Biblical Story Research Articles

The Biblical Code in the Novel «Windows on the World» by Frédéric Beigbeder

The article represents the interpretation of the novel "Windows on the World" by the modern French writer Frédéric Beigbeder from the point of view of the biblical code. The author of the article distinguishes two levels of the presence of biblical components: explicit and implicit. The author inventories the Old Testament and New Testament images and motifs marked in the work, and she determines their functionality. The author proves that it is the components of the biblical code that perform content-creating and form-creating functions in the novel. The biblical code defines the structure of the novel as parabolic and deepens its dystopian content, giving it an eschatological dominant. The author pays special attention to the transformation of the biblical story about the Tower of Babel in the novel. The author proves that the Old Testament motifs of creation and destruction, which are associated with the image of the Tower of Babel, characterize the consequences of economic and cultural globalization in the novel by Frédéric Beigbeder and acquire an apocalyptic dimension. The writer assigns a special role in the process of globalization to marketing as a means of promoting mass culture, which produces a profaned image of the world and brings humanity closer to its end. The author analyzes the novel’s intertextual connections, which are related to its biblical code. The image of the Catcher from the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. David Salinger deepens the semantics of the biblical code in the novel "Windows on the World." The writer demonstrates that the messianism of the "broken generation" of America, which was represented by JD Salinger, later turned into "superheroism", and the path of spiritual ascent was profaned by the construction of skyscrapers. The author proves that with the help of the biblical code, the writer builds his own eschatological vision of the world, which deviates from the metanarratives of Christianity and globalism and takes away humanity’s last hopes. The apocalypse that Frédéric Beigbeder recreates in the novel "Windows on the World" provides redemption, but it does not guarantee salvation. His "Savior" reminds mankind only of death and it does not promise eternal life to anyone.

A re-reading of Judges 19 in juxtaposition to the Zimbabwean women’s vulnerability to ‘punitive rape’

With the rise of feminist thinking, the phenomenon of the rape culture has admittedly drawn the attention of many academics especially in biblical studies. While several academics have done a commendable job of demonstrating how ancient biblical stories can have a bearing upon elements of the modern rape culture, the bulk of the literature has been penned from a Western standpoint and it is only by inference that one can find a resonance with the African situation. Given that the rape culture is not just a Western phenomenon but a pervasive global challenge, this article introduces an African perspective on this matter. Wearing feminist hermeneutical lenses, the article engages in a comparative analysis of the gender-based violations, human rights abuses, and the absolute lack of hospitality depicted in Judges 19–21 with the experiences of a Zimbabwean woman, Rutendo Munengami. It then taps into the lived experiences of the given women as resources which can be used to seriously think about the ugly dehumanising effects of rape and in so doing, bolster efforts towards combating the modern rape culture. In this article, it is our contention that people, the world over, and the Zimbabwean society in particular, need to earnestly acknowledge the pain and anguish experienced by the Levite’s concubine as well as Munengami and other countless women who have been victims of rape. We conclude the article by restating that wherever the rape culture is prevalent, people need to embrace and uphold the principles of human dignity, hospitality, justice and equality, and resolutely move away from a culture of denial and apathy when it comes to issues of rape.Contribution: This article juxtaposes the experiences of the sexual violence endured by the concubine in Judges 19 and that of a Zimbabwean woman, Rutendo Munengami. It concludes by proffering possible ways of curbing the rape culture which has crept into Africa like a cancerous worm.

The Price of the Forbidden and the Value of Life

Biblical stories serve as a foundation for European literature and artwork because of the mystical dimensions that address mankind and human qualities in general. Both the narrative of Adam and Eve and the fruit of knowledge have become well-known literary devices that have served as sources of inspiration for writers and poets throughout history. Both Christina Rossetti and Thomas Mann use the theme of forbidden fruit and its consequences as the subject matter that they handle in their literary works. They do this in order to demonstrate the consequences of giving in to the temptations of things that one should not want. In a postmodern way, both Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti and Death in Venice by Thomas Mann deal with the theme of surrendering to the temptation of an unlawful desire and the destructive effects of it through the depiction of the physical and psychological deterioration of the protagonists in each work.

