Editorial

3 pages, 155 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

The Reception and Contemporary Significance of the Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Introduction to the Special Issue

by Bradford A. Anderson

Religions 2022, 13(8), 709; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080709 - 02 Aug 2022

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Abstract

This Special Issue of Religions focuses on the reception and contemporary significance of the Hebrew prophets and the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

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13 pages, 759 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Jonah in 20th Century Literature

by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Religions 2022, 13(7), 661; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070661 - 18 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1783

Abstract

The biblical book of Jonah has been the subject of multiple literary retellings, ranging from individual poems to whole novels and theatrical dramas. This article focuses on interaction with the book of Jonah in 20th-century world literature, where Jonah becomes our alter ego; [...] Read more.

The biblical book of Jonah has been the subject of multiple literary retellings, ranging from individual poems to whole novels and theatrical dramas. This article focuses on interaction with the book of Jonah in 20th-century world literature, where Jonah becomes our alter ego; he embodies our own struggles with God. I shall highlight three common tropes in the retellings: (1) Several retellings use the character of Jonah to express a person’s failure to escape God’s calling. Others use him to explore the Jewish experience of never being able to run away from being chosen by God. (2) Other retellings turn the trope of “the fleeing Jonah” into “Jonah the refugee”: Jonah is a man whom God abandoned. These retellings stem from Jonah 2:5 (Eng. 2:4] where Jonah expresses how he is cast out from God’s presence. They gain further inspiration from the affinity between the dialogue between God and Jonah in Jonah 4 and that between Cain and God in Gen 4. This intertextuality fashions Jonah as a type for the “wandering Jew.” (3) Yet another set of retellings employs the figure of Jonah to discuss God’s justice and his perceived failure to be unmerciful. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

16 pages, 287 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Did the Prophets Teach Us to Protest?

by Jeremiah Cataldo

Religions 2022, 13(6), 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060487 - 27 May 2022

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Abstract

If we pay attention to biblical prophets, we can hear in their messages a calling to seek out the liberation of the downtrodden and oppressed. Despite the common tendency to interpret biblical prophets as predictors of the future, their focus was not on [...] Read more.

If we pay attention to biblical prophets, we can hear in their messages a calling to seek out the liberation of the downtrodden and oppressed. Despite the common tendency to interpret biblical prophets as predictors of the future, their focus was not on the future but their present social and political environments. That means their messages are not straightforward treatises on theology. They are not universalized “truths”. They are messages that call us to be attentive to those who are downtrodden. Their prophetic critique can be read as a call to recognize the humanity in others and to be willing to enter into relational dialogue with them. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

14 pages, 319 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Reception of the Hebrew Prophets in Ancient Christianity

by Riemer Roukema

Religions 2022, 13(5), 408; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050408 - 29 Apr 2022

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Abstract

This contribution discusses the ways in which the Hebrew prophets in Greek and Latin translations were received by Christians from the second to fifth centuries CE, preceded by an impression of the New Testament use of these prophets. Besides the vast amount of [...] Read more.

This contribution discusses the ways in which the Hebrew prophets in Greek and Latin translations were received by Christians from the second to fifth centuries CE, preceded by an impression of the New Testament use of these prophets. Besides the vast amount of ecclesiastical references and commentaries, it also deals with Marcionite and Gnostic views. It demonstrates that Christians most often read the prophets as testimonies to Christ and the communities of those who believed in him. Allegorical readings came up soon and were justified by Origen of Alexandria (185–254 CE), whose interpretations were most influential in subsequent centuries. In the fourth century, a reaction against the allegorical reading of the prophets arose in Antioch, Syria; the “Antiochene school” rather limited its approach to the historical context of the prophets, except for texts read Christologically in the New Testament. This article also considers the question whether the Christian appropriation of the Hebrew prophets may be deemed legitimate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

8 pages, 220 KiB

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The Use and Reception of the Prophets in the New Testament

by Steve Moyise

Religions 2022, 13(4), 304; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040304 - 31 Mar 2022

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Abstract

This article explores the use of the Prophets in the New Testament by looking at explicit quotations, clusters of allusions and narrative patterns. It shows that the NT authors applied the Prophets to a range of issues, such as God’s inclusion of the [...] Read more.

