History of Reception of Biblical Texts

Matt 1:17 indicates that Jesus' genealogy is formed by three series of fourteen generations; however, this total number of generations does not match the preceding list in Matt 1:2-16. Interpreters have proposed multiple ways to understand this inconsistency which have yet to be collected and evaluated. A double literature review displays the limitations of this seemingly insoluble biblical conundrum. This article presents the tension between verse 17 and verses 2-17 of Matthew's gospel as a puzzling reading experience that can best be described, in line with Stanley Fish, as a self-consuming artifact: an experience of incongruity in which the text and the reader are transformed through a process of negation. This approach also highlights other potential reversals in Matthew 1, such as Davidic traditions, that can yield a renewed outlook on this gospel.

Origen’s exegesis of the Song of Songs, despite the praise it generally raised both in antiquity and in modern times, still awaits for deeper investigation as far as the literary project of the Alexandrian and its output are concerned. In this respect, it is difficult not only to exactly define the mutual relations between the Commentary and the Homilies on the Song of Songs, apart from the evident similarity of their themes, but more specifically to catch the particular nature of Origen’s interpretation at the first level of the biblical text against his well-known allegorism. Viewing the «littera» or «historia» of the Song as a theatrical piece, as especially shown in the Commentary, Origen delivers a dramatical interpretation which by its careful description of the successive scenes develops into a proper script for the stage. Though this explanation is meant to guide the reader to a further level of interpretation, the ‘letter’ cannot here be appreciated simply as the provisional step leading to the ‘spirit’, i.e. the spiritual intelligence of the Song which is in principle the only one permitted for Origen in this biblical love poetry. Instead of that, through the discourse engaged by the dramatic interpretation, on the one hand, there is an overlapping of both the ‘historical’ and the ‘spiritual’ explanation and, on the other hand, the dramatic exegesis also delivers a surplus of sense which is not totally subsumed in the spiritual interpretation. At moments the Song as ‘play’ seems therefore to gain in Origen’s perceptive reading a life of its own.

