A plague of texts? : a text-critical study of the so-called 'plagues narrative' in Exodus 7:14-11:10 /
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Prior to any attempt to study a text at the literary level, the textual material itself has to be carefully established. It is for this reason that the present volume is devoted to a detailed text-critical study of the 'physical' text of the 'Plagues Narrative' in Exod. 7:14-11:10. In the first chapter, the author formulates a number of prolegomena relating to textual criticism as a discipline, the extant textual material, the terminology employed and the methodological model that serves as the basis of this study. In the second chapter, data provided by the various textual forms of the 'Plagues Narrative' in Exod. 7:14-11:10, namely MT, LXX, SamP, 4QpaleoExodᵐ, 4QpaleoGen-Exodᶩ, 2QExodᵃ, 4QExodᶜ, 4QGen-Exodᵃ and 4QExodʲ, are registered and described. The extant textual versions themselves are presented in the form of a synopsis, added as an appendix to this book. The third and final chapter offers the text-critical evaluation of all 'text-relevant' variants.
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Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1996 under title: Het verhaal van de 'Plagen in Egypte' (Exodus 7,14-11,10) : een onderzoek naar het ontstaan en de compositie van een Pentateuchtraditie. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [359]-371) and indexes. :
9789047425823 :
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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 :
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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 :
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Christian remnant-African folk church : Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania, 1903-1980 /
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The growth of Christianity in Africa during the twentieth century is one of the most fascinating shifts in the history of religions. This book presents a history of the Tanzanian Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is representative of this shift in many respects: slow beginnings, struggles over cultural issues, the emergence of a unique church life combining denominational heritage and African elements, frictions with governments, and the development of popular theology. Yet Tanzanian Adventism also exemplifies an important phenomenon which has been given little attention so far - the transformation of minority denominations to dominant religions. This study breaks new ground in analyzing how the Adventist "remnant" developed into an African "folk church" while attempting to remain true to its original ethos.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-600) and index. :
9789047422686 :
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Vocation and social context /
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The category of Beruf has intrigued sociology since Max Weber made it a fundamental element in understanding the relationship between the individual and society. The richness of the concept can be found in the simultaneous polarity and interpenetration between the subject's personal profession and the feeling of a call from God: precisely this ambiguity widens the possibility of applying the concept in understanding the meaning that individuals give to their own professions, activities and, more generally, \'life in the world." Illustrating the different ways in which "vocation-profession" can be interpreted, and how it can be studied from various perspectives and with different scientific sensibilities, this book demonstrates how the concept of Beruf continues to be fertile for contemporary sociology. Contributors: Anthony J. Blasi, Andrew J. Weigert, Franco Garelli, Luigi Berzano, Robert M. Fishman, Keeley S. Jones, Laura M. Leming, Giovanni Dal Piaz, Robert C. Butler
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047421023 :
1061-5210 ; :
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Research in the social scientific study of religion.
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Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion publishes empirical and theoretical studies of religion from a wide range of disciplines and from all parts of the globe. A special section is devoted to the issue of psychological type and religion and especially how psychological type can increase our understanding of Christian ministry. Alongside this section are papers presenting studies on subjects such as civic participation, suffering with God, and spirituality. Together these papers represent important contributions that advance theory and evidence in a number of different fields of contemporary relevance to the study of religion.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004216471 :
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From apocalypticism to Merkabah mysticism : studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha /
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The present volume contains essays dealing with the Second Temple Jewish traditions and documents preserved solely in their Slavonic translations. It examines these Slavonic pseudepigraphical materials in the context of their mediating role in the development of early Jewish mystical traditions from Second Temple apocalypticism to Merkabah mysticism attested in rabbinic and Hekhalot materials. The book represents the first attempt to study Slavonic pseudepigrapha collectively as a unique group of texts that share common theophanic and mediatorial imagery crucial for the development of early Jewish mysticism. The study demonstrates that mediatorial traditions of the exalted patriarchs and prophets played an important role in facilitating the transition from apocalypticism to early Jewish mysticism.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [441]-464) and indexes. :
9789047411246 :
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Changing values and beliefs in 85 countries : trends from the values surveys from 1981 to 2004 /
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This book presents the trends in beliefs and values of people in 85 countries around the world from 1981 to 2004. Based on survey data collected in 1981-1984 and 1989-1993 by the European Values Study, the 1995-1997 World Values Surveys and the 1999-2004 European Values Study and World Values Surveys, it examines trends in human values concerning economics, politics, religion, family, gender roles, civic engagement and ethical concerns and important contemporary issues such as the environment, technology, identity, life satisfaction and human happiness. It is a valuable tool for understanding the cultural patterns of countries and how human values are changing. It will be useful to social scientists, journalists, business executives, politicians and policy-makers working in an increasingly globalized world.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047429395 :
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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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Spiritual mapping in the United States and Argentina, 1989-2005 : a geography of fear /
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Spiritual Mapping is a U.S. Evangelical and Neo-Pentecostal movement (1989-2005), which developed its own religious technique to wage a 'spiritual' war against unseen non-human beings. These 'spirits' were identified along the lines of geographical territories and put on a map, whence 'Spiritual Mapping' . Its intended function was to boost the numerical growth of Christianity. This book offers a comprehensive historical-descriptive approach of both the movement and the concept, with special attention for theological and anthropological concepts. Its historical roots, relation with Argentina, self-understanding and critics are being described. The reader is presented with a unique insight into Spiritual Mapping as an expression of Americanism, as well as the socio-political concept of Manifest Destiny and U.S. religious marketing.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 337- 361) and index. :
9789047443551 :
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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 :
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The courtyards of the house of the Lord : studies on the Temple scroll /
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Already before its publication, it was clear that the Temple Scroll represented a major contribution to the history of Jewish law in Late Antiquity. The present volume brings together the author's studies on this important scroll. He has sought to uncover the hermeneutics of the Zadokite/Sadducean legal system and to compare and contrast it with other texts of its own type as well as with those in rabbinic literature preserving the Pharisaic-rabbinic approach.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047441793 :
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Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica : collected essays of Gilles Quispel /
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This volume brings together a rich and varied collection of essays by Gilles Quispel (1916-2006), Professor of the History of the Early Church at Utrecht University from 1951 until his retirement in 1983. During his illustrious career, Professor Quispel was also visiting Professor at Harvard University in 1964/65, and visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1969 until 1974. The fifty essays collected in this volume testify to most of the prominent themes from Professor Quispel's scholarly career: the writings of the Nag Hammadi library in general and the Gospel of Thomas in particular; Tatian's Diatessaron and its influences; the Hermetica ; Mani and Manichaeism; the Jewish origins of Gnosticism; and Gnosis and the future of Christianity. This volume also makes a number of his less known earlier publications (mainly presented under the heading 'Catholica') available to the international community. Until shortly before he died, Professor Quispel remained active in his study of the Gospel of Thomas . He had been one of the first to acquire the Coptic text of the Gospel of Thomas , of which he published the first translation in 1959 and his final translation in 2005. He was also active in researching the Diatessaron , and Valentinus 'the Gnostic'. One of his most recent essays - published for the first time in this volume - is on 'the Muslim Jesus.'
