Search Results (10)

Clouds appear as a cross-culturally useful literary device in Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian sources. This paper argues that the cloud travel in the apocryphal Acts of Andrew and Matthias functions in three ways: as a transformative callback to Jesus’s ascension and coming return, as a demonstration of Andrew’s power over natural elements, and as a secure form of transportation away from the difficulties of other travel methods. The author of the text combines the divine protection found in clouds in Greco-Roman literature with the theophanies found in the Septuagint and the New Testament to create this cloud-travel motif that later reappears in the apocryphal sequel Acts of Peter and Andrew. Full article

For almost forty years, scholars of the Bible have drawn on the conglomerate field of migration studies to illuminate historical contexts and to exegete biblical texts. This paper recognizes the rich contributions supplied across the decades by such interdisciplinary scholarship. It offers a rejoinder to this work by exploring how biblical scholars might balance the interdisciplinary scales through reciprocal contributions to migration studies. The response is structured in three movements. First, I present the biblical corpus as a migration-informed and migration-informing artifact that has influenced perceptions of and engagements with migration for more than two millennia. The second part of the paper presents three avenues biblical scholars might pursue in their approaches to migration scholars as interlocutors. Finally, my conclusion offers closing reflections on ways biblical scholars might more appropriately prepare themselves for further interdisciplinary mutuality. Full article

The legend of the old man Simeon, who received Jesus in his arms and was one of the Septuagint translators, is almost unknown in Western Christianity but is very popular today among Orthodox Christians. The version circulating in Orthodox churches is based on the account in Demetrius of Rostov’s Lives of the Saints. The article explores the occurrences of the legend in modern, medieval Slavonic, Byzantine, and oriental writings and attempts to identify the stages of the transmission of the legend from antiquity to modern times. The historical analysis and the comparison of the motifs found in these writings make the hypothesis of a Byzantine archetype of the legend plausible. This writing has been lost, but it was previously translated into Syriac, Arabic, and Slavonic, contributing to the spread of the legend in Eastern and Slavic Christianity. The legend builds on the identification of Simeon in Luke’s Gospel with Shimʿon ha-Tsaddiq. It interprets Luke 2:26 by constructing a pre-history of the episode that places Simeon into the time of the Septuagint translation. The miracle of prolonging Righteous Simeon’s life functions as a reconfirmation of the fundamental character of Isaiah 7:14 for Christianity. Full article

The study delves into terminologies associated with beauty within biblical contexts. Drawing from Dyrness’s examination of “Aesthetics in the Old Testament” the focus is primarily on seven Hebrew word groups to understand the multifaceted nuances of beauty. The exploration further extends to two foundational Hebrew terms, kābôd and tôḇ, essential for grasping the essence of beauty in the Old Testament. Additionally, three Greek terms from the Septuagint—agathós, kalós, and chresós—are explored, bridging the understanding between the deuterocanonical books, the New Testament, and their Hebrew counterparts. It has highlighted that understanding the biblical concept of beauty surpasses mere terminological exploration. Illustratively, the narratives of Judith and Esther are examined to demonstrate how their beauty played a strategic role in the welfare and salvation of the people. Full article

This paper focuses on the reception of the Torah by the Church Fathers who lived up to the beginning of the third century. Christians, having received the whole Torah through the Septuagint translation, became selective in the way they accepted it, adhering to it only with reservations. Christological and ethical concerns were at the heart of their acceptance or rejection of various aspects of the Torah. This article will gauge whether Christians had a positive, negative, or neutral evaluation of the Torah and will seek to identify the ways in which they perceived the Torah. By analysing the ways in which the Torah and at times other Old Testament texts were handled, their presentation of these Jewish Scriptures will be brought to light, highlighting different approaches employed in this regard. One notes the following stances: the Torah’s commandments supplemented the Lord’s teachings (the Didache); the Torah was read allegorically and typologically despite a Midrashic approach (Epistle of Barnabas); certain laws were believed to have been instituted as a result of the people’s hardness of heart (Justin Martyr); natural law is distinct from the demands added to it after the Jews’ wayward actions (Irenaeus); the temporal aspects of the law were superseded by its eternal aspects (Tertullian); whilst upholding the promises of the Law, the prophets were seen as going beyond the Law (Tertullian) or as giving the Law a spiritual interpretation (Epistle of Barnabas); and, rarely, the Law was held in very high regard (Clement of Alexandria). This paper is not concerned with any blatant rejection of the Torah and, indeed, the Tanakh at large (as was the case with Marcion), but rather with the subtler nuances that can be detected in other writers who had to rethink the validity and role/place of the Torah in the faith. Full article

