations provided and demonstrate that they are unsatisfactory. I will then offer a completely new solution to the textual problem. I will argue that it is probable that the quotation has nothing to do with Job 41:3 at all. Instead, Paul may be quoting a verse from Isaiah that differs from Ziegler's critical text but is included in numerous important and ancient manuscripts. The case is most interesting from the perspective of textual transmission: do Paul and the textual variants within Septuagint attest a verse in Isaiah that has been lost in the Masoretic text?

In my paper, I would like to attempt to apply René Girard’s concept of mimetic rivalry to the way eschatological opponents–the dragon, the beasts and the great prostitute–are portrayed in the Revelation of John. My claim will be that John portrays all of these evil figures as mimicking the good ones, especially the Lamb. The dragon casts down a third of the stars with his tail (12:4b); this is exactly what has happened upon the blowing of the fourth trumpet in 8:12b. The beast of the land with “two horns like those of a lamb” (13:11) imitates the seven-horned Christological Lamb (5:7). The three tripartite descriptions of the great prostitute (17:8 bis, 11) the self-revelatory statements of God and Christ (1:8; 21:6; 22:13). Such points of contact and contrast have been noted in isolation by many commentators, spoken of in more detail by Rissi (1966) and Beasley-Murray (1974), and cogently surveyed by Lunceford (2009). My aim will be to study these resemblances through the lens of Girard’s mimetic theory. It is fruitful to understand the apocalyptic confrontation as a competition for the divine status. In this framework, the evil actors in Revelation would try to usurp it for themselves and consequently mimic–always incompletely and thus unsuccessfully–the divine agents of the end-time conflict. The mimesis leads ultimately to the eschatological war. My presentation would also point to the applicability of Girard’s theoretical insights to apocalyptic and patristic literature more generally. Imitation of the divine realm by the daemonic and the satanic is to be seen in texts such as 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah 3:3-15, Sibylline Oracles 3.63-74, and De Antichristo by Hippolytus of Rome. These texts show the eschatological antagonist as taking on the semblance of the Messiah, and as such can be illuminated by my Girardian reading of Revelation.

In Job’s speeches, metaphors to expose the status of his mind and emotion are recurrently connected to his physical body parts that are significant instruments in expressing his unimaginable mental anguish (7:15a; 9:27-31; 14:21; 16:15). His broken body parts signify the foremost reason of his suffering, namely the fact that God’s enmity against Job is destroying human body (6:4, 9; 16:7; 30:19, 21; 7:12; 10:8-13, 16-17; 16:14; 9-11, 13). Because of this, Job’s sensibility malfunctions, and God’s presence is hidden from Job’s sight (9:11; 23:8-9; 16:20; 10:4; 19:25-27). Moreover, Job’s body metaphors are sometimes used for vindicating his innocence and are suggested as faithful witnesses in a court (9:17, 20; 16:8, 17-18; 19:20-24; 23:11; 27:4, 6; 31:35-36). This paper, therefore, will show how Job’s body parts and sensibility denote his cognitive dissonance and mental turmoil and will indicate that irrelevant to the physical suffering from the Adversary (2:7), Job is experiencing a sort of “somatic symptom disorder” (SSD) which means that persons focus on physical symptoms such as fatigue, fragility, and pain according to their particular cognitive schematic in terms of property loss, extreme anxiety, and the absence of God that lead them to chief anguish and agony in their daily lives. The inter-relationship between body and mind/spirit of Job plays a central role in resisting the retribution principle of Job’s friends and in doubting the justice of God.

For centuries, and especially since the mid 1970s with computer-aided textual criticism, biblical scholars have been plagued with issues about relating manuscripts one to each other. With that aim, analysis of textual features and variant readings have led critics to develop different methods for understanding the history of the texts of the Greek New Testament. Some recent developments, such as the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method, reveal new approaches in the way to solve the contamination phenomena which remains a main issue to whom wants to relate Greek New Testament manuscripts and publish a critical edition. Amongst used terms in developing the aforementionned methods were « nations », « families », « text-types », and more recently « clusters » or « streams of transmission ». Taking support of the latest publications of the field, especially some new approaches to textual criticism, we will focus on the newly developed Coherence-Based Genealogical Method facing to Elliott’s Application of Thoroughgoing Principles (SupNT 137, 2010). On the basis of these different views, we will explore how textual criteria could be defined for the so-called « families » 1 and 13 and how the notion of « core-member » may be significant according to their text and context, chronological and historical.

How does Paul present the concepts of living and dying well throughout Philippians? Does Paul’s presentation comport with or contradict other ancient conceptions, which Paul may have been familiar with as a Roman (Tarsian) citizen and former Pharisee? This essay compares/contrasts conceptions in Philippians with those of ancient Egyptian sources up to the first century CE—focusing primarily on the concept of ma‘at/Maat in The Book of the Dead (ca. 4266 BCE) and the Papyri Graecae Magicae originating in Egypt as early as the second century BCE. I contend that Paul reimagines competing pagan conceptions in terms of Christian unity: unity with other believers who are “in Christ,” and unity with Christ in life and death (Phil 1:23, 27). In this sense, the physical death of a Christian is not something to be feared or eschewed, but rather is seen by Paul as kerdos (Phil 1:21b), the gain/fulfillment of being with Christ, which, for Paul, is certainly better than physical life. Thus, the process of dying is not bifurcated from human flourishing, but is the conduit through which Paul will be eternally with Christ. Such an exploration fills at least two lacunae in Pauline scholarship. First, numerous studies have focused on analyses between Paul, Greco-Roman, and Jewish literature, but few (if any) have explored Paul through a primarily Egyptian lens. Second, no studies known to this author explore Paul’s conception of flourishing through Philippians specifically. This essay consists of two main sections: (1) a brief discussion of the history of comparative methodology and a description of the methodology employed in this essay; and (2) the comparative analyses between the three texts. Additionally, this essay shall address questions regarding the viability of comparative analysis in biblical studies, the benefits of comparative analysis, and my criteria for the selection of sources.

In a recent article, Monique Sheer has synthesized scholarship from various disciplines to emphasize the embodied, social, and historically-situated nature of emotions. She is especially aware of the particularity of Western views of emotion with their dichotomy between “inner” and “outer.” My concern is that the redefinition of “emotion” along these lines is that it remains overly wed to the particular historical discourses within which it was first conceptualized even as we strive for a universal, scientific basis for its definition. In this respect, a renewed practice of philology may provide us with an additional opportunity for reconceptualization. Such a philological practice would begin by identifying the dominant hermeneutical frameworks at work in our textual interpretation. How does “emotion” as a category impact, for instance, the reading of the Hebrew Bible? It would then turn to a tradition of close, contextual reading to determine if alternatives to the dominant paradigm are possible. Do terms commonly identified as “emotions” in biblical Hebrew actually fit into this category, whether in its conventional sense or scientifically-modified sense? Finally, it could shed light on the origins of “emotion” as a dominant category. How does the history of biblical interpretation help reveal the nature and effect of the introduction of “emotion” as an interpretive framework? In this paper, I will consider these questions by examining a common phenomenon in biblical interpretation, namely, the imposition of a linear model of emotional processes within, especially but not exclusively, biblical narrative, whereby a subject’s actions come to be analyzed according to a sequence of impetus, emotional reaction, and behavioral expression. In this context, even Sheer’s concept of “emotional practice” may not arrive at the full range of social, relational, and transactional dimensions present in terms such as “love,” “hate,” and “fear” in the biblical text.

How do individual metaphors relate to one another within a network of metaphors? The question is especially pertinent when metaphors seem at best paradoxical, if not contradictory, to one another. Is there a way to discern a coherent network among metaphors that seem so different-even mutually exclusive? Might the contemporary identification of contradictory metaphors be the result of importing modern conceptions of coherence that are foreign to ancient texts? This paper concerns a methodology for identifying conceptual coherence among potentially conflicting metaphors. The first half of this paper will put modern metaphor theory into conversation with the ancient aspective approach and various models of conceptual coherence. The aspective approach has been identified in ancient Near Eastern contexts from Egyptian art, to Mesopotamian literary depictions of deities, legal corpora and medicinal texts, to Israelite wisdom literature. The aspective approach focuses on richly explaining the parts with less concern for how they fit together as a whole. This is the opposite of the perspectival approach (characteristic of most Western thought), in which the parts are subsumed to a coherent sense of the whole. Often the aspective approach can so emphasize the adequate presentation of the parts that it can strike modern readers as scattered and incoherent. An awareness of the aspective approach makes sense of the variety of metaphors in Hosea by reading the text according to its own methodological agenda, then identifying an inherent sense of coherence. The second half of this paper applies this methodology to the metaphors presented in Hosea 5:8-6:6. This paper hopes to show that the metaphors presented in this pericope are not random or contradictory, but rather can be understood coherently according to ancient literary and conceptual conventions.

In Isaiah metaphors (I include simile as a subset of metaphor) characteristically come in chains, in which each member modifies, reverses, and shifts the ground of the previous one. Moreover, similes and metaphors are frequently doubled, so that the same simile is repeated, but with a subtly different meaning. A shift from metaphor to simile, in other words of tropological register, may insert an intimation of doubt, a slight displacement of the original identification. One wonders, for instance, why Ariel in 29.1 becomes “like Ariel” in 29.2. Moreover, chains of similes and metaphors link up with other chains of similes and metaphors throughout the book and beyond, to create the fabric that constitutes its poetic unity. Metaphors and similes operate at different linguistic levels. For instance, there are innumerable phonological equivalences and transformations. Sound and sense collaborate or contradict. Every metaphor, consequently, is at the centre of interminable intertextual relations, and cannot be interpreted through a simple mapping of domains, as in the cognitive model. In Isaiah, the difficulty is compounded by the transfer from divine to human speech, and by the command not to understand in the commissioning scene. Language, and poetry, translates the ineffable initial vision, and risks transgressing the divine command. At the same time, we are obliged to read, interpret, and be good critics. In this paper I will be examining some complex and intertextually rich metaphors and similes in Isaiah 32-33. In particular, I will be looking at the chain of similes in 32.2, the cluster of alliterative permutations in 32.14-15 and 19, and the elaborate description of Jerusalem in 33.20-24.

It has been discovered since long that the chapters John 1–6 and 7–12 (without 7:53–8:11, of course) are of about the same size. It seems that the author was aware of this and wanted to dispose his book in good proportions. In order to demonstrate this thesis the Gospel of John will be analysed by way of the stichometrical approach. First the stichos will be introduced, the ancient standard line of 15 syllables for measuring Greek prose, then it will be applied to John’s gospel, and finally the results will be interpreted. Some remarkable proportions lead to the conclusion that a single author elaborated the consistent disposition of the whole book.

The Epistle of Jude, in the sixteenth century, did not usually appear on its own; commentators, then as now, most often considered Jude in company: together with James, II Peter, or both Petrine Epistles; as one of the Catholic or Canonical Epistles; as part of a group of disputed or doubtful NT books; and in troubling association with apocryphal texts or traditions. The close parallels between Jude and II Peter led Erasmus, for one, to treat Jude together with the Petrine Epistles. The assumed dependence of Jude on II Peter was evaluated in various ways: as something close to plagiarism (Luther); as evidence of the Spirit’s inspiration (Esmer); and as use of the same material to make different points (Calvin). Jude’s Epistle was also linked with that of James, on two disparate grounds. If the identification of Jude as the “brother of James” were accepted, then Jude and James were bound together as blood relations. By contrast, James and Jude could be bracketed together by those (Luther, Tyndale) who called their apostolic authorship into question. During the Reformation, Jude generally kept its traditional place as one of the seven Catholic or Canonical Epistles, listed last after James, I & II Peter, and the three Johannine Epistles—although this traditional order was upset on more than one occasion (Council of Trent, Bullinger, Calvin). Some reformers, however, reassigned the Epistle of Jude to a third order of books (Karlstadt) or to a group of disputed or more doubtful books within the NT canon (Luther, Brenz, Oecolampadius). Finally, the Epistle of Jude came under fire for keeping company with extra-biblical or apocryphal texts and/or traditions (Jude 9 & 14-15). These shifting relationships help explain why the Epistle of Jude became the subject of debate and dispute in the early Reformation and beyond.

In this paper I will discuss Pablo de Santa Maria's commentary on the apocalypse, with a focus upon the characterization of Muhammad as a figure of the Antichrist that he had received from Nicholas of Lyra's commentary; rather than being a disagreement over Lyra's admittedly fragmentary interpretation, Santa María's discussion turned on a radically new understanding of Islam within a theology of history. I'll further explore the context for these views, as well as the shifting political situation that saw the publication of his annotations at the end of the fifteenth century accompanied by a highly-antisemitic "refutation". Finally, I will consider the re-evaluation of Pablo de Santa María's views at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the work of the Jesuit Benedictus Pererius, who attempted to undo the Lutheran understanding of the apocalypse in part by attacking – with Santa María's help — one of their sources.

This paper aims to strive for balance in exegesis of 1 Cor 14 by claiming that the context speaks about the valuable benefit of both gifts – tongues and prophecy, albeit different for each of the participants. The focus of the presentation is not so much a translation of sēmeion, but the meaning of „sign” in 1 Cor 14:22. I would like to propose that sēmeion here can be better understood to mean a mystery or a miracle. In that case 1 Cor 14:22 could be understood as follows: “Tongues, then, is a mystery not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not [a mystery] for unbelievers but for believers.” The meaning of ‘sign’ as a mystery would better reconcile v. 22 with v. 21. 1 Cor 14:21 makes an allusion to Is 28:11, 12 saying that the people will not listen, hear or obey, when God speaks through the foreign nation and foreign language. This paper suggests the reason behind not listening or hearing - people struggle to understand. Understanding and clarity seems to be the main thread in 1 Cor 14:2, 5-9, 11, 13-14, 16, 19 et al. Thus, in the discourse of 1 Cor 14, unbelievers do not understand tongues and might think they are madness (v. 23); believers who speak to God do not [need to] understand tongues, but they use the Charisma for their own benefit (v. 2, 4, 14, 18); unbelievers do understand the prophetic message and acknowledge God’s presence (v. 24-25), but believers do not [need to] understand the prophetic message when it reveals particular secrets of the hearts of the newcomers (v. 25).

In a thoroughly-researched work on messianism in the Similitudes of Enoch, J. Waddell has rightly pointed out that salvation and judgment are the key functions of the messiah figure in the second parable of the Similitudes (Messiah, 2011, p. 87). In 1 Enoch 48:1-3, there is an account where the son of man was named in the presence of the Lord of Spirits. Such scene of 1 En. 48:1-3 confirms that there is a close relationship between the son of man figure and the Lord of Spirit in the Similitudes. However, it is also true that the salvation is found in the name of the Lord of Spirits rather than in the name of the son of man in 1 En. 48:7 (cf. 50:4). Such a close relationship, as well as a bifurcation, between the divine agent and the deity for the redemption, resembles the relationship between the servant figure and the God of Israel depicted in Isaiah 45–49. Thus, 1 En. 48:4-7 alludes particularly to the passages in Isa 45, 47 and 49 to emphasise the eschatological function of the son of man, as well as to draw out the unique role of the Lord of Spirits and his name for redemption/salvation. Additionally, in the same vein of a redemption theme, 1 En. 50:1-4 alludes to Zech 14 thematically in order to emphasise the uniqueness of the Lord of Spirit, but this time, apart from the son of man figure. Thus, this paper will analyse the texts of 1 En. 48 and 50 and their allusions to Isaiah and Zechariah, respectively, in order to draw out the significance of the relationship between the son of man and the Lord of Spirits for redemption/salvation in the Similitudes.

In 1952, Norwegian biblical scholar Thorleif Boman published a study of Hebrew thought, Das Hebräische Denken im Vergleich mit dem Griechischen (Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek). The work became widely influential, as it was translated into English and Japanese and appeared in five German editions, the last in 1968. Boman's book was in many ways the climax of a forgotten sub-genre in biblical studies, one characterized by the attempt to isolate, on textual and linguistic grounds, the distinctive mentality of the Hebrews. As Boman's title suggests, it was not merely a study of ancient Israel but an effort to recover a mode of Hebrew thought in opposition, specifically, to Greek thought. In this paper, I will examine the antecedents of Boman's work, connecting it to broader intellectual currents in the inter-war period, and, more specifically, to attempts by scholars to revisit and reinterpret the ancient foundations of civilization at a time when the future of "the West" (as Oswald Spengler denoted it) seemed to hang in the balance. How and why Hebrew thought became significant for this cultural moment - and why the quest for a distinctive, non-Greek, Hebrew mentality was soon abandoned - are questions central to this paper.

Earlier scholarship on the history of medicine and science as well as on ancient Jewish history and Talmud tended to draw sharp distinction between rationale knowledge and magic or superstitious approaches to medicine and the body. Accordingly, many Talmudic passages with rather obscure recipes and therapeutic instructions have been interpreted as belonging to the latter category. However, more recent studies into late ancient medicine, apotropaic texts and practices (e.g. , Aramaic and Syriac incantation bowls, papyri, amulets etc.) or into so-called miraculous healing in the Gospels and early Christian culture have pointed to the problematic nature of such a dichotomous approach. Projecting modern analytical distinctions between magic and medicine/science onto late ancient cultures, one risks to overlook the fluent boundaries and astonishing overlap between such ‘disciplines’ and their respective experts, even within the writings of Graeco-Roman medical authors. Moreover, Talmudic scholarship saw the rabbis in most cases as disapproving of magic and as being solicitous about clear boundaries between legit religious practices and non-Jewish approaches that smacked of ‘magic’. This paper interrogates some Talmudic passages with therapies and recipes that were seen as drawing heavily on ‘popular’ or ‘folk’ healing rather than on medical knowledge proper. However, reading them in light of recent scholarship, I will question usual assumptions about the seclusiveness of the spheres of medical, religious and ritual knowledge and its related practices in rabbinic cultures of Late Antiquity for which ‘magic’ might be too narrow a category.

This paper compares the imaginary of mass killing and dehumanization in sources that are rarely examined together—Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, Levantine texts speaking of ḥērem, and the War Scroll from Qumran—in order to theorize about the development of eschatological conceptions of large-scale slaughter to the point of anthropocide. While neo-Assyrian sources and many Israelite texts from the first half of the first millennium BCE and other eras regularly use animalizing language of victims and describe victims being subjected to clearly animalizing violence such as flaying and dismemberment, ḥērem texts such as the book of Joshua and Deuteronomy 7 and 20 that call for the elimination of whole groups strikingly do not use this animalizing rhetoric. Nor does the War Scroll from Qumran. This paper will argue that there is a common reason for this absence—one rooted in ancient peoples’ experiences with the natural world and, more specifically, with different animal species. Because the elimination of whole species was not a part of the experience of the ancients, they did not use animalizing language in texts envisioning complete elimination of groups but—perhaps rather paradoxically to modern readers—only in contexts of violence with a more limited target group. This limit in conceptualization then led to other modes of justifying calls for totalistic violence, modes centered less in dehumanization and more in demonization of opponents.

Comparative work on ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions has largely focused on textual philology, deciphering inscriptions of ancient treaties and studying them for historical backgrounds and literary genealogies. But at their core, treaties are not repositories of information, but vigorous attempts to impact the material world by regulating attitudes and behaviors. This paper argues that multimodality is present already within ancient Near Eastern treaties, and that multimodality works toward the cultural transmission of each treaty—in other words, to achieve the treaty’s desired impact on its audiences. How does the language each treaty uses about its contents attempt to change attitudes or behavior on the part of its audiences? How does it seek to ensure the reproduction of this text (and attendant obedience to this text) over time? This paper examines the language that the Aramaic Sefire treaty, Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaties (EST), and Deuteronomy use to categorize their contents. Each text refers in turn to (1) intangible cultural forms (e.g., ʿd, adê, torah), (2) the linguistic elements (e.g., ml, abutu, dabar) that communicate those forms, and (3) their material manifestation in inscribed objects (e.g., spr, nṣb, ṭuppi-adê, sēper). I argue first that the use of all three types of reference indicates that an awareness of multimodality was present within ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions. Second, I argue that in each treaty text considered, multimodality is tied to strategies for securing transmission. Drawing on recent work in linguistic anthropology, this paper considers treaties’ internal criteria for successful cultural transmission in each mode—the abstract, the linguistic, and the material. Through these insights we can better understand how ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions worked to achieve a material impact on the worlds they inhabited by shaping their social, political, and ritual environments.

Within the Book of Chronicles, Shophtim (“judges”) are mentioned 7 times, Zeqenim (“elders”) 9 times, and Shoterim (“officers”) 6 times. This paper wishes to compare their use in Chronicles to the way they are used in the Chronicler’s “pre-exilic sources” (the Pentateuchal sources and the Deuteronomistic History) and to examine the way in which these office-holders are envisioned in Chronicles: their relationship to the monarchy, to the priesthood, to the Temple and to the tribal institutions. Is the Chronicler’s vision of these office-holders fundamentally different from that of the earlier sources? If so, does this different vision reflect the reality of Persian-Period Yehud, or is it a utopian vision, more reflective of the Chronicler’s ideology than of any historical reality?

The Book of Medicines of Asaf the Physician is the first known medical book to have been written in Hebrew. The book was compiled perhaps as early as the seventh century and no later than the beginning of the tenth century. It was probably written somewhere in the wide expanse of the Byzantine empire, as Syriac and Persian influences on the text have been determined. I would like to speak of the magic copied alongside The Book of Medicines in the twelfth century in the two main manuscript witnesses of the text, one being Italian and the other, German. The book itself is not known for its magic, but rather for its Hippocratic mindset. Hence the magic recipes copied alongside it in these two manuscripts appear to be at complete odds with it. These recipes seem to stem from several sources of influence: Some have possible connections to Syriac astrological texts; some that were written in Aramaic are reminiscent of the Babylonian practice of using incantation bowels; one recipe also found in the Cairo geniza; and several recipes demand the reciting of a Biblical verse, in direct transgression of the Talmudic prohibition. Alongside these is also evidence of surrounding influences, with Latin magic texts translated or transcribed into Hebrew letters. The marked difference between The Book of Medicines and the texts which surround it in these two witnesses of its text allow perhaps to argue for its being an attempt to make a corpus of Hebrew rational medicine which stands in opposition to the popular Babylonian magical tradition. These two manuscripts present the failure of this attempt, as magic and Hippocratic medicine co-exist in them, perhaps even transmitted together from the onset, as their sources suggest they were perhaps geographically, politically and historically formed not so far apart.

In two antecedent papers, the pervasive literary-rhetorical conventions of, first, the Mishnah and, second, the Tosefta were analyzed in the attempt to draw from these conventions conclusions about the nature of reader-engagement and of requisite skills expected of members of the early rabbinic group, for whom study of Mishnah and its associated texts comprised the central inner-group activity of early rabbinic masters and their novices. The literary-rhetorical traits of Tosefta, it was argued, both confirmed the shared foundational skills expected of the members of the rabbinic movement in the course of Mishnah-study and modulated those shared skills. The current paper, the third in the series, argues that pervasive literary-rhetorical traits of the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds modulate these core shared skills still further.

The present study explores the political nature of performing the Bible as a sacred text in the context of Korean Christianity. Among others, I investigate the scriptural performance of singing and dramatizing the Bible in the postcolonial era. The political context of South Korea leads to the performed transformation of the semantic range of the long-standing Christian tradition. It is my contention therefore that the adaptation of Christianity to Korean soil renders the performative dimension of the Bible all the more political than Western Christianity may imagine. In other words, the Korean ways of performing the Bible are under the influence of the endless political turmoil and crisis that lingered in Korea. In the long term, Korean Christianity turns out to be such a subversively performative religion in its widely differing range of semantics.

The ancient text Pistis Sophia was found in the end of the eighteenth century and was quickly received with great enthusiasm among some of Europe’s most famous theologians, such as Karl Reinhold von Köstlin and Adolf von Harnack. Simultaneously, the text was hailed as a treasure of immense wisdom among many of Europe’s leading esoteric figures, such as Helena Blavatsky and Gérard Encausse. This paper presents the content of a newly established project aimed at exploring the reception of Pistis Sophia in these two milieus. It will be argued that studying the reception of this text, and the way it was thought to represent ancient Gnosticism, allows us to view nineteenth and early twentieth century theological and esoteric milieus in new light and, what is more, explore the contact between these two milieus and their dependence on and interest for each other.

The concept of purification is a complicated issue since there are different types of purity rites in the book of Leviticus, but Christians do not follow most of them because Christ has fulfilled the salvation. In Acts 21, however, Paul practiced the rite of purification with four men. It may be inappropriate to assume that Paul’s action is related to atonement, and therefore, we need more information to explain Paul’s action. Many scholars have attempted to tease out the reason for his action, but there seems to be no consensus. Nevertheless, no direct clue indicates that Paul’s action is associated with the Old Testament regulation, and no evidence shows that the purification in Acts 21 is related to Paul’s returning from the area of the Gentile. In addition, the text says nothing about corpse contamination, and most scholars have dealt with this problem without considering the context in Acts 21, but focusing on the Old Testament regulations instead. Therefore, one needs to probe into what was in Paul’s mind in the event in Acts 21. This paper, therefore, will start from Paul’s language of purity in his letters. The semantic meanings of purity denote that there is a strong connection between holiness and wholeness. Paul’s purity language concerns the community of God, focusing on the relationship between the individual and the group. Paul connects the concept of purity and union because real purity and true unity result from the death and resurrection of Christ. This understanding argues that for Paul, the purification rite is for the purpose of restoring union between the Gentile and Jewish believers. Therefore, the church is built as “One” and “Holy,” meaning as a group of people who are untied and pure.

Philemon is an ideal text for exploring the nature of Paul’s authority and leadership because in it we observe Paul at work to persuade someone to see things from his point of view and to act accordingly. In this stirring and skilfully composed text, Paul broaches the subject of how to deal with a runaway slave who also has now also become a believer. Paul believes the best course of action is to send the slave home to his master and employs a range of rhetorical strategies to facilitate their reconciliation. An important element of Paul’s persuasive discourse that has not received much attention is the fact that Paul is relying on Philemon’s commitment to the Christian gospel when making his appeal for Onesimus—Paul does not make his appeal on the basis of his apostolic authority or social pressure, but rather on their shared religious convictions, which Paul frequently mentions in this brief letter. First, the relationship between “faith” and “love” for the Christian is given new insight when Paul inverts the order of this pair and expands on the meaning faith. Second, the frequent mentions of “Christ,” “Christ Jesus,” and “gospel” in different contexts place Paul’s request in the category of exhortation rather than command. Third, the language of “obedience” is theological and suggests that perhaps Paul is not only referring narrowly to compliance to his apostolic command, but to the broader trajectory of “obedience of faith” mentioned in his other letters. This study will identify the theological underpinnings of Paul’s plea for Onesimus, discuss how they add weight to Paul’s persuasive discourse, and reveal how Paul’s leadership style and authority are ultimately shaped by his theological convictions.

In this paper, I am exploring how Rhoads’ pragmatic approach to the Gospel of Mark, coming from theater and performance, can benefit from Finnern’s analytical approach, based on linguistic theories. Are there some points of conjunction between the two narratological approaches? They both have similar five working steps for their investigations: 1) Points of view; 2) characters; 3) plots; 4) settings; 5) reception/effects. They have their common ground in linguistics, but Finnern uses latest cognitive turn research and bases his methodology on clearly described theoretical considerations. On the other hand, Culpepper claims that Rhoads has “introduced narrative criticism of Mark to non-specialist,” putting more emphasis on praxis than theory. What is cognitive turn that Finnern follows? The main question is, how are verbal meanings represented in human brain? More specifically, what foreknowledge, or what scripts and frames are influencing readers thinking? What cognitive schemata can an author count on by his recipients as he writes his work? By cognitive schemata, scripts describe general processual knowledge, while frames describe semantic content knowledge. It is about methodologically tangible and concrete concepts that can be defined and researched in the five working steps of narratological investigation. What is the result of Finnern’s application of the cognitive turn? His approach calls for studying original situation of the writing by accessing mental processes that were going on in the minds of authors and recipients, and thus defining their scripts and frames. It is finally about the text reception and effects of that reception on the recipients. In this paper, I want to focus on the fifth working step (reception/effects), and analyze what additional value does Finnern’s methodological approach to the text reception and its effect on the audience bring to the narratology of the gospel of Mark. What are prospects and limits of his methodology?

