Showing papers on "Exegesis published in 1991"

The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology

Abstract: A detailed examination of the passages central to the debate about Paul's christology and his view of Jewish Law. From meticulous exegesis makes some striking theological and historical conclusions.

Psalms 51-100

Abstract: The middle section of the Hebrew Psalter has long been regarded as an inspiring anthology of ancient religious poetry. Within this part of the Sepher Tehillim or Book of Praises, are 11 of the 12 psalms of Asaph (73-83), one of Solomon's two (72), the sole offerings of Ethan (89) and Moses (90), and four of the songs ascribed to the sons of Korah-not to mention the many assigned to David. Dr. Marvin Tate's distinctive commentary traces all the biographical, historical, literary, and practical concepts of these middle psalms and demonstrates how the purpose of each one unfolds. Psalms 51-100, Volume 20 of the Word Biblical Commentary series, furnishes readers with a wealth of information: a thorough, up-to-date bibliography preceding each psalm the author's fresh translation of the Hebrew text Form/Structure/Setting notes which expand the translation extensive comments on the text explanations of the pertinent observations of the author Dr. Tate has also attempted to present various views of passages in which differences of opinion exist. This work, the middle commentary of Word Biblical Commentary's three-volume study of the Psalter, mirrors the opposing emotions so often evident in life: sorrow-joy, love-hate, and faith-fear. A careful reading of Psalms 51-100 will stimulate a deeper appreciation for this religious poetry while augmenting the value of personal Bible study.

Parables in Midrash: Narrative and Exegesis in Rabbinic Literature

Abstract: Abbreviations Note on Translations and Transliterations Introduction 1. Composition and Exegesis The Rabbinic Parable Mashal, Parable, and Allegory Mashal and Ma'aseh The Origins of the Nimshal The King-Mashal Stereotyping Eikhah Rabhah 4.11 The Mashal as Traditional Literature From Narrative to Exegesis The Mashal and Midrashic Hermeneutics 2. Rhetoric The Occasions of the Mashal Three Models for the Mashal Meshalim of Praise and Blame Eikhah Rabbah 3.21 3. Poetics Theorizing Midrash Narrative or Exegesis? Narrative Convention and Exegetical Novelty Gaps, Ambiguities, and Narrative Conceits Point of View and Authorial Presence The Implied Interpreter Characterization Anthropomorphism 4. Thematics Apologetics Polemics Eulogy and Consolation Complaint Regret and Warning 5. The Mashal in Context The Problem of Context in Midrash The Mashal and the Homily The Mashal and the Petihta The Mashal and the Aggadic Narrative The Mashal and the Exegetical Enumeration Series of Meshalim The Mashal in Midrash 6. The Mashal in Hebrew Literature From the Ancient Near East to Late Antiquity The Parables in the Synoptic Gospels From the Tannaim to the Amoraim Tanna de-Bei Eliyahu Sefer Habahir Maimonides and Other Philosophers The Zohar and Other Mystical Texts Modern Hebrew Literature Appendix A: Nonparabolic Narratives in Rabbinic Literature Appendix B: Hebrew Texts of the Meshalim from Eikhah Rabbah Notes

Scripture, Canon and Commentary: A Comparison of Confucian and Western Exegesis

Abstract: In this major contribution to the study of the Chinese classics and comparative religion, John Henderson uses the history of exegesis to illuminate mental patterns that have universal and perennial significance for intellectual history. Henderson relates the Confucian commentarial tradition to other primary exegetical traditions, particularly the Homeric tradition, Vedanta, rabbinic Judaism, ancient and medieval Christian biblical exegesis, and Qur'anic exegesis. In making such comparisons, he discusses some basic assumptions common to all these traditions--such as that the classics or scriptures are comprehensive or that they contain all significant knowledge or truth and analyzes the strategies deployed to support these presuppositions. As shown here, primary differences among commentarial or exegetical traditions arose from variations in their emphasis on one or another of these assumptions and strategies. Henderson demonstrates that exegetical modes of thought were far from arcane: they dominated the post- classical/premodern intellectual world. Some have persisted or re- emerged in modern times, particularly in ideologies such as Marxism. Written in an engaging and accessible style, Scripture, Canon, and Commentary is not only a challenging interpretation of comparative scriptural traditions but also an excellent introduction to the study of the Confucian classics.