In one of his recent books, Jean-Claude Larchet argued that the study of Hebrew is useless for those doing research in the field of Orthodox theology, since the Church fathers used the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint). There are at least two reasons that might be advanced in order to prove the invalidity of Larchet’s thesis. First, fostering an attitude of ignorance as regards the Hebrew Bible might nurture anti-Judaic beliefs among Orthodox students, considering that such attitudes could be noticed in Romania during the interwar period. Second, the Fathers of the Church had a favorable attitude towards Hebrew, despite the fact that few of them actually knew that language. They held the belief that Hebrew was the primordial language through which God spoke to mankind in the beginning and through which the Old Testament was revealed. Both the Hebrew language and the Hebrew alphabet played a significant role in their theoretical considerations on the canon of the Holy Scripture. Since Larchet published his work in Romanian, his theses and their implications are discussed from the perspective and in the context of Romanian Orthodox theology. Full article

An overview of the main European biblical tradition of the Septuagint shows that much work has been carried out in this field of research. Prominent scholars investigated the Old Testament from a thematic diversity point of view, from the history of the text and its contextualization to a variety of translation topics. We investigate, in this article, a lesser-known edition of the Septuagint from the early 18th Century, edited by Lambert Bos and printed in Franeker. Lambert Bos’ biblical philology fits into the patterns of Dutch textual philology, consolidated in the 17th century and built on the solid foundations provided by the grammatical and lexical analysis of ancient texts. A deeper understanding of the issues raised by the texts’ transmission opens a new field of research which admits that a true appreciation of the texts’ content must be preceded by their recovery in as ‘authentic’ a form as possible. The present article aims to restore the image of a Dutch Hellenist of pre-modern philology, and to present important data on his key works, highlighting the defining characteristics of the Franeker edition (1709) of the Septuagint with an analysis from a modern perspective of the principles and methods he followed in the actual practice of biblical textual criticism. Full article

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

Four New Testament writings mention Samaritans and Samaria—Luke–Acts, John, and Matthew. We must consider that all Samaritan texts in the New Testament are based on a historically correct knowledge of the cult of YHWH worshippers in Samaria oriented towards the Gerizim. If the YHWH admirers in Samaria are to be understood as one of the two independent “Israel” denominations that existed in the Palestinian heartland during the post-exilic period, consequently, in John, Matthew, and Luke–Acts, attention is paid to their understanding of the ecclesiological significance of “Israel” and to Christological aspects. Moreover, the authors of the Gospels reflect a semantically young phenomenon, when Σαμαρῖται is understood beyond the ethnicon as a term for a group religiously distinct from Judaism. At the time of Paul, the term “Samaritan” had not yet been established to refer to the religiously defined group. This means that care must be taken when interpreting the term “Israel” and “Israelites” in all Jewish or Jewish-Christian texts written before 70 A.D. This also applies to Paul: when Paul speaks of “Israel”, “Israelites”, and “circumcision”, he could have consciously used inclusive terminology that, in principle, included the (later named) “Samaritans” in the diaspora. Full article

This article discusses the main differences between the Samaritan and the Jewish versions of the Pentateuch. The Samaritan Bible consists of the Torah—that is, the Five Books of Moses—also called the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP). The Jewish Bible contains in addition the Prophets and the Writings, a total of 39 books. The introduction seeks to present both traditions in their own right and in relation to other ancient textual traditions (the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient Greek and Latin, and the Septuagint). The focus of this article is on the shared tradition of the Pentateuch with special emphasis on the textual and theological character of the Samaritan Pentateuch: major variants in the SP, the Moses Layer, and the cult place. This article closes with discussion of editions and translations of the Samaritan Bible and the Masoretic Bible respectively. Full article