The Wedding Feast (γάμος) as an Image of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew

My own approach to finding the historical Jesus in the text of the New Testament may appear to some as extreme. It seems to me that Mark, the earliest gospel version on the life of Jesus compiled shortly after the destruction of the Second Jewish by the Romans in 70 C.E., contains authentic traces of the historical Jesus shrouded in repeated motifs of secrecy which are intended to obscure the role of Jesus as a political revolutionary sympathizer involved in the Jewish national struggle against Rome. When the Gospel of Mark is analyzed in its own light, without recourse to the special status which canonical tradition confers, it is less history and biography and more historiosophy and parable. It also features an astute polemic against the Jewish Christian believers in Jerusalem, whose influence diminished considerably following the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., and a clever apology to make early Christianity palatable to Rome by not identifying Jesus with the national aspirations of the Jews. The Markan account on the trial of Jesus and his execution, along with the portrait of a pacifistic Christ, are for the most part historically questioned by S. G. F. Brandon, who sees in these narratives attempts by the Gentile Church to win Roman favor by exculpating Pontius Pilate from his share in the crucifixion of Jesus.(64) I agree. Regarding the Synoptic Gospels' (Mathew, Mark, Luke) account of Jesus before the Sanhedrin,(65) the trial before Pilate,(66) and the sentence of death,(67) the question of historical fairness intrudes into these accounts. Jesus is tried three times (the Sanhedrin night-trial which found him guilty of blasphemy, the trial before Herod Antipas, and the dawn-trial before Pilate), and so which court decisively condemned Jesus?(68) Where in the biblical-talmudic tradition is blasphemy defined by claiming that one is the the Son of the Blessed?(69) Lev 24:13-23 and Sanhedrin 7.5 proclaim that whoever curses God is guilty of blasphemy.(70) Rarely recorded are malediction and impious profanity by one who claims to be a messianic figure. True, Josephus reported many messianic pretenders between 6 and 70 C.E., but we have no record of any put to death. Bar-Kochba was called Messiah by Akiba, but tradition does not speak ill of either second-century hero. And no less a personality than Maimonides relegated the messianic doctrine to a secondary position among the articles of faith rendered in his name. Also, one guilty of blasphemy was stoned to death and not killed by crucifixion as recorded by Mark.(71) That Jesus was sympathetic to the Zealot cause may explain why the charges of sedition were not overtly denied by Jesus when asked, Are you the King of the Jews?(72) Other references support this view. One of the trusted disciples was Simon the Zealot.(73) The Zealot Movement, rooted in the tradition of being zealous for the Lord,(74) arose in the Galilee in the first decade of the first century. It may be assumed that the child Jesus raised in Nazareth would have listened often to tales of Zealot exploits against the hated Romans and how many of the former died martyrs' deaths in a futile attempt to replace the bondage of Rome with the yoke of the kingdom of heaven.(75) These childhood experiences listened to in earnest and awe caused the adult Jesus to sympathize with the anti-Roman feelings of his people. Thus, the cleansing of the Temple pericope is not to be read as anti-Temple but rather as a critique of the functionaries who collaborated with Rome.(76) This episode appears to have coincided with an insurrection in Jerusalem during the period of Gaius Caligula (34-41), in which the Zealots appear to have been involved.(77) The famous question concerning tribute to Caesar has Jesus saying, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's,(78) thereby implying Jewish support of Roman fiscal and political policy. This is an assimilable position and it is very doubtful that the historical Jesus identified with it. …

The Synoptic Gospels are a fundamental document of ascetic theology. They present a way of life. Their rich dogmatic content is largely implicit. The key-note is struck from the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in words which anticipate the whole: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. In St. Matthew’s nineteenth chapter is recorded the question of the rich young man, and our Lord’s commendation of those who have left all for his name’s sake. This passage is often claimed as the foundation charter of the religious state. Its great advantage is that it expresses far more clearly than the earlier teaching the distinction between the commandment, obedience to which is necessary for entrance into the kingdom, and the counsel offered to those who would be perfect.In the account which we have of the infant Church at Jerusalem distinction is not clearly made between the faithful who simply obeyed the commandments and the aspirants after perfection who followed the counsels. We might gather that the converts, as a matter of course and almost without exception, entered upon a way of life not unlike that which our Lord had counselled to the rich young man, and which was to be known as the “religious life” in the centuries to come. Yet St. Peter implied that Ananias was free to give up the price of his estate or not. His sin consisted precisely in lying about it to the Holy Ghost.