Ionuţ ACRUDOAE, The prosopography of the militares from Pannonia in legio XV Apollinaris / 377 Marija BUZOV, Mljet -Melita in Dalmatia is the island of St. Paul's shipwreck (The Ragusan tradition on St. Paul's shipwerck) / 395 Alessandro CAPONE, Lectio Cypriani: De opere et eleemosynis / 423 Mª Pilar GONZÁLEZ-CONDE PUENTE, El lenguaje oficial de la anexión durante el gobierno de Trajano: los mensajes en las monedas / 441 Attila JAKAB, La ‛petite paix de l'Église'. Une période mal aimée des historiens du christianisme ancien / 477 Nicolas MATHIEU, Autour du nepos d'Alburnus Maior, Panes, fils de Bizo (AE, 2008, 1167 = AE, 2007, 1201): petit-fils ou neveu / 497 Lucreţiu MIHAILESCU-BIRLIBA, Mobilität und Politik der Rekrutierung in der römischen Armee. Der Fall der Soldaten und der Veteranen der Legio I Italica / 527 Monika PESTHY SIMON, Marie, mère du Christ / 535 Liviu PETCU, Teologia devenirii şi a dorinţei la Sfântul Grigorie de Nyssa / 561 Luigi PIACENTE, I librarii nelle furerie dell'esercito romano / 593 Sanja PILIPOVIĆ, Le rappresentazioni di Elio/Sol nella Moesia Superiore / 599 *** RECENZII ŞI NOTE BIBLIOGRAFICE -RECENSIONI E SCHEDE BIBLI-OGRAFICHE / 627 CLÉMENT D'ALEXANDRIE, Quel riche sera sauvé? (Constantin-Ionuţ MIHAI) / 627; GELU FLOREA, Dava et Oppidum. Débuts de la genèse urbaine en Europe au deuxième âge du Fer (Alexandru BERZOVAN) / 631; FLORIEAN TUCĂ, EUGEN SITEANU, Acţiunile şi concepţiile militare ale regilor Daciei de după Burebista (Nelu ZUGRAVU) / 635; LIVIO ZERBINI (a cura di), Roma e le province del Danubio de personnes dans l'Empire romain. Transformations, adaptation, évolution (Sorin NEMETI) / 641; RADU OTA, De la canabele legiunii a XIII-a Gemina la Municipium Septimium Apulense (Nelu ZUGRAVU) / 645; BAJUSZ ISTVÁN, Amfiteatrul de la Porolissum şi amfiteatrele din provinciile romane de la Dunărea de Mijloc (Nelu ZUGRAVU) / 649; CRISTIAN GĂZDAC, FRANZ HUMER, Viaţa cotidiană romană prin monede. Descoperirile monetare în context arheologic dintr-un cartier rezidenţial din Carnuntum (Nelu ZUGRAVU) / 651; IULIAN MOGA, Culte solare şi lunare în Asia Mică în timpul Principatului (secolele I-III d. Hr.) (Sorin NE-METI) / 652; GIOVANNI ANTONIO NIGRO, "Esultate giusti". Il salmo 32 (LXX) nell'esegesi patristica (Nelu ZUGRAVU) / 657; GABRIELLA ARAGIONE, ENRICO NORELLI, FLAVIO G. NUVOLONE (Études réunies par), A Diognète. Visions chrétiennes face à l'empire romain (Attila JAKAB) / 658; GABRIELLA ARAGIONE et ENRICO NORELLI (Édités par), Des évêques, des écoles et des hérétiques (Attila JAKAB) / 660; Les Pères de l'Église et la chair. Entre incarnation et diabolisation. Les premiers chrétiens au risque du corps (Attila JAKAB) / 663; ALESSANDRO PAGLIARA, Retorica, filosofia e politica in Giuliano Cesare (Andrea MADONNA) / 669; PASCAL-GRÉGOIRE DELAGE (éd.), Paulin de Nole et l'amitié chrétienne (Attila JAKAB) / 672; CRISTIAN BĂDILIŢĂ, EMANUEL CONŢAC (editori), Şi cerul s-a umplut de sfinţi... Martiriul în Antichitatea creştină şi în secolul XX (Nelu ZUGRAVU) / 675; ANDREA STERK, Monahul-episcop în Antichitatea Târzie. Renunţând la lume dar totuşi conducând Biserica (Ana ODOCHICIUC) / 678; GARRY WILLS, Augustine's Confessions (Attila JAKAB) / 680; LĂCRĂMIOARA STRATULAT, IOAN IAŢCU, Arta pelerinajului: obiecte creştine în spaţiul est şi sud-est carpatic (secolele IV-XVI) (Teodor BORDEIANU) / 682; NOTE DE LEC-TURĂ. VI (Nicolae GUDEA) / 684; RAMIRO DONCIU, L'empereur Maxence (Angelica-Mihaela MIRON) / 687; IOAN STANCIU, Locuirea teritoriului nord-vestic al României între antichitatea târzie şi perioada de început a epocii medievale timpurii (mijlocul sec. V -sec. VII timpuriu) (Tiberiu-Theodor PLĂCINTĂ) / 691 Nelu ZUGRAVU, Cronica activităţii ştiinţifice a Centrului de Studii Clasice şi Creştine (2013) -Cronaca dell'attività scientifica del Centro di Studi Classici e Cristiani (2013) / 695 Nelu ZUGRAVU, Publicaţii intrate în Biblioteca Centrului de Studii Clasice şi Creştine -Pubblicazioni entrate nella Biblioteca del Centro di Studi Classici e Cristiani / 701 Classica et Christiana, 8/2, 2013, 375,

Introduzione 1. La condanna cristiana degli spettacoli come problema storico, 8-2. L'ipotesi (letteraria) di una presenza cristiana nei luoghi di spettacolo, 16-3. La realtà (storica) di un giudizio radicalmente negativo, 23-4. Insufficienza delle spiegazioni tradizionali e primi approcci verso un nuovo paradigma interpretativo, 25-5. Oggetto, delimitazione del campo e piano della presente ricerca, 53 CAPITOLO PRIMO Gli spettacoli come problema nella società antica 67

Michael Segal, “Interpreting History in Qumran Texts,” in M. Kister, M. Segal, and R. Clements (eds.), The Religious Worldviews Reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature (STDJ 127; Leiden: Brill, 2018), 212–244.

