Search results for ""JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck)""

Qumran Aramaic texts were not written on the spot. Dated to various times, they represent fragments of biblical books, works related to biblical traditions, and several texts citing biblical passages. The texts contain a number of Mesopotamian elements. By the 7th century BC Mesopotamia had become bilingual, and Aramaic became the mediating language that conveyed cuneiform literature and science to foreign groups living in Mesopotamia and abroad. In the present volume, science is understood as human knowledge about the natural and human world that had been described, systematized, and transmitted. Thus, traditional fields of science are expanded by astrology, magical healing, and others. The contributors show that Qumran Aramaic texts reflect the incorporation and adaptation of Mesopotamian science into the culture of Jewish diaspora communities. They express a new scientific worldview created by these groups as well as their self-definition, and show a new face to the community that preserved them.

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This volume combines the papers held at the Minerva Center's "Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times" conference (Leipzig 2018) on the subject of writing and re-writing history by deliberate destruction in the regions of Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. An international group of scholars studies the subject using a multi-perspective and interdisciplinary approach. Archeological studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, and biblical studies focused on the destruction of ancient sites in Israel and Judah in the 1st millennium BC. The perspective of the defeated Israelites, Jerusalemites, and Judeans is described in detail in the Old Testament and in postbiblical literature and shows that the destructions in the past were a cultural and identity creator of the first magnitude. The longue durée of the practice of reshaping the past through the deliberate destruction of a cultural heritage in order to shape the present according to current interests becomes evident based on the Neo-Assyrian Empire's practice up to the modern era and is demonstrated by the example of the Arabian-Muslim conquest of Aram as well as current Turkish politics.

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In this collection of essays, Seyoon Kim analyses the structure and function of 1 Thess 1-3, which leads to a new reading of 1 Thessalonians. He devotes several essays to a comprehensive exposition of Paul's gospel for the Thessalonians by fully unfolding several summaries of the gospel in the epistle, by detecting and analysing various Son of Man sayings of Jesus that are alluded to or echoed in it, and by a thorough discussion of the unity and continuity of Paul's gospel between this early epistle and his later epistles. This exposition is augmented by a new observation of Paul's doctrine of justification in 2 Thess 1-2 and a new explanation of τὸ κατέχον and ὁ κατέχων (2 Thess 2:3-8).

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The language of the Gospel of John is known for its complexity. On the basis of the modern standards of transparency and logic, previous scholars have depicted this language as obscure, confusing, and mysterious. Thomas Tops goes beyond these oversimplifications by providing an in-depth historical study of John's characterisation of Jesus' language with the terms paroimia and parr ē sia . By providing original insights in these terms, the author offers a new perspective on the functioning of Johannine language. As the Johannine Jesus teaches both through paroimia and parr ē sia , his language conceals and reveals at the same time. His criticism is veiled and calls on its addressees to search for the hidden meanings of his words. Veiled speech allows the Johannine Jesus to criticise his opponents and openly reveal his messianic identity to those who cannot accept the truth in any other way.

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The present volume concerns the history of biblical interpretation and its ongoing significance in light of more cultural and material approaches to scriptural interpretation. The range and variety of insights arising from many key moments in the history of biblical interpretation and the ways in which Auslegungsgeschichte stays close to the words of the biblical text while also interpreting it in light of the message and the needs of the church in different ages: these lie at the centre of these contributions.

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John-Christian Eurell studies how Peter's authority is portrayed to create legitimacy in Christian texts. Peter emerges as a central figure in the diverse early Christian movement and is used to discuss theological legitimacy. The main divide is between those who argue that legitimate theology should have a conservative point of departure based on traditional material handed down from the earthly Jesus and an apostolic succession based on interpersonal relations and those who argue in favour of a more progressive point of departure which places emphasis on contemporary charismatic experiences. These perspectives are utilised by groups of various theological persuasions to argue their own position. Peter is seen as a positive and negative example for both these ways of creating legitimacy.

