Reading Of Biblical Texts Research Articles

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.

Does the Hebrew Bible construct a social trauma? Three case studies

With the rise of a trend to reread biblical texts through the lens of trauma, some scholars have begun to apply Jeffrey Alexander’s definition of social trauma to reading biblical texts in the Hebrew Bible, such as Jeremiah and Lamentations. This reading assumes that the Hebrew Bible constructs a social trauma to shape ancient Israelites’ national identity. However, this article points out that Alexander’s theory does not fit well with the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. The main argument consists of three case studies concerning the book of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and communal psalms of lament; the author argues that none of these writings answers the four questions crucial for the construction of a socially mediated trauma in Alexander’s theory.

Presenting the Issue: Reading Biblical Texts in Conversation with Disability Studies and Health Humanities

Presenting the Issue: Reading Biblical Texts in Conversation with Disability Studies and Health Humanities

Reading the Bible in post-apartheid South Africa: The contribution of Gerrie Snyman

Modern historical criticism came to South Africa in the third decade of the twentieth century. However, analysing biblical books like human documents was not acceptable to church authorities. The historical-critical study of the Bible thus suffered a blow. It took four decades before some reformed biblical scholars felt at ease to reintroduce historical criticism. However, during the seventh decade of the twentieth century, overseas biblical scholars were already experimenting with the research tools of modern literary studies. Some South African biblical scholars followed suit, and soon narrative criticism and reader-response criticism were part of the package of methods for reading and studying the Bible. Gerrie Snyman was one of them, and reader-response criticism assisted him in reflecting on how he as a white Afrikaans speaking male, can continue doing biblical research in the post-apartheid era. He developed a hermeneutic of vulnerability and argued that readers should take responsibility for their readings of biblical texts.

Memory and Hermeneutics – Current Conversations

This article investigates the current state of the memory debate in biblical studies from a Roman-Catholic point of view. It differentiates four areas: hermeneutical questions about the memory approach and its relationship to history, methodological questions of how memory theory can be applied to reading biblical texts, special questions about the interpretation of particular biblical texts, and meta-reflexive questions about the impact of cultural studies. It argues for a step towards a kulturwissenschaftliche Exegese, in order to embrace social memory theory as a hermeneutics and methodology for reading biblical text on the microscopic (pericope), mesoscopic (book), and macroscopic (canon) level.

Reading the Bible, Learning Ourselves: A Contextual Bible Study with Culturally Hybrid Youth

While the resources for biblical interpretation are multiplying, there are no current models for reading biblical texts in community with culturally hybrid persons. Contextual Bible Study (CBS) presents a pedagogical framework to help fill the gap. This article offers an overview of CBS as well as a case study that looks at a reading community (a specific group of culturally hybrid young adults) that uses a relevant experience (migration-related grief) to interpret a resonant text (Lamentations 1).

Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America by Damien B. Schlarb

