Jewish Scriptures Research Articles

The Secret of the Kingdom of God: The Literary and Theological Achievement of the Evangelist Mark by Hugh Humphrey

Reviewed by: The Secret of the Kingdom of God: The Literary and Theological Achievement of the Evangelist Mark by Hugh Humphrey Susan M. (Elli) Elliott hugh humphrey, The Secret of the Kingdom of God: The Literary and Theological Achievement of the Evangelist Mark (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019). Pp. xiv + 179. $100. Hugh Humphrey offers a literary analysis of the Gospel of Mark, presenting the Gospel writer as a well-educated creative author trained in the literary conventions of his day. H. intends to elucidate what the “secret” or “mystery” of the kingdom of God is in Mark’s Gospel and to show that this expression does not refer to “‘heaven’ or ‘something after death’” (p. vii). [End Page 146] In his introduction, H. provides a concise view of what he considers a “new paradigm” of interpretation of Mark. He locates the beginning of this paradigm in the sociorhetorical methods that Vernon K. Robbins advanced starting in the 1980s and in the work of the Markan Literary Sources Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature begun in 2010 (pp. x–xi). H. identifies this paradigm as “new” in distinction, first, from previous scholarly focus on Mark as a source of evidence for the historical Jesus based on the consensus source theory of Marcan priority and, second, from assumptions of form and redaction criticism that reduce Mark to what H. describes as “a cut-and-paste compiler of oral traditions” (p. x) rather than a skilled and creative author. H.’s discernment of this “new paradigm” omits mention of decades of other major work on Mark’s Gospel, including performance critics’ work on its narrative unity and authorial creativity and other scholars’ work on Roman imperial contexts that provide background for its core terminology and concepts. Following the introduction, H. presents several elements of his literary analysis in a series of readable short chapters. In chap. 1, he explains his theory of layers of development in Mark. The second chapter discusses the chreia as a rhetorical convention and lists chreiai in Mark with a comment on and full translation of each passage. The next three chapters discuss specific literary sources for Mark, starting with H.’s own exposition of Mark’s use of the Wisdom of Solomon to portray Jesus as the “righteous man” in the image found there. Evaluative reviews follow, first of Adam Winn’s work on Mark’s use of the Elijah/Elisha narratives and then of Dennis MacDonald’s work on the Gospel’s reliance on Homer (Adam Winn, Mark and the Elijah-Elisha Narrative: Considering the Practice of Greco-Roman Imitation in the Search for Markan Source Material [Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2010]; Dennis R. MacDonald, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000]). Another chapter details Mark’s use of other sources, including Jewish Scriptures, a passion narrative, some sayings from Q, and Plato’s Timaeus. Overall H.’s presentation effectively demonstrates that Mark drew on more than one source and on Greek as well as Jewish sources. He avoids the pitfalls of claiming any single source as “the” explanatory source for the Gospel. H. shows that Mark used literary conventions of his time, pointing especially to chreia and mimesis. In chap. 7, H. provides a detailed summary of the entire Gospel detailing its literary sources and construction passage by passage. Before a brief epilogue and an appendix that includes a full translation of the Gospel with indications of the literary sources, H.’s final full chapter offers what could be a stand-alone exposition on the theme introduced in his title, The Secret of the Kingdom of God. He focuses on the teachings assembled in Mark 4, especially the parable of the sower (vv. 3–9) and its explanation (vv. 13–20) along with the key message from Jesus to the disciples in v. 11 that the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to them. H. sees this “secret” as the image of authentic discipleship as bearing good fruit offered in the explanation of the parable. H.’s analysis points most constructively to a shift of focus in the interpretation of Mark. H. redirects...

Trojan Horses: The Counterintuitive Use of Dinah, Helen, and Goliath in Joseph and Aseneth

Abstract A primary theme of the first story in Joseph and Aseneth (Jos. Asen. 1–21) is the conversion of an Egyptian to the worship of the living God, motivated by romantic attraction. In this respect, Joseph and Aseneth is one among many ancient novelistic writings to use a story about intermarriage, in this case the marriage of a Hebrew to an Egyptian, as a means to explore themes related to hybridity. Though different in tone, I propose that the second story (Jos. Asen. 22–29) is equally concerned with hybridity and that it can likewise be read as expressing an intercultural sensibility that is open to gentile incorporation and intermarriage through its imitation—and subversion—of literary models from two different cultural domains, the Jewish Scriptures (the rape of Dinah; the slaying of Goliath) and classical Greek literature (the abduction of Helen).

