Exegesis

About: Exegesis is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3017 publications have been published within this topic receiving 25212 citations. The topic is also known as: Bible interpretation.

"defender of the Most Holy Matriarchs": Martin Luther's Interpretation of the Women of Genesis in the Enarrationes in Genesin, 1535-1545

Abstract: Abbreviations Translations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Muliercula: Eve in the Young Luther's Exegesis 2. Socia Gubernationis: Eve in the Enarrationes in Genesin 3. Sancta Domina: Luther's Catholic Exegesis of Sarah 4. Empta Ancilla: A Hagiography of Hagar 5. Sanctae Puellae: Justifying the Daughters of Lot 6. Mulier Heroica: The Faith of Rachel 7. Turpissimum Scortum: Demonizing Potiphar's Wife Conclusions Appendix 1. Genesis in Wittenberg: 1518-1545 Appendix 2. Sixteenth-Century Genesis Commentaries Bibliography Index of Subjects Index of Scriptural References Index of Names

Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories, by Tikva Frymer-Kensky

Abstract: New York: Schocken Books, 2002. 446 pp. $28.95. In her lucid and accessible new book, Tikva Frymer-Kensky applies her skills as a deeply learned biblical scholar, her training as an Assyriologist, and her personal approach as "a feminist who loves the Bible" to an original and elucidating study of representations of women in Hebrew Scriptures. Frymer-Kensky does not apologize for the fact that the Hebrew Bible, an androcentric text written by men about male matters, reflects a patriarchal society in which women had limited abilities to determine events. As in her earlier book, In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (1992), she argues that we must look beyond the gender-based inequity common to all ancient societies and recognize that biblical writers do not represent women as lesser creations who are other than men in their basic human qualities. In fact, the underlying theme of this volume is that women figure prominently in so many biblical narratives because they often serve as a metaphor for Israel itself. Thus, "The Bible's view that women were socially disadvantaged without being essentially inferior provided a paradigm through which biblical Israel did not have to equate its own powerlessness with inferiority" (p. xxii). Frymer-Kensky reads biblical literature closely and on its own terms, eliminating the layers of traditional interpretation that often influence how people understand biblical stories and characters. Her careful analyses, based on her own translations, explore the nuances of the original Hebrew and also place the passage at hand in its larger cultural context. While Frymer-Kensky includes references to traditional biblical exegesis and contemporary feminist scholarship in notes to each chapter, this book is not primarily aimed at an academic audience. It is directed to general readers who are interested in what these stories and characters "might mean to us in our own culture today, when the lives of most women are dramatically different from the lives of the biblical figures who have so fascinated us throughout the millennia" (p. xxvii). Reading the Women of the Bible is not intended to be a comprehensive encyclopedia of all biblical women. Significant female figures such as Eve, the Matriarchs, and Miriam are not discussed or are mentioned only in passing. Frymer-Kensky's goal is to reveal the meaning of what she calls the "women-stories" as a group and to elucidate the concept of "woman" in the Hebrew Bible; she does so by demonstrating that overall patterns and recognizable themes begin to emerge when biblical narratives are read closely and in relation to one another. Thus, her book is organized according to the four categories into which Frymer-Kensky believes most of the Hebrew Bible's narratives about women fall. These thematic divisions consider women as victors, victims, virgins (and potential brides), and voices of God. "Victors" are those biblical women whose actions had a decisive impact on Israel's destiny. These powerful women come from different social levels and include heroines and villains, Israelites and foreigners. Among the forces for good whose stories are explicated in detail are Rivka, the midwives of Exodus, Zipporah, Rahab, Deborah, Yael, and the Shunammite woman of second Kings; the malefactors include Potiphar's wife, Delilah, and Athaliah. Frymer-Kensky notes that the triumphant stories of the "Victors" may also be read as tales of national survival, since narratives about dynamic women who succeeded despite their marginalized place in society must have conveyed a powerful and paradigmatic message to a people who felt weak, small, and vulnerable. …

Exegesis and the History of Theology: Reflections on the Adam-Christ Typology in Cyril of Alexandria

Abstract: The history of exegesis as a discipline is one of the stepchildren of Church History. As such it has not only been neglected by Church historians, but even if studied, it has received inferior treatment. Surely there is something ironical about an age of theological scholarship which has so self-consciously bought the historical method to study the Bible, but which nevertheless allows scholars to be so un-historical in their approach to the history of its interpretation. Consider that much of the material in the history of exegesis has been mined by scholars whose proper business is the study of the Old and New Testaments; or that the history of interpretation is usually considered a part of biblical studies. Inevitably the question asked by biblical scholars sounds something like this: how does a man, a school, or epoch interpret such and such a passage? Frequently this question issues in monographs tracing the history of interpretations of the chosen passage. The result is usually a catena of citations classifying and cataloguing the answers given to problems in the text. Most often the perspective brought to the material is that of the contemporary exegete, who, either explicitly or implicitly thinks he knows what the passage meant—or at least what it could not mean.

The influence of Christian doctrine and exegesis on Old English poetry: an estimate of the current state of scholarship

Abstract: Although it is a commonplace of history that Anglo-Saxon England was receptive to Christianity and to Christian-Latin culture and that English churchmen such as Aldhelm, Bede and Alcuin made an important contribution to that culture, it is only in recent years that scholars have explored and emphasized the importance of Christian tradition to the understanding of Old English poetry, especially those poems without explicit Christian content. Increased investigation of Old English prose, which is largely Christian, and the well-known work on Beowulf by Frederick Klaeber, Marie Padgett Hamilton, Dorothy Whitelock and others, seems to have redirected ‘the search for Anglo-Saxon paganism‘ into a search – sometimes opposed – for reflections of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon poetry. While in some quarters this critical and scholarly attention has been confined to the influence of Christian doctrine, ritual and interpretation of the bible, in others it has taken into account the broader cultural influences of the church, especially its transmission of the literature and learning of pagan antiquity.