In 2 Tim 4:6-8, the pseudonymous Pauline author claims that he, having completed his athletic contest, is now being poured out as a sacrificial offering as he anticipates his just reward in heaven. While this complex of sacrificial and athletic metaphors initially appears to predict Paul's imminent death, the ambiguity surrounding these metaphors has led to diverging scholarly opinions as to whether these metaphors refer to Paul's death or to some other aspect of Paul's life and ministry. Early Christian interpreters, however, cast little doubt as to whether Paul's martyrdom was in view. Yet when this verse became used in an exhortatory setting to encourage Christians to imitate Paul in his contest, the ambiguity of these metaphors exposed this passage to a multiplicity of interpretations that allowed Paul's "contest" to be understood in different ways. This paper explores various receptions of this passage from the 2nd through 6th centuries that show how Paul could be taken as an exemplar to imitate in different "types" of contests, from the contest of ministry (e.g., Ambrose, Off. 1.15.58), to the contest of martyrdom (e.g., Cyprian, Ep. 10.4.3), to the contest of the ascetic life (e.g., John Cassian, Inst. 5.17). Taking these examples and others into consideration, I argue that the ambiguity inherent within these metaphors allowed 2 Tim 4 to be applicable in various settings as it exhorted individuals to imitate Paul in completing his contest. Moreover, because this contest was ill-defined, it became subject to a fluidity of interpretation that consequently blurred the lines between life and death, as imitating Paul's contest sometimes referred to living life well, sometimes to dying well, and other times to dying well through living well.

This paper is set to discuss the phenomenon of prayer as more than a pious act. Prayer has become an interested topic for philosophy with its “theological turn.” Prominent philosophers who engaged in discussion on prayer are contemporary French thinkers Jacques Derrida, Emanuel Levinas, and Jean-Louis Chrétien. Hence, “prayer” is no longer the sole domain of theology and biblical studies; philosophy and other “-logy” are weighting in on the question of “prayer.” It is within this flow that this paper seeks to discuss “prayer’ beyond piety, and to situate prayer within performance and performative, and understanding it as both a corporeal and oral performance using J.L. Austin’s theory of performatives, and performance theory by Jeffrey C. Alexander and Jon McKenzie. Paul’s injunction to pray is more than an expression of Christian piety. Instead, Paul’s use of prayer is more subversive as an instrument of civil disobedience. In this paper I will first discuss prayer in relation to Austin’s theory and argue that we might need to look beyond prayer as an oral performance with its questionable effectiveness. I suggest that Jeffrey and McKenzie’s theories help us see the effectiveness and potential of prayer as subversion in Paul’s political discourse.

This paper scrutinizes the Sabbath as identity marker for the exiled covenantal community as attested by the Sabbath references in Ezekiel. I agree with the consensus that the Sabbath institution as the seventh day of the week was not attested before the Babylonian exile, that the emergence of the Sabbath (particularly the development of Sabbath law) needs to be situated against the ideological and theological background of the exilic and post-exilic periods, and that the Sabbath functioned as the Judean/Israelite identity marker in exile. Despite the agreement, they prompt us to ask further: What are the characteristic features of that identity which is marked by the Sabbath commandment? How do we envisage the community or communities that used the Sabbath as identity marker? How did they use the Sabbath to express the community's self-definition and self-understanding? I will analyse how the striking references on the Sabbath in Ezekiel 20:12,13,20,21, 22:8,26, 23:38 and 22:26 form part of this ideological and theological tendency to interpret the notion of exile. I argue that they underline the identity-formation of the exiled Judeans in their new context (socio-political-cultural-economic) after their deportation and Babylonian settlement. In the evoked history (like Ezekiel 20), the Sabbath is highlighted in the covenant-making process in the wilderness (i.e., exilic environment). The covenant itself is not explicitly mentioned in the recalled history but the Sabbath is accentuated as the sign of relationship between God and Israel. The profanation of the Sabbath, together with the idolatry and rejection of the statutes and ordinances, brought about the exiled situation. Therefore, I suggest that the Sabbath contributes to the identity marker formation of the exiled covenantal community (Judean exilic community) in Ezekiel, which is considered to be the direct continuation of the covenantal community at Sinai vis-à-vis the community left in Jerusalem.

The paper address the relation of micro and macro level analysis in cultural evolutionary studies, in particular how these levels are to be combined in the project Early Christianity in Cultural Evolution (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/early-christianity-in-cultural-evolution). The project consists of micro-level case studies that focus on the possible selective advantage of early Christian groups and texts in their Greco-Roman cultural context. What are the prerequisites for proceeding from these case studies to a broader cultural evolutionary narrative of the expansion of early Christian culture and communities before the Constantinian turn? What are the questions to be addressed in the case studies if they are to serve a broader cultural evolutionary analysis? What is the significance of the cultural evolutionary paradigm for the macro level analysis? Does it only impose a Darwinian framework on the data that could be as well—or even better?—illustrated by more conventional methodologies? Or does the cultural evolutionary analysis reveal something in the history of early Christianity that would otherwise remain undetected?

During the Diocletian persecution, Christian abstention from sacrifice was judged a violation of their obligations as Roman citizens. Porphyry of Tyre accused Christians of impiety, lawlessness, and failure to treat their fellow-citizens and the Roman gods justly. Yet Porphyry himself modified the traditional account of the pious citizen's duties when he rejected blood sacrifices for being unjust. This paper explores how Lactantius' Divine Institutes use the theme of blood, a motif not considered in previous scholarship, to respond to these charges. Firstly, the paper compares how Lactantius and Porphyry describe the relationship between blood and justice. Both authors criticise blood sacrifices, and attribute them to society's fall from a primeval golden age. Both authors must then defend the piety of their rejection of the traditional cult, yet these defences led them to opposite sides of the persecution. The paper then explores how Lactantius uses the motif of bloodshed to argue for the justice of Christianity and the illegitimacy of the persecution. Lactantius believes that bloodshed destroys virtue and true religion, and reflects the immorality of the Graeco-Roman gods. For Lactantius, pagan readiness to shed the blood of animals in worship, and the blood of Christians in the persecution, shows that pagan conceptions of justice, piety and law are fundamentally mistaken. Finally, the paper considers whether Lactantius' use of the bloodshed motif is a deliberate riposte to the vegetarianism of Porphyry and his fellow philosophers, situated within the broader discussion of whether Porphyry is Lactantius' unnamed philosopher. Ultimately, Lactantius argues that the presence of wrongly-spilled blood shows that pagans have failed to treat both God and their fellow-citizens justly. The motif of blood allows Lactantius to turn the charges of the persecutors back upon themselves.

The aspect of positive emotions inside the narrative of Jubilees has played a minor or nonexistent role in commentaries and articles since the beginning of research on this interesting piece of Second Temple literature. This only changed relatively recently with the publication of articles by Betsy Halpern-Amaru (2005), on festive joy in Jubilees, and Anke Dormann (2017), on the happiness of Abraham in the passages retelling his life story. These were the first scholars to describe the drastic changes concerning emotional elements in the final version of Jubilees as compared to the narrative Vorlage in Genesis and Exodus. While the whole book of Genesis and the first twelve chapters of Exodus each only have one verse respectively which mention joy in the form of the Hebrew word שמח, the Gəʿəz equivalent ፈሥሐ for happiness/joy appears more than forty times in Jubilees. In my paper, it shall be argued that this major insertion of positive emotions by the author of Jubilees was undertaken in order to establish his ideals of a certain form of happiness. He mainly does this in two ways: (1) by describing the happy lives of the patriarchs, who achieved their happiness primarily through their gratitude towards God, and (2) through depicting the celebrations of joyful festivals by these patriarchs and their descendants. Via the latter, the author demands that his readers likewise properly celebrate the holidays of the Jewish year as a non-material sacrifice to God. The comparison of both aspects of positive emotions in Jubilees allows for a deeper understanding of the author’s thoughts on the universal question: “What is a good life?”

This paper asks and attempts answering, “What concept of virtue is in the letter to Titus? How and why does the author use Greek philosophical ethical vocabularies like παιδεύουσα, σωφρόνως, δικαίως, and εὐσεβῶς (2:11-12) without using ἀρετή throughout? With what distinctive motifs does the author modify the concept of virtue?” The paper approaches these questions by considering the virtue-ethical functions of the linguistic elements, theological motifs, and ethical norms in the text, especially in 2:11-12. This paper argues that at the linguistic level, the author frequently and carefully uses the various forms of εἶναι “to be” not only as linguistic elements, but more importantly to construct an ethic of character which focuses more on moral “being” than “doing.” Similarly, he presents the ethical norms in adjectival and adverbial forms more than noun forms in order to describe qualities of moral persons than moral actions. Moreover, he uses the verb ζήσωμεν, which has an ingressive nuance, to show that the Christ-event imparts virtue through a radical moral transformation and to express the virtue concept of moral progress towards a moral telos. At the theological level, the author moralizes the early Christian theological concept of “χάρις” as an ethical representation of the Christ-event. At the ethical level, he integrates the moral significance of the Christ-event with the Greek philosophical παιδειά to introduce divine moral agency and moral progress towards a telos. Moreover, in order not to overshadow the distinctive motifs he introduces to the concept of virtue, the author avoids using the umbrella term ἀρετή. The thesis of this paper, therefore, is that the ethical perspective of Titus is a virtue perspective, but with “Christian” distintictives. Titus, therefore, provides an insight into how some early Christian authors engaged, modified, and appropriated the Greek philosophical concept of virtue without necessarily using ἀρετή.

The paper aims to examine the absolute centrality of the Eucharistic practice meant as the effective occurrence of Jesus’ sacrifice for redactors of John’s gospel. The references to "living water"(Jn7:38, 4:14) and to "bread of life"(6:35,6:48,6:51,6:58)are on-going pre-figuration of Jesus’ sacrifice(Jn19,34). Moreover, the liturgical use of water is attested in the Eucharistic practice in the quartodeciman context(Martyrium Pionii). Thus it is clear that, according to the Johannine tradition, the references to the water and bread of life are to be read in close connection to the paschal apocalyptic eschatological context as Rev21,22:12 demonstrates. The Eucharistic practice which for Johannine community expressed in a mysterion a full match on Jesus’ sacrifice mirrored the full effectiveness of Christ’s immolation. It reshaped the Exodus climax in according with John’s timetable frame (14 Nisan). The faithful would then acquire the spirit by virtue of the Eucharistic supper there by becoming a citizen of the eschatological kingdom. From this perspective a Christianity emerges that is other than Pauline’s, which continuous the Jewish apocalyptic tradition. For this Christianity baptism represents a purification practice preliminary and preparatory to the eschatological supper. As evidence of this primitive aspect Acts 2:38 witness the function of baptism in the early Christian pre-Pauline kerygma. The first meaningful point is the separation of the baptism of purification from the obtention of the Spirit. The second one is the finalization of baptism to the remission of sins so perfectly matching the predication of Baptist. The baptism of Spirit would be a later interpretation of John’s baptism. Thus the Ephesians community of Acts 19 would attest this early Christianity traits, which Paul contested and which was already removed in the synoptic tradition. In conclusion John’s gospel present a Jewish paschal theology.

Ostia, the harbour city of the ancient Rome, was characterized by its cosmopolitan population. A large proportion of the inhabitants was born outside Ostia or outside Italy and many of them were freedmen. Furthermore, Ostia was a city filled with numerous cults and cult sites brought or favoured by immigrants and new citizens, freedmen. In this paper, I’m discussing the social profile of the cult of Magna Mater, Attis and Bellona as well as Mithras. I’m specifically interested in worshippers with immigrant or unfree background. As for the cult of Magna Mater, Attis and Bellona, I’ll argue that despite of the non-elite status it was not a question of a secret sect outside or at the utmost margin of the urban society. On the contrary, participation of the non-elite inhabitants of Ostia in these cults seems to have been a sign of the willingness to belong to the urban community. The cult of Mithras is a different case, since the membership of the cult communities was more exclusive and the communities were basically secret. However, even if the cult of Mithras was less visible than other oriental cults in Ostia and the membership of the communities was more reduced, the Ostian Mithraea and Mithraic communities were practically situated in middle of the urban life, not in distant margins. I’m discussing and comparing the oriental cults of Ostia in context of urban space and society. The paper is based on epigraphic evidence as well as the topography of Ostia. The majority of the evidence dates from the second and early third century AD and, thus, my evidence on the oriental cults in Ostia offers interesting points of comparison with the early Christianity.

Previous studies (esp. by Hans Ulrich Steymans, Eckart Otto and Bernard Levinson) have shown the close similarities between Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaties (EST, 672 BCE) and some texts in Deuteronomy (especially Deuteronomy 13 and the curses of Deuteronomy 28). The discovery of an almost intact copy of EST at Tell Tayinat in 2009 (edited by Jacob Lauinger) has strengthened the historical plausibility of the exposition of a copy of EST in Jerusalem and its direct influence on an early version of Deuteronomy. The present paper will compare the use of rhetoric of power in EST and in Deuteronomy, focusing on four areas. First, the general address of a public audience by an authoritative voice in second person and the exceptional appearance of a voice in first person plural in commissive speech acts; second, metatextual references to and authorizations of the written document (the adê and the “book of the torah” respectively); third, instructions concerning the transgenerational transmittance of the document’s normative content; and fourth, the role of deities in the rhetoric of power. In all four areas, the analysis will show both structural analogies and differences. While EST is a document of immediate written rhetoric of power used as a means of imperial politics, Deuteronomy’s employment of similar techniques is transformed to a higher level of complexity through its embedding into a larger literary complex.

Around the year 704-05 CE, the Syriac Orthodox polymath Jacob of Edessa (d. 708 CE) finished editing his own recension of the Book of Daniel-Bel-Dragon-Susanna. He accomplished this by combining the traditional Syriac Peshitta with the various Greek Danielic traditions, resulting in a wholly singular and unique version of one of the Bible’s most enigmatic books. While the principal Greek source Jacob used was indeed the so-called ‘Theodotion’ version, particularly in its Lucianic recension, he also employed the other major Greek form of Daniel, namely the Septuagint or Old Greek. This paper seeks to provide a survey of Jacob’s use of OG-Dan in the construction of his own version, outlining some of its major occurrences as well as sketching out some of the reasons why Jacob may have thought to use the OG, reported by Jerome approximately 300 years beforehand to have been rarely used (or known). The paper will reveal that Jacob clearly had access to more than one witness of OG-Dan, including a MS which transmitted a chronological presentation of the book similar to, but not identical with, the celebrated 3rd century witness pap. 967. For this and other reasons, the forthcoming critical edition of Jacob’s Book of Daniel will present future scholarship with an important witness to the Greek versions of Daniel, particularly with respect to the OG form of the book.

In his book, “Reverend Mother”, Henry presents the story which foregrounds some of the practical challenges faced by single women in ordained ministry. The challenges are linked with women’s struggle to navigate an alienating biblical hermeneutic. Reverend Mother’s entry into ordained ministry did not quench her maternal instincts to experience the fruit of her own body. Her craving was thus not for a man as a husband, but for a baby, the fruit of her own womb. As a result of her unconventional choice to fulfil her desire through artificial insemination, the church “…stripped her of her authority, position, and title.” (Henry, 2010). In many a family-orientated, communal hetero-patriarchal (African) Christian settings, contexts in which many a woman, persuaded by a specific biblical hermeneutic, finds herself trapped between “imposed” barrenness and a keen desire to engage in normative motherhood, what kind of hermeneutic may emerge if the Christian Bible is read side by side with the preceding narrative about Reverend Mother? The present paper is an attempt to critically engage the preceding pertinent question in our day.

The intersection of the human body and physical space occupies a prominent position in the milieu of ancient Judaism. Scholarly discussions on this prominence, however, have primarily focused on communal purity law as preserved in the Hebrew Bible and its relation to the preservation of the clearly marked sacred spaces of the tabernacle and Jerusalem temple. These conclusions have influenced our current understanding about the human body in the Dead Sea Scrolls. While these studies have proved instructive in understanding a view of sacred space in ancient Judaism, they have largely overlooked the symbiotic relationship between the materiality of space and the role of the human body in producing, perceiving, and influencing the construction of place. Separated from these traditional approaches, the Dead Sea Scrolls can shed additional light on Second Temple Jewish presentations of the human body as it relates to the production and perception of space. Employing the three-fold anthropological model of space as proposed by Setha M. Low upon references to the human body in the Dead Sea Scrolls, this paper argues that the body plays an integral part in producing ideas of sacred places and identity among the Dead Sea Scrolls community. The implications in this study include a new form of spatiality in ancient Judaism that is centered on the individual and their movement throughout their respective communities. By adjusting our focus on how the individual moves through space on their own trajectory, while at the same time acknowledging the underlying importance of the political and social production and reproduction of pathways created by such movement, we are challenged to look at the body in spaces and places that evolve the identity of the community itself.

Seven (7) seasons of excavation at Horvat Kur in the Lower Galilee (New Israeli Grid 25050-60/ 75450-60) have exposed the remains of a broad-house basilical synagogue from the Late Roman and Early Byzantine period. The excavations are sponsored by Leiden University (Netherlands), University of Bern (Switzerland), University of Helsinki (Finland), and Florida Atlantic University (USA). This paper will present the architecture and stratigraphy of the synagogue, including notable finds such as a "seat of Moses," a stone table, and a mosaic floor featuring a menorah and an Aramaic inscription. The architecture and stratigraphy of adjacent houses will also be described.

This paper employs discourse analysis, narratology and literary analysis to outline the ritual dimension of Luke’s ecclesiology. Through his didactic narrative, Luke prescribes a ritual initiation structure that is coherent and internally consistent, with an allowance for variation which comports well with ‘real world’ ritual behaviour. Luke presents Christian initiation as a liminal process consisting of belief in the kerygma, repentance, immersion in water, prayer by the initiate for the Spirit, prayer with handlaying by particularly powerful ritual elders to transmit the Spirit, and, climactically, dissociative tongues speaking combined with an intelligible element, which, in its gestalt, is consistent with the traditional tongues speaking practices of the community and which is conceptualised as the experience of Spirit reception. Luke’s initiation praxis is then analysed in terms of the anthropology of religion: Mary Douglas, grid and group; Victor Turner, liminality and communitas; Maurice Bloch/Douglas Davies, rebounding conquest/rebounding vitality; Marcel Mauss/Maurice Godelier, the fourth obligation; Clifford Geertz, models of and for.

This talk re-examines the contention surrounding Israel’s central highland polity formation in the Iron Age I from a neo-evolutionary perspective. Studies on the development of the ‘Israelite state’ in the 21st century have largely failed to incorporate anthropological theory alongside biblical and archaeological data and often the true value of cross-cultural analogues are misunderstood and devalued. This is in opposition to the original monographs of the 20th century on the settlement-statehood process and to the methodology particular to social-cultural evolutionary theory. Recently, Faust argued that Israelite Iron Age state formation resulted from phases of destruction and abandonment, due to external incursions, encouraging the crystallization of a central highland identity that ‘pushed’ the occupants into remaining regional centers thereby forming the basis of the monarchy (2003, 2006b, 2007, 2015). Essentially, an application of Carneiro’s ‘circumscription’ theory documented in the biblical and archaeological record. Finkelstein objects to Faust’s methodology (Finkelstein 2005) and in his latest monograph (2013), he identifies continuity from the LB into the Iron I-II, which largely rejecting the biblical narrative. The current polarity illuminates the problematic nature of tracing the Israelite state. Despite a general modern objectivity and more archaeological data being presently available now than in previous decades, the methodology of the subject lacks much consensus and there is a need for growth in the understanding of the process. While many have sought to identify conspicuous architectural features and other material correlates between the early highland settlements and Israel’s Iron Age state(s), abstract ideas are just as susceptible to cultural transmission. The concepts of power and authority, which this study views as a primary driver of societal change and the cause of complex social organizations, are emphasized in this talk and examined in an attempt to showcase the evolutionary nature of Israel’s Iron Age settlement-statehood trajectory.

Scholars have shown great interest in the issue of the relations between Israelites and the ancient foreign countries they actively or passively dealt with, with special focus on the situation of the Restoration period. When Yehud became a relatively unimportant part of the Persian regime, the Achaemenids shaped and formulated their policy on Yehud for the empire’s own interest and showed no more mercy than their predecessors. However, the biblical authors, many of whom were favored and supported by the Persians, endeavored to venerate the foreign rulers in their work and depicted Cyrus as a generous and benevolent savior of the Israelites. The typical brutal, evil and wicked character of foreign monarch does not apply to Persian kings. This presentation will analyze the biblical texts about and attitude toward Persia in the context of modern Asia, in which a number of people also expressed their praise to the Japanese invaders and rulers and even identified themselves as real Japanese. There are more complicated reasons for their ideas and behaviors and a cross-textual reading of the two stories will shed light on each other and help understand the complexity of this phenomenon.

While the roll call of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 contains explicit references to martyrs (11.34–38), they are usually interpreted as comprising a subset of exemplars of Faith alongside other significant Hebrew Bible figures who demonstrated that Faith in different ways. This paper, instead, argues there are strong martyrological elements planted throughout chapter 11, such that those mentioned at the end become the climax of a list of heroes who have in some way undergone (albeit metaphorical) martyrdom. While I will illustrate this claim using a number of figures from the chapter, the paper will focus on the way in which the character of Moses has been refracted through a martyrological lens (11.23–29), such that he proleptically conforms to the model of Christ’s suffering (11.26). Moreover, chapter 11 is situated between two sections of the letter which, I will argue, deal with potential martyrdom (10.26–39; 12.3–7). Therefore, the rhetorical force of the chapter highlights not merely examples of faith, but faith potentially leading to martyrdom. Among these examples is Moses, who imitated the same sufferings of Christ which the Hebrews are in turn called to emulate (13.13).

The concise sayings in Proverbs 10-29 are very difficult to translate. Many contain terse grammar, metaphors, or linguistic ambiguities, and they do not have a clear literary context to elucidate them. This is not an incidental feature of the sayings, but is at the heart of what a proverb is. Paremiologists (those who study the proverb genre) have stressed that the textual meaning of a proverb can never be its total meaning: a proverb requires application to a situation to be fully meaningful. It must be ‘translated’ into its new setting, and it picks up particular nuances along the way. Recent paremiologists have begun to use Fauconnier and Turner’s Blend Theory to describe these dynamics. The process is metaphoric: the ‘source’ proverb is blended imaginatively with the ever-new ‘target’ situation. This paper uses insights from paremiology and cognitive linguistics (especially Blend Theory) to explore the interplay between source proverb and target situation; along with source language and target language (as two comparable ‘translation’ processes). It asks how the open-endedness of a proverb text might be retained in translation. Yet it also reflects that the open-endedness is there so that the proverb might acquire fresh meanings in different situations. Perhaps then, the fresh meanings acquired through translation are part of the inherent joy of the genre, and are not its nemesis.

This paper will focus on the differences between the Hebrew Bible and the LXX by the different position of the book of Rut and the different divisions within Samuel and Kings. In the context of the question of the canon group of this year we can regard how different framing texts create new contexts with different theological emphases.

The specific semantic and historical framework of the content of the so-called Oracles (Χρησµοί) of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886–912) allow their constant updating, or reinterpretation, over the centuries and particularly their re-functionalising in the Post-Byzantine period. The Middle Bulgarian translation of the Χρησµοί is supposed to date from the 12th century. It spread in Serbian, Russian and South Russian manuscripts and was used as a source for compiling new works. The quotations from the Scripture are in the key position in the texts and their identification and comparison with other sources is an important part of the research. The center of South Slavonic texts features a motif about 'redeemer ruler', woven with traits of real historical personalities The circulation of the Slavic translation of the Oracles of Leo the Wise among Serbians and Bulgarians and its resonance in other texts with similar contents is a significant part of the development of the apocalyptic and historical literature in the Balkans, as it shows the transformation of the translated works in accord with the historical reality.

The text in Titus 1:12 presents a prophet who is a Cretan and thus a member of the larger group of Cretans to whom he is referring in his prophecy of self-negation. That is, the Cretan prophet is referring to himself, creating a circular reference by referring to the Cretan community of which he is a member. The paradoxical question and problem in Titus 1:12 is whether the prophet himself is also a liar as he declares that every Cretan is always a liar. A similar passage is found in Romans 3:4 where Paul declares that all men are liars, citing the passage in Psalm 116:11. The difficulty in the Liar paradox is the presence of a self-negation in the circular relationship. In this paradox, even though not explicitly stated, a negative implication is clearly present. Negation in circular reasoning not only presents a challenge, but also complicates the matter with respect to its meaning and validity. Circular rhetoric (e.g., idem per idem) has been one of the most misunderstood or controversial areas in contemporary biblical scholarship for the latter half of the 20th century. Recently there has been a renewed interest due to a new approach by Richard Min with many groundbreaking results in biblical exegesis and hermeneutics. The author identifies and explores circular rhetoric and paradox in Titus 1:12, and its implication in exegesis and hermeneutics, to provide a viable alternative, to defend the validity of 1 Titus 1:12. Further the author explores and presents a new paradigm in exegesis and interpretive framework to understand and analyze circular rhetoric and its exegetical challenges.

As warned by the author of Hebrews, two passages in Psalm 110 generate the enormous controversies and difficulties in New Testament study and exegesis. The first controversy and paradox about the Son of God is the problem of the lordship of Christ. He is the son of David. Yet he is being addressed by David as "my lord" (Psalm 110:1). The paradox deals with the extended human "father-son" relationship in the law, with the divine-human relationship (of lord-servant). This divine lordship of the Son of God is professed by David who is the very author of this psalm and the father of the son of David. All synoptic gospels deal with the passage (Psalm 110:1) as having great significance (Matthew 22:41–46; Mark 12:35–37; Luke 20:41–44). The second controversy and paradox of the Son of God in Psalm 110:4 is the problem of the priesthood of the Son of God who is from the tribe of Judah (Hebrews 7:14–15). According to the law, to have a priest outside of the tribe of Levi and according to the order of Aaronic lineage is impossible. The legal question is how it could be possible for Christ, the son of David, to be a priest of God. This controversy has never been dealt with or resolved in any part of the New Testament except in Hebrews. The paper presents and extends this new perspective and paradigm of circular rhetoric and paradox in the Bible.

The Book of Proverbs, as has long been noted, assumes a 'deed-consequence nexus,' in which ethical behavior will be consistently rewarded with a positive outcome, even if after a slight delay. As a result of this optimistic worldview, Proverbs is often willing to countenance cautious engagement with dangerous individuals (such as kings, enemies, fools and sinners) in the belief that proper behavior will guard against the risks inherently posed by interaction with such threatening characters. "A king's wrath is a messenger of death," states Proverbs, "but a wise man may appease it." Despite his terrifying might, a clever courtier may find a way to mollify the monarch. The Wisdom of Ben Sira, in its explicit discussions of ethics and justice, tends to closely reproduce the confidence in the deed-consequence nexus which Proverbs declares. Yet the compilation's actual, concrete advice, rather than encouraging the cautious engagement with danger found in Proverbs, exhorts the addressee to total avoidance of threatening agents. Despite explicitly towing the party line of Proverb's deed-consequence nexus, then, Ben Sira's direct recommendations imply a much more pessimistic state of mind-- an operative worldview in which proper behavior may not provide protection against the lurking dangers of the world. " Do not lift a weight too heavy for you," Ben Sira instructs, "or associate with one mightier and richer than you. How can the clay pot associate with the iron kettle? The pot will strike against it and be smashed." This paper will seek to demonstrate the ways in which Sirach, while paying explicit lip service to the worldview presented in the book of Proverbs--and thus demonstrating a certain attitude of deference to it--nonetheless consistently undermines that worldview in the practical advice which it offers to its readers.

In 1 Chr 29:7, the people give gold, silver, and other precious items for the construction of the Jerusalem temple. The term “daric” is used to identify the form of some of the gold. The daric coin, possibly although not necessarily named after Darius the Great, was a well-known coin of the Achaemenid period, having an archer on the obverse and an incised rectangle on the reverse. It is an obvious anachronism, and the reference in 1 Chr 29:7 is the only use in Hebrew/Aramaic biblical texts not set in a Persian context. While it is possible to argue that the author of Chronicles did not know the origin or meaning of “daric,” in this paper I will engage in a thought-experiment that assumes that the author did know the origin of the term. The iconography of coins had high symbolic and ideological value – so what was David doing collecting darics from the people of Jerusalem? The answers to this question lead to a comparison of David and Darius.

Two current projects at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the University of Göttingen are dedicated to digital research in the Coptic Bible and Coptic literature: the long-term project of a “Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament” and the project “Scriptural Interpretation and Educational Tradition in Coptic-speaking Egyptian Christianity of Late Antiquity: Shenoute, Canon 6” project, in the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre 1136 “Education and Religion”. The former project involves the development of digital manuscript editions, a critical edition and translations of the (Sahidic-)Coptic Old Testament in cooperation with the Coptic New Testament edition in Münster, while the latter has, as one of its goals, a digital online edition of the manuscripts transmitting Canon 6 of Shenoute († 465) and the works of his successor Besa. This paper examines how, on the basis of manuscripts digitized by these projects, Biblical intertextuality can be studied using the TRACER text reuse detection tool, which was created by the eTRAP research group (Institute of Computer Science, University of Göttingen). For this purpose, we developed an OCR tool to extract digital Unicode texts from existing Coptic printed editions. We then created the base text of Shenoute, Canon 6 and Besa’s works and adjusted this base text by collating photos of all available manuscript pages. We subsequently employed corpus linguistics tools, including the lemmatizer, tokenizer, morphological and syntactical parsers of Coptic SCRIPTORIUM, to generate linguistically annotated XML corpora. Finally, we ran TRACER on the digital texts of Shenoute Canon 6, Besa and the Bible, as far as available. We compared the results of the TRACER with text reuses previously identified by scholars and evaluated the effectiveness of TRACER within the intertextuality studies on early Christian texts.

