Essays on Halakhah in the New Testament /
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The texts of the New Testament have long been understood to require interpretation in the light of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran and other postbiblical literary and documentary sources. Conversely, they provide an invaluable source for the reconstruction of halakhah in the late Second Commonwealth period. These essays illustrate the complexity of the inter-relationships, and the methodological issues which arise: the "legal" content of the texts cannot be separated from the intertextualities of Jewish theology. The topics cover letter and spirit, prophecy and law, forgiveness, the accounts of Jesus' "trial(s)", the evidence required for legal and theological claims, shepherding images, disinheritance (the prodigal son), marriage and divorce.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-238) and indexes. :
9789047431633 :
1388-2074 ; :
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Mark at the threshold : applying Bakhtinian categories to Markan characterisation /
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The discussion concerning Markan characterisation (and Markan genre) can be helpfully informed by Bakhtinian categories. This book uses the twin foci of chronotope and carnival to examine specific characters in terms of different levels of dialogue. Various passages in Mark are examined, and thresholds are noted between interindividual character-zones, and between the hearing-reader and text-voices. Several generic contacts are shown to have shaped the text's 'genre-memory' - in particular, the Graeco-Roman popular literature of the ancient world. The resultant picture is of an earthy, populist Gospel whose "voices" resonate with the "vulgar" classes, and whose spirituality is refreshingly relevant to everyday concerns.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-262) and indexes. :
9789047433613 :
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Cain and Abel in text and traditio n Jewish and Christian interpretations of the first sibling rivalry /
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The story of Cain and Abel narrates the primeval events associated with the beginnings of the world and humanity. But the presence of linguistic and grammatical ambiguities coupled with narrative gaps provided translators and interpreters with a number of points of departure for expanding the story. The result is a number of well established and interpretive traditions shared between Jewish and Christian literature. This book focuses on how the interpretive traditions derived from Genesis 4 exerted significant influence on Jewish and Christian authors who knew rewritten versions of the story. The goal is to help readers appreciate these traditions within the broader interpretive context rather than within the narrow confines of the canon.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004205826 :
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The reshaped min d Searle, the biblical writers, and Christ's blood /
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A number of biblical scholars and theologians have had interest in speech act theory ever since J.L. Austin (1911-1960) outlined how a speaker can perform actions with words. John R. Searle has made a significant contribution to speech act theory after Austin by rooting his philosophy of language in the philosophy of mind; however, Searle's categories remain largely under or misrepresented in theological circles. In this book, the author works exclusively with Searle's categories to examine five NT texts on the 'blood-of-Christ' motif (Rom 3:25; Heb 9:12; John 6:52-59; Rev 1:5b-6; Rev 7:13-14). The main result is a broader understanding of Christ's blood in a literal sense rather than simply as a metaphor for his death.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-213) and indexes. :
9789004188945 :
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Le Temps et les Temps : dans les littératures juives et chrétiennes au tournant de notre ère /
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This volume deals with calendar and liturgical times on the one hand. It discusses questions related to the establishment of the calendar and the observance of traditional and new feasts in Palestine and in the diaspora. On the other hand this book deals with the predetermined organization of the times. It considers the periodization of times and the idea of a revelation being carried out from one period to another; the irruption of the fixed Time and the concomitant representation of a recovery of the times; and the expectation of the last times. In particular, the texts from Qumran, the New Testament, and hellenistic Jewish literature are investigated, but older and more recent texts are taken into account as well.
