Biblical Literature Research Articles

Color Symbolism in the Castilian Atlantic Bibles: Initials and Scenes from the Bible of Avila (BNM, Vit. 15-1)

The Atlantic Bibles of the Umbro-Roman school are associated with the needs of the Gregorian Reform, which began at the end of the 11th century. Their first impression is one of great ornamental sobriety, in accordance with the early stages of what Garrison and Berg have labelled the “geometric style.” This was first manifested in the decoration we find concentrated in the initials heading the individual books of the Bible. In Castile, one outstanding example is the Bible of Avila, begun by the Umbro-Roman school and finished in a Castilian scriptorium. This double perspective can be observed in a similarly double palette of color: Italian and Spanish.
 It is especially in this second phase when a reduction to the minimum of polychromy leads us to think that color has here a symbolic use. Red and blue, having had symbolic connotations since the birth of Christian iconography, are the principal colors of the scenes illustrated in the Bible of Avila, with the addition of green and yellow, which are also rich with symbolism. This possible symbolism of color may work to reinforce the conceptual nature of these miniatures, in direct relation to the text they decorate and to the liturgy they accompany. The Bible in the Middle Ages, in the context of monastic schools, was the most important manuscript for teaching and learning. Its miniatures and the symbolism of its colors contribute to the transmission of meanings.

Апологія культурних засад освіти

Thisessaytakes Albert Einstein’smaxim: "moralitymeansmorethanintellect" as its point of departure and guiding idea. The presentauthorfollows Einstein’s motto in exhibiting the essence – ordifferentia specifica – of the profession of teacher of Polishlanguage and literature, whichapproximatesphilosophyunderstood as "love of wisdom". The authorfirstdraws on hispersonalexperiences and reflectionsconcerninghisprofession, and thenconfrontsthem with the categories of the longuedurée and the "eternalhuman" thatprovedfoundational to educationwithinMediterraneanculture. The semanticsphere of thesecategoriesdatesback to the books of the Bible and ismanifestedequally in Einstein’smaxim and through the centuries of Mediterraneanculturallegacy. Thisis the semanticsphere of literature’sgreatestworks, amongthem the Greek tragedies, the writings of William Shakespeare, FyodorDostoevsky, Joseph Conrad, Cyprian Norwid; broughtintosharp relief by Dietrich von Hildebrand in his Fundamental Moral Attitudes.

Transmission and Inclusion into the Chinese Canon of the<i> Sumatidārikā-paripṛcchā </i>Translated by Bodhiruci: The Nanatsudera七寺Manuscript

Zhisheng 智昇 (8th c.) considered the Sumatidārikā-paripṛcchā 須摩提経 translated by Bodhiruci as a separately circulating text (別生経) of Chapter XXX of the Mahāratnakūṭasūtra, and therefore excluded it from the canonical scriptures recorded in his famous catalogue Kaiyuan shijiao lu 開元釈教録 (730). The Sumatidārikā-paripṛcchā was, however, included in traditional Tripiṭaka editions belonging to the Zhongyuan 中原lineage, starting with the Kaibao 開宝 canon, and it is included in the Nanatsudera七寺manuscript collection as well. In order to identify the archetype of the Nanatsudera collection, I conjecture the existence of an older manuscript, most likely going back to the scriptural collection which Genbō 玄昉 (?–746) brought from China. A collation of the Nanatsudera text with the Jin金 canon and the Second Edition of the Korean 高麗 canon (both belonging to the Kaibao lineage) reveals that although there are some textual similarities, we can also see differences in formatting. This makes it difficult to conclude that the Nanatsudera text was based on a manuscript belonging to the same lineage as the Kaibao canon. Further research into the Ishiyamadera石山寺manuscript collection, which also contains the text, will shed light on the possibility of identifying a unique old manuscript lineage.

