Biblical Writers Research Articles

“Make Rome Great Again” Preceded “Make America Great Again”: The Ancient Romo-Nationalism of Biblical Writers

The ideas about religious, sexual, gender, ethnic, urban, moral, and family decay that underlie “Make America Great Again’s” message have notable antecedents in ancient Greek and Roman mythologies about societal degeneration. Roman writers promoted a Romo-nationalist version we can call “Make Rome Great Again” that served to make the patriarchal, exploitative, and imperial power of elite Roman men seem like the solution to societal crisis. Biblical writers like Paul did not subvert these harmful Romo-nationalist logics but instead participated in them to describe gentile degeneration and sexual sin. Recognizing this troubling zone of contact between the Bible and MAGA-like ideologies can reveal the harm they cause and explain the depth of their attractiveness to White Christian nationalists.

Motion Terminology in Septuagint Gen 12:6

This article1 is devoted to the analysis of movement terminology in LXX-Gen 12:6. The research problem aims to investigate the contextual differences in the usage of the Greek verbs διοδεύω, διαβαίνω and παρέρχομαι, which are the common counterparts of the Hebrew עָבַר in the Greek Bible. In particular, the article seeks to understand the precise meaning of the Greek verb διοδεύω used in LXX-Gen 12:6. It concludes that the choice of the very rare verb διοδεύω in LXX-Gen 12:6 can be well understood in the context of the geography and topography of Canaan and the ethnic ideology of the biblical writers. Namely, the itinerary in LXX-Gen 12:6-9 did not require Abram to overcome any natural obstacles (which would have required the use of διαβαίνω) or pass by somebody or something (best expressed by παρέρχομαι). He did, however, have to travel through a wider space - the country inhabited by a foreign and potentially hostile population.

The Woman from Tekoa (2 Sam. 14) and the Character of Judicial Wisdom in Ancient Israel

Through the lens of comparative legal history, this study re-examines the story of the Wise Woman of Tekoa (2 Sam. 14.2–24) as a narrativized legal petition—an ancient Near Eastern epistolary sub-genre known from cuneiform and alphabetic inscriptions. This brief juridical parable offers a unique account of justice and adjudication largely independent of its ideological depiction in the Pentateuchal law codes, making it a critical text in the study of biblical law. In particular, it evokes two distinct forms of judicial wisdom in the context of legal self-help and royal adjudication. By comparing and contrasting this parable with other texts dealing with similar themes, I outline the diverse ways biblical writers explained the intersections of law, wisdom, and justice.

Upon the Roof of the Temple: Reconstructing Cognitive Aspects of Ancient Levantine Small-Scale Altar Usage

Abstract Among the ritual practices denigrated through explicit or implicit criticism levied by the biblical writers is the worship of a deity or deities on the rooftops – sometimes of royal architecture, and at other times on private houses. In the present study I interpret this practice using concepts derived from the cognitive science of religion (CSR) and cognitive linguistics. I summarize previous typologies of objects employed in the sacrificial cult of the ancient Southern Levant, confirming prior arguments for understanding shaft-type limestone altars as stylized models of architectural precursors. From a cognitive perspective, these stylized architectural models prompted offrants to run a conceptual blend that replaced the modest small-scale vegetable or incense offering of the offrant’s small-scale input space with the more sumptuous small-scale offering – or even large-scale animal sacrifice – of the monumental-scale input. This cognitive explanation provides explanation for Deuteronomistic and Priestly attempts to limit the practice, and occasions insight into the temporal aspects of “sacred space.”

A Critique of Thomas Aquinas’ Three Percepts of the Old Testament Law

Aquinas’ three-part classification of the Old Testament law has gained popularity and is proving to be useful in addressing challenging questions about the Old Testament law when presented to modern audiences. This qualitative study will examine Aquinas’ thesis by examining it from the perspective of biblical writers. The hermeneutics approach will be used to investigate the three-part division of the Old Testament law in order to comprehend the division and its history as closely as possible to the author’s original intention, as God commanded through him. This critique intends to acknowledge and appreciate the valuable contributions of Thomas Aquinas in assisting modern believers in comprehending the intricate biblical law. Furthermore, it aims to align the context of the law with a biblical worldview. To comprehend the Old Testament law accurately, it is necessary to have a profound understanding of moral and ethical principles that transcend time, along with approaching the Old Testament law with the proper heart attitude. Such an approach can enable contemporary believers to view the Old Testament law as a guide that remains pertinent and practical in daily life.

