Showing papers on "Exegesis published in 2016"

Disruptive presence: the ontology, theology and ethics of reading the Bible as scripture in Karl Barth’s theological exegesis

Abstract: ......................................................................................................................................... ii Lay Summary ................................................................................................................................ iii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II: PERSPECTIVES ON KARL BARTH’S HERMENEUTIC AND EXEGESIS ......................................................................................................................... 11 1. A Survey of Approaches to Karl Barth’s Hermeneutics ..................................................... 11 1.1. The non-hermeneutical proposals ..................................................................................... 12 1.2. The hermeneutical-oriented proposals .............................................................................. 14 1.3. The exegetical-oriented proposals ..................................................................................... 19 1.4. The genetic-theological proposals ..................................................................................... 24 1.5. The theological-historical proposals ................................................................................. 30 1.6. Conclusion: a dogmatic approach ..................................................................................... 35 2. Defining the task of theological interpretation of Scripture ............................................... 37 3. Defining ontology, theology and ethics ................................................................................ 41 CHAPTER III: KARL BARTH’S HERMENEUTICS AND EXEGESIS IN THE EARLY PERIOD ................................................................................................... 46 1. Barth’s exegesis and hermeneutics in the Epistle to the Romans ....................................... 50 1.1. The first step: historical exegesis ...................................................................................... 51 1.2. The second step: an attempt at understanding ................................................................... 57 1.3. Conclusion: Barth’s theological exegesis in the Epistle to the Romans ............................ 68 2. Barth’s Exegesis in other Commentaries ............................................................................ 69 2.1. The Resurrection of the Dead............................................................................................ 69

A grammatical–historical critique of the pro-gay hermeneutic in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13

Abstract: Arguably, no ethical issue has dominated the recent cultural landscape more than that of homosexuality and same-sex unions. This one issue has been at the forefront of the moral horizon for the past twenty years and has not left the church unaffected. In the ongoing debate that surrounds this topic, the Bible figures prominently. The matter of what the Bible does or does not say regarding homosexuality serves as the flash point for the disputations that follow. Pro-gay advocates rightly acknowledge the role the Bible has played in western thinking regarding sexual ethics, and particularly homosexuality. Therefore, biblical discussions related to the promotion and normalization of homosexuality and same-sex unions are unavoidable. Yet, what few realize is that it is not simply a matter of “the Bible says ...” that will settle the debate one way of the other. At its core, the biblical controversy is first and foremost a matter of bibliology, as it relates to biblical inerrancy and authority of the Scriptures. For the interpreter’s view on this one aspect of doctrine is primarily influential in determining the hermeneutic (method of interpretation) that will be used. The demise of biblical authority has prompted the rise of new methods of interpretation seeking to overturn long held interpretations on biblical passages related to homosexuality, like Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. As it relates to homosexuality and the Bible, there are two hermeneutical systems that are employed to determine how the Bible addresses this most contentious issue. The first is the traditional grammatical-historical method of interpretation. This method seeks to uncover the biblical writer’s originally intended meaning as it was received by the original audience i.e., the literal meaning. This includes examining the ancient culture, background, lexical and grammatical issues, comparing the discovered meaning of the text with the larger biblical framework, and then applying that meaning to the present setting of the interpreter. The second method of interpretation is the new pro-gay hermeneutic. The pro-gay method is predicated on a more relativistically derived method of interpretation that begins with presentday culture. This method seeks to subjectively and philosophically interpret the pertinent biblical passages in light of prevailing culture. Thus, the hermeneutical horizon of the original author is exchanged for the interpreter’s horizon, yielding a revised meaning of the text. This hermeneutical dispute finds its Old Testament epicentre grounded in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Here, pro-gay proponents restrict the meaning of keywords like “abomination” (הבָעֵוֹתּ) and the surrounding grammar and syntax through novel, but speculative humanistic theories and arguments from silence. Conversely, grammatical-historical practitioners find the time-