The presentation primarily focuses on the translations of the references to Jerusalem in her promising/new times in the Judaeo-Arabic versions of the book of Isaiah, especially Saadiah Gaon's recension and Yefet ben Eli's commentary on Isaiah. The primary focus is to analyze these references in order to reveal how Jerusalem’s promising times have been articulated and expressed in these translations. Various issues pertaining to syntax, style, grammar, and vocabulary will be examined. Moreover, and a comparison with other ancient versions such as the Targum, Vulgate, Qumran, Septuagint, and the Masoretic text will be made in order to provide a broader spectrum of the exegetical meanings of these translations. The influences of Quranic and Islamic terminology and themes will be also examined. The presentation deals with four major interconnected questions. First, what are the theological, social, cultural, and political perspectives which have influenced these Arabic translations as far as the status of Jerusalem in her new times is concerned? Second, how has Jerusalem’s transformation and her deliverance been conveyed in these translations? Third, what did these translations have in common and on what points did they disagree on the status of Jerusalem in her new times? Last, can the reader discern any signs of theological conflict between Jews and Muslims on the definition and articulation of the legitimate authority over Jerusalem after her deliverance and transformation?

After the assassination of Domitian and Nerva's transitional seizure of power, the question of constructing a new legitimate system of succession became a problem that necessitated an ideological programme to justify Trajan's rule. This could be understood from the writings of the major biographers and historians of that period. However, it is Pliny the Younger's Panegyricus that gives a detailed explanation of what image Trajan needed to acquire and how he could become a legitimate successor. According to the biographers of that age and the Panegyricus, the major contrast between the dark age of the Flavians and the "new happy age" was the restoration of Augustan pietas (piety). This movement resonates in contemporaneous Christian texts of that period. In this paper, I will argue that the three fundamental elements of the revived pietas could be found particularly in Luke-Acts as part of its apologia for a pious Lord who accomplishes pietas in the life of his community. This appears in the expressions and materials that biblical exegetes consider as characteristically Lukan, and therefore I suggest that the rhetoric of Luke's double work was directed particularly to address this new imperial ideological movement.

Since the conception of the term, the robot has consistently functioned in fiction as a site of reception, rehearsal, and reinterpretation of the Edenic myth. Robot fiction has long used dynamics constructed between a (usually male) scientist-creator and their creations, as well as those between the creations themselves, to explore questions of identity, ontology, epistemology, and relationality. More specifically, many works of robot fiction have employed such dynamics to probe the nature and limits of sexual expression. This theme has, however, taken on a new emphasis in both speculative and science fiction and scholarly and popular discourse alike as recent technological advancements have begun to bring into sharper focus the practical, ethical, and philosophical implications of humanoid robots designed and made to give sexual pleasure. This paper offers a set of reflections on the relational dynamics in Genesis 2 and 3 read through a lens shaped by the contemporary phenomenon of humanoid sex robots and their treatment in both scholarship and recent screen fiction. In bringing insights from a range of other texts into conversation with the biblical material, the paper highlights a set of intertextual anxieties concerned with (and by) masculinity, sexuality, and reproduction. It focuses in particular on YHWH Elohim and the man’s joint attempts first to find then make an ezer k’negdo for the man as acute manifestations of these anxieties. Following the lead of ancient interpreters, the paper thinks in and with the gaps in the section of the narrative that connects the recognition that man on his own is ‘not good’ (2.18) to his ejaculation ‘at last!’ (2.23). It indicates how an interpretative emphasis on the woman as a product of male design and manufacture reframes connections between text and the urgent discussions about politics of gender and sex currently taking place in public discourse.

The relation between the Jesus of history and his religious background has always been an important question in scholarship. The extremes encompass on the one hand that Jesus fully transcended the Judaism of his day, on the other hand that he did not represented anything really new, Christianity owing its existence to later, creative disciples such at Paul. In this lecture, I will draw attention to five different solutions to this question set forth by Danish scholars from 1840 to 1938. Framed by two textbooks on New Testament hermeneutic by H.N. Clausen (1840) and Frederik Torm (1938), I have selected the account on Messianic promises by the Old Testament scholar, Frants Buhl (1894), and two examples of life-of-Jesus-books by religious historian Ditlef Nielsen (1924) and the historian of literature, Georg Brandes (1925). These five authors present us for understandings ranging from a historical Jesus being transcending the religion of the Old Testament and Judaism, stressing the discontinuity, and to a Jesus transforming the very same religion, emphasizing the moment of continuity. The presupposition for all five is that Judaism and Christianity represents two from the very beginning fundamentally different religions.

The paper addresses Eckart Otto’s monumental contribution to reconstructing and contextualizing the original core of Deuteronomy ("Urdeuteronomium") in the history of Israelite religion. In addition, it highlights how Otto’s evaluation of this core is related to his model of a Deuteronomistic edition of Deuteronomy ("deuteronomistisches Deuteronomium"). Both models are critically discussed.

The Johannine Gospel continues to be of interest for biblical scholars attuned to the manner in which gender is constructed and performed by means of characterization in its narratives, interpreted from a vast range of social locations. Whereas the process of interpretation and meaning-making for some leads down the road of gender equality and gender-transgressive behaviour, others deem the Fourth Gospel narratives to merely reinforce the all too familiar patriarchal social structures and hegemonic masculine ideals. Central to interpretative judgements on the gendered dimension of the Fourth Gospel narratives, is the manner in which Jesus is characterized, and the manner in which his character relates to those in his presence. In this paper I argue that the narrative of John 13:1-17 – when read with a gender-critical lens against the background of the first century cultural script of honour and shame – resists simplistic categorization of being either a liberating or a restrictive gendered narrative. Rather, by taking into consideration the complex intersections of honour, shame, gender, and class, a gender ambiguous picture emerges; a picture that, by means of its characterization, both affirms and transgresses ancient gendered ideals. This unresolved gendered tension depicted in the narrative, and rightly noted by the character of Peter in the narrative itself, opens up possibilities for contemporary theological discourses on gender and sexuality. Instead of feeding into simplistic discourses which promote essentialist, binary gender categorization, the ambiguity of this narrative could potentially create spaces for theologically engaging gender and sexuality in a more informed and complex manner – a hermeneutic that can rest in the discomfort of constructivism, variation, and unresolved open-endedness, and thereby extend an invitation of life for all.

There are eight references made to παντοκράτωρ in the whole of the New Testament, seven of which is found in the book of Revelation. The concept has become a generally accepted epithet for the Christian deity, rendering such a deity ‘competent’ and ‘all-powerful,’ even though the concept is not widely used by New Testament scribes. The aim is to answer the question whether there is any existential value in acknowledging that a deity is incompetent. To answer this question, a brief overview of the παντοκράτωρ idea will be given, by investigating its origin and history. This will be followed by a critical evaluation of its use and function in Revelation.

Biblical Hebrew has been for centuries an object of study and research, yet it is not until recent years that modern methods of language teaching have been implemented for this language. In this lecture I will present the principles of the 'full immersion' method for teaching (any) language, which employs all four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), and show the ways in which I implemented these principles on BH. These include inter alia some state-of-the-art methods of language teaching, such as TPR, Storytelling, pair and group works, that will be introduced and briefly exemplified.I will also present parts of my BH textbook for beginners (to be published soon) and show the fundamental way in which it differs from other textbooks of the 'teach yourself' kind.By doing so I hope to present a convincing argument for the advantages of the living method over the classical one, encouraging students to experience the language and be deeply immersed in it, a process which directly and naturally leads to the ultimate goal of anyone who wishes to learn an ancient language, namely to become a fluent reader of it. I will argue that it is through full-immersion that such a goal is best achieved. To end my lecture I will discuss some challenges unique to the teaching of ancient languages as living ones (as opposed to modern ones). These in turn raise some questions of a more theoretical nature. As I will try to show, these questions touch up on the very core problem of resurrecting a language from the dead and may contribute to any discussion on the subject.

The goddess Asherah is designated as ‘Lady of the Sea’ several times in the Baal Cycle. In this lecture I will focus on the description of Asherah in KTU 1.4, ii, and propose a new reading for a few of its passages. Until now scholars have assumed, based on the reading of column ii, that Asherah is a goddess who represents women and women’s domestic labor, since according to this passage, she is described as weaving, laundering, cooking, and serving food to El, her consort. These scholars have not explained the connection between this description and Asherah’s epic epithet as ‘Lady of the Sea’. Similarly unexplained is the connection between the description of Asherah engaging in domestic chores and the following passage, which deals with fishing and with Ashera’s fisherman Qudshu-wa-Amruru. Closer examination of the Ugaritic word npnyh along with an alternate verse division of the text raise the possibility that Asherah is described here as weaving a fishing net, which also serves her as a garment. In light of this passage and other textual references (including the Kirta Epic), as well as archeological findings from Ugarit (a drawing on a drinking mug and a figurine of a goddess), one can argue that in the city of Ugarit, which is located on the seaside, Asherah was also considered a goddess of fishing, alongside her other attributes. She is described as a lady and as the consort of El, the head of the pantheon, as well as the goddess responsible for feeding the inhabitants of Ugarit.

The paper deals with 2 Enoch, one of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha that notwithstanding the fact that it has been under research for more than 150 years remains an ‘enigma’ in many respects. From the middle of the 19th century (when the first Slavic fragments were published) up to the present, there has been a protracted debate about the provenance of the text in question. ‘One of the most remarkable token of continued puzzlement over this work is the failure of scholars to decide whether it came from Jewish or Christian circles’ . This ‘contradictory’ nature makes this text one of particular interest and importance, and it probably has to do with its long history of transmission through different times, different lands, different cultures and different languages. One of the peculiarities of 2 Enoch is that, being relatively short one, it has quite a lot of examples of what the Slavists call “темные места” (obscure places). In the paper I will be commenting on some of them and demonstrating that they can really provide us with certain data concerning the provenance of the Pseudepigraphon.

It has long been noticed that in the beginning of Acts the risen Jesus commands the apostles to be witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the world (Acts 1:8); and this is precisely what happens in the subsequent narration. By giving special attention to spatial movement and directions in the visionary scenes of Acts the present paper explores the way in which the narrator depicts the spreading of the „Way“ as being directed immediately by Jesus from the heavenly sphere. Nightly visions as well as Angelophanies, the heavenly voice of Jesus, and the work of the spirit have a heavy influence on the apostles and their traveling in the earthly realm. The visions in Acts thus not only form a means of communication between heaven and earth but also initiate a chain of action that originates in heaven and drives the earthly protagonists to accomplish their mission.

In the scholarly debate about the history of Biblical texts the figure of Moses plays a key role. On the one hand, the discussion about the historicity of the exodus is less vivid in recent years. On the other hand, the question about the origin of Moses as law-giver is still open. The paper aims at discussing the possible connotation of Moses as the source of authority of the written law in the Persian Period. The paper will try to open up new directions in seeing Moses as literary figure created in the Persian Period, but based on older traditions. The creation of the new law-system in the province of Yehud and the possible activity of Nehemiah as the law-giver (law-codifier) may offer the best background for the shifting of the figure of Moses from the religious leader into the aesymnetes-figure. In some way the literary figure of Ezra, the propagator of the Torah, is also parallel to the figure of Moses. One may here, however, ask which literary portrait was original. By now, it is not given that Moses as the law-giver must predate Ezra. The discussion on the role of Moses, and the tradition of Moses as law-giver in particular, may shed new light on concepts of leadership and law-authorisation in the Persian Period, especially in the 5th century BCE in Yehud.

The paper discusses the role of magical enrichment in the success of Pauline Christianity in the first two centuries CE. The presentation begins with a brief discussion of the concept of magic (and miracle) from the perspective of the cognitive science of religion, which suggests that magical beliefs are a universal character of the human mind. It is argued that magic and miracle are cognitively appealing to the human mind, because they include elements such as counterintuitivity and emotionally arousing content, which enhance memorability. Memorability in turn is directly related to cultural evolution, which discusses the transmission and success of various cultural representations. The theoretical discussion will be applied to selected examples from early Christian literary material relating to the character of Paul. In order to establish the magical enrichment with time, examples will be drawn from the authentic letters of Paul, through the Canonical Acts, to the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. The paper suggests that the increased number of magical and miracle stories had a positive impact on the survival and spread of Pauline Christianity in the first centuries. It is less certain, however, whether Pauline Christianity had any real selective advantage in this respect with regard to other strands of Early Christianity, or if magical enrichment was more a matter of accommodating to the expectations in the surrounding environment. In fact, a process of blending between the various strands becomes more and more evident as time goes on. Interestingly, Pauline Christianity seems to take two distinct forms that develop in different directions. The first one is the narrative mode where magical enrichment, among other elements, flourishes. The second one develops around the epistolary material and is notably scarce in magical elements, centering more on community control.

The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu corpus should not be classified as ‘late midrash’ as it is not engaged in adapting biblical material to rabbinic culture like the classical role of rabbinic midrash. Rather, Tanhuma is engaged in adapting rabbinic beit-midrash culture to its own intended audience, apparently the synagogue-goer of the Byzantine period. The shift away from the beit-midrash entails emotional translation, since the emotionality of the rabbinic halakhic elite does not suit a wider public constructed not only of learners. In my lecture I will look at a few cases where the emotional translation takes place by studying how Tanhumaic narratives suggest emotionality to its audience. There are three instances where a narrative suggests emotionality: 1) in emotional concepts found in the discourse; 2) in the incentive for action in the plot, i.e. what moves the protagonist to act; and 3) in the clues the teller or the implied author gives to the audience as to how the story and its people should be valued. I am regarding the topic from a cognitive-narrative approach based on culture and cognition theories (van Heusden, Donald, and others) as well as cutting edge neuroscientific studies of emotions (Feldman, Barrett) to follow the emotional community established in the Tanhuma corpus.

While prophecy and shamanism are to be regarded as different phenomena, they also share many phenomenological features, such as the communication between the human and superhuman worlds, the altered state of consciousness, performances that are best described as magical acts, and, occasionally the ambiguous gender role. The purpose of this paper is mapping the interface between shamanism and prophecy, paying attention especially to the agency of the shaman vis-à-vis the prophet. It will be argued that, while these agencies typically do not overlap, they fulfill partially similar socio-religious functions.

Every human phenomenon inevitably manifests change. So does ancient Hebrew poetry and its context, its composers, writers and subjects. The paper will offer a wide perspective on the complex questions and aspects related to the dynamic character of poetry. Five programmatic questions will be discussed. Firstly, the peculiar impression that "classic" genres seem to disappear or melt together in the Second temple period needs elaboration. Secondly, the relation between oral poetry and written texts has an impact on the form of texts. But how to assess traces of orality in texts? Thirdly, the change of scribal material and scribal practices must have provoked changes in form; concepts of tablets, inscriptions and scrolls should be thoroughly examined. Fourthly, the scribal institution has not been static through the monarchic and post-monarchic eras, but how do forms and genres reflect institutional changes? And fifthly, the concept of word, particularly of divine word has not been always the same. What happens, if a single word or phrase gains the upper hand over genre and form? The latter observation explains wide-spread redactional practices and many younger forms of texts.

This proposal argues for a more sustained commitment to the inclusion of Islamic visual culture within what has become a predictable repertoire of ‘biblical art’, employed by those who document the Bible’s cultural influence and impact. While much work has been done on the scriptural and textual traditions that Islam, Judaism and Christianity share, this has not been the case with visual culture where the selection of artworks that commentators draw on is generally limited to those from well-known artistic periods, such as the Italian Renaissance or the Dutch Golden Age. However, biblical subjects have often proved to be creative and imaginative meeting places for Islamic, Jewish and Christian artistic traditions and there is much evidence for the borrowing and sharing of a rich iconography between the three faiths - frequently very similar, but also at times quite unique and distinctive. By way of illustration, the presentation will begin with some introductory comments outlining the importance of Rashid al-Din’s fourteenth-century historical composition Jami ‘ al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), generally thought to be the first major Islamic work in which illustrations from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament appeared. For this work, Rashid al-Din established the first Persian school of painting, recruiting the most promising painters from Tabriz. The presentation will then focus specifically on the character of Al Khidr (The Green One), a hugely important and ubiquitous figure in every age throughout the Islamic world where he is identified in various ways: as the servant of Moses, as the prophet Elijah and, in the Eastern Churches as St. George. The presentation concludes with a few brief examples of the biblical Solomon where Jewish and Islamic illustrators and calligraphers appear to share similar iconographical processes, but which are absent in Christian tradition.

The starting point of this paper is the fact that one important feature of oral literature of every period and geographic origin is the striking frequency of repetition. Repetitions create structure, emphasize important statements and are means to develop themes throughout a story. They form patterns which differ not only depending on period, language, and region, but constitute the individual audible design of a certain text. The overall structure of Mark’s Gospel is characterised by triplets of repeated episodes. Each of the five main parts is structured by one episode which is told with variations three times. Many words, the setting or other aspects remain the same in the first and second repetition of one of these stories. But at the same time, there is something new in each version. A theme is established the first time a story is told. In the first and second version, it is resumed by repeated material and developed by new elements. These new elements differ from main part to main part: the crowd invades the calling stories in 1,16-3,35, the disciples’ incomprehension increases from one boat trip to another in 4,35-8,21, the announcements of death and resurrection in 8,27-10,45 are accompanied by a geographical progression, Jesus’ visits in the temple in 11,1-13,3 get longer and longer, and each consultation of the chief priests with other members of the council in 14,1-15,39 brings Jesus one step nearer to the cross. The analysis of the ‘triple episodes’ shows that these are not only crucial for the Gospel’s structure, but also contribute to the development of the two major Markan themes Christology and discipleship.

Psalm 68 is known as the "Mont Blanc de l'exégèse" (Caquot) and indeed, the work on this psalm can be very challenging. Nowadays, scholars see the psalm neither as a "Catalogue of Early Hebrew Lyric Poems" (Albright) nor as an entity (Mowinckel), but as a text with a complicated process of growth. It is obvious that the psalm went through a Jerusalem revision. Especially, this revision is triggering hermeneutic issues. The aim of this paper is to analyse this Jerusalem revision and to try to break through the hermeneutic spiral which is caused by it. What is part of the revision process for sure? And what does the reader and exegete think is only part of it? Where is she or he taken in by the revision? The paper will present the different steps of this analysis as well as the result: A text in which Yahweh is moving into his new territory, the mountain of Bashan.

Earliest Christian documents witness the expectation of Christ’s imminent glorious parousia (1Thess 4:15; 1Cor 15:51). It is commonly held that this expectation declined as decades elapsed and church members passed away. The emphasis shifted from future to realized eschatology or Christian hope was re-interpreted in an individualistic sense. However, as Erlemann (1993) has shown, there is no clear development towards disappointment and abandoning the expectation. Late documents like Revelation, 2Peter, or Didache do not give up this early conviction of the soon coming parousia despite permanent disappointment. How was this possible? The paper explores the possibility that some ritualized actions of early Christians did not only express eschatological hope but also continuously stirred this hope. One of the features of ritualized actions is the recourse to tradition—especially by actions that seem to stick to traditional forms—that lets historical event and present time fall together in the participants’ experience. Performing rituals of Christian hope would thus make the first generation of Jesus’ followers and later Christians contemporaneous and help the latter ones to be filled with the expectations of earlier generations. The study investigates eschatological elements in Christian rituals, especially the Lord’s supper, in New Testament texts and the Didache. It also entertains the idea that the letter to the Hebrews with its interpretation of Israel’s cult and its contested eschatology could be a theoretical reflection of Christian hope as an afterthought based on the ritual performance of hope.

“…Watchman, what of the night? ...The morning cometh, and also the night: If ye will inquire, inquire ye…” (Isa 21:11-12) ABSTRACT Even though a number of studies have probed the concept of time in the Hebrew Bible, very little has been said about night as a unit of time. This paper investigates the conceptions and theology of night in the books of Isaiah and of Micah. Whereas strong existential correspondence between day and night is found throughout Isaiah which describes certain negative and positive activities that occur in the night, Micah records only one night time activity—having a vision. It is argued that the conceptions of night as depicted through the night-time activities and actors (which include God, prophets, watchers, the people of Israel, etc.) have implications for the theology and the worldviews expressed in the two prophetic books.

The recent history of religious conflict and violence in Europe and beyond generated, amongst others, a renewed interest in ways in which Christian identity is informed by depictions of Jesus's death. This opens a door to interreligious dialogue with contemporary traditions like Judaism and Islam where images of death and martyrdom play an important role in the formation of religious identity and action. Against this background, this paper will explore different characters that suffered martyrdom according to the three traditions (viz the death of the woman and her seven sons in 2 Maccabees; the death of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark; Sumayyah, the first martyr in Islam). It will be elucidated which world views the construction of the respective characters represent and how they operated as a means of identity formation.

Vladimir Monomakh, Great Prince of Kiev (1053-1125) is one of the most interesting and remarkable figures of the Kievan Rus’. Amongst other things he is known to us through his instruction-Pouchenie. The text of Pouchenie which survives in the Lavrentievsky Chronicle of 1377 was published a number of times. Scholars wrote about various sources for Monomakh’s Instruction: Psalms, Homilies on the Hexaemeron by Basil the Great, Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix and the apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs which includes the Testament of Judah. To this list I may add another apocryph, The Testament of Job. The earliest known version of the Testament of Job is the Coptic papyrus of the IV century AD. There are four Greek manuscripts of the XI-XVI centuries and several South Slavonic copies of the XV-XVI centuries. The comparison of this text with Vladimir Monomakh’s Instruction has never been explored by scholars. My current paper aims to fill this gap by discussing the range of reading at the court of Vladimir Monomakh, and the representation of literary motifs in the visual arts (in connection with the apocryphal image of Job).

The paper deals with the basic question why are there extensive psalms and prayers that disrupt the flow of the narrative in most narrative works among the texts now in the Hebrew Bible, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thus far very little has been written on this overall topic and all of these studies deal with only small portions of the available evidence. Most of the prior studies have seen these psalms and prayers as secondary insertions into the narrative contexts and of little or no worth for understanding the overall compositions they are parts of. This paper is based on a larger comprehensive study of this literary phenomenon but it will concentrate on the empirical evidence for this practice as well as give illustrative examples of the main reasons for the incorporation of this material into the narratives. According to the empirical evidence from the versions and the Dead Sea Scrolls, a few of the psalms and prayers are indeed purely secondary insertions with little overall importance but most have probably been composed or modified directly for the literary setting by the authors of the work or later editors. Moreover, they are far from secondary for understanding the aims of these authors and editors. On the contrary these psalms and prayers offered the chance for these writers to direct the ideological and theological message of the narrative towards their own interpretation of the events, presented an excellent way to tie the overall narrative to a larger framework of traditions, and to promote some novel contemporary ritual practices as ancient customs.

When studying women within early Judaism, finding sources to confirm social realities can be difficult. When considering historical realities among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the status and inclusion of women within the sectarian groups affiliated with the scrolls, scholarship often looks to the work of Josephus for historical confirmation. The works of Josephus that discuss the Essenes are usually correlated to the Qumran movement, whether those members are affiliated with the site of Qumran or elsewhere. It has been debated whether it is possible to mine the literary works of Josephus for factual historical information, acknowledging that he wrote with a certain apologetic. Steve Mason has argued that such attempts will not work as hoped, and furthermore, that the group that Josephus defines as the Essenes may not be that group or those groups affilated with the site of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. These considerations raise the methodological question whether it is appropriate to use Josephus as a comparative source when considering social realities for women within the Qumran movement. This paper will explore this question by performing a case study that analyzes two topics in which women are discussed within the Damascus Document and related 4QD material, namely slavery (e.g. CD XII, 10-11; CD XI, 12) and marriage (e.g. CD XIII, 16-17; 4Q271 Frag. 3, 12-15). The paper will contrast the material from within this rule text among the Dead Sea Scrolls, along with any corroborating archaeological data (if available), against material from Josephus (Ant. 18.21; J.W. 2.120-121, 160-161). Using the careful lens of Mason as a guide, we shall see that those individuals described by Josephus may not relate historically to regulations found in the Damascus Document in which women are identified as both slaves and spouses.

My paper will present an overview of the epigraphic, archaeological and literary sources concerning Jewish life in the Balkans and the Aegean between the fourth and the first half of the seventh century. I aim to establish the place the Jews occupied in the stratigraphy of Byzantine society and how the social and political changes in this society influenced their communal life and identity. I will analyse information from inscriptions, archaeological data from excavated synagogues, cemeteries and moveable artefacts, literary sources and documentary materials including Roman and Byzantine legislation. I will focus my analysis on the communal organisation and leadership of the Jewish community, the social status, professions and cultural concerns of its members including religious feasts and burial practices. This will allow me to further suggest the possible ways Jews approached the new political and religious realities in early Byzantium – from the traditional Roman policy of protection of Jewish privileges to the reaction against Judaism and Jewish religious influence among Christians under Justinian I (527‐565) and the forcible baptism of Jews under Heraclius (610‐644).

Early studies on the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus focus on its unity, extra-biblical parallels and its authenticity (Jülicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, 1886 and 1899; Gressmann, Vom reichen Mann und armen Lazarus, 1918; Hock, “Lazarus and Micyllus,” JBL 106/3, 1987; Bauckham, “The Rich Man and Lazarus,” NTS 37/1, 1991). In the last decade, Outi Lehtipuu has demonstrated great interest in the afterlife imagery depicted in the parable (The Afterlife Imagery in Luke’s Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, 2007). Recent research into the themes of possessions and poverty in Luke-Acts and early Christianity has examined Lk 16.19-31 as one of the significant texts and expounded the motifs of charity and renunciation of wealth as demands of discipleship (Seccombe, Possessions and the Poor in Luke-Acts, 1982; Metzger, Consumption and Wealth in Luke’s Travel Narrative, 2007; Hays, Luke’s Wealth Ethics, 2010). However, these explorations pay little or no attention to the motif of the salvation of the rich implied in the parable and in other related Lukan passages. Through a critical analysis of Lk 16.19-31 employing an “integrative and open model” of parable analysis (Zimmermann, Puzzling the Parables of Jesus, 2015), we will highlight Luke’s caricature of the rich man and identify the command to care for the poor as prescribed in the Law and the Prophets as a crucial and decisive element in the quest of a rich man for salvation.

In an essay on magic in the apocryphal acts, Bovon claimed that these acts might be treated as a whole by invoking the same episteme. For Bovon, the apocryphal acts presupposed, “an identical conception of eternal life that goes beyond doctrinal and ethical divergences.” Thus, all the narratives of magic in the apocryphal acts express the conviction that beyond the tangible world was a divine realm, one deserving priority. The supernatural deeds recounted in the Christian apocrypha do suggest the existence of such a divine realm, but their function is not limited to describing and prioritizing it. This paper examines the discourse of magic found in one of the apocryphal acts, the Acts of Peter, in order to justify the use of magic as a category for excavating the broader theological purposes of a text. My secondary aim is to highlight how attending to the unique nature of one text allows scholars to foreground differences that have been elided by our propensity to analyze these acts as a collection. In short, in the Acta Petri, the discourse of magic is polysemous, with each valence carrying specific purpose. Scholars have noted that supernatural wonders are invariably followed by Peter’s audience converting to Christianity. Magical discourse is thus a vehicle for inculcating and stabilizing faith. But other functions obtain as well. For example, by demonstrating the exclusive efficacy of magic in inculcating faith, the Acts of Peter provides a corrective to the ways such practices are narrated and interpreted not only in the canonical acts but also in some traditions that would later comprise other apocryphal acts. Not only should this text be read individually, then, it should be read against the grain of other apocryphal acts, at least with respect to the magical activities narrated therein.

Parables in rabbinic literature are always found in a specific literary context. Most parables are found in the context of midrash. Apparent tensions between the narrative of the parable (mashal), the application (nimshal), and the literary context (midrash) suggest that the parables had a literary prehistory and were redacted to fit in their present context. In some cases parallel versions of the parable can indeed be found in the context of another midrash. The redaction- critical approach of the parables in midrash, suggested for example by Catherine Hezser, is obviously legitimate. However, it is an interesting suggestion that such tensions can be deliberate and are part of the working of the parable in its complex interaction with the midrashic context and the biblical text. In this paper the parable of the vomiting son in Sifre Deuteronomy Pisqa 43 will be discussed to evaluate both approaches to the parables.