Medieval European Dramas and Ankiya Nats (One-Act play) of Srimanta Sankardeva in Assamese Literature: A Comparative Study

Theatrical practice in England in the medieval period was intimately connected to the life style and social condition of the people. The main form of the medieval drama was religious and they were popularly known as the mysterious plays, miracle plays and morality plays – mostly portrayed biblical story or account of the life of a saint or the dramatization of the abstract states. During the later part of the same medieval period, Sankardeva – the great preacher of Vaisnavism in Assam – had composed religious and moral plays known as Ankiya Nat (one-act play) based on the epics or the Puranas. The main purpose of these plays was to instil into the hearts of the audience the message of ‘bhakti’ (loving devotion to God). The present paper is an attempt to explore the similarities of the Ankiya Nats with that of the medieval European dramas. The study shows that the Ankiya plays of Assam and the medieval plays of the West reveal some identical features despite the immense difference of space.

An Evaluation of Christian Education in Indonesia in light of Targum: A Cognitive Psychology Approach

Education is an important matter in Indonesia and also globally. This importance of education is ingrained in the Indonesian Law Constitution in 1945 (Undang-Undang Dasar 1945), chapter 31 where it states that: every Indonesian citizen deserves to receive education, and is obliged to attend basic education and the government is obliged to pay for it. In addition, the government is to seek and organize a national education system which increases faith and piety as well as noble character in the context of educating the life of the nation, which is regulated by law. The state prioritizes the education budget of at least twenty percent of the state revenue and expenditure budget as well as from the regional revenue and expenditure budget to meet the needs of implementing national education. It alsoadvances science and technology by supporting high religious values and national unity for the advancement of civilization and the welfare of mankind. As a result, the Indonesian government provides a free of charge education at public schools from grades one to nine to give an opportunity of equal education to every citizen which includes nine subjects. The challenge, however, is that all students in the public schools are required to take nine subjects every academic year. This could be overwhelmingly difficult for the students both academically and also mentally. Thus, this article attempts to propose a solution academically as to how students could cope with their forgetfulness to achieve the maximum grades. This solution, it is argued, can be discovered in the Targum and is tested through a cognitive psychology approach. Targums which form a part of the Jewish traditional literature from the Second Temple period are not merely a translation of the Hebrew Torah text into Aramaic, but also possess immense Talmudic wisdom that illuminates the Biblical stories but also provide us with important tried and tested lessons for today.

Sacred Sounds, Secular Spaces: Transforming Catholicism through the Music of Third-Republic Paris, by Jennifer Walker

<i>Sacred Sounds, Secular Spaces: Transforming Catholicism through the Music of Third-Republic Paris</i>, by Jennifer Walker

Pentateuchal Women Portrayed in Tannaitic Midrash: A Close Reading of Ancient Rabbinic Texts that Closely Read the Text

AbstractThe Tannaitic Midrashim offer a unique and ancient view of the reception of the bible by the earliest generations of rabbis. This study describes how the close readings and textual analyses in these midrashim resulted in a fuller picture of biblical ideas and characters; in this case, the women of the Pentateuch. The tannaitic midrashic texts that describe Zipporah, Miriam, the Daughters of Zelophehad and Serah bat Asher are isolated and analyzed in order to see how the ancient rabbis read the biblical stories of these women and then elaborated on them in their exegetical writings.

Billedtepper fra Gudbrandsdalen og sagnet om Heknesøstrene

An intriguing combination of tapestry weave, legend and myth arose in Gudbrandsdalen in the 17th century. The legend about the conjoined twin master weavers is still living as a local story, and is now being conveyed to an international audience through novels written by Lars Mytting. The legend is tightly connected to a distinct form of tapestry weave, depicting biblical stories and narratives rooted in medieval poetry. The traditional interaction between visual and oral storytelling might be an important key to understanding the textiles. Visual stories told through tapestries have a long tradition in Norway, traceable from the 9th century tapestries from the Oseberg Viking ship grave onto the tapestries from Gudbrandsdalen. The legends about the extraordinary weavers that created tapestries in Gudbrandsdalen provide an extra dimension, linking the idea of conjoined twins as creatures of paradox with the pre-Christian tradition of natural signs that had to be de-coded.

Rereading Cain and Abel: New Approaches to Enforced Disappearances

The story of Cain and Abel, connected to enforced disappearances and the dictatorship has been used in Argentina by different stakeholders, many times for opposite purposes and with completely antithetical meanings. The Cain and Abel story is as complex as the story of enforced disappearances. Unpacking enforced disappearances while considering the biblical story allows for fresh readings of the binary approach to victims and perpetrators, challenges the conception of bystanders, and questions the traditional understanding of accountability limited to criminal responses. It also allows for thinking critically about memory, the effectiveness of the international response to enforced disappearances, and the inter-generational effect of disappearances.

