Showing papers on "Exegesis published in 1996"

People and Land in the Holiness Code: An Exegetical Study of the Ideational Framework of the Law in Leviticus 17-26

Abstract: Through detailed exegesis of such notions as the sons of Israel, the resident alien, the call to holiness, the camp in the desert and the land as property of YHWH, a coherent conceptual structure underlying the presentation of the law in Leviticus 17-26 is uncovered.

Midrash and Theory: Ancient Jewish Exegesis and Contemporary Literary Studies

Abstract: This is an approach to midrashic literature that is responsive to the principles of contemporary literary theory. Midrash (the literature of classic Jewish Scriptural interpretation) has undergone a recent revival in the larger Jewsih community; David Stern examines this phenomenon from the perspective of the cultural relevance of midrash and its connection to its original historical and literary contexts. He also explores the impact of modern literary theory on midrashic studies, and the resultant changes on the focus, the methods and the intellectual assumptions of the field.

The Bible in early Muslim anti‐Christian polemic

Abstract: During the early centuries of Islam, the Bible did not usually receive specific attention from Muslim polemicists. Among those who did refer to it, some rejected the text on the grounds that it was corrupt, and developed accounts of how the original injil had been lost and replaced by the canonical Gospels. The majority, however, have left no expressed view, but do not appear to have experienced difficulty in employing suitable verses in their arguments as illustrations and proofs. A few scholars were in a position to use the Biblical texts to good effect in their arguments. The Christian convert cAli b. Rabban al‐Tabari employed a distinctively Muslim method of exegesis, and demonstrated how predictions of the coming of Muhammad and Islam are scattered throughout the biblical books. The Zaydi theologian al‐Qasim ibn Ibrahim al‐Rassi followed a more radical method in translating parts of Matthew's Gospel into Arabic, and altering words and phrases and omitting sections in order to make the origin...

A commentary on Pseudo-Philo's Liber antiquitatum biblicarum, with Latin text and English translation

Abstract: One of the earliest and most important works of biblical interpretation is a Latin text that is commonly known as the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. It was written in the first second century C.E. and is thus a great source of illumination for the period and milieu out of which arose various Jewish sects and Christianity. This book offers the Latin text of LAB, a dramatically new translation, a commentary that deals extensively with LAB's place in ancient biblical exegesis, and an introduction that treats the major problems associated with LAB (e.g. date, original language, manuscript tradition, exegetical techniques). The author seeks to illuminate LAB in new ways by reconstructing the original Hebrew when that is useful, and by bringing new and pertinent evidence from the Bible, from Rabbinic literature, and from early Christian literature.

Exegesis, allusion and intertextuality in the hebrew bible: a response to lyle eslinger

Abstract: L'A. se propose de repondre aux theories de Lyle Eslinger au sujet de la Bible hebraique, de son exegese, de la notion d'allusion et du principe d'intertextualite. Ces theories s'elevaient deja a l'encontre de Michael Fishbane et de son livre Biblical Interpretatio in Ancient Israel (Oxford 1985). Pour contredire son adversaire, l'A. montre dans un premier temps en quoi celui-ci a mecompris Fishbane. Puis il s'etend davantage sur les notions mises en cause, afin de les definir precisement et d'en montrer l'utilite methodologique dans l'hermeneutique biblique

Old Testament textual criticism : a practical introduction

Abstract: Old Testament Textual Criticism provides the basic knowledge for students to get the most from Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS). Ellis R. Brotzman explains the significance of scripts and writings of the ancient Near East, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Hebrew manuscripts for students of Hebrew exegesis.

Forming prophetic literature : essays on Isaiah and the twelve in honor of John D. W. Watts

Abstract: These essays are written in honour of John D.W. Watts, formerly Professor of Old Testament at Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky and Old Testament editor of the Word Biblical Commentary, well known for his contributions, especially to scholarship on the prophetic books. Accordingly, the essays here address the literary, redactional and canonical questions posed by the Hebrew Bible's prophetic literature. The prophetic books have defied easy classification according to genre or facile explanation of their historical development. With a special focus on the books of Isaiah and of the Twelve Prophets, the nature and formation of prophecy as literature is probed from a variety of methodological standpoints, including textual criticism, synchronic literary analysis, tradition history and redaction criticism.

Early Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism

Abstract: Professor Borgen introduces fresh perspectives into debates on central issues: assimilation and separation, mission and proselytism, John and the Synoptics, exegesis of the Old Testament, Jewish and Christian 'mystical' ascent and their religious and political functions He explores the complexity of Judaism both in Palestine and in the Diaspora, and looks at the variety of tendencies which existed within Christianity as it emerged from Judaism and spread out into other nations In studies on Paul's letters and the Acts of the Apostles, he deals with catalogues of vices and the so-called Apostolic Decree, and on different views on the role of the reception of the Spirit by Christian converts Finally, Professor Borgen draws on extensive material from Jewish sources to illuminate themes related to the Book of Revelation; and makes comparison between the reports by Philo and John the Seer on their own heavenly visionary ascents

Resurrection and Parousia

Abstract: This is a traditio-historical study of three ideas concerning the eschatological resurrection which Paul brings forward in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23: (a) Jesus' resurrection forms the beginning of the eschatological resurrection; (b) the eschatological resurrection will take place through participation in Jesus' resurrection; (c) the eschatological resurrection will take place at the time of Jesus' parousia. The three ideas are investigated in the following way. Firstly, their occurrence and function in Paul is set out, subsequently their origin is reconstructed, and, finally, analogous Jewish concepts are compared. A critical review of earlier research on these ideas and a literary and historical exegesis of the relevant sections of 1 Corinthians 15 precede the investigations.

