Biblical Passages Research Articles

Accepting Pain Over Comfort: Resistance to the Use of Anesthesia in the Mid-19th Century

News of the successful use of ether anesthesia on October 16, 1846, spread rapidly through the world. Considered one of the greatest medical discoveries, this triumph over man's cardinal symptom, the symptom most likely to persuade patients to seek medical attention, was praised by physicians and patients alike. Incredibly, this option was not accepted by all, and opposition to the use of anesthesia persisted among some sections of society decades after its introduction. We examine the social and medical factors underlying this resistance.At least seven major objections to the newly introduced anesthetic agents were raised by physicians and patients. Complications of anesthesia, including death, were reported in the press, and many avoided anesthesia to minimize the considerable risk associated with surgery. Modesty prevented female patients from seeking unconsciousness during surgery, where many men would be present. Biblical passages stating that women would bear children in pain were used to discourage them from seeking analgesia during labor. Some medical practitioners believed that pain was beneficial to satisfactory progression of labor and recovery from surgery. Others felt that patient advocacy and participation in decision making during surgery would be lost under the influence of anesthesia. Early recreational use of nitrous oxide and ether, commercialization with patenting of Letheon, and the fighting for credit for the discovery of anesthesia suggested unprofessional behavior and smacked of quackery. Lastly, in certain geographical areas, notably Philadelphia, physicians resisted this Boston-based medical advance, citing unprofessional behavior and profit seeking.Although it appears inconceivable that such a major medical advance would face opposition, a historical examination reveals several logical grounds for the initial societal and medical skepticism.

The ‘Impiety’ of Kepler's shift from mathematical astronomy to celestial physics

The ‘Impiety’ of Kepler's shift from mathematical astronomy to celestial physics

Medieval Architectures for Religious Tourism and Hospitality along the Pilgrimage Routes of Northern Italy

Sacred spaces are, and have always been, places of reception: hospitality is in fact a precept of God. Many biblical passages remind us of this, such as the one (Gen 18, 4-5) in which Abraham welcomes three guests, washes their feet and offers them a piece of bread and a place to rest under a tree. Saint Benedict too, in chapter 53 of the Rule, insisted on the need to honour pilgrims and travellers, who should be welcomed with a charitable service ready for devotion and stated that all guests who entered the monastery should be received as if they were Christ, washing their hands and feet. The reception of travellers, the sick, and pilgrims in religious centres in the Middle Ages has been one of the cornerstones of the life of many monastic and convent communities scattered throughout the territory. The growing number of domus hospitals and xenodochii, recorded from the early centuries of the Middle Ages until the 15th century, demonstrates the need for them and their widespread dissemination in Italy and Europe. It seems to be possible to identify some phases of this development linked to the different monastic and convent orders that dedicated themselves to relieving the suffering of travellers and the sick. An initial significant presence along the road axes was followed by a subsequent phase of settlement in the major urban centres. Each community had its rules which also influenced the choice of where the sites were positioned, the buildings in which to receive pilgrims and the architectural typologies, often clearly designed to identify the place immediately. The research findings presented here derive from research aimed at identifying religious hospitality architectures through a study of the documentary sources and an analysis of the buildings still preserved in the territory of Northern Italy. In particular, the analysis of the main cases linked to monastic hospitality, such as the Sacra di San Michele - the centre of worship of Archangel Michael, an essential step in the pilgrimage between Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy and San Michele del Gargano in Puglia - Novalesa and Staffarda constitute the main theme of this investigation (Figure 1). Even today these cases represent places of pilgrimage and reception of great interest and inflow; the long tradition of hospitality that has characterized the Christian world since the Middle Ages until the present day seems to be continuing, and is indeed revitalized and reaffirmed by recent pastoral guidelines. Religious tourism in the contemporary era has seen a significant increase linked to a form of spirituality that rediscovers the history of the oldest monasteries as a place of meditation and prayer. The tourism of major religious events and shrines that represent an attraction for millions of people is increasingly witnessing more intimate visits aimed at rediscovering the historical values of the journey, which is often undertaken on foot in the footsteps of the pilgrims as modern homines viatores on the trail of ancient experiences and spirituality

The Brest Bible and other Polish translations of the Bible in the poetical works of Erazm Otwinowski

Polish antitrinitarians of the sixteenth century (also known as Polish Brethren and later as Socinians) rejected some of the most fundamental dogmatic beliefs of traditional Christianity. However, while their Church emerged as the result of a split in the Reformed Church, they still used the Brest Bible to read not only the Old Testament (the antitrinitarian translation of Szymon Budny was controversial and rarely accepted by the Brethren), but also the New Testament. This situation is discussed here using the example of Erazm Otwinowski, a major antitrinitarian poet. His two major poetical works are based on various biblical passages. In his Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ there is considerable evidence that he used both the Brest Bible and the first edition of the New Testament translated by his antitrinitarian friend, Marcin Czechowic. However, it is also possible that he used Jakub Wujek's Catholic version, even if strongly contested in Czechowic's polemical works.

