Biblical Origin Research Articles

Ascendant Eloquence: Language and Sanctity in the Works of Gonzalo de Berceo

During the European Middle Ages, a fundamental principle of Christian episte mology regarded as verbal both knowledge of God and the process by which human beings arrive at that knowledge. The concept of God as logos, implying reason, wisdom, and Word, identifies God with language and understanding: to know God is to understand or to decipher the message that is God's creation. In order to achieve that goal, human beings have at their disposal the natural world, which God created in his image and which therefore represents a system of signs pointing back to him. Christians can read these signs to advance their cognizance of the divine. In order to facilitate human understanding of the divine, God sent Jesus Christ to earth as Word and linguistic mediator. Christ communicated God's will through his actions and his words, and after Christ, the apostles, martyrs, and saints continued to fulfill that function. Yet the linguistic process that leads humans to understanding is fundamentally flawed. According to St. Augustine, whose extensive writings on the subject es sentially defined medieval sign theory, human language is capable of reflecting reality yet is limited severely by the inherent corporeal nature of words and their dependence on the human senses. In contrast, God as Word implies that in the domain of the divine, words can express perfect understanding and truth through an eternal, incorruptible correspondence between sign and signified. In order to explain and illustrate the difference between human and divine language, medieval sign theory found a perfect symbol in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve transgressed God's verbal command and fell from grace. The resultant physical and spiritual distance between God and humankind reflects linguistic estrange ment as well since Adam and Eve lost their direct communicative connection to the divine.1 In addition to defining the nature of human language and its function in the quest for knowledge, the Fall also determined the moral spectrum of potential uses of words and other signs. If patristic authors recognized language's capacity for drawing the faithful closer to God, they also acknowledged its insidious ability to deceive. In his 1993 book exploring the legacy of the original misuse of language by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Eric Jager traces the biblical origins and

The murderous paradise: German nationalism and the Holocaust

Introduction Biblical Origins of Redemptive Anti-Semitism Early Christian Sources Medieval German Patriotism and Hopes for the Extermination of the Jews German Humanist Anti-Semitism and Patriotism The Baroque Era: Tolerance and the Decline of Patriotism Pietism's Contribution to German Utopianism The Enlightenment and the Emergence of German Nationalism Romantic Nationalist Anti-Semitism A Belief in Germany: Religious Nationalism after Napoleon Radicalization of Anti-Semitism After the Revolution: Intellectual Redemptive Anti-Semitism Popular Nationalism and Anti-Semitism of the Late Nineteenth Century National Socialism: The Triumph of Redemptive Anti-Semitism Conclusion Bibliography

Biblical Origins and the Problem of the Fall

Rabbi Abbahu said: Just as I led Adam into the garden of Eden and commanded him and he transgressed my commandment, whereupon I punished him by dismissal and exile … so also did I bring his descendants into the land of Israel and command them, and they transgressed my commands and I punished them by dismissal and exile ( Genesis Rabbah).

TRADITIONS IN TRANSFORMATION

Islam, the youngest of the three monotheistic religions, represents a fairly advanced stage in the evolution of traditions which could already be encountered in Jewish and Christian sources. Since the l9th century and even earlier, scholars who noticed this well-known phenomenon, have usually confined themselves merely to asserting the Jewish or Christian origins of traditions recounted in the Islamic sources, without further investigating the new life that was infused into these traditions in the Islamic sphere. In the following, traditions of a clearly Biblical origin will be examined in their specif1c Islamic connotation, thus perhaps enabling us to gain more insight into the role the Biblical history of Israel plays in Islamic historical consciousness.2 This will serve to shed more light on the Islamic conviction that the divinely pre-ordained history of humankind which began with the People of Israel is continued through the history of Muhammad's community.3 For this investigation, the Ark of the Covenant and the Golden Calf have been chosen. These two ritual objects play a signif1cant role in Biblical and Qur'anic historiography, as well as in early Islamic tradition (hadlth). In spite of their contrasting ritual signif1cance (monotheistic as opposed to pagan), they have much in common as symbols of divinity, and in fact stand in an inverted symmetry to each other. The mutual role of these objects in Islam

