The Concept of Hebel in the Book of Ecclesiastes

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Today scholars still struggle to apprehend the meaning of hebel (vanity) in the Book of Ecclesiastes. It has become recognized that Old Testament theologians like Walter Eichrodt, Gerhard von Rad, and Ronald Clements did not essentially integrate the Wisdom Tradition of ancient Israel into the development of their theologies. In his Tyndale lecture on the Old Testament of 1965, David Hubbard argued for a new sensitivity to the relationship that must exist between covenant and wisdom in the community of faith. A. Graeme Auld has insisted that the alienation of wisdom from covenant traditions has caused such acute problems in understanding the Old Testament that we are in danger of not grasping at all the relation between the Word of God and the Word of Man. These problems may be linked not only to the question about why the Book of Ecclesiastes was allowed into the Canon of Israel, but also to the very hearing we claim to possess of the revelation of the Word of God in the world and the way the world has actually been made to be. All this should tell us that the significance of the concept of hebel in the Book of Ecclesiastes requires a real clarification of profound consequence for our knowledge of God in the world.

scholarly journals 'Who is wise and understanding among you' (James 3: 13)? An analysis of wisdom, eschatology and apocalypticism in the epistle of James

1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Hartin
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
World View ◽  
The World ◽  
Epistle Of James ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Three questions form the basis of this analysis of the relationship of the Epistle of James to the traditions of wisdom, eschatology and apocalypticism. What kind of traditions are involved in James? What is the world view of James? What audience or community is presupposed by this writing? Foremost is the connection that James demonstrates to the wisdom tradition evident in the Old Testament and extratestamental literature. In particular two types of wisdom tradition are noted in James: practical wisdom advice as expressed in short sayings, wisdom instructions and admonitions and reflection on the nature of wisdom (1:5-8; 2:1-7; and 3:13-18) as coming from God. Finally, the question of how much apocalyptic symbolism is evident in the eschatological world view of the epistle is addressed.

Augustine's Early Thought on the Redemptive Function of Divine Judgement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart van Egmond
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The World ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Scholarly Discussion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This work addresses the relationship between Augustine’s account of God’s judgement and his theology of grace in his early works. How does God, both personally and through his ‘agents’ on earth, use his law and the penal consequences of its trangression in the service of his grace? From different perspectives Augustine came to reflect upon this question. As a teacher and bishop he thought about the nature of discipline and punishment in the education of his pupils, fellow monks, and congregants. As a polemicist against the Manichaeans and as a biblical expositor, he had to grapple with issues regarding God’s relationship to evil in the world, the violence God displays in the Old Testament, and in the death of his own Son. Futhermore, Augustine meditated upon the way God’s judgement and grace related in his own life, both before and after his conversion. This study follows the development of Augustine’s early thought on judgement and grace from the Cassiacum writings to the Confessions. The argument is contextualized both against the background of the earlier Christian tradition of reflection on the providential function of divine chastisement, and the tradition of psychagogy that Augustine inherited from a variety of rhetorical and philosophical sources. Within the field of Augustine studies, this work intends to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion on the development of Augustine’s doctrine of grace, and to the conversation on the theological roots of his justification of coercion against the Donatists.

scholarly journals Humans created God in their image? An anthropomorphic projectionism in the Old Testament

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndikho Mtshiselwa ◽  
Lerato Mokoena
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Testament Studies

The Old Testament projects not only a Deity that created the world and human beings but also one that is violent and male. The debate on the depiction of the God of Israel that is violent and male is far from being exhausted in Old Testament studies. Thus, the main question posed in this article is: If re-read as ‘Humans created God in their image’, would Genesis 1:27 account for the portrayal of a Deity that is male and violent? Feuerbach’s idea of anthropomorphic projectionism and Guthrie’s view of religion as anthropomorphism come to mind here. This article therefore examines, firstly, human conceptualisation of a divine being within the framework of the theory of anthropomorphic projectionism. Because many a theologian and philosopher would deny that God is a being at all, we further investigate whether the God of Israel was a theological and social construction during the history of ancient Israel. In the end, we conclude, based on the theory of anthropomorphic projectionism, that the idea that the God of Israel was a theological and social construct accounts for the depiction of a Deity that is male and violent in the Old Testament.