Seven Gay Texts: Biblical Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuality

There are seven texts often cited by Christians to condemn homosexuality: Noah and Ham (Genesis 9:20–27), Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:1–11), Levitical laws condemning same-sex relationships (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), two words in two Second Testament vice lists (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10), and Paul's letter to the Romans (Romans 1:26–27). The author believes that these do not refer to homosexual relationships between two free, adult, and loving individuals. They describe rape or attempted rape (Genesis 9:20–27, 19:1–11), cultic prostitution (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), male prostitution and pederasty (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10), and the Isis cult in Rome (Romans 1:26–27). If the biblical authors did assume homosexuality was evil, we do not theologize off of their cultural assumptions, we theologize off of the texts we have in the canon. The author attempts to introduce some new arguments into this long-standing and passionate debate.

The Affective Eye

Scholars have debated whether the ancient Israelites believed in the evil eye. Biblical passages that mention a “bad eye” (Prov. 23:6; 28:22) or “to do bad with the eye” (Deut. 15:9; 28:54, 56) seem to suggest that such a belief existed in ancient Israel; however, some scholars have argued that such passages are simply idioms for greed or stinginess. This paper reexamines this issue. Drawing upon recent insights from cognitive linguistics, I argue that perception was commonly understood in ancient Israel as a means of positively and negatively affecting the environment and that it was this affective dimension of Israelite thought that prompted biblical writers to describe the character of an individual by his or her physical qualities.

Die ontmoeting van wêrelde en die beginsel van <i>sola Scriptura</i>

The meeting of worlds and the principle of sola Scriptura. Rather than function as a catalyst for unity, the Bible can be the cause of conflict among Christian believers. The Bible is also often the reason for strife, specifically in the Reformed tradition, even though Protestants uphold the creedal truism of sola Scriptura and though the authority of the Bible is seen as selfmandatory, transcending the normative power of ecclesiastical or confessional traditions. This article focuses on biblical interpretation as both a cause of disunity and a possible means to achieve greater unity. The point of departure is that biblical interpretation consists of a fusion of horizons; it is primarily about the fusion of two horizons, namely that of the Bible and that of the reader. However, both these horizons represent a great diversity of perspectives. A variety of readers interpret the Bible from diverse contexts. The Bible itself also communicates a diversity of ideas. Even the notion ‘Jesus Christ’ does not function as a unified or unifying concept. The article proposes that the idea of ‘Jesus’ cause’ (Sache Jesu) could provide continuity between the world of the reader and the world of a biblical passage.

Joseph Roth als Stilist: Annäherung durch Theorie und Übersetzung ed. by Nora Hoffmann and Natalia Shchyhlevska (review)