What Does “Spiritual Anointing” Have to Do with Ministry to the Poor?

The Bible employs various tactics to draw readers’ attention to its message. When something new is about to happen, the clearest, direct track is sometimes preferable: “I [the LORD] am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” (Isa 43:19; emphasis mine). Similarly, in Jeremiah: “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jer 31:31; emphasis mine). Another method employed by biblical writers repeats carefully chosen words to garner attention: “‘The LORD has done great things for them.’ The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced” (Ps 126:2–3). Isaiah 61 uses yet another editorial device: a unique phrase that attentive listeners would hardly miss. This article is about this third tactic, a unique phrase used to introduce Isaiah’s equally unique message in chapter 61. Most Bible readers are familiar with the moment in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus began his ministry by quoting an ancient passage from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because he has anointed me. . . .” The introductory phrase surely captured attention in Isaiah’s day and again hundreds of years later when Jesus repeated it when speaking about himself. Many modern readers may lack a clear understanding of what “anointing” means and may wonder why both Isaiah and Jesus chose to mention anointing and the poor in the same context. This article examines the ancient concept of “anointing” in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and then considers what was meant by “the poor” and the “year of the LORD’s favor” (also mentioned in both Isaiah and Luke). It demonstrates that in both Testaments anointed ministry to the poor is a core mandate for all people of faith, and that the vision of social reform has never changed.

Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals

Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals

The Pentateuch: Exodus–Deuteronomy

The PentateuchExodus–Deuteronomy Christopher T. Begg, Richard A. Taylor, Fred W. Guyette, and Brian J. Meldrum 486. [Moses's Embodied Encounter in Exod 3:1-4:17] Narelle Jane Coetzee, "Moses' Embodied Encounter: Bare Feet Grounded in the Wilderness (Exodus 3.1–4.17)," JPT 31 (1, 2022) 1-15. This article investigates the implications of Moses's unshod feet within the Burning Bush pericope (Exod 3:1–4:17). Scholars have traditionally maintained that the act of removing one's shoes is merely an ancient sign of honor, with Yhwh's command to Moses that he remove his sandals signifying that he is on holy ground. Here, C. argues that, via a narrative-geographical reading of the passage, one can discern additional insights into this feature of the story, specifically that Moses is being asked to participate in the encounter [End Page 164] as an embodied person, with all his senses. He is literally being "grounded" for this experience, through his unshod feet. C. further argues that a larger creational relationship is implied here, wherein Moses is the Deity's new (re-)creational partner (ʾādām), who through this bare-footed encounter is being connected back to the divine creational purposes, via the ʾādāmâ on which he is standing. Finally, in view of the fact that Pentecostal readers of the Bible seek an ongoing experience of the Spirit, C. suggests that the above narrative-geographical reading complements and re-energizes our whole-bodied spirituality and expectations of a divine encounter. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 487. [Exod 7:14-25] Hindy Nahman and Konrad Schmid, "Reading the Blood Plague (Exodus 7:14–25): The Hermeneutics of a Composite Text," JBL 141 (1, 2022) 23–42. This essay proposes a methodological commitment for rethinking the presuppositions about compositional practices with respect to the assembly and production of what we have come to call the Pentateuch. Throughout the article the authors highlight the commitment of the ancient biblical writers and readers to producing difference—rather than an overall seamless linear narrative. Their textual example focuses on the blood plague in Exod 7:14-25 but considers the composition of the Pentateuch and biblical composition more generally. [Adapted from published abstract—B.J.M.] 488. [The Ugaritic Baal Cycle and Exod 15:1-18] Nicolas Wyatt, "An Echo of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle in the Song of the Sea? An Exploration in Historical Theology," From Words to Meaning, 17-34 [see #911]. As reconstructed by W., the Ugaritic Baal Cycle (UBC) was composed ca. 1210 b.c.e. in commemoration of the dedication of the replacement edifice for Ugarit's earlier Baal temple which had been destroyed by a tidal wave ca. 1250 and would itself subsequently be wrecked by the Sea Peoples who assaulted Ugarit ca. 1185. W.'s essay highlights the affinities between this Ugaritic composition and the "Song of the Sea" (Exod 15:1-18), e.g., their shared and distinctive reference to a deity's (Baal/Yhwh) "inheritance," and posits that the former eventually found its way south to the territory of Israel, where it was drawn on, but also modified (e.g., in the "Song the Sea" the sea is not Yhwh's adversary the way Yam is Baal's opponent in the UBC, but rather his obedient agent).—C.T.B. 489. [Exod 19:1–31:18] Nico Riemersma, "De afbakening, delen en opbouw van Exodus 19:1–31:18 [The Delimitation, Component Parts and Structure of Exod 19:1-31:18]," JTSR 76 (1, 2022) 42-60. Many scholars consider Exodus 19–24 to be the first major narrative unit with the concluding segment of the Book of Exodus (19:1–40:38). Questions arise, however, concerning the delimitation, component parts, and structure of this proposed unit. First, while Exod 19:1 may be seen as the beginning of a narrative unit, it is also the concluding element for the preceding chap. 18; Secondly, whereas many commentators regard 24:18 as the end of the narrative unit that begins in 19:1, I argue that there is greater reason to...