Alexandreis by Waiter of Châtillon (review)

running head waiter of châtillon, Alexandreis, a verse translation by David Townsend. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1996. Pp. xxix, 214. isbn: 0-8122-3347-6. $37-50. Walter ofChâtillon's Alexandreis, an epic poem composed in Latin between 1171 and 1181, was for a long time part of the canon in grammatical studies, at the same level as the classic masterpieces. With Colkers critical edition (1978) and Pritchard's prose translation (1986), it started again to attract the attention ofscholars and students of medieval literature. We now have David Townsend's new translation in blank verses, which proposes 'to afford the general anglophone reader a satisfying literary experience of the poem' (xxii). The image ofAlexander the Great (356-323 b.c.) transmitted throughout the ages is an amazing combination of facts and legends. Of the predominantly historical records kept by his contemporaries (Cleitarchus, Ptolomy, Aristobulos, Callisthenes, among others), only fragments remain. It was mostly on Cleitarchus that Quintus Curtius Rufus based his Latin biography (circa 50 a.d.), which in turn becameWalter's main source. Shortly after 1180—and thus roughly at the same time as the Alexandreis—the Old French Roman d'Alexandre, initiated much earlier by Alberic de Briançon and Lambert Ie Tort, was completed and recast in its final form byAlexandre de Paris. Its origin can be traced to the Greek Romance ofAlexander (Egypt, 3rd century ce.), amply disseminated through its Latin translations. These two major poems of 12thcentury France nicely complement each other as different views ofAlexander, the Alexandreis being more factual and the Roman d'Alexandre wildly fantastic. This is not to say that Walter's account remained immune to legend; it incorporated, for instance, the visit ofthe Amazon Thalestris, retained by the usually skeptical Curtius, as well as a number ofelements from the legendary tradition leading to the Roman d'Alexandre, such as the reference to Nectanebus. Also present, with lesser emphasis, are some ofthe amusing anecdotes which, to Plutarch, seemed 'to reveal far more of a man's character than the mere fact ofwinning battles' (ParallelLives—Alexander ?). Plutarch also tells of Alexander's intellectual curiosity and readiness to perform experiments, supposedly stimulated by Aristotle, when confronted with the exotic natural phenomena observed in his Asian expedition. This aspect is treated in a surrealistic fashion in the legends, being the most fascinating part of the Roman d'Alexandre. In the Alexandreis, the hero's hubris prods him to lay open Nature's secrets (x.10). Writing in Latin and modestly comparing his efforts to Virgil's in his Prologue, it was only natural that Walter should also adapt epic scenes from the Aeneid. The style used to describe individual participations in the course of battles between armies reflects this influence (e.g., Pallas in Virgil and Fidias in Walter). The personified Nature's appeal to Leviathan to detain Alexander and Leviathan's fear that the king is the New Man fated to harrow Hell, combines classic and Christian allusions: Juno's call to the fury Allecto in Virgil (also Ceres sending Fames to punish Erysichthon in Ovid's Metamorphoses) and Satan's predicament in the Decensus Christi ad Inferos arthuriana (part ofthe apocryphal Evangelium Nicodemi). Ofpurely Biblical origin is the explicit reference to the Book ofDaniel (8:20—21) to announce that a Greek should destroy the Persian empire. Walter's narrative is interesting and sometimes truly epic. One verse lingers in our memory: the proverbial 'incidís in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim' [You fall to Scyllawhile you shun Charybdis (5.350)] . Not even an anachronic reference to Arthur is missing (7.457). All in all, I enjoyed reading Townsend's translation, which strives for literary quality, but never allows the self-imposed adherence to poetical conventions to obscure meaning. antonio 1. furtado Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro ...

La «inversión del orden» en el <i>Tractatus in Sacram Scripturam</i> nº 16 de Gregorio de Elvira

The breaking of the rhetorical ordo is one of the characteristics that enables us to identify Christian Latin Literature within the Latin literary corpus from the fourth century onwards. Gregorius Illiberritanus, the fourth century Hispanic author, in Tractatus number 16 of their Tractatus in Sacram Scripturam, refers to the biblical origin of the device of breaking the logical-rhetorical ordo. In his text, however, he not only theorizes on this aspect, but also applies it stylistically to the very creation of his discourse. Moreover, this aspect enables us to identify a literary genre which is particularly Christian: the «grammatical tractatus» in a speech form. This is the predecessor of sermons and homilies, which do not have parallels in non-Christian Latin Literature.

The world's most famous meteor shower picture

The world's most famous meteor shower picture (Fig. 1) is of the storm that took place in the early morning of Wednesday, 13 November 1833. The picture was, however, produce 54 years after the event, being first published in April 1888. It had a biblical origin and was only taken over by the astronomers in the mid 1920s. The artist was the Swiss painter Karl Jauslin and the engraver was Adolf Vollmy.