Mimetic Devotion, Marian Exegesis and the Historical Sense of the Song of Songs

Abstract: "Mimetic Devotion, Marian Exegesis, and the Historical Sense of the Song of Songs." This article argues that the Marian commentaries on the Song of Songs by Honorius Augustudonensis, Rupert of Deutz, Philip of Harvengt, Alan of Lille, William of Newburgh, and Alexander Neckham ought to be considered among the principal indices of the new affective devotion to the Virgin Mary and Christ that developed in western Europe from the late eleventh century. With its origin in the liturgies for the feasts of the Assumption and the Nativity of the Virgin, rather than in the patristic tradition of ecclesiological and tropological exegesis, the Marian sense of the Song was identified with a historical level of interpretation according to which the commentator could transcend time and imagine himself in the sensible presence of the Virgin and Christ. Accordingly, the Song became a vehicle for the mimetic re-creation of the Virgin and Christ's most intimate conversations, and understood both as history and as prophecy,...

Cambridge in the Land of Canaan : Descent, alliance, circumcision, and instruction in the Bible

Abstract: Cambridge in the Land of Canaan: Descent, Alliance, Circumcision, and Instruction in the Bible

The value of human life

Abstract: This book offers a fascinating, original approach to the story of the flood in Genesis by providing an exegesis of the text which examines the way the account deals with the ethical question of the value of human life.

The Text of the Targum of Job : an introduction and critical edition

Abstract: The centrepiece of this book is a critical edition of the Targum of Job which notes all variants from a total of 14 manuscripts and 2 printed editions. In the introductory section the first two chapters give a description of the principal printed editions and the manuscripts. A chapter on "The Stemma" considers how the various strands of textual tradition relate to each other. There is also a chapter on "Multiple Translation", a phenomenon particularly associated with the Targum of Job whereby more than one translation is often given to whole verses or to individual words and phrases. A final chapter describes in detail the methods underlying the critical edition. This book will provide a useful tool for those working on the textual criticism of the Old Testament and for those interested in the history of Jewish biblical exegesis.

Paul's Paradigmatic 'I' and 1 Corinthians 6.12

Abstract: The consensus view of the twice repeated 'All things are lawful for me' (πάντα μοί έξeστίν) in 1 Cor. 6.12 (cf. 10.23) is that Paul cites a Corinthian slogan, perhaps from their letter mentioned in...

The Priestly Source Recovered Intact

Abstract: A propos du Pentateuque, l'A. se propose de faire l'etat des recherches concernant la theorie documentaire et plus particulierement la source sacerdotale. Il s'agit pour lui de reunir les presomptions qui peuvent amener a penser legitimement l'existence de cette source documentaire. C'est pour lui l'occasion de demontrer que le document sacerdotal n'est pas a considerer comme un ensemble de scholies redactionnelles mais comme un texte a part entiere

Apocalypse as Utopian expectation (800-1500) : the Apocalypse commentary of Berengaudus of Ferrières and the relationship between exegesis, liturgy, and iconography

Abstract: This study relates the utopian expectation of (early) medieval Apocalypse commentaries to exegesis and liturgy as well as to (later) medieval art. It provides a first-time ever discussion of the commentary by Berengaudus of Ferrieres, establishes him as a Carolingian and rejects arguments for an 11th-12th-century date by way of an evaluation of extant ms. evidence. The book highlights Berengaudus' optimism about the promised new world of Apoc. 21-22. The commentary's 11th-12th-century popularity coincided with the rebuilding of churches and the author proposes a new interpretation of Romanesque Revelation iconography in Western France. In addition, the application of Berengaudus' vision to the Ghent Altarpiece permits a coherent reading of its iconology that serves as a corrective on recent studies.

The Importance of Being Doctor: The Quarrel over Competency between Humanists and Theologians in the Renaissance