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The present volume rounds off the trilogy of conference contributions on the theology of the Septuagint. As with the two preceding volumes (WUNT 387 and 432), experts who have earned particular merit in their individual fields of research and whose methodical reflection is rooted in a love of the Greek translation of the Old Testament are given free rein to express themselves on the "past - present - future" triptych of the Septuagint.

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The majority of the essays in this volume were originally presented at a colloquium held at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven in December 2018. The colloquium was linked to an international research project studying texts and traditions from the perspective of identity creation. The essays study Matthew's Gospel and the place it takes among the canonical gospels from the perspective of what is characteristically or distinctively "Matthean" about it. This common focus provides ample occasions for interesting analyses of core aspects of Matthew's composition technique, his theology, and his reception in mainstream Christianity. At the same time, contributors try to throw light on questions of a broader character with regard to the composition history of the gospels, the strategies authors can use to create distinction, and the selection process that guided their reception history.

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This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference held in Leuven in June 2017 as a follow-up to a previous meeting that dealt with views on the origin of the cosmos in Greek philosophical and early Christian tradition (published in STAC 104, 2017). The second conference focused on how both traditions have reflected on the end or the goal towards which the cosmos is moving. The Judeo-Christian concept of a creation with temporal development and the philosophical notion of the eternity of the world evidently represent two very different positions. Yet there are also clear signs of convergence and of the latter influencing the former. The essays show there is common interest in reflecting not only on the principles that govern cosmology and on how the cosmos is reverting on its principles, but also on the answers provided in each tradition.

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Working at the borderlands of philosophy and theology, Jeffrey Privette thinks theologically about epistemology, both within the context of the realism versus antirealism debate, and with sustained reference to the incarnation. His study is divided into three parts: the first and second deal with the role of language and interpretation in experience generally, as well as with some of the curious philosophical problems foreshadowed by the predicament of language. Here, he offers a novel interpretation of Kant's transcendental distinction, which, when fully developed, serves as a rich resource for theologies working consciously in the Christian tradition. With the foundation of the argument in place, the third part fleshes out the logic of the incarnation within the context of the life of incarnate Christian communities, and so considers the complex relation of language and language-practices to Christian experience.

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Ezekiel 16 conveys a well-known portrayal of Israel's checkered history. Its borrowed metaphors, textual reuse, and developing content defy a transparent explanation of its origins. In this monograph, Tracy J. McKenzie explores the methods and motivations for textual expansions. After surveying how secondary literature has addressed the interpretive nature of additions, traditions, redactions, and Fortschreibungen in prophetic texts, he provides a new translation and text-critical judgment of Ezekiel 16. He then analyzes how linguistic elements diachronically achieve a composite unity in the passage. This composite unity sets up the analysis that explores the ways in which the expansions have built on pre-existing texts, rewritten them, and developed their content. The author's conclusion focuses on how the interpretive moves in the expansions disclose possible motives and social settings in Yehud.

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This volume is a first attempt to investigate the impact of urban space on prayers and related religious thought and belief in ancient religions from the first to the sixth century CE. Taking its lead from the spatial turn in scholarship, methodologically it is an attempt to replace the hitherto customary focus on the forms and semantics of prayer with an urban-spatial model. This model understands prayers as performances that are embedded and embodied in urban space as well as texts producing and inspired by imaginations of space. To allow for a broader comparison, this volume covers prayers and spaces of various religions all over the ancient Mediterranean, from Roman and North African polytheisms through early Christianity to Byzantine Christianity and early Islam.