The links between the activity of preaching and theatrical activity are well established, and in two senses: preachers, who took the opportunity of staging mysteres or tableaux vivants to illustrate their sermons,1 were inspired strongly by customs, procedures and techniques borrowed from actors and the theatre.2 For their part the authors of the great mysteres concerning the Passion, centring on the mission of Jesus, did not hesitate to insert sermons, inspired by the codes of this genre for which the artes predicandi had laid down the rules from the twelfth century.3 The three great Passions of Eustache Mercade, Arnould Greban and Jehan Michel give scope for sermons, and, more and more important, seeing that as well, as JeanPierre Bordier recalls, the public life of Jesus consists largely of instructing and thus of preaching.4I should like to examine this theatrical preaching, in its form and its technique, in its insertion into the drama so as to separate the tone, and the distinctive manner of each of the three playwrights whose theme is essentially the same. But first it will be appropriate to give an idea of the corpus.5To enumerate the sermons contained in our mysteres is not very easy for the boundary between the form of a sermon and a simple conversation, an instruction from Jesus to his disciples or to a larger audience of Jews remains somewhat uncertain.With Mercade, the first character to appear is specifically the Precheur (Preacher) who intervenes four times in the mystere: the opening of Days 1 and 3 and the opening and closing of Day 4. This Presenter, given the responsibility of calming the 'devotes gens' (devout persons; 1. 13252) among the listeners, of presenting 'no jeu' (our play; 1. 55) to them, of introducing the action of a day, and of revealing the meaning, achieves his objective by committing himself to a sermon which takes for its theme (theume) the topic relevant to each day: A summo celo egressio ejus (He came down from the height of heaven) for the first; Circumdederunt me gemitu mortis, Dolores inferni circumdederunt me (The groans of death have surrounded me, the griefs of hell have surrounded me) for the second; Surrexit Dominus vere (The Lord is truly risen) to open Day 4, which closes with a short sermon whose theme recalls the initial one and completes it: A summo celo egressio ejus et occursus ejus usque ad summum ejus (He came down from the height of heaven and he has returned to the highest). Very consciously - he says it in the prologue of Day 1 and repeats it at the end of the mystere - the Precheur encompasses the whole narrative of the mystere in the net of his preaching. For Day 2 he gives way to John the Baptist who preaches on the following theme: Penitentiam agite, appropinquabit enim regnum celorum (Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand).One should add to this two contributions from Jesus. The first (Day 2) is a sermon short in form on the same theme as that of the Baptist - Penitentiam agite, appropinquabit enim regnum celorum - thus creating some redundance. A little later in the same day, Jesus preche en Sydon auxjuys (preaches in Sidon to the Jews; stage direction before 1. 8269); but this is teaching expressed in a passionate speech of some sixty-five lines rather than in a structured sermon. In all, then, six definite sermons of which four are put into the mouth of the only Precheur.With Greban the Precheur has disappeared, preaching being carried out by characters involved in the sacred history, John the Baptist and Jesus. John the Baptist is not directly thrust on to the stage. Instead the Presenter who pronounces the prologue of Day 2 introduces him, in a way, bringing forward the actor given the role: 'Jehan, venez vous advancer || de vostre sermon commancer' (John, come forward and begin your sermon; 11. 10008-09). John admonishes the people directing them to penitence, depending upon Isaiah, as in the Synoptic Gospels (11. …