Abstract: In modern usage the "Renaissance Man" is associated with wide-ranging interests and encyclopedic learning, but in the age that brought forth men like Pico della Mirandola and Michelangelo Buonarotti, the ideal of the uomo universale often conflicted with the institutional reality of compartmentalized, hierarchic universities. Records and published polemics from the fifteenth and early sixteenth century document the desire of faculties for a rigid delineation of disciplines and a tendency of university teachers to jealously guard their professional turf against outsiders. The resulting maneuvers and jockeying for rank and position led to dissension and issued in pamphlet wars, in which theologians and humanists often found themselves in opposite camps.(1) In many cases their disputes were pugnacious versions of the conventional laudato disciplinae; in others the polemics had wider implications. One of the most serious issues involved the question whether the philological method championed by the humanists could be applied to scriptural texts. It was a complex issue touching not only on competency and academic qualifications, but on theological principles as well. Humanists were clamoring for a revision of the biblical text based on a collation of manuscripts and a clear and correct translation following classical usage. Traditionalists protested that the Bible was divinely inspired and therefore flawless.(2) Their notions of textual tradition were hazy, however. Jerome was generally regarded as the "author" of the Vulgate, and any criticism of that text was condemned as blasphemy and an insult to the honor of the great Church Father.(3) Lorenzo Valla pointedly asked the actionaries: "What is Holy Writ?" Not every translation of the Old or New Testament qualified for that title, he noted. There were numerous versions in circulation. Where among them was Holy Writ? "Strictly speaking, only what the saints themselves wrote in Hebrew or Greek is Holy Writ: he observed, "for there is nothing in Latin(4) As always, the majority occupied a middle ground between reactionaries and pioneers of textual criticism. They acknowledged that the revealed text had been corrupted by human error and accepted the need for some revision, but rejected radical changes, especially if they affected doctrine. Another question remained undecided: Even assuming that textual criticism of the Bible was a legitimate undertaking, was it within the competency of humanists? Many theologians denied that it was and accused humanists of encroaching on their professional territory. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the wariness and misgivings of the theologians had become the stock-in-trade of satirists. The essence of the complaints against "meddling" humanists is captured in an anonymous skit, pitting three theologians against Erasmus and Reuchlin. In this dialogue Magister Lupoldus dissuades the humanists from revising the Bible. "What business of yours is it to correct the Magnificat?" he fumes. The exchange continues: Erasmus: What is our business, then? Will you explain this to us, so that we may be made wiser by your counsel and mend our ways. Lupoldus: Take care of your Latin, compose verses, make grand orations, print books about Latin composition. Reuchlin: And nothing concerning God? Gingolphus: Nothing, by the devil] Nothing, for it's none of your business] Erasmus: Whose business is it then? Ortvinus: That of the most illustrious and most zealous magistri nostri, who know the art of arguing for and against propositions.(5) The satirist indicates that the theologians were willing to acknowledge the expertise of the humanists in philology and language studies, but wanted to limit the application of these skills to the secular sphere. Two positions, generally accepted throughout the Middle Ages, sup ported such a limitation: Theology occupied a unique place among academic disciplines; indeed, it was the "queen" of all sciences; and only those were entitled to discuss, interpret, translate, or paraphrase Scripture, who were divinely inspired, authorized by the Church, and/or academically qualified by a degree in theology. …

Applying the results of social-historical research to narrative exegesis : Luke as case study

Abstract: Two approaches in exegesis have gained much ground in the last couple of years - namely, narrative and social-critical analysis. The first is based on a literary reading of the text and the second is based on the findings of research into the social and cultural milieu of the New Testament period. This article attempts to point out how the results of social-historical research can be successfully applied to narrative exegesis. It is based on the notion that communication of texts should improve if a more comprehensive interpretation can be attained. The value, as well as the problems of applying historical material to a literary text is discussed. The important question as to whether the contextual information (social and cultural) should be the dominant factor in this process or whether the internal (textual) material should dominate in the interpretation of a text, is also discussed.

The Commentary on the Pentateuch Attributed to Bede in PL 91.189-394

Abstract: The editio princeps of the works of the Venerable Bede was published in 1563 by Johann Herwagen the Younger in Basel ; in the fourth volume (PL 91.189-394), Herwagen printed a commentary on the Pentateuch (Stegmuller 1647-1651) under the title, Expositio Venerabilis Bedae in primum librum Mosi, qui dicitur Hebraice Beresith, Graece autem Genesis

Did Isaiah Foretell Jewish Blindness and Suffering for not Accepting Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah? A Medieval Perspective

Abstract: The First Testament is the ground on which Jews and Christians historically and theologically stand. Even though they share the same biblical text, the interpretation of these Scriptures has served as one of the main dividing points between the two faith communities in history, especially in the Middle Ages. This division becomes apparent when one examines the way medieval Christians interpreted a biblical text such as the Book of Isaiah. An examination of the use of Isaiah by Alfonso de Espina, a fifteenth-century Franciscan, will show how medieval Christians found in these pages not only a confirmation of Christian truth claims but also passages that supported their negative thoughts and actions toward Jews. The purpose of this article is to show how a certain type of exegesis can lead to anti-Judaism.

Luther's Heirs Define His Legacy: Studies on Lutheran Confessionalization

Abstract: Theology in the context of controversy preaching and pastoral care the Wittenberg tradition in biblical exegesis theological freedom and method. (Part contents)

Midrash for Beginners

Abstract: In Midrash for Beginners, Rabbi Edwin Goldberg presents English readers with an easily accessible entrance into the fascinating and insightful world of Midrash. Instead of trying to explain or define the Midrash and the midrashic process, Rabbi Goldberg gives beginning students the opportunity to explore and study Midrash themselves by focusing exclusively on the biblical character of Joseph.