Gender and the Process of Moral Development in the Thought of Paul Evdokimov

2005 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Klofft
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

[In the writings of Orthodox theologian Paul Evdokimov (1901–1970), Western theology can find new resources regarding the relationship between gender and moral development. The author presents Evdokimov's unique theological anthropology in the context of both the complicated question of gender, as well as the effects that gender has on the way women and men act. While the goal of the Christian life for both is the transformation of the individual through asceticism, the role each plays in the salvation of the world differs markedly.]

Qoheleth and the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch

2008 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Henze
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
First Century ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe roots of early Jewish apocalypticism are diverse. Within the realm of ancient Israel, one of the main contributory streams is the wisdom tradition. The present essay examines the impact of Israel's sapiential tradition, and specifically of that of the book of Qoheleth, on the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, a Jewish apocalypse of the late first century C.E. My thesis is that, while both authors agree in their assessment of the present human condition, they draw dramatically different conclusions. Qoheleth persistently points to the limits and fallibility of this world and advises his readers to enjoy life before they die, whereas the author of 2 Baruch looks to the world to come and, in the meantime, calls on his readers to live their lives in compliance with the Mosaic Torah.

scholarly journals infância, cultura visual e educação

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (36) ◽  
pp. 01-20
Author(s):  
Adriana Hoffmann Fernandes ◽  
Helenice Mirabelli Cassino
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Multiple Images ◽  
The World ◽  
Visual Framing ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This article combines thoughts about childhood, visual culture and education. It is known that we live among multiple images that shape the way we see our reality, and researchers in the visual culture field investigate how this role is played out in our culture. The goal is to make some applications those ideas, to think about the relationship between the images and education. This article tries to grasp what visual culture is and in what ways presumptions about childhood generate and are generated by this association. It also discusses the genesis of these presumptions and the images they generate through a philosophical approach, questioning the role of education in a culture tied to the media, and about how children, who are familiar with multiple screens, presage a new visual literacy. We see how images play a fundamental role in the way children give meaning to the world around them and to themselves, in the context of their local culture. Given this context, it is necessary to consider how visual culture is tied to the elementary school, and what challenges confront the generation of wider and more creative ways to approach visual framing in children’s education.

‘Masters both of arts and lies’: Metadrama and the Informer in Poetaster and Sejanus

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Angus
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
Significant Element ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores Jonson’s metadramatic technique in Sejanus and Poetaster and its staging of the legitimacy of poetic and political authority. The informer lurks in the metadramatic shadows here, as a significant element within both Jonson’s critique of compromised authority in Sejanus, and the implications he makes in Poetaster, about his artistic enemies. In both cases their authority is tainted by the connection, going beyond simply blaming informers for the woes of his society, the most significant aspect of this is the way in which metadrama and the structures of informing fit so integrally together. The chapter also asks what this means for the person of the author. If Poetaster addresses the relationship between poetic legitimacy and political authority within the world of the informer, Sejanus elevates this discourse to the realm of political revolution, in which, for the authorities of the time, Jonson’s desire to monopolise poetic legitimacy in the production of his own dramatic authority seems ambitiously excessive.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Authority and Authenticity in the Laozi: Employing Wu無 as a Philosophical Framework

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Sharon Y. Small
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Philosophical Framework ◽  
Generative Processes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Wu 無 is one of the most prominent terms in Ancient Daoist philosophy, and perhaps the only term to appear more than Dao in both the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. However, unlike Dao, wu is generally used as an adjective modifying or describing nouns such as “names”, “desires”, “knowledge”, “action”, and so forth. Whereas Dao serves as the utmost principle in both generation and practice, wu becomes one of the central methods to achieve or emulate this ideal. As a term of negation, wu usually indicates the absence of something, as seen in its relation to the term you 有—”to have” or “presence”. From the perspective of generative processes, wu functions as an undefined and undifferentiated cosmic situation from which no beginning can begin but everything can emerge. In the political aspect, wu defines, or rather un-defines the actions (non-coercive action, wuwei 無為) that the utmost authority exerts to allow the utmost simplicity and “authenticity” (the zi 自 constructions) of the people. In this paper, I suggest an understanding of wu as a philosophical framework that places Pre-Qin Daoist thought as a system that both promotes our understanding of the way the world works and offers solutions to particular problems. Wu then is simultaneously metaphysical and concrete, general, and particular. It is what allows the world, the society, and the person to flourish on their own terms.