Jeffery M. Leonard. Creation Rediscovered: Finding New Meaning in an Ancient Story

Jeffery M. Leonard. <i>Creation Rediscovered: Finding New Meaning in an Ancient Story</i>

Micah 1–3 and Cultural Trauma Theory: An Exploration

AbstractTrauma studies have seen rapid growth in popularity within the past two decades, moving from a psychological phenomenon to a concept utilized by literary critics, sociologists, and now biblical scholars. Yet, most of the work on trauma theory within biblical studies focuses on psychological aspects of trauma instead of sociological or cultural aspects of trauma. Drawing on Jeffery Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, a cultural trauma reading of Micah 1–3 reveals how Micah 1–3 as a book transforms Micah’s localized psychological trauma to become a national trauma, explaining why scribes preserved Micah 1–3. Like holocaust testimony that became a cultural trauma, Micah’s testimony to his trauma became a trauma for all of Judea. To create a cultural trauma, Micah 1–3 define the trauma as divine punishment through an Assyrian invasion due to a breakdown of social order seen in the corrupt owners, rulers, and religious leaders. This cultural trauma then becomes one of the early texts to shape later biblical writers’ understanding of divine punishment. This article offers a different perspective of trauma theory and shows how cultural trauma theory explains why Micah 1–3 were preserved.

Divine Moral Inspiration: Unity in Biblical Theology

Scholars of the Bible have long sought a theme that can identify substantial unity in the various Biblical writings without disregarding their undeniable diversity. In this context, scholars have explored the nature and limits of Biblical inspiration in considerable detail, but the moral inspiration of humans by God has received relatively little attention. This neglect is striking, because such divine inspiration of humans is arguably a silver lining throughout the Bible and a source of robust unity for Biblical theology. This article contends that the moral inspiration of humans by God is a substantial unifier for Biblical theology. It also shows how this approach yields (a) a new understanding of the fruit of the Spirit as divine filial values in human experience and (b) a needed veracity check on the unified Biblical theology offered.