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Le récit du démoniaque de Gérasa (Mc 5.1-20) constitue le récit d'exorcisme le plus élaboré de tout le Nouveau Testament. La conjugaison de l'analyse de type narratologique avec une étude des dimensions historiques, sociales et religieuses sous-jacentes au texte met en valeur la force reconfiguratrice du récit. Ce récit participe au projet mis en œuvre par l'auteur implicite à l'échelle de tout l'évangile de Marc. Luca Marulli montre comment, dans cette perspective, on peut apprécier la place et l'enjeu de Mc 5.1-20 dans la trame de l'évangile, notamment en relation avec la figure du jeune homme qui s'enfuit nu (14.51-52) et avec la péricope qui met en scène le jeune homme au tombeau (16.1-8). Lire Mc 5.1-20 avec et après 14.51-52 et 16.1-8 amène à une reconfiguration épistémique du lecteur relative aux thèmes de l'identité de Jésus, de la nature de la suivance et de la relation envisagée entre le disciple et son Maître absent.

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Joseph Longarino addresses a long-standing but rarely discussed problem in Pauline studies: Given Paul's understanding of how God has acted in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to overcome death, how do we explain the ongoing existence of death? Through an examination of the Pauline letters, particularly Romans, the author offers two interrelated explanations, one causal and the other teleological. From the causal perspective, he argues that sin in the form of the sinful passions remains connected to the body even of Christians, which allows sin to exercise an ongoing corrupting influence on the body. From the teleological angle, the author contends that God uses mortality to deepen the divine-human and interpersonal relationships.

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The present volume comprises articles by renowned international scholars in academic dialogue with the work of Albert Baumgarten. They contextualize ancient Jewish texts not only for their own sake, but also as a way of shedding light on antiquity in general. They address texts from the fields of Greco-Roman studies, Hellenistic Judaism, Second Temple sectarianism, rabbinic literature, and various facets of early Christianity. Additionally, there are articles discussing comparative religion, sociology of knowledge, anthropology, and economic history. Together, the articles create an in-depth analysis of the social history of Jews in antiquity.

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The essays in this volume, which span four decades, represent sustained reflection on the historical setting, narrative devices, and theology of the Gospel of John. Methodologically, the essays develop a narrative-critical approach to the Gospel, producing insights that have implications for historical and theological issues. Thematically, many of the essays explore the Gospel's ecclesiology, especially its vision for the church and its mission. As a collection, this volume provides an introduction to the Fourth Gospel, analyses of major issues (including John's anti-Judaism, relationship to 1 John, irony, imagery, creation ethics, evil, and eschatology), and in-depth exploration of key texts, especially John 1:1-18, 2:20; 4:35-38; 5:1-18; 5:21-30; 10:1-18; 12:12-15; 13:1-20; 19:16-30; 20:19-23; and chapter 21.

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The contributions in this volume are by members of the Colloquium Ioanneum, an international group of Johannine scholars who meet every two years for discussion of a section of the Fourth Gospel. The proceedings of the 2019 meeting focus on the signs and accompanying discourses in John 5 and 6, which contributors approach using different methods of interpretation. Narrative issues include the characterization of Jesus, the disciples, and other figures, the construction of space, assumptions about the audience, creation motifs, and the role of intertextuality. Attention is given to Johannine perspectives on Christology, soteriology, eschatology, and judgment. Careful consideration is given to questions of the Gospel's use of eucharistic language and the origins of Johannine theology.

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Luke has often been understood to transmit a variety of Christological traditions without reflecting on them in relation to each other. In this study, Daniel Gustafsson challenges such positions and demonstrates that when the Gospel of Luke is approached as a narrative, a different picture emerges. Presentations of Jesus as "Messiah", "Son of God", "prophet", and "Son of Man" are shown to conform to Luke's overall plot and significantly overlap each other. The voices of characters with high authority, the use of Scripture, and Jesus's relationship to the Holy Spirit are examples of other factors that contribute to coherency in Luke's Christology.