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Papers presented at a colloquium. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-257) and indexes. :
9789047409267 :
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Wisdom in transition : act and consequence in Second Temple instructions /
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This volume considers a major shift among Jewish sages during the Second Temple period, as certain authors moved from an earthly focus to a belief in individual immortality. Egyptian instructions and the book of Proverbs are examined for necessary background. The colorful responses of Qoheleth and Ben Sira to an emergent belief in the afterlife are also discussed. 4QInstruction, the largest Wisdom text from the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus, demonstrates this shift to an eschatological understanding. This book considers the diverse reasons for the changes that one finds in 4QInstruction, especially the issue of social context. It will prove useful to those interested in Wisdom literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, apocalypticism, and the development of beliefs in the afterlife.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-293) and indexes. :
9789047433149 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Recognizing the stranger : recognition scenes in the Gospel of John /
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Recognizing the Stranger is the first monographic study of recognition scenes and motifs in the Gospel of John. The recognition type-scene ( anagnōrisis ) was a common feature in ancient drama and narrative, highly valued by Aristotle as a touching moment of truth, e.g., in Oedipus' tragic self-discovery and Odysseus' happy homecoming. The book offers a reconstruction of the conventions of the genre and argues that it is one of the most recurrent and significant literary forms in the Gospel. When portraying Jesus as the divine stranger from heaven, the Gospel employs and transforms the formal and ideological structures of the type-scene in order to show how Jesus' true identity can be recognized behind the half-mask of his human appearance.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-242) and indexes. :
9789047433446 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Consumption and wealth in Luke's travel narrative /
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It is suggested that because persons with access to a large surplus too often elect to spend extravagantly on their own desires and existing means of redistribution such as almsgiving and beneficence were failing to offer any lasting changes that might truly be received as \'good news\' by the poor, Jesus advocates eliminating personal wealth.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-212) and index. :
9789047421740 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jesus, Paul, and early Christianity : studies in honour of Henk Jan de Jonge /
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This collection of essays by leading experts in New Testament scholarship addresses core themes in the study of early Christianity. The topics addressed include text-critical issues relating to the New Testament, the historical situation in which the earliest Christian documents were composed, early Christian rituals, historical questions concerning Jesus and Paul, and the origin and development of important theological ideas in the early Church. This volume is dedicated to Henk Jan de Jonge (Emeritus Professor in the New Testament, Leiden University) in honour of his important contributions to the field of New Testament Studies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047443469 :
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Revealed wisdom and inaugurated eschatology in ancient Judaism and early Christianity /
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This book examines four texts: 1 Enoch, 4QInstruction, Matthew and 2 Enoch. A common idea in these texts, which blend sapiential and apocalyptic elements, is that the revealing of wisdom to an elect group inaugurates the eschatological period. The emphasis on "revealed wisdom" is essentially apocalyptic, but facilitates the uptake of motifs, forms and language from the sapiential tradition and is important in explaining the fusion of the two traditions. In addition, revealed wisdom often has creational associations and this has significance for the notion of ethics in these texts. The book will interest anyone concerned with the development of Jewish and Christian eschatology and ethics. It also challenges the simplistic redactional assumptions of certain New Testament scholars.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-283) and indexes. :
9789047419242 :
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Psalms and prayers : papers read at the Joint Meeting of the Society of Old Testament Study and Het Oudtestamentische Werkgezelschap in Nederland en België, Apeldoorn August 2006...
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The essays in this volume focus on the interpretation of the Book of Psalms and comparable texts in the Hebrew Bible. A variety of methods is applied to the ancient texts. Some essays concentrate on composition and structure, others on redaction and context. It is of great interest to see that each approach has its strength and its limits: stressing the importance to read the Psalms with a multi-dimensional matrix of methods. By viewing the Psalms as prayers, and thus as expressions of both faith and despair, a perspective on the contents of the ancient hymns and their functions in daily life has been opened. This volume contains various incentives for future research.
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"The papers collected in this volume were all read at the Joint Meeting of The Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS) and the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap in Nederland en Belgie (OTW), in Apeldoorn, 21-24 August 2006. The Dutch and British Old Testament Societies foster a long tradition of Joint Meetings, of which this was the 13th since the start in 1970, now hosted by the Theological University of Apeldoorn." Netherlands. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047422587 :
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A people tall and smooth-skinned : the rhetoric of Isaiah 18 /
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This volume delivers an analysis of the persuasive artistry of Isaiah 18, id est how Isa 18 is designed in order to persuade an ancient audience. The analysis is pursued from four angles: the textual design, the motifs, the rhetoric of the text and finally, it is shown how the various strophes within each stanza of Isa 18 relate to one another. The present analysis demonstrates that Isa 18 is an example of Hebrew rhetoric, and that the text can be read as a coherent whole - even though the majority of scholars analysing Isa 18 have found this chapter confusing. In this volume, it is argued that Isa 18 is shaped in a confusing way in order to make the audience believe that someone else is judged (the Cushites, 18:1-2.7), and not themselves. This volume sheds new light on the understanding of and old text, and the volume is important for exegetes interested in the persuasive artistry of Isa 18.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-256 ) and index. :
9789047411222 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Isaiah among the ancient Near Eastern prophets : a comparative study of the earliest stages of the Isaiah tradition and the Neo-Assyrian prophecies /