A ACOLHIDA E O LUGAR DO CORPUS JOANINO NO CÂNON DO NOVO TESTAMENTO

Este artigo visa a oferecer um estudo acerca da acolhida do corpus johannicum e de seu lugar no conjunto dos textos do Novo Testamento, visto que o mesmo tem suas particularidades próprias, a começar pelo fato de que não é um corpus “coeso”, que traga seus livros numa sequência, como temos, por exemplo, com as cartas paulinas. Ele conta com três gêneros de literatura bíblica, a saber: Evangelho, Carta/Epístola e Apocalipse. O corpus joanino, desde a Igreja Primitiva, sempre encontrou uma certa resistência no que tange à aceitação de mais da metade de seus textos, todos atribuídos a João Evangelista, no que diz respeito à sua autoridade apostólica. Ele conta com apenas cinco textos: um Evangelho, três Cartas e um Apocalipse. O Evangelho de João sofreu muitos ataques e acusações como sendo um texto pró-gnóstico; a segunda e a terceira cartas custaram a ter aceitação plena no cânon bíblico; o livro do Apocalipse foi aceito pela Igreja Ocidental e recusado pela Igreja Oriental, até que, por volta do final do séc. IV, finalmente entrou no cânon do NT. A primeira carta encontrou maior e mais fácil aceitação logo de início.

The Qur’ānic Dialogue with the Mystical Theology of Logos in John’s Gospel

The Qur’ān, the “Holy Writ” of Islam, builds its rationale of revelation on the scriptural model of biblical tradition. Embracing direct divine intervention in worldly affairs as the first principle within the constrictions of monotheistic theology, the Qur’ān resurrects biblical purview of an intermediary agency linking the transcendent divine with the terrestrial human, which the author of John’s Gospel identifies as “Logos”. This article argues that the Qur’ānic conception of kalām-Allah, at a conceptual level, engages with John’s mystical theology of the divine origin of the Logos-incarnate and reinterprets the conception as well as its application. This cornerstone of John’s theology formulates a crucial basis for the Qur’ānic narrator’s self-reflection through both content and form of revelation as such. Biblical literature written prior to Johannine appropriation of Logos does not cohere with John’s mystical paradigm, which the Qur’ān, on the other hand, brings to a whole new level of theological maturation. The Qur’ān dialogues with John’s Gospel at multiple levels on the principal question of God’s personal interaction with humanity and presents its nuanced metaphysical construct in conversation with the Logos principle, but in distinction from John’s incarnation theology.

The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: A Textual Analysis

The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: A Textual Analysis

Reconstructing the Temple: The Royal Rhetoric of Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Israel

Reconstructing the Temple: The Royal Rhetoric of Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Israel

Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings

Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings

『전경(典經)』 ｢교운(敎運)｣편 1장에 나타난 교운의 의미와 구절의 변이* 연구

『전경(典經)』 ｢교운(敎運)｣편 1장에 나타난 교운의 의미와 구절의 변이* 연구

Rebels in Biblical and Chinese Texts: A Comparative Study on the Interplay of Myth and History

This study offers a new approach for studying biblical myth in two directions: first, by expanding the scope of investigation beyond the clearly mythological elements to other areas of biblical literature, and second, by drawing comparisons to classical Chinese literature. This article thus reconsiders the relationship between myth and history in both biblical and Chinese literature, while seeking to broaden the endeavor of the comparative method in biblical studies. Two examples are offered: (1) the story of Moses’s call narrative and his relationship with Aaron in Exodus in light of the story of Xiang Liang and Xiang Ji in the Shiji; (2) the story of Saul and David in 1 Samuel compared with the story of Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Both comparisons demonstrate the operation of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s inversion principle. Conclusions regarding each of these literatures are presented separately, followed by cross-cultural insights and shared aspects in the study of myth, historiography, and religion.

La «grande meditacion de la figure» dans “Les regnars traversans les perilleuses voyes des folles fiances du monde” de Jean Bouchet

In Les regnars traversans les perilleuses voyes des folles fiances du monde (1501), Bouchet offers a meditative journey, punctuated with ten engravings from the edition of the Parisian bookseller Antoine Vérard, which recalls the monastic and rhetorical tradition of meditatio, based both on text and on the image. On each engraving, inscriptions made up of quotes taken from the prophetic books of the Bible accompany figurative scenes representing foxes. The narrator, subjected to a vision, tells how he meets them, while they engage in different activities, as he himself climbs a mountain. Some of the figures of foxes retained in the series of engravings of the edition of Vérard find their origin in the frontispiece engraving of the poem by Sebastian Brant, Von dem Fuchshatz, but they were then surmonted by popular proverbs there. In Vérard’s edition, the image comes under a double regime, since it shows both the dynamic scene with which the narrator is confronted during his vision and that it becomes, enhanced with biblical inscriptions, a «figure», a recurring term which becomes the beginning and the support of a meditation in action on the part of the narrator. The apparent darkness of the pictorial scene, the source of meditation, is resolved by the reflexive process generated by the biblical quotation. As in the monastic culture, the reading (of the text as of the image) of a typological nature first leads ultimately to an ethical reading.

Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11

Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11

JEWISH FICTIONAL LETTERS FROM HELLENISTIC EGYPT: THE EPISTLE OF ARISTEAS AND RELATED LITERATURE. Translated by L. Michael White and G. Anthony Keddie. Writings from the Greco‐Roman World 37. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2018. Pp. xxiii + 462. Paperback, $59.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 46, Issue 4 p. 559-560 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Judaism: Hellenistic Through Late Antiquity JEWISH FICTIONAL LETTERS FROM HELLENISTIC EGYPT: THE EPISTLE OF ARISTEAS AND RELATED LITERATURE. Translated by L. Michael White and G. Anthony Keddie. Writings from the Greco-Roman World 37. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2018. Pp. xxiii + 462. Paperback, $59.00. First published: 09 January 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.14982Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue4December 2020Pages 559-560 RelatedInformation

THE OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAHA: FIFTY YEARS OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SECTION AT THE SBL. Edited by MatthiasHenze and Liv IngeborgLied. SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature 50. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2019. Pp. xvii + 448. Paperback, $54.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 46, Issue 4 p. 557-558 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Judaism: Hellenistic Through Late Antiquity THE OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAHA: FIFTY YEARS OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SECTION AT THE SBL. Edited by Matthias Henze and Liv Ingeborg Lied. SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature 50. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2019. Pp. xvii + 448. Paperback, $54.00. First published: 09 January 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.14909Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue4December 2020Pages 557-558 RelatedInformation

The First Urban Churches 5: Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea. Edited by James R. Harrison and L. L. Welborn. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2019. xxii + 457 pp. $60.00 paper.

The First Urban Churches 5: Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea. Edited by James R. Harrison and L. L. Welborn. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2019. xxii + 457 pp. $60.00 paper.

Message of Biblical Apocalyptic Literature and its Relevance for Contemporary Christianity in Ghana

Undoubtedly, apocalyptic literature is among the difficult literature to understand and to interpret due to its literary genre and mode of communication which is often in the form of visions. Though weird symbols and images shrouded in secrets and coded language are the content of these visions, the literature [those in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures] has been both an inspiration and a mystery to Christians in particular and Ghanaian Christians in general. Apart from serving as a motivational tool for Christians to know that true authority and power belongs to God, and among others, the literature also offers hope to Ghanaian Christians of the impending judgment at the end of this age. Though the literature has not been rightly handled by some Ghanaian pastors and Christians, the unending effect has made people hope in the Lord. This paper, therefore, contributes to the general knowledge of apocalyptic literature and accentuates how its message in the Judeo-Christian scriptures have greatly influenced the beliefs, lifestyle, and thought pattern of Ghanaians in general, and contemporary Christianity in Ghana, in particular; making them live in consonance with the message of the biblical apocalyptic literature which encourage them to develop a certain kind of belief, thought pattern, and lifestyles different from an ordinary individual, and not otherwise. Keywords: Apocalyptic literature, apocalypse, apocalypticism, apocalyptic eschatology, Ghanaian Christianity

No Future for Bethulia? Judith and Queer Time

Abstract The Book of Judith and its main character are fascinating for the ways in which they play with time and history. This article argues that theoretical frameworks of queer temporality are instructive for understanding Judith. Judith’s childlessness, her aberrant daily schedule, and her refusal to work on her enemies’ time mark her as someone resisting normative time and a focus on the future. At the same time, however, Judith does ensure a future for Bethulia, and, by extension, for Israel. Consequently, this article also explores how the Book of Judith itself plays with the idea of history, calling into question the very future Judith supposedly ensures. The article also highlights the absence of eschatological thinking in the Book of Judith. Finally, this article discusses the implications of such an erring, queer narrative for thinking about Jewish history and the biblical canon.