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Alexandria was one of the main hubs of the Hellenistic world and a cultural and religious "kaleidoscope." Merchants and migrants, scientists and scholars, philosophers, and religious innovators from all over the world and from all social backgrounds came to this ancient metropolis and exchanged their goods, views, and dreams. Accordingly, Alexandria became a place where Hellenistic, Egyptian, Jewish, and early Christian identities all emerged, coexisted, influenced, and rivaled each other. In order to meet the diversity of Alexandria's urban life and to do justice to the variety of literary and non-literary documents that bear witness to this, the volume examines the processes of identity formation from a range of different academic perspectives. Thus, the present volume gathers together twenty-six contributions from the realm of archaeology, ancient history, classical philology, religious studies, philosophy, the Old Testament, narratology, Jewish studies, papyrology, and the New Testament.

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The International Yearbook for Hermeneutics represents one of the prominent currents in contemporary philosophy as well as in bordering disciplines. It gathers studies on questions concerning understanding and interpretation in all relevant fields, including philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, theory of science as well as literary and cultural studies. The Yearbook includes contributions to current debates and on the history of ideas from antiquity to the present. This volume focusses on " Plurality."

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The present volume explores the interdependent relationship between religion, education, and knowledge in ancient Greek cultures. While in modern scholarship Greek religion has been widely studied as embedded in society, the socio-religious aspects of education and knowledge have not yet been investigated in depth. The essays look for contexts, agents, and media through which religion, education, and knowledge were shared and transmitted within and beyond a community. The chronological framework extends from the classical period to late antiquity and covers the eastern and part of the western Greek Mediterranean. Examining a diverse range of evidence from both literary sources and material culture, this volume highlights the variety of Greek religious education and the comprehensive baggage of knowledge required for performing rituals.

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In this study, Marius van Hoogstraten seeks to come to an understanding of the interreligious that embraces the ambiguity, historicity, and dynamic relationality of religious difference - in a word, its unruliness. While many approaches in theology implicitly recognize this unruliness, they typically try to bring it under control, to pacify it, or keep it at a distance. Instead, the author proposes turning to the "theopoetics" - approaches to theology marked by both uncertainty and creativity - of the contemporary philosophers and theologians Richard Kearney, John D. Caputo and Catherine Keller to envision the interreligious as the non-site of an aporetic relatedness neither secondary to religious identity nor indicative of an underlying unity, making it possible for an inter-religious solidarity to emerge from the depths of difference.

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Ist die Demokratie das "Schmerzenskind" der Staatsrechtslehre? Volker Neumann beantwortet diese Frage anhand von fünf Epochen deutscher Staatlichkeit: Deutscher Bund/Vormärz, Kaiserreich, Weimarer Republik, NS-Regime und Bundesrepublik. Dabei klärt er, was die zeitgenössischen Staatsrechtslehrer unter Demokratie und benachbarten Themen wie Volkssouveränität, Repräsentation und Parteienstaat verstehen. Wichtige Vorgaben leistet das schweizerische Staatsrecht. Ein politisches System verdient den Ehrentitel "Demokratie", wenn die Ausübung von Staatsgewalt auf den Willen des Volkes zurückgeführt werden kann. Was aber ist der Volkswille? Die vielfältigen Antworten lassen sich zwei Richtungen zuordnen: Die erste behauptet, der Volkswille sei eine vorausgesetzte Idee, die nicht - wovon die zweite Richtung ausgeht - durch Abstimmungen ermittelt werden kann. Um diesen Richtungsstreit geht es im Kern auch in der Debatte um die demokratische Legitimation der Europäischen Union.

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In this study, Eric John Wyckoff proposes a new approach to an ongoing scholarly discussion. How can the relationship among the encounters at wells narrated in the Pentateuch (Genesis 24 and 29, Exodus 2) and the New Testament (John 4) be defined? Does the latter assume the reader's familiarity with the former? If so, then what sort of interpretation of the Torah texts is presupposed, and what significance does this have for the exegesis of the Gospel pericope? The author analyzes the literary parallels and investigates textual clues as to how these came to be intertwined with words and actions of Jesus and thematically refocused in the Fourth Gospel. What comes to light is a complex interrelation which does not fall neatly into a single literary category, inviting readers to interpret the Johannine Samaria narrative in light of three passages from the Pentateuch, and vice versa.