The Dimensions of the Kingdom of Heaven in Saint Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on Matthew Matthew L. Martin In his inaugural lecture as a Master of Theology at the University of Paris, Saint Thomas Aquinas states that the three Synoptic Gospels "are distinguished according to the three dignities which relate to Christ the man. Of these, Matthew defines what pertains to the royal dignity; hence, in the beginning of his Gospel he shows that he had descended from kings according to the flesh, and shows him adored by the royal Magi."1 Thus, Aquinas's commentary on Matthew makes a natural place to start investigating the Angelic Doctor's treatment of the theme of the Kingdom of God. Earlier scholarship dated the Lectura super Mattheum to Thomas's first period as a Magister in Sacra Pagina at the University of Paris from 1256 to 1259.2 However, more recent work has concluded that it belongs to the second Parisian period, most likely during the academic year of 1269–1270.3 This means that the Matthew commentary is an immediate predecessor to Aquinas's better-known commentary on John, and as Jeremy Holmes points out, it is the work of "Aquinas at the height of his powers, with the entire patristic [End Page 871] tradition at his fingertips and a complete command of scholastic theology."4 Unfortunately, the text available to us may not represent Aquinas at his full brilliance. As Holmes notes, "the lectura come down to us through reportationes, that is, notes taken down by person in the audience and later filled out from memory or other sources to look more like the actual transcript of a lecture."5 Unlike the commentary on John, Thomas does not appear to have reviewed these notes for publication.6 In addition, the manuscript tradition is limited—only four manuscripts, from two sources, survive. "Peter [d'Andria] seems to have written down the comments on chapters 1–12 of Matthew, while Leodegar [of Besançon] recorded the lectures from 6.9 through to the end of the Gospel."7 The tradition is further complicated by the fact that the manuscripts are "not only incomplete but erroneous."8 Key portions of the text of chapters 5 and 6—dealing with the Sermon on the Mount—were missing from all the manuscripts available until recently; the commentary's first editor, Bartholomew of Sina, filled in the gaps with a commentary by Peter de Scala, a late-thirteenth-century Dominican.9 Fortunately for scholars of Thomas, in 1955, a copy of Peter d'Andria's reportatio containing the missing material was discovered in a library at Basel.10 Until recently, only fragments of this text were available to the public.11 However, as of September 2013, the Aquinas Institute of Lander, Wyoming, has published a Latin–English edition of the commentary on Matthew which, though primarily based on the earlier Marietti text, uses the Basel manuscript to correct the lacunae and replace the interpolated portions. While a final critical edition awaits the work of the Leonine Commission, for the first time, the academic community has easy access to a complete and uncorrupted version of the commentary text. Whatever faults remain in what has come down to us, this remains a valuable [End Page 872] commentary and source of insight into Aquinas's biblical theology, and thus to his doctrine on the Kingdom, which is harder to derive from his more famous systematic works. We should briefly address this commentary's relationship to Thomas's other major work on the Evangelists, the Catena aurea. Thomas began this collection of patristic commentary on the Gospels "at the request of Urban IV toward the end of 1262 or the beginning of 1263"12 and had the volume on Matthew ready to offer to that Pope before his death in October 1264.13 The rest of the text took somewhat longer to complete, but it was finished "between 1265 and 1268, before Thomas returned to Paris."14 Thus, it predates the commentary on Matthew, and Holmes, having selected the passage on the Transfiguration as "typical" of the commentary, concludes that "those parts of Thomas' text which are directly dependent...