Die Taten des Petrus und der Zwölf Apostel (NHC VI,1)

The Nag Hammadi Codices were discovered in 1945. After a long wait, a facsimile edition was published just after the translation into English (James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library, 1977), so, despite the delay, “The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles” is hardly unknown in the scholarly world. It, and other works in the “Library,” demonstrate one trajectory taken by the traditions about Peter, James, Thomas, and other followers of Jesus, as well as Jesus himself. What we have in this present work, which is a lightly revised edition of the author’s 2016 Promotionsschrift, is both a new translation and a detailed commentary on the work. For that we heartily thank Katharina Stifel.The structure of this book is indeed like that of a good critical commentary. After a preface, the work starts with 34 pages of introduction covering the physical structure of the work (which takes up 12 sheets of the codex, which is itself dated in the 4th century), its dating (by one scholar as early as AD 90 in Syria, although Stifel argues that given the contents it should be dated in the 3rd century), and the history of its study. The second section is 27 pages of transcribed text on one page and German translation on the facing page, and then an index of Coptic words, of Coptic words that originated in Greek, of personal names, of types of sentences, and similar linguistic analysis, the indexes taking up the last 36 pages of the 63-page section. The next 235 pages are the commentary on the work. This commentary comes in four sections: a 6-page discussion of methodology, 20 pages examining the relationship of this work to other documents and theological concepts contained in them, from the canonical Gospels to other parts of the Nag Hammadi Codices (this is a type of Traditionsgeschiche), then a 36-page introduction to the narrative in which its context, time, symbols, and narrative style are examined, and, finally, a 170-page paragraph-by-paragraph commentary. The final section of the book is 47 pages of back matter: abbreviations, bibliography, names and contents index, and an index of references to the canonical Scriptures, Nag Hammadi Codices, Patristic writers, and Classical Greek authors. This index will be quite useful for those wishing to trace the trajectory of specific passages in the NT or Greek works.As in a review of any critical commentary, it is impossible to enter into a detailed discussion of Stifel’s analysis. She has done a stereotypically thorough German analysis that I doubt will ever be duplicated. She has done this in a surprisingly readable, if at times technical, German. (If one is writing about Coptic and the traditions behind the Coptic, of an ancient manuscript and how it was constructed, and of traditions and images and how and where they have been used, one can hardly avoid being technical at times.) She has given us the context in which a number of the Patristic authors wrote and so has contributed to the interpretation of their works as well as showing the development of certain NT ideas and contributing to the understanding of the particular group that treasured the Nag Hammadi Codices. Thus, her indexes as well as her discussion of the relationship of the work to other documents and earlier theological concepts are extremely valuable to scholars who might not normally have an interest in the contents of the Nag Hammadi Codices. In exploring symbolism and narrative, she has contributed to the study of the Apocalypse and other such uses of symbolism in a narrative context. Finally, and this I must say as a non-expert in Coptic, she has apparently contributed to the linguistic and developmental analysis of Coptic, or at least within the Coptic world influenced by Christianity. I suspect that too few will read this work because they will not guess its relevance to their field of research. That is unfortunate, for it is a monument of scholarship that does have relevance far beyond its specific focal document, “The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles.”

Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible

Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible

Metaphysical Hatred and Sacred Genocide: The Questionable Role of Amalek in Biblical Literature

ABSTRACT Amalek is traditionally perceived as Israel’s arch-enemy and rival. In the Hebrew Bible, divine laws command the annihilation of the Amalekites, and war narratives recount their execution. What is the basis for this uncompromising judgement against Amalek? What does it reveal about the national ethos, as well as about the realpolitik of the ancient peoples, the Israelites and Amalekites? To this day, commentators on the Hebrew Bible have endeavoured to explain and justify the tradition about the destiny of Amalek, or to deny and oppose it, thus reflecting their perplexity with the tradition. This article will employ historical-literary (diachronic) tools to shed further light upon the background, circumstances and drives that formed the merciless tradition about the genocide of the Amalekites.