The "Lamb of God" Title in John's Gospel: Background, Exegesis, and Major Themes

Abstract: This study focuses on the testimony of John the Baptist—“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” [ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου] (John 1:29, 36)—and its impact on the narrative of the Fourth Gospel. The goal is to provide a deeper understanding of this rich image and its influence on the Gospel. In an attempt to do so, three areas of concentration are explored. First, the most common and accepted views of the background of the “Lamb of God” title in first century Judaism and Christianity are reviewed. An effort is made to determine the intended reference underlying the word “lamb,” whether taken literally or figuratively, and to analyze the title in light of the use of the lamb in the Old Testament Jewish animal sacrifices. The New Testament and Christian first century writings are also examined. Second, the study analyzes the literary structure of John 1, includes an exegesis of John 1:29-34, and discusses the Lamb of God title as well as other titles of Jesus found in the pericope. In addition, this discussion provides an overview of the diverse contributions offered by recent scholars who have examined the “Lamb Of God” title. Their different claims are grounded in the Old Testament theology of sacrificial traditions and in the existence of different Semitic dialects in Palestine in the first century AD. Finally, this study addresses the purpose for which the Evangelist, at the beginning of his Gospel, introduces the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus as lamb and its impact on the rest of the Gospel. The discussion follows the pertinent Passover and Exodus themes, theological motifs, and references to the paschal lamb in relevant passages so to reach a structural conclusion: as a witness to Jesus’ death and resurrection, the beloved disciple John confirms the Baptist’s salvific message and connects Jesus’ activities and discourses with the Passover and Exodus themes. Ultimately, the Evangelist portrays Jesus in the Passion narrative as the true paschal lamb. As an eyewitness, the beloved disciple makes an intertextual correlation with the Passover ritual and the slaughtering of the lamb through his description of the various details concerning the Crucifixion. In summary, the study explains the Lamb of God title and demonstrates how the prophetic testimony of John the Baptist regarding Jesus as the Lamb of God, found at the beginning of the Gospel, is ultimately confirmed and handed on by the eyewitness testimony of the beloved disciple at the end of Gospel.

Gender and Power in Medieval Exegesis

Abstract: Women on Top in Medieval Exegesis Subversive Feminine Voices: The Reception of 1 Timothy 2 from Jerome to Chaucer Gender Trouble in Augustine's Confessions Affective Exegesis in the Fleury Slaughter of Innocents The Wife of Bath's Marginal Authority Afterword

Book Review: Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness:

Abstract: Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness. By Richard B. Hays. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2014. xxii + 155 pp. $34.95 (cloth).Richard B. Hays has always maintained a distinctive theological voice, even within his most specialized New Testament work. A remarkably lucid expositor of scripture and a salient (if somewhat controversial) voice on New Testament theology and ethics, Hays has always been important for theologians to read. The groundbreaking thesis of The Faith of Jesus Christ, so resonant with Barth's Church Dogmatics IV/1, was a tour deforce for Pauline exegesis, bearing profound Christological and soteriological implications. In this present work, based on his 2013 Hulsean Lectures, Hays gives us a lucid and important reading of the place of figuration in the Gospels, one that explicitly seeks to adumbrate a "figurai Christology." Hays underscores repeatedly that, in distinctive ways, each of the Gospels identifies Jesus with the embodied presence of Israel's God.Figurai interpretation is central to a large segment of postliberal hermeneutics. Taking their cue from Erich Auerbach's Mimesis (Princeton University Press, 1953) and Hans Frei's The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative (Yale University Press, 1974), thinkers like Ephraim Radner, R. R. Reno, Lewis Ayres, David Dawson, Christopher Seitz, and others have established an important and formidable body of work on the topic. Sharing this ethos and combining it with the Christological concerns of Nils Dahl and Donald Juel, and Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, Hays has written the first major study of the role of figuration in the Gospels, which also makes a substantial contribution in its own right to the developing body of literature arguing for a "high" Christology in the Gospels.The book has six chapters. The introduction identifies the overarching themes and vision of how the New Testament reads the Old Testament figurally. Hays proposes a hermeneutics, beginning in the New Testament and continuing in the community of disciples, that is admittedly circular: "We learn to read the OT by reading backwards from the Gospels, and ... we learn how to read the Gospels by reading forwards from the OT" (p. 4). The influence of George Lindbeck's intratextuality is in the background here. Four chapters follow on each of the Gospels, focused on the evangelists' use of the Old Testament to identify Christ. Mark is presented, in chapter 2, as a "carefully layered" evocation of the mystery of Jesus' identity with Israel's God (pp. 18-19). Hays acknowledges that Mark, commonly viewed as having the "lowest" Christology, does distinguish Jesus from God in key places, but interprets these differences in Chalcedonian terms: "Jesus seems to be at one and the same time . …