Reviewed by: Joseph Roth als Stilist: Annäherung durch Theorie und Übersetzung ed. by Nora Hoffmann and Natalia Shchyhlevska Pamela S. Saur Nora Hoffmann and Natalia Shchyhlevska, eds., Joseph Roth als Stilist: Annäherung durch Theorie und Übersetzung. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2013. 270 pp. Occasionally collections of essays emerging from scholarly conferences suffer from lack of unity and central purpose, but this is far from true of the highly focused and organized volume Joseph Roth als Stilist: Annäherung durch Theorie und Übersetzung. In fact, if a reader finished the collection without knowing that it was the product of a workshop held at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in 2011, he or she might be surprised to hear it. The book is tightly organized into three parts: The first, “Stilbezogene Analysen der deutschen Originaltexte,” focuses on stylistic elements of Joseph Roth’s fiction and journalistic writing, the second two on translations of his works. The essays in the first section and the second, “Stilbezogene Analysen der Übersetzungen,” are meticulous scholarly studies accompanied by abstracts. In addition to the careful analyses of Roth’s texts, several studies also present and analyze Roth’s own statements about style. The third, somewhat more personal section containing reflections of the translators themselves is titled “Stilbezogene Erfahrungsberichte der Übersetzer/innen.” Context and background are provided by a foreword by August Obermayer, an introduction by the book’s editors, Nora Hoffmann and Natalia Shchyhlevska, and an epilogue by Roth scholar Fritz Hackert. The book’s introduction begins thus, “Joseph Roth gilt als großer Stilist. Forschung und Kritik preisen seinen bildhaften, musikalischen und biblischen Stil.” Also often praised is his “magisch wirkende Sprache” (15). This passage identifies— and meets— a major challenge of analyzing “style”: evaluating such generalized statements and judgments and assessing their validity on the basis of actual language choices and their patterns. The results tell us that statements about “style,” on the surface subjective and impressionistic, become quite technical when they are backed up by evidence. A case in point is Shchyhlevska’s fascinating linguistic study “Biblische Spuren im Stil Joseph Roths.” It focuses on Roth’s novel Hiob, which a casual reader might call “biblical” because of its subject matter and a vague impression of its language and tone. The author confirms the validity of the term, not only demonstrating that Roth imitated Biblical rhetoric, particularly in references to light and sound, but also presenting a series of charts pairing a startling number of expressions in the novel with actual biblical passages. Similarly [End Page 144] specific and precise is a study of Roth’s “Phraseologische Modifikationen als Darstellungsmittel” by Nadija Tymostschuk. She analyzes techniques such as substitution, expansion, and ellipsis in Roth’s novels and identifies some of their purposes and results as “Bedeutungserweiterung, Intensivierung der Expressivität, Verstärkung der Bildhaftigkeit,” and “Veränderung der Bewertung” (111). The article thus addresses both technical and aesthetic aspects of literary style. The first section is rounded out with Erica Weitzman’s study of “documentary” humor (“dokumentarische Komik”) in Roth’s feuilletons and a piece on irony in his signature novel Radetzkymarsch by Katharina Krčal. Weitzman analyzes Roth’s fruitful combination of journalistic objectivity and subjective observation and interpretation, using such techniques as unexpected juxtapositions and apparent suspension of logic. Humor, satire, and the grotesque are often seen in Roth’s writing, but their importance is not always recognized. Weitzman finds these techniques significant to the genre and the times: “nicht nur für das Genre des Feuilletons selbst, sondern auch für eine Epoche maßgebend” (116). Krčal’s study of irony focuses on such pertinent topics as flexible narrative perspective, unreliable narrators, use of the impersonal pronoun man, and irony as related to fate. Many insights into the challenges of the art of translation are provided by both the second section of the volume, comprised of scholarly studies of translations, and the third, authored by translators themselves, representing a range of target languages. The analytical essays, all rich in specific examples to support their points, include Vera Viehöver’s analysis of the French, Italian, and English translations of Das falsche Gewicht, which is followed by two...

Becoming Human in the Face of God: Gregory of Nyssa's Unending Search for the Beatific Vision

AbstractThis article seeks to effect a ressourcement of the theology of the beatific vision through reflection on Gregory of Nyssa's engagement with biblical passages that he believes speak of this vision. Through attention to Nyssen's sixth homily on the Beatitudes, commentary on The Life of Moses and Homilies on the Song of Songs, I argue that, for him, human persons find their telos when in union with Christ they become ever purer, in an ever‐increasing growth in the beatific vision. Gregory maintains that the perfection of human personhood consists of the soul always remaining in search of greater fulfilment of its desire to see God in Christ.

Lenient in Theory, Dumb in Fact: Prison, Speech, and Scrutiny

The Supreme Court declared 30 years ago in Turner v. Safley that prisoners are not without constitutional rights: Any restriction on those rights must be justified by a reasonable relationship between the restriction at issue and a legitimate penological objective. In practice, however, the decision has given prisoners virtually no protection. Exercising their discretion under Turner, correctional officials have saddled prisoners’ expressive rights with a host of arbitrary restrictions — including prohibiting President Obama’s book as a national security threat; using hobby knives to excise Bible passages from letters; forbidding all non-religious publications; banning Ulysses, John Updike, Maimonides, case law, and cat pictures. At the same time, the courts have had no difficulty administering the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which gives prisons far less deference by extending strict scrutiny to free exercise claims by prisoners. Experience with the Turner standard demonstrates that it licenses capricious invasions of constitutional rights, and RLUIPA demonstrates that a heightened standard of review can protect prisoners’ expressive freedoms without compromising prison security. It is time for the Court to revisit Turner.