Seriously Comic Vision: “Hop-Frog” and the Book of Esther

Abstract It is a “terrible” subject Poe admits in a letter to Annie Richmond about his latest story, “Hop-Frog.” It may seem surprising, therefore, to find that the book of Esther is an influential source for this tale and its subject. Yet, as this article argues, this biblical story’s footprints are discernable. Esther’s comedic characterizations, motifs, diction, and stylistic approaches reappear in Poe’s story, often with striking similitude. However, in accordance with his stated criteria for originality and his bent toward ironic opposition, Poe upends the biblical account. Esther’s story of heroic reversals aided by divine providence in a joyful triumph over monarchical oppression and death becomes a dark counternarrative of human madness and vengeance on a godless stage. The seriocomic vision in “Hop-Frog” retains the outlines and substance of its original source but in the form of a negative image with a distinctly original effect.

„Duch Pana JHWH nade mną”. Tożsamość proroka w Iz 61,1-3

The historical-literary analysis of the Book of Isaiah suggests that Isaiah 61 is the oldest chapter of the last part of the Book of Isaiah, known as Trito-Isaiah (56-66). There are messages from the Babylonian exile that portray the post-exile Jewish community. There is disappointment and at the same time anticipation of the realization of earlier prophecies of restoration. In Isa 61: 1-3 there is a confession of a mysterious figure sent by God. The hero, anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, heralds a radical renewal of Israel. The exegetical analysis of the prophet’s individual tasks allows him to be identified with various heroes of the biblical story (David, the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord). At the same time, these activities were most often attributed to God Himself. The eschatological renewal of Israel, which God will accomplish, will also extend to other nations.&#x0D;

„Duch Pana JHWH nade mną”. Tożsamość proroka w Iz 61,1-3

The historical-literary analysis of the Book of Isaiah suggests that Isaiah 61 is the oldest chapter of the last part of the Book of Isaiah, known as Trito-Isaiah (56-66). There are messages from the Babylonian exile that portray the post-exile Jewish community. There is disappointment and at the same time anticipation of the realization of earlier prophecies of restoration. In Isa 61: 1-3 there is a confession of a mysterious figure sent by God. The hero, anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, heralds a radical renewal of Israel. The exegetical analysis of the prophet’s individual tasks allows him to be identified with various heroes of the biblical story (David, the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord). At the same time, these activities were most often attributed to God Himself. The eschatological renewal of Israel, which God will accomplish, will also extend to other nations.

El Apocalipsis según León Ferrari

Starting in the 1960s, the Argentine artist León Ferrari referred repeatedly in his visual and written works to God’s punishments in the Bible. Plagues, famines, floods, and sinners burning in eternal fire were constants. Additionally, the artist focused on animals, descriptions of nature, and continual references to biblical ecological orders. Beginning with El árbol embarazador (1964) and the literary collage Palabras ajenas (1967), this combination of biblical stories and animals or natural disasters was present in Ferrari’s oeuvre until the end of his life. The aim of this article is to analyze the frequent appearance of nature and the way in which it intermingles with wars and historical massacres, with plagues and divine retribution, taking as a starting point Ferrari’s stance against the Vietnam War to investigate the trajectory of a radicalism that was conceived in the sixties but that extended to his more recent works. Through the study of his writings, this article argues that the apocalyptic themes and a consistent ecological interest contribute to a “biblical fiction” that permeates Ferrari’s denunciation of the complicity between political and religious violence.

Pausing on a Sunday: Sondheim and the Composition of the Secular in the American Musical

The abundance of Bible story–based plots and preponderance of Jewish lyricists in musical theatre suggests religion should play a central role in its study. Yet religion is not a major theme in musical theatre criticism. This article suggests this silence is a symptomatic forgetfulness of the default secular operative in American musical theatre and its analysts in theatre studies. Focusing on Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) as an artist of particular accomplishment within the raced, gendered, and religious aesthetic of the American musical’s secularism, it examines “Sunday,” the Act One closer to Sunday in the Park with George (1984), as a climax of such expression. “Sunday” is an instruction manual on what the secular is, conveying in its lyrics, compositional location, and author’s autobiography the story of religion’s hiddenness in the American musical. Sondheim’s “Sunday” is a way to see how musical theatre regulates religion on stage.

Exploration of philosophical connotation behind the Religious allusion in The Student

The biblical story of Jesus' crucifixion in Chekhov's short story The Student can be said to be a punctuation point, alluding to the main theme of the whole text and having a profound philosophical meaning. For Chekhov, the reference to this religious allusion is both accidental and inevitable. Through an in-depth analysis of the seminary student's thought process, which is triggered by his remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible, his chain of thoughts on the past, present, and future is revealed, revealing Chekhov's aspirations for the new generation of Russian intellectuals: positive energy of youth, health, optimism, and aspirations for a mysterious and mysterious future life. It is also a reflection of Chekhov's optimistic outlook on the future of Russia, as he expresses a dialectical understanding of the underlying ideology of truth and beauty, harmony and discord.