Qur'anic Christians: An Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis

Abstract: Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part I. Qur'anic Commentary and Commentators: 1. Text and tafsir 2. From Tabari to Tabataba'i Part II. Qur'anic Commendation of Christians: 3. Nazarenes of faith and action 4. Followers of the Qur'anic Jesus 5. Steadfast and submissive 6. The promised bounty of piety 7. The praiseworthy amity of Christians 8. Christians as pre-Qur'anic Muslims 9. Compassion, mercy and monasticism Conclusion Works cited Index of Qur'anic verses Index of names and subjects.

Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages: Translation and interlingual commentary: Notker of St. Gall and the Ovide moralisé

Abstract: In the medieval commentary tradition, enarratio assumes a rhetorical power of discursive production. It is not mere repetition and reproduction. Rather, it contests and remakes the primary text; it can take on a kind of originary force of its own, becoming a text to be appropriated by later exegetes, to be grafted on to the primary text, and thus to change the conditions of reception for that text. The most characteristic form of this rhetorical or productive action on the text is paraphrase: exegetical paraphrase consumes or envelops the text and can remake the text on many levels, from style to structure to conceptual orientation. This defining characteristic of Latin hermeneutical practice carries over into the emergent tradition of vernacular commentary. Vernacular textual exegesis builds upon the model supplied by learned Latin precedent. But in vernacular commentary of the Latin auctores , the process of textual paraphrase is also an act of interlingual translation. Thus in some of its most important forms from its earliest history to its later development, vernacular translation maintains strong affinities with established exegetical practice. The association between Latin and vernacular exegesis is very close, and this association has profound implications for our understanding of vernacular translation from the Latin auctores . But before we turn to a consideration of vernacular texts, it will be helpful to offer some preliminary observations on the historical relationship between hermeneutics and translation, and to provide a theoretical model for classifying the kinds of translations to be treated here and in later chapters.

Peshat and Derash: Plain and Applied Meaning in Rabbinic Exegesis

Abstract: In this paperback reprint (which includes a new Afterword, responding to critics), noted Rabbinic scholar David Weiss Halivni offers a new explanation for the willingness of the early Sages to attribute to scripture meanings nowhere suggested in the text itself. He posits a sharp discontinuity between what the sages considered a valid meaning and our own modern understanding of textual meaning. He argues that the original meaning of the very work "peshat" was actually "context" rather than "literal" meaning, thus explaining the Rabbis' expressions of respect for peshat in the face of their evident unconcern for literal meaning in the text.

Harper's Bible commentary

Abstract: This innovative and indispensable reference is the most accessible resource for uncovering the meaning of the books of the Bible. Setting a new standard with its highly readable format, "Harper's Bible Commentary" features individual commentaries on each of the 84 books of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha. It is handsomely illustrated and designed for the interested browser as well as the serious student.

A History of the University in Europe: THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY

Abstract: F rom biblical exegesis towards scholastic theology One of the main characteristics of medieval university teaching was the stability of a set of doctrinal textbooks such as those of Aristotle in the faculty of arts, of Justinian in the faculty of law, and of Galen in the faculty of medicine. For theology the authority was the Bible, but its lack of doctrinal coherence made it insufficient as a textbook alone. It needed interpretation, and from the beginning of the Christian era theology was essentially the exegesis of sacred Scripture, hence its name sacra pagina . This hermeneutic activity had been carried on since antiquity by the fathers of the church and by monks in the monasteries, the centres of learning before the rise of the universities. A most important patristic contribution which influenced all later medieval exegesis was Saint Augustine's (d. 430) De doctrina christiana . The first three books contain rules for interpreting Scripture, while book four is a treatise on how to preach the doctrine built up by the methods established in the previous books. Saint Augustine vindicates the pagan liberal arts and moral precepts on the grounds that they rightly belong to those who preach the gospel. The insistence on the usefulness of secular learning for Christian speculation, at least on a moderate scale, is only to be expected in one who, like Saint Augustine, was well trained in Roman rhetoric and spent his youth reading Virgil and Cicero.