The stories of Moses dominate four of the Torah's books, beginning with the Exodus from Egypt and ending with the leader’s death just before the entrance of the people to the Promised Land. Later biblical characters are formed in the image of Moses: stories about Joshua, Gideon, Elijah, and Elisha reflect stories about Moses. Even Jesus can be seen as a second Moses. In this paper I focus on two such biblical characters - Joshua and Elijah. One may say, as did the Sages, "like father like son." In this paper I claim that Joshua, Moses' successor, is fashioned in the image of his master.. God said to Joshua: “My servant Moses is dead. Prepare to cross the Jordan […] As I was with Moses, so I will be with you" (Joshua 1:1-5). The word Moses itself serves as a leitwort (guiding or leading word). Indeed, the word Moses appears eleven times as a leading word in the first chapter of the Book of Joshua. I shall show that not all the resemblances between Moses and Joshua add a positive dimension to Joshua. Such is the case when Joshua Ch, 2:4 parallels Moses (Ex. 2:2) by sending spies to Canaan. The verb 'hidden' appears only twice in the Bible (Jos. 2:4; Ex. 2:2) and it functions as, "a rare guiding word" (this literary device). What can we learn from these analogies? The story of Elijah in Horeb (I Ki. 19) is built on motifs borrowed from the Moses Cycle. But Elijah's arena is the land of Israel. If he suddenly makes his way to Horeb, what is the meaning of this unexpected journey? Defamiliarization (hazarah) is common in biblical literature. In this case we are encouraged by the presence of this literary device to seek for an answer regarding the linkage between Moses and Elijah. We must admit that a comparison between the two does not flatter Elijah.

Motifs of writing, reading, and transmitting tradition are found across the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls. Inscribed content features regularly in settings of revelatory disclosure, portrayals of the transmission of tradition along approved genealogical channels, episodes accentuating the scribal profile of figures from the recent or remote past, and in outlooks undergirded by apocalyptic historiography. Using case studies of the permutations of this motif in texts such as Aramaic Levi Document, Visions of Amram, Genesis Apocryphon, Pseudo-Daniel, and 1 Enoch, the present paper works towards a comprehensive explanation of the rhetoric and function of scribalism across the Aramaic corpus. At an ideological-literary level, tracking consistencies and contrasts in this theme will add to our understanding of the unity/diversity of the Aramaic texts as a group. At a socio-historical level, the outcomes of this study point the way ahead for articulating the potential scribal qualities and social location of the group(s) behind this literature.

Matt 27:51b-53 are some of the most discussed verses in the exegesis of the New Testament. Only in the Matthean redaction the moment of Jesus’ death is underlined by some apocalyptic signs. In Matt 27:53, the short addition «μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ» has been defined as «the most difficult phrase in Matt 27:51-53» (Brown 1994). It breaks the chronological sequence of the events and the rhythmic cadence of the text by postponing the rising of the saints or, at least, their appearance in Jerusalem to a different moment from that of the Passion. After considering the main scholars’ positions about the nature and origin of the addition (either as Matthean [Schenk 1974, Wehnam 1981, Hill 1985, Maisch 1986, Wright 2003, Waters 2003, Quarles 2015] or as a later correction [Klostermann 1909, Riebl 1978, Schnachenburg 1987, Troxel 2002, Davies & Allison 2004, Luz 2005, Luiser 2008]), I will demonstrate how philological evidences could support the interpolation theory, through a deep rethinking of the early history of the text. This paper aims at a critical restitution of the early text of Matt 27:53, in which the addition was probably absent. In particular, this research will explain how the indirect tradition could have been a more notable witness of the original text of Mt 27:53 than the direct one, and how this peculiar situation could urge a deep reconsideration of the New Testament transmission history as a primary critical issue. Finally, in this new proposal both the presence or the absence of «μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ» in Matt 27:53 imply theological consequences which must be taken into consideration.

In view of the current consensus that Luke wrote as an ancient historian, scholarship on the Synoptic Problem has paid insufficient attention to the distinction within ancient historiography between accounts written about events contemporary with the author (e.g., by Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius) and accounts written about non-contemporary events (e.g., by Diodorus, Dionysius, Plutarch, Arrian). Richard Bauckham recently commented on the subject recognizing “that the gospels are some sort of historiography" and that "the earlier ones are contemporary history, written within living memory of the events, the sort of history people expected to be closely based on eyewitness testimony.”1 While classicists (e.g., John Marincola, Guido Schepens, Luke Pitcher, et al) widely recognize that ancient authors of contemporary histories represented the sources for their accounts in terms of autopsy and eyewitness testimony, very few scholars of the Gospels have recognized that Luke’s preface largely corresponds with this ancient historiographical practice. In view of the fact that Luke represented his two-volume account as a contemporary history, the paper argues that analogies with ancient historians and his use of “attempted” (Luke 1.1; Acts 9.29; 19.13) indicate that Luke represented as the sources for his account not the “many” prior narratives referenced in Luke 1.1, which he implies were somehow inadequate, but the “eyewitnesses” and “servants of the word.” The conventions and epistemological hierarchy of historiographical practice deriving from Herodotus and Thucydides, indicate that the last thing historians of contemporary events wanted was for audiences to believe that their accounts were based on the writings of other authors. These conclusions pose direct problems for the major theories of the Synoptic Problem which assume that the prior accounts Luke references functioned as his written sources. 1. Richard Bauckham, “Gospels before Normativization" JSNT 37, no. 2 (December 2014): 198.

During the last thirty years in the field of biblical and archaeological studies of the Southern Levant (a.k.a. “ancient Israel”, a.k.a. “ancient Palestine”), a considerable amount of criticism has been produced from within the field itself towards (1) the ways the history of “ancient Israel” is re/constructed considering alternative histories of ancient Palestine, (2) the historical value of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as a primary or secondary source for such a history, and (3) the political implications of such re/constructions of the past, both the traditional and the alternative. While these developments represent—in spite of some academic unpleasantries—a healthy symptom of epistemological reflexivity in Old Testament scholarship and Syro-Palestinian archaeology, much more work should be pursued, beyond limited topics and transcending episodic discussions. This paper calls, therefore, for establishing a serious and comprehensive study of the conditions in which institutional knowledge on the Old Testament and about the history of Israel/Palestine is produced and reproduced as an international discourse (through academic meetings, research projects, media and popular culture, etc.), touching upon issues of national memories and identities and past and current politics in Israel/Palestine.

In a stunning series of paintings and drawings entitled "Just Is 2016," Holocaust survivor/artist Samuel Bak interrogates and reanimates the iconic image of Lady Justice and the biblical principle of retributive justice expressed in the Lex Talionis. Bak refracts conventional representations of western and biblical justice through the lens of his experience as a child survivor of the Vilna ghetto liquidation and the murder of his family in the Ponari forest. He draws upon palette and vision to question the very possibility of justice lived after such atrocity. On Bak’s canvasses moral universe gives way to atrocity universe where Justice is refigured as Just Is, evoking in the title a necessary mixture of resignation and responsibility that falls to him as artist. Theodor Adorno famously asserted that the work of writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric, and yet, paradoxically, art cannot not attempt to express the suffering. By that aesthetic and moral standard, Bak’s artwork is at once disturbingly barbaric and beautiful; he embraces the responsibility imposed upon him as artist to give voice to the suffering. Through his engagement with western biblical and juridical traditions, Bak invites his viewers to take up the demanding interpretive work of reimagining justice for their day. In our present age of atrocity, what shape does Lady Justice and the biblical Lex Talionis take? How might we reimagine the rule of law and the biblical demand for justice in an era where the unspeakable has become normative? Bak’s midrashic brush and unblinking eye show us one way to face up to, not turn away from, these necessary questions. His artwork both challenges and inspires confidence that the work of Just Is remains just possible. (https://www.puckergallery.com/artists/#/samuel-bak/).

The digitisation of manuscripts is a major academic industry, which in turn is leading to an important increase in first class research in what those manuscripts reveal. Providing access to first class resources feeds research. The complexity and breadth of provision is remarkable. The first section of this paper will look at some key examples and discuss where we go next with digitisation and the increasing use of computer reading but also of the problems of durability and longevity for these academic projects. What happens when the tech changes? The second section will look at Digital bible provision, which is remarkably conservative, limited to a few sources and tending to provide access to the Protestant canon. In what ways could Bible provision be expanded - perhaps to include possibilities of new canons and revised readings of texts. What are the thoughts of the key players in this industry on expanding into alternative texts? How accessible are alternative sources for Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity? Finally, the paper will explore the importance of the increasing dissemination of facsimile copies of manuscripts, looking especially at the advantages and disadvantages of a facsimile copy of the so-called Cuthbert Bible held by Durham Cathedral. The paper will conclude with some considerations of the benefits of digitisation programmes and the potential enhancement of such programmes through provision of high quality physical replicas of manuscripts and bibles.

In Romans 10:9 the Apostle Paul appears to give us a clear indication of the means of salvation, ‘Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ Wright describes this statement as ‘what precisely Christian faith consists of.’ (Wright, ‘Romans.’ NIC. p.664). However, is salvation just so straightforward and can we concur that this statement precludes other means of salvation? Why and how is salvation dependent upon confession of the Lordship of Jesus and the belief in his resurrection? It is the particular aim of this paper while briefly considering the importance of the Lordship confession, to focus our discussion on the link between the resurrection of Jesus and salvation. In order to do this we shall make a brief overview of salvation within the Pauline corpus, before exploring what can be understood as the salvific purpose, consequences and effect of the resurrection of Jesus. We shall take Wright, Campbell and Kirk as our interlocutors, and consider how each of these scholars engages with Romans 10:9, with a particular consideration of the stress on resurrection.

David’s dirge for Saul and Jonathan is quite an uncanny piece in the corpus of biblical poetry for exhibiting both important parallels with pre-biblical NWS literature (e.g. verse 21 and the Ugaritic Epic of Aqhat) and an interesting textual history in the framework of the textual plurality of Samuel-Kings. This paper tries to reconsider both the Ancient Near Eastern context and possible intertextuality and the reconstruction of the Hebrew Vorlage underlying the Old Greek text from a holistic discourse-analysis perspective, which hopes to shed some light on the history of redaction and transmission of the text while reflecting on the limits of intertextual and source analysis models.

Lion-headed cups occur sparingly but regularly among archaeological finds beginning from MB Anatolia up to LB Ugarit and Iron age Philistine sites and NA period. They have not been found in the Samaritan or Judean highlands, but there too the lion motif was associated with wine as is suggested by the Tell Dothan krater, which is decorated with lions. Since the meaning and function of these objects remain disputed, it is desirable to seek a better documented context. The palace of Sargon II in Khorsabad gives us a relative abundance of iconography and written sources. The most probable setting for the lion-headed cups is a non-cultic banquet: there the hierarchy among the drinking men is both confirmed and challenged. Sargon was regularly presented as a lion-slayer and it is not by accident that on the same reliefs lion heads decorate the swords and beakers. His officials while drinking alcohol and speaking were thus constantly reminded that they were literally facing a lion-king. A similar social and metaphoric setting sheds some light on the Philistine drinking parties with another lion-slaying participant: Samson. His riddle in Judg 14:14 and the Philistine riddle-like question in v. 18 fit the context of a symposium challenge. Yet, their importance within the story goes beyond the immediate intent of their authors because the riddles remain meaningful for the whole of Samson’s story. In fact, they incite and express the reader’s main puzzlement in identifying the strongest one: is it Samson, his women, the Philistines, or the riddle itself? Indeed, since Samson has always remained God’s instrument, Samson’s riddle is also the riddle of God. Sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion, He is to be declared the hidden winner.

In the royal correspondence of late Assyrian kings (8th-7th century BCE), a few letters refer to the so-called “plant of life” (Akk. šammu balāṭi) being placed by the king in the mouth or nostrils of his subjects. Textual evidence seemingly bestows symbolic meanings to this plant that suggest it is a metaphor of the king’s mercy to save and sustain the life of his subordinates. Moreover, far from being a common attitude, letters make explicit that only loyal vassals and trustworthy court members deserved such a treatment. Thus, textual evidence points to a metaphorical use of the “plant of life”. At the same time, in the royal iconography that goes from Tiglath-pileser III onward (8th century BCE), sculptures and wall paintings often show the ruler holding a plant or flower either in his lowered left hand, or in his upraised right hand placing the plant/flower close to his nose. In images, the king exhibits sometimes the plant/flower in ‘audience scenes’ when he receives foreign vassals and court members. Despite studies on a variety of aspects of life-giving plants in Mesopotamian literature and iconography, there appear to be few or even no specific studies on the ‘plant of life’ in Neo-Assyrian texts and images. This paper fills part of this gap by analysing the portraits of the kings in the light of textual evidence in order to identify the function of the ‘plant of life’. A link between texts and images will be proposed, thereby suggesting that the plant was used primarily by the king to express his mercy and metaphorically to indicate himself as a ‘life-giving’ ruler.

The central aim of medieval scholastic theology was to reconcile biblical teaching, as interpreted by the Catholic Church, with Aristotelian and Neoplatonic philosophy. In some cases, the doctrines put forth by the philosophers were in clear contradiction with the Christian theological ideas. The doctrine of divine omniscience provides one such example. Aristotle had defined the unmoved mover as eternal, perfect, unchanging, and most importantly, as pure self-thought. In other words, Aristotle’s unmoved mover is an idea that consists of simply thinking of itself and without knowledge of anything distinct from itself. The philosophical formulations of God put forth by the Islamic philosophers Avicenna and Averroes emphasized the perfection of God’s knowledge. They argued that God knew and had care for the created beings only on the level of species, but ultimately remained indifferent towards the particular beings residing in the lower world. The perfection of God’s knowledge required the perfection of the objects of this knowledge. Limiting God’s knowledge to the general features of the species of beings had the conceptual task of safeguarding divine perfection. In this presentation, I will show how the Christian scholastic theologians opposed such a view of God’s knowledge largely on Scriptural grounds. All the scholastic theologians affirmed that God had both knowledge of and care for the particular created beings. In addition to strictly Biblical arguments, they argued that being omniscient required knowing the contingent features of particular beings in addition to knowing the general features of species of beings. I will focus especially on theories and arguments put forth by Dominican Thomas Aquinas (1225–1275) and Franciscan Peter Auriol (c. 1280–1322).

At first glance, Genesis 37–50 offers a strikingly optimistic vision of Jewish life in a foreign land: Joseph, banished by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt, soon rises to become co-regent with the Pharaoh. Receiving a local name and marrying into an important Egyptian family, he assimilates thoroughly into the culture of the host country. Egypt is presented as a land full of opportunities for immigrants. A closer look at the story as a whole, however, reveals different views concerning life among foreigners. While some scholars attribute these differences to discrete redactional layers (e.g. J. Wöhrle), this paper argues that such seemingly contrasting views testify to the ambivalence of Jewish life in the Diaspora. To shed light on this issue, the paper will draw from insights and methodology from the emerging field of diaspora studies. Kim D. Butler, in the article “Defining Diaspora” (2001), outlines five dimensions to detect and compare variant aspects of diasporic existence: 1. the conditions of the relocation (forced or voluntary), 2. relationship with the homeland (political, religious, imagined), 3. relationship with the hostland (assimilation, cultural retention), 4. interrelationships within the diasporic communities (dependency, rivalry), and 5. comparative studies of different diasporas. By applying Butler’s approach, the paper seeks to identity, isolate, and compare distinctive aspects of life in the Diaspora as envisioned in the Joseph Story.

At the end of his life King David became so cold that no blankets could keep him warm, until eventually a young woman was brought to stay with him (1 Kings 1). This paper focuses on the portrayal of David's coldness in Syriac biblical interpretation with particular emphasis on Ishoʿdad of Merv, the ninth century bishop and biblical interpreter. The paper will situate Ishoʿdad's interpretation in the context of late antique and early medieval exegetical traditions and compare it to the views of some of his predecessors (Ephrem, Daniel of Salah, Theodore bar Koni). Ishoʿdad discusses and rejects several different explanations of the causes of David's cold body. He insists that the single correct understanding is that of 'the schools' - referring to the East Syrian school tradition - upon which he then expands. Ishoʿdad states that covering a cold person is not effective by itself, in the same way that throwing a blanket over a stone would not have any effect on its temperature. It will be shown how Ishoʿdad uses the oppositions between warm and cold, and dry and wet to explain why only young women - who are associated with moisture - could warm David, who had become cold and dry. Moreover, it is argued that Ishoʿdad's interpretation may be explained with reference to the concept of vital or innate heat as used by Aristotle and Galen. Finally, the paper discusses how Ishoʿdad's interpretation fits his overall portrayal of David. In this way, the paper aims to show how two strands of intellectual tradition - biblical interpretation on the one hand, and Greek philosophy and medicine on the other - are brought together in Ishoʿdad's commentary on 1 Kings.

The emergence of organised Christian communities in the province of Thracia and the late antique Thracian dioecesis can be described as a very uneven process. Although two of the prominent Graeco-Roman settlements in the coastal region, the Greek city of Anchialos and the Roman colony of Deultum are reported in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History (Eus. Hist. Eccl. V 19,3) to have been among the very first Thracian cities to be reached by Christianity, the archaeological evidence has failed to deliver a decisive proof of that claim. However, the study of inscriptions originating from the Black Sea Coast, the late antique provinces of Haemimontus and Moesia Secunda in particular, can shed some important light on the life and origin of the first Christians in this part of the Balkan Peninsula. As part of a dissertation on the rise of Thracian Christianity, this paper focuses on the Christian epigraphic evidence from the Black Sea Coast of modern-day Bulgaria. It aims to present and discuss a selection of the available sources (4th-6th century), which alongside with archaeological evidence from this period allow to draw some conclusions about the profile of the Christian believers in selected coastal cities (Odessos, Sozopolis, Mesembria), as well as to address questions concerning the formation of Christian identity in a culturally diversified society.

As with any other text, the Postmodern Bible has now accumulated its own history of reception. The book itself, however, contains explicit predictions and speculations on the future of biblical interpretation. Interestingly, reception history does not appear as one of the seven major approaches that the volume seeks to cover, reflecting the fact that the last twenty years have seen a new turn to reception and its problems as a focus for research. In this paper, the predictions in The Postmodern Bible are examined in light of the evidence that the programme book of the International Meeting provides as to the state of biblical studies at present. The question to be asked is whether the Postmodern Bible provides underused resources for reflection on the history of reception that have a new pertinence in the present state of the discipline.

There can be no doubt that (cult) centralization is a widespread concept within Deuteronomy – and especially Proto-Deuteronomy –, which received plenty scholarly attention in previous and recent times. But the scholarly debate on centralization in Deuteronomy is still somehow limited: First, former research almost exclusively focused on cultic issues (e.g., bloody sacrifices). Second, centralization was rather analyzed within a Neo-Assyrian context and was regarded as a concept with a specific anti-Assyrian focus. The paper offers a new approach to Deuteronomy's concept of centralization by breaking free from both limitations: It will be shown that the Deuteronomic texts attest to centralization as a complex process involving aspects of politics, administration, economics, leadership, cult, rituals, theology, ideology etc. In this context, the following four points will be highlighted: (1) Cultic or sacrificial aspects of centralization are by no means as dominant as previously and currently assumed in the scholarly debate. The same holds true for the argumentation pattern “Israel vs. the nations”. (2) Cult centralization and Yhwh's exclusivity are not explicitly linked to each other (or rather seldom), but they are combined in compositional and structural respect within Deuteronomy. (3) In Deuteronomy, it is possible to detect different aspects and dimensions of cult centralization as well as specific focal points (not every aspect of centralization has to be mentioned in every text). As a whole, the concept seems quite coherent, even though not necessarily in literary-historical respect. (4) Cult centralization is not “unquestioned” within Deuteronomy: There are texts or traditions with decentralizing tendencies, but centralization remains the dominant ideology. Against this background, Deuteronomy's concept of centralization will be linked to the specific religious-historical situation of the Persian Period, which is considered here not necessarily as the time of its origin, but as a time of significant revision etc.

It is well known fact for every careful biblical scholar, that every Greek and Hebrew term, and especially the biblical one, is ambiguous. A perfect example of this ambiguity is Greek color term melas, which is translated primarily as “black”. Even a superficial confrontation of this translation with the biblical text shows that “black” is simply not enough and the color palette hidden under this term is much wider. In the Greek texts of the Bible (including LXX) melas designates equine coat color (Zec 6,2; 6,6; Rev 6,5). It also indicates the hue of human hair on the head (Sol 5,11; Mat 5,36) and on the body suffering from tinea (Lev 13,37). Melas is also the adjective describing human skin (Sol 1,5) color of the sackcloth (Rev 6,12) and finally color of ink (2 Cor 3,3; 2 John 1,12; 3 John 1,13). As we see, melas can not be understood as “black” but rather as a “dark color”. Examination of the semantics of biblical color terms requires a consultation with the other ancient Greek (literal, papyrological) and archeological sources. Just a glance combined with a comparative study is enough to conclude that many modern translations of the Bible should be revised. In my presentation I would like to present a short examination of melas – starting from dictionaries, through the examples from the Greek literature, LXX, to the New Testament - and a precise description of its semantics.

This paper explores the particular prominence of cloud (ⲕⲗⲟⲟⲗⲉ) imagery in the cosmology of Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1), with attention to how the employment of clouds intersects with other elements of the text, specifically: [i] Paraph. Shem’s related incorporation of Jewish scriptural traditions, including the narrative of Noah; [ii] its understanding of the relationship between clouds and water (as well as other cosmic elements, such as fire); [iii] its reflections on clouds as a mediating space between the supreme God and humans seeking awareness; and [iv] how clouds operate in Paraph. Shem's apocalyptic scheme. A consideration of related depictions of clouds in other Nag Hammadi traditions, including the Apocryphon of John (NHC II,1; III,1; IV,1; BG8502,2) and the Revelation of Adam (NHC V,5), will further illuminate Paraph. Shem’s visions of clouds.

This paper examines the centralizing logic of the festal calendar of Lev 23. Although this chapter of the Holiness legislation has received little attention in the scholarly discussion of cult centralization, certain studies have suggested that H’s distinctive interest in the festal activities that take place בכל מושׁבתיכם “in all your settlements” (Lev 23:3, 14, 17, 21, 31) might reveal H’s expectation that the Israelites will offer festal sacrifices at multiple sanctuaries in the land (e.g., K. Weyde). This paper argues, to the contrary, that H’s interest in the settlements reveals its concern to ensure collective conformity with a centralized means of time reckoning. The expression בכל מושׁבתיכם, the paper shows, is never used by H to refer to local sacrificial activities, but only when commanding that certain domestic rites (e.g., food prohibitions or work bans) be observed by the Israelites in their local context. By assigning to the settlements domestic activities that can be performed without requiring a shrine, H negotiates new ritual means by which the entire community, irrespective of geographical location, can participate in a shared calendrical scheme. Meanwhile, H’s setting of immovable dates for the festivals (מועדי יהוה “the fixed times of Yhwh”) ensures that the Israelites celebrate the rites at the same time each year, and thus standardize their festal celebration in accordance with a fixed calendar. The paper concludes that Lev 23 throws valuable light on the importance of shared temporal schemes for ensuring the compliance with central authority that the centralized cult required. It illustrates also the broader significance of ritual standardization for negotiating cult centralization in ancient Israel and for discouraging the variation that is inherent to de-centralized cultic practice. The implication of these findings for the study of centralization and the Priestly traditions of the Pentateuch will also be briefly discussed.

My paper analyses the different versions of the Apocryphon of John with special regard to its anthropology. My thesis is that the anthropology of the Apocryphon of John is inconsistent in several ways. The shorter version (NHC III,1 and BG 2) describes the creation of Adam in several phases beginning with his psychic body. In this part of the narration, the longer version includes a detailed list of demons responsible for each part of the body (NHC II p. 15-19). At first sight, this passage appears more “materialistic” than the surrounding text and not connected to the creation of the psychic body. This point is a significant difference of the anthropology of the shorter and the longer version. Moreover, the insertion seems to be inconsistent in itself. First demons build every single part of the physical body (NHC II p.15-18), later four leading demons create the emotions (NHC II p. 18-19) – at least this part fits in with the topic soul. By exploring the religious and philosophical background of these ideas, I will try to get a clearer picture of the anthropological concepts of the different versions of the Apocryphon of John including discrepancies as well as uniting elements.

The classicist Verity Platt's 2011 monograph Facing the Gods on epiphany in Greco-Roman art, literature, and religion includes a discussion of 'the semiotics of epiphany'. She argues that in Greek epiphany deities are manifested in their particular forms (εἴδεα), and thereby distinguished from one another, by a complex system of signs (σήματα) drawn from a received body of Greek poetry and art. This paper will suggest that reading epiphanic texts in semiotic terms is a helpful comparative method. A semiotically informed reading of two texts allows comparison on a typological/phenomenological level (to paraphrase Meir Malul's terminology), without requiring immediate engagement with issues of their relationship, influence, genealogy, etc. Concentration on the semiotics of texts reinforces the imperative that we compare sources, rather than reconstructed realities. Finally, the explicit use of semiotics allows for a clearer articulation of intertextual theory: our sources are fragmentary not only in the usual archaeological and literary senses, but also in terms of being composed of the semiotic fragments of social texts (Kristeva) or sociolects (Riffaterre) which would have eluded the total grasp of their authors, let alone us moderns. The paper will offer a brief case study of semiotically informed comparison, reading one of Platt's examples (the Homeric Hymn to Demeter) alongside a Hebrew Bible epiphany text (Isaiah 6).

That Jews and Samaritans, even the precursors to these groups, did not always maintain congenial relationships is well known. Their attitudes toward one another were variegated and changed over time (cf. Knoppers 2013). A factor that has not been adequately addressed, however, is to what degree changes in these attitudes appear in the textual history of the Bible. This paper will address some text-historical issues in 2 Kings 17 that indicate later scribal editing reflecting changes in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. Of particular focus are the Septuagint, the Antiochene text (Lucianic Recension) with recourse to the Vetus Latina, and their relationship to the (proto-)Masoretic version.

While Hays’ language of citation, allusion, and echo has become common when referring to intertextual references, terminology used to describe the New Testament use of narrative exemplars (e.g., typological, figural, paraenetic, etc.) has been systematized in no such way, and narrative exemplars are often not treated within these categories. Furthermore, studies on narrative and characterization tend to focus on the gospels and Hebrews rather than other New Testament letters. When it comes to narrative exemplars, Paul prefers τύπος language (Rom 5:14, 1 Cor 10:6, Phil 3:17, Tit 2:7, etc.), the majority of his references to characters from Old Testament narrative texts come from the Pentateuch, primarily Genesis (e.g., Adam, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses), and his use of narrative exemplars is typically illustrative or part of a scriptural citation. Despite the diversity of authorship and provenance represented by the Catholic Epistles (CE), this collection makes substantial use of a surprising number of narrative exemplars – at least 18 by my count (e.g., Rahab, Job, Elijah, the sinful angels, Balaam), in contrast to around 14 textual citations, and the range of vocabulary surrounding narrative exemplars is more diverse (ὑπόδειγμα, δεῖγμα, αντίτυπον, and ὑπογραμμόν), as is the range of representative exemplars, which are found throughout the Old Testament and branch into parabiblical literature. This paper discusses the unique usage of narrative exemplars throughout the CE and suggests two characteristics of the collection’s use of narrative exemplars, namely ‘recollective’ and ‘constructive’ elements: for example, James’ audience is expected to have “heard of the endurance of Job” (Jas 5:11) and Jude’s reference to Michael the archangel appears to be a composite of Zechariah 3 and the Assumption of Moses (Jd 8–9) and includes interpretive commentary by the author.

Abstract: Bruce Longenecker’s economic scales have enabled scholars to describe the socio-economic realities of the first-century. Longenecker’s scales are based on caloric intake—a first-century person fits on the scales according to their access to a necessary number of calories. His model, however, sees limitations once applied to NT passages. We do not find much evidence of daily caloric intake in the NT texts, and levels of surplus are impossible to assess in this way. To derive exegetical benefit from an economic analysis, we must move towards what Peter Oakes describes as a ‘behaviorally based’ poverty scale. Doing so will yield the following benefits: (1) we will improve our conception of economic scaling for the first-century; (2) we will correct Lukan scholars’ reliance on word studies of ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ for economic analysis and (3) move toward the more complicated picture of economic in Luke’s which better reflect first-century life. To illustrate this method’s viability, we will analyze the behaviors and possessions in the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Clever Steward. Luke provides detailed markers describing the economic status of the main characters. When analyzing these markers, scholars make two misguided conclusions: (1) the Samaritan pays the innkeeper for the injured man’s future accommodation, (2) the debtors to the steward’s masters are tenant farmers who must pay their loans off through their yield of crops. Both conclusions assume that the average person in the first-century was impoverished which drives prices for food, accommodation, and labor down to remain affordable. With these assumptions, Oakman and Jeremias miscalculate the value of commodities and the buying power of the denarius. Using the economic method detailed above, we illustrate (1) the Samaritan is a middling class character, and (2) the debtors in the parable of the clever steward are wealthy merchants.