The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: A Textual Analysis

The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: A Textual Analysis

Edmond Halley's Contributions to Hydrogeology.

Edmond Halley's Contributions to Hydrogeology.

Samuel Fisher’s Letter to the Jews: ‘To All the House of Jacob’

In the 1650s, Samuel Fisher addressed an undated letter ‘To All the House of Jacob’, inviting Jews to attend to the light in their hearts. Composed in Hebrew, it consists almost entirely of allusions to the Jewish Scriptures or Christian Old Testament, much of it organised by clusters of images drawn from biblical sources. The letter is a call to repentance, drawing on the threats of divine wrath, particularly from the Psalms and the prophets. Since no English translation from Samuel Fisher’s time is known, one is offered here.

The Influence of the Murder Commandment in 1 Corinthians

This article investigates the influence of the Decalogue commandment not to murder in 1 Corinthians as a case study of Paul’s dependence on the law for ethics. Paul does not quote or allude to the murder commandment in the letter. However, there is good evidence that the murder commandment, in line with its interpretation in the Jewish Scriptures and early Jewish moral teaching, is a fundamental presupposition of Paul’s moral teaching in 1 Corinthians. This can be seen in Paul’s use of murder as a metaphor and of antisocial vices as synecdoches for the murder commandment, his concern about the moral impurity of such murder, and the close relationship between Paul’s call to love and his call to forsake such antisocial vices. Reading 1 Corinthians with the murder commandment in mind, especially as it was understood in ancient Judaism, sheds light on the nature of the problems in the church of God in Corinth and clarifies Paul’s response to the problems in the church.

Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism by Judith H. Newman (review)

Reviewed by: Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism by Judith H. Newman Jillian Stinchcomb Judith H. Newman. Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. xiii + 178 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000203 Over the last decade, scholarly conversations about scripturality and canonization in the late Second Temple period have blossomed. Newman's volume offers a concise entry point into this ongoing research for specialists and nonspecialists alike. Through close readings of the Wisdom of Ben Sira, Daniel and 4 Baruch, 2 Corinthians, and the Hodayot Newman integrates a range of Jewish and early Christian literature into a broader argument that links the development of Scripture in Judaism and embodied practices of prayer and liturgy. Her concern, she writes, is [End Page 427] "with how bodies engage oral and written texts" through prayer, shaping individual selves and communities, and how these practices shape texts that are "invested, or come to be invested, with a revelatory status" (13). Newman's argument is successful in part because she carefully frames it against a teleological view of the Hebrew Bible, discussing instead the development of Scriptures (plural) in early Judaism. She offers an effective example of the integration of historical-critical methods with a focus on the material, embodied experiences of ancient readers, attending to the role of the liturgical body—which includes but is not limited to the scribal hand—in the formation of Scriptures. Newman utilizes a framework called "embodied cognition." This approach, based on anthropological and neurocognitive perspectives, argues for "an integral tie among brains, sense organs, motor systems, and emotions as humans interact with others and their environments" (11). She focuses on prayer because of its ubiquity in early Jewish texts and because of prayer's relationship to the evolving status of early Jewish Scripture. Newman argues that prayer has five major functions in the scripturalizing process, and offers a diachronic view of this process in social contexts. Newman's discussion of the "liturgical body" refers to both an individual participating in liturgy and a communal body brought together in prayer and collective engagement. She thus engages with the material realia of prayer and textual interpretation, describing the authorizing strategies of the textual sites she examines, which include a traditioning process by which authoritative figures like Paul and the Teacher of Righteousness mediate revelatory texts. In chapter 1, Newman argues that the daily practice of prayer described in the Wisdom of Ben Sira functions as a technology of selfhood, using the conceptual framework of neurocognition to explain the effects of prayer. She focuses on honor and shame, especially with regard to the (male) reader's conduct with women, as anchoring values for Ben Sira. The development of the book of Wisdom of Ben Sira mirrors the development of the self and acts as a reflection on Ben Sira's teaching and interpretation of Scripture. In chapter 2, Newman looks at the use of Jeremiah in Daniel and 4 Baruch. In her argument, the instability of Jeremiah in the Hellenistic-Roman period (at least as late as the second century BCE, according to evidence from Qumran) is not a bug but a feature, one which is reflected in the confessional prayers of Daniel and 4 Baruch. These texts exhibit differing views on prophecy and the relationship between Diaspora Jewish communities and Jerusalem. Daniel and 4 Baruch try to "end" the book of Jeremiah according to their own needs. Daniel presents angelic revelation and prophecy as "continuing means for discovering divine reality" (55). In contrast, for Baruch, the age of prophecy has closed, foreclosing the possibility of further prophetic utterance, but Baruch as the learned sage can act as authoritative interpreter and confessor of Torah for both Diaspora- and Jerusalembased Jewish communities. Moreover, his effectiveness in this role can end the exile. In chapter 3, Newman examines Paul's efforts "to shape a cohesive community from a fractious congregation" (75) in 2 Corinthians, a text that was continually reread and performed as a medium "crucial to the ongoing communication of the [End Page 428] gospel" (75). By connecting the collection of money...

