The Earliest Commentary on the Prophecy of Habakkuk

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy H. Lim
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
High Priest ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Teacher Of Righteousness

This is the first major commentary in English on Pesher Habakkuk for forty years. It elucidates the nature of 1QpHab as the earliest commentary on the prophecy of Habakkuk by a detailed study of the biblical quotation and sectarian interpretation. This commentary provides a new edition of the scroll, including new readings, and detailed palaeographical, philological, exegetical, and historical notes and discussion. It shows that the pesherist imitates the allusive style of the oracles of Habakkuk and also draws on lexemes, phrases, and themes from other biblical texts and Jewish sources. It shows that the pesherist identified the Kittim with the Romans who conquered Judaea in 63 BCE, and suggests that the scroll refers to several righteous and wicked figures, including the last Hasmonean high priests, Aristobulus II, John Hyrcanus II, and Mattathias Antigonus. The righteous figures include those who remain faithful to the Teacher of Righteousness. It is shown that the Teacher of Righteousness was not a deposed Hasmonean high priest, but a sectarian teacher of biblical interpretation, whose hermeneutical function is vested in his divinely appointed role as the expositor par excellence of the community that saw its fulfilment in the prophecy of Habakkuk. The sectarians believe that faithfulness in the teachings of the Teacher of Righteousness will save them in the day of judgment.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-134
Author(s):  
Nyasha Junior
Keyword(s):  
Black Woman ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Racial Identification ◽  
The Future ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Biblical Scholar

The Epilogue offers the author’s reflections on being a Black woman biblical scholar and writing on issues relating to race, gender, and biblical interpretation. It includes the author’s discussion of hopes for the future of biblical studies, including biblical reception history projects on race. It discusses the desires of reading communities to see themselves reflected in biblical texts and to interpret Hagar in ways that resonate with their experiences and concerns. It addresses the potential benefits and drawbacks of the ethnic and racial identification of and cultural appropriation of biblical characters. It concludes that the story of Hagar offers us a unique opportunity to investigate the ways in which we use biblical texts to illustrate how we see ourselves and others.

Melancholic Hopes, Trans Temporalities, and Haunted Biblical Receptions: A Response

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-515
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Marchal
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Negative Affects ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Biblical Figures

Abstract Queer approaches to temporality and hauntology have the significant potential to alter, reframe, and expand our understandings and uses of biblical texts and traditions, as the articles in this special issue demonstrate. Still other striking juxtapositions or analogies should complicate our approaches to these texts and traditions, and plenty more besides. In several places, then, this essay shows how these complications can be challenged and specified by select insights from trans conversations about temporality and haunting. These trans conversations currently range over a large set of dynamics: visibility and violence, fungibility and fugitivity, necropolitics and “negative” affects, from the monstrous to the melancholic. These resonate with the movements of Sarah and Hagar, Joseph and his kin, Judith and her nearly-ghosted slave, the Gerasenes and their demon/iac, among many other biblical figures, in unexpected and illuminating ways. The cyclical, even loopy qualities of queer and, or as, trans temporality and haunting are hardly progressive, but ambivalent, suggesting the especial importance of melancholic hopes for negotiating these haunted biblical receptions. The juxtapositions, allegories, analogies, and applications of these four articles are precisely the sort of receptions and movements that should be ventured more often within biblical interpretation. A receptivity to what still haunts these texts and traditions requires responding to and rejecting the gendered, sexualized, racialized, and colonized terms of visibility they offer, their doors of entry that exceptionalize a select few and estrange those from the rest who are exploited, expelled, or exterminated.

scholarly journals Geloofsekerheid in die kerk se geskiedenis van Bybelinterpretasie

2001 ◽  
Vol 57 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kobus Labuscbagne
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
History Of Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Original Audience ◽  
The Church

Assurance of faith in the church's history of Biblical interpretation. The aim of this article is to focus on biblical interpretaion. It relects on the implications of biblical interpretaion for the foundaions of faith. People generally understand their world on the basis of their own presupposed convicions and on the basis of what they already know and have experienced of life. This tendency afects interpreters, understanding of the original audience of biblical texts. The article argues that the challenge to study Scipture accurately and objecively requires hermeneutical guidelines from the church in order to prevent subjecivism.

Interpreting the Bible Amidst Ecological Degradation

Theology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 112 (867) ◽  
pp. 199-207
Author(s):  
Ernst M. Conradie
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Ecological Degradation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Contemporary Context

This essay explores the role of interpretative strategies in biblical interpretation. It is argued that ‘doctrinal constructs’ play a crucial role in appropriating the significance of biblical texts in and for a particular contemporary context. Various such constructs typically employed for an ecological biblical hermeneutics are analysed. Suggestions are offered towards the use of more sophisticated constructs, with reference to the notions of the ‘liberation of creation’, the ‘wisdom of God’ and the ‘whole household of God’.