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Highlighted by the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, the history of reception (Wirkungsgeschichte) is often misunderstood in biblical studies. Whereas it describes the historicity of the process of understanding, it is taken for an exegetical method among others. Through numerous concrete examples, Régis Burnet shows that taking into account the history of reception transcends methods. Not only does it make us aware of the prejudices that burden every act of reading, and thus relativize the claims of all exegetical methods to achieve a definitive interpretation of the biblical text, but it also makes it possible for the same methods to enter into dialogue with each other and more broadly with the theological tradition.

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In this study, Andrew Bowden analyzes Paul's use of "desire" (ἐπιθυμέω, ἐπιθυμητής, and ἐπιθυμία) in his undisputed epistles. After introducing critical research on these lexemes, the author applies John Lyons's theory of semantic analysis to the use of ἐπιθυμέω κτλ in Roman imperial texts. Based on these observations, he makes a hypothesis concerning the common co-occurrences of "desire" in Roman imperial texts, its antonyms, the objects it longs for, and its use within metaphorical discourse. This hypothesis is then tested by looking at the use of "desire" in Dio Chrysostom, Epictetus, Lucian of Samosata, the Cynic epistles, and Second Temple Jewish texts. Andrew Bowden illustrates how, contrary to the view of many scholars, these Roman imperial authors consistently mention positive objects of "desire." He then applies these findings concerning "desire" to Paul, yielding important and sometimes unexpected discoveries.

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The First World War was a watershed in the evolution of warfare, politics, economics, and the social sphere. One persistent topic in the historiography of the war is how contemporaries perceived the war's outbreak and its course. Tobias A. Jopp contributes to the related research from a new angle by analysing a quantitative source of perception that has hitherto been largely neglected, namely, the prices at which sovereign bonds were traded in the financial markets. Sovereign bond prices can be understood as a real-time opinion poll conducted among bondholders as to how the borrowing countries fared considering the war's implications for public finances. Specifically, the author investigates the Amsterdam Stock Exchange between 1914 and 1919. The empirical analysis derives and discusses perceived turning points and asks how bondholders perceived the established alliances' credibility.

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Within the framework of Paul's use of Scripture, the contexts of biblical narratives are of great significance, although this has long been underestimated. This conference volume deals with the reception of traditions about Moses in the letters of the apostle to the Gentiles, especially the exodus and Sinai traditions. It focuses on the important and much-discussed passages about the danger of idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10 as well as on the glory of Paul's apostolic ministry in 2 Corinthians 3. The collected essays are methodologically oriented towards the issue of the relationship between education/formation and religion, and they thus perceive Paul's use and interpretation of those biblical traditions as a process of religious education. Tradition-historical backgrounds and the contexts of the situations are also taken into consideration, as well as literary structures and communicative intentions.

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In contrast to studies of New Testament theology that ask or assume what it is, this volume investigates where it comes from. In a dialogue with Hans Dieter Betz, the contributors ask about the origins and preconditions of New Testament theology. How did it begin, both in terms of its historical stimuli and in terms of its earliest literary expressions? To what extent, if at all, did early Christians think of themselves as "doing theology"? How did early Christians come to understand their faith as an object of knowledge, and thus as theology? And, how did early Christians participate in and contribute to wider philosophical conversations about religion and what can be known about the divine in Roman antiquity?

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The objective of the present volume is to put the connection between philology and textual criticism on the agenda once again. It addresses such questions as in what way philological study guides the textual critic and how textual criticism comes to the aid of the philologist; whether philology and textual criticism are necessarily linked, or the connections between them merely accidental; whether philology can justify conjectural emendations, and, if so, on what conditions; and inquires after the place of philological hypotheses in a text-critical apparatus or commentary. The contributors discuss these theoretical questions and analyze case studies illustrating the principles at issue.