Intervention and rehabilitation methods with offenders—from the Jewish scriptures to the criminological field

The ancient scriptures of world religions and spiritual traditions offer a treasure of knowledge, much of which is designed to guide the individual to a normative lifestyle through worldviews and practices that reduce antisocial behavior and promote prosocial behavior. Contemporary scholars tend to ignore that knowledge and its ability to contribute to social-scientific discourse and practice, despite the fact that most of the world’s population lives by it, at least to some extent. The present article addresses intervention and rehabilitation with offenders as part of a broader research project examining the ability of the Jewish scriptures to offer an alternative, universal criminological theory—spiritual Jewish criminology. The theory and its basic premises will be presented briefly as a theoretical foundation informing correctional rehabilitation practices, such as the repentance model, Jewish bibliotherapy, and humility as a counterbalance to criminal behavior. Although these practices are already implemented successfully in religious rehabilitation programs in Israel, further study is required in order to assess their effectiveness among other populations that are not Jewish or religious.

Spiritual Jewish Criminology: The Basic Premises and the Pyramid.

Religion and spiritual traditions entail vast wisdom and knowledge which have proved their productivity in achieving criminal rehabilitation, crime desistance, and crime prevention. Unfortunately, the literature on their role is relatively scarce and was not, until recently, regarded as part of mainstream criminology. This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach in which 39 participants were interviewed and many of the religious scriptures selected at their recommendation were analyzed. The findings reveal three central and unique themes that deal with the purpose of creation, human nature, and the question of free will. Through these premises, this study suggests that Spiritual Jewish criminology, a faith-based theory stemming from Jewish scriptures, offers a universal paradigm that explains a person's life as a spiritual journey, completed according to the Pyramid Model. The pyramid is built on two axes that describe a person's desirable movement: the first ranges from egocentrism to altrocentrism, while the second ranges from materialism to the spiritual. The study's discussion deals with the Pyramid Model's ability to explain the causes of delinquency, the onset of a criminal career, and the way out of this criminal world through treatment and rehabilitation.

Kenaz: A figure created out of the scriptures?

Kenaz is a marginal figure in the Jewish scriptures. And yet for Pseudo-Philo, Kenaz’s importance rivals that of Moses and Joshua. Pseudo-Philo gives Kenaz a long and illustrious career unparalleled in the extant literature (LAB 25–28). But whereas past scholarship has seen the roots of Pseudo-Philo’s description of Kenaz in the language of Judg 1–3, this link is tenuous at best. Instead, the description of Kenaz is pieced together out of unrelated passages from the Jewish scriptures. This article explores the scriptural sources for Pseudo-Philo’s description of Kenaz. In short, Pseudo-Philo has not inherited Kenaz from tradition or exegesis but has invented him using the Jewish scriptures.