Texts in quarantine: Karl Barth, biblical interpretation and imaginative resistance

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Angela Dienhart Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Imaginative Resistance ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis essay explores the overlapping territory between the phenomenon known as ‘imaginative resistance’ in literary, psychological and philosophical circles and Karl Barth's theological hermeneutic. Imaginative resistance refers to the way readers are willing to give consent to all sorts of implausible things in the context of a fiction, but become uneasy when asked to imagine that something they consider morally or ethically reprehensible is good. The essay offers an overview of the current scholarly theories regarding the origins of the phenomenon of imaginative resistance, arguing that none of them provide an adequate account of imaginative resistance in relation to a text read as ‘Word of God’. The essay suggests that Karl Barth's theological hermeneutic does not offer a ‘solution’ to imaginative resistance in relation to scripture, but rather deepens and redescribes it in meaningful ways by acknowledging the appropriateness of the interpreter's resistance while encouraging continued engagement even with the claims of challenging biblical texts.

Who is the ‘Son of God’ in 4Q246? An Overlooked Example of Early Biblical Interpretation

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Segal
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Early Readers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Intense Debate

The Aramaic Apocalypse of Daniel (4Q246) has been the subject of intense debate among scholars, primarily surrounding the enigmatic epithets ברה די אל “son of God” and בר עליון “son of the Most High.” Previous interpreters have suggested either that this character is a human sovereign with divine pretensions or that he is a divine messianic figure. The current study posits a new identification of this figure based upon the analysis of the biblical texts underlying this Qumran scroll: in addition to its dependence upon Dan 7 (which has been previously recognized), 4Q246 also contains a hitherto overlooked allusion to Ps 82. In light of the relationship to these biblical passages, it is proposed that the character described as “son of God/the Most High” should be taken as the heavenly representative of the penultimate kingdom in Dan 7. The identification of the allusion to Ps 82 within 4Q246 also enriches our analysis of Dan 7 itself, since the Qumran scroll demonstrates that early readers of the apocalyptic vision posited a literary-theological connection between Dan 7 and Ps 82. These texts together formed a cluster of related biblical passages that were read and interpreted in concert by ancient authors.

scholarly journals The trees in the middle of Paradise (Gn 2:9) during the Great Lent: Orthodox hymnography as biblical interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin H. Oancea
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Selection Of

The article examines the interpretation of the Scripture in Byzantine hymnography during the Great Lent. Some notable recent contributions focus on Andrew of Crete’s and Romanos the Melodist’s compositions, illustrating the hymnographic way of understanding the Scriptures. The author of this study presents a selection of stanzas from hymns of the Triodion that refer to the trees of Paradise. Hymnography perceives the trees in Genesis 2–3 in direct connection with the cross. Only rarely is the tree of life a metaphor for Jesus, as the shadow of the tree of the cross is seldom a metaphor for protection. Another interesting aspect in relation to hymnography is the fact that it represents a type of intertextual exegesis of biblical texts. Hymnographers interpret passages from Genesis by using texts from Psalms, Prophets and especially from the New Testament, combining images and biblical texts in the depiction of liturgical moments.Contribution: Compared with previous research, this article discusses some rare hymnographic interpretations (shadow of the cross; cross in the middle of the earth). The analysis accentuates that the hymnic approach to the Scripture is a form of intertextual exegesis.

scholarly journals CROSSING BOUNDARIES. THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF INTERCULTURAL BIBLE READING IN SECULAR / POST-SECULAR CONTEXTS

Scriptura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Louis Jonker
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Bible Reading

Intercultural biblical hermeneutics is a fairly recent development in biblical scholarship in general. It emphasises that biblical interpretation almost always takes place in contexts where an array of cultural values and beliefs determine the outcome of the interpretative process. Although this branch of biblical hermeneutics emerged from the need to reflect theoretically on how Christians from different socio-cultural and socio-economic contexts engage the biblical texts, and one another on account of those texts, this approach may also be widened to include the interpretation of the Bible in non-Christian contexts (including the contexts of other religions and secular contexts) or even to engage in discourse on the interpretation of authoritative texts of different traditions (such as the Qur’an in Islam, in addition to the Tenakh of Judaism, and the Old and New Testament of Christianity). In research on intercultural biblical hermeneutics, it has been noticed that intercultural interpretation holds enormous transformative potential. My paper will examine how this could be of use in engagements between religious, secular and post-secular contexts.

Influence: On Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-105
Author(s):  
Michal Beth Dinkler
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Human History ◽  
Popular Opinion ◽  
Short Answer ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Do So

Abstract The influence of the Bible in human history is staggering. Biblical texts have inspired grand social advancements, intellectual inquiries, and aesthetic achievements. Yet, the Bible has also given rise to hatred, violence, and oppression—often with deadly consequences. How does the Bible exert such extraordinary influence? The short answer is rhetoric. In Influence: On Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation, Michal Beth Dinkler demonstrates that, contrary to popular opinion, rhetoric is not inherently “empty” or disingenuous. Rhetoric refers to the art of persuasion. Dinkler argues that the Bible is by nature rhetorical, and that understanding the art of persuasion is therefore vital for navigating biblical literature and its interpretation. Influence invites readers to think critically about biblical rhetoric and the rhetoric of biblical interpretation, and offers a clear and compelling guide for how to do so.

Animating the Bible’s Animals

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Stone
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Differences ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Species Difference ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Donna Haraway ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Companion Species ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Biblical Texts

This chapter discusses the potential relevance of interdisciplinary animal studies for biblical interpretation. The story of Jacob and his family in Genesis 25–32 is examined from the perspective of a “critical animal hermeneutics.” Three features of such a hermeneutics, characteristic of contemporary animal studies, are emphasized: (1) the