Biblical Scholarship Research Articles

Εντροπη: Shame and Identity Formation in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch

Since the 1980s, biblical scholars have started to employ the framework of “honor and shame” to study the culture of the ancient Mediterranean region. However, this application of the social–scientific honor–shame model has led to “massive generalizations of ‘honor’ and ‘shame’”. In particular, when focusing on the concept of honor/shame rather than its lexemes, the social–scientific school ignores the nuanced nature of each Greek word group related to shame. By studying classical Greek literature, Douglas Cairns further points out a puzzling situation that the word group αἰδώς contains polarized meanings of both “to shame” and “to respect”. In this paper, we examine the puzzling double meanings of “to shame/to respect” by focusing on the use of the word group ἐντροπή in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. This paper argues that the word group ἐντροπὴ serves a rhetorical purpose of protecting the church’s identity by rejecting beliefs/customs that are unacceptable to Christianity and promoting unity in the churches through obedience to church authorities. This paper also explores the fundamental epistemological issue of understanding emotion words in its ancient context. It provides a provisional definition for ἐντροπή, that it is a self-inhibitory emotion of sensitivity to one’s proper place in social interaction to protect one’s self-image.

Genesis 2–3 as a Primal Scene for Weak Metaphysics

Abstract In this paper, I examine the role that the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Genesis 2–3, plays for philosophers and biblical scholars who advocate a weak metaphysics. In particular, I discuss writings by Mark Glouberman, Richard Kearney and Gianni Vattimo. I examine the question of whether and in what sense Genesis 2–3 can be said to be a primal scene for weak thinking or weak metaphysics.

“Sunsum” and “Honhom” in African Socioreligioculture and Spirituality

Sunsum and Honhom in the African socioreligioculture and spirituality present a complexity of functionality and purpose that provides distinctive context to the interplay of dimensions that define existence (being). In any case, ‘existence’ or ‘being’ must possess distinctive functionality and a purpose that defines the specificity of their spiritual or physical purposes. The study which examines the meaning, significance and relevance of Sunsum and Honhom within the African socioreligioculture and spirituality attempts to decipher their implications for Christianity, Theology and Biblical scholarship especially in Africa and beyond. It used ethno-anthropology and socio-phenomenology which examined the meaning, significance and relevance of sunsum and honhom not just as a linguistic preference or juxtaposition but as a dimension, or functionality that establishes both an epistemology and a nomenclature that provide the right approach and methods for nurturing or relating with people or elements within the physical and spiritual cosmology. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on the functionality of Sunsum and Honhom within African socioreligioculture and spirituality and how they affect how human beings or elements within the African Socioreligioculture and Spirituality are perceived or related to/with. Keywords: Sunsum, Honhom, Honam, Spirituality, Africa

Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism, by Arjen F. Bakker, René Bloch, Yael Fisch, Paula Frederiksen and Hindy Najman, eds.

Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism, by Arjen F. Bakker, René Bloch, Yael Fisch, Paula Frederiksen and Hindy Najman, eds.

Colonizing Frank Moore Cross: The Dead Sea Scrolls in 1950s Popular Media

Abstract Early presentations of the Dead Sea Scrolls in popular media relied on orientalist tropes and a narrow Christian horizon to create relevance and prestige for the scrolls, which contributed to strong religious interest in them and a market for unprovenanced Dead Sea Scrolls fragments and forgeries. Such a strategy also constructed public authority for the Bible scholars working on the scrolls. This article treats the colonialist approach in the earliest popular works on the scrolls in the United States, written by Edmund Wilson, Frank Moore Cross, and Alex Small, and shows how the stories they tell set the stage for religious veneration of the scrolls and popular acclaim of the scholars.

Mary and Maternal Health: Decolonizing Luke 1–2 Amidst the Crisis of Teen Pregnancy

This study responds to the central question: ‘What do you see as the tasks, methods, and aims of New Testament studies, given the demands and priorities of the context in which you work?’ From a decolonizing perspective, biblical scholarship’s crucial role is fostering interdisciplinary approaches to help address 21st-century challenges set within the communal see-judge-act-evaluate-celebrate/ritualize framework. As a test case, this study characterizes Mary, her maternal health, and the perils of pregnancy in Luke 1–2 from a decolonizing angle within the context of the teenage pregnancy crisis in the Philippines. This decolonizing and interdisciplinary approach involves utilizing a synergy of contextual biblical hermeneutics in interpreting Luke 1–2 as an attempt to ensure that New Testament studies remain a relevant source of inspiration for actionable responses to promote teenage maternal health.

“Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given”: Lukan Table Practices in the Faith Formation of Christian Communities

Luke’s Eucharistic pattern not only serves as a Christological marker, but formative pattern for Christian faith communities. In this article, I appeal to Luke’s Eucharistic pattern to advance the claim that hospitable Eucharistic table practices are not only consistent with Luke’s Christology but also form faith that is capable of confronting and dismantling psychological disgust responses to outsiders. This motif is expanded in Luke–Acts, where acts of table fellowship become the places where socio-moral barriers are transgressed, signaling the good news of the gospel, especially for Gentiles. Drawing from biblical scholarship as well as recent work in psychology, I will advance the claim that hospitable Eucharistic practices not only expose disgust psychology in the faith formation of persons but also act as a potential balm, forming persons according to the good news proclaimed in Luke–Acts.

Hidden in Plain Sight? The Case of the Invisible Queer Womanist Biblical Scholar

Hidden in Plain Sight? The Case of the Invisible Queer Womanist Biblical Scholar

Eastern Light on Jerusalem

If the Post-Exilic period is now held to be the main phase of scribal production for the Hebrew Bible, understanding education in the Persian Empire is essential. Biblical scholarship has largely depended on evidence from earlier (Babylonian) or later (Hellenistic) periods, which is not applicable. This essay draws on direct evidence of Persian education in the eastern provinces to suggest a model of broader Persian scribalism.

Geslachtsgemeenschap zonder huwelijk als een multidimensionale zonde

Bruce Malina’s views on sexuality continue to exercise a major influence on contemporary Biblical scholarship. His position was that the Bible in general, and the Torah specifically, approve of sexual intercourse without marriage, as long as it is a voluntary act and the parties are not engaged to or married to someone other and it is not a commercial act. An analysis of the primary sources, as well as the Rabbinic commentaries and the tradition of the Western Church, shows that this view fails to do justice to semantic use of ‘fornication’ [תוּנְז] in the Thora, as well as to related incidences of πορνεία in the Septuagint and the New Testament. This article argues, on the basis of a text-oriented philological reading of the ancient texts, that these condemn sexual intercourse without an established marriage as a multidimensional sin. Both historical Rabbinic and Apostolic traditions claim a continued validity for this moral evaluation.Contribution: This article seeks to understand the source-orientated nature of the historical evaluation of sexual intercourse outside marriage in the Jewish and Christian tradition. The results of this enquiry show that a text-oriented approach within the context of tradition allows no room for sexual intercourse without marriage but condemns this as a multidimensional sin. The implication of this is that liberal opinions such as those of Malina are fundamentally not an exegesis of the text in historical context, but a form of meaning assignment. The influence of the philosophy of existentialism and postmodernism on Biblical studies in this development requires further research.

A CRITICAL STUDY OF ACTS 2-4 IN THE LIGHT OF KARL MARX’S “RELIGION IS THE OPIUM OF THE MASSES”

Karl Marx’s analysis and critique of religion captured in his statement: Religion is the opium of the masses is perhaps one of the most famous and most quoted by theists and atheists. Unfortunately, most of those doing the quoting do not really understand exactly what Marx meant, probably due to an incomplete understanding of Marx’s general theories on economics and society. Marx’s theory on religion as the opium of the masses is based on his belief that religion had certain practical functions both positive and negative to perform in the society. Such practical functions are seen and observed in the contemporary world. His theory was critically examined in the light of Acts 2-4 in order to discover its effect and implications for church and society using economic strait. The methodology adopted is historical critical method and redaction criticism in biblical scholarship. However, many factors are considered responsible for oppression and social disorder. In agreement with some aspects of Marx’s view on religion, this paper observes and recommends need for psychological emancipation from religious dogmatism.