An Exegesis of Four Formal Descriptions of ALGOL 60

Abstract: The programming language ALGOL 60 has been used to illustrate several different styles of formal semantic description. This paper identifies the main challenges in providing a formal semantics for imperative programming languages and reviews the responses to these challenges in four relatively complete formal descriptions of ALGOL 60. The aim is to identify the key concepts rather than get bogged down in the minutiae of notational conventions adopted by their authors. As well as providing historical pointers and comparisons, the paper attempts to draw some general conclusions about semantic description styles. © 2015 Newcastle University. Printed and published by Newcastle University, Computing Science, Claremont Tower, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, England. Bibliographical details An Exegesis of Four Formal Descriptions of ALGOL 60 Cliff B. Jones, Troy K. Astarte September 8, 2016

Glossa ordinaria and Glossa Hebraica: Midrash in Rashi and the Gloss

Abstract: An assiduous interest in the plain sense of Scripture and shared interpretations of particular biblical passages can be observed in certain twelfth-century Jewish and Christian commentaries composed in northern France. While Hugh of Saint Victor and Rashbam engaged in independent endeavors to shed light on the sensus literalis and the peshat of Scripture, Andrew of Saint Victor attributed his knowledge of particular rabbinic interpretations to encounters with contemporary Jews. Yet points of convergence in Jewish and Christian exegesis can be observed even before the work of the Victorines and Rashi's disciples. The purpose of this study is to examine the midrashic interpretations transmitted in northern France around the beginning of the twelfth century in both the Glossa Ordinaria and Rashi's biblical commentaries. Interpretations are found in both corpora on occasions when their late-antique sources, such as Midrash Genesis Rabba and Jerome's Hebrew Questions on Genesis, themselves transmit similar insights. By analyzing an exposition found in both Rashi and the Gloss, the narrative of Abraham in the fiery furnace, this study seeks to clarify the nature and extent of this relationship. It thereby enables a more detailed understanding of the ways that midrash reached twelfth-century Jews and Christians and of how Rashi and the Gloss ensured the wide dissemination of these interpretations.

‘What about the wolves?’: The use of scripture in YouTube arguments

Abstract: Reading and interpreting the Bible is an important practice in Evangelical Christian communities, both online and offline. Members of these communities employ biblical exegesis not only in convincing others about the validity of their beliefs, but also influencing the development of the social context in which they interact. Thus, reading and interpretation of the Bible serves both a theological purpose, allowing users to provide textual evidence for beliefs, and a practical social purpose, allowing users to map their own and others’ actions onto biblical texts, either to condone or to condemn them. For users who hold the same belief about the importance of the Bible in making moral judgements, the biblical text can be a particularly useful tool to position oneself and one's actions. In this article, I employ concepts from positioning theory, to analyse how Evangelical Christian YouTube users read across the books of the Bible by treating similar uses of metaphorical language as interchangeable, and using them to position particular users and to make moral judgements about their actions. The analysis shows that reading and exegesis of scripture can be used in dynamic online environments to map characters and storylines from diverse biblical passages onto a particular online argument, providing a common resource for users from different backgrounds and contexts. Findings show that reading and interpretation of scriptures provide a powerful means of claiming authority for Evangelical Christians in the community, and are used to position oneself and one's actions, influencing the subsequent discourse and emerging social context.

The transformation of the city of Zion: From decadence to justice and prophetic hope (Is. 1:1–2:5)

Abstract: This research is part of the project ‘Exegesis and the Theology of Isaiah’, directed by Prof. Dr Alphonso Groenewald, Department of Old Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.