An important insight of modern historical-critical exegesis is the idea that many texts in the Old Testament can be understood as results of Innerbiblical Exegesis or “text-oriented text-production”: The authors or producers of texts were also attentive readers of already existing texts. Redactional activities and Fortschreibungen can thus in many cases be described as the product of foregoing text-reception. Lev 8 provides a good example of such processes: the story of how the Aaronides were anointed to be priests is a redactional application of the prescriptive text of Ex 29 that is transformed into a compliance report in Lev 8. But Lev 8 does not just reproduce the ceremonies prescribed in Ex 29: the authors rather changed small details like for example the distribution of tasks in the sacrificial ceremonies, attributing larger parts of the procedure to the Aaronides, who seem to be more active in Lev 8 than in Ex 29. It can be shown that these changes are meant to increase the congruency of Lev 8 with regular cultic activities as they are described in the sacrificial Tora Lev 1-7. An ongoing interest in evoking coherence with the help of changing small details can further be observed in the translation into Greek: The Septuagint version of Lev 8 seems to be concerned with creating a stronger congruency of Lev 8 with Ex 29 and therefore re-changes the distribution of tasks in the sacrificial process systematically in order to make Moses the main actor again. As a case study, the close reading of Lev 8 can help to develop exegetical methods by 1) giving an example of the sometimes close interwoveness of text-critical and redaction-critical observations and by 2) illustrating how changing historical circumstances will lead to different strategies of evoking coherence in the redactional process respectively translation.

This paper will exmaine the possible oral origin of Genesis 39 in comparing the narrative to the Egyptian tale of the two brothers. It will then argue that this chapter was added to the Joseph narrative in order to change the theological perspective of the narrative. A second revision introduced the divine name Yhwh into the Joseph narrative which was not used in the original narrative.

The use of Deut 15,1.12 in Jer 34,14 has been extensively investigated from different perspectives and with different outcomes. A shared viewpoint among the various interpretive efforts seems to be that Jer refers back to Deut as an authoritative source. This reference would have two primary aims: 1) to elucidate the account of Zedekiah's manumission of slaves and 2) to provide reasons for the judgement against Jerusalem. Those adopting this understanding have seen the reference to Deut to highlight Jeremiah's role as preacher of the Torah. Jer 34,8-22MT has been the starting point for further investigation; when discrepancies between the MT and LXX have been taken into account, they usually have been discussed as single textual variants. As a result, the impact of divergences between Jer 34,8-22MT and 41,8-22LXX on the redactional history of the unit, and consequently, on interpreting references in it to Deut, have been marginal to the debate. Against this background, I will reconsider the relationship between Jer 34,8-22MT and Deut 15,1-18, tackling the issue from the differences between Jer 34,8-22MT and 41,8-22LXX. Jer 34,8-22MT shows a remarkable number of divergences from Jer 41,8-22LXX that point toward a deliberate redaction of the MT. Recognition of this situation allows a more nuanced understanding of how Jer 34,8-22MT and 41,8-22LXX each refer back to their authoritative "sources" and the development that has taken place over time in how Jer refers back to Deut. While, for instance, Jer 34,8-22MT hints at debt remission and manumission, Jer 41,8-22LXX does not seem to show any reference to the former. Moreover, Jer 34,8-22MT seems to edit a former edition of this passage by referring to Lev 25,36f. This process, however, does not appear to reinforce the authority of Deut laws (Deut 15,1-18),. Rather, it highlights a discrepancy between two Torah statements.

Structural and functional cosmology hold great importance in apocalyptic literature, though some apocalypses are more explicit than others. Where it is less explicit cosmology may nevertheless be discerned through a visual-narrative reading strategy, involving consideration of narrative logic and cinematic perspective. Narrative logic can show why and how a character moves through the set, and therefore the positioning of subsequent elements within the set as the character moves toward or acts upon them. The cinematic perspective is the “camera angle” that is the viewing position of the seeing-hearer, and can be essential for perceiving the relative positioning of characters and locations. Cinematic perspective is indicated in part by narrative logic, though it is more clearly discerned by paying attention to “see” verbs, or the visual nature of the narration. An apocalypse creates a cosmos for the reader, and reading this way we discern what the seeing-hearer sees in their vicarious revelatory experience. Applied to the New Testament book of Revelation, a visual-narrative reading strategy leads to a picture of a four-layered cosmos; hyper-heaven, sky-heaven, the flat earth, and the under-earth regions. These cosmic regions do not correspond to contemporary concepts such as natural and supernatural, or heaven and sky. The different cosmic regions operate and relate in different ways, creating a new cosmic context that is brutally realistic yet hopeful, unmovable yet dynamic. It becomes a new context in which to understand the realities of life and the possibility of change.

The ultimate conceptual antithesis “down in the Hebrew Bible” is found in Ezek 31. :Now you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below” (Ezek 31:18) – is Ezekiel’s exhortation to Pharaoh, last in a series of oracles. A metaphor for the fall of the great empires, confederates to the Assyrians, this political dynamic is at the heart of the oracle and an object of reflections by leading Ezekilian scholars. The “Descent into Sheol” motif is not unique to this passage in Ezekiel or to Ezekiel altogether. Unique in the late biblical tradition is the collation of Eden and Sheol, the trees standing for Eden as synecdoche. The magnetic attraction of the two antithetical concepts is intriguing, whereas the juxtaposition of these two quasi-geographical locations raises a series of issues ranging from their topography to toponomy. A lead is given by the frequent arboreal epithet “well watered” and the verbal proximity of “the deep,” bringing us to an etymological survey of the toponym Eden. An etymology suggested by the Arabic root ʿdn in its noun form had the meaning of “source, borehole” and spotlights a significant aspect of the Ezekilian Eden. In addition to this Semitic root, a Sumer word idim designates “freshwater source.” The development of this research brings us to the notion of Eden’s toponymic and topographic origin from a freshwater subterranean resource from which, according to Genesis, the four rivers originated and which brings the trees of Eden to their singular, allegedly oxymoronic descent to Sheol in Ezekiel. The paper will explore the antinomy and the connection of Sheol with its notional antipode, Eden, using the etymological methodology. The results of the research will contribute to highlighting the paradoxical nature of Sheol.

Slavomil Ctibor Daněk (1885-1946) was the first professor of the Old Testament at the Faculty of Protestant Theology founded in Prague in 1919. The paper focuses on Daněk’s understanding of the relation between history and the Hebrew Bible, which may be seen as a driving force of his theses that in several respects are close to those embraced by the so-called Myth and Ritual and Scandinavian schools. In the first part, the paper will treat Daněk’s conception of history as the context in which the Biblical traditions came into existence and were handed down. Daněk sharply separated profane and religious history, and this brought him to stern rejection of the Wellhausenian documentary hypothesis which he, not unlike some Nordic scholars, replaced with the notion of slowly evolving tradition. The second part of the paper will deal with history as a theme in the Biblical texts. The peculiarity of Daněk’s approach consists in his belief that a “religious” (that is mythical or cultic) base may be discovered behind every motif in the text. At some point of its development, the tradition chose to veil the “religious” motifs through historicizing. On the other hand, it is because of the “religious” message connected to these motifs that the text has been handed down at all, and, what is more, the tradition, while suppressing the concrete religious meanings of the individual motifs, nevertheless strived to somehow conserve them, and now and then even to allude to their presence, shaping the text into a kind of anagram. Here again, the discovery and valorization of the text’s mythical and cultic aspects, comparable to views of some Nordic scholars, results from Daněk’s specific difficulty with history, and it leads him to unusually radical conclusions.

Psalm language uses spatial terminology to describe different dimensions of suffering and trust in God. Some approaches focus on the suffering of the praying person; others concentrate on the metaphorical use of spatial terms to describe a special image of God, i.e. “God as a tent” or “God as a rock”. Several studies dealing with these expressions of trust refer to different metaphor-theories. This paper shows how spatial and temporal dimensions are closely interwoven and explains this on a few examples in Psalm 61. On basis of my dissertation-project, which combines cultural, literary and linguistic theories of space and elaborates how space is constructed in and by the text, the presentation focuses on spatial terminology associated with temporal categories like be’åhālkā ‘ôlāmîm – “in your tent forever” (Ps 61,5). Furthermore, it examines the possibility of superimposing temporal and spatial representations to express a profoundly existential experience.

Against the background of a brief history of the concept of shamanism, the first part of the paper exemplifies some of the definitions and cross-cultural applications of the concept. A special focus is put on its origin and on two radical changes in the process of conceptualisation during the 20th century: one after the publication of Mircea Eliade’s Le chamanisme in 1951, the other when Eliade’s understanding during the 1980s was abandoned by most researchers, the only exceptions being some archaeologists and the so-called shamanthropologists. The second part presents a critical assessment of the current use of the concept, distinguishes between different narrower and wider understandings and discusses four different ways of regarding shamanism: (1) as a worldwide phenomenon defined in different ways; (2) as a regional (Evenki, Siberian, Northern Eurasian, or Circumpolar) phenomenon defined in different ways; (3) as an analytical concept defined in different ways; or (4) as neither a phenomenon nor a useful analytical concept.

The characteristics of Psalm 45 make it unique; as it commemorates a specific Royal Wedding. It remarks a divinely blessed King; whose might, justice and grace are such enormous that make Him superior to mankind, and the Princess who must abandon her country and dwelling house for the King’s sake. Despite this importance, the figures of these two, due to the complexity of the text, shrouded in ambiguity. Of the most significant uncertainties are: grammatical difficulties, syntactical problems and lexical obscurities. These obscurities are partially based on the fact that a number of phrases are unique in OT and have no parallels in Biblical literature; but to a greater degree, these problems are deeply rooted in the historical transmission of the Bible. Textual criticism is an effective method to resolve some of the mentioned problems. A text critic attempts to reverse the hands of time to rethink and improve the concepts without damaging the original. The critical text of the Ps 45 is the earliest inferable reading, on the basis of the available evidence and the editors' acumen and arguments. Jan Mulder’s work on Psalm 45 can facilitate researchers’ studies in this field, as he initiated the first steps towards constructing a critical edition, through finding “The Literary Background” or “Parallels” of Psalm 45 in the ancient Egyptian, Akkadian cultures and Biblical literature. His efforts exclude “Variation-scope” of the old major versions and comparison of parallel passages to reach the less erroneous Vorlage. The purpose of this paper, which represents research conducted chiefly by Hadi Taqavi with the assistance of Hadi Sabouhi, is to reflect on some of the principles and procedures of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, using an important partially-obscure passage of Psalms, to illustrate the wider methodological considerations with which it is directly concerned.

Mustafa Sabri (1869-1954), was one of the last supreme religious leaders (Shaikh al-Islām) of the Ottoman Empire. He was an Ottoman thinker who with his intellectual and academic works on one hand and social activism on the other hand had an important place in the late period of the Empire’s history. Among many issues he wrote about was also the debate on Jesus and his resurrection. This is an important topic that brings together but also divides Muslim and Christian religious scholars. In the Qur’ān, Jesus is mentioned frequently and his mother, Maryam, is the only female name mentioned in the Qur’ān. The debate of the Muslim scholars about Jesus includes his death, his rising up, and his resurrection. Some Muslim scholars argue that his rising up (rafa‘ah), was just spiritual, and some argues that it was both spiritual and physical. The majority of Qur’ānic exegetes maintain the idea that the rise of Jesus was both spiritual and physical. A well-known Qur’ānic exegete, al-Ṭabarī claimed that there is a consensus among Qur’ānic commentators supporting this position. Mustafa Sabri, maintaining the mainstream opinion, interpreted the Qur’ānic verses by saying that the rise of Jesus was spiritual and physical. He argued that people were trying to kill Jesus and that since death is physical and spiritual, the rising of Jesus should also contain both. This paper will elaborate various Qur’ānic verses on the topic and explain Sabri’s interpretation of these verses. The paper will also review few Arabic words and their usage in Arabic language which Sabri skillfully uses in supporting his ideas.

The oracle against the mountains of Seir in Ezek 35 announces the desolation of this region through Yahweh but connects this message also with some positive aspects: By learning of their fate, these foreign mountains recognize the power of Israel’s God. The paper discusses the parallels of Ezek 35 with the oracles concerning Israel in Ezek 6 and 36 and demonstrates how later additions connected it with other texts. Of utmost importance is the comparison with Ezek 25, but the Edom topic is also related to the Book of Obadiah. In addition, empirical evidence provided by the Septuagint and MasEzek sheds light on the growth and formation of this intriguing text.

The ancient Near East is saturated with symbolic representations of the Deep, in the traditions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel and even Greece. Whatever its name – Tiamat, Tehom, Chaos, Abyss – it always symbolizes the ever-looming terror of non-existence, the threat of extinction and certain death. Chaos appears not only in literature but also in rich and multi-faceted iconography and imagery, most commonly as the waters of the deep of the underworld. We also encounter this symbol in the psychoanalytic tradition (both as water and e.g. the dragon/serpent) in which it plays a crucial role in the process of what Jung calls ‘individuation’, the process by which one becomes an integrated whole. Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing primarily (but not exclusively) on Jungian psychoanalysis and ancient Near Eastern imagery, I will examine the parallels between two stories that symbolize the importance of the waters of Chaos in the process of individuation: the Flood (Gen. 6-8) and the storm on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41). More specifically, I will consider Noah and Jesus/the disciples, and concepts such as the unconscious, fear, fragmentation, displacement, archetypes of water, Chaos, etc. In short, I will analyze the indispensable role Chaos plays in our process of ‘becoming’, and what we are able to do as humans when we face the waters of Chaos in our lives.

Since the work of Gunkel and Rendtorff there has been a strong tendency in biblical studies to assume that orality and antiquity are necessarily related: to be old, biblical poetry must be oral, and if it is oral, it is old. Driven by a refuted European elite ideology which stereotypes whole societies by means of their media ("oral cultures") as primitive but artistic, this has led to a situation in which poorly-supported evolutionary assumptions about genre take the place of data about the history of ancient Hebrew literature. In this line of thinking, (authentic) linguistic archaism, poetic genre, and the oral-traditional mode (in which the event of composition is identical with the event of performance) are assumed to naturally go together with small oral sub-units. While the “small oral sub-units” assumption has been effectively critiqued by scholars from Nicholson to Baden, there is also a larger issue, because the concept of the oral and its relationship to the archaic has been recently illuminated in new ways. Taking a cue from recent work of Richard Bauman and Charles Briggs in linguistic anthropology as well as the forthcoming work of Jacqueline Vayntrub on biblical Hebrew poetics, this paper rethinks the relationship between the oral and the archaic in the literary history of Genesis without the typical, and equally unjustified, opposing assumption that there are no relevant aspects of oral literature in the Hebrew Bible. Using several difficult poems in Genesis as case studies it argues for the productivity of integrating the more reliable and relevant aspects of historical linguistics, especially verbal syntax, with a historical approach founded in both comparative Semitics and literary reading.

This paper introduces a new comprehensive approach to evaluate Luke’s portrayal of evil spirits, which (i) includes the two modes of a character’s existence as important principles in examining characters, (ii) is designated for evaluating non-human characters, (iii) intends not only to reconstruct the overall portrayal of the character (characterization) but also to find the function of the character in the overall narrative. The methodology of this study consists of two main steps: microanalysis and macroanalysis. These two steps correspond to Alex Woloch’s character-space and characters system. The microanalysis is the assessment of each passage or pericope where Luke portrays Satan and demons or where it is relevant to Luke’s notion of evil spirits. The microanalysis is the evaluation of Luke’s overall presentation of evil spirits (their appearance and disappearance) and their relations with other characters and other elements in the whole Gospel. Drawing on Cornelis Bennema’s approach, the microanalysis will be divided further into two subsections: (i) characters in text and context; (ii) character analysis. Meanwhile, the macroanalysis will focus on character significance and evaluation. In the character analysis, this paper will evaluate the self-revelations and symbolic meanings of Satan and demons as non-human characters. Therefore, adapting Baruch Hochman’s continuum of literalness and symbolism will be a helpful tool in incorporating and assessing the unique features of these divine beings into our character reconstruction. Then in the macroanalysis, one of the main aspects of evaluation is the characters’ significance to the plot and narrative threads. In this stage, the authorial intention plays a key role in evaluating the significance of the characters. The term ‘narrative thread’ is used in addition to the plot as the one that ‘unifies’ all components and bring significance to the message of the Gospel, as it is suggested by Luke’s incipit.

The biblical account of Jacob in Gen. 25-35 is noteworthy in its attempt to define both personal and national boundaries as a developing process. As is well known the book of Genesis uses the story of Jacob’s personal development to mirror the emergence of Israel, as reflected most famously in his name change from Jacob to Israel. This is encapsulated in a single moment in Gen. 32, but the process itself is described with great subtlety in the chapters which precede the name change, and carried further in the chapters which follow it. What I wish to describe here is the initial fluidity of the boundaries of Jacob’s personal identity in chapters 25-30 which allow for this development, followed by the emergent sense of that identity in Jacob’s struggle with Laban in 30-31, and concluded by the emphasis on national and religious boundaries for Jacob/Israel in chapters 31-25. The very fluidity of identity which marks the first part of Jacob’s narrative is succeeded by a concomitant hardening of those boundaries as Jacob “becomes” Israel. This fluidity is refocused in the overlapping boundaries of the personal and the national in this part of the narrative. Identity formation is portrayed as a complex process of developing personal identity in the face of Jacob’s brother Esau, his wives Rachel and Leah and his father-in-law Laban.

The biblical prophet speaks in the name of God and often also has visions. In some books, however, there is a shift from the word-vision of the prophet to a book, written or to be written: Jer. 36; 45:1-4; 51:59-64; Ezek. 2:8-3,4; Na. 1:1; Hab. 2:2; Zech. 5:1-4. How should we interpret this phenomenon? What consequences can be drawn from it, in order to better understand the prophetic event? After an exegetical analysis of selected texts, I will try to answer these questions from a theological point of view.

The question of sacred space has been addressed more fully in recent decades in the study of religion in dialogue with spatial theorists such as Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja. The insights about how we structure and maintain the experienced and imagined space around us aids our understanding of religious experience. This paper applies some of the considerations of spatial theory to ancient, Jewish artefacts and settlement dynamics in Galilee during the Hasmonean and Herodian periods (c. 100 BCE – CE 50). During this period Galilee came under the dominion of the Hasmonean kingdom and the inhabitants developed a material culture similar to Judea. Many of the particular artefacts used by these ancient people speak specifically to uniquely Jewish religious concerns. Artefacts which will be presented include: stone (chalk) vessels; stepped plastered pools (miqva’ot); secondary ossuary burial within loculi tombs; oil lamps; Hasmonean coins; locally produced ceramic ware. Most of these artefacts had religious functions, but all were used by non-elites, and often outside of strictly religious contexts. The perception of the space of Galilee, and more broadly the “promised land,” was reflected upon by both the producers and users of these artefacts. The connection between many of these artefacts and everyday life reflects the perception of lived, experienced space for ancient Jewish Galileans.

Although gratitude is widely viewed as a positive value on a popular level, scientific investigation into it is scarce. In its endeavor for a non-medical preventative approach to human health and well-being, positive psychology considers gratitude as a positive value promoting human health. In this contribution some biblical texts (e.g. the psalms, Jesus in the gospels, Pauline letters) are scrutinized from the perspective of positive psychology. The aim is to probe whether gratitude should be positively pursued and how it can be increased (without creating a false consciousness) in individuals and society for the sake of the latter’s happiness, well-being and health.

This presentation explores some of the chances and limits of reading vision reports within a theoretical framework of a theory of images (cf. Hans Belting, Gottfried Boehm). Dan 7 serves as an example and a starting point to show how apocalyptic visions like the one about the beasts and horns in Dan 7 can be understood as „speaking images“ (Ruediger Lux) and also be seen and read within the context of ancient iconography. Seen as images they combine representational and referential functions: They represent the reality they present. For apocalyptic visions, this is a reality which is revealed only to some but is not obvious in the experienced present time. But even though the images seem fantastic, their effect hinges on the fact that the individual elements refer to a collective reservoir of images which can be traced to ancient iconographic evidence as well. Much of the effect of visionary images like the beasts and horns in Daniel 7 can be analysed because of their image-like quality. But still Dan 7 is a vision report, thus, a text, not a painting or similar. Instead of visual simultaneity it offers the sequentiality of language. Where images have to be static, texts can tell about dynamics. By exploring also the limits of an analysis of vision reports and their contents as images, their characteristics and effects can be scrutinised even further.

The way of looking at cylinder seals content in the last centuries in databases and illustrated books always was defined as looking at a photograph of a c.s.´s roll-off. But therein lies a problem. Every c.s. is depicted as a 360°degree scenery. Therefore the whole lateral surface is depicted. We are facing the problem that the definition of the starting point is highly relevant for the depicted scene. But the question about the precise starting point never is asked. Within the paper I will demonstrate three different kinds of sequencing by which cylinder seals can be categorized. Examples of correct and incorrect roll-offs in various publications will be shown. Starting from my observations I will ask for form-critical aspects concerning sequence dividing elements and their meaning for the use of c.s. In the final step I will present a way to define the sequence of depicted scenes.

The call to remember Abraham is a common motif in texts that are oftentimes assigned to post-exilic literature, inside and outside the Pentateuch. Interestingly, in the Pentateuch, this call extends to both Israel and God. While Israel is expected to remember Abraham as an example of faith (Deut 9:27), God is supposed to remember his promises to Abraham in situations when Israel least deserves to be regarded as Abraham’s descendants (Exod 32:13). Either way, there seems to be agreement among these relatively late texts about Abraham as Israel’s primal ancestor. The same is true when Abraham is referenced in the book of Isaiah (Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:2). Here, too, he is presented as a figure that marks a fresh start in the relationship between God and Israel. However, there is a notable exception: in Isa 63:16, the call to remember Abraham is rejected because not he but God alone is Israel’s true father. This paper will examine Isaiah’s theological discourse about Abraham vis-à-vis the Pentateuch and thus delineate the changing perceptions of ‘tradition’ that one finds here.

Many scholars have pointed out that the Book of Esther deals with questions of Jewish identity in exile. The Book of Jonah portraits a Hebrew prophet confronting gentiles and in doing so deals with questions of his identity. In an article to be published at VT, I pointed at an analogy between Jonah Chapter 3 and Esther Chapter 4. In this paper I would like to expand this analogy and present connections between Jonah Chapter 1 and Esther Chapter 3. The analogy focuses on questions of identity raised in the narratives. In both narratives a fateful confrontation takes place between the hero of the story (Mordechai, Jonah) and a group of gentiles (the king's servants, the crew of the ship). In both cases, the heroes refer explicitly to their identity. At the end of the confrontation, the hero's fate is sealed to death. Yet, the two protagonists succeed to extricate themselves from imminent death. Some of the information revealed in the confrontations is exposed by way of retrospect, using an expression that occurs only in these two stories " כי הגיד להם" ("for he had told them …" Esther 3:1; Jonah 1:10). Only few scholars tried to find out the reason for the use of retrospective narration in these stories. I intend to show that the use of retrospect information in each of the stories contributes to the emphasis on the conflict between the hero's worldview and that of the gentiles facing him. Ironically it seems that the gentiles express the narrator's position in the identity conflict taking place in the narrative. By pointing out the analogy between the stories a deeper understanding of the question of identity discussed in both stories is being established.

In Genesis, mothers perform a variety of roles, from naming their offspring to ensuring favored sons inherit. Frequently the actions of these mothers are interpreted by scholars to contravene social norms and exercise power usually reserved for men. Such interpretations, however, assume that maternal authority is subversive in that it deviates from an expectation of male-centric authority. The proposed paper draws out and interrogates the various assumptions that shape interpretations of maternal agency in Genesis. Do such assumptions emerge from their presentation in the narrative or are they the result of inherited models of domestic power? This paper will outline the various models upon which mother-son relationships are constructed in the ancestral narratives and will compare these models to ideas of mother-son transmission in royal contexts. Parallels from other biblical material, including genealogies outside Genesis, texts like Prov 31:1¬–9, and extrabiblical inscriptions, suggest that in fact mothers were frequent transmitters of authority, in a variety of settings, and that the biblical authors drew on these traditions in composing their narrative.

In this paper I will look at some of the 401 (!) Bible cartoons in Léo Taxil’s La Bible Amusante (published in 1882 by the Libraire Anticléricale in Paris). Some of the cartoons were copied in George Foote’s penny magazine The Freethinker, for which he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment with hard labour. I will look at how the images are often situated between the biblical texts (read over-literally) and contemporary events in Paris: for example, the recent exhibition of the telephone; the first performance of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann in 1881; and the scandal of the spirit photograph hoax known as the ‘procès de spirites’.

We are accustomed to approaching some of the books comprising the Pentateuch as literary constructs with clear openings and endings (Genesis and Deuteronomy). This is less the case (although there are of course, quite a few exceptions) in relation to the Pentateuch at large. Can the Pentateuch be viewed as an "Enateuch"? The presentation will claim that there are strong literary connections between the first and last three chapters in the Pentateuch (Gen. 1-3 and Deut. 32-34). These connections include parallel wording, use of leitwords, and similar motifs. These parallels, however, do not only connect between end and beginning, but also point to progress and a transformation that takes place across the pentateuchal text. The proposal, while not negating diachronic analysis of the Pentateuch, strengthens the claim for conscious literary artistry in the formation of the Pentateuch and the case for viewing the Pentateuch (in contrast to suggestions for a tetra or hexateuch) as an extended literary work.

The descendant-leaving strategy explanation of religion hypothesizes that religious behavior is a human universal because natural selection favored ancestors who transmitted religious traditions encouraging many generations of descendants to be willing to sacrifice for the ancestors’ other descendants. Thus, ancestors who transmitted such religious traditions had greater long-term descendant-leaving success than those ancestors who did not transmit religious traditions. After describing this descendant-leaving strategy explanation, this paper summarizes the previously published evidence of religious traditions encouraging of altruism toward co-descendants that might eventually have had the effect of increasing long-term descendant-leaving success, and the more recent application of religious traditions to encouraging altruism toward fictive co-descendants. Although explicit recognition of long-term descendant-leaving success as a goal of religion is not necessarily a prediction generated by the explanation, explicitly stating that goal might be expected as one of the means of reaching it. Thus, this paper uses the traditional religion of Judaism to help answer the question: To what extent is the descendant-leaving success proposed to be the function of religion an explicitly stated goal of religion?

The biblical narrative of so called ‘second battle of Ai‘ (Jos 8) is a challenge that faces textual criticism and redaction criticism alike. The varying lengths and some smaller differences between the versions and even between text-forms within particular versions lead to the fact, that there was some kind of editorial change in this account. But up to now, despite of many extensive analyses, it is uncertain whether the Hebrew Masoretic or the Greek LXX tradition represent the oldest attainable text of this passage. Trying to add further empirical evidence on ‘The battle of Ai’, this paper will survey a group of sources, which in this context has been mostly disregarded so far: the patristic evidence. Although dependent on the LXX and the Latin tradition in the first instance, their testimony might indirectly shed light on the comprehensive editorial history.

Discussion of the symbolic action scene of Jer 13 has situated it in the context of ancient Near Eastern oracular practices, or in relation to inner-biblical interpretive strategies. Indeed, the entire suggestion of a “symbolic action report” as a narrative genre suggests a coherent formal context within which the practice of eliciting significance from material objects was grounded. As such, narrative accounts of these actions are frequently treated—implicitly or explicitly—as precursors to the sorts of text-focused interpretive practices that characterize early Judaism. How, by contrast, might we situate mundane, even contemptible oracular signifiers like broken pottery or rotten undergarments within a literary corpus (the Book of Jeremiah) that favors imagery rooted in the agrarian, patriarchal household? How do mantic practices like these diverge from and even critique elite, institutionally favored modes of divination and oracle consultation? Might we locate in these narratives an implicit critique of official power, one that could productively contribute to a larger discussion within post-colonial literature of the kinds of covert theoretical and critical discourse developed by politically subaltern populations? This essay seeks to understand the ‘ēzôr pištîm of Jer 13 as a coherent symbolic focus rooted in a non-elite domestic context, the interpretation of which models for a late-monarchic audience how to develop an autonomous, indigenous, critical discourse on power.

Onomastic evidence is often used to make claims about the religious identity of individuals and families throughout the Levant and Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE. Conclusions about personal piety and family religion rely heavily upon theophoric elements in personal names, which denote reverence for the named deity. Using data from my ongoing research project ‘An Aramaic Onomasticon of Syro-Mesopotamian Texts and Inscriptions’, this paper re-evaluates the role of the theophoric element in the construction of religious identity, arguing that it is one of a combination of linguistic and conceptual features within the personal name that can inform our perception of personal piety and family religion. Ultimately, the theophoric element is only one part of the greater body of onomastic evidence that plays an essential role in the construction of religious identity during this era. Included in this presentation are geographic representations of cultural contact as evidenced by the presence of specific theophoric elements in Aramaic names.

Recent scholars have noted that evidence from royal correspondence discovered in archival contexts demonstrates that prophets in Old Babylonian Mari worked in concert with several types of scholarly and religious professionals, as well as members of the elite. Literate intermediaries recorded prophetic messages and conveyed them to the king; court specialists verified the validity of the information through various types of divination. Furthermore, many prophecies appear to have originated in the context of temples, where prophets operated alongside various temple personnel. This paper investigates the available textual evidence and argues that the interactions between these groups benefitted all of the parties involved, regardless of the participants’ relative status, authority, or erudition. A close examination of the letters pertaining to prophecy reveals a complex system of interplay between prophets, temple personnel, educated members of the elite, and other types of diviners (such as haruspices), and provides valuable insight into the interdependent and synergistic nature of the cooperative efforts required to convey prophetic messages to the king.