I presented my paper, "THE REDISCOVERY OF CODEX BEZAE CANTABRIGIENSIS AND ITS SUBSEQUENT EFFECT ON THE RECEPTION OF LUKE 16:19-31" in room Central 214 of the Pontifical Gregorian University on Friday, July 05. My lecture was part of the Synoptic Gospels program unit (chairs: J. R. C. Cousland and John P. Harrison), which met for presentation at the 2019 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in Rome, Italy (July 01-05, 2019). The Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Gregorian University were the host institutions.

Description:
The Synoptic Gospels, which have formed a coherent unit since antiquity, have played an important role in modern scholarship. This section provides an open forum for the presentation of papers, from a variety of perspectives and using a variety of methods, on these seminal religious texts.

Call for papers:
This year’s primary focus will be on the parables in the Synoptic tradition. The Synoptic Gospels Section will have three sessions: i) a session for invited papers only on the parables; ii) a general invitation for papers related to the parables in the synoptic tradition, with particular focus on matters of material culture and methodologies; and iii), a general invitation for papers on the Synoptic Gospels. There are plans to publish a selection of studies on the parables.

Go here for uncorrected proofs: http://kellenplaxco.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/5/4/26547638/vc_070_04_1277-plaxco.pdf

This article provides an account of Didymus’s subtle attention to theological nuance and invites readers to reconsider his importance for the theological debates of the late fourth century. The polemical shape of Didymus the Blind’s theology of the trinity is underdetermined. This article argues that Didymus responded to Eunomius’s first Apology. The argument takes the shape of a short history of the reception of John 16:14. This verse was used in anti-monarchian tradition to distinguish the Holy Spirit from the Son, but it also led to low pneumatologies that in some cases implied angelomorphic pneumatology. Eunomius’s pneumatology in Apology 25 is a radicalization of this anti-monarchian reading of John 16:14, which Didymus opposed with careful attention to Scripture’s usage of terms for “pouring out.”

In the biblical theophanies of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3, divine condescension and human ascent constitute reciprocal ecstatic moves towards a divine–human encounter. The christological interpretation, widespread in early Christian reception history, further discerns in Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3 an anticipation of the radical condescension of the Logos-made-human and, conversely, an anticipation of the deifying ascent of humanity in Christ. Finally, the early Christian reading of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3 as ‘christophanies’ – that is, as manifestations of the Logos-to-be-incarnate – also allows us a glimpse into the performative aspect and experiential claims of early Christian exegesis, broadly construed to also incorporate hymnography, iconography and ritual.

A discussion of how G.R.S. Mead shaped 20th-century Anglophone discourse about Gnosticism decades prior to the Nag Hammadi discovery, through his interpretation of the Askew and Bruce Codices, and his popularization of the work of Berlin Coptologist Carl Schmidt. Thanks in part to Mead, the reception-history of the Askew and Bruce Codices goes straight through histories of esotericism, occultism, and magic in the twentieth century.

Resumo Este artigo propõe definir um modelo de texto para o texto religioso, em geral, e para o texto bíblico, em especial, por meio de referenciais da semiótica da cultura, dos estudos discursivos e da estética da recepção. Três conceitos se articulam de forma dinâmica: texto, contexto e leitor. A) O texto religioso é estruturalmente complexo, tributário da densidade narrativa do mito e da hiperconectividade da metáfora. B) Textos religiosos são lidos e recriados em redes textuais na história, seus contextos. C) Por fim, o leitor acessa os textos criativamente, atualizando suas possibilidades de sentido. Desta forma propomos um modelo articulado de texto que enfatiza sua polissemia e virtualidade, sua historicidade radical e o papel ativo do leitor. Palavras-chave: texto, contexto, leitor, texto religioso, literatura bíblica.
Abstract This article proposes to define a textual model for the understanding of the religious text, in general, and of the biblical texts, in particular, by means of references from the semiotics of culture, of the discoursive studies and the aesthetics of reception. Three conceptions articulate themselves in a dynamic way: text, context, and reader. A) The texts are considered as structurally complex, narratively dense as the myth, and hiper-connective as the metaphor. B) Religious texts are read and recreated in textual webs in history, their contexts. C) Finally, the reader accesses the text creatively, activating their meaning possibilities. So, we propose an articulated model of text that emphasizes its polysemy and virtuality, its radical historicity, and the active role of the reader.