This eclectic Festschrift presents significant articles on a wide range of topics in NT studies. While many recent Festschriften focus on select central themes, this volume remains decidedly heterogeneous. There are likely multiple items of interest for anyone in the field. Further, reading the whole provides a beneficial foray into an impressive assortment of topics under current discussion.The diversity of subject matter is itself modeled after Stan Porter’s own significant range of interests, evident in the opening 60-page “incomplete” bibliography of Porter’s own works (both as editor and author). Andrew Pitts catalogs these items under headings that include “Papyrology, Textual Criticism, and the Canon of the New Testament,” “New Testament Greek Grammatical and Linguistic Study,” “Translation Theory and Application,” “Pauline Studies,” “Historical Jesus Research,” “Synoptic Gospels,” “Luke–Acts,” “Johannine Studies,” “Hermeneutics, History of Interpretation, and Interpretive Methodologies,” “Rhetorical Criticism,” “The Social World of the New Testament,” “The Use of the Old Testament in the New,” and “Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education/Scholarship.” Such an extensive bibliography reminds those of us who have appreciated Porter’s extremely fruitful career over the years that few of us even know the half of it. It also elucidates why colleagues and former students of Porter have written in his honor on such an array of issues.Among the many standout essays, one can only provide a sample. Sean Adams tests his suggestive proposal that dutiful scribes might well (in addition to the text) copy sense-unit divisions from their Greek exemplars (as Galen himself represented in the second century), providing an additional means of tracing manuscript families; Adams himself proves that the theory works well in select manuscripts of Clement of Alexandria, though it provides less clear results in early NT codices. Craig Evans opposes Roger Bagnall’s argument against the second-century date of several early NT papyri, especially where Bagnall draws on Rodney Starks’s demographic work to suggest that the small percentage of Christians in second-century Egypt would have produced only a few NT manuscripts; Evans helpfully queries the demographic assumptions that underlie Bagnall’s contention. Buist Fanning continues his famous ongoing debate with Porter about the best aspectual explanation for the Greek verb, doing so by determining areas of agreement and (especially) disagreement with David Mathewson’s application of Porter’s aspectual system to the book of Revelation.Mark Boda insightfully contends that the whole of Malachi—indeed, the theological trajectory from Haggai to Malachi—is reflected in the opening chapter of Luke’s Gospel. Charles Hill provides a well-argued account of why John 21:24 indicates that the Beloved Disciple bears authorial responsibility for the whole of that Gospel (contra Culpepper, Brown, et al.); Hill provides parallels and rationale for how the author employed third-person references to himself in order to provide a climatic moment of self-disclosure concerning his privileged eyewitness relationship to the loving Savior.Concerning Athenian charges in Acts 17 that Paul sought to introduce “foreign deities,” Eckhard Schnabel collates a remarkable mini-sourcebook and meticulous analysis of literary and documentary sources (inscriptions and papyri) that illustrate a general aversion among Athenians to receive new deities/cults into the city; he further notes that, when Athenians did accept foreign cults, they often first domesticated those foreign deities by identifying them with traditional Greek gods, which Paul’s preaching simply did not permit.Jimmy Dunn provocatively asserts that interpretations of Paul among the Gnostics, Marcion, and Irenaeus represent a range of early reception of the Pauline epistles, pointing to the complexity of Paul’s contrarian agenda; thus, Dunn warns that a modern “Pauline-type church or theology will always have inner tensions, be rather lumpy, allow or encourage diverse forms and expressions” (pp. 533–34). Nick Perrin constructs an innovative proposal concerning Romans 13:1–7, teasing out subtle verbal resonances between this text and Habakkuk and suggesting that a Jewish-influenced community (still believing itself to be in exile) would have understood Paul’s implication that the Roman leadership functioned in their day in a way analogous to the Babylonian overlords did during Habakkuk’s; Paul’s position therefore reaffirms the nonviolent goals of the Messiah, while invoking a hope for release from exilic submission.Craig Keener provides a detailed comparison of Paul’s “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22–23) with Stoic philosophical language, arguing that Paul’s readers would have observed points of common ground with philosophical ethics, although ultimately they would have understood his list to reflect God’s indwelling character indebted to the biblical tradition and the experience of the Spirit rather than to an external code. David Matthewson studies the opponents implied in Col 2:16–23, observing that all of the characteristics depicted there can also be found in Qumran documents; he thus asserts that the Colossian opponents are best explained as a non-syncretistic Jewish movement who stood outside the church, who did not affirm Jesus as the Christ, and who commended an ascetic and mystical form of religion.The book concludes with an essay by Beth Stovell, employing Porter’s criteria for analyzing the use of the OT in the NT in order to observe how the exodus theme of divine presence is interpreted by Paul and John in para-phrase, allusions, and echoes to indicate that there is in this age a continued Christian experience of the Spirit and God’s presence (Paul) and that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God’s presence/glory (John).This survey has overlooked more than half of the book, including (to inject a few more examples) Richard Hess’s defense of the dependence on Vaticanus in the Septuagint Commentary Series, articles that discuss continued development of computer tools for Greek NT linguistic analysis, Cynthia Long Westfall on οὖν as a discourse marker, Thomas Hatina on Isa 6 in Mark, Thomas Olbricht on the multiple OT “credos” that serve as a backdrop for Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, Darrell Bock arguing that the antiquity of Pauline Christology does not allow sufficient time for the kind of Christological development suggested by (among others) Bart Ehrman, Michael Kruger on the implications of 1 Tim 5:18 for delineating early Christian reception of writings about Jesus as bearing scriptural authority, and Bryan Dyer suggesting that Maccabean martyr traditions undergird Jas 5:10–11.In sum, NT scholars will find in this Festschrift a vast array of intriguing essays, which collectively remind us of the varied interests and prolific work of the book’s honoree.