The Book of Ruth in the time of the Judges and Ruth, the Moabitess

Abstract: This article addresses two issues in the Book of Ruth that have not yet received much scholarly attention: why is the narrative plotted in the time of the judges, whilst the time of narration dates to the postexilic period, and why is one of the protagonists Ruth, the Moabitess, whilst the law in Deuteronomy 23:3–4 (HB 4–5) clearly forbids the presence of Moabitess and Ammonites in the community of YHWH? A suggestion is made that a possible explanation to both these questions may be found in tensions regarding Israel’s identity in the Second Temple period. Two different yet not completely opposite viewpoints are illuminated: that of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah who envisioned an exclusive Israel that is construed along genealogical and religious lines, and that of the Book of Ruth where solidarity with the people of Israel and the worship of YHWH are embraced by foreigners. Both sides are concerned about the identity of Israel and loyalty to YHWH, yet they employ a different jargon in order to argue for the inclusion or exclusion of foreigners. Furthermore, Ezra and Nehemiah consider mixed marriages as a serious threat to Israel’s identity, and they justify the expulsion of foreign wives on the basis of the Book of Moses . According to the Book of Deuteronomy , Moses interpreted the Torah for the children of Israel at Mount Nebo in Moab: Moab thus functioned as an interpretive space for the Torah. The Book of Ruth proposes an alternative interpretation of the Torah, also from the plains of Moab and the exegesis comes in the person of Ruth, the Moabitess. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article challenges the point of view that the Book of Ruth is a charming narrative of loyalty and love. Research reveals that this Book is a polemic document and its main contribution is to the intradisciplinary field of biblical hermeneutics that requests a re-interpretation of texts for changing circumstances.

Tafsir Sosial Media di Indonesia

Abstract: The history of contemporary exegesis sees the integration between the Quran and exegesis and social media. A statistic shows the low reading rates of Indonesians while the reading activity is dominated by social media. It leads to an assumption that the social media exegesis is the one people read nowadays. This paper takes this phenomena into account within two main concerns: (1) how is the different ways people use their social media account for the Quran related content, and (2) how is the notion of the social media exegesis as a contemporary exegesis? The article ends to the conclusion that there are at least three different shapes of the social media exegesis: textual, contextual, and tafsīr `ilmī. It marks the rise of semantic function of the Quran among the people and the shift of authority of exegesis. There are three causes for it: the platform of social media, the availability of the Quran translation, and the paradigm of al-rujū` ilā al-qur`ān wa al-sunnah.

Antifeminism or Exegesis?: Reinterpreting Eve's wacgeþoht in Genesis B

Abstract: Many studies of the Old English poem Genesis B make passing reference to Eve’s wacran hige and wacgeþoht as examples of a medieval antifeminist tradition.1 the prevailing understanding of these phrases as negative comments on female intelligence has also been used to support interpretations of the poem as an allegory of man and woman as reason and the senses.2 However, in light of the variety of exegetical interpretations of the biblical Fall story potentially available to the poet, a more careful examination of these terms and of similar phrases used in other Old English religious texts suggests an alternative interpretation of Eve’s wacgeþoht as commentary on the human condition of susceptibility to sin. this interpretation finds comparative support in parallel passages in three Continental vernacular retellings of Genesis, which reveal a surprising diversity in their treatment of the biblical Fall story. Far from replicating a single misogynist tradition, each of these portrayals of Eve selectively draws on the vast exegetical tradition in a manner consistent with the didactic and theological goals of the larger work. the predominance of literal exegesis in Anglo-Saxon commentaries on Genesis 3, I will conclude, provides an alternative theological context for the focus on Eve’s psychology in Genesis B.

The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America

Abstract: The Pentateuch lies at the heart of the Western humanities. Yet despite nearly two centuries of scholarship, its historical origins and its literary history are still a subject of intense discussion. Critical scholarship has isolated multiple layers of tradition, inconsistent laws, and narratives that could only have originated from separate communities within ancient Israel, and were joined together at a relatively late stage by a process of splicing and editing. Recent developments in academic biblical studies, however, jeopardize the revolutionary progress that has been accomplished over the last two centuries. The past forty years of scholarship have witnessed not simply a proliferation of intellectual models, but the fragmentation of discourse within the three main research centers of Europe, Israel, and North America. Even when they employ the same terminology (redactor, author, source, exegesis), scholars often mean quite different things. Concepts taken for granted by one group of scholars (such as the existence of the Elohist source) are dismissed out of hand by other scholarly communities. In effect, independent and sometimes competing scholarly discourses have emerged in Europe, Israel, and North America. Each centers on the Pentateuch, each operates with its own set of working assumptions, and each is confident of its own claims. This volume seeks to stimulate international discussion about the Pentateuch in order to help the discipline move toward a set of shared assumptions and a common discourse. With the wide range of perspectives examined, this publication is an invaluable resource for subsequent research.