Tercero Efe es un colectivo de aficionados a la fotografía que recrea, a veces muy apócrifamente, las imágenes de la realidad con la que se cruzan en la vida ordinaria. Entre estas imágenes se encuentran, también, obras clásicas de tema bíblico frente a las cuales el diafragma de la cámara de Tercero Efe ajusta la luz de lo singularmente gaditano para producir reinterpretaciones de las mismas muy "caleteras".

When viewed through the lens of Lutheran political polemic, as Luther attempted to reconcile Christianity with the politics of the reformed Christian state, the main action of Hamlet manifests as a work of thematic coherence. Rather than support Luther's contention that Christians are sometimes justified in killing and sometimes not, Shakespeare presents a middle ground that allows for governments to go to war and execute law breakers who warrant death, while preserving a Christian's freedom to abstain from these roles that might jeopardize salvation.

The question of the historical reliability of the Biblical stories stands in the center of a long debate among biblical scholars, and many have adopted decisive positions on this issue, to one side or the other. This article comes to undermine the decisiveness and replace it with a question mark. For this purpose, we shall deal with one of the least historical stories in the book of Judges, "The Outrage in Gibeah" (Judges 19-21). Due to the structure and style of the narrative, which have been analyzed extensively, most researchers believe it to be completely fictional and with no basis in historical reality. In this article we shall reexamine various clues in the book Samuel that seem to indicate that this story has a certain historical basis. And if a story of such "literary" character has an historical core, then the exaggerated decisiveness of the positions on this issue seem to become undermined, also with regard to other stories in the Bible.

Questions about areas of controversy or conflict between the Christian faith and the academic discipline can (and sometimes do) assume an easy dichotomy between the two. One's dual commitments to "the Faith" and the guild are often seen as competing allegiances, each vying for possession of the Christian soul. The guild may even be perceived as intolerant or antagonistic toward the Christian faith. Would-be Ph.D. students of evangelical backgrounds, for example, are often warned not to be naïve, but to be suspicious of secular institutions of higher learning. Such was my experience, as I left Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.; Th.M.) for doctoral work in NT at Emory University. The problem with the aforementioned formulation, however, is the a priori "us versus them" mentality it fosters-a mentality that can foreclose genuine learning opportunities and undermine the very faith it seeks to defend. It also assumes a broad consensus among Christians on the identity and definition of those items of the faith in need of safeguarding vis-à-vis "the guild." Little did I know that upon returning to my alma mater, I would be the one suspected of having wavered from "the Faith."

JBL 137.3 (2018): 555-79.

The postmodern turn in the humanities is now at a point that requires response and revision to some deconstructionist trends. As a case study, this article examines the inversion principle formulated by Claude Lévi-Strauss against Yair Zakovitch’s analysis of mirror narratives through three examples. In the first example, the mirror narratives of two destructions in Genesis are shown to be better explained by the inversion principle. The second example considers aspects of the Mesopotamian flood hero Utnapishtim that have been divided in subsequent Jewish traditions between Enoch and Noah. The third example considers the transformation of the myth of the sacrificial son in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These three examples lead to the following conclusions: (1) that other myths, particularly in Genesis, should be reconsidered in light of the inversion principle; (2) that this principle is crucial for the reception history of biblical narratives, as seen in the development of the figure of the flood hero in Second Temple Judaism; and (3) that intentional adaptations are equally susceptible to the subconscious structural changes that occur in the intercultural journeys of myth, as described by Lévi-Strauss.

While there is significant scholarship on George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, and particularly on its proto-Zionist and proto-feminist ethos, no scholar has yet traced the central place of the Book of Esther in the novel. Moreover, none have noted the Book of Esther's significance as a central source text for her elucidation of both these themes. This thesis offers an extensive analysis of George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda as a commentary on the Book of Esther, arguing that Eliot uses Esther’s story to respond to the “Jewish Question” as well as to reflect on attempts to redefine the position of women.  By providing a close reading of relevant portions of the Book of Esther, and through detailed character analysis, I argue that Eliot makes use of the biblical story to imagine a solution to the “Jewish Question,” a Jewish return to Israel, and call into question the oppressive societal norms applied to women.  Eliot’s Ezra Mordecai is an “enhanced” version of the Mordecai of the bible, fused with the biblical figure of Ezra to combat the antisemitism of late nineteenth century Britain through a Zion-centered nationalist vision. Eliot also casts Gwendolen in the mold of Vashti, borrowing from the unconventional gender roles of the Book of Esther to bring to life a fiercely independent, provocative, and yet tragic female figure who defies gender expectations. And like the Book of Esther itself, Eliot interweaves and compares the plight of women and the plight of Jews, particularly through her protagonist, Daniel. Daniel is Eliot’s Esther unbound, an orphan taken under Mordecai’s wing, possessing the sensitivities of a woman and yet transformed into a “new man” and a “new Jew” with the realization of his true ethnic and religious identity. Through Daniel, and through the female figures most central to his life and experience, Eliot calls for a change in both Jews’ and women’s status as the “other,” comparing their powerlessness and subjugation to the will of a dominant patriarchy and/or society, and articulating a need for the emancipation of both.