Reviewed by: Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America by Damien B. Schlarb Ariel Silver Damien B. Schlarb Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. xiv + 252 pp. In his reading of the Book of Genesis in The Beginning of Wisdom (2003), Leon Kass is guided by philosophia, the love and pursuit of wisdom. He quickly acknowledges that scripture is not often read in this manner, especially by scholars of the Bible, whose training in higher criticism has led them to focus more on textual sources and the "sensibilities and prejudices of an ancient people" (2). These source critics read the Bible much as do literary critics—as literature more than as an aid to wisdom. Melville was neither a biblical scholar nor a literary critic, but in his elegant new book, Melville's Wisdom, Damien Schlarb contends that Melville seeks to demonstrate through his literary work that the Hebrew Bible can be read in a "reflective and philosophic spirit" (Kass, Leon R. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 2) and that this manner of reading is modeled on the wisdom literature found within the biblical text. In his effort to recover the language and ethics of biblical wisdom, Schlarb asserts that Melville charts a course between the "Scylla of epistemological deadlock and the Charybdis of moral relativism" (20), leading him to theological as well as cultural insight. Literature begins to function as a new form of exegesis, which Melville deploys to try to deeply understand both the biblical text and the religious culture emerging in the midst of modern life. This spirit of philosophia animates Melville, and leads him, through the wisdom literature of the Bible, to what Schlarb calls the "hermeneutics of contemplation" (19). Like Ahab circling the leviathan, drawing ever closer, numerous scholars have sought to apprehend the acute nature of Melville's relationship to the Bible. This search began in earnest after World War II with the publication of Melville's Use of the Bible (Nathalia Wright, 1949) and Melville's Quarrel with God (Lawrance Thompson, 1952), works devoted to the ways in which Melville read biblical prose and poetry. Later works attended more to the religious, political, and cultural milieu informing Melville's biblical interpretations. The [End Page 108] more recent religious turn in literary studies has deepened this search and made it both more incisive and more expansive. In Melville's Bibles (2008), Ilana Pardes seeks to bring together these two previous strains of scholarship on Melville and the Bible: his reading of biblical texts and his reading of cultural contexts through his literary oeuvre. Melville's Bibles focuses principally on Moby-Dick, as does Jonathan A. Cook's Inscrutable Malice (2012). Where Pardes sets biblical texts and characters in Moby-Dick in conversation with multiple modes of biblical exegesis in antebellum America, Cook focuses more on the moral and religious questions which animate Melville's engagement with biblical sources. Melville's interrogation of theodicy—the attempt to reconcile divine justice with the presence of evil—leads him directly to Job. The omnipresence of Job in Moby-Dick points to Melville's interest in biblical wisdom, a genre that informs not only Job, but also Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In Melville's Wisdom, Schlarb expands beyond Job and Moby-Dick to uncover the ways in which Melville works out his epistemology of skeptical devotion through the body of wisdom literature. At a time when the emerging modern world sought to both affirm and displace religious culture and the language of scripture, Melville discovered in the wisdom texts of the Hebrew Bible a contemplative approach that could lead to syncretic knowledge apart from either the dogma of religion or science. Having discovered that both superstition and empiricism are irredeemable, Melville looks instead for an approach that can respond to his inexhaustible call for inquiry and introspection. Wisdom, grounded in experience and reflection, transcends explanatory systems to arrive at its own moral vector: ambiguity and multiplicity. As Schlarb explains in his discussion on the Book of Job: "What remains in the wake of religious and scientific fervor...

Kids Reading Tanakh: The Child as Interpreter

This essay examines two fourth-grade students’ task-based read-aloud interviews on the biblical text of Numbers 13. Taking up the New London Group’s call for a pedagogy of multiliteracies this article examines how educators and adults might sensitize themselves to the interpretive identities children bring to their reading of biblical texts. This work is intricately tied to child development, as we move religious education from a deficit model and perspective towards the child to a more welcoming asset model and perspective.

The ‘lived experiences’ of the love of God according to a prayer in the letter of Ephesians

The epistle to the Ephesians is regarded as a circular letter, yet it also contains two specific intercessory prayers (1:15–23; 3:14–21) in which the Trinity concept features persuasively. On the one side, this research tends to point out how the divine attribute of love relates to all three the divine persons in cooperation and how the trinity concept features in the prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21. On the other side, the article also aims to identify conceived spiritualities (lived experiences of the divine trinity) that the hearers (readers) could have perceived and experienced when hearing this prayer or even praying this prayer themselves. Methodologically, the ‘hermeneutic research approach’, as proposed and developed by Waaijman and Iser, has been deductively applied for the investigation in this research. Firstly, the dynamic and relational character of the trinitarian God is briefly discussed. Secondly, an exploration of the appearance and inclusion of trinitarianism in Ephesians has been conducted. Thirdly, the focus falls on trinitarian spirituality (the divine attribute of love) in Ephesians 3:14–21. Mechanisms proposed by Waaijman and Iser, which could foster spiritualities in the reading of texts, have been applied to Ephesians 3:14–21 to contribute towards a validation for a trinitarian spirituality of prayer.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research challenges believers to experience divine presence in the reading of biblical texts, how the reader can become involved in the text. This spirituality will certainly prepare them to experience the divine involvement in their personal life every day. The magnificent methodology proposed by Waaijman has been applied to guide the believers in accomplishing this.