The unfolding of God’s revelation in Hebrews 1:1–2a

Abstract: In the introduction to his sermon, the writer of Hebrews suggests that God’s revelation unfolded from his so-called ‘Old Testament’ revelation to his ‘New Testament’ revelation in his Son (Heb. 1:1–2a). By doing a thorough exegesis of Hebrews 1:1–2a, the author’s view of such an unfolding revelation is confirmed. From this conclusion, certain hermeneutical implications of the unfolding of God’s revelation are drawn for believers and scholars today. Among others, it is determined that God’s revelation is progressive, that his revelation in his Son is superior, climactic and final, and that God’s final revelation in his Son can only be understood within the context of his Old Testament revelation, and vice versa . Keywords: Hebrews; Hebrews 1:1-2a; unfolding; revelation; hermeneutics

Biblical Interpretation In The Early Church An Historical Introduction To Patristic Exegesis

Abstract: Thank you very much for reading biblical interpretation in the early church an historical introduction to patristic exegesis. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their favorite readings like this biblical interpretation in the early church an historical introduction to patristic exegesis, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some infectious bugs inside their desktop computer.

Peter Comestor's Lectures on the Glossa "ordinaria" on the Gospel of John: The Bible and Theology in the Twelfth-century Classroom

Abstract: The traditional account of the development of theology in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is that the emerging “academic” discipline of theology was separated from the Bible and its commentary, that the two existed on parallel but separate courses, and that the one developed in a “systematic” direction whereas the other continued to exist as a separate “practical” or “biblical-moral” school. Focusing largely on texts of an allegedly “theoretical” nature, this view misunderstands or, indeed, entirely overlooks the evidence issuing from lectures on the Bible — postills, glosses, and commentaries — notably the biblical Glossa “ordinaria.” A witness to an alternative understanding, Peter Comestor, master and chancellor of the cathedral school of Paris in the second half of the twelfth century, shows that theology was created as much from the continued study of the Bible as from any “systematic” treatise. Best known for his Historia scholastica, a combined explanation and rewrite of the Bible focusing on the historical and literal aspects of sacred history, Comestor used the Gloss as a textbook in his lectures on the Gospels both to elucidate matters of exegesis and to help him deduce doctrinal truth. Through a close reading of Comestor's lectures on the Gospel of John, this essay reevaluates the teaching of theology at the cathedral school of Paris in the twelfth century and argues that the Bible and its Gloss stood at the heart of this development.

Renaming Abraham's Children: Election, Ethnicity, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Romans 9

Abstract: RENAMING ABRAHAM‘S CHILDREN: ELECTION, ETHNICITY, AND THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE IN ROMANS 9 Robert B. Foster, BA, MA Marquette University, 2011 In this study, I attempt to reconstruct Paul‘s pre-epistolary exegesis of Genesis that I hypothesize lies beneath Rom 9. This exegesis goes beyond the discussion of the patriarchs in Rom 9:6-13 and supports the reconfiguration of God‘s family in Rom 9:2429. It enables Paul to view Israel as simultaneously chosen and rejected by God. Adopting a method from Carol Stockhausen, I offer several criteria to establish this project‘s legitimacy. The Pauline exegesis that I propose is plausible to the extent that (1) it is rooted in his text; (2) it is historically credible; (3) it illuminates the argument in Rom 9; and (4) it resolves difficulties elsewhere in Romans. Throughout his letters, Paul uses the stories of Abraham to create textual space in Genesis for Gentile believers in Christ. Outside of Romans, this results in an ethnically undifferentiated ―Israel of God‖ (Gal 6:16). In Rom 4, however, Jews and Gentiles constitute separate lines of descent within one Abrahamic family. In Rom 9, Paul resumes this mode of locating Gentiles among Abraham‘s children. The pentateuchal texts elucidating the election of the patriarchs (9:7, 9, 12) and the prophetic quotations vindicating God‘s inclusive call (9:25-29) are connected to each other by several links. If these are valid, then Hosea and Isaiah do not stand alone but extend and subvert the pattern of the chosen and rejected sons that Paul finds in Genesis. By juxtaposing texts from Torah and the Prophets, he creates separate genealogies yet intertwined destinies for Jewish and Gentile descendants of Abraham. I seek to substantiate this hypothesis by arguing for the following claims, each corresponding to a recognized exegetical problem. First, Paul reads Gentiles into Hosea by typologically identifying them with Abraham‘s excluded children. Second, Paul presumes that they will inherit Abraham‘s territorial promise. Third, Paul uses the Isaian texts that speak of a remnant to effect a division within Israel. Fourth, Paul derives his theology of the remnant from Genesis rather than Isaiah. Finally, Paul‘s mode of argument, which seems to make contrary statements concerning Israel‘s chosen status, reenacts the ironic narrative of patriarchal election.