The Affective Eye

Scholars have debated whether the ancient Israelites believed in the evil eye. Biblical passages that mention a “bad eye” (Prov. 23:6; 28:22) or “to do bad with the eye” (Deut. 15:9; 28:54, 56) seem to suggest that such a belief existed in ancient Israel; however, some scholars have argued that such passages are simply idioms for greed or stinginess. This paper reexamines this issue. Drawing upon recent insights from cognitive linguistics, I argue that perception was commonly understood in ancient Israel as a means of positively and negatively affecting the environment and that it was this affective dimension of Israelite thought that prompted biblical writers to describe the character of an individual by his or her physical qualities.

“Become you apes, repelled!” (Quran 7:166): The transformation of the Israelites into apes and its biblical and midrashic background

AbstractIn Quran 7:163–6, God punishes the inhabitants of “a town by the sea” who have collected fish from the sea on a Sabbath by transforming them into apes (qirada). Almost none of the attempts to find a precedent for this punishment in pre-Islamic texts have been plausible. This article argues that this scene reflects post-biblical traditions referring to Numbers 11:19–20. This biblical passage deals with the Israelites who consumed quails that had come from the sea; they were doomed to partake of the meat until it came out of their nostrils and became loathsome to them. This was their punishment after having expressed their discontent with the manna, while craving for meat and fish and vegetables. The midrashic sources describe various obnoxious bodily effects which the meat of the quails had on their unrestrained eaters. It will be suggested that the punitive transformation into apes, suffered by the people of the town by the sea who ate fish, represents the Quranic reshaped version of the bodily infliction which the quail eaters suffered as a result of eating the quails that came from the sea. In support of this suggestion, several points common to the biblical quail eaters and the Quranic people of the “town by the sea” will be highlighted.

Ransomed from every language: The church as a community of word-care

It takes unmitigated gall to say, “Thus says the Lord,” and yet for two thousand years Christians have been doing just that. The church’s concern with language is not a merely human thing, for disciples are those who, in the power of the Spirit, have been caught up in God’s self-communication to the world in Christ. In our communion with one another as members of Christ’s earthly-historical body, we have been entrusted with the ministry of the very utterance of God made flesh, through which all things were made. In honor of Stanley Hauerwas, this article explores the theme of the church as a community of word-care in terms of what could be called Hauerwasian logic. After reviewing some basic philosophical theology and examining some relevant biblical passages, it investigates the historical nature of the relationship between the church and the form of the society in which we currently live. In the process it takes a brief excursion through Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson’s use of the metaphor of the wall of separation, and concludes an example of a woman who could speak in the name of the Lord with authority.

Notes on the reproduction of a controversial evangelical passage in Romanian (Mt, 19, 24)

The present research follows, from a diachronic perspective, the solutions that Romanian translators and revisers have applied to the biblical passage from Mt, 19, 24, also present in Mk, 10, 25 and Lk, 18, 25. Taking into consideration that they had, at least up to a point, the privilege of expressing themselves in circumstances that allowed a certain freedom compared to the base text, I have searched to clearly understand the nature of the factors that determined them to assume this liberty and what guided their linguistic options. The research has intended to examine two types of texts: the integral biblical one (the New Testament and the Bible) and the text that is specifically used by the clergy, The Gospel, in its successive versions, starting from the 16th century up to the modern era; the observed facts call attention to the scholar who is in charge of the text, who exhibits a behaviour that entails trust in his prior knowledge about the content and form of the fashioned text, a critical assessment of the version that serves as a starting point and the renewal of linguistic solutions offered by sources of a different nature from the rectified text.

Why Biblical Scholars Should Study Aramaic Bowl Spells

This study analyses the unique contributions of Jewish incantation texts and categorically examines the bowl spells according to three types of biblical citation: words of power, contextual citations and thematic citations. The bowl spells represent some of the earliest attestations of biblical passages not found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and display formal features useful for reconstructing linguistic and manuscript developments in pre-Islamic Judaism. Furthermore, the biblical citations in these texts shed light on the social location of biblical knowledge and attendant beliefs in the power of the Hebrew text to bring about practical ends.

In search of faith.