Philosophers have often described theism as the belief in the existence of a “perfect being”—a being that is said to possess all possible perfections, so that it is all-powerful, all-knowing, immutable, perfectly good, perfectly simple, and necessarily existent, among other qualities. But such a theology is difficult to reconcile with the God we find in the Bible and Talmud. The Question of God’s Perfection brings together leading scholars from the Jewish and Christian traditions to critically examine the theology of perfect being in light of the Hebrew Bible and classical rabbinic sources. Contributors are James A. Diamond, Lenn E. Goodman, Edward C. Halper, Yoram Hazony, Dru Johnson, Brian Leftow, Berel Dov Lerner, Alan L. Mittleman, Heather C. Ohaneson, Randy Ramal, Eleonore Stump, Alex Sztuden, and Joshua I. Weinstein.

يناقش البحث اعتراض و تشكيك فى مصداقية الوحى المقدس لسفرى الملوك
و يتلخص الاعتراض فى اسم الملك( سوا) فرعون مصر
ورد اسم هذا الفرعون (سوا) في سفر الملوك الثانى و هو الملك الذى تحالف معه هوشع ابن ايلة اخر ملوك المملكة الشمالية و يجد الناقد هنا ضالته حيث انه لا يوجد ملك لمصر بهذا الاسم و لهذا وجب التحليل اللغوى و التاريخى للاحداث و الاشخاص لايضاح الراى الاقرب للحقيقة

This is a presentation of my PhD thesis, with the title: Justice and Righteousness in the Prophecy of Amos and their Relevance to Issues of Contemporary Social Justice in Ghana. It Summarizes the content of the study and its contribution to scholarship.

The reception history of the woman Bathsheba shows a great variety of different traditions, aspects and motifs. In most cases, you will come across the attempt to conceive the character Bathsheba as “victim” or “intriguer” usually by means of the divisive attribution. This examination pursues the question of why such a disparate interpretation is prevailing and provides the biblical depiction of the character Bathsheba as one reason. Typical of the biblical narratives relating to Bathsheba (first of all 2Sam 11, but also 2Sam 12,24 et seq. and 1Kings 1–2 ) is an open-ness in her character description that is implemented in a variety of ways while reading the texts, or else in later receptions. In a second step, Bathsheba’s depiction as femme fatale appearing in drama texts from around the turn of the century (Alberti, 1904; Lehmann, 1920) is picked out as an example from the diverse reception history of this character. The (very common) dicho-tomy of Bathsheba as “victim” or “intriguer” proves inadequate here. This form of description of Bathsheba may only be fully grasped by including the historical context, namely the concepts of womanhood around 1900.

In this presidential address, I outline a history of pentecostal/charismatic reception. I explore different ways that pentecostal/charismatic believers have received, appropriated, and used Acts 8 throughout our history. I propose that a reception of more than one hundred years of pentecostal musings over Acts 8 provides a snapshot of our extended pentecostal family. I suggest up front that this family history exposes pentecostal/ charismatic notions about the nature of biblical interpretation. I conclude with general observations from my research and suggest further implications for students and scholars interested in reception history.

The present article seeks to describe, analyze, and evaluate the modern scholarly attempts to grapple with the moral issues about good and evil in the Hebrew Esther story. The first part of the article examines the anti-Semitic sentiments looming behind the pre-World War II European, especially the Protestant, commentators’ ethics assessments of the book of Esther and its Jewish characters, before pointing out a blind spot in these assessments. The second part of the article offers a systematic analysis of the gradual change of attitude induced mainly by the Jewish scholars in the aftermath of the Second World War. Lastly, the paper turns the spotlight on the Esther studies conducted by recent feminist and other marginalized biblical scholars. Attempts are made to demonstrate how their works, coming from different social contexts, enrich the academic discussions about good and evil in the book of Esther.

