Dilemmas of the Diaspora: The Esther Narrative in Josephus Antiquities 11.184-296

Ramus ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kneebone
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Central Section ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Moral Qualities ◽  
Biblical Scholar ◽  
Second World

Esther is the only book of the Hebrew Old Testament never to allude to God, and to refer to neither the Covenant, the sacred institutions of Israel, nor to Jewish religious practice. The book has long engendered a fascinated revulsion in many of its readers, not only for its notable lack (or writing-out?) of God, but also for its overt celebration of genocide and the dubious moral qualities of its protagonists. Luther famously wanted the book excised from the Christian canon altogether, and the nineteenth-century biblical scholar Heinrich Ewald declared that the story of Esther ‘knows nothing of high and pure truths’, and that on coming to it from the rest of the Old Testament ‘we fall, as it were, from heaven to earth’. Humphreys terms Esther one of the ‘most exclusive and nationalistic units within the Bible’, and for Anderson, writing in the aftermath of the Second World War, the tale resonates horribly with twentieth-century history and ‘unveils the dark passions of the human heart: envy, hatred, fear, anger, vindictiveness, pride, all of which are fused into an intense nationalism’.Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish, on the other hand, placed the Book of Esther on a par even with the Torah, a sentiment echoed, centuries later, by Maimonides, who famously declared that when the Prophets and Hagiographa pass away, only Esther and the Law would remain. And this triumphant assertion of the scroll's worth is reminiscent of the attitude of Josephus, who specifically includes Esther in his list of the twenty-two Jewish records, and who devotes the extensive central section of AJ 11 to the Esther pericope. The dating, both relative and absolute, of the texts of Esther has been fiercely disputed, and need not concern us here; it should suffice to note that two extant Greek translations, or rather adaptations, of the Book of Esther—the Septuagint (LXX) and the highly variant Alpha Text (AT)—offer countless minor variations on the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT), and insert six extended passages into the narrative.

The ‘Daemonium meridianum’ and Greek and Latin Patristic Exegesis

Traditio ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 17-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolph Arbesmann
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
The Hours ◽  
First World

The three decades preceding the publication of the new Latin translation of the Psalter by the Biblical Institute in Rome in 1945 have seen a number of studies and articles which throw revealing light on the interpretation of Psalm 90.6. Discussing the laws of purification and diet in the Old Testament, J. Döller thought it possible to discover in the Bible a few faint vestiges of a popular belief in demons among the Israelites and saw a plague demon especially in ‘the destruction that lays waste at noonday’ (Ps. 90.6b). Referring to Döller's study, S. Landersdorfer pointed to a parallel Assyrian belief which regarded midnight and noonday as periods especially dangerous and haunted by demonic agencies, and was inclined to assume even for the Masoretic text the idea of a demon of night (6a) and a demon of noonday (6b). Both demons were thought to exercise their power especially at the hours of the chilling midnight cold and the scorching noonday heat, and to be responsible for certain bodily disorders, such as sunstroke and malaria fever, and for other diseases caused by the rapid changes of temperature in the southern deserts. In this case the psalmist would already have alluded to a popular belief, though such an allusion would not necessarily imply that he himself shared the view, Landersdorfer's article had been written ten years prior to its publication, that is, in a period when, owing to the disturbances during and shortly after the First World War, access to foreign publications was difficult and often impossible. Thus he was apparently unaware that, only about a year before the completion of his article, W. H. Worrell had pointed out some similar parallels from oriental countries.

Maladie et guérison dans les groupes pentecôtistes de l' Italie méridionale

1987 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-474
Author(s):  
Maria Pia Di Bella
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
Healing Touch ◽  
The World ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Second World ◽  
Founding Myth

Malady and healing touch a new member of the Pentacostal groups of meridional Italy... born essentially after the Second World War... at two different stages of his existence: before and after his integration. The first marks his passage from the world of "the wicked " to that of "the good" and the second his incor poration. If one trial will be lived by the believer as a founding myth of his religious practice, the other will make way for collec tive prayers which will reinforce the solidarity of the group faced with this menace while at the same time giving it the occasion to perpetuate itself.

Adam and Eve: Gender in the English Free Church Constituency

1993 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive D. Field
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
World War ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Second World ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The vital contribution of women to the early development of English dissent, especially during the era of the Civil War and Interregnum, has received considerable scholarly attention since the appearance of Keith Thomas's seminal study in 1958. However, the focus of interest has chiefly been on the roles played by individual women as preachers or church founders, and no concerted attempt has yet been made to replicate analyses of New England Puritanism during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which have highlighted the disproportionate numbers of women in church membership. There has been a similar lack of effort to document the effects of gender in determining English religious practice in the period after 1700, despite the beginnings of academic preoccupation with women's experience of Christianity in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, and despite an abundance of evidence from sociologists and statisticians since the Second World War about women's greater performance on most indicators of religious belief and behaviour. This brief article therefore hopes to break new ground in assembling evidence about the strength of female support for Protestant Nonconformity in England from 1650 to the present day, using three distinct assessment criteria: membership, attendance, and profession.