In Search of Faith Kate Rowland Sometimes I’m jealous of my patients’ faith. As a former happily religious person I miss the benefits I used to get from an active faith. I know that some of my patients must struggle with their faith, and I know the struggle probably affects their well–being. For those who simply believe or those who simply don’t believe, it’s easy. And for those who do believe, there can be so much serenity and so much reward. As a doctor, I spend a lot of time reading science, weighing evidence, and making recommendations. Religion has been a respite from this. Faith, for me, has never been a series of decisions based on the best available evidence. I could analyze it as much as I wanted, peel its layers apart, question it, but in the end, it was just faith, not a hypothesis. It has always been something that I believe (or don’t), and practicing my faith had always been a relatively pleasant decision of figuring out what kind of community I want to share in. My faith life has been in shambles for the past several years. I feel distant from and unwelcome in the church where I was raised, and I haven’t found anywhere else to land. I cannot decide how to raise my own small children. I want them to have grounding in God, but I can’t decide how much I believe in God anymore, and I am fixated on the idea that I don’t want to be hypocritical or lie to [End Page 210] them. I don’t want them to see me worshipping in a way that is not really authentic to me. My husband is agnostic—literally—on the issue. He is open to introducing a loving, kind, forgiving God, but unsure about a God incarnate. We both worry about the identity with a particular religion usurping the actual relationship with God: I am [religion], therefore I believe [this], therefore my God does [this] or is [this]. And so all of these fears and doubts have led us to live with no religion, and no outward faith. Our children attend a parochial nursery school run by a religion other than one where we were raised, and they have an apparently happy but neutral opinion of religion and God. They understand ceremonies. At age four, they have a more active faith life than I do, since they attend weekly services at school. But then, they have fewer choices than I do. They do what the teachers tell them. They would do what I told them to do, if I could ever decide what I believed in. I spend so many hours a week with my patients that they have become my main source of demonstration of active, living faith. I know that they share mostly good parts with me. I see so much of the good because I mostly see patients who get to choose how to practice their own religions; they don’t feel oppressed by religious or culturo–religious demands or expectations. It’s interesting that I see the positive sides of their faith, not the struggle, because I otherwise see a lot of the struggling parts of their lives. I see the flinty, edgy woman, the patient who has spent more time in the hospital in the past month than I have, the woman who is sick of her low platelet count that keeps her from living a normal life. And every day she has some message of faith: she tells our medical team what Bible passage is keeping her strong, she tells us how God watches over her when we tell her that her counts are better, she tells us to have a blessed day. Sometimes she curses at the hospital or her condition or at her medications, sometimes at us. So far her faith is unshaken. I take care of a woman who has burning mouth syndrome, a chronic condition that causes her lips, her tongue, and her palate to feel as though they are on fire. Eating makes it worse, drinking makes it worse, breathing makes it worse...

Who is the ‘Son of God’ in 4Q246? An Overlooked Example of Early Biblical Interpretation

The Aramaic Apocalypse of Daniel (4Q246) has been the subject of intense debate among scholars, primarily surrounding the enigmatic epithets ברה די אל “son of God” and בר עליון “son of the Most High.” Previous interpreters have suggested either that this character is a human sovereign with divine pretensions or that he is a divine messianic figure. The current study posits a new identification of this figure based upon the analysis of the biblical texts underlying this Qumran scroll: in addition to its dependence upon Dan 7 (which has been previously recognized), 4Q246 also contains a hitherto overlooked allusion to Ps 82. In light of the relationship to these biblical passages, it is proposed that the character described as “son of God/the Most High” should be taken as the heavenly representative of the penultimate kingdom in Dan 7. The identification of the allusion to Ps 82 within 4Q246 also enriches our analysis of Dan 7 itself, since the Qumran scroll demonstrates that early readers of the apocalyptic vision posited a literary-theological connection between Dan 7 and Ps 82. These texts together formed a cluster of related biblical passages that were read and interpreted in concert by ancient authors.

Cyrenaican Church Floor Mosaics of the Justinianic Period: Decoration or Meaning?

AbstractThe well-preserved church floor mosaics of the Justinianic period discovered at Qasr Libya have been dismissed as a haphazard collection of motifs, most of which are purely decorative. The author presents arguments to question this statement and carries out a re-examination to see if a symbolic programme can be recovered from them. In this task two principal sources of imagery are drawn on; bible passages and, in view of the wide variety of fauna represented, the stories in early bestiaries where the alleged behaviour of animals is given a theological interpretation. This analysis was extended to cover a selection of other church floor mosaics of similar age. In each case it has been found possible to construct a coherent programme of symbolism and to link this to rites which would have been celebrated in those locations.