God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor

God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor

THE POLITICS OF THE TERM γραφή IN THE PASTORAL EPISTLES

The understanding of the term Scripture in early Christianity is best described as an evolving concept that can be categorised into various stages. This can best be seen in the most popular Greek term the NT uses in designating Scripture, γραφή and its cognates. Γραφή was used 50 times in the NT to represent Scripture, and in each of these instances, it refers to more than just a mere writing which is what the term originally meant in Greek prior to the NT’s consistent use of it as a technical term for sacred writing. This study attempts to reflect briefly on (part of) the evolution γραφή underwent on the pages of the NT especially within the Pastoral Epistles (PE) - a product of the early second century CE. This study bears in mind that the recognition of books as Scripture is not a series of clearly defined steps , but rather a long and complicated process involving creativity and powerplay. This study therefore serves to enhance a more accurate understanding of the transition the concept of Scripture in the PE, most especially pertaining to the use of the term γραφή. The question regarding the scope of the term γραφή in the NT and especially in the PE is open to debate – especially the use of the two different words, ἱeρὰ γράμματα and γραφή for Scripture in 2 Tim. 3:15–16. So is the reference to Jesus’ words as Scripture in 1 Tim. 5:18. These have raised questions of a possible shift in the PE’ understanding of γραφή. Findings from this research include the extensive use of γραφή in the PE to accommodate more than just the Jewish Scripture, as it has evolved to include emerging earlier writings of the NT; the author of the PE was creative in adopting and adapting to a new understanding of sacred writings which serves the context of his time. This unveils the influence a community exerts on recognition of authoritative Scripture while teasing out the politics intertwined in the recognition of Scripture and the identity of a people, as this later became the path to canonicity of Scripture.

Purification of the Body and the Reign of God in the Gospel of Mark

Abstract The thesis of this study is that the Markan Jesus’ activities of healing and exorcisms are evocative of resurrection of the body. Through the accumulation of these stories Mark communicates that Jesus has come to address the problem of human mortality in the light of the nearness of God’s reign. These activities anticipate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which pioneers the purification of the body at the turn of the ages. I show that Mark’s presentation of Jesus’ healings and exorcisms crucially reflects ideas of (im)purity in Jewish scripture and tradition that are bound up with mortality. In the light of this background, I show that Mark presents Jesus’ healings and exorcisms as anticipations of his bodily resurrection. These resurrection-type stories depict the movement from the mortality incurred by defiling diseases or defiling spirits to the immortality of God’s reign. The repetition of resurrection-type healings that eventually culminate in Jesus’ own resurrection suggests that the announcement of God’s reign is not only about responding to the call for repentance from sin (1:14–15), but also about having one’s body raised. Thus, Mark presents not only a theology of the cross, but also a theology of the resurrection as the purification of God’s people.

Rational theology: The case of Philo of Alexandria

The phenomenon of rational theology arises at the moment when there is a need to adapt traditional or new religious ideas to contemporary and characteristic intellectual practices. The case of Philo of Alexandria can serve as a good example of what happens when two different cultural traditions begin the mutual translation of discourses. We analyze how this affects the most important theological concepts of Philo on the basis of the treatise De opificio mundi. We pay attention to three points: 1. Philo’s assessment of the cosmogonic and historical narrative of Moses as a metaphysical prologue to his legislation; 2. Philo’s interpretation of natural law and natural being as an allegory of metaphysical and moral law; 3. Aristotle’s “motives” in Philo’s description of the activities of God the Creator. It can be concluded that Philo interprets the Greek philosophical language as a completely acceptable way of reading both the laws of nature and the Jewish Scriptures (he explains this through the “borrowing hypothesis”). As a result, the legislation of Moses appears to be included in the structure of the ancient universe reformed by Philo. Greek philosophical discourse is interpreted as one of the manifestations of Divine Revelation— a point of view that will later be inherent in some early Christian authors (for example, Clement of Alexandria).