The World Union for Progressive Judaism – Youth Section

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Newman
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
Six Day War ◽  
Post War ◽  
State Of Israel ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis article describes the work of the Youth Section of the WUPJ (the World Union for Progressive Judaism) in Europe soon after the Second World War and the establishment of the State of Israel, with especial attention to the influence of Rabbi Lionel Blue. It covers tensions between generations over how to ‘teach’ Judaism; the astonishing numbers of rabbinical students recruited; ways we ‘encountered’ the Bible; the first post-war youth conference in Germany; early meetings with young Jews from Eastern Europe; first encounters with Muslims; and particularly the Six-Day War. The changes this brought about through Netzer and the shift in focus towards a more Israel-centred ideology are described. Finally, the conclusion is drawn that only ongoing messianic or prophetic ideals keep Judaism alive.

Anglican Evangelicals and Revival, 1945–59

2008 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 307-317
Author(s):  
Alister Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

This essay is a study of the religious revival that didn’t quite happen in Britain after the Second World War. It focuses on conservative evangelical Anglicans, whose own renaissance during these years puts them at the centre of discussions about the post-war increase in churchgoing. Its central contention is that human agency and cultural peculiarities are just as important for understanding this chapter of English religious history as any seemingly inexorable, broad-based social changes inimical to religious practice. More particularly, the chapter focuses on Anglican evangelical clergy and their attitudes to religious revival. In so doing, it highlights the fact that the practices and prejudices of church people are an essential part of the story of post-war English religious life. Scholars looking to explain religious malaise in post-war Britain have frequently looked everywhere except the decisions made by the churches and their leaders, the assumption seeming to be that because decline was unavoidable there was nothing pastors, priests or their congregations could do to stem the tide. This chapter seeks to redress the balance by examining the ways in which evangelical Anglican clergy pursued revival in England, some of the obstacles they faced in this pursuit, and how they responded when they felt they had failed. Among the things they discovered was that ‘revival’ was a word to be handled with care.

scholarly journals Een oorlogsroman: Jeroen Brouwers, Het hout

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-255
Author(s):  
Mary Kemperink
Keyword(s):  
Young Woman ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
Community Or ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Sexually Abuse ◽  
Second World ◽  
Seksueel Misbruik

Abstract From page one, the novel The stick, by the Dutch writer Jeroen Brouwers is breathtaking and intriguing. The story is set not long after the Second World War. The young Franciscan friar Bonaventura lives in a monastery near to the German border. The community of friars there is in the grip of the pedophile friar Mansuetus and thus caught in a web of fear. Many of them, just like Mansuetus himself, sexually abuse the young pupils they have under their care. Not so Bonaventura. He is extremely unhappy there, even more so since he recently fell in love with a young woman from outside the monastery and with whom he even made love. He ardently longs to escape. Nonetheless, he remains within the walls of his hated Catholic prison. Why doesn’t he break out immediately? Brouwers’ novel succeeds to answer this question by means of a clever and a well-built composition of themes, metaphors, symbols and countless references to the Bible and the Second World War. Thus he gives his novel a suspense that lasts until the last page, circling around the question: will Bonaventura dare to leave the community or will he ultimately end up staying? Nederlandstalig abstract De roman Het hout beneemt je vanaf de eerste bladzijden de adem. Het verhaal speelt niet lang na de Tweede Wereldoorlog. De jonge Franciscaner broeder Bonaventura woont in een klooster niet ver van de Duitse grens. De kloostergemeenschap daar is in de greep geraakt van de pedofiele broeder Mansuetus en gevangen in een web van angst. Velen van hen maken, net als Mansuetus, seksueel misbruik van de jonge leerlingen die aan hen zijn toevertrouwd. Bonaventura doet dat niet. Hij voelt zich doodongelukkig in het klooster, en dat te meer omdat hij kort tevoren hartstochtelijk verliefd is geworden op een jonge vrouw van buiten het klooster en zelfs met haar naar bed is geweest. Hij verlangt er hevig naar om te ontsnappen. Niettemin blijft hij steeds maar tussen de muren van zijn gehate katholieke gevangenis zitten. Waarom gaat hij daar niet onmiddellijk vandaan? Brouwers slaagt erin om op die vraag een antwoord te geven door middel van een uitgekiende compositie van thema’s, metaforen, symbolen en talloze verwijzingen naar de Bijbel en naar de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Zo weet hij zijn roman een spanning te geven die duurt tot aan de laatste pagina en die gericht is op de vraag: durft Bonaventura het ten slotte aan om de kloostergemeenschap te verlaten of blijft hij daar uiteindelijk toch zitten?

scholarly journals Mellan mission och sionism

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkan Bengtsson
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
World War ◽  
Jewish Culture ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Study Programme ◽  
The Common ◽  
Second World