“Justly Shall You Pursue Justice”: Theological Approaches to Evaluative Injustice

AbstractThis article identifies and characterizes the phenomenon of evaluative injustice as the inequitable positioning of persons in relation to the activity of moral judgment, or the inequitable configuration of the space of moral judgment. The two main, closely interconnected, aspects of evaluative injustice are the disproportionate exposure of certain groups to moral judgment, and the disproportionate exclusion of certain groups from agency in moral judgment. Having argued that theology is significantly implicated in, and obligated to respond to, evaluative injustice, I outline a theological response to evaluative injustice through a reading of biblical texts on divine impartiality. The core focus should not be the abstract ideal of impartiality, but rather the role of “judges” and moral reasoners in recognizing and addressing pervasive social injustice.

Biblical Interpretations of the Korean Emotional Attachment

This paper aims to explore biblical interpretations of Jeong, Korean emotional attachment and to seek for its pastoral implications in the Korean cultural context. For this study, I employ a literature review method as a research methodology and I bring the Asian paradigm reading biblical texts that the Dr. Kwok Pui-Lan, a Chinese-American theologian emphasizes on universal authority of the Bible and autonomy in interpreting the Scripture. The intimate and compassionate relationship between Ruth and Naomi and between the father and the prodigal son can be interpreted as Jeong-filled relationships because of their experience of attachment, in-group identity, co-existence of gentle and hateful emotions, and the sharing of Simjeong. An positive association of Jeong and empathy might be an effective resource in offering pastoral counseling and in caring people. Korean the balanced and integrated understanding of the association of Jeong with empathy matters for Korean pastoral counselors and care-givers.

Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings

Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings

Reading the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1–10) through the lenses of introverted intuition and introverted sensing: Perceiving text differently

Working within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, a recent series of empirical studies has tested the theory that the readers’ psychological type preferences between sensing and intuition (perceiving functions) and between feeling and thinking (judging functions) shape distinctive readings of biblical texts. This study advances the debate by distinguishing between the two orientations within which the functions are expressed (introverted and extraverted). The added clarity offered by this refinement is illustrated by the distinctive voices of introverted intuition and introverted sensing engaging with the Matthean Beatitudes, eight verses rich in materials to engage the perceiving functions.

Ecofaith: Reading Scripture in an Era of Ecological Crisis

This essay outlines the emerging field of ecological theology (ecotheology) with a primary focus on the methods of ecological hermeneutics developed by biblical scholars, ethicists, and theologians. This relatively new approach to reading ancient sacred texts has emerged in tandem with, and partially as a result of, increased public, political, and scientific consensus on the impacts of anthropogenic global warming and the ranging environmentally related effects (e.g., reduction of biodiversity and ecosystems, deforestation, loss of fertile lands, and so forth). The demands of our current context have challenged scholars to consider how religious anthropocentric worldviews have influenced historical readings of the Bible in ways that have contributed to the crisis and constricted the ecological contours of the ancient text. In order to place these developments within a broader historical context, the first section summarizes the history and trajectory of ecological hermeneutics over the past four decades. The main section of this work outlines and summarizes the different types of reading strategies being considered and debated among scholars today and includes promising examples of ecocritical readings of biblical texts. These readings are based on a constructive and critical engagement of ancient texts in light of the modern environmental challenges.

Distinguishing Emotions of Guilt and Shame in Psalm 51

Psalm 51 contains an expression of guilt and shame as the psalmist petitions God for restoration. Yet how emotions are identified or understood remains confused in recent discussion and scholarship. Drawing on modern psychological and cognitive studies of emotion, specifically the differentiation of self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame, this article will evaluate these emotions in Psalm 51 and argue that guilt is the dominant emotion conveyed while shame is less prominent. While interpreters often find self-deprecation and a sense of shame for the human condition, the psalm focuses on remorse for actions and lacks any significant negative evaluation of self. Through an analysis of the psalm, this article will discuss the function of emotion within the prayer and draw some conclusions on the significance of emotion studies for reading biblical texts.