God’s Body and the Material Turn: Divine (Im)Materiality in Biblical Theophanies

AbstractAlthough biblical scholars are increasingly turning their attention to the question of God’s body, few clarify how precisely this “body” complicates the long-held claim that God is immaterial. The present article addresses this oversight by attending to the ways in which biblical accounts of God’s body intersect with wider tradents of thought on materiality and immateriality, including, above all, the recent cross-disciplinary “turn” known as new materialism. The article begins by discussing what biblical scholars mean when they say “God’s body” and how biblical theophanies in particular complicate the belief that God is immaterial. It then discusses new materialism and how key emphases in this scholarly shift similarly complicate the belief in God’s immateriality. Third and finally, the article returns to biblical theophanies by reading these accounts through a new materialist lens, focusing in particular on God’s manifestations in material, nonhuman forms. In the end, I suggest not only that biblical theophanies problematize traditional ways of conceiving God within the history of biblical interpretation but also that new materialism can better enable us to see how these accounts portray the relationship between God and embodied materialities.

Ewe Cosmology and Spirituality: Implications for Christianity, Theology and Biblical Scholarship in Africa

Ewe Cosmology and Spirituality: Implications for Christianity, Theology and Biblical Scholarship in Africa

Discerning the Letter: Erasmus and Luther on the Literal Sense of Psalm 2

Abstract This comparative study will examine the ways Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther understood the literal sense of Scripture in their expositions of Ps 2. Building off of G. Sujin Pak’s book, The Judaizing Calvin: Sixteenth-Century Debates over the Messianic Psalms, this study seeks to incorporate Erasmus and compare his exegesis and hermeneutic to the early Luther’s expositions of Ps 2. The article aims to demonstrate how these two exegetes converged (and diverged) in their understanding of the literal sense and to explore what part the literal sense played in their interpretation of Scripture. Further, it will consider the relationship these exegetes have to their antecedent exegetical tradition as well as the role history and philology played in their exegesis and how Christ was related to the literal sense of Scripture. The final section of this study ends with a recommendation for contemporary biblical scholars and theologians in the task of biblical interpretation today.

Orientalists and Oriental Studies in Interwar Vilnius (1920–1939)

In interwar Poland, academic Oriental studies developed in three distinct centres, although the Orientalist community remained decentralized. In Vilnius, several scholars in this field were active and conducted both research and instruction of Oriental languages. Among them were Poles, Jews, Karaites and Tatars. Professionally, they were also diverse, including linguists, biblical scholars, Palestinologists, museologists, lecturers, and rabbis. Their academic pursuits encompassed religious studies, Semitic studies (with a focus on Hebrew), Ancient Eastern philology, Sanskrit, Ottoman Turkish studies, Turkish dialectology, Karaim studies, and ethnographic studies of the Polish Orient. In terms of education, they were involved in both school and university instruction, teaching Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, and Karaim. Noteworthy figures among these scholars in Vilnius included: Antoni Cichoński, Zofia Dubińska, Aleksander Dubiński, Dawid Neiger, Paweł Nowicki, Jan Otrębski, Seraja Szapszał, Jakub Szynkiewicz, Franciszek Tyczkowski, Bolesław Wilanowski, Ali Ismaił Woronowicz, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, and Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, along with Władysław Zimnicki. However, the research on Jewish, Tatar (Quranic) and Karaim education in Vilnius remains scant. Beyond scholarly and pedagogical pursuits, Orientalist activities in Vilnius extended to numerous institutions, including the Jewish Library, the Karaim and Tatar Museum, and various associations (including the Polish Oriental Society). Moreover, the city served as a hub for many periodicals, such as “Myśl Karaimska,” “Rocznik Tatarski,” “Życie Tatarskie,” as well as many Jewish magazines. Vilnius also hosted two Congresses of Polish Orientalists (in 1932 and 1937).

Song 7:2–6 [Eng: 1–5] as a Symphony of Poetry, Metaphor, and Passion

Song 7:2–6 is (in)famous for how the man describes his beloved, from feet to head, with one seemingly ridiculous metaphor after another. While the aesthetic sense of these metaphors may seem odd to westerners, it was highly unlikely to be such for its original audiences. Thus, the fundamental question for biblical scholars, especially those concerned with metaphor is: How does the poet employ the visual similarities in the metaphorical imagery to allow readers/hearers access to how the man both perceives and conceptualises the physical beauty of his beloved? In other words, how can we as readers take the metaphors seriously without obliterating the metaphorical imagery? This article seeks to answer this question by employing a complexity approach which integrates poetic rhythm (additionally borrowing the concept of deceptive cadence from music), linguistic approaches to poetic parallelism, the use of emotion in lyric poetry, and metaphor analyses. This symphony of analyses hopes to explain how the metaphors function as a unity within the poetry’s rhythm, building toward a peak to express the man’s desire and excitement for his beloved. It concludes by offering an interpretation of the final verse’s interpretively difficult description of the woman’s hair as crimson, explaining how the woman’s head as Mount Carmel during a fiery sunset serves as a fitting conclusion to the poem that provides a befitting climactic closure for conveying the man’s desire for his beloved.