Touching the Past, or Reading as If It Matters Now

Touching the Past, or Reading as If It Matters Now Tyler Schwaller (bio) There are certain works that have so transformed my ways of thinking that I sometimes forget what it was like to think otherwise. Dr. Bernadette Brooten's Love Between Women is one of those texts. As I teach in both academic and ecclesial settings about the Bible and sexuality, I draw regularly upon the materials and insights of Dr. Brooten's work and of course cite her appropriately. However, the content has become so familiar to me that I sometimes forget the sheer scope of the book's impact. This opportunity to spend substantial time again with the text has illuminated for me that Love Between Women is not only an important work that I cite for evidence, but also one that I cannot and do not think apart from, as Dr. Brooten's arguments have so fundamentally shaped the ways I think about sex, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world and its implications for contemporary discourses and debates. It is truly an honor to be able to reflect on the impact of this transformative work. I will admit that it made me somewhat anxious to present as part of this retrospective special section, as I have felt a tension between the manner in which I think I am supposed to speak "as a scholar" and what I really want to say, which is perhaps more confessional. But even as Dr. Brooten's Love Between Women has certainly sharpened my scholarly sensibilities, its influence has been deeper and farther-reaching for me. So, I would like to share in terms of my experiences with the text, which begin with the personal and extend beyond academe to workshops I have taught on the Bible and sexuality with church groups. These workshops have taken place primarily in United Methodist contexts.1 Further, I have drawn [End Page 177] upon Dr. Brooten's work while engaging in ecclesial juridical settings convened to enforce the United Methodist Church's anti-queer policies. This leads me to reflect in two directions: first, toward celebration and gratitude for Love Between Women and second, toward ethics of interpretation, scholarship, pedagogy, and sex. I initially encountered Love Between Women soon after coming out as gay, as I was still thinking through my relationship to the church and to the Bible. I experienced the commentary on Rom 1:18–32 especially as freeing.2 Without being able to name at the time what felt deficient, I had been left unsatisfied by mainstream progressive interpretive strategies aimed at affirming same-sex desire and relationships. I was familiar with two primary approaches, sometimes working in tandem: claiming that homosexuality is a modern category, thereby presuming biblical texts have nothing to say on the topic as we know it, and/or contending that ancient condemnation of same-sex desire is really a critique of pederasty (as if that were the only same-sex relationality known in the ancient world). These possibilities for claiming that modern queer relationality was unknown to biblical writers and so freed from scriptural scrutiny was first introduced to me in the published debate between Dan Via and Robert Gagnon, which I purchased and read in secret in high school.3 Such line of thinking was reinforced when I encountered Foucault in college and learned his claim that homosexuality emerged as a discrete concept only in the modern period. While I appreciated the call to think contextually, not generalizing categories of desire across time and space, I was unsatisfied by the notion that the best defense for queer love today would be the impossibility of its imagination in the past. What felt so freeing about reading the commentary in Love Between Women was to let go of the intellectual gymnastics and simply name things as they are: Paul does not like same-sex desire, full stop. But Paul draws upon contemporaneous thought to make an argument fundamentally rooted in the assumption of women's subordination.4 Recognizing that I could not support the underlying logic and so did not feel beholden to the argument, I acknowledged for myself the need to look elsewhere, to consider...

“She Gazed Through the Window”: Gender and Grammatical Voice in Ancient Hebrew

Abstract The verbs נִשְׁקַף and הִשְׁקִיף are usually both rendered into English as “to look down,” with no apparent difference in meaning despite their occurrence in the niphal and the hiphil, respectively. However, there seems to be a clear pattern in the choice between the two binyanim, which is determined by the gender of the person described. The author’s selection of either stem may give us a glimpse into the Weltanschauung of the biblical writers and their perception of how men and women acted in society and on the stage of life. In one interesting instance regarding queen Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30), the regular linguistic pattern is reversed to further emphasise the stark contrast between her character and the usual way in which female characters are described in the Hebrew Bible. Paying attention to the general pattern also gives additional evidence in the question of the identity of the speaker in Prov 7:6.

Has Archaeology Buried the Bible?

Has Archaeology Buried the Bible?

An Archaeology of Ancient Thought: On the Hebrew Bible and the History of Ancient Israel

AbstractThe question of how to approach the Hebrew Bible as a source for the histories we write of ancient Israel continues to divide scholars. This study responds to such concerns by pursuing an approach informed by a historicized view of knowledge, or a framework in which the claims we make are understood to be reflective of the eras in which they are realized. What this line of research encourages, I argue, are historical investigations into the underlying modes of knowing that would have contributed to the stories told in the biblical writings. Since knowledge about the past is itself historical, this study contends that it is necessary to situate such claims in time, examining the normative assumptions of an era that establish the parameters by which this knowledge is organized and granted credibility. The epistemic conditions that gave rise to the stories recounted in the Hebrew Bible are as much an object of historical interest, on this view, as the stories themselves for assessments of what evidence they might offer.

Reading the Blood Plague (Exodus 7:14–25): The Hermeneutics of a Composite Text

Abstract This essay presents a methodological commitment to rethink the presuppositions about compositional practices with respect to the assembly and production of what we have come to call the Pentateuch. Throughout the article the authors present an account of the ancient biblical writers and readers as committed to producing difference—not to produce an overall seamless linear narrative. The textual example focuses on the blood plague but considers the composition of the Pentateuch and biblical composition more generally.