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Focusing on the phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient Near East, this study offers a comparison between parts of First Isaiah and the Assyrian prophecies. In the first part, the material from First Isaiah and from seventh-century Assyria is investigated in its own right. The second part is a comparison of the Isaiah tradition in its earliest shape with the prophetic material from seventh-century Assyria. The topics dealt with in the comparison are the interrelation of prophetic oracles and historical events, the functions of the prophets, and the literary development of prophecy. The study shows that ancient Israelite prophecy, of which the historical Isaiah was an exponent, was much in conformity with ancient Near Eastern prophecy in general.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [467]-496) and indexes. :
9789047422617 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Animal imagery in the book of Proverbs /
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Any treatment of the figurative and symbolic function of animal imagery in biblical literature requires special attention to its contextual meaning and cultural evaluation. The present study aims to demonstrate how this is particularly true of the Book of Proverbs, in which faunal imageries serve as a didactic means for delving into the more obvious truths of human behavior. This book makes a methodological contribution toward understanding the didactic function of Proverb's animal imageries by offering an ongoing three-pronged analysis: a. Zoological identification and literary perception of the animal in the Bible; born Hermeneutic dynamics between the specific animal simile and its literary adaptation; c. Rhetorical function of the animal imagery within the conceptual framework of the Book of Proverbs.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-179) and indexes. :
9789047423621 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Exile and suffering : a selection of papers read at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Old Testament Society of South Africa OTWSA/OTSSA, Pretoria, August 2007 /
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At the fiftieth anniversary of the Old Testament Society of South Africa a conference was organized on the theme Exile and Suffering. This volume contains a selection of the papers presented. Focal questions are such themes as: What do we really know about the Exile? To what degree did suffering take place? How did the Ancient Israelites cope with the disaster? Where the ancinet traditions sufficient to deal with the Exile? Or did this period produce new forms of 'theology'? The significance of the Exile as a matrix for understanding suffering until this day is also dealt with.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047424352 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Promises to keep : the oath in biblical narrative /
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While many studies explore the literary role of the oath in general literature, none have contended with the role of the oath in the biblical narratives. This study seeks to fill that vacuum. The first section of this study examines the literary significance of the various oath formulae that appear in biblical narratives, focusing on anomalous formulations of the respective oath formulae. The second section of this study explores the narratives surrounding two characters, Saul and David, both of whom frequently engage in oath-making. The oaths taken by, to and about these characters mirror the narrative itself, and function as a prism through which the character's career is refracted. This study demonstrates that by perceiving the oath as a literary device for plot and character development, additional or more precise meanings may be revealed in the biblical stories.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-286) and indexes. :
9789047433774 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Gospel of Judas in context : proceedings of the First International Conference on the Gospel of Judas, Paris, Sorbonne, October 27th-28th, 2006 /
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The papers gathered in this book were presented at the First International Conference (held in Paris, University of Sorbonne, October 27th-28th 2006), devoted to the newly discovered Gospel of Judas, preserved in the 4th century Coptic Codex Tchacos. These essays explore several crucial literary, historical and doctrinal issues related to this gospel, composed in the second half of the 2nd century. This unexpected discovery sheds a new light on the role attributed to Judas by some Gnostic Christian movements. A hotly debated question is precisely the significance of Judas in this gospel: hero or villain? Special attention is given to the sources - Greek, Jewish, Christian and even Iranian - used by the unknown author. This book will be of special interest for historians of late Antiquity religions and scholars in New Testament studies, Gnosticism and Coptic literature.
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xv, 404 p. ; 25 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [361]-374) and indexes. :
9789047442851 :
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Theologies in conflict in 4 Ezra : wisdom, debate, and apocalyptic solution /
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Recent scholarship on 4 Ezra has taken two divergent approaches, the first reading the dialogues between Ezra and Uriel as a reflection of theological debates in the author's time, and the second focusing on the psychological development of the protagonist. Combining the two approaches, this book offers a new interpretation of the dialogues as a literary representation of a debate between covenantal and eschatological wisdom, two branches of Jewish wisdom that emerged in the late Second Temple period. The inconclusive quality of the dialogues indicates the author's dissatisfaction with Uriel's attempt at a rational theodicy. Ezra's subsequent transformation points to the symbolic visions as the locus of the author's apocalyptic solution to the intractable theological problems raised in the dialogues.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-252) and indexes. :
9789047441809 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Walking on the water : reading Mt. 14:22-33 in the light of its Wirkungsgeschichte /
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The concept of Wirkungsgeschichte is gaining ground in New Testament Studies. It involves the gathering of diverse interpretations of a text, but can it offer significant exegetical results or is it merely a form of cultural stamp collecting? This book explores the background of Wirkungsgeschichte in the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and applies the theory to a single pericope, Mt 14:22-33. Traditional historical and literary examinations of this story are brought into conversation with six works of art and a number of nineteenth century theological texts. The result is an enriched interpretation which fruitfully alerts us to the narrowness of the vision of our own time and place.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-213) and indexes. :
9789047423355 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Protest or propaganda : war in the Old Testament book of Kings and in contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern texts /
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In this study, the war stories from the Old Testament book of Kings are compared to ten extrabiblical texts. Narratological analysis is applied to deconstruct the ideology of the respective literary compositions. The Old Testament ideology of war seems to be neither typically Israelite, as Gerhardt von Rad put it, nor commonly Ancient Near Eastern, as Manfred Weippert thought it to be. This poses the question whether the reading experience of biblical war stories is so very different from, for instance, Assyrian royal inscriptions, both in terms of its literary value and its ideological bias. Narratological analysis turns out to be a strong tool for explaining the similarities and distinctive features of the respective texts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [689]-700) and indexes. :
9789047443414 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.