This article discusses the establishment of the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem in 1951. My claim is that the missionary plan of the Swedish Mission to the Jews was mitigated towards a programme of biblical studies. Several factors contributed to this transformation. The change facilitated the relations with the Israeli authorities. Another challenge was to overcome the common Christian negative comprehension of Zionism as a mere materialistic, political enterprise. Such attitudes complicated a connection to political Zionism, however the Swedish Theological Institute related rather to the cultural Zionist agenda of promoting Jewish culture and the Bible and could later connect to the topic of the Bible and the land. The experiences of the Swedish Mission in Vienna during the Second World War and their anti-Nazi stance also en­abled the founding of the institute. Two former missionaries, Greta Andrén and Hans Kosmala, were appointed as heads of the institute. Andrén had previously experienced that missionary work in Jerusalem was considered as utterly suspicious. Thereto both the Anglican and the Swedish missionaries had under ambivalent presuppositions supported an evacuation of baptized Jews, so-called "Hebrew Christians", from Palestine to England in April and May 1948. This enterprise, named "Operation Mercy", was later proved to be primarily an excuse for these Hebrew Christians to leave the country. The links to any overt mission­ary work was thus disengaged when negotiating permits for the Swedish Theological Institute. Instead, a qualified study programme in the Bible, the land, and Judaism was initiated; concepts that reflected esteemed values of the new Israeli state.

German Catholicism at War, 1939-1945

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Brodie
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
German Society ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Home Front ◽  
World War ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Pastoral Letters ◽  
Second World ◽  
Source Materials

This book is a study of German Catholics’ mentalities and experiences during the Second World War. Taking the German Home Front, and most specifically, the Rhineland and Westphalia, as its core focus, the book explores Catholics’ responses to developments in the war, their complex and shifting relationships with the Nazi regime, and religious practices. Drawing on a wide range of source materials stretching from personal diaries to pastoral letters and Gestapo reports, this study explores the attitudes of laypeople, lower clergymen and the episcopate alike, and enriches our understandings of the roles played by religious belief and community in wartime German society. Individual chapters analyse how German Catholics responded to the outbreak of war, Bishop Galen’s protests against ‘euthanasia’ in summer 1941, and the turning tide of war during the years 1942-44. Thematic chapters explore the social and cultural histories of religious practice on the German Home Front, and a final section addresses the German Church’s transition from war to peace in 1945.

scholarly journals Jerzy Ronard Bujański – powojenne pół sezonu w Starym Teatrze

1970 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 166-177
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Kornaś
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Stage Design ◽  
The City ◽  
Second World

Jerzy Ronard Bujański was the first director of the Old Theatre after the Second World War (from the end of January to August 1945). The article presents turbulent beginnings of this management (the war was still in progress). Besides, the first premiere of the Old Theatre – Mąż doskonały by Jerzy Zawieyski – directed by Bujański, stage design by Andrzej Pronaszko. This performance referred to the character of Job from the Old Testament and was related to the Warsaw Uprising context. This show was one of the most important artistic events of the first season after the war. Next to the Old Theatre, Bujański established the Studio, which educated about one hundred people. The teachers included: Juliusz Osterwa and Tadeusz Kantor, while the students were, for example Tadeusz Łomnicki, Halina Mikołajska, Andrzej Hiolski, Kazimierz Mikulski and Jerzy Nowosielski. In August 1945, Jerzy Ronard Bujański was dismissed as a result of a conflict with the city authorities. However, during the time of his management, the theatre gained a high artistic position.

scholarly journals The Personal Archive of Martin Ludwig Rhesa: A Reconstruction

Knygotyra ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 113-202
Author(s):  
Ona Aleknavičienė
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
State Archive ◽  
World War ◽  
Literary Historiography ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Current Location ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literature History ◽  
The University ◽  
Second World

This article deals with materials and data on the manuscripts that were present in the personal archive of Martin Ludwig Rhesa (or Ludwig Jedemin Rhesa, 1776–1840) – professor at the University of Königsberg, scholar of folklore, editor and researcher of the Bible, Church historian, publisher of Kristijonas Donelaitis’s “Metai” and his fables. These manuscripts are traditionally referred to in Lithuanian literary historiography as the Rhesa Archive. The history of the manuscripts’ preservation after 1840 is described: relocation to the Royal Secret Archive in Königsberg, the placing of a part of the archive in the State Archive of Gdańsk in 1903, and its appearance in Lithuanian libraries after the Second World War. The principal aim of this study is to determine the manuscripts that had belonged to Rhesa’s personal archive in the 19th c., i.e., to reconstruct his previous archive. It is sought to determine the current location where it is being kept (the library or fund). In evaluating Rhesa’s attempts to collect sources on the Lithuanian language, literature, history, and folklore, the scholarly and cultural interests that these writings attest to are demonstrated.

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