Introduction to Messianic Judaism provides a description of what the Messianic Jewish community looks like today at its center and on its margins. The first section of the book traces the ecclesial contours of the community, providing a socio-historical and theological snapshot of the community's origins, where it is presently and where it is heading. Alongside these chapters, the book also includes a number of essays on biblical and theological issues central to the identity of Messianic Judaism. The twelve contributors to the first part of the book are recognized leaders in the Messianic Jewish community. They work with various organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council, Tikkun International, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Israel College of the Bible and the New School for Jewish Studies. Fourteen scholars from a wide spectrum of Christian backgrounds have written essays for the second part of the book. Their participation signals a growing academic and ecclesial interest in Messianic Judaism. Since the 1970s, a sea change has taken place in New Testament studies that has far-reaching implications for how the church evaluates Messianic Judaism. A broad reassessment of the New Testament writers’ view of Judaism has occurred since the publication of E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), and this reevaluation continues unabated. The contributors to the second part of Introduction to Messianic Judaism draw from this recent scholarship and demonstrate how post-supersessionist interpretation of the New Testament results in readings of the biblical text that are consistent with Messianic Judaism. The final section of the book is written by Joel Willitts who provides a summary and synthesis of the essays, explaining how they shed light on the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of Messianic Judaism.

Available solely from Apple iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/king-david-and-his-reign-revisited/id741571300?mt=11

Of all the Bible’s personalities, David is the most profoundly human. Courageous, cunning, and complex, he lives life to the hilt. Whatever he does, he does with all his might, exuding both vitality and vulnerability.

But what do we know about the historical David? Why didn't the biblical authors present a more flattering image of him? Why are their stories of his life filled with so many confusing details (about people, places, communities, and so on)? And why do these stories stand at the center of the Bible?

In this groundbreaking study, the award-winning biblical scholar Jacob L. Wright answers these fundamental questions. He shows how the earliest biblical sources knew David as a warlord whose greatest feat is the creation of the kingdom of Judah. Only later did David become known as the one who slew Goliath, won the love of Jonathan and Michal, took the throne of Saul,  and ruled Israel.

This beautifully designed enhanced book reveals the political concerns that prompted later generations to drastically transform David’s identity. As the first work of its kind, King David and His Reign Revisited features a dazzling array of paintings, photographs, and multimedia. Drawing on his research on war commemoration, Wright introduces an exciting new approach to the interpretation of biblical literature.


***Redaction history of much of the Book of Samuel, with extensive chapter on Chronicles. Appealing to findings from NEH-funding research project on "war commemoration," it presents new model of the formation of biblical literature and Israel's ethnogenesis.  Argues that the David narrative was originally fully separate from the Saul narrative, and that the David narrative was solely focused on the Kingdom of Judah (lacking any reference to Israel).***

What is the relationship between the Bible and philosophy? Several recent scholarly ventures pursue this question to various ends. The Society of Biblical Literature has a new program unit dedicated to Hebrew Bible and philosophy, which Jaco Gericke and I co-chair. Recent works on the intersection of philosophy and the Bible have prompted a wide response from philosophers and theologians (less so from biblical scholars). Eleonore Stump’s work on theodicy has consistently featured biblical exegesis, including her most recent text Wandering in Darkness. Yoram Hazony’s The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture received in-depth attention in this journal with four separately authored responses (“Symposium,” vol. 2, 2014). In December 2015, a conference was dedicated solely to reconciling theological conceptions of God with Scripture (“The Question of God’s Perfection,” hosted by the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem through John Templeton funding). In line with the recent spate of work at this intersection of Bible and philosophy, this review considers two recent monographs on the topic, emphasizing the methodological distance between them.

This paper is an attempt to redress a critical imbalance in studies of Prince's religious and theological outlook and is structured in three parts. In the first part I wish to contextualise Prince’s reception of the Bible against the principal exegetical tendencies of the Seventh-Day Adventist church, which Prince was raised in. In the second part, I focus on Prince’s appropriation of the Genesis’ creation accounts, noting that he finds in these texts a quasi-divinisation of human sexuality. In the final part of the paper, I look at the depiction of Jesus we find encoded within Prince’s music. Prince is overwhelmingly interested in the Jesus of the second coming, and his engagement with biblical texts reflects an enthusiasm and yearning for the eschaton. In the conclusion I seek to draw together these strands of Prince’s engagement with the Bible, arguing that Prince symbolises humanity’s relationship with God ultimately as a sexual relationship, culminating in a climactic eschatological event.