“Rights of the Earth” and “Care for the Earth”: Two Paradigms for a Buddhist-Christian Ecological Ethic

AbstractEcology has become a religious concern, but its religious significance remains ambivalent, and politically it is open to exploitation by the right and the left. An ecological ethic needs to be related to the justice tradition with its correlative concepts of rights and responsibilities as these apply to “nature,” but it also needs an interreligious foundation. Buddhism and Christianity are able to make complementary contributions toward formulating an ecological ethic. “Justice” in the West has both biblical and Roman origins, but the Western concept ofiusmay also be correlated with the Indian concept ofdharmaas universal harmony and order. Justice may also be placed in the larger context of an ethic of care based on disinterested love of all beings and the transcendence of conflict. The concept of responsibility, however, remains central to the formulation of an ecological ethic and poses specific, though complementary, challenges to both Buddhist and Christian traditions.

Tocqueville's Puritans: Christianity and the American Founding

Tocqueville considered the Puritans America's founders because of their formative influence on America's national character. I first compare this novel view of America's founding with the views of contemporary scholars. I then explore Tocqueville's understanding of American Puritanism in detail focusing on his account of its Biblical origins and its main components. Finally, I discuss Tocqueville's analysis of the various ways the Puritans shaped American mores. In doing so, I answer the most vexing question to emerge from this analysis: How can Tocqueville assert that the Puritans founded a country which, as he describes it, was more secular than religious in the 1830s? I show that he defends his assertion by linking the demise of the religious elements of American Puritanism to certain secular tendencies fostered by Christianity.

The changes of Cain: violence and the lost brother in Cain and Abel literature

Era by era, from the writings of the classical Christian epoch up to East of Eden and Amadeus, from Philo to Finnegans Wake, Ricardo Quinones examines the contexts of a master metaphor of our culture. This brilliant work is the first comprehensive book on the Cain and Abel story.Ricardo Quinones takes us on a grand tour of Western civilization in his admirable book, which reveals the riches of the Cain-Abel story as it develops from its Biblical origin to Citizen Kane and Michel Tournier. This is cultural history and literary criticism of the first order, finely written, formidably but gracefully erudite, and illustrating the capacity of Judeo-Christian culture and the modernity emerging from it constantly to criticize the darker side of its own foundations and realizations.--Joseph FrankRicardo J. Quinones skips Biblical and Talmudic exegesis to follow Cain and Abel through later centuries, from classical times to the present. What he uncovers sheds light on important shifts of consciousness and behavior in European and American culture. . . . Quinones writes with true eloquence and conviction. . . .--James Finn Cotter, The Hudson ReviewQuinones's study of how [the] three Cains were transformed by Romanticism and Modernism into a sometimes positive, sometimes negative, but always necessary archetype of the modern world is literary and cultural analytic history at its very best.--ChoiceRicardo J. Quinones is Josephine Olp Weeks Professor of English and Comparative Literatures, and Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. He is the author of The Renaissance Discovery of Time (Harvard), Dante Alighieri (Twayne), andMapping Literary Modernism: Time and Development (Princeton).

Moses ben Abraham's "Chroniques de la Bible"

In the Royal Library in The Hague there is a little-known manuscript with illustrations of the prophecies of Daniel, probably executed in north-eastern France around 1300. The text is a French paraphrase of the Bible with special emphasis on the Books of Daniel and Maccabees, compiled by Moses ben Abraham, a Jew, for his patron William X of Auvergne. The express purpose of this work is to trace the lineage of noble clans and peoples to their Biblical origins, to speculate on struggles of ancient empires and marvels still to come. Despite the Christian reading the translator gives to Hebrew prophecy, there are discrepancies with the Latin Vulgate text which also come to light in the illustrations. It can be determined, on the basis of historical analysis, that the work in The Hague is a copy of an original made some fifty years earlier, and that it must have been the object of eschatological speculation and was therefore acutely topical for an audience entering a new century.

Book Review: Biblical Origins of Modern Secular Culture: An Essay in the Interpretation of Western History

Book Review: Biblical Origins of Modern Secular Culture: An Essay in the Interpretation of Western History

Biblical Origins of Modern Secular Culture: An Essay in the Interpretation of Western History

Biblical Origins of Modern Secular Culture: An Essay in the Interpretation of Western History

Biblical Origins of Modern Secular Culture: An Essay in the Interpretation of Western History. By Willis B. Glover. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1984. x + 286 pp. $23.95.

Biblical Origins of Modern Secular Culture: An Essay in the Interpretation of Western History. By Willis B. Glover. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1984. x + 286 pp. $23.95. - Volume 54 Issue 3

The Christian Church: Biblical Origins, Historical Transformation, and Potential for the Future. By Hans Schwarz. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1982. 382 pp.

The Christian Church: Biblical Origins, Historical Transformation, and Potential for the Future. By Hans Schwarz. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1982. 382 pp.