Sin and Missing the Mark in Management: A Lukan Perspective

This paper draws on biblical writings to contribute to our understanding of sin, a catchphrase commonly used in everyday discourse and the scholarly literature with little reference to its underlying meaning. A biblical understanding of "sin" draws attention to whether behaviors are consistent with religious teachings and/or with the will of God. This study develops a Lukan understanding of sin and management—grounded in the socio-economic context in which the biblical text was written—that calls for the development of management theory and practices that liberate relationships (rather than promote patron-client relationships), de-marginalize the poor and oppressed (rather than widen gaps between rich and poor), promote positive deviance (rather than stigmatize diversity), provide fresh ways of thinking (rather than perpetuate the status quo), and facilitate connection to the spiritual (rather than reject spirituality). The conclusion describes practical examples and implications associated with the Lukan approach.

HRIŠĆANSKI ASPEKTI POJMA IPOSTAS (LIČNOST) U BIBLIJSKIM SPISIMA

The term hypostasis represents one of the key theological terms used by the holy fathers in an effort to define the meaning and significance of the person in theological disputes during the historical life of the Church. Although the term hypostasis which we find in the Orthodox Christian tradition is not found in the ancient Hebrew text as an exact term as we find one in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, it does not mean that the meaning of this term is foreign to biblical thought. On the contrary, there are other terms by means of which we conclude that its meaning can still be read from the corresponding Old Hebrew expressions. In that sense, we believe that the ancient Jewish ideograms, both in their internal meanings and as ideographic gatherings that constitute biblical words, form in many ways the foundation of today’s Orthodox perception of this theologically important concept. By his acts of worship, or by his active presences, God himself participates in the economic historical appearances of the chosen people. Epiphanies as divine active presences are in some way imprinted in the Divine naming, which makes the holy biblical writings God-established ideographic testimonies and messages, which speak of divine actions as actions of certain divine Persons. In that sense, biblical expressions like rbdm lwqh,, ynda,, hwhy,, ~ yhla,, rbd, םyhla xwr,, hwhy xwr,, hwhy! kvm, etc., as ideographic signs of the divine plan of salvation, point to the appropriate Old Testament revelations of the divine hypostases of God the Father, the Son of God and the Spirit of God, which divinely guide the history of salvation of man and the world from sin and death. Keywords: hypostasis, (ancient Hebrew) ideograms, face (of God), presence (of God), God, Lord, word (of God), spirit (of God), naming of God

Rule of Love and Rule of Faith in Augustine’s Hermeneutics: A Complex Dialectic of the Twofold Rules

Since the sixteenth-century Reformation, literal interpretation of the Bible has been deemed the best hermeneutical method to unearth the biblical writers’ original meaning. For the Reformers, allegorical interpretation was denigrated for reading an extraneous, or spiritual, meaning into any text. Although Augustine was among the first who champions a literal interpretation of the Scripture—as he outlined in his De doctrina christiana—until recent decades, Augustine is still being perceived as inconsistent in following his hermeneutical method as it is attested in his interpretation of the Good Samaritan. In his interpretation, Augustine seems to have allegorized the parable, thus his method was accused of being inconsistent. Is it really the case? This article attempts to contest such an accusation by showing that Augustine’s method of interpretation cannot simply be categorized as either entirely literal or allegorical. Augustine never professes as a literalist, an exegete who only applies what is now known as a historical-critical method. On the other hand, he did not recklessly legitimate the application of allegorical reading to any text. Taken as a whole, Augustine’s hermeneutics revolves around a complex dialectic of regula dilectionis (the rule of love) and regula fidei (the rule of faith) that allows both interpretations to be considered to be true.

Hearing the transformative potential of metaphor in scripture? Honouring J. Wentzel van Huyssteen

Christians worldwide are (re)discovering the power of scripture in their daily lives, especially in the context of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. The present turbulent time provides the biblical sciences an opportunity to support other theological disciplines and the church to search for ways scripture can give encouragement to people. The argument in this article is that the power of biblical writings lies in their metaphors which open an alternative moral world. For the appropriation of scripture in new contexts, the transformative potential of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen’s metaphorical hermeneutic is explored as a framework. The article gives a brief overview of the influence of his work as a mentor, colleague and friend.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article focuses on the dynamic nature and intentions of New Testament Studies (intradisciplinary aspects), and uses the philosophical hermeneutic of a systematic theologian as well as insights from literary theory and cultural anthropology to support the argument and open up interdisciplinary discourse.