“At the Time when Yhwh Delivered Him out of the Palm of all His Enemies and out of the Hand of Saul” (Psalm 18,1): From David in the Book of Samuel to David in the Book of Psalms and Back Again

ABSTRACTThis article draws upon a reader-response and canonical-hermeneutical perspective in order to analyze the manner in which 2 Sam 22 and Ps 18 are embedded in their respective literary contexts. Psalm 18’s superscription functions both to guide the interpretation of the following psalm as well as evoke its “Doppelgänger” in 2 Sam 22 (and “behind” it the Song of Moses in Deut 32,1-43). It not only contains a prayer articulated in a situation of distress, as a song of thanksgiving it also retrospectively witnesses to divine acts of salvation that have an abiding validity. This analysis demonstrates that the intertextual reading of biblical texts as a significant moment of the “canon” is not a secondary imposition upon these texts from the outside.

Genesis Rabbah—An Opportunity for Interfaith Dialogue: Augustine, Milton, and the Rabbis of Genesis Rabbah in Discourse

When reading biblical texts, there are often what can be termed "gaps" in the narrative, aspects of the story that need more detail or simply do not make obvious sense, leading to more questions. This leads to the need for interpretation. While the term "midrash" refers to a particularly "Jewish" mode of interpretation of the biblical narrative, the method of "the filling in of the gaps" is something done by religious interpreters of all traditions. This essay puts the rabbis of Genesis Rabbah (midrash) in conversation with fourth-century theologian Augustine and fifteenth-century author John Milton regarding their interpretation of Genesis 3, demonstrating how this kind of interaction can foster interfaith dialogue in the modern classroom.

문맥적 읽기와 성서 번역 : ‘탕자들의 비유’(눅 15:11-32) 번역 제안

The purpose of this article is to suggest a contextual reading of the biblical narrative in translating the Bible. Bible translation is not a simple, mechanical process of changing a word in a source text into a probable corresponding word of the target language. It is more than a word-for-word or sense-for-sense matching work; it is rather a complicated series of action where lots of elements such as linguistic, sociocultural, artistic and literary aspects are to be considered. BR I briefly surveyed what the translation scholars and theorists have been interested in when they define the concept and function of the act of translation. I criticised some key theories and methodologies such as formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence, functional equivalence, skopos theory, and Literary Functional Equivalence, and argued for the importance of the balance between the author or original text oriented stance and the reader/receptor/consumer oriented stance in Bible translation.BR I suggested reading biblical texts from the context to find out how the author or the text expected the implied reader to understand or to feel when they read or listened to biblical texts. Admitting that to guarantee absolute objectivity is impossible when reading and translating a text, I argued that in spite of this, Bible translation should be, in a sense, conservative as to illuminate the originally intended meaning and effect, and as to help the reader understand and feel them as closely as possible.BR I examined the parable of the prodigal son in Luke’s Gospel employing contextual reading methodology, and suggested three new translations of ‘δουλϵύω (v. 29)’, ‘στολήν τήν πρώτην (v. 22)’, ‘συναγαγών(v. 13)’ into Korean by reading the narrative from the context.

Julian of Norwich, the Bible, and creative, orthodox theology: always novel, never new

AbstractScholars have spent considerable time attempting to characterise Julian of Norwich's relationship to biblical texts. This article will first survey the state of scholarship with respect to Julian and the Bible, defending a minimalist thesis: that Julian thinks theologically in the rhythms of scripture, rendering suggestions that she haphazardly borrows from biblical language demonstrably false. Subsequently, literary-critical readings of biblical texts echoed in the parable of the lord and servant will be deployed to show how Julian echoes not only the language of the Bible, but also its themes, narratives and theology. By highlighting a particular kind of imaginative theology that is nevertheless deeply biblical, the article argues that Julian is at once creative and orthodox: always novel, but never new.

Jesus Christ, a Compassionate Companion: Christological Reflections in the Time of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic

Who do people living with HIV/AIDS say Jesus Christ is in their context of stigmatisation? This is an ancient Christological question that helps us understand and deal with this issue in a new way. This article presents the views of people living with HIV/AIDS about the role of Jesus to them in a context of HIV/AIDS-related stigmatisation. Through their reading of biblical texts from the Gospel according to John, people living with HIV/AIDS argue that Jesus Christ is a compassionate companion who not only sympathises with them, but also cares for them and seeks to improve their situation. In this instance, the article critiques the “cult of normalcy” ever embraced by the church that excludes those it considers to be abnormal and includes those it considers to be normal. This “cult of normalcy” is contrary to the compassionate way in which Jesus treated those who were suffering.