The Emergence of Contemporary Judaism. Vol. 1. The Foundations of Judaism from Biblical Origins to the Sixth Century A.D. (Parts 1 and 2)

Book Review| December 01 1982 The Emergence of Contemporary Judaism. Vol. 1. The Foundations of Judaism from Biblical Origins to the Sixth Century A.D. (Parts 1 and 2) The Emergence of Contemporary Judaism. Vol. 1. The Foundations of Judaism from Biblical Origins to the Sixth Century A.D. (Parts 1 and 2), Phillip Sigal. Gary G. Porton Gary G. Porton Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1982) 101 (4): 606–607. https://doi.org/10.2307/3260911 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Gary G. Porton; The Emergence of Contemporary Judaism. Vol. 1. The Foundations of Judaism from Biblical Origins to the Sixth Century A.D. (Parts 1 and 2). Journal of Biblical Literature 1 December 1982; 101 (4): 606–607. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3260911 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. Copyright 1982 Society of Biblical Literature1982 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Prehistory and Ideology in Zimbabwe

Opening ParagraphZimbabwe has adopted the name of the Shona state, centred on the city of Great Zimbabwe, which flourished between five and eight hundred years ago, and whose ruined stone walls are one of the most remarkable monuments in Africa. Great Zimbabwe was a considerable human achievement, evidence of the acquisition and management of a huge and docile labour force, of prolonged political stability and economic prosperity.When the British South Africa Company occupied the country in 1890 the monument became the subject of considerable settler polemic and controversy. While its origins were still uncertain Cecil Rhodes recognized the considerable propaganda value that evidence of ancient foreign settlement, preferably white and successful and with Biblical origins, would have. It would give a precedent and respectability to the conquest and a promise of similar prosperity to the settlers and investors in the new colony. Rhodes acquired many antiquities from Great Zimbabwe, and initiated excavations at the site and searches of the archives of Rome and Lisbon for documents referring to it. He himself sought parallels to its art in the museums of Cairo. He also commissioned eminent mining engineers to determine the origins and yield of the ‘ancient gold workings’ in the country. Finally, he had Richard Hall, an enthusiastic propagandist of the settler cause in newspapers, lectures and exhibitions, and a fanatical advocate of immensely old Biblical origins for Great Zimbabwe, appointed curator of the Ruins expressly to instruct important visitors in his theories.

The Political Theory of Covenant: Biblical Origins and Modern Developments

Human, and hence scholarly, concern with politics focuses on three general themes: (1) the pursuit of political justice to achieve the good political order; (2) the search for understanding of the empirical reality of political power and its exercise; and (3) the creation of an appropriate civic environment through civil society and civil community capable of integrating the first two to produce a good political life. Political science as a discipline was founded and has developed in pursuit of those three concerns. In that pursuit, political scientists have uncovered or identified certain architectonic principles, seminal ideas, and plain political truths which capture the reality of political life or some significant segment of it, and relate that reality to larger principles of justice and political order and to very practical yet normative civic purposes. One of the major recurring principles of political import which informs and encompasses all three themes is covenant-an idea which defines political justice, shapes political behavior, and directs humans toward an appropriately civic synthesis of the two. As such, covenant is an idea whose importance is akin to natural law in defining justice, and to natural right in delineating the origins and proper constitution of political society. While somewhat eclipsed since the shift to organic and then positivistic theories of politics which began in the mid-nineteenth century, it persists as a factor shaping political behavior in those civil societies whose foundations are grounded in the effort to translate covenant ideas into political reality, and in others attempting to build a democratic order on federalist rather than Jacobin principles. In the crisis of transition from the modern to the post-modern eras, covenant is resurfacing as a significant political force just as it did in the transition from the late medieval to the modern era which took place from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.'

The Political Theory of Covenant: Biblical Origins and Modern Developments

The Political Theory of Covenant: Biblical Origins and Modern Developments

Milton and Scriptural Tradition: The Bible into Poetry

The essays in this volume center upon literary influence of Bible on poetry and upon its significance as a rather than as a source. Arguing the nature of Bible itself as a literary test and primacy of Bible in Ryken's introduction stresses principle that poetry exists in a biblical context and value of placing Miltorns poetry into that biblical framework. In Ryken's opinion, Milton's of Bible as a or influence encompasses immense range of techniques:' and both style of his poetry and the events and characters in his stories show biblical influence. Ryken also points out significance for these essays of several interrelated trends in recent Milton criticism. Critics now consider Bible as an influence and model rather than as a source for They are interested in biblical genres rather than in biblical content. They use Bible as interpretive context for examining poetry instead of seeking to identify biblical origins of his Instead of seeking biblical allusions in his poetry, they conduct intertextual readings in which important thing is interaction between Bible and poetry. Instead of viewing Bible as primarily doc-