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The Gospels continue to defy efforts to fix 'generic' boundaries for determining their meanings. This volume discloses new stirrings and sightings of broader, more heuristically promising literary, rhetorical, and cultural registers which intersect in ancient narrative. The contributors seek to build upon or vigorously critique current generic hypotheses (biography, history, tragedy); to introduce recent insights and developments in genre theory; to probe ancient reception of the Gospels as works of literature; and to illuminate the relations between the literary characteristics of the Gospels and methodological advances in narratology, social memory, intertextuality, and performance.

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In this work, Hans M. Moscicke investigates the influence of the Day of Atonement on Matthew's passion narrative. The author argues that the First Evangelist crafts a sustained Yom Kippur typology in the twenty-seventh chapter of his Gospel and then remodels the Barabbas episode (Matt 27:15-26) as a Yom Kippur lottery between two "goats". Pilate acts as high priest, designating Jesus as the immolated goat and Barabbas, along with the crowd, as a sin-bearing scapegoat. Matthew also casts Jesus as a scapegoat in the Roman-abuse scene (Matt 27:27-31), in which he depicts Jesus as physically receiving the sins of the world upon himself. Finally, the author suggests that Matthew, in his death-resurrection narrative (Matt 27:50-54), conceives Jesus as offering his life-force to God as the sacrificial goat for YHWH and descending to the realm of the dead as the goat for Azazel.

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The Hebrew versions of the five poems in the book of Lamentations are riddled with debated readings. Debated readings are words, phrases, or sentences whose forms and meanings modern readers find difficult or objectionable. In this book, Gideon R. Kotzé adopts a text-critical approach to the interpretation of such readings and suggests that some of them make sense as expressions of images and ideas that circulated widely in the cultural and intellectual environment of Lamentations. After surveying examples of passages in Lamentations where the Hebrew wordings show remarkable resemblances to the images and ideas exhibited by cultural products from all over the ancient Near East, the author discusses five case studies of debated readings that can be explained along similar lines. On this interpretation, the readings in question are not corrupt and do not have to be emended for that reason.

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In this study, Dean Furlong explores the reception in Christian tradition of "the John also called Mark" spoken of in the book of Acts and (probably) in the Pauline corpus. He examines the portrayals of John/Mark as both a Markan figure (i.e., as a figure identified with Mark the Evangelist and/or with the Mark who was associated with the founding of the church of Alexandria) and as a Johannine figure (i.e., as a figure identified with the Beloved Disciple and/or with John the Evangelist). The author argues that the three Markan figures were originally differentiated and only came to be identified during the third and fourth centuries; furthermore, after drawing attention to "Johannine" depictions of John/Mark in some sources and to the attribution to him of a Gospel containing a Logos theology, he posits that some early Christian writers identified John/Mark with John the Evangelist.

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Juan Acevedo embarks on a semantic journey to track the origin and adventures of the Greek term stoicheion, which for at least eighteen centuries, from Pythagoras to Fibonacci, simultaneously meant "element", "letter", and "numeral". Focusing on this triple meaning and on how it was translated and interpreted in Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic - especially in key texts of the Abrahamic faiths- a metaphysical study takes shape. With touches of alchemy and theology, it reveals how a shared fundamental alphanumeric cosmology underlay many basic paradigms of science and faith around the Mediterranean until the advent of the Indo-Arabic numerals broke the "marriage" of letter and numeral. Careful readings of Plato, Philolaos, Nicomachus and Philo, of Genesis and the Sefer Yetsira, of the Qur'ān, the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā', and Ibn 'Arabī are all woven together into a synthesis full of implications for many disciplines.

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Uniting the study of allusion with that of literary form in a prophetic book, Peter A. Heasley treats three passages long compared in form criticism and overlooked in allusion studies: Isa 41,8-16.17-20, 43,1-7, and 44,1-5. Through the specific method of allusion criticism that he develops, he demonstrates how the author of these Salvation Oracles composes them using the stylistic patterns of the very passages to which they allude. This helps identify many new inner-biblical allusions, especially to the Psalms of Lament, Psalms of Praise, and Historical Hymns. The author brings these exegetical findings into an interpretative approach to form adapted from Bakhtinian dialogism, especially in its distinction between compositional form and architectonic form.