Cities of Refuge

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Kings 1 ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
City Of Refuge ◽  
1 Kings ◽  
The Relationship

Within the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament there is a provision for six cities of refuge (“cities of intaking” [ערי מקלט]), where someone who has unintentionally committed murder can go and not be subject to blood revenge (Exodus 20:12–14; Numbers 35:9–28; Deuteronomy 4:41–43, 19:1–13; Joshua 20; 1 Chronicles 6). This practice has been described as refuge, asylum, and sanctuary, and the cities have been given all three of these labels, which has resulted in differing understandings of the intention of these cities. The basic legal issue is the distinction between intentional and unintentional killing. For most societies in the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel, the idea of “blood revenge” (an “eye for an eye”; lex talionis) was the way in which the killing of a member of your clan or family was avenged (Exodus 21:23). The distinction made in association with the cities of refuge/asylum was how to deal with an individual who accidentally, without intention, killed another (Exodus 21:12–14; Number 35:16–28). Also associated with this idea is the nature of sanctuary or asylum that one can obtain when one reaches a cultic center with an altar (1 Kings 1:50–53; 2:23–24). One should also note that all the cities of refuge are also Levitical Cities (1 Chronicles 6), but it is not clear what the role of the Levites was in such a city of refuge. Among the issues associated with these cities are the following: Did they actually exist, or were they simply a fiction created at a later period of time? If they were real, what was their historical context? Was it premonarchic, the time of David and Solomon, related to the centralization of Josiah, or postexilic? When were the texts composed (a question associated with the previous issue and raising wonderings about different hands in the composition of the texts associated with the idea of asylum cities)? What is the connection between altars of sanctuary and the cities of refuge, and why the apparent replacement of altars with cities? Who and how was the validity of the claim of unintentional killing (Numbers 35:24–25; Joshua 20:4) decided, even if the killer was a “sojourner” (gēr) (Joshua 20:9)? What was the consequence of the death of the high priest (Numbers 35:27; Joshua 20:6), and how it was related to some concept of atonement? What was the relationship between the different biblical presentations of refuge or asylum? What was the connection with the Levites (See Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies articles Levi/Levites) and Levitical Cities? Finally, what is the relevance to today’s society with its issues of sanctuary for immigrants and sojourners?

Egypt in the Old Testament

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hays
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Buffer Zone ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between Egypt and ancient Israel and Judah was far more complex than is often recognized. Egypt figures prominently in their national myths of origin as a way station for the patriarchs and as the “house of slaves” and starting point of the Exodus. Although no Exodus event can be confirmed from extrabiblical sources, its significance in the Bible suggests an historical kernel. The diverse existing traditions about Egypt in the texts of the Pentateuch and other early biblical writings, combined and written down at a later date, seem to reflect different experiences on the part of the groups that coalesced into Israel By the time of the monarchy, there is more direct evidence for Egyptian influence on Israelite culture, particularly in administrative affairs. It is also clear that Egyptian religion was practiced in the Levant at this time and would have been known in Israel and Judah. By the time of the divided monarchy, the historical picture comes into better focus. Relations between Egypt, Israel, and Judah were quite variable. Although Egypt’s New Kingdom empire in the Levant had ended, the region continued to be a useful trading outlet, and the pharaohs were not above raiding to assert their power. However, there are numerous examples of fugitives from the Levant finding refuge from their enemies in Egypt. In the interest of maintaining a buffer zone against the northern empires that encroached, Egypt and Kush gave military aid to Israel and Judah at times, through both direct action and supplies. The prophets had not forgotten Egypt’s role as an oppressor and frequently condemned it, as well as the tendency of Israelite and Judahite rulers to seek its help. But at times the prophets also envisioned peace with Egypt. There are a number of specific Egyptian texts that supply mutually illuminating points of comparison with biblical texts, including wisdom instructions, prayers, hymns, creation accounts, and autobiographies. These are indications of the extensive, ongoing, cultural interactions between Egypt and the cultures that produced the Old Testament.

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