Fluidity in the Early Formation of the Hebrew Bible

What follows is a survey of the formation of the Hebrew Bible in its formative stages, highlighting the continuing fluidity in the scope of the Jewish Scripture collection for centuries. This is seen from a limited selection of sacred texts in the post-exilic writing of Ezra and Nehemiah. To that time there was no formal fixed collection, though it is clear that most frequent citations or references are to the laws of Moses and likely all of the books of the Pentateuch. There are a few faint references to the Prophets (2 Kings and Ezra 5), but no clear reference to a collection of the Prophets until about 180 BCE in Ben Sira. Examples of this fluidity can be seen in several ancient Jewish texts (Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, and several early rabbinic texts) as well as in several early Christian references when Second Temple Judaism had a major influence on the Jewish-Christian sect, including the witness of several important Hebrew and Christian ancient manuscripts. These examples reflect the continuing fluidity in the shape of the Jewish Scriptures and the early Christian Old Testaments well into the Middle Ages.

Diction And Contextualization of The Jews Verses In The Holy Qur’an; Text, Translation And Commentary of Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This paper explores how Abdullah Yusuf Ali interpreted the Jews in his tafseer book; The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary. His interpretation becomes worth to discuss due to his profile as a Moslem officer of Great Britain which politically supported the contemporary Jews in Israel. Additionally, Yusuf Ali was the big fan of the concept of inter-faith dialogue. On the other hand, he was so proud of being a Moslem so that he wrote an English translation and commentary of the Koran in order international society can understand Islam well. This paper is going to show how Yusuf Ali put himself as a Moslem and at the same time, a Britain officer, (and also admirer) who also lived in non-Moslem milieus. The discussion will explore two parts. The first one is the diction(s) used by Yusuf Ali to interpret the Jews verses, while the second is the contemporary contextualization on his interpretation on Jews verses into nowadays life. Using library research method through primary and secondary references combined with a hermeneutical approach, this paper comes to the following conclusion. First, there found five dictions to mention the Jews at the Jews verses, which are Jews, those who followed the Jewish law, those that stand on Judaism, those who follow the spirit of Moses and those who follow the Jewish scripture. Second, by the diverse diction, Yusuf Ali implied that The Jews is all about the spirit and physical action of individual instead of religious institution or affiliation.

Biblical Women and the Arts ed. by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona

Reviewed by: Biblical Women and the Arts ed. by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona Ally Kateusz diane apostolos-cappadona (ed.), Biblical Women and the Arts (Biblical Reception 5; London: T&T Clark, 2018). Pp. xii + 229. $115.20. The ten contributors to this beautifully illustrated volume examine the reception of biblical women ranging from Eve to the woman clothed with the sun. In this stellar example of visual exegesis, the points of view vary from that of the artist to that of the viewer, as well as from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim perspectives. With a few exceptions, the art displayed is from the last thousand years, not the first millennium, and was produced by male artists. In other words, the focus is primarily on the reception of ancient biblical narratives about women in the context of the male gaze, both medieval and modern, as well as contemporary. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, the guest editor, starts off the ten chapters with “Naked or Nurtured: The Breast of Eve, the Breast of Mary.” Here she considers not only the breast in art, but also the history of how the women’s breasts on public display have been received, whether as source of nutrient or shame. Apostolos-Cappadona traces the medieval symbolism of the bare breast, especially as represented by Jesus’s mother holding out her own breast or nursing her son with it. Mary’s naked breast was a multivalent motif, ranging in meaning from spiritual milk for the believer to Mary’s ability to intercede with her son on behalf of the people. Apostolos-Cappadona ends by addressing reasons why depictions of Mary’s bare breast fell out of favor during modernity. The second chapter, “Images of the First Woman: Eve in Islamic Fāl-Nāma Paintings,” by Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, is one of the most provocative. H.-A. contrasts the portrayals of Eve in Jewish Scripture and the Qur’an and its associated literature. She first dispels the notion that the Qur’an’s depiction of Eve was an egalitarian paradise narrative, because, for example, unlike in Genesis, Eve is never named in the Qur’an. Then she carefully nuances how Eve was elevated in the Qur’anic narratives. Adam, not Eve, was the primary source of temptation—yet Eve’s lack of blame means that she almost disappears from the narrative. But artists brought Eve to life. Hadromi-Allouche examines three hagiographical watercolors of Adam and Eve painted between 1550 and 1615 in two books used by nobility for the purpose of augury, that is, as tools for the practice of divination. In these, Eve, like Adam, is painted with the flaming halo of a prophet or the green halo of Muhammed; angels bow to her, not just Adam as in the Qur’anic accounts; and Adam is painted with a navel while Eve has none, suggesting that she gave birth to him as the Mother of All. The extraordinary elevation of Eve in these paintings, especially in contrast to the Qur’anic narrative, in my view raises the one question that Hadromi-Allouche does not ask that I wish she had: Were these books manufactured for the female gaze? Did women use them for divination? In chap. 3, “Beauty and Its Beholders: Envisioning Sarah and Esther,” Ori Z. Soltes illustrates first Sarah and then Esther in art that ranges in date from the thirteenth century to 2005, with about half the portraits from the 1990s and early 2000s, including some by [End Page 162] women artists. What is most striking is the contrast between the more romantic images of the distant past and the powerful recent images. This is not merely that contemporary artists comparatively place the female figures, especially that of Sarah, front and center, but also that in so doing they bring alive these women’s personalities and predicaments. As Soltes notes, the change in how these artists portray Sarah and Esther dramatically changes the reception of their biblical narrative; finally, at least in art, they are the protagonists of their own stories. Christine E. Joynes, in chap. 4, “Re-Visioning Women in Mark’s Gospel through Art,” argues that the variety of artistic interpretations of women in...