This article explores the use of the Prophets in the New Testament by looking at explicit quotations, clusters of allusions and narrative patterns. It shows that the NT authors applied the Prophets to a range of issues, such as God’s inclusion of the Gentiles, as well as key events in Jesus’ life. It also demonstrates that they generally used a Greek translation of the Prophets, though sometimes a revised or indeed Christian version of the text. Like the Jews of Alexandria, they believed that this was inspired by God, though that did not prevent them modifying the text to make the application seem more obvious to the readers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

12 pages, 418 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Forthtellers Not Foretellers: The Origins of a Liberal Orthodoxy about the Prophets

by Julia M. O’Brien

Religions 2022, 13(4), 298; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040298 - 30 Mar 2022

Viewed by 3672

Abstract

The insistence that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible were “forthtellers, not foretellers” is ubiquitous in academic, liberal Christian, and even secular circles. It categorically denies that the prophets of ancient Israel predicted the future and characterizes them instead as voices of social [...] Read more.

The insistence that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible were “forthtellers, not foretellers” is ubiquitous in academic, liberal Christian, and even secular circles. It categorically denies that the prophets of ancient Israel predicted the future and characterizes them instead as voices of social critique. This article explains the origins of the phrase, its philosophical and religious underpinnings in Protestant, Enlightenment, Romantic, “scientific” and “modern” thought and traces its rhetorical usage in religious debate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

8 pages, 246 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Reception of Jeremiah in Modern Hebrew Literature

by Michael Avioz

Religions 2022, 13(3), 215; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13030215 - 03 Mar 2022

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Abstract

Looking at some illustrative examples of the reception of Jeremiah in modern Hebrew literature, this article explores how both the prophet and the book named after him were reworked by modern Hebrew authors and poets in the body of literary works in Hebrew [...] Read more.

Looking at some illustrative examples of the reception of Jeremiah in modern Hebrew literature, this article explores how both the prophet and the book named after him were reworked by modern Hebrew authors and poets in the body of literary works in Hebrew that emerged during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Europe in the wake of the Enlightenment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

9 pages, 231 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ezekiel, Daniel, and Christian Diet Culture

by Stacy Davis

Religions 2022, 13(2), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020182 - 18 Feb 2022

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Abstract

The books of Ezekiel and Daniel, specifically Ezek 4.9 and Daniel 1, 3, and 6, are now being used to market healthy eating and diet plans to Christians, especially evangelical Christians, in ways that are the opposite of how the texts appear in [...] Read more.

The books of Ezekiel and Daniel, specifically Ezek 4.9 and Daniel 1, 3, and 6, are now being used to market healthy eating and diet plans to Christians, especially evangelical Christians, in ways that are the opposite of how the texts appear in their historical and literary contexts. Such usage is a potentially problematic example of prophetic reception history and its contemporary significance because the language in these plans is the same language found in secular diet plans with biblical prooftexts added to them. The addition may actually make the plans even more problematic by linking weight and fitness to religion and spirituality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

11 pages, 353 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“(Not) Her Husband”: Hosea’s God and Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of Suspicion and Trust

by Tchavdar S. Hadjiev

Religions 2022, 13(2), 163; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020163 - 14 Feb 2022

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Abstract

Hosea’s reception history shows the existence of two distinct interpretative traditions in relation to the metaphor “God is a husband” employed in the first three chapters of the book. Many commentators, reading with the grain, focus on the unfaithfulness of Israel, the [...] Read more.

Hosea’s reception history shows the existence of two distinct interpretative traditions in relation to the metaphor “God is a husband” employed in the first three chapters of the book. Many commentators, reading with the grain, focus on the unfaithfulness of Israel, the justice of her punishment and the love of God. More recently, feminist scholars have highlighted the problematic nature of this metaphor since it glorifies maleness and normalises gender–based violence against women. At first glance, these two approaches seem contradictory and mutually exclusive. However, Ricoeur’s discussion of the “conflict of interpretations” provides a fruitful way forward in dealing with this contradiction. Rather than being incompatible with one another, feminist and androcentric interpretations of Hosea are a particular example of the dialectical tension and integration of the hermeneutics of trust and the hermeneutics of suspicion. Both play a vital role in the reading process. One unmasks the idols produced by the false consciousness of the ego, the other opens oneself to hearing the voice of the Sacred, which comes into the text from beyond the realms of language. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

12 pages, 288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Finding Words in the Belly of Sheol: Reading Jonah’s Lament in Contexts of Individual and Collective Trauma

by L Juliana Claassens

Religions 2022, 13(2), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020091 - 18 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2414

Abstract

By reading Jonah’s lament in Jonah 2 through the lens of trauma hermeneutics, this article will try to better understand the words that have been assigned to the main character Jonah, which represent a community’s deep sorrow in the aftermath of the unspeakable [...] Read more.