Reforming the imagination

Abstract: This is a study of some literary aspects of English thinking during the eighty years from Elizabeth's Settlement of religion to the Civil Wars. The central thesis is that there is a shift in the images the English Protestant mind uses for its own acquisition of knowledge: from images of public and visible entities, lit by the ubiquitous sunlight of authority and reason, to images of direct cognisance by the self, lit by internal Promethean light. As this image of inner light is primarily an image of reading, there is an imaginative, and thus exegetical, identification of the inspired reader with the meaning or Voice' within the text. This identification is exploited by the more radical Protestants, the party in favour of further reform, to rebut the negative aspersions of scepticism, and the positive aspersions of Catholic polemic; especially in poetry that means to vindicate the truths of Protestant dogma, which is notionally read from the Bible, by replicating and extending the experience of inspired reading. Protestants are ambivalent about the legitimacy of such 'divine' literature, but nevertheless Nosce teipsum, New Atlantis, Sidney's Arcadia, Paradise Lost and even Robinson Crusoe are shown to employ this Protestant mode of inspired defence. In the first of three parts, English Reformation uses of the word imagination are distinguished, and the Protestant faculty of inspiration is shown to be a function of the secondary imagination. Part II discusses the Protestant ambivalence about human artifice on the edge of Scripture; such artifice is necessary to make the Bible work as Protestantism wants, but its existence compromises the Bible's character as a self-sufficient and self-interpreting oracle. This dilemma is demonstrated in the actions of English iconoclasm, and in English attitudes to illustrations of the Bible, Bible translation, and authoritative exegesis. In Part III, this same ambivalence is apparent in the theory and practice of literature, as evidenced by the writings of Jewel, Whitaker, Sidney, Greville, Hooker, Bacon, Sir John Davies, and Milton.

Not in heaven : coherence and complexity in Biblical narrative

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction Jason P. Rosenblatt and Joseph C. Sitterson, Jr. Biblical Imperatives and Literary Play Robert Alter Double Cave, Double Talk: The Indirections of Biblical Dialogue Meir Sternberg Princely Characters James C. Nohrnberg Understanding the Bread: Disruption and Aggregation, Secrecy and Revelation in MarkOs Gospel Joh Drury Literary Exegesis of Biblical Narrative: Between Poetics and Hermeneutics Adele Berlin The Right Chorale: From the Poetics to the Hermeneutics of the Hebrew Bible Bernard M. Levinson The Integrity of Biblical Pluralism James A. Sanders Genesis 22: The Sacrifice of Sarah Phyllis Trible The Histories of David: Biblical Scholarship and Biblical Stories Regina M. Schwartz Esther Passes: Chiasm, Lex Talio, and Money in the Book of Esther William T. McBride Notes Contributors

Poetry and Personality: Reading, Exegesis, and Hermeneutics in Traditional China

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The discovery of the text in ancient China 3. 'The Odes articulate aims' 4. The preface to Mao's Odes 5. The perfection of the text 6. The claims of tradition 7. Subjectivity and understanding 8. Zhu Xi's synthesis Notes Chinese character list Index.

Exegesis and Philosophy: Studies on Philo of Alexandria

Abstract: Philo of Alexandria, the great 2nd-century AD Jewish philosopher and theologian, is a key figure in the history of thought. With him the Judaeo-Christian and the Greek traditions converge and meet for the first time, and he also stands at the beginning of the revival of Platonic thought known as Middle Platonism. In these articles David Runia has aimed, first, to provide a guide for research and a context for understanding the enormous mass of writings Philo has left. He has then sought to investigate further Philo's place in the history of Platonic thought and to trace aspects of his influence on the later development of Christian theology. His primary concern, however, is to examine the relationship between scriptural exegesis and philosophy in Philo's work. He argues that one cannot pursue Philo's thought without fully taking into account its exegetical context, and therefore that an understanding of how he undertakes to present this exegesis is of paramount importance.

Spiritual Formation: a Program to Be Incorporated Into the Theological Education Curriculum at Solusi College, Zimbabwe

Abstract: SPIRITUAL FORMATION: A PROGRAM TO BE INCORPORATED INTO THE THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM AT SOLUSI CO LLEGE, ZIMBABWE

The embodied word : preaching as art and liturgy

Abstract: Preaching as art and liturgy- Liturgy as the work of God's people gives the preacher a place to stand-an organic connection with an intentional sacramental community, says Rice. The place of preaching is the community, Christ's body, and the hermeneutic that governs homiletical exegesis, style, and presentation comes from the liturgical situation of the sermon. The Embodied Word puts preaching in its proper place-in the presence of the baptistry and close to the table. As Rice explores the implications of that placement for the specific concerns of homiletics, the use of Scripture, and the appropriation of the arts, he concludes that the movement of the sermon is from text to table and that the action of the liturgy both depends upon and empowers the word. Charles L. Rice is Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and an Episcopal priest. One of the most acclaimed pioneers of the "new homiletic," he is the author of Preaching the Story (1980) and Interpretation and Imagination: The Preacher and Contemporary Literature (1970), both from Fortress Press.

