Arts & Humanities

In the late nineteenth century Britain represented an anomaly amongst other European powers. By contrast to other European states, the United Kingdom exhibited no desire for the maintenance of a permanent secret service department. In addition to this popular culture was decidedly against the idea of secret policing and viewed the concept of uniformed policemen as underhanded, illiberal and dangerously foreign to the British liberalism. The contemporary attitude of policing favoured transparency, accountability and responsibility. It favoured the reality of an ordinary uniformed policeman working his beat and reassuring the public with his presence. In the 1880s, however, the British state faced a serious challenge arising from the experience of Irish Fenianism necessitating the establishment of a secret service, anathema to liberal attitudes. This early secret service, established in 1883 was written out of British history until recently, and relied on a circus of spies, informers and agent-provocateurs. This article will introduce this incipient secret service and examine their activities as they tried, successfully, to implement a Victorian war on terror.

On 29 June 1915 Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa died in St Vincent's Hospital, Staten Island. His life was dedicated to the cause of Irish independence, a cause for which he had suffered imprisonment, exile and attempted assassination. For Patrick Pearse he was one of the most famous Fenians of his generation and represented "a man that to the masses of his countrymen then and since stood most starkly and plainly for the Fenian ideal".

This essay argues that the language of poverty should be understood on some occasions in Musar leMevin (4QInstruction) metaphorically in relation to angelic beings. Given how fragmentary the document is and how enigmatic its language, prudent caution needs to be exercised before concluding firmly on previous interpretive suggestions. Rather than conceiving of poverty in Musar leMevin as strictly reflecting a 'this-worldly' lacking, and thus the Sitz im Leben of the community behind the document, it may describe an aspect of human nature and, therefore, relate to 'otherworldly' imagery. It is understood that the addressee lacks wisdom, which he is urged to seek and obtain. Accordingly this deficiency of understanding is a part of human nature and, just as the one addressed is repeatedly urged to seek wisdom, so too is he reminded: 'you are poor'. Furthermore, Musar leMevin is not 'Essene', and one should not presuppose that its so-called social situations reflect on the Qumran community.

4QInstruction preserves an interpretation of the fifth commandment, to honor one's father and mother, which has similarities with Philo's comments on it. Because Philo's treatment of the command plays a pivotal role in assigning influences on instruction to family members in the New Testament, and the present opinion overwhelmingly views Philo as indebted to Greek schemas and content, evidence from more recently available Qumran literature suggests some of the New Testament Haustafeln may have more of a Jewish intellectual history than is currently acknowledged. is article explores the way biblical traditions -especially the Decalogue and creation traditions-are used for construing teachings to members of the family in the 1 Cor 11, Eph 5-6, Philo and 4QInstruction.

This study offers a critical examination of two passages from 4QInstruction (4Q417 1 i 13-18; 4Q423 1) and finds a new interpretation of the creation and division of humanity. in 4QInstruction all of humankind was created in the likeness of God and angels and they all originally sought mysterious, revealed wisdom as well as the knowledge of good and evil. in one of the fragments studied, the pursuit of mysteries is compared to tending the Garden of eden. in the metaphor, the ones expelled from the garden are the foolish who failed to search for knowledge and are no longer able to cultivate wisdom that produces fruit. These ungodly ones are called the "fleshly spirit" and are separated from Mēvîn by their activities and failures. finally, 4QInstruction reflects that divisions within humanity are the result of dualities within human beings.

This paper explores the possibility that John's Apocalypse is operating with a well-known idea that the present time is a period of exile and that a new exodus is anticipated. In addition to exploring this concept within the Apocalypse, the notion of exile in several discoveries from Qumran are presented, these are exile in: the Damascus Document, 4Q462 ("Narrative"), and 4Q504 1-2 V ("Words of the Luminaries").

Zu den Traditionen, die den paulinischen Gebrauch von " Geist " und " Fleisch " beeinflusst und geformt haben könnten, gehört die palästinische Weis-heitsliteratur, vor allem 4QInstruction (4Q415–418; 4Q423; 1Q26). Dieser Aufsatz nimmt den negativen Gebrauch des Wortes " Fleisch " in den Blick, der sich sowohl in 4QInstruction als auch bei Paulus findet, stellt aber die These in Frage, dass dieser in 4QInstruction in eine dualistische Kosmologie eingebettet ist. " Fleisch " wird in 4QInstruction mit Verderbtheit und Sünde in Verbindung gebracht, was kosmische Dimensionen, inkl. quasi-dämonischer Mächte, einschließt, steht aber niemals in einem binären Verhältnis zum Begriff " Geist ". Die weitere Analyse, wie " Fleisch " und " Geist " in 4QInstruction aufgefasst werden, hat zudem Impli-kationen für das Verständnis der Anthropologie dieser Schrift sowie für das Ver-ständnis des Verhältnisses ihrer Trägergruppe zu göttlicher Offenbarung. Zudem werden neue Vergleichspunkte zwischen der Schrift und ausgewählten Passagen aus dem Corpus Paulinum eröffnet.

Narratives about the Garden of Eden from Genesis 2‒3 were popular among both early Jewish and Christian interpreters. More than other compositions found at Qumran, 4QInstruction gives sustained attention to these chapters of Genesis when offering instruction. Observations about how creation traditions are used in 4QInstruction provides the opportunity to assess the intense debates about how these chapters were used among both the so-called " proto-orthodox " and " gnostic " Christians of, especially , the second-century CE. These competing interpretations of Genesis 2–3 in early Christianities display continuities with 4QInstruction and these interpretive strands offer perspective on later interpreters, most notably Augustine of Hippo.

How did the use of biblical traditions shape theology? Benjamin Wold focuses on allusions to traditions from Genesis in 4QInstruction (Musar leMevin) from the Dead Sea Scrolls and explores implications for the document's understanding of women, men and angels. Cosmology and anthropology are conceived of in light of creation and ethical instruction provided on this basis. The nature of creation is reflected upon and alluded to in the document to educate and exhort the addressees about who they are and how they should live. The behaviour between the addressee and members of the family, society and angelic beings are formulated on the basis of interpretations of creation stories. Creation is also related to the esoteric 'mystery of being', angels and the apocalyptic worldview of the author(s). This is a sustained study on both explicit and non-explicit uses of Genesis creation traditions in 4QInstruction .

The “firstborn son” in 4Q369 1 ii line 6 is interpreted by the vast majority of scholars as referring to a Davidic Messiah vis-à-vis an allusion to Psalm 89:27–28. The minority view is that “firstborn son” in 4Q369 refers to “Israel,” which is supported by multiple attestations to such a tradition in early Jewish literature. However, neither side in this debate have assessed the significance of “firstborn son” in 4QInstruction to determine what significance, if any, there may be for understanding 4Q369. This study argues that 4QInstruction uses the expression “firstborn son” in relationship to God and when this conclusion is set in conversation with 4Q369 1 ii it problematizes the identification of an allusion to Psalm 89:27–28 and, therefore, a reference to a Messiah.

A number of previously unknown sapiential composition discovered at Qumran were only published in critical editions for the first time in the late 1990s. Consequently, in the last two decades of research, paradigms within the study of Jewish wisdom have been dramatically reconfigured. This article explores long-standing debates in the study of the New Testament letter of James in light of these recent transformations. In particular, attention is given here to James' understanding of wisdom as revealed, a cosmology that locates the origins of evil both inside and outside the human being, as well as wisdom and eschatology.