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In this study, Calvin D. Ullrich argues for the political significance of the philosopher-theologian John D. Caputo's radical theology. Against the backdrop of present debates, the author traces the notions of 'sovereignty and event' by drawing on the political theology of Carl Schmitt and Caputo's evolving engagement with postmodern thought; from its genesis in Martin Heidegger to its deeply involved association with Jacques Derrida. Calvin D. Ullrich shows that contrary to some misleading interpretations of his religious deconstruction, Caputo has always held nascent political concerns which culminate in his radical theology. Writing for scholars working in contemporary philosophy and theology, this book offers one of the first major in-depth analyses covering Caputo's writings of the last four decades, and seeks to defend their relevance for discussions responding to ongoing political-theological challenges.

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J. Thomas Hewitt examines Paul's development and uses of the expression "in Christ," or "in messiah," with reference to conventions of ancient Jewish messiah discourse. While messiah speculation in antiquity does not evince a widespread, coherent messianic ideology, ancient Jewish messiah texts do share a common trait - the creative reappropriation of scripture for portraying messiahs. Ancient Jewish messiah discourse is thus both traditional, being shaped by the idioms and imagery of scripture, and innovative, as those materials are recast in novel depictions and expressions. As a participant in this interpretative enterprise, Paul found resources in scriptural traditions concerning Abraham's seed and Daniel's heavenly man for generating his own distinctive conceptions of messiahship, conceptions he often articulated with his hallmark expression "in Christ."

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The plain-spoken rhetorical style of 1 Timothy belies a tension that simmers beneath the surface of the letter. This tension had already erupted in the removal of Hymenaeus and Alexander. Those who are addressed in the letter are warned that they may be heading toward the same catastrophic failure, shipwrecking their faith. This, according to Lyn M. Kidson, is the primary purpose of 1 Timothy. With particular focus on 1 Timothy 1, the author moves away from seeing the letter as a church manual; instead, she argues that its purpose is to command "certain men (and women)" not to teach the other educational program promoted by Hymenaeus and Alexander. This fresh approach to the interpretation of 1 Timothy 1 identifies the use of an ethical digression, which holds the seemingly divergent materials of the letter together.

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Dogara Ishaya Manomi analyzes and identifies the characteristics of (neo-)Aristotelian virtue ethics that are implicitly and explicitly embedded in the linguistic elements, theological motifs, and ethical norms in the letter to Titus. He argues that (neo-)Aristotelian virtue ethics and the ethical perspectives of Titus share the following features: a sense of a moral telos that leads to human flourishing; emphasis on character, habits, and inner dispositions; focus on the morality of persons more than the morality of actions; commitment to moral perfectionism; particularity of moral agents; the concept of moral exemplar; a concern for character development through training or moral education; and a consideration of the moral significance of community. The author concludes, therefore, that there is a significant correlation between (neo-)Aristotelian virtues ethics and the ethical perspectives of the letter to Titus, to the extent that the letter to Titus can be described as a virtue-ethical text. Moreover, his research concludes that the virtue-ethical perspectives of Titus, in comparison with African ethics, have foundational and narrative differences, yet they share some important similarities. However, through progressive hermeneutical negotiations, concessions, appropriations, and application between the two virtue-ethical perspectives, there emerges a new virtue-ethical horizon described as "African Biblical Virtue Ethics," which is, as accountable as possible, faithful to the virtue-ethical perspectives of Titus and "at home" to African Christian ethics.This study was awarded the prestigious Johannes Gutenberg Dissertation Prize.