It is a universally established fact that effective speech and writing comprise some basic and interconnected components such as preface, central theme, contextual flow, and conclusion. Absence of any of these elements may mar the beauty and effect of speech and writing. There is unanimity among Muslims, masses as well as scholars, over the Qur’an as the most effective speech revealed by Allah. The main reason for this quality of the Qur’an, as agreed by all Muslim scholars, is its inimitability (i‘jaz al-Qur’an). Yet, it is unbelievably surprising that most of the mufassirun (commentators of the Qur’an) right from the early periods of Islamic history until today ignored the task of identifying various components of Qur’anic Surahs and establishing link among them. Some commentators like Qazi Abd al-Jabbar, al-Haralliyy, al-Razi, al-Biqa’i, Syed Qutb, Syed Mawdudi, al-Farahi, and Islahi did attempt in their commentaries of the Qur’an to interpret the Surahs as thematically coherent by identifying link among various components of each and every single Surah. Some of them simply tried to show the link among all the verses of Qur’anic Surahs; and some others identified various themes in a Surah and suggested possible link among them. It appears that no commentator paid attention to identifying preface in Qur’anic Surahs, particularly large ones. It may not be imaginable that the Qur’anic Surahs do not have introductory part. The claim that preface does not exist in Qur’anic Surahs controverts the belief that the Qur’an is the most effective speech. This paper represents a humble attempt to research that each and every single surah, short or large, contains one or the other preface, at times, spreading over several verses in the beginning and, at times, covering only the first one or two verses. With the identification of preface in a Surah, the task of interpretation may become easier than ever before. This paper is divided into two main parts: (1) framework and role of preface in the interpretation of the Qur’an, and (2) identification of preface in some Surahs and its link to the rest of the verses in the particular Surah

Book Review| November 01 2021 Review: Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World, edited by Philippe Bornet Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World. Edited by Philippe Bornet. Equinox Publishing, 2021. 318 pages. $100.00 cloth; $32.00 paper; ebook available. W. Michael Ashcraft W. Michael Ashcraft Truman State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2021) 25 (2): 142–144. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2021.25.2.142 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation W. Michael Ashcraft; Review: Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World, edited by Philippe Bornet. Nova Religio 1 November 2021; 25 (2): 142–144. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2021.25.2.142 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search The central theme of Translocal Lives and Religion concerns moving in one's mind, or on earth, from place to place. Why do some people feel compelled to travel across physical as well as religious vistas, to find new insights, revelations, and ideas? Those of us who study such phenomena do not have definitive answers to this question. Ultimately, it remains largely a mystery why a small number of individuals—certainly small in the time period of most of the figures presented in this book—would go to such great lengths to reshape their identities, searching far and wide for the certainties that they seemed to crave. Ten case studies tell the story of multiple locations in time, space, memory, and history, occupied by various religious actors who were mobile, not only literally but also figuratively. They moved across and between continents in the nineteenth-century world both physically and in their minds, their... You do not currently have access to this content.

This dissertation deals with the effects of nuclear structure on the α-decay properties, and on the fission-yielddistributions from the decay of heavy nuclei. The nuclear-structure and decay properties of superheavynuclei is one of the central topics for investigation. α decay is treated in a microscopic approach employingSkyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov wave functions to describe the formation of an α cluster in the unstablenucleus. Fission is treated using the random-walk approach, where the nuclear level density obtained from adetailed model influences the dynamical evolution of the shape of the nucleus. The dissertation contains fiveoriginal research papers, and an introductory part containing background information and some additionaldetails of the studies.Paper I contains an investigation of the α-particle formation amplitudes and decay rates obtained withSkyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov wave functions for even-even near-spherical nuclei.Paper II contains a study of some more aspects of the description in Paper I.Paper III extends the application of the method in papers I and II to odd-mass near-spherical nuclei.Hindrance factors and the competition between α-decay paths to different excited states are investigated.Paper IV deals with the theoretical description of low-lying states in superheavy nuclei observed in α-decay and spectroscopy measurements on element 115 decay chains.Paper V contains results for fission-yield distributions obtained by combining the nuclear level densitiesfrom a combinatorial model with the five-dimensional shape space random-walk approach. The influence on theyields from the structure of the microscopically calculated level densities is investigated. (Less)