The Gospel according to Flannery O'Connor: examining the role of the Bible in Flannery O'Connor's fiction

Jordan Cofer. The Gospel According to Flannery O'Connor: Examining the Role of the Bible in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014. 144 pp. [$98.99] cloth.Because O'Connor worked biblical allusions into her work so frequently, it is surprising that they have not been examined more continuously and rigorously in O'Connor scholarship. Aside from an occasional article on specific biblical reference here and there through the years, and J. Ramsey Michaels' recently released Passing by the Dragon (Cascade Books, 2013) and Thomas Haddox's Hard Sayings (Ohio State UP, 2013), we have not seen many substantially researched textual analyses of how material in the Bible enhances O'Connor's fiction until now in Jordan Cofer's impressive study.Cofer argues that O'Connor uses three techniques in alluding to the Bible. First, she recapitulates, or retells, biblical stories. Second, she highlights the redemptive nature of violence through her prophet figures. And finally, she follows a biblical pattern of reversal, where readers' expectations are disrupted. While other major authors such as Milton and Faulkner directly allude to the Bible at times, Cofer notes, O'Connor does so much more obliquely. Instead of making direct references, she rewrites biblical narratives, invokes and alters prophetic archetypes, and uses and manipulates ironic reversals repeatedly.O'Connor uses all three of these techniques in Wise Blood, as Cofer's second chapter illustrates. Understanding how these techniques work, Cofer argues, potentially elevates the novel as a sort of blueprint for understanding her biblical allusions from that point on. While St. Paul publicly condemns Christianity and experiences a temporary physical blindness that represents metaphorical sight during his conversion to Christianity, Hazel Motes is an inverted Pauline figure who misunderstands Christianity altogether in blinding himself. Cofer asserts that Hazel serves as a prototype of the prophet figures that will populate her later work. Many of the ironic reversals in Wise Blood, moreover, echo reversals found in the Bible and prefigure the various types of reversals that can be found in the rest of her writing.Biblical recapitulation appears most strongly in A Man Is Hard to Find and Judgment Day, as the third chapter argues. O'Connor's technique is unique, Cofer explains, in that she rewrites biblical narratives by contemporizing them both for theologically sophisticated readers and for those who are unfamiliar with theology altogether. A Man Is Hard to Find radically rewrites the meeting between Christ and the rich young ruler, here cast as the Misfit. When the Misfit asserts If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow Him . (CW 152), he echoes Christ's command to the rich young ruler-who asks how he can attain salvation-to sell all he has, leave everything behind, and come, follow (Mk. 10:21). O'Connor further shocks her readers, then, by making a serial criminal the bearer of Christ's wisdom. This biblical passage, moreover, has the ruler addressing Christ as Good teacher, and articulates Christ's radical question, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone (Mk. 10:18). Though Cofer does not focus on this point, in this rebuke, Christ calls attention to the complexity of the term good, a term O'Connor would complicate in her later work as well. As the Misfit reflects on the grandmother's final sacrifice, he recognizes her goodness. For all the connections between the rich young ruler and the Misfit, however, there are major differences that prevent a reading of O'Connor's story as biblical allegory. Externally, the Misfit is the opposite of the rich young ruler, but inwardly they are the same. Ironically, the Misfit is the vehicle for the grandmother's redemption. Attending to the ways this biblical allusion is invoked and modified, Cofer points out, illuminates her unique approach to delivering Christian messages with brilliant subtlety. …

A survey of trees in the Bible

The history and human cultural aspects of trees are of great interest to arboricultural practitioners and others involved in tree management. However, many and especially earlier cultural histories are often little known or overlooked. This short paper coincides with the publication of a book, “God's trees – trees, forests and wood in the Bible”, and takes a personal view of the subject based on the research for the book. The account does not seek to be definitive, and it is acknowledged that interpretation of ancient sources is subjective and experts differ in their interpretations. Reviewing the trees and uses of wood in the Bible, a collection of 66 books completed nearly 2000 years ago, brings special challenges. Three pairs of examples are explored – known and unknown identity of trees, evidence from the ancient timber trade and wood samples, and tradition itself to show what conclusions can be drawn. In this way, light is shed on some biblical subjects and passages including some that were obscure. The article draws on the author's recent book, God's trees – trees, forests and wood in the Bible, published by Day One.