By reading Jonah’s lament in Jonah 2 through the lens of trauma hermeneutics, this article will try to better understand the words that have been assigned to the main character Jonah, which represent a community’s deep sorrow in the aftermath of the unspeakable horrors of warfare. Read as an attempt to ascribe meaning to individual and collective trauma, I propose that Jonah’s lament in Jonah 2 taps into the metaphors and images available in the lament tradition of the Book of Psalms. The application of symbolic language in ascribing meaning to traumatic events is particularly significant, and may help us derive new layers of meaning from the words placed into the mouth of the prophet who finds himself in the belly of Sheol. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

13 pages, 404 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prophecy and Religion Revisited: John Skinner and Evangelical Biblical Criticism

by Walter J. Houston

Religions 2021, 12(11), 935; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110935 - 28 Oct 2021

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The paper is an essay in the history of interpretation. Its subject is John Skinner’s book on the life of Jeremiah, Prophecy and Religion (1922). The main aim is to place the work in its historical, theological and cultural context, to explain Skinner’s [...] Read more.

The paper is an essay in the history of interpretation. Its subject is John Skinner’s book on the life of Jeremiah, Prophecy and Religion (1922). The main aim is to place the work in its historical, theological and cultural context, to explain Skinner’s conviction that Jeremiah’s life marks the emergence of personal religion in Israel and points towards Christianity. Attempts at such contextualization by J. Henderson and M.C. Callaway are studied and shown to be inadequate. Skinner’s religious context and theological education are then reviewed and are shown to be sufficient to account for his belief in the pivotal role of Jeremiah in the evolution of ‘religion’. The paper finally addresses the present-day significance of Skinner’s work and concludes that while Prophecy and Religion is of limited value for the interpretation of Jeremiah, Skinner’s life and work as a whole as an evangelical believer engaged in radical biblical criticism is a valuable model neglected over the last 100 years. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

20 pages, 1976 KiB

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Family Dynamics, Fertility Cults, and Feminist Critiques: The Reception of Hosea 1–3 through the Centuries

by Bradford A. Anderson

Religions 2021, 12(9), 674; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090674 - 24 Aug 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2607

Abstract

This article examines a number of contested and contentious issues in the reception of Hosea 1–3, exploring how readers through the centuries have engaged with the interpretive challenges found in the initial chapters of this prophetic text. These include (1) debates concerning whether [...] Read more.

This article examines a number of contested and contentious issues in the reception of Hosea 1–3, exploring how readers through the centuries have engaged with the interpretive challenges found in the initial chapters of this prophetic text. These include (1) debates concerning whether the marriage of Hosea and Gomer should be understood literally or figuratively; (2) questions concerning the identity of the woman in chp. 3 in relation to the events of chp. 1; (3) proposals on how to understand the metaphorical elements related to Hosea’s marriage and Israel’s infidelity; (4) ethical, theological, and rhetorical concerns raised by these chapters, including feminist critiques; (5) the place of Gomer’s children in the opening chapter of the book; (6) the themes and rhetoric of chp. 2, including the punishment and wooing of the wife and Israel; and (7) the role of Hos 1–3 in Jewish and Christian liturgical traditions. This study offers soundings from across historical, religious, and interpretive traditions that give a sense of the wide-ranging ways in which this book has been read and understood through the centuries. In particular, it highlights that while specific questions and issues related to Hosea have persisted through the years, the underlying interpretive assumptions and approaches to these questions have shifted considerably in various historical periods, which in turn has led to considerable diversity in the reception of this prophetic text. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

17 pages, 3409 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Tyrian King in MT and LXX Ezekiel 28:12b–15

by Lydia Lee

Religions 2021, 12(2), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020091 - 29 Jan 2021

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Abstract

The biblical prophecy in Ezekiel 28:11–19 records a dirge against the king from Tyre. While the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) identifies the monarch as a cherub, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) distinguishes the royal from the cherub. Scholarly debates arise as to which edition [...] Read more.

The biblical prophecy in Ezekiel 28:11–19 records a dirge against the king from Tyre. While the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) identifies the monarch as a cherub, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) distinguishes the royal from the cherub. Scholarly debates arise as to which edition represents the more original version of the prophecy. This article aims to contribute to the debates by adopting a text-critical approach to the two variant literary editions of the dirge, comparing and analyzing their differences, while incorporating insights gleaned from the extra-biblical literature originating from the ancient Near East, Second Temple Period, and Late Antiquity. The study reaches the conclusion that the current MT, with its presentation of a fluid boundary between the mortal and divine, likely builds on a more ancient interpretation of the Tyrian king. On the other hand, while the Hebrew Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 28:12b–15 resembles the Hebrew text of the MT, the Greek translator modifies the text via literary allusions and syntactical rearrangement, so that the final result represents a later reception that suppresses any hints at the divinity of the Tyrian ruler. The result will contribute to our understanding of the historical development of the ancient Israelite religion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hebrew Prophets and Prophetic Literature: Reception History and Contemporary Significance)

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