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Staging a conversation among distinguished Luther scholars, historians of Christianity, and philosophers, The Medieval Luther makes the case that it is impossible to understand Luther's most important doctrines without exploring his philosophical inheritance. After all, Luther was an ardent participant in and contributor to the philosophical disputes of the late Middle Ages. By situating Luther's theology in relation to medieval healing practices, mysticism, biblical interpretation, and politics, this volume blurs the historiographical line between the medieval and early modern periods. Offering an expansive appreciation of the Middle Ages for his thought, The Medieval Luther is indispensable for any future study of the Reformation's leading figure.

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How were legal issues featuring women treated and resolved in the Book of Numbers? Francesco Cocco studies a trio of texts and finds the prominent place afforded to women quite peculiar and, it seems, at odds with the notions of autonomy, freedom, self-determination, or whatever other synonym can be married conceptually to the idea of women in leading roles. This in-depth investigation goes beyond appearances however to reveal a broader, perhaps even unexpected, understanding of these three literary traditions - traditions which are the product of the skillful amalgamation of narrative and legislative material so characteristic of the Torah in general and the Book of Numbers in particular.

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Lukas Lemcke challenges the conventional understanding of the Late Roman administration as a three-tiered system by demonstrating that its hierarchy of communication was distinctly two-tiered. In so doing, he offers a new perspective on the functional and organizational structure of this administrative system and advances our understanding of the vicariate by introducing a new functional dimension and by reassessing its development during the fifth and early sixth centuries. Based on a comprehensive collection of legal, epigraphic and other literary documents to which the concept of "formal communication" is applied, the author explores the forms and development of administrative communication channels that facilitated the official exchange of information from Constantine to Justinian and thus reveals how emperors actively sought to regulate the centripetal and centrifugal flow of official information.

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This volume, originating from a conference on "Healing and Exorcism in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity" hosted by Örebro School of Theology (Sweden) in 2018, deals with the ideological and theological meaning of healing and exorcism in a historical, literary, and socio-cultural perspective. While the first part of the book focuses on Jewish and early Christian texts and themes, the second centres on the transmission, reception and interpretation of the biblical texts in early Christian writings and artefacts.

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A constant re-evaluation of the new archaeological and textual material unearthed and edited in recent decades is a recurrent duty of ancient and modern scholars. Since the overwhelming amount of available data and the complexity of new methodologies can be competently handled only by specialized scholars, such a re-evaluation is no longer possible for a single scholar. For this reason, archaeologists, cuneiform and biblical scholars as well as classicists joined forces at an international conference in Rome in May 2017 to share their accumulated knowledge. The results of the proceedings are presented here in the oral stage along with the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Greco-Roman periods.

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The International Yearbook for Hermeneutics represents one of the prominent currents in contemporary philosophy as well as in bordering disciplines. It gathers studies on questions concerning understanding and interpretation in all relevant fields, including philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, theory of science as well as literary and cultural studies. The Yearbook includes contributions to current debates and on the history of ideas from antiquity to the present. This volume focusses on " Ways of Hermeneutics."

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This congress volume of the Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times combines theoretical approaches to historical research on autonomy or independence in ancient cultures and then presents articles which study the subject using Aram and Israel in antiquity as examples. These articles show clearly how strongly Syria and Palestine were linked to one another and how they constituted one single cultural region which was connected by its economy, politics, language, religion, and culture.

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Taking 2 Cor 3:6 as its starting point, the new and updated essays here assembled investigate the key passages in Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians in which the covenant content and eschatological context of Paul's theology interpret one another. Developed over thirty years, Scott Hafemann's close reading of Paul's arguments, with an eye toward their OT/Jewish milieu, also advances the larger thesis that the various Israel/church, works/faith, and justification/judgment polarities in Paul's thinking do not represent a material contrast between a "law-way" and a "gospel-way" of relating to God. Rather, they epitomize an eschatological contrast between the character of God's people within the two eras of salvation history in which, by virtue of the Messiah and the Spirit, the Torah of the "old covenant" is now being kept in the "new."

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