In Exodus 1:16, 22 the Egyptian Pharaoh decrees that the male Hebrew newborns shall be killed while the female ones may live. Philo and, following him, Origen interpret the gender of the newborns in allegorical terms: The “male” represents the virtues which Pharaoh wants to repress, while the “female” represents the vices which are promoted by him. Origen’s interpretation is much more elaborated in this respect and goes as far as to maintain that the Hebrew midwives killed the female babies. Later Christian authors follow Origen and present virtue as male, e.g. Cyrill of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa. They pick up this motif in different manner and pass it down to the later exegetical catenae. Christian virtue is portrayed as male, whereas vices are represented as female. The way to Christian perfection, therefore, is to become male and eliminate anything female from one’s spirit. This paper asks for the hermeneutical presuppositions and especially the consequences of this gendered view of virtue.

The references to musical instruments in the Dead Sea Scrolls remains an understudied topic. In this paper I examine the role of the lyre and pipe in the scrolls. In this corpus the pipe and the lyre occur often together but this combination is rare in the Hebrew Bible. This paper will utilize music archaeology and comparative evidence from the Hellenistic world in order to explain the sudden emergence of this combination in the Second Temple period. I will suggest that the lyre-pipe combination occurs quite frequently in a pedagogical context and is part of a broader construction of the sage as singing teacher. The construction conflates imagery from the Levitical tradition with Greco-Roman pedagogical practices. The former depicts the Levites as sages and lyrical singers and the latter depicts training in the lyre as in essential marker of educated status. Whereas scholars tend to understand descriptions of musical performance in the scrolls as metaphorical, I will contend that one should take more seriously the pedagogical use of musical performance in the scrolls and suggest that musical instruments are a valuable lens through which one can examine both scribal and sectarian identity in the Second Temple period.

Jesus´ body is in the passion narrative of the Gospel of Mark a site of both pain and pleasure. Pain is inflicted upon this body by Jesus´ `adversaries´, or at least: they attempt to do so, "pleasure" is derived from the fact that all of this suffering in fact serves to further God's aims, which are also Jesus' aims. Using insights from the study of sadomasochism, in which the apparent "bottom" frequently determines the course of the "play", this paper shows how the presentation of Jesus' bodily suffering as an intentional suffering, pleasing (even pleasurable) as it is part of Jesus' dedication to God, serves to undermine the apparent power of his adversaries.

This paper compares the literary elements of the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35 with the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40. Among other parallels, the two stories both feature perplexed readers/interpreters of the Jewish tradition who need someone to help explain the meaning of Israel’s scripture for them, requiring “new eyes” with which to read the text. At the core of each narrative is the striking theological claim that “it was necessary” that the Messiah must suffer and die before entering “into his glory” (Luke 24:26), a concept that, strictly speaking, is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. The fruit of this literary comparison, I argue, is the conclusion that the author of Luke intends to portray the church and its budding Christian mission as the inheritor of Jesus’s peculiar exegesis, a reconfiguring of the biblical tradition that allows readers to see Christ at work in the very foundation of Israel’s scripture, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets.”

In an attempt to comprehend the processes taking place in the modern world, politicians, thinkers, and a broader audience are increasingly turning to exploring biblical constants, looking for possible answers to the most challenging questions of the today’s society. Despite the rapid development of the modern world, often referred to as the world of postmodernism, the Biblical texts and Jewish texts of the Second Temple period become the focus of many researchers. We can say that the modern Bible studies are at a new peak of interest among scholars, opening a new perspective on the importance of these texts for a modern person. One of the major concepts of the Tanakh, which had a particular influence on the development of religious beliefs of the Jewish people of the Second Temple period, and later gained new momentum and was reflected in Talmudic Judaism and Christianity, is Teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבַת). In the Second Temple period the subject of Teshuvah, tracing back to the fragment of the book of Devarim, 30: 1-10, gained particular importance for the authors of the texts available to modern scholars. In the context of the ‘continued captivity’, the awareness of the need for Teshuvah would continue to have a significant impact on religious ideas of the Jewish people. In allegorical terms, the concept of Teshuvah appears as a cornerstone underlying the framework of the further development of religious Jewish and Christian beliefs. By the example of the development of Teshuvah concept in a number of the Jewish texts of the Second Temple period, we will attempt to understand the reflection of a ‘Bible Person’ of the Second Temple period on the earlier Bible texts having civilizational importance.

Elsa Tames claims that it is necessary to turn to other disciplines to pose liberating hermeneutics that would question established readings. We think that psychoanalysis can contribute to a different approach. Paul Ricoeur mentions Freud as one the thinkers of the suspicion, the ones that have read reality searching to unmask a hegemonic and lineal reading. And it is from this locus of suspecting that we propose a different reading of the story of Rahab, and the raid of Jericho, such as it appears in Joshua 2:1-24; 6:22-27. Violence addresses and unsettles us; but denial, as a defense mechanism against this uncertainty, erases the singularity where the otherness is constructed. From our perspective some of the Latin American liberation analysis of this story tarnish the violence of the text and seek cover within the favor of Yahweh as justification. Misunderstand this violence might be an unconscious attempt at justification that avoids discontent with the contradictions that the Old testament poses. We will also present a practical case of inmigrant “sex workers” who are confronted with this biblical narrative as a trigger in a reflection group. We propose their reading as a controversial hermeneutic that goes beyond violence denial as a defense mechanism.

The transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance involved the creation of a new Christian ideology. The teachings of the movement called Devotio Moderna, based on the intimate relationship between the faithful and the deity through prayer and a more human aspect of Christ, implied a reinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures and the way of teaching them. This new interpretation had its own personality in the Iberian Peninsula: the coexistence of the three cultures and religions - Christian, Jewish and Muslim - gave rise to different values of the Bible and its teachings. The objective of this proposal is to show the means, forms and iconographies used and developed in the Iberia and, specifically, its relationship with the education of feminine power elites. For it, this study will focus on the figures of the Infantas of Castile and Aragon - Joanna I of Castile and Katherine of Aragon - as two complementary means of accepting or denying the religious teachings that were inculcated through the Bible. The inclusión of the Infantas in the religious world in childhood, at the hands of his preceptors and their mother Queen Elizabeth, was based on biblical teachings and other religious texts. These texts emphasized those episodes related to typically feminine values, with the aim of modelling the infants into perfect wives for a foreign king. The study of their inventories and the chronicles about their lives will allow us to raise the biblical female models and, in turn, the repercussion that they had in their religious lives.

It has been one target of the International Organization for the Study of the Septuagint to produce a syntax as a useful tool for the research of the Septuagint. This target was expressed as early as in the congress at Uppsala in 1971. It also was the dream of my teacher Professor Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen. The target has seemed to be very far away in the future. But now we are one step closer to the final goal. There are two reasons for that. One is the syntax by Takamitsu Muraoka that appeared in 2016. The second consists of a number of special translation-technical studies of the LXX syntax published since Soisalon-Soininen’s Die Infinitive in der Septuaginta (1965). On the one hand, the task is to collect and utilize the available data. On the other hand, the challenge is to compile the data in a way that a syntax of a translation can be written on the basis of translation technique. As is generally known, the LXX syntax shows interference from the syntax of the source language. The new syntax should show where and how the Septuagint Greek differs from the contemporary Koine. It should also display how the different books of the Septuagint differ from one another without overlooking the internal variation within the books. The main aim is to describe, to understand and explain the characteristics of the LXX syntax. In this paper, the content of the syntax and the method of presenting it are dealt with

In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as a phenomenon in which one conceptual domain is systematically structured in terms of another, e.g., the more abstract concept of the heavenly or supernatural world is structured and represented in terms of a “lower level” concept of the physical world. Such an approach to metaphor is appropriate for study of apocalyptic language (special language tools and symbolic imagery, e.g., similes, metaphors) as used in Jewish and Early Christian descriptions of the otherworld and eschatological matters. My presentation focuses on the advantages of using this method when investigating the Messianic or eschatological meal. While the functions and genesis of meal imagery in the eschatological imagination are usually investigated in linguistic terms (grammar, semantics) and literary terms (motifs, ideas, symbols), the cognitive approach tries to explain the way of portraying the mythological otherworld as based on “recurrent patterns of human embodiment” (Tappenden 2016, 34). I utilize several examples from the Bible (Zech 3:1-5; Sir 12:12; Luke 12:35-38;13:28-30; 14:16-26; Mat 22:1-14, 1 Cor 11:23-26) in order to demonstrate how the concepts of honor, the reversal of fates, and the gift of eternal life in the Kingdom of God are depicted by the imagery of the Messianic or eschatological banquet. This imagery involves elementary pre-concepts from embodied experience (UP–DOWN, INSIDE–OUTSIDE, CENTER–PERIPHERY, NEAR–FAR, CONTAINER, WHOLE–PART, LEFT–RIGHT, FRONT–BACK, FIRST–LAST), on which the concepts of selectivity, exclusivity, unity, and identity are based. It also includes the cultural-social issues of banquet invitations, arranging places at the banquet, proper clothes, reclining, and master-slave relations. The interpretation of these concepts helps us to understand how meal discourses define the multilevel worldview and describe the exaltation, transformation, and resurrection of the righteous, as well as their union with the divine.

Although a minor character, Philip assumes a significant role as a bridge between the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel and the rest of the narrative and, at the same time, reveals traits commonly associated with character. This study seeks to address both issues using two templates—the Johannine literary device of misunderstanding with the Prologue as the point of reference and Cornelis Bennema’s comprehensive theory of character. The outcome would be a better appreciation that disciples can fulfill their mission for the cause of Christ as humans with noteworthy character and not merely as a plot device.

This presentation examines a recurring theme in contemporary horror movies: the forgotten pagan temple. Buried beneath a church, or concealed in a jungle or a desert, the temple functions as a plot twist and an explanatory device: a sinister presence haunts a seemingly peaceful location. The haunting remains a mystery until the discovery of an ancient pagan temple, which not only heightens the tension but also provides a cause for the menacing activity. But why are their sanctuaries so frightening, and what ideologies are at play in the construal of other peoples’ gods as monstrous? Attempting to answer this question, I analyze how three contemporary movies engage with ancient history and biblical traditions in their presentation of pagan temples: The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), The Borderlands (2013), and The Pyramid (2014). In these movies, knowledge of the past serves as an interpretative key. As the narrative progresses, the viewer learns more about the sixth-century conquests of Justinian, or the triumph of Christianity in medieval England, and is gradually able to unravel the mystery of the rediscovered pagan temple. Since the frequent allusions to the past invite to intertextual readings, I analyze the cinematic narratives together with fourth- to fifth-century CE materials on temple cleansings and demonic deities. This comparative perspective reveals how ancient ideologically loaded narratives have been adapted to new contexts in contemporary cinema. Such an historical contextualization also invites a closer look at rivalling narratives that have not been included in those films, and the implications of those ostensible omissions.

In his monograph "Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah" published in 2011 Christopher B. Hays presented an overview of the history of research on the Ugaritic cult of the dead around what he called "the Spronk synthesis", taking my dissertation of 1986 ("Beatific Afterlife in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East") as a marking point representing "the most ambitious attempt to argue for widespread cults of the dead". It would also have marked a turning point. Whereas I could build on the work of Schaeffer, De Moor, and Pope, my "synthesis" was firmly criticized by later scholars. Hays takes a middle position. More than thirty years after my dissertation I would like to take up this issue: does the history of recent research lead to important new insights? Are there relevant new facts and better methods?

Place is what shapes the identity of persons, families and nations. It affects making the crucial decisions in life that bring people to God or away from him. Jerusalem has always been the center of God`s revelation, the witness of generous loving acts, and the place par excellence which shapes the lives of all. Since the beginning of the world until today, Jerusalem carries the mystery of the city “knit together” (Ps 122:3) and deserves to be called Axis Mundi - the center of the world. In fact, in the city of Jerusalem, Righteous Simeon and Anna testified the extraordinary event of presenting Jesus in the Temple by Joseph and Mary and seeing the universal “salvation” (Luke 2:29) of the world. In this paper, I argue that the vantage point of salvation through the eyes of Righteous Simeon did, indeed, assume the revelation of God through the acts of loving kindness. It was inseparable from the city of many stones itself. Hence, this point in space impacted human identity, ideology, as well as orientation because Jerusalem is not merely the city of its characteristic white lime-stones by which it is naturally surrounded. It is the city of the Stone of Foundation (Even HaShetiyah), and of the stone of faith (religions), but above all it is the keystone of salvation. Perceiving Incarnated Word spatially, Simeon observed the purpose of the Creation: become “new Creation” (2 Cor 5:17), and be in communion with God. Consequently, by meeting Christ, one gains life everlasting and elevates the Holy City of Resurrected Christ to New Jerusalem, and transfigures the stones of Jerusalem into “the living stones” (1Peter 2:5), “bringing unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Eph 1:10). Finally, Jerusalem is the place where spatial becomes eternal through the glorious resurrection.

Papyrus 46 is typically dated no later than the second half of the 3rd century AD. Origen of Alexandria, a contemporary of this important manuscript, who lived from (AD 184-254), sometimes demonstrates agreement with its text where there is no other external support. Considering that many papyrus readings are unsupported by later manuscript traditions, units of variation where Origen provides external support for P46 are likely to reveal not just Origen’s authorial citations but evidence that the text of P46 could have been a more normative text-form than extant New Testament evidence suggests today. However, Origen normally does not usually support P46’s readings of Romans. In fact, sometimes Origen’s works do not agree with his own citations from his other works. His conflicting citations of Romans demonstrate the fluid nature of his citations and the effects of later scribes or readers on the text of his works (and ultimately the Greek New Testament). This paper explores two independent sources that could contain the earliest possible form of the Greek New Testament in Egypt. When compared to each other in relation to, perhaps, the most influential epistle of the New Testament, it provides an opportunity to validate the readings of P46 that might have been previously considered singular while at the same time gauging the readings of Origen’s citations of Romans in regard to his whole corpus in the second half of the epistle. The implications of this paper could reveal a previously unknown connection between the most influential theologian and one of the more important New Testament manuscripts of the early church, while at the same time providing insight into the textual nature of the earliest Greek New Testament.

One of the less known Finnish “Holy Land explorers” is the poet Valter H. Juvelius (1865-1922), who initiated and participated in one of the early large scale excavations in Jerusalem. Known best as the Parker Expedition after its leader, the excavations proceeded in 1909-1911 under a shroud of mystery on the Hill of Ophel, immediately south of the Temple Mount. Secrecy soon gave way to wild public speculation in the spring of 1911, when European and American papers reported that the leaders of the expedition had caused a riot and had to flee the city. Perhaps, scores of papers reported, escaping with untold ancient treasures and even the Ark of the Covenant. The scholarly community at the time was rather critical or dismissive of the expedition and it received a mixed reception in the press in the months following the initial scandal of the riot in Jerusalem. Many dismissed it as essentially a treasure hunt, as opposed to a truly scientific archaeological expedition. Yet it had far more in common with other archaeological expeditions of the early 20th century than has been generally recognised. This paper will examine the aims and the conduct of the Juvelius project and analyse them in relationship to the criticism levelled by scholars and the press. Although the notoriety of the expedition limited its impact on Biblical scholarship, some of the themes central to Juvelius – an inerrantist approach to the Bible and a desire to use archaeology as verification for the Bible – were also to become closely associated with the Biblical archaeology of the Mandate era. Examining the differences between the Parker Expedition’s approach and the scholarly criticism of it will afford an interesting insight into the early 20th century debate on the relationship between Holy Land exploration and science.

The relationship between the Israelite/Judean historian Josephus and his Hellenistic-Roman cultural milieu has been a focus of modern Josephus scholarship. His major works, Judean War and Antiquities, report several would-be Judean prophētai of the mid-first century CE whom, Josephus says, promised to display sēmeia kai terata (War 2.259; 6.285; 7.438; Ant. 20.168). Josephus also uses sēmeia-terminology with reference to phenomena he claims foretold the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple (War 6.288–315), and even for genuine sēmeia among the Gentiles, notably the omina imperii of emperor Vespasian’s accession (War 1.23; 3.404; 4.623). The Roman historian Tacitus (early-second century CE), relates several of the Temple-destruction sēmeia as prodigia (Hist. 5.13.1). Moreover, in Josephus “signs authenticate the words of prophets in much the same way that other omens signal divine approval or disapproval” (Miller). My heuristic axiom is that the existing Greek sēmeia (kai terata)-terminology (corresponding to signa et portenta/prodigia in Latin) constitutes the key to Josephus’s understanding of the phenomena and their theological significance in his major works. Josephus did not need to deliberately “Hellenize” signs/omens. Sēmeia-terminology had been available at least since the LXX Pentateuch to Judeans necessarily involved in “a negotiation between cultures” (Rajak). My thesis is that as “cosmopolitan language” sēmeia-terminology enabled Josephus (and other Hellenistic-Roman era Judean authors) to narrate sēmeia with an intentional “double-sidedness” (Kelley) intelligible to both his Greek-reading Roman and Judean audiences. Writing in Greek to Greek-readers, he naturally uses Greek sēmeia-terminology to describe the signs/omens of the Judean prophētai. However, neither Josephus’s use of Greek terminology for a Greek-reading Roman primary audience nor his (hostile) apologetic motives obscure the fundamental features of the sēmeia of his first-century prophētai as they would have been known by his secondary Judean audience—as a “distinctively Israelite phenomenon” (Horsley).

For more than a century, scholars who have worked on Jewish folklore in the rabbinic period have noted many overlaps between Aesopic fables and numerous rabbinic meshalim. While it has seldom occurred since the days of Jülicher, a few intrepid New Testament scholars have also sought to demonstrate a certain continuity or affinity between the Aesopic fables and parables of Jesus found in early Christian gospels. Far more common have been attempts to establish continuities between the parabolai of Jesus and the meshalim/ot found in rabbinic literature that would justify bridging the centuries-long gap between them. This paper offers a new avenue for comparing and establishing continuity between the rabbinic and early Christian parables: the literary persona the authors impart to the parable speaker. This paper argues that the persona of the fable speaker, Aesop, known through the narratives accompanying his fables in the first-century CE author Phaedrus and the Aesop Romance served as a paradigm for Jewish and Christian authors in their portrayal of parable speakers: Jesus and Shimon bar Kappara (fl. 180-220 CE). The commonalities established, what these depictions of Aesop, Jesus, and Bar Kappara communicate about these figures as authors of fables will be examined in light of Foucault’s “Qu'est-ce qu'un auteur?” The results invite further comparisons between the Aesop materials and other rabbis in the Talmud and early Christian portrayals of Jesus, from the depictions of their personae to the contents of their parables.

In European culture a bee is often considered a hardworking and diligent creature, similar to the ant. Such imagery has its roots in either biblical or classical ancient tradition. The biblical metaphor of a bee is at least twofold: in the Hebrew tradition bees are usually presented as dangerous (for example an attacking bee swarm; to a lesser extent as ‘honey-producers’, without any admiration for their assiduity), whilst only in the Greek tradition are they described as hardworking creatures (for example in LXX-Prov 6:8, where the description of the bee follows upon that of the ant). The biblical imagery of the ‘labour of bees’ might therefore have resulted from the relationship between the Hebrew community and the Hellenistic world (where this metaphor of a bee existed together with the one of an ant; see Aristotle). The paper will present the metaphor of ‘diligent bees’ in this wider Biblical and ancient context, both Hebrew and Greek. This consideration is important also because the post-biblical image of a bee enriched the theological tradition of the early Church (for example, the “Exsultet” has two references to bees, not to mention later bestiaria or iconography).

This paper suggests that each Pentateuchal book consists of one or several dominant schemata. The term ʽschemaʼ is roughly synonymous to ʽframesʼ and ʽscenariosʼ, all which are theoretically discussed and practically applied in the areas of cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, literature, philosophy and psychology. In this paper the term ʽschemaʼ refers to a net of words relating to a particular type of object, situation or event (Elena Semino; Guy Cook). For instance, the mental schema of an event of sacrificing includes words referring to a sacrifice, an offerer, a priest, a sacred place, and a deity to which the sacrifice is brought. It is enough for certain linguistic elements to occur in a text, in order that the entire schema be activated in the mind of the reader (Fillmore). Once a schema is activated, it is used to have a better understanding of the discourse. Hence, it will be argued that the book of Genesis foregrounds the schema of ʽsightʼ (Sutskover, Sight and Insight in Genesis), whereas, Deuteronomy, highlights ʽoral communicationʼ, and seems to prefer the latter schema over the former (Stephen Geller). The sense of touch and the body (of both animals and humans) are foregrounded in Leviticus, perhaps as a result of an intensive occupation with the topics of purity and impurity. Exodus and Numbers include dominant schemata of their own, as will be suggested in the paper. This preliminary mapping of schemata, and the way they are depicted throughout the Pentateuch, elucidates some of the main concerns of ancient Israel.

It is not without reason that Clement of Alexandria called John “the spiritual Gospel.” Oddly, however, the pneumatology of that Gospel shows perplexing contradictions. John the Baptist witnessed that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit (1:33). The Gospel narrates that Jesus baptized many people (3:26; 4:1). But why is it emphasized that Jesus himself did not baptize (4:2)? Water and Spirit belong together, as John 3:5 shows. But what should we make of John 7:37-39? On the great day of the festival of booths, Jesus is standing and crying: “Come to me and drink…” What could Jesus offer if “there was no spirit” at that time? Or could he really have given the Samaritan woman living water (cf. 4:10)? The present paper argues that the tensions in Johannine pneumatology cannot be understood apart from the complex making of the Gospel.

"In ancient Near Eastern cultures, the gods are guardians of justice who authorize kings by establishing them and conferring upon them the principles of justice and the wisdom essential to their rule, but the laws of the land are produced by the kings and are known by their names", thus indicates Christine Hayes in her book titled What's Divine about Divine Law (Princeton-Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2015 p. 2). However, when we speak about rituals, which in the Hebrew Bible as well as in the Hittite case are regarded "laws", we find them being similarly declared as "laws of the land" but coming from the gods directly, (even if some are mediated by humans). This presentation will explore in what way the ritual texts in Hittite culture are indeed divine law, and its exploration will encounter the difficulty posed by rituals being remodified and changed through time, while divine law is expected to be "static and coercive."

The verb φρονέω (phroneō) is a significant word carefully chosen by Paul to highlight the importance of cultivating a Christ-centered thinking in his urgent call for unity in his letter to the Philippians. It is remarkable in both frequency and significance. Despite its importance in the letter, φρονέω is not given enough attention. This paper proposes that a close examination of the wide array of meanings attached to the verb and a closer look at the mind of Christ--humility and selfless attitude--will help us understand Paul's perspective on humiliation and exaltation and interpret the hymn more appropriately. Philippians 2:5-11 is one of the key passages in the letter. A proper interpretation of this important Carmen Christi (Hymn of Christ) will unpack the kind of attitude that Jesus adopts. It is common to pit the two main streams of interpretation (kerygmatic and ethical) against each other. I argue that this is a false dichotomy since a doctrinal exposition does not cancel out its ethical implications, and Pauline ethics is often grounded in theological foundations. Paul integrates both theology and ethics in the letter. The only possible way for believers to live in harmony with each other in the Lord is to have the mind of Christ in dogma and praxis. Jesus Christ is the ultimate pattern to which we are being conformed in the way we think, feel, decide, and act (cf. Phil 3:10).

Studies on the concrete identification of the opponents in Colossians have led to a big amount of diverse proposals. Since many keywords in Col. 2 hint to classic Jewish identity markers such as circumcision, dietary laws, or Sabbath observance (which are similarly discussed in e.g. Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho), I suggest to view the conflict reflected in Colossians in the context of debates (re)defining boundary markers of identity. In this situation, the author of the epistle speaks with the borrowed (and at the same time fortified) authority of Paul as apostle by the will of God (1:1) and rewrites Pauline tradition, as the intertextual references to Galatians (“the elemental powers of the cosmos”) and Romans (see e.g. “eating and drinking” in 14:17) show, concerning the relevance of Torah practices for non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Searching for categories of identity that transcend ethnicity and classic borderlines between “circumcised and uncircumcised” (Col. 3:11), the author draws on and updates Pauline “body” language to establish “corporate” identity “in Christ” in a universal perspective. In the complex situation of interrelations and intersections of “Jews” and “Christians”, without definitive “parting of the ways” in the first century, the dissenting voices of a “philosophy” (2:8) with a competitive claim (devalued as “human tradition”, cf. Mark 7:8) in defining exclusive boundary markers do not refer primarily to “external” opponents (such as non-Christian Jewish synagogues). Rather, the rhetorical strategies in Colossians indicate “internal” disputes about the criteria for “sharing in the inheritance of the saints” (1:12). In this view, apocalyptic circles like that of Revelation, for example, which stresses strict observance of food laws (Rev. 2:14, 20) – and focuses on angels and visions of the divine throne (see Col. 2:18) –, could be seen as the other side of the coin regarding discourses of demarcation and identity.

Recent archaeological excavations in the arid southern regions south of Palestine and new interpretations of old epigraphic and iconographic evidence are rapidly changing the biblically based paradigm of the interactions between desert cults and Levantine religions in the Iron Age. In this paper I will explore and identify the configuration of the varied desert cultic practices in the Negev, southern Transjordan, and the Sinai during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages. I will seek to understand how they might have contributed to the emergence of the Yahwistic cult and to the development of the Exodus and patriarchal narratives. I will analyze big historical questions concerning desert religions in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Was there something unique in the desert cults? How were religious experiences shaped by interactions between local rituals and sanctuary cults that penetrated from agricultural lands? More widely, what role did trade and cultural interconnections play in the diffusion of religious ideas? I will particularly explore how these data relate to those religious practices attested in Judah and Israel of the later Iron Age and beyond.

In recent scholarship various divinatory practices of the ancient Israelites have been revised. Earlier it was assumed that the chief diviners were the prophets. Now a growing number of scholars see their function as a literary construct (e.g., Nissinen, “Prophecy as Construct, Ancient and Modern”). Consequently, what we actually know about various divinatory practices and the people involved in them including shamans are being questioned. In this paper I will address necromancy as method that shamans practiced and analyze how the ancient Jewish literature attests to it. Necromancy is typically prohibited in the ancient Jewish literature (e.g., Deut 18:11; 2 Kgs 23:22, and the CD 12:1-5). Nonetheless, some passages suggest it was practiced despite the ban (Isa 29:4;1 Sam 28:8; Jannes and Jambres). After a diachronic reading of the Jewish texts I will turn to Odyssey 11, which contains a description of Odysseus’s descent to the netherworld. A female figure, Circe advices Odysseus to visit the underworld, where he meets Tiresias, a blind seer. My comparative reading of 1 Sam 28 and Od. 11 will provide new information on how necromancy and shamanism are depicted in ancient Jewish and Greek literature. Furthermore, I will ask whether gender of the necromancer (i.e., a shaman) plays any particular role in the narratives of 1 Sam 28 and Od. 11.

In the book of Haggai, there are various competing notions of virtue. Right action appears to be measured against two different standards. On the one hand, as prophecy, there is the sense of right action that derives from God’s intervention in natural events. God’s word through the prophet Haggai is taken to show the correct way in which to act in the given situation. On the other hand, at several points in the book, characters are told to determine what is right using their own mental faculties: the refrain ‘consider how you have fared’ and the directions to seek the priests’ judgment seem to imply that the audience is supposed to be able to determine the right course of action without God’s intervention. It is also difficult to get a sense of what character traits are considered virtuous, as different parties are singled out as either praiseworthy or blameworthy: however, the criteria on which these distinctions are made does not always appear to be moral categories. We are then left with the question: can we establish a unified sense of virtue from a text like Haggai?

Illicit Antiquities and Cultural Objects: Issues, Challenges, and Regulation Suzie Thomas, University of Helsinki Cultural objects, particularly those considered “high status”, rare, or financially valuable, have forever been vulnerable to theft and illegal trade. These objects, including manuscripts, become particularly vulnerable in times of conflict or civil unrest, or in situations where there is economic pressure on societies to find alternative ways of generating more cash. We know that looters are often living in poverty, and are willing to sell objects that they can illegally excavate or steal from sites in order to survive. Yet at the same time the other end of the spectrum, where wealthy collectors and prestigious institutions admire, own and otherwise utilise the same cultural material, still seldom considers the dubious origins of many of their most prized pieces. In this presentation, I outline some of the key issues known about the illicit trade in cultural objects, the intellectual consequences of this trade, and the role that scholars can have either in facilitating or preventing such activity. Finally I discuss some of the measures in place to try to control the loss of cultural heritage in this manner, and why we still have some way to go.