The Influence of Greek Historiography in 1 Maccabees’ Battle Exhortations

ABSTRACT 1 Maccabees, though surviving solely in Greek through the Septuagint, is recognized by scholars as a Judean composition steeped in biblical historiography, with minimal Hellenistic influence. However, a nuanced analysis reveals Greek narrative parallels within its text. This study investigates the integration of Greek historiographical elements, focusing on the motif of battle exhortation. It demonstrates how the author amalgamates Greek and Jewish cultural motifs to glorify the early Hasmoneans, particularly Judas and Simon, emphasizing their military prowess and religious fervour. Through examination of battle exhortations by the protagonists, this research enriches our understanding of 1 Maccabees’ compositional techniques, highlighting the significance of Greco-Roman influences in biblical scholarship on the text.

Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics within the Context of African Biblical Hermeneutics: It’s Origin, Trends and Challenges

This study delves into the intricate landscape of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics within the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics, aiming to unravel its origins, discern trends, and confront challenges. Employing a qualitative research methodology grounded in extensive literature review and critical analysis, this investigation explores the evolution and current state of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics in the African context.Findings underscore the significance of linguistic and cultural nuances in biblical interpretation, emphasizing the role of indigenous languages in shaping contextual understanding and relevance. Moreover, the study identifies persistent challenges including colonial legacies, linguistic imperialism, and theological biases that impede the full realization of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics.In light of these findings, recommendations are proposed to foster the integration of indigenous languages into biblical scholarship, advocate for linguistic diversity, and promote inclusivity in theological discourse. Ultimately, this study contributes to scholarship by illuminating the vital intersection of language, culture, and interpretation in African Biblical Hermeneutics, thereby enriching theological dialogue and advancing decolonial approaches to biblical studies. Keywords: Biblical Hermeneutics, African Biblical Hermeneutics, Mother-tongue Biblical studies, Origin, Trends and Challenges.

Hypercriticism: A Case Study in the Rhetoric of Vice

This article traces the history of a scholarly vice of little renown: hypercriticism. Focusing on classical philologists and biblical scholars in nineteenth-century Germany, it examines how Hyperkritik developed from a technical philological term into a pejorative label that was widely invoked to discredit the latest trends in classical philology and, especially, biblical scholarship. Methodologically, this broad use of the term challenges historians’ preference for treating scholarly virtues and vices as norms tied to scholars’ research practices. The article therefore develops a rhetorical approach, complementary to the praxeological one, in which scholarly vice terms are interpreted as parts of a repertoire of scholarly “don'ts” on which both specialists and nonspecialists could draw in addressing the perceived ills of scholarly work.

Posttraumatic Growth and Deuteronomistic Redaction of Jer 31,31-34

ABSTRACT According to David Carr’s study, the Jewish and Christian scriptures arose from the positive psychological reaction to catastrophic human trauma, namely posttraumatic growth (PTG). Despite this insight, biblical scholars have hardly focused on reading biblical texts and the theology behind them through the lens of PTG. This article applies PTG to a specific passage in the Hebrew Bible, proposing a new solution to the controversial issue regarding the Deuteronomistic redaction of Jer 31,31-34. It argues two main points. First, a theology that emphasizes Spiritual Change but ignores New Possibilities differs from one that emphasizes New Possibilities because New Possibilities and Spiritual Change are two different factors of PTG. Second, Jer 31,31-34 is not a Deuteronomistic redaction because it indicates the domain of New Possibilities, which does not belong to Deuteronomistic theology; by contrast, Jer 23,5-6 and Jer 33,14-16 could be Deuteronomistic because they indicate Spiritual Change, which fits Deuteronomistic theology.