The potential of speech act theory for New Testament exegesis: Some basic concepts

Abstract: Exegetes and biblical scholars are increasingly utilising the precepts of modern literary and linguistic theories in dealing with the text of the Bible. Speech act theory as well offers New Testament exegesis some additional ways and means of approaching the text of the New Testament. This first in a series of two articles making a plea for the continued utilisation and application of this theory to the text of the New Testament, offers a brief discussion of the basic principles of the theory.

On The Rabbinical Exegesis of an Enhanced Biblical Value of Pi

Abstract: We present here a biblical exegesis of the value of , Hebrew = 3:141509:::, from the well known verse 1 Kings 7:23. This verse is then compared to 2 Chronicles 4:2; the comparison provides independent supporting evidence for the exegesis. 1

Selected Studies in Old Testament Exegesis

Abstract: This book contains twenty-four studies of the late Professor de Boer, the well-known Old Testamentarian of Leiden University. Seven were originally published in Dutch and now appear in an English translation, while two of the articles are in German and two in French. One is a posthumous publication. The articles cover a wide-ranging field, from the interpretation of an inscription from So'ar to an exposition of Job xlii 6, and from a dissertation on kingship in Ancient Israel to the exegesis of one Hebrew psalm line.

First, Second, and Third John

Abstract: This careful and thoughtful book unlocks the door to the theological and ethical treasures contained in the Epistles of John. It is an invitation to a journey of discovery, from the well-known and familiar to the less familiar but rewarding. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

E. BLUM, Gibt es die Endgestalt des Pentateuch?

Abstract: This chapter explores the final form of the Pentateuch. Regulative principles that leave the question of reasonable interpretation are in the first place and can be debatable. The final redactor has certainly done as a heuristic concept of some good service. Usually interpretation aims at consistency foundation and is based on the useful prejudice that the lyrics have a consistent meaning. Both the traditional and the historical-critical exegesis serve as a hermeneutical apriori. The difference to conventional diachronic exegesis is not thereby repealed. It results from the reversal that synchrony is integrated into a reconstruction of the historical tradition, but diachronic investigations serve as a preparation for an understanding of the final form, with their sense relief gives the metes and bounds of the exegetical effort. The original text of the chapter is in German. Keywords: historical-critical exegesis; Pentateuch; traditional exegesis

A perspective on John 15:1-8

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is the interpretation of John 15:1-8. In striving to achieve this goal, perspectives offered by a combination of literary-critical, redaction-critical, historical-critical and text-immanent methods of exegesis as well as some findings derived from literary science have been used. The author wants to prove that this pericope contains a reflection of the historical situation of the Johannine community, namely the 'bitter conflict' between Jewish and gentile Christians and the synagogue during which the 'prayer opposing heretics' ('birkat ha minim') played an important role. An important theme of the pericope is the conditions of discipleship: the call to abide (assimilate) in Jesus and to bear fruit in times of crisis. This call for assimilation must be viewed within the framework of the intense involvement of the Father and Jesus. This assimilation with God and Jesus forms the foundation of the ethical principles ofthe Johannine community.

New Testament Greek for Preachers and Teachers: Five Areas of Application

Abstract: New Testament Greek for Preachers and Teachers is neither a grammar nor a handbook of forms. It is a book about exegesis and, to a lesser degree, exposition, and is designed for the Bible college student or seminarian who has a beginning-level knowledge of Greek. Windham provides a basic introduction to five areas-textual criticism, morphology, word and phrase studies, syntax, and discourse-where the study of Greek plays a significant role in the interpretive process.

Mark's account of Peter's denial of Jesus : a history of its interpretation

Abstract: For 2,000 years, Mark's story of Peter's denial has been the object of various interpretations. This work categorizes and analyzes those interpretations and, in the process, sheds light on hermeneutical theory as practiced through the centuries and gives insight into the meaning of the passage itself (Mark 14:54, 66-72). The book offers extensive demonstration and analysis of ancient and modern methods of interpretation; provides fresh, accurate translations of ancient texts which are not available elsewhere; and presents an exhaustive exegesis of Mark 14:54, 66-72. Although targeted especially for New Testament scholars, it will be of great interest to seminarians and students of religion, church history, or hermeneutics.