In the redactional reworking of the parables of Jesus, two major phases can be distinguished. Originally, a parable functions as a part of argumentation in a specific context. Irrespective of the authority of the speaker, the parable describes a plausible story or principle. It illustrates a general principle, which the audience in turn ought to apply to the issue discussed. Thus, for example, the parable told by the Sadducees in Luke 20:29–32 is a persuasive piece of argumentation, irrespective of its origin. At the first redactional stage, the type of function is preserved, even if the parable may be utilized in a new context, designed by the evangelist. Thus, Luke and Matthew may tell the same parable in their own contexts, but both still use it in the way described above. At the second redactional stage, however, the authority of the speaker becomes more important. The parable no longer functions as a narrative, illustrating a general principle. Instead, it becomes authoritative proclamation, which conveys religious ideas by using cover names. A shepherd taking care of his sheep directly describes God and his people. The credibility of this type of proclamation, traditionally called allegory, depends most of all on the credibility of the speaker. Thereby it functions as a prophecy. While a genuine parable appeals to emotions and reason only, a prophecy appeals to (divine) authority. The redactional process of the parables of Jesus shows a development from stage 1 (the evangelists) to stage 2 (the Early Fathers). I will argue that this is connected to the increasing divinity and authority of Jesus in the Christian communities. Accordingly, the parable of the Sadducees seldom if ever reached stage 2. The theory can be further used when analyzing the process of redacting and interpreting the parables.

In his seminal book about Melchisedek (Geschichte Melchisedeks, 2010, p. 28), Christfried Böttrich discussed the existence of Romanian liturgical books printed between 1812 and 1863, which comprise a narrative about Melchisedek that was supposed to be read in a specific day of the Lent. This paper focuses on several contemporary manuscripts which comprise a similar narrative and which have never been analysed so far. It describes the relation between the printed and the manuscript traditions, it establishes the source of the narrative and its connection with other narratives about Melchisedek which were transmitted in Romanian (Palaea historica, the Pseudo-Athanasian Narrative), and it inquires whether the liturgical role of this narrative contributed to its transmission.

Sa‘adia Gaon contributed more than any other Jewish Sage to open the gates of Jewish culture to the Arabic culture, including his Biblical translation and commentary. Apart from using the high level of the classical Arabic language and its syntax and style, in contrast to the Biblical translations that preceded him, he was influenced also by principles of the tafsīr on the Qur’an. Moreover, he integrated in his commentary parallels from Arabic culture. Of particular interest is the alleged use of Islamic terms to translate words in the Bible, like imām for cohen (priest). However, based on the Biblical translations created before Sa‘adia’s, it should be concluded that Sa‘adia continued a translational tradition that was popular among the Arabic-speaking Jewish communities, a tradition that was absorbed – like many other Jewish traditions originating in these communities – as well in early Islam.

Of the wide array of biblical figures, King Solomon may not strike one as the obvious candidate to illustrate a virtuous attitude towards sensual pleasure. While in early Jewish and Christian texts Solomon is frequently depicted as an exemplary sage, accounts of his immense wealth and marriages to foreign women have also cast doubts on his moral qualities. However, in his Homilies on Ecclesiastes, Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century Christian author, makes a somewhat surprising choice to present Solomon as a paragon of anti-hedonism. Like many ancient interpreters, Gregory reads the homilies as Solomon’s retrospective account of his own life. But whereas most interpreters portray Solomon as something of a repentant sinner, for Gregory the Solomon of the Book of Ecclesiastes is a virtuous man who carries out a carefully designed experiment: by making use of his immense wealth and his characteristic virtue of wisdom, Solomon has a disciplined encounter with pleasure to prove first-hand its shortcomings as the final good. To undertake this challenge, Solomon hardens himself with a rigorous training programme. Thus, although the king’s authority is created by his unique social location, exceptional wisdom, and unusual first-hand experience, he is also presented as an example for all Christians to emulate. While Solomon’s exemplary role in the Homilies on Ecclesiastes has been previously noted in passing, little has been said about its specific emphases. In this paper, my aim is to analyse Gregory’s use of Solomon as an example of a deliberate and disciplined attitude towards pleasure and of the rigorous training it entails. I will argue, furthermore, that Gregory’s use of Solomon as an example should be read in the context of a fundamental juxtaposition between pleasure and virtue that underpins his whole corpus.

This paper begins with a detailed overview of studies on the characterization of the royal official in John 4:43-54. This overview shows that the text does not provide readers with enough clues to obtain a precise picture of the official, and that the choices that they have to make have a decisive impact on the picture of the official that emerges as they read along, a picture depending just as much on what the text explicitly states as on what they assume. Accordingly, the five most important decisions that readers have to take are outlined with all the possible options identified. These are: the specific approach to be followed, the meaning and relevance of vv. 43–45 for the characterisation of the official, the dominant trait(s) to be associated with the concept basilikos, making sense of Jesus’s response in v. 48 and making sense of the twofold reference to the faith of the official in the narrative. Finally, an own interpretation of the royal official is offered that is closely linked to death/life contrast in the narrative.

In this paper I attempt to show how the Moses and the Plagues narrative in Greek language (Exodus 7-11) become the foundational story of the Temple of Jerusalem. I should argue that during early Greek period (with the beginning ca.200 BCE on), the High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem intentionally selected the Plagues on the Egyptians tradition and related it the Moses tradition in order to mediate identity to His community. Subsequently the priests developed the Mosaic discourse in the Greek language as it is found in excerpts such as Ezekiel, Artapanos, Demetrios, and Eupolmos. As a matter of fact this type of Mosaic literature should be called the priestly exercise in the Greek language. This priestly exercise resulted in the production of the Septuagint account on the Moses and the Plagues on the Egyptian. The trajectory of formation and transformation of Temple Mosaic discourse will be suggested.

Focusing is a literary feature that has gathered surprisingly little attention. This is often due to its positioning in the well-researched realm of Biblical Hebrew Syntax and the wide array of meaning it has obtained. However, when combining the information structure model, specifically constituent focus, and the strict nature of Biblical Hebrew word-order which allows all deviations from unmarked word-order to stand out, it becomes possible to analyse and re-assess the purposes and literary functions of some of these deviations. My paper proposes to do this by looking at focusing - a feature that for a long time was cast aside from further necessary research as the sole purpose of the feature was considered to be “emphasizing” - a verdict much too superficial while also regretfully lacking in precise meaning. Luckily several noteworthy monographs have alleviated the situation in the recent years (Heimerdinger, Shimasaki, Lunn, Moshavi). Although these scholars have finally brought focus structures to the table, marked constituent preposing has not been discussed as a literary feature in its own right. Armed with Adina Moshavi’s typology (developed using Biblical prose examples of constituent focus in her brilliant book pub. in 2010 “Word order in Biblical Hebrew Finite Clause”) I will delve into both prose and poetic text (the books of Job and Ben Sira in particular) and aim to establish a modified system appropriate for assessing the types of constituent focus found in biblical poetry, compare it to the existing information Moshavi has provided on focusing in biblical prose texts and establish an overview of the literary functions of this feature. The purpose of this paper is to expand on the effect focusing has on, respectively prose and poetic, text and the change in meaning it holds for the reader when compared to unmarked word order.

‘Folk themes, figures of speech, and entire proverbs migrate across geographical and cultural boundaries by routes which are often impossible to trace or document.’ (J.M. Lindenberger, ‘Ahiqar’, in Charlesworth, OTP 2: 486) 1. Fables and Parables in the Ancient Near East and Greece. Multiple links between the Aramaic Story of Ahikar, Jewish Wisdom Writings, the Greek fables of Aesop, and ancient Jewish parables. 2. The Evolution of Rabbinic Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism, originated after the Jewish Revolt, came to fill the void left by the destruction of the Temple. New forms of prayer and liturgy were introduced, Tora study became the central socio-religious value. The process of change was triggered by the Jewish-Roman war of 66-70 CE and strongly accelerated after the one of 132-136. 3. The formal separation of Christianity from Judaism. Tacitus on Christians after the fire of Rome, Pliny the Younger on Christians in Asia Minor, Tosefta Hullin on forbidden links with Christians, Gospel of John on excommunication of Christians: formal separation, early second century CE. 4. Beyond the Separation: Parallel Developments among Jews and Christians. Example 1: the exposition of the Song of Songs in Judaism and Christianity. Example 2: the evolvement of the Lord’s Prayer and the Eighteen Benedictions. 5. Parables in Judaism and Christianity. Comparison of selected examples of parable clusters (‘families’) as used by rabbis and church fathers: parables in midrash and of parables as allegories.

Among the Pauline letters, 1 and 2 Thessalonians are the most eschatologically focused. In fact, the main purpose of both epistles is to address eschatological issues within the Thessalonian community. This paper argues that the eschatologies presented in both epistles inherently challenge the dominate political powers. Both accounts make ample use of terms and images with imperial connotations, such as “parousia” and “apantesis”, as well as the slogan “peace and security” in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 and the depiction of the “apostasia” and “the man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2. The use of these evocative terms and images within the eschatological framework of the letters will be explored. This paper argues that both eschatologies indicate those loyal to the Empire rather than to the true Lord, Jesus, will be destroyed on the day of the Lord, when the true king returns. Furthermore, this paper argues that the eschatologies of the two letters encourage faithfulness and perseverance, rather than active resistance to the ruling powers, urging the Thessalonians to trust God’s word that justice will be served in the end.

The god of the Sea in Ugaritic texts is Yamm, adversary of the Storm god Baal, infamous as the antagonist in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. Like the sea itself, its god displayed an inherent ambivalence: he was a source of life and death, the provider of bounty and the cause of wreckage, the master of monsters and the protector of domesticated beasts, especially horses that are connected to the god of the sea in multiple ways. Depicted in Syrian iconography as a winged deity, Yamm was capable of traversing the distance between his two watery realms: the sea surrounding the earth and the sea on top of the dome of the sky. Yamm had a dichotomous character, borne in part out of the element of the sea itself. For all its ambiguity, Yamm as a symbol of the Mediterranean sea was immensely important to the coastal kingdoms.

This paper dialogues with the concept of Buen Vivir (Sumak kawsay) and its relevance in the global, interdisciplinary approach to respond to ecological concerns. In particular, this paper will explore the points of possible intersections as well as limitations of Buen Vivir from a biblical perspective.

Text critical assessments of Septuagint Jeremiah (Jer LXX) have been made as early as the time of Origen (184–254 CE), and have at times been very contradictory in comparison to one another. A crucial lynchpin in such assessments is the understanding of the character of the translation. It is only natural to discuss the translational and text critical character of Jer LXX together, but oftentimes, especially in early assessments, the two are not clearly distinguished from each other. A pivotal threshold in this regard was the incorporation of the Dead Sea Scroll evidence, which shifted the text critical discussion more desicively toward the Vorlage of Jer LXX and solidified the determination of the translation character as a valuable pursuit in it own right. This paper surveys assessments of Jer LXX, ranging from the 19th century to the present, with the aim of highlighting the continuity and change that can be seen resulting from the availability of the Dead Sea Scroll evidence.

The majority of extant Arabic Gospel lectionary manuscripts in the Melkite tradition are at St. Catherine’s at Sinai and the Orthodox Patriarchal library in Jerusalem. Recently the Arabic Gospel lectionaries in St. Catherine’s at Sinai were grouped into twelve distinct families. This present paper extends this survey to include the manuscripts at Jerusalem. The dates of the lectionaries in the Sinai collection range from 10th to the 17th centuries, with the majority in the 13th century, whereas those in the Jerusalem collection range from the 11th to the 19th centuries with the mean in the 16th century. The lectionaries at Jerusalem, therefore, make a complementary contribution to those at Sinai, giving witness to later stages in the history of how the Bible in Arabic was experienced in Christian worship down the centuries. Some of the lectionaries at Jerusalem are of the same families as what was found at St. Catherine’s, including two manuscripts which include texts derived from the earliest translations of the Gospels from Greek into Arabic. Other lectionaries at Jerusalem have no parallels with those in the Sinai collection and are grouped into new distinct families.

This paper explores the communal structures and values within Qumran Studies that have led us to enable and ignore the large-scale unprofessional and criminal conduct that is coming to light with respect to the post-2002 "Fishy Fragments." Presuming the innocence of the majority of scholars in our discipline, this paper posits that our longstanding non-responsiveness to the fraud was not the result of an absence or abandonment of values. Rather, it is suggested that our passivity was in fact due to a surfeit of values-- of a sort that proved unequal to the task at hand. Using Moral Foundations Theory as a framework for analyzing our communal failure, it is argued that-- until recently-- the In-Group values of Loyalty and Authority have been privileged by Qumran scholars over the more universalistic-type values of Care/Harm and Fairness/Cheating. It is further argued that our discipline is particularly vulnerable to misuse of Haidt's and Graham's fifth category, Sanctity. With particular reference to the academia.edu discussions that paved the way for public revelation, this paper demonstrates how the privileging of "privacy" (raz/secrecy) over Transparency, and excessive "humility" (riqma/deference to hierarchy) has prevented us from fulfilling our obligations as critical thinkers, educators, and curators of the past and its artefacts. A prescriptive position is taken in support of increasing the relative weight given to the values of care and fairness in our Community ethos. 

The authors of the Bible are rarely interested in people’s appearance. There is only occasional, detailed information about someone’s apparel. Clothes in general are mentioned quite often, and sometimes, what one wears has a symbolic meaning, as in the book of Revelation, in which the imagery connected to garments creates a whole chain of metaphors. Because of that, the numerous places depicting clothing should not be analyzed as individual cases but as interwoven metaphors. Applying a cognitive linguistic approach, I will argue that the conceptual metaphor underlying this network of metaphors is IDENTITY IS APPAREL. The paper will explore the mapping between the source and the target domains and then investigate how the clothing metaphors conceptualize the characters of the book of Revelation.

Can the category of ‘virtue’ be associated with the Testament of Qahat (4Q542), although the text is written in a Semitic language that lacks a separate term for it? This paper addresses both problems and benefits that pertain to discussing the selected Aramaic writing in the context of virtue. Concentrating on the intersection between the transmission of biblical tradition and the display of ancestral virtue, it argues that morally valuable conduct is attributed to characters of the Israelite narrative in 4Q542. The author employs biblical figures of the past in general and the figure of Qahat in particular as he exhorts the intended audience to pursue good behaviour. As such, the Testament of Qahat witnesses to the variety of discourses concerning good life in the Mediterranean antiquity.

Mesopotamian cuneiform text form an important source of parallels for Old Testament texts. The nature of these parallels and the significance of these texts to Biblical studies has been discussed from different viewpoints from Bibel-Babel controversy to parallelomania. The 11th chapter in the Book of Daniel is one of the texts in Old Testament that has been often discussed in the context of parallels and the usage of parallels. There is a group of Mesopotamian texts that does resemble the Old Testament text in many ways. The question with these texts is that do they bring any more understanding to the text in the Book of Daniel and what is the real relationship with these texts? There are several viable proposals for this relationship of the Mesopotamian texts and that of the Book of Daniel but the thing that has been rather sparsely discussed is the meaning of the connection and the formal criteria for proposing one between different texts from different eras. The main aim in this presentation is to discuss on the possible formal criteria for the connection between the texts and especially the possible meanings of these connections or relationships.

The eleventh chapter of the so-called First apocryphal Apocalypse of John presents a peculiar doctrine of resurrection according to which all the resurrected will have the age of thirty and, with the exception of the righteous, they will not be able to recognize themselves among brothers, friends, fathers and sons since their appearance will be like that of bees that has no traits that make it possible to distinguish them. In fact, according to the author of this apocalypse, men will be resurrected without the material body. The present contribution will compare this text, both with the twenty-second chapter of the Quaestiones ad Antiochum Ducem where it is said that souls will rise without bodies and are compared to doves and bees, both with the text of another Apocalypse always attributed to John the Theologian and consisting of a series of questions and answers, between the apostle and Abraham, on the theme of resurrection. This is an unpublished text of which, at the moment, only one Greek manuscript is known and whose doctrinal position is very similar to that of the First apocryphal Apocalypse of John because it is stated that men will rise without the body, all of them will be thirty years old and, like the bees, they will all look the same. Although the uncertain origin and dating of these works does not make it possible to establish whether there is effectively a contact between them, I’ll try to determine whether the theme of the incorporeal resurrection in the First apocryphal Apocalypse of John is a reference to a theological controversy related to the current situation or whether it is a restatement of a Byzantine Theologumenon in order to find out an internal element of the text that can be taken into account for its dating.

The Book of Malachi (ca 470 BCE) has often been, especially in early scholarly literature, characterized as a book with a catechetical or paraenetic features. The larger part of the book is indeed comprised of disputation speeches, where God or the prophet accuses the priests and the laity for violation of covenant laws, and this discourse has sometimes been seen as a development of announcements of curses in earlier prophetic literature. However, the disputation speeches in Malachi can also be viewed as reflections of the attitudes and behavior, which the author sees as exemplary and wants his audience to follow. In his example list, he mostly applies Deuteronomic (but also Priestly) concepts and vocabulary concerning righteous behavior and good deeds; or conversely, sinful behavior and bad deeds. Being earlier in time than most Greek literature on virtue, Malachi’s listing thus provides interesting material for comparison. Moreover, especially the eulogy on Levi (Mal 2:4–7) had an impact on discourses concerning moral behavior in intertestamental reception history of the Hebrew Bible (e.g. the Book of Jubilees and literature of the testament genre). The moral discussion in Malachi has thus also formed a component in Jewish and Christian heritage transmitted for example in the Greek and Latin languages.

This contribution presents a corpus linguistic analysis of the Masoretic accent sequences found in the prose sections of the Hebrew Bible. Firstly, we quantitatively describe accent sequences by aligning and comparing consecutive sequences of accents using n-grams, skip-n-grams, and Markov chains. The aim of this first step is to investigate the distribution of accents by not just focusing on individual accents, but on accents in relation to the other accents found in their immediate vicinity. Secondly, we test the correlation between specific accent sequences and the respective clause types they occur in (using the ETCBC database). The correlation between interrogative clauses and accent sequences is investigated in detail to evaluate whether accent sequences can disambiguate cases where it is unclear whether a clause is interrogative. Thirdly and most importantly, we build on the above insights to theoretically describe the relationship between accent sequences and prosody. Scholarly research has accepted the prosodic nature of the Masoretic accents since the 1990’s. The implications of this view, however, have yet to be explored to the fullest. Traditionally the disjunctive accents and especially the ‘stronger’ accents such as Silluq, Atnach, Zaqeph, Segolta and Revia have received greater attention than other accents. The former highlight the boundaries of units of speech. However, much of the accents are overlooked. This is unfortunate given that the study of prosody cannot limit itself to the detection of boundaries. For that reason we evaluate whether accent sequences can be mapped to prosodic sequences in the Hebrew Bible. In summary, we explore new ways of interpreting the Masoretic accents by approaching the accentual system as a whole. Our methods allow for a comprehensive analysis and present a new perspective on the debate.

Previous scholarship dealing with ethics in the Dead Sea Scrolls focuses on the dualistic and predeterministic worldview of the community, on information from polemic descriptions of opponents and on purity regulations. In the majority of cases these analyses are based on the Hebrew scrolls, mainly on the so-called sectarian scrolls (e.g. Tso and Kampen). In this paper I focus on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly on the Testament of Qahat (4Q542). This text displays a clear view of what kind of virtues belong to the moral vocabularies of priests: truth, justice, uprightness, perfection, purity, holiness and the priesthood. The first part of the paper surveys the use of the foregoing virtues in the Jewish Aramaic literature of the Second Temple Period. By evaluating the usage of virtues in Jewish Aramaic literature the relation between those seven virtues can be explained. It has been suggested that qushta, often translated as 'truth', came to be interpreted as a fundamental power and an ultimate goal in the world (Koch). It will be argued that the connection between qushta and other virtues in the Testament of Qahat can be interpreted in the same way. The second part of the paper will be devoted to assessing the relationship between aletheia and related virtues in Jewish Hellenistic texts. In this manner it will be possible to evaluate the variety in discourses about morally laudable behaviour in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls.

In the approximately 546 times that the body is explicitly referred to in the book of Job, around 68 body-parts are mentioned, making it amongst the top “body-referents” in the Hebrew Bible, alongside the Psalms, the Song of Songs and Leviticus. These references are spread over the main human character, other human beings, God and animals, but are all in the mind of the author whose unconscious body-image is projected onto them. Although there is a strong emphasis on the face, Job’s final challenge confronts him on his skin, his body’s boundary. This makes him reflect on the temporal boundaries of his life-span, his birth and death, which he both equates with his mother’s womb, a body-part not belonging to and perhaps dissociated by him. Summarising the bodily map of the protagonist can add to insight in his experiences and struggles, especially when a psychoanalytic lens is added to it.

For over two centuries, the language of the so-called Pastoral Epistles (PE) has been subject to controversial debates. A majority of New Testament (NT) scholars has found the vocabulary and syntax of the PE to differ from other Pauline letters, giving rise to all sorts of explanatory models. Traditionally, scholars have attributed the PE’s peculiar language to a pseudonymous author (or authors), a secretary, or a combination of these. Others have attributed linguistic variation inter alia to Paul’s old age, the PE’s different subject matter, and/or their individual addressees. More recently, however, NT linguists have introduced the notion of register in the discussion, arguing that the PE’s peculiar language is due to register variation. While this might be a viable explanatory model, so far it has not been tested whether the quantifiable features of register in the PE significantly differ from those in other Pauline letters. The aim of the present study is to do so by means of linear regression analysis.

It is quite common to distinguish in Ps 51 various metaphors of sin: “sin is a stain to be washed out” or “sin is an impurity to be purified”. However, seldom mentioned is the way these metaphors build into a metaphorical pattern of sin. Yet, still another metaphorical pattern pervades the psalm, namely that of kingship. These two patterns and their interaction is the topic of this paper.

This paper examines the polemical discourse in the Pseudo-Clementine Basic Writing and its importance in constructing an in-group identity. It argues that the author of the Basic Writing is using hostile language, sometimes subtly, in order to strengthen the borders of his in-group and set it apart from others. The Pseudo-Clementine Basic Writing is a 3rd-century Jewish Christian text, a reconstructed source behind the preserved Pseudo-Clementine literature which consists of 4th-century CE writings usually called Recognitions and Homilies, as well as three short texts attached to the Homilies. The Basic Writing, written in the form of an ancient novel, contains polemics against “pagan” beliefs (e.g. magic and astrology) but also against other Christians like Paul and Marcion. The literary attacks in the Basic Writing follow the conventions of ancient polemical rhetoric, such as accusing opponents of hypocrisy and sorcery, although the critique is often veiled and tightly bound to the narrative form of the text. As is often pointed out, polemical discourse is most of all used for the benefit of the in-group; it is a way of identifying the out-groupers and keeping them apart from “us”. This notion connects polemics to the concept of social identity. From its perspective, the hostile language can be seen as a tool for creating a positive in-group identity and isolating unwanted beliefs from the group. In the Basic Writing, the author thus indicates what is appropriate and what is not by identifying “false” beliefs and attacking them as well as their supporters. Whether this is done to protect the boundaries of the in-group or to create them in the first place, is up to debate. In either case, the use of hostile rhetoric paints a picture of an author coping with his social surroundings in the multiform thought-world of the early Christianity.

It is commonly maintained that the LXX rendering of the phrasal theonym ´ehyè ´ášer ´ehyè (if considered as such) found in Exodus 3:14 comprised a theological shift in the biblical understanding of God. This divine declaration (only once addressed to Moses) was taken by some exegetes as an explanation of the sacred Tetragrammaton yhwh (found more than six thousand times in the Hebrew text) and even as the real, one and only divine name—especially when the Greek rendering of the Tetragrammaton started conveying the notions of lordship and supremacy. As early as Philo, it was accepted by Hellenistic Jews that the Platonic understanding of the Deity was fully compatible with the Jewish scriptures. In fact, the choices made by the Alexandrian translators allowed and even promoted a Platonic reading of the sacred text in Greek. A reaction to this development had been the renderings in Bible versions made by Jewish and Jewish Christian translators during the early centuries CE that Origen opted to include in his Hexapla. Despite the total dominance of the LXX in the Christian world, this reverse theological tendency—aiming to attain a more faithful adherence to the Hebrew text—has been present in a number of Greek Bible translations until today. Such noteworthy cases include the late medieval translations of Graecus Venetus (late 14th/early 15th cent.) and the Constantinople Pentateuch (1547). This paper will attempt to trace such translation traditions and investigate alternative Greek renderings of the original Hebrew terms (both the Tetragrammaton and the phrasal theonym) that might not pose a direct threat to core biblical ideas about God. Towards this end, the tension between “being” and “becoming” within theological and philosophical frameworks will also be sketched.

The aim of this paper is to analyze a Jesus’ saying contained in the so-called Little Apocalypse (Mk 13:9-11). In particular, I intend to formulate a hypothesis of a late inclusion of v.13:10 in which it seems to identify a delaying clause. First, I will consider the philological aspect of the verse which is very interesting because the oldest direct witnesses that preserve Mk 13:10 are dated in the IV century. Secondly, I will study the meaning of the verse and the implications it determines through its inclusion in the literary context, inside which it can actually be read. Subsequently, the paper will focus on the synoptic criticism; in the redactions of the other two Gospels, in fact, Mk 13:10 has been omitted. Special emphasis will be given to the context and reworkings of the Jesus’ saying present in the Gospel of Mark made by Matthew and Luke in order to investigate the reasons for the omission. Furthermore, the implications that Mk 13:9-11 and parallels have brought in the communities will also be examined. All these elements will contribute to develop a hypothesis of inclusion of Mk 13:10 after the marcan redaction and the reconstruction of the possible genesis and redactional history of the verse.

My presentation views Ignatius of Antioch’s understanding on episcopacy from a cognitive perspective. This view may affect to the way, in which the evolution of religious expertise in Late Antiquity can be understood. According to cultural evolutionary view of Ullucci, pagan religious experts represented cognitively optimal religion. They were challenged by Christian bishops with their cognitively costly ideas. I am contesting this cognitively costly view on Ignatian episcopacy: Ignatius could have been simply propagating something universally easy for human mind to hold true. I am using Shamanism – the oldest known form of religious authority – as a comparison to Ignatius’ texts. Shamanism has been studied cognitively and interpreted to wake certain cognitive mechanisms. It increases intentional interpretations of surrounding environment: human mind seeks intentional causes for events even when there are no visible agents available. This intentional stance towards the environment favours magical thinking as a heuristic device. Magical thinking is part of cognitively optimal processing. Though it has often been labelled psychopathological because of its anti-empirical reasoning, it has also increased adaptability and life quality. The following categories of magical thinking can be seen in the majority of the Ignatius’ arguments considering episcopacy: Transmutation (a shaman does not represent supernatural, but becomes one), Similarity (effect is more likely to happen, if cause resembles it), Thought-Action Fusion (certain thoughts lead to certain events), Illusion of Control (likelihood of the wanted outcome as higher than probable outcome) and Tempting Fate (carefree attitude leads to negative outcomes). The Ignatius’ emphasis on uniting Christians under the rule of a bishop is also a universal social mechanism rising from intentional stance. The illusion of control felt by a shaman increases the feeling of control and security in a human group around him. Similarly, uniting under the protection of supernaturally empowered bishop increases benevolence from God.

I assay to translate and explicate a complex passage from Midrash Bereishit Rabbah, a fifth-century, Galilean, rabbinic commentary on the book of Genesis. Each textual explanation refers to contemporary Greek literature to unpack the text. In Roman Galilee, Koine Greek was ubiquitous in the rabbinic Jewish community, even so far as to be used in synagogues for both inscriptional and liturgical purposes. The passage to be discussed is: Genesis Rabbah 2:4b (ed. J. Theodor, pp. 17-18): Once, Shimeon ben Zoma was standing confounded. Rabbi Yehoshua passed by and asked after him once, and again, yet he did not reply. At the third attempt, he replied in confusion. He [Yehoshua] said to him, “What’s this Ben Zoma? Where from and where to?” He replied, “Nothing from nothing, Rabbi.” He said, “I call heaven and earth to witness that I shall not move from here until you tell me where your feet are coming from!” He said to him, “I was speculating on the Works of Creation, and between the Upper Waters and the Lower Waters there is no more than two to three fingers-breadth. Further, it does not say `The spirit of God blew,’ but rather `hovered’ (Gen. 1:2), like a bird that is fluttering, flapping its wings, and its wings touch, yet do not touch.” Rabbi Yehoshua turned away and said to his disciples, “Ben Zoma has gone.” The Greek sources include: Lucian of Samosata (following Plato) in his , “In Praise of Demosthenes,” and Athenaeus, Deipnosohistae.