Augustine’s support for the Septuagint as the true Christian Old Testament never waned, but his understanding of the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint did develop over his career. His earliest statements assume that the Seventy translators faithfully rendered the Hebrew text, with any discrepancy resulting from ambiguity in the source text. His correspondence with Jerome convinced him that there was more to it than that. Augustine’s mature writings evidence an innovative theory whereby both the Hebrew text and its Greek translation could be correct, guiding the reader to spiritual insight, even if they said different things.

A comparison of  two deifying statements about Moses in Ex 4:16 and in Ex 7:1 in their respective literary contexts. As a result, Ex 7:1 is understood as a priestly attempt to safeguard the practical hierocracy in Jerusalem during the Persian era. Clearly dependent on it and therefore younger, the statement in Ex 4:16 is interpreted as an attempt of  non-priestly Jewish circles to come to terms with this state of matters.

Die Erzählung von Kain und Abel wird in der rabbinischen Literatur häufig aufgegriffen. Ihre Auslegung in aggadischen Midraschim bezieht sich nicht auf eklektische Zitatsplitter, sondern spielt den Kontext der aufgerufenen Verse immer mit ein. Dabei arbeitet die rabbinische Exegese mit "Traditionsstücken", die bestimmte Zitatzusammenhänge vorgeben. Die Autorin analysiert diese Traditionsstücke und ihre Einbindung in den Empfängertexten. Ihr methodischer Ausgangspunkt ist die Intertextualitätsforschung, die sie mit der jüngeren Midraschforschung auf innovative Weise vernetzt. In unterschiedlicher Weise ziehen die rabbinischen Autoren die Traditionsstücke heran, um Kain und Abel zu Identifikationsfiguren für den Leser zu machen: Während Kain eher für das Individuum steht, ermöglicht Abel kollektive Deutungen. Kain kann negativ (als Mörder) oder positiv (in seiner Umkehr) bewertet sein. Gemeinsam ist beiden Figuren, dass sie je in ein Verhältnis zu Israel gesetzt sind. (Klappentext)

Delilah is one of the more enigmatic characters in the Bible. She is marked by a series of ambiguities in the text that pose a host of unanswered questions. Is she a Philistine, an Israelite, or something else? What exactly does her name mean and what is the nature of her relationship to Samson? And why does she help the Philistines capture Israel’s notorious strongman? Despite all this ambiguity, much of her reception history is rigidly consistent. The dominant trend is the portrayal of Delilah as the reviled seductress who bedevils Samson. This interpretation was also promulgated among ancient readers of the story, such as Josephus and Pseudo-Philo, who identify Delilah not only as a prostitute and a Philistine, but as the wife of Samson. These types of interpretive gap-filling serve as early exemplars of a long and nearly unwavering reception history in which Delilah is unequivocally the villain. If there is any other interpretive potential lying dormant in the text, then it is rarely actualized. Building upon the work of contemporary feminist and womanist scholars, I intend to subvert that trend by arguing that Delilah can and should be read in a variety ways due to the intentional ambiguity employed by the biblical author. Furthermore, by drawing upon the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, I will identify the “unfinalizability” of Delilah’s character and demonstrate how she simultaneously embodies the role of victim, victor, and villain.

The far right is on the rise across Europe, pushing a battle scenario in which Islam clashes with Christianity as much as Christianity clashes with Islam. From the margins to the mainstream, far-right protesters and far-right politicians call for the defence of Europe's Christian culture. The far right claims Christianity. "The Claim to Christianity" investigates contemporary far-right claims to Christianity. Ulrich Schmiedel and Hannah Strømmen examine the theologies that emerge in the far right across Europe, concentrating on Norway, Germany and Great Britain. They explore how churches in these three countries have been complicit, complacent or critical of the far right, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. Ultimately, Schmiedel and Strømmen  encourage a creative and collaborative theological response. To counter the far right, Christianity needs to be practiced in an open and open-ended way which calls Christians into contact with Muslims.