Eskatologi Injil Sinoptik memberikan penekanan yang sama dalam masa penggenapan nubuat Perjanjian Lama melalui kehadiran Yesus Kristus. Eskatologi menurut penulis Injil Sinoptik mengacu pada hal yang sama : Kerajaan Allah dijadikan penekanan dan dihadirkan dalam aspek masa kini dan masa datang. Kerajaan Allah telah hadir di tengah-tengah manusia dengan hadirnya Yesus Kristus ke dunia pada masa itu dan saat ini hadir dan memanifestasikan diri dalam kehadiran dan karya Roh Kudus dalam hidup orang percaya.Aspek lain yang ditekankan adalah apa yang seharusnya dilakukan oleh para murid pada masa penantian saat ini. Iman dan sikap hidup yang seperti apakah yang dituntut agar beroleh bagian dalam Kerajaan Surga.Yang berbeda dalam ketiga Injil itu terletak pada issue pokok setiap penulis Injil, yaitu : pada Lukas, eskatologi lebih menekankan issue “kesegeraan” dimana kedatangan Anak Manusia untuk menyelesaikan misi Allah bagi dunia akan terjadi “secepatnya”, dalam arti bahwa tanda-tanda yang menyertainya sudah ada ; pada Matius, yang ditekankan adalah pada aspek “penundaan” berhubung dengan masa penantian sehingga Yesus ingin agar para murid lebih berfokus pada apa yang perlu mereka lakukan dalam masa penantian ini agar mereka tidak kehilangan bagian yang telah dijanjikan itu ; pada Markus, kehadiran Kerajaan Allah menjadi pokok utama, dimana sesungguhnya kehidupan Kerajaan itu sendiri telah hadir di tengah-tengah umat percaya, dan di sisi lain juga menantikan datangnya penggenapan hadirnya Kerajaan Allah di masa yang akan datang.

Research Article| October 01 1996 The Parable of the Royal Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) and the Parable of the Lame Man and the Blind Man (Apocryphon of Ezekiel) Richard Bauckham Richard Bauckham Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1996) 115 (3): 471–488. https://doi.org/10.2307/3266897 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Richard Bauckham; The Parable of the Royal Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) and the Parable of the Lame Man and the Blind Man (Apocryphon of Ezekiel). Journal of Biblical Literature 1 January 1996; 115 (3): 471–488. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3266897 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

This research examines eschatology as a central theme in the Quran through a munasabah (correlation) approach focusing on three consecutive surahs: Qaf, Al-Dzariyat, and Al-Waqiah. This study identifies and analyzes the eschatological thematic coherence between these three surahs using content analysis and thematic interpretation methods. Results show that these surahs possess a unified eschatological theme that develops progressively: Surah Qaf establishes the possibility of resurrection, Al-Dzariyat emphasizes its certainty, and Al-Waqiah describes the event and its impacts in detail. This interconnection strengthens the argument that eschatology constitutes a central theme of the Quran conveyed through carefully organized literary structures. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the Quran's internal coherence and the significance of eschatology in its core message.

Matthew is a book full of richness in it. Matthew 13:44-46 is one of the parts of the book that has a central theme in Christian life, namely the kingdom of God. This article is written to discuss the process of discovering the joy of the kingdom of heaven. We conducted a biblical analysis of this book, with a focus on interpretation to understand the text and context of Matthew 13:44-46. The results show that there are three stages in the process of discovering the joy of the kingdom of heaven. The first stage is the discovery stage. In the discovery stage believers find a life value that brings believers to the joy of the kingdom of heaven. The second stage is the awareness stage. The awareness stage is when the believer realizes the value of life that has been discovered in the discovery stage. In this stage the believer realizes that the value of the kingdom of heaven is very precious, thus leading to the next stage. The third stage is the decision stage. The decision stage is the final stage after believers discover and realize the value of the kingdom of heaven. At this stage believers take action on the discovery by denying themselves as a form of giving their best for the sake of something more valuable, namely the kingdom of heaven.

THE first extended Biblical narrative in the Middle English poem Cleanness is the poet’s paraphrase of the Matthean parable of the ‘Son’s Wedding and the Guest without a Wedding Garment’ (Matthew 22:1–14).1 The parable concerns a king who holds a wedding feast. When the preparations are all ready, the persons who had been invited to the feast offer excuses and refuse to come; some of the invited guests even mistreat and kill the servants who were sent to invite them. The king then destroys the city where these malefactors lived. Afterwards, to fill the place of those unwilling to come, the king sends his servants out into the highways and they invite anyone they can find to come to his feast. When, however, one of these newly invited guests is found to be dressed inappropriately, the king has his servants cast him into outer darkness for his presumption. Although the language of the poem is not explicit, it would seem that the Cleanness poet interprets the conclusion of the parable in terms of sexual purity, a concern that is one of the central themes of the poem. The phrasing of the beginning of this narrative, however, is quite difficult, and the poet’s account of the summoning of the newly invited wedding guests includes one line in particular which the various editors and commentators have not satisfactorily explained. Thenne þe sergauntez, at þat sawe, swengen þeroute, And diden þe dede, þat demed as he deuised hade, And with peple of alle plytez þe palays þay fyllen; Hit weren not alle on wyuez sunez, wonen with on fader. Wheþer þay wern worþy oþer wers, wel wern þay stowed, Ay þe best byfore and bryʒtest atyred,(109–114)2 Then the officers, at that word, rush outside And performed the deed which was appointed, as he had specified. And they fill the palace with people of all conditions. [They] were not all the sons of one woman, begotten by one father. Whether they were of higher or lower rank, they were well placed, With those of highest rank and most splendidly attired always in front.