On the Bible and Literary Criticism

Abstract: 'THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE/' that staple of the university cata logue, has something to tell us even before the amiable Californian in sneakers who invariably teaches it ambles into class on the first day. For the title itself is an assertion that what is to go on is somehow an act of analogy: its "as" will only be able to work itself into an "is" now and again, and only after some throat-clearing and even apologizing?of course the Bible is not just literature, and if we are going to read it as such, let this reading not imply that we wish to put it on a par with other merely human texts, such as Homer-Virgil-Shakespeare-and Milton. This will be enough said to inaugurate a course whose precise connection with literature may vary: sometimes it aims to get students to know the Bible well enough to read literature, that is, "other" litera ture; or sometimes it seeks to trace a secular, noncommital path (viz., the literary one) into a document which has nevertheless traditionally recommended itself to us not on the basis of its aesthetic appeal but as the inspired Word of God. And increasingly, the function of such courses seems to be to allow students to read the Bible in a serious way without at the same time forcing upon them the cholesterol of modern biblical scholarship. But the question thus put aside really deserves more attention than it gets: in what sense do we mean "as"? A short answer might be: in many senses. Since Greek and Roman times, the Bible has been read as literature, and the norms of secular texts?the tropes and figures of classical rhetoric, the allegorical signifying of Homer and Hesiod, the hexameters and trimeters of epic and lyric?have since antiquity been read in, that is into, the Bible. The Bible as literature, in this sense of reading and expounding the Bible according to the norms of secular texts, is as old as exegesis itself, and the influence of Greek literary

The Preface as Exegesis

Abstract: A preface provides a way into understanding a book: by stating its subject and scope, by commenting on techniques employed or themes addressed, or by focussing on a central or contentious issue. Prefacing involves an explicatory introduction to a reading of a work. Students are generally mystified by, or fearful of, the exegesis. In her TEXT article "Writing in the Dark: Exorcising the Exegesis," Gaylene Perry (a PhD student at the time) wrote: .the creative work coupled with an exegesis has no model that I can think of in published works, other than antiquated texts, and certainly not of the kind where the author herself has written the exegesis. (Perry 1998) There are, in fact, a myriad number of these "exegeses." They are called Prefaces, Introductions, Forewords, Afterwords, etc, etc. And they don't only appear attached to the works they focus on and introduce: exegetical activity occurs also dislocated from the original work. Some of these exegetical writings; are more comprehensively explanatory of the work they comment on than others. But the practice of a writer attaching to a fiction text a commentary cotext in a non-fiction form is well established.

The reception of the Deuteronomic social law in the Primitive Church of Jerusalem according to the Book of Acts

Abstract: The Book of Deuteronomy was extant in the Jewish cultural memory and played an important role in shaping Jewish identity. Its concept of the holy people of God, who live according to the social order given by YHWH and who stand in contrast to the pagan world, forms the social model for the Primitive Church in Jerusalem. Since New Testament exegesis has, to a large extent, neglected the role of this book of the Torah in understanding the Primitive Church, this study investigates the reception of Deuteronomy’s social law in Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35, and 6:1-7, in terms of its theological or ecclesiological importance.

Jewish Typological Exegesis after Nahmanides

Abstract: Typological interpretation is the intersection between exegesis and historiography. Serving to connect a classic literary text with historical events that lie beyond that text whether in past, present, or future for the interpreter it is both a way of reading a piece of literature and a way of understanding what happens in the world. The use of typological interpretation by early Christian thinkers in order to demonstrate the continuity between the Hebrew Scriptures and the central Christian story is obvious to every reader of the New Testament1 and the Church Fathers.2 Its status within the Jewish tradition is somewhat more problematic.

Ancient variants and exegesis for Il. 14.382

Abstract: Abstract: A detailed analysis of the scholiastic and Eustathian material concerning the variants δόσκεν / δόσκον / δῶκεν in Il. 14.382 is performed. Examination of the manuscripts and an investigation into the history of the modern studies suggests it is more plausible to conclude that the reading attributed to Aristarchus in the scholia was δόσκον and not δόσκεν. This assessment is congruent with the evidence from Eustathius. The dispute in the critical literature between the evaluation of δῶκεν as a variant or as an explanatory gloss is resolved in favour of the variant, by also considering the recurrent Didymean expression καὶ ἔστιν εὐφραδέστερον.

Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament

Abstract: Tinjauan Buku Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis

Bible interpretation at qumran

Abstract: I first met Yigael Yadin in 1954 at an international Orientalist Congress in Cambridge. Almost at once, he faced me with a strange request. Would I consent to serve as his Parisian 'letter-boxי in order to enable him to correspond with Pere Roland de Vaux in Jordanian Jerusalem. I of course agreed and for several years went on re-addressing envel opes sent by two scholars living within walking distance of one another, but without direct postal links. Our acquaintance reached its climax in 1982, when I despatched to Jerusalem by hand the first copy of the Essays in Honour of Yigael Yadin, a six hundred page volume of the Journal of Jewish Studies turned into a Festschrift. The news of his death two years later came as a bitter shock: Pales tinian archaeology and Qumran studies have lost with him one of their most colourful, outstanding and brilliant protagonists. This paper is presented to Yigael Yadin in piam memoriam.' Its subject, though central to the study of Jewish Bible exegesis, is still like a field which has been only superficially ploughed. Apart from the early contributions by F.F. Bruce2 and Otto Betz,3 and some of my essays written in the late 1950s and the 1960s,4 the only recent studies of some length are due to M.P. Horgan,5 Herve Gabrion,6 and George J. Brooke,s Ph.D. thesis which, though devoted primarily to the Florilegium from Cave 4,7 contains also a certain number of general remarks. To these may be added the descriptive introductory chapters on Qumran exegesis of Scripture in the Dutch Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum by Devorah Dimant,8 and my contri bution on the topic to the new English Schurer.9 In the circumstances, I see my present task as being a tentative classification of the Bible exegesis included in the published Dead Sea Scrolls, with some basic comments at the end on the role of Scripture interpretation in the formulation of Essene law and theology. It should be made clear from the outset that in endeavouring to classify the oldest Hebrew and Aramaic xtra-biblical material in the exegetical domain — for i tra-biblical exegesis Michael Fish bane's monograph should be consulted10 — I have no intention of launching into trendy literary theories. Readers of my 'Methodology in the Study of Jewish Literature in the Graeco-Roman Peri od'11 w ll know that I am a British pragmatist, little inclined to theorizing, and old-fashioned enough to prefer simplicity, conciseness and sound philology to any fanciful categorical a priori. By way of introduction, let me remark briefly on the three terms appearing in the title: Bible — Interpretation — Qumran. From at least 100 CE onwards, and possibly even from a somewhat earlier date, the BIBLE was a fairly precisely defined entity in rabbinic circles, containing the customary books of the Hebrew Scriptures with only Ben Sira's status remaining for a while uncertain. The situation prevailing among the Dead Sea Scrolls is far less clear-cut. Neither the canon, nor the actual text of the individual writings, seems to be firmly established. As regards the canon, it is true that with the exception of Esther, all the works belonging to the Hebrew Bible are at least fragmentarily attested in the Qumran caves. Nevertheless, as these caves have yielded no list of canonical books, it is ques tionable whether the absence of Esther is merely accidental; whether Ezra-Nehemiah and Chron icles represented only by fragments of a single manuscript counted really as Holy Scripture when even the late Daniel is testified to by no less than

The Ravenous Wolf: The Apostle Paul and Genesis 49.27 in the Early Church

Abstract: Jacob's blessing of his youngest son Benjamin (Gen 49.27) was widely understood in the early Church as a prophecy of that most (in)famous Benjaminite, the apostle Paul. This exegesis enjoyed enduring popularity and can be traced to every corner of the Roman world. It is also early: it was already well established by the time of its earliest surviving witnesses at the end of the second century. But if it predates the late second century, when did it originate? While we can only speculate, this paper offers reasons for supposing that this exegesis may reach back into the first century.

Anscombe's Bird, Wittgenstein's Cat: Intention, Expression, and Convention

Abstract: This paper offers an interpretation of Anscombe’s account of animal versus human intention, and of her notorious claim that the expression of intention is purely conventional. It engages in a criticism of Richard Moran’s and Martin Stone’s recent exegesis of these views of Anscombe’s, and proposes an alternative reading which explains how she can accept both that speechless brutes have intentions and that human intention is essentially linguistic.