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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > The Bible
Application and re-Interpretation of biblical traditions in the
Book of Malachi. A traditio-historical study. Six passages in
Malachi, together with the superscription (Mal 1:1) and the
additions (Mal 3:22a '24), are analyzed. The creative use of the
traditions is demonstrated, including the prophet's exegetical
techniques. Lines of connections are detected between Malachi and
legal texts (Leviticus and Deuteronomy), earlier prophetic words,
Chronicles, and Wisdom literature.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus' arrest, trial and execution ends with
the Roman centurion who oversees the death process proclaiming
Jesus as God's son. Gamel explores two key questions in relation to
this moment: what does the centurion mean when he says that Jesus
is God's son, and why does he say it? The confession is not made on
the basis of any signs nor from any indication that he perceives
Jesus' death as honourable or exemplary. This apparent lack of
motivation itself highlights a key Markan theme: that this insight
is revealed by an apocalyptic act of God, signalled by the tearing
of the temple veil. Thus the confession, which we can understand to
be made sincerely and knowledgeably, is the result of an act of
God's revelation alone. Gamel explores the theory of Mark depicting
a story in which all human characters exhibit varying levels of
blindness to the spiritual realities that govern their lives. By
making a thorough examination of Mark's Gospel - while placing
primary focus on the centurion, the study is unlimited and presents
a serious examination of the whole Gospel - Gamel concludes his
argument with the point that, at the foot of the cross, this
blindness is decisively confronted by God's apocalyptic act. The
offer of sight to the centurion demonstrates the reconciliation of
God and humanity which are otherwise in Mark's Gospel repeatedly
presented as antagonistic spheres. Finally, the fact that
revelation is offered to a Gentile highlights the inclusion of the
nations into the promises of Israel.
Much historical-critical work on the opponents in the Pastoral
Epistles has resulted in sweeping generalizations concerning their
Jewish and/or Gnostic nature. Literary analyses have been somewhat
more promising in focusing on the stereotypical nature of the
polemic, but either fail to do justice to the urgency of the
language in the Pastorals or do not provide a convincing
description of the opponents. Pietersen approaches the problem of
the opponents from a socio-scientific perspective. Utilizing
labelling theory and social control theory from the sociology of
deviance, he argues that the Pastorals function as a literary
version of a status degredation ceremony whereby previously
influential insiders within the community are transformed into
outsiders. This is volume 264 in the Journal for the Study of the
New Testament Supplement series.
Conversion is a main theological theme in the Lukan corpus. Since
much attention has been paid to the issue in Acts, the present work
shows how the evangelist also conveys his theological emphasis on
conversion in his gospel through material either unique to it or
that Luke has edited to this purpose. Attention is paid to the
different issues involved in Luke's emphasis on conversion and an
attempt is made to place them within the larger spectrum of his
theology. The grouping of all these elements provides the basis for
constructing Luke's paradigm of conversion.
Study of the book of Isaiah has in recent times been strongly
marked by a tension between synchronic and diachronic approaches.
The first is favoured mainly by English-speaking, the second by
German-speaking scholars. Berges's book attempts to mediate between
the two poles, arguing that the final form analysis and the tracing
of the development of that form are deeply interdependent. This new
research paradigm is applied here to the entire text of the book of
Isaiah. Berges works consistently from the synchronic to the
diachronic and back again to the evolved synchronous final form.
Features that have been repeatedly observed-the cross-connections,
key word associations, resumption of themes, and especially the
bracketing of the book by chaps. 1 and 66-are traces of a
deliberate interweaving of various small compositions as well as of
larger literary redactions. The paradigm most suited to the book of
Isaiah in all its complexity is not that of one comprehensive
overall structure or final redaction, but that of smaller
compositions that build on one another, come into conversation with
one another, and, each in its own way, bring into play specific
contemporary problems. We should not force a common thematic
denominator on the book, but it becomes clear that Jerusalem and
Zion belong to the basic tenor of the book of Isaiah as it was
developed and refashioned through the centuries. The Book of
Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form is translated by Millard C.
Lind from its German original, Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und
Endgestalt (Freiburg: Herder, 1998).
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