Exploration of philosophical connotation behind the Religious allusion in The Student

The biblical story of Jesus' crucifixion in Chekhov's short story The Student can be said to be a punctuation point, alluding to the main theme of the whole text and having a profound philosophical meaning. For Chekhov, the reference to this religious allusion is both accidental and inevitable. Through an in-depth analysis of the seminary student's thought process, which is triggered by his remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible, his chain of thoughts on the past, present, and future is revealed, revealing Chekhov's aspirations for the new generation of Russian intellectuals: positive energy of youth, health, optimism, and aspirations for a mysterious and mysterious future life. It is also a reflection of Chekhov's optimistic outlook on the future of Russia, as he expresses a dialectical understanding of the underlying ideology of truth and beauty, harmony and discord.

Images and Self-Reflection in the Meditationes Vitae Christi

Personal prayer books often contained portraits of their patrons engaged in devotion, which were gazed at during prayer or meditative reading and could shape the readers’ devotional state of mind and conduct. In this article, I examine images that allowed a female reader to see herself in an illuminated manuscript of a different sort: the well-known Franciscan text, the Meditationes Vitae Christi, now Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 410. I will show that the book’s illuminations compel the reader’s identification with the accompanying text through their emotional intensity or singularity, illustrating and constructing various facets of contemplation.&#x0D; The images I discuss are not the patron or reader portraits that appear in personal prayer books nor are they designed solely to allow the reader to imaginatively place herself within the vita Christi narrative. Rather, they depict figures who take part in the biblical story and invite the reader’s identification. This article considers two images of Mary and other, less prominent figures that could project the manuscript’s reader, very likely a Poor Clare, into the text and teach her how to use it to achieve contemplative ascent. The illuminations instruct her to remain focused on her ceaseless search for God, relentless prayer, and Passion meditation, which will ultimately lead to an unmediated encounter with the divine.

Political Readings of the Hagar Narratives in Poems By Jewish Women

Abstract: The biblical story of Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian maidservant, whom she gave to her husband, Abraham, as a concubine, appears in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 16 and 20. This article discusses poems written by modern Jewish women poets that use the Hagar narrative to comment on the conflict between the Jews, the descendants of Sarah, and the Arabs, the descendants of Hagar. Two themes are prominent: The conflict between Sarah and Hagar, and their common motherhood. Through these themes, which are both manifest in the biblical story, the poets give expression to their own worldviews regarding the ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs. Some of the poems discussed here conceive of the Hagar narrative as symbolizing the root of the unending conflict between Arabs and Jews. They are interested in rectifying the historical injustice that began, as it were, when Sarah banished her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to the wilderness with her son Ishmael. Other poems offer a gentler understanding of Hagar, seeking to understand and empathize with her through a common femininity/maternity and in this way to overcome the political implications of the story. These themes stand in contrast with the midrashic tradition that sees Ishmael as a symbol of the enemy and Hagar as the symbolic mother of the enemy. A third group of poems uses the Hagar story to reflect on the dynamic between Arabs and Jews, moving between violence and eroticism. This article will discuss poems by Dahlia Ravikovitch, Zerubavela Sasonkin, Nava Semel, Bracha Serri, Shirley Kaufman, Lynn Gottlieb, Lally Alexander, Hava Pinhas-Cohen and Rivka Miriam.

Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives edited by Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, [Ancient Israel and Its Literature], SBL Press, Atlanta, 2020, pp. xii + 233, £28.00, pbk

Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives edited by Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, [Ancient Israel and Its Literature], SBL Press, Atlanta, 2020, pp. xii + 233, £28.00, pbk

The Solomonic Temple of Josephus’ Antiquities

This introductory article aims to explicate certain aspects of Josephus’ recounting of the biblical story of the Solomonic Temple’s construction, attempting to understand the messages the author wanted to convey to his Roman audience and how the audience may have comprehended them. I will show that Josephus weaves a compelling story by making changes and adding details to the biblical account to further his intention to convince his readership of the antiquity of the Jerusalem Temple. He presents the opulence of the building, with its sumptuous furnishings and personnel designed to draw attention to the greatness of the Judean God and his worldwide dominion. Josephus also underlines the centrality and relevance of the Temple, not only for Judeans but for all nations, hoping thereby to generate sympathy in the Roman readers for the idea that the now-destroyed Temple should be rebuilt.