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047441823 :
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The cultures of Maimonideanism : new approaches to the history of Jewish thought /
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In the history of Jewish thought, no individual scholar has exercised more influence than Maimonides (1138-1204) - philosopher and physician, legal scholar and communal leader. This collection of papers, originating at the 2007 EAJS colloquium, places primary emphasis on this influence - not on Maimonides himself but the many movements he inspired. Using Maimonideanism as an interpretive lens, the authors of this volume - representing a variety of fields and disciplines - develop new approaches to and fresh perspectives on the peculiar dynamic of Judaism and philosophy. Focusing on social and cultural processes as well as philosophical ideas and arguments, they point toward an original reconceptualization of Jewish thought.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [409]-436) and index. :
9789047427964 :
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Protestant Missions and Local Encounters in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Unto the Ends of the World.
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This book makes visible an important but largely neglected aspect of Christian missions: its transnational character. An interdisciplinary group of scholars present case-studies on missions and individual missionaries, unified by a common vision of expanding a Christian Empire "to the ends of the world". Examples range from Madagascar, South-Africa, Palestine, Turkey, Tibet, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Britain. Engaging in activities from education, health care and development aid to religion, ethnography and collection of material culture, Christian missionaries considered themselves as global actors working for the benefit of common humanity. Yet, the missionaries came from, and operated within a variety of nation-states. Thus this volume demonstrates how processes on a national level are closely linked to larger transnational processes.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004207691 :
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Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac culture of his day /
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Jacob of Edessa (c.640-708) is considered the most learned Christian of the early days of Islam. In all fifteen contributions to this volume, written by prominent specialists, the interaction between Christianity, Judaism, and the new religion is an important issue. The articles discuss Jacob's biography as well as his position in early Islamic Edessa, and give a full picture of the various aspects of Jacob of Edessa's life and work as a scholar and clergyman. Attention is paid to his efforts in the fields of historiography, correspondence, canon law, text and interpretation of the Bible, language and translation, theology, philosophy, and science. The book, which marks the 1300th anniversary of Jacob's death, also contains a bibliographical clavis.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-293) and indexes. :
9789047426936 :
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Brot, Licht und Weinstock : intertextuelle Analysen johanneischer Ich-bin-Worte /
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This study considers the "I am" sayings in the Gospel of John, interpreted in the context of their reception in late antiquity. It takes an intertextual approach, considering both inner-biblical parallels and extra-biblical texts, which have been much neglected in recent Johannine scholarship. A comparative analysis of the "I am" formula is complemented by the consideration of the metaphors of the predicative "I am" words, focussing particularly on the use of "bread", "light" and "vine" and the context of these metaphors in the Gospel of John and elsewhere. This discussion demonstrates that Johannine Christology is profoundly incarnational. *** Gegenstand der vorliegenden Untersuchung sind die Ich-bin-Worte des Johannesevangeliums. Diese werden in ihrem spätantiken Lese- und Rezeptionskontext interpretiert, wobei die Intertextualitätstheorie als methodische Basis dient und auch außerbiblische Schriften zum Vergleich herangezogen werden, die in der Forschung der vergangenen Jahrzehnte kaum berücksichtigt worden sind. Ergänzend zur vergleichenden Untersuchung der Formel "Ich bin..." werden die prädikativen Ich-bin-Worte als Metaphoren näher bestimmt und exemplarisch drei ausgewählte Prädikationen, nämlich "Brot", "Licht" und "Weinstock" in ihrem jeweiligen Kontext analysiert. Dabei wird deutlich, dass die johanneische Christologie primär als Inkarnationchristologie zu verstehen ist.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-381) and index. :
9789047433248 :
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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 :
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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 :
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The targum of Zephaniah : manuscripts and commentary /
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This seminal and comprehensive study of Targum Jonathan to Zephaniah focuses on two major facets of exegesis: The twenty-one manuscripts from five different provenances, reflecting a variety of textual traditions and scribal erudition, thus revealing distinct stemmas; and the history of transmission of Targum Jonathan. Divergences from the literality of the MT unveil the emotions - fear, dismay, and hope - and the prayers of the meturgeman, as he reacts to historical events in the near past and in his own time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [431]-441) and indexes. :
9789047425120 :
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