Scriptural Authority and Scriptural Argumentation in 1 Clement

Drawing on recent insights into textual authority, this article examines how the authoritativeness of the Jewish scriptures is manifested in 1 Clement. The article argues that the relationship between the letter and the writings it uses in its argumentation should be seen as a two-way process of mutual authorisation. Moreover, the article illuminates the interrelatedness of textual authority, scriptural argumentation and the legitimation of leadership and power. Thus, the analysis both contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions of scriptural authority and highlights the role of scriptural argumentation in the identity-building of early Christians.

"They enjoyed the scent of his clothes blessed by his forefathers": The encounter of Rabbi Jacob Saphir with the Holy 'Sayeed' in Yemen

Although body odor is a completely natural feature, smells emanating from the human body or clothes have been perceived throughout history as a manifestation of one's spiritual world and moral identity. The current study discusses the encounter of Rabbi Jacob Saphir (1822-1886), a famous Jewish traveler, with honorable Muslim. During the event the followers of the holy man do not touch him but smell the special scent of his clothes. The unusual event illustrating the social significance of the odor emitted by distinguished figure's body or clothes among Muslims. It also demonstrates a new insight of Saphir concerning the meaning of body odors in Jewish scriptures.

The Atonement in the Letter to the Colossians

ABSTRACT This article is a fresh study of atonement language in the Letter to the Colossians. Long-held assumptions regarding theology, semantics, and trajectories of Christian thought often force parts of the Colossians text into preconceived atonement schemata, whether it be of the substitutionary/satisfaction atonement variety, the Christus Victor family, or some form of moral-influence atonement. This paper takes this dilemma seriously, positing that a close examination of the atonement language in Colossians will yield a distinct perspective that stresses the continuity of God’s action, roots the atonement in Israel’s exodus narrative, and portrays the cross of Christ as the battle where God quells rebellion and reconciles all things. Monosemic bias, a linguistic concept that suggests individual lexemes are always semantically underdetermined until utilized in a text, will be one of the primary tools in this study to avoid importing centuries-worth of tradition onto key terms. Intertextuality will root the understanding of this letter’s atonement language firmly in the exodus traditions of the Jewish Scriptures. With these tools at hand, Colossians’s atonement language shows itself to not fit neatly in the major families of atonement theology, and points of contention with traditional atonement theories are mentioned throughout the article. The findings of this study are collected as a unique model of Christ’s atoning work that the author of this letter presents to the fledgling church at Colossae.