Mountains are not only appreciated for their natural beauty but notably also for their inspirational and elevating effect on the mind, ‘mountain top experiences.’ To illuminate the last-mentioned, insights from Attention Restoration Theory (ART; developed by environmental psychologists Stephen and Rachel Kaplan) will be utilised, as well as insights from Dark Green Religion (DGR; Bron Taylor). It is especially the ART human:nature relational properties of ‘fascination’ (awe) and ‘extent’ (order, mystery), complemented by the DGR notions of ‘interconnectedness’ and ‘sacredness’ (intrinsic worth), that explain the cultural constructs of mountains as the centre (s) of the world, sources of life, sites of identity, symbols of power, seats for deities and places of inspiration/transformation/renewal. The Psalms of Ascents collection (šîrê hamma‘ălôt; Ps 120-134) provides an exemplary (ancient) expression of a ‘mountain top experience’ for a group of post-exilic Israelites in search of their identity. Apart from a few explicit references to mountains in the collection, the overall focus is on an ‘ascent’ to Jerusalem, to Mount Zion and the temple where Yahweh chose to reside. This is the centre of the (then Israelite) world, where earth and heaven meet. The rather insipid Mount Zion becomes larger than life, where pilgrims find security, solace, blessing, unity and a transcending to 'a greater reality' in the presence of their deity.

In my paper, I will examine what one should take into consideration when writing a Septuagint syntax. My presentation is based on the principles presented by Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen. I will discuss what it should consist of and deliberate the principles the authors should follow in creating their contributions to the work. As an example of what I mean, I will present a sample paragraph treating usage of tenses. In a syntax of translated language, the reader must be able to see which linguistic phenomena reflect the usages and style of the target language (here the Greek language contemporary to the translation) and which originated from the syntax of the source language. The syntax should provide information concerning the differences between the various translators as well. In this way, the syntax would be useful not only to the biblical scholars studying Septuagint in order to reconstruct the original reading of the Hebrew Bible but also to those interested in the texts of the Hellenistic Judaism and the New Testament as well as the Greek linguists investigating Septuagint, the most important collection of prose texts from the Hellenistic era. Therefore, I will justify, in my presentation, why I would recommend a syntax that will present the Septuagint language as it is, a language produced by translating: applying a sort of usage-based approach (describing all the linguistic phenomena relevant to a Greek syntax of a corpus, not so much emphasizing the level of sophistication of the language used) accompanied by careful analysis of the syntactical features generated by its being translated from a Hebrew text, the new Septuagint syntax differs from the one written by Takamitsu Muraoka.

In his publication, "Permanence and Change"," Kenneth Burke resists the exclusive absorption of piety as religious disposition arguing for its relocation within a wider systemic configuration. Defining piety as “the sense of what properly goes with what,” while at the same recognizing its system constructing capacities, it is a disposition that inclines more towards what can be called gregarious obedience or compulsion. From the perspective of a rhetoric of the body, deploying inter alia the Bourdieuan notion of "habitus" and integrating Burke’s views on piety, I argue that “virtue” in its variety of expressions be seen as a configuration of empowering bodily strategies in 4 Maccabees. Embedded within the socio-political hierarchies of the Roman Empire “virtue discourse,” performs less to cultivate and demonstrate adherence to the law, less to reflect a particular mentality, than to effect what can be called hybridized, gregarious bodies, produced by a collective of normativities that simultaneously entrenches and produces their habituation. However, always echoing their habituation, “virtue” is modified contingent to the contexts in which it performs. I argue that in the agonistic context of 4 Maccabees, “virtue” performs as an empowering bodily strategy that summons identification with a superior Jewish male body who also strategically incorporates the virtuous female body. Several strategies within the rhetoric of “virtue discourse” will be highlighted and also related to some of the early Christian martyr narratives. For citation see: Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose. 3rd ed. With Afterword (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 74.

Well known is the story of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. In this story, the Queen of Sheba represents the wealth and the wisdom of a foreign land, quite in terms of a fairy tale. But additionally, there are around 10 other instances in the OT, where the land or the people of Sheba are mentioned and used as metaphor, especially in the Prophets and in the Psalms. The paper presents the different use of the metaphor "Sheba" in these texts and retraces the connections of these different use of the same metaphor. On the whole, it depicts a network of the same metaphor across the OT and different OT-Textcorpora. Dependent on the context, the same image of a wealthy land can be used as a representation of a marvelous future and also as an image of Israelite domination in past or future. Both uses of the same metaphor are interdependent.

The interrelation of image and text has been investigated in various contributions during the last two decades. Within all approaches concerning the text-image- or image-text-relationship, the material property of the image is not used to gain insight into either aspect of interdependence. In this paper I will deal with images of visionary experiences and their value for text interpretation, based on form-critical aspects of material evidence and their impact on the recipient. I will start with basic insights concerning the form and content of cylinder seals, their use in the ancient world, and finally ask about the animation of images in biblical texts containing visionary experiences.

Because the primary "readers" of the Aramaic incantation bowls are the demons invoked in these texts, the bowls leave us primarily with an author-oriented situation in which we are obliged to investigate their implied supernatural readers as they are envisioned by the practitioners behind the bowls. The rhetoric of the bowl texts is designed primarily to exorcise demons and frustrate their hostile designs, but the bowls do not just seek to communicate with the supernatural for these ends; they also employ various literary techniques in order to directly depict this supernatural reality. This paper analyses these representations of the demonic in the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (JBA) incantation bowls, as well as the role these representations play in the broader rhetorical repertoire developed by the authors of the bowls to fight malevolent supernatural forces. Focussing on a select corpus of JBA bowls, it examines how the bowl practitioners used poetic structures to construct their representation of the demonic realm, and asks (1) how these demons are designated with subjectivity and the 'needs' that motivate their malevolence; (2) what expressive features these demons are granted; (3) how these features are crafted using narrative and figurative language; and (4) what the rhetorical warrant of such practices was. It argues that these narrative and figurative techniques have everything to do with the argument of the bowls, and that their rhetorical strategy was plainly felt to be that much stronger for their use. It suggests that the practitioners behind the bowls were responsible not just for crafting a material and textual response to the demons that plagued their clients, but that their creative systematisation and conceptualisation of the demonic also played a significant role in defining the broader community's sense of the demonic.

When working with quotations from the Old Testament in the New, the correspondence between a quoted text and its interpretation can in some cases be very hard to comprehend. Mostly, this difficulty is due to the fact that we, of course, cannot know what was in the mind of the interpreter. However, in a few cases the quoted text is extant in various forms, and occasionally one of the variant readings seems to fit the interpretation better than the one found in the actual quotation. The question arises, if perhaps the interpreter had a different version of the text in mind from the one quoted, when he made his interpretation. In Qumran there are some well-known examples, where this might be the case. This is also true for some interpretations in the Midrashim and in the early Church Fathers. But what about the Gospels? Are there any such examples in the Gospels, where the quoted text might not be the text in the mind of the interpreter, i.e., the author of the New Testament text? And what could possibly be the reason for quoting one version of a text and presenting an interpretation of a different one? For one quotation in Matthew there exist several different versions, namely Jer. 31:15 (LXX 38:15) in Matt. 2:18. This paper will discuss the possibility that the author of Matthew might have had another version in mind from the one present in the standard editions.

This paper discusses the existence and nature of a peculiar variety of the Greek language which was used by Jews and Christians. It is argued that this variety arose from the Greek translation of the Pentateuch made during the Hellenistic period. The use of a number of frequent linguistic phenomena—participles, conjunctions, particles—in the Pentateuch are discussed and compared to the use of these in a corpus of other texts. The conclusion is that a group of texts that were written by Jews and Christians are quite similar to the Pentateuch and to each other, but differ significantly from the texts having no reference to the Jewish and Christian context. Both the Hebrew original and the translation technique of the Pentateuch influenced this contrast, which can mainly be recognized in the word order. The investigation assumes that Greek texts produced by Jews and Christians, as well as other Greek texts of the period, reflected a common sociolinguistic situation of writing in distinctive ways according to the genre or occasion at hand. The peculiar variety of Greek found in the Pentateuch emerges as yet another variety used for a particular genre, intended for a certain audience, and dealing with a similar subject. This variety of Greek recurs mainly in texts from the Septuagint, pseudepigrapha and the New Testament.

In their descriptions of Jesus’ work as an exorcist, the authors of the synoptic gospels frequently call the evil spirits “impure.” As I will argue, it is likely that the expression goes back to the historical Jesus. This raises questions about what Jesus may have meant by the term: was it just an expression, or did he view the evil spirits as literally impure? If he did, in what way would they have been impure? I will discuss the possible meanings of the alleged impure nature of the spirits by examining the use of the expression in the gospels and the Jewish sources, including the Pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. I will address the questions also by taking the conceptual links between disease, sin, and impurity into regard. I will argue that the impurity of the spirits are linked both to their evil actions and to their inherent, impure nature.

In recent years, the redaction history of Mi 1-3 has become an object of extensive scholarly debate. While some scholars find a largely unified composition within these chapters (though disagreeing on its starting point: Mi 1:5; 1:10, or 2,1?) others assume a high degree of redactional activity. Both groups focus on more or less the same textual phenomena. Some of the phenomena which play an important role in the discussion are doubtlessly aimed at strengthening textual coherence, e.g. the Wiederaufnahme of significant elements of 1:6 in 3:12 or the phrase בכל זאת in 1,5. The latter connects v. 5 to the preceding theophany in vv. 3-4 or to the following announcement of doom for Samaria and Jerusalem in vv. 6-9 – depending on how one sees its deixis. The question is whether textual features like these stem from the work of authors or the work of editors and how to distinguish between the two possibilities.Therefore, the paper will survey how they are evaluated in a number of recent analyses of Mi 1-3 and discuss the reasons and the methodological presuppostions which lead to percieving them as either compositional or redactional. Eventually, some more general propositions on the evaluation of textual features which generate coherence in Mi 1-3 and beyond will be put up for discussion.

The use of spittle in the Septuagint (e.g. Job 7:19), healings in the Gospel of Mark (7:32-37 and 8:22-26) and John (9:1-11), and possibly Tacitus’ and Suetonius’ account of Vespasian’s healing, or the Talmud (Baba Bathra 126b) demonstrate that views of spittle’s healing use were influenced by the view of spitting as a contemptuous or contaminating action. In secondary literature the use of spittle is often evaluated as a “magical element,” “folk medicine,” or as “healing with an agent.” In this paper I intend to present Greco-Roman literature in which a range of ailments and conditions respond to spitting or spittle, although the ways that spit is used as a remedy vary. The uses of spit for healing in ancient texts can be divided into the ceremonial, which focus on spitting as an action (Pliny), and the pharmaceutical (e.g. Aristotle’s History of Animals; Galen), which focus on spittle as a substance.

Using anthropological and archaeological insights to discuss the roles of milk and honey in ancient Israelite and Judahite diets, this paper will explore what was implied by the biblical expression ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’. Previous scholarship which has attended to this phrase has not typically addressed the socio-religious roles of milk and honey, and the impact they had on social relations and commensality between consumers. I will argue that Yahweh’s provision of a land ‘flowing’ with these food items promised not only physical nourishment but also socio-religious nourishment.

The paper reflects on the dynamic relationship of various functions of Deuteronomy 31-34 for closing the Torah and for connecting it to other parts of the Hebrew Bible. Several scholars have noted various aspects of Deuteronomy 33-34’s relationship to other parts of the Torah, for example the framing aspects with the beginning of the Torah, the parallels to Genesis 49-50, the framing aspects with the beginning of Exodus or the framing function with the opening chapters of Deuteronomy. Others have pointed to the opening character of these chapters for connecting Deuteronomy and the Torah to other parts of the Hebrew Bible, for example, by drawing attention to the people’s disobedience and to the resulting exile (Deuteronomy 31-32) or to divine faithfulness (Deuteronomy 32-33). The relationship of these various functions establishes a noteworthy dynamic between the connections within the Torah and to texts outside the Torah, between closing and the opening, between the death of Moses and the beginning of a new era for the people. The paper particularly reflects on the theological and hermeneutical implications of this dynamic in light of Deuteronomy’s fabula concerning the succession of Moses.

David Moffitt’s observation in Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews that heaven is the place in which the author of Hebrews depicts the atonement leads him to deduce that the culmination of the atonement was after the resurrection and ascension. Negative responses to Moffitt’s work have reflected an overriding theological concern with the time in which he concludes the final act of the atonement took place. Place and time are linked without question. As Hermann Minkowski who was Einstein’s teacher said, “Nobody ever noticed a place except at a time or a time except at a place.” However, interpreters of Hebrews often ascribe metaphorical, symbolic or otherwise abstract significance to the references to place, treating them as if they were references to time (e.g. most often in eschatological/apocalyptic future) or assigning them to a theological category or idea (e.g. exaltation). Studies on the role of place say that the preference for mapping reality on time is an anachronistic bias of the characteristically modern domination of space by time, and speak of recovering a sense of place on which meaning is mapped which was characteristic of ancient thought. Critical spatial theory provides definitions and categories for place and space that are helpful, and allow us to explore the meaning of place as its own category in the Book of Hebrews. My thesis is that the interpretation of the Hebrews author of the heavenly tabernacle and its use (priesthood and sacrifices) in the LXX is based on the meaning of place in the continuity and contrast between the past Mosaic tabernacle and what is true in the present of the heavenly tabernacle in the light of Jesus’s sacrificial death.

In research on the Hebrew Bible in the 20th century, the Norwegian scholar Magne Sæbø gave 'tradition history' a broad meaning. He applied it not only to the transmission and composition of the tradition material (M. Noth), or to the theological content and significance of the traditions (G. von Rad), but also to the textual history. He argued that both the oral and the written transmissions of the text were productive processes, but that they also reflect the stability and the reliability of the Masoretic text including its prehistory, which permits us to search for its "Urtext". In this approach, there are influences from both Scandinavian and German scholars, but Sæbø made 'tradition history' an all-embracing phrase. Following the paradigm shift in biblical exegesis from the 1970s onwards, Sæbø slightly modified his view by focusing on the redaction history of the texts, when a gradual unification of the multiple traditions took place, in which, he argues, the driving force was the moulding power of the monotheistic YHWH theology of ancient Israel. The attempt to uncover this process is the scarlet thread in Sæbø's scholarly works, from his monograph on Zechariah 9-14 (WMANT 1969) to his commentary on Proverbs (ATD 2012). Sæbø's definition of tradition history also sheds light on how he understands the relationship between the HB/OT in its canonical form and its pre-history. He argues that there was no clear-cut border between Holy Scripture and its interpretation, but rather a gradual transition from Scriptures to their various interpretations. Thus the OT is in itself open to scrutiny of its own 'history of interpretation', since it in various ways involves interpretations of traditions and, to some extent, constitutes the outcome of a variegated inner-biblical exegesis.

Social Identity Theory (SIT), as a social scientific discipline, in recent years have been making an influence in the study of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Jonathan Draper and Stephen Finlan are among the few Didache scholars who have utilized SIT and its application to the Didache. Given that SIT is relatively nascent in Didache studies, as a whole, I will consider how SIT has been explored in biblical and early Christian studies, in addition to Didache studies, and I will apply such social theory to the Didache. The question of inquiry will be: how does the Didachist employ Two Ways material and Jesus tradition to portray the implied reader and historical community as a persecuted oppressed identity? In answering this question, I will explore how Didache scholars have mentioned or offered clarity on the role of persecution, and how SIT may help provide clarity to these topics. Additionally, I will offer exclusive attention to Did. 1 and the use of Jesus tradition, and to Did. 5 and the use of social oppression language. The Didachist reframes Jesus Matthean τελειος language and the lex talionis to reorient the self-identity of the Didache’s community (Did. 1). And, the Didachist writes as an “insider” to describe the “outsider” as a persecuting group, thereby suggesting the Didachist has more rhetorical language than actual historical language (Did. 5).

It is well known that the issue of the formation of the "Book" of Psalms has been intensely discussed in the last few decades. In this discussion (as with most studies of the Hebrew Bible) the final shape of the collection has provided the foundation on which observations are made and indications as to the prehistory of the collection have been found. Proceeding from the sequence of psalms found in Codex Leningradensis in particular, scholars have identified earlier stages of growth by means of vocabulary, superscriptions, thematic overlaps and more. Although the Dead Sea psalms scrolls have been part of the discussion for a long time, they have not affected this fundamental presupposition. However, since the Dead Sea psalms scrolls reveal quite a significant variance as to both order and selection of psalms, and since they provide the earliest attestation of collections of psalms, the issue needs to be revisited. Overviewing all known manuscripts of the ”Book” of Psalms prior to the first pandects, both Hebrew and Greek, this paper will argue that studies proceeding primarily from the Masoretic sequence of psalms and tracing its growth backwards so that each successive stage of formation builds on the former runs the risk of a teleological fallacy. If taken into fuller consideration, the manuscript evidence reveals that such linear models of growth are not entirely convincing, and the prominent place given to the Masoretic sequence somewhat questioned. Rather, a more complex and multilinear model of growth is suggested, guided by insights from the new philology and exemplified by the way Psalm 106 is found in various contexts.

During the second missionary journey, having crossed the border between Asia Minor and Europe, Paul met an extraordinary woman: Lydia from Thyatira. This “God-fearer” became the first person converted to Christianity in Europe. Therefore, she is traditionally called the "godmother of Europe". The author of the Acts of Apostles presented the figure of the first European Christian in a very interesting way. He showed her as an independent, rich, resourceful businesswoman. Such a portrayal stands in contrast with the traditional ancient image of women. Is it possible that Luke used one of Paul’s letters as a model to make such a portrayal of Lydia? Do we know other women in Philippi who had a similarly high social status? It is worth looking at the Lukan story of Lydia in Acts 16 and compare it with Paul’s Letter to the Philippians to discover interesting allusive relationships.

For the joint session: One of the oldest Christian books – the Saying Source called “Q” – is standing somewhere between apocalyptic and wisdom writings, between canonical and non-canonical texts and also between Jewish and Christian literatures. The main problem with this book is, however, its hypothetical status: it is far from clear whether “Q” ever existed, notwithstanding the mainstream opinion of the 20th century. The most serious doubts about the existence of a “lost source” were raised in the last decades, mostly in the United Kingdom and the USA. Since 2010 there are new voices against “Q” from two countries, which were hardly of much significance for the New Testament scholarship in the before time: Denmark and Russia. The reasons on which the “Q” hypothesis is criticized in these countries differ heavily as also do suggestions about the rise of the canonical Gospels. The paper deals with the achievements of the Copenhagen school led by Professor Mogens Müller and the discussion in the Seventh Symposium of Eastern and Western NT scholars in Moscow (2016). The author of the paper participated himself in both main international conferences organized by M. Müller and his group (Roskilde 2014 and 2015) and in the NT symposium mentioned above; he published several articles about the “Q” problem in German, English and Russian.

Jewish culture in a Greek or Hellenistic context tends either to praise the virtue of adherence to the law, perhaps in an instinctive or natural way, or extol a more universal virtue that would be recognizable and admirable in both a Jewish and non-Jewish context. Works such as Jubilees seem to focus on the “virtue” of the patriarchs in the sense that they are portrayed as living by the commandments even before their revelation. This approach almost demands a Jewish audience, since it is unclear whether a Gentile reader would appreciate “virtue” being implicitly defined in this manner. By contrast, works in a Greek cultural context tend to focus on virtues with a more universal appeal, with a special focus on chastity. The figure of Joseph becomes a particular exemplar in Greco-Judaean texts, serving as a typological model whose characteristics can be assumed by other characters. Women like the Esther of the additions to the Septuagint and Judith, while similarly exemplifying blamelessness or chastity, are required to demonstrate a willingness to go to the edge of what their inherent virtue can tolerate. The Septuagint Mordechai and the young men of the Prayer of Azariah are depicted as exceptionally humble, obedient to God, and resolute in the face of adversity. In each case, adversity defines virtue. Ultimately, a discussion of virtue cannot be separated from the persecution that it begets, whether on the part of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, or the other villains of these works; for example, Artapanus states that Moses was persecuted by Pharaoh on account of jealousy of Moses’ virtue (aretê). Recognition of the connection between the two concepts requires us to examine the extent to which virtue is conceptualized as the tyrant’s trigger and deployed as a way of explaining anti-Judaean persecution.

Love is the important concept in the Gospel of Matthew and the Pauline Letters. In Matthew22:34-40, “love your God” is the greatest commandment, the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on the love commandments. Paul thought that love was the fulfillment of the law(Rom13:10), the entire law was fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself(Gal5:4). Paul and Matthew both held that love was related to the law, and the law was fulfilled in love. This paper analyzes the similarities and differences of love between Paul and Matthew, and the relationship of love and the law in the Gospel of Matthew and Pauline Letters.

This paper presents the concept of the territories and the national boundaries of the Hittite kingdom in the Late Bronze Age Anatolia by looking at the usages of two Hittite words within ritual texts. The usages of the Hittite verb maniyaḫḫ-, meaning, “to govern; to entrust,” illustrate that the idea of the land of Ḫatti was the divine possession of the state gods, entrusted to the king under his direct administration on earth. Conceptually those lands might have extended from most of the regions in central Anatolia to a part of northern Syria in the east. The sanctity of the territories might be surmised by the metaphor of territorial boundaries (Sumerogram ZAG; irḫa/arḫa in the Hittite language), representing the knees of the Storm-god in a ritual text (KUB 17.29). That ritual indicates that the national boundaries were seen as body parts of the state god and thereby sacred and inviolable. Accordingly, “territories” surrounded by the boundaries might have been seen as divine bodies.

The Septuagint translator of Samuel displays a perplexing inconsistency in his knowledge of Hebrew lexemes. He renders a large number of technical terms accurately, often using equivalents established in the Pentateuch, and yet apparently fails to recognize a similarly large number of much more common Hebrew words. No theory has yet been offered to account for this inconsistency. This paper will propose that the data can be explained if we imagine that the translator had access to a limited Greek-Hebrew glossary of Pentateuchal technical terms. Analogous tools from the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world will be adduced to support the plausibility of such a document. The paper will argue that this proposal can bridge a divide in Septuagint scholarship regarding whether later translators used the Pentateuch as a lexicon. The conclusions of this study reframe our understanding of the Septuagint translators’ tools, competencies, and working methods, and suggest new possibilities for the history of the production of the Septuagint.

The dualism of body and soul manifest in the writings of Philo of Alexandria has been described as even ‎more extreme than that of its model, the anthropology of Plato. In Philo, the body is the foreign land in ‎which the incorporeal soul only temporarily dwells. Licentious life turns the body into a prison or a ‎grave to which the soul returns life after life until it becomes purified through reorientation. Once the ‎mind achieves ability to direct its life towards and in accordance with the things that are “akin to ‎itself”—the divine realities—, it is well on the way to being granted salvation by God.‎ Philo is clear that although human beings in their earthly life are combinations of body and soul, this is ‎not their proper condition. The body is ultimately not part of the human being. The same holds for the ‎lower, irrational part of the soul: even though it is incorporeal and invisible, it too is mortal, although ‎not in exactly the same sense as the body. For Philo, the soul within the soul and the real human being is ‎the rational mind (nous).‎ The situation is less clear with Clement. Although he too was a Platonist in his basic philosophical ‎orientation and shares much with Philo, his works include discussions of various things that do not fit ‎into a pure dichotomy of sense-perceptible vs. noetic, such as bodies that are unlike those in this world, ‎corporeal souls, or spiritual blood. As part of a project aimed at finding out Clement’s stance on ‎reincarnation, this paper looks at his anthropology by asking if it is more amenable to positing a special ‎relationship between the soul and one particular body (a key notion in resurrection beliefs) or if it can ‎be reconciled with repeated embodiments.‎

The pivot pattern, concerning which I myself co-published two papers with Daniel Sivan, has yet to be properly investigated. Yet, the pivot pattern is one of the most important stylistic-syntactical phenomena in biblical parallelism and in Ugaritic parallelism. In fact, we may distinguish within the category of the pivot pattern two principle sub-categories. The first category involves repeating at the beginning of the second half of a verse, a word or phrase that already appeared at the end of the first verse. For example: Psalm 98:5: Sing praise to the LORD with a lyre// with a lyre and melodious song In this category the repetition does not add information. This pivot pattern is a form of concatenation, in which one can always remove the repeated item without in any way changing the meaning of the text. The second form of pivot pattern, which I wish to discuss, involves a word or phrase which concludes the first half of a verse, while serving at the same time also, as part of the second half of the verse. In this kind the pivot element can serve any given syntactical function. However, it should be noted that when the pivot element is a verb, it is possible that this verb will not correspond in gender and number to the subject of the second clause. The reader is required to recreate the grammatical correspondence as required by the context. I shall discuss a few examples, most of them not presented in previous research. Obviously, in consideration of the time allotted to me, I shall not include every example that I have found.

Proverbs 26:1-28 offers probably the most extensive admonition against antisocial types in this book. This is composed through reoccurring sequences of similes. It may also be viewed as a characterization and/or caricature of antisocial types. This admonition, characterization and/or caricature, remains uninterrupted for the length of several stichoi. This uninterruptedness offers a fitting context for displaying an array of metaphors, which constitute the warp and woof of this admonition. Proverbs 26:1-12 is concerned with the fool (כְסִיל/ἄφρων). Apart from 26:12, all the other verses retain the same structure. The first hemistichs display poignant negative vehicles from the order of creation as images (Waltke) and as metaphors of the fool in the social order. These metaphors are predominantly introduced in the text as similes, which may also retain the function of metaphors (c.f. Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor). Specifically, in 26:1 the simile of unexpected snow in summer or rain in harvest functions as a metaphor for the unseemly bestowal of honour upon a fool. Verse 2 employs a metaphor from the realm of birds, verse 3 a metaphor from the realm of tools used for guiding domesticated animals, verse 6 a metaphor of self-mutilation, with hyperbolic elements, and the metaphor of drinking violence concerning the occasion when the fool is entrusted with a message etc. The same remarks apply to 26:13-16, preoccupied with the sluggard (‎עָצֵל/ὀκνηρός), 26:17-19, incorporating two metaphors concerning the self-inflicting character of the tatlletale, 26:20-22 regarding the slanderer and 26:23-28 in connection with the misanthrope. It is suggested that in 26:1-28 an unparalleled sequence of similes function as a network of metaphors for various antisocial types. This sequence presents negative vehicles from the order of creation as images and as metaphors of and for the antisocial type to illustrate his disorderliness in the social order of creation.

Fratricide has been called “the first crime” by J. Bremmer since it is the first crime committed after the expulsion of humans from the Garden of Eden, featured in the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4: 8-10. Stories not only of fratricide but also of other forms of violence against one’s own family members appear in the Bible and ancient Near Eastern texts. As family violence represents profound forms of betrayal and a rupture of familial relationships, the way these events were depicted in ancient Near Eastern texts differ significantly from other forms of death and killing. For instance, in Mesopotamian literature such as "Erra and Išum" and in omen reports, fratricide, parricide, and filicide are symbols of extreme chaos and the breakdown of the natural order. Of particular consequence is violence within the royal family, as this was often the manifestation of rivalries for the throne and had serious implications for the continuing government of the kingdom or empire. The death of a reigning king, for example, was an important event made all the more dramatic if his demise was orchestrated by family members, as one can see by the reaction to the murder of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (705-681 BCE), which was included in the royal inscriptions of his successor as well as in 2 Kings 35-37, though in quite different ways. This paper takes up the question: how was such family violence depicted and discussed in the ancient Near East? Combining royal corpora, literature, and legal texts from the ancient Near East with biblical material, this paper sheds light on how murder within a family was conceptualized to demonstrate the various ways in which societies grappled with this particular form of violence.

One of the most complex, rich and ambivalent characters in the Hebrew Bible is King David. Despite the fact that Scripture overtly criticizes him for some morally reprehensible deeds and sinful behavior, with time, he became one of the most central figures in all monotheistic traditions which significantly reinterpreted him and his life story. In addition, all these traditions turned him into the pious author of the entire book of Psalms, although the Bible does not make such claims. In this paper, I would like to focus on reception of the biblical David in one of the most important and influential works of medieval Jewish philosophy and beyond, namely Judah Halevi’s Kitab al-radd wa al-dalil fi al-din al-dhalil, or Kitab al-hujja wa al-dalil fi nasr al-din al-dhalil [The Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion]. It is a treatise of comparative religion, written in Judeo-Arabic in twelfth-century Spain, better known under its shorter Hebrew title Sefer ha-Kuzari [The Book of Kuzari], in which David is among the most often mentioned of all biblical heroes. The purpose of my analysis will be to see what was Halevi’s outlook at this character, what use did he make of him, and why, as well as how far did he go from the scriptural depiction of this figure. A preliminary scrutiny of all the instances when David is mentioned in Kuzari demonstrates that the author turns this biblical hero of flesh and blood into an abstract, flat and idealized figure of a pious scholar and prophet, detached from any narrative or historical context. He then uses the thus reinterpreted David to support his philosophical and theological conceptions, as well as for polemical purposes.

The corpus of Northwestsemitic inscriptions of the 1st millennium BCE gives witness to the national gods and religious concepts of the various states in the Levant in the Iron Age. Due to their genre, concepts of the world at large are only rarely mentioned. The paper examines the very few attestations of „international“ deities in the light of Ugaritic and Biblical texts to reconstruct an outline of a concept of the divine world beyond the small states.