<i>Riding East</i>—Western Myths, Nostalgia, and the Crossing of Generic Boundaries in <i>Hidalgo</i> (2004)

Reviewed by: From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism: Ancient and Medieval Christian Constructions of Jewish History by Robert Chazan David Berger Robert Chazan. From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism: Ancient and Medieval Christian Constructions of Jewish History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xvi + 253 pp. doi:10.1017/S036400941900062X This book aims to assess the views of significant Christian authors on the trajectory of Jewish history, or, in an alternative phrase that almost serves as a refrain, the Jewish past, present, and future. It is divided into two sections, each of which contains four chapters. The first section addresses the Synoptic Gospels, Paul, Eusebius, and Augustine. The second analyzes the stances of Peter the Venerable (and, as a foil, Bernard of Clairvaux), Raymond Martini, Alphonso de Espina, and Martin Luther. The study is marked by Robert Chazan's signature qualities of erudition, insight, clarity, and balanced judgment. At the same time, the central theme of the book is beset by what strikes me as an element of artificiality. Thus, when one would normally say that someone was hostile to Jews, it becomes necessary to substitute or to add, at least periodically, that he had a negative assessment of the Jewish present. Moreover, the very classification of past and present is not entirely stable. One the one hand, there is a genuine Christian categorization distinguishing pre-Crucifixion Jews (who can be classified as the past) from post-Crucifixion Jews (who can be seen as the extended present), as well as a vision of an eschatological future where Jews will become (re)united with Christendom and hence saved. Chazan limns the contours of varying approaches to these transitions with great skill. However, his line between past and present sometimes adheres to this standard categorization and sometimes it does not. Thus, the Jewish past can refer not to pre-Crucifixion Jews but simply to a period like that of the Talmud, substantially earlier than that of the figure under discussion (130, 138–39). In a trivial sense, this shift reflects an ineluctable reality. When a medieval Christian figure writes about the Talmud, he is writing about the Jewish past. [End Page 454] But since he himself does not classify the Talmud as the product of an earlier era in a conceptual sense, it becomes problematic to compare his attitude to the Talmud or its authors to the approaches of Eusebius and Augustine to the Jews before the time of Jesus. As we examine the content of the book, its impressive qualities will emerge along with some challenges posed by its structure. The overall characterization of the Gospels is subtle and largely convincing. It contains little that deals directly with the trajectory of Jewish history, but it is necessary to set the stage. Similarly, the discussion of Paul has relatively little to say about the book's theme, but a critical component does. Here Chazan introduces Paul's expectation that at the end of days all Israel will be saved, which will play a central role in every subsequent examination of expectations regarding Israel's future. The analysis of Eusebius's approach presents a striking point about the Jewish past that was not characteristic, certainly not in its vigorous formulation, of most Christian writers through the ages. After the revelation at Sinai, Jews, he maintains, became the key civilizing force in the world. But once their punishment for the Crucifixion culminates in their exclusion from Jerusalem, Eusebius, unlike many Christian thinkers, loses interest in them. This is a refreshing and convincing presentation of an atypical approach, at least in tone, to the Jewish past. As to Augustine, Chazan formulates his theology in the language of the book's framework: the Jews had a great but increasingly flawed past, a present "flawed but rich with promise," and a future that is unambiguously positive (102). When we enter the Middle Ages, Chazan engages with three figures who are much less familiar to nonspecialists but whose work and environment he approaches with a command formed by years of impressive scholarship. Peter the Venerable's hostility to Jews is well known, as is the protection extended to Second Crusade–era Jews by his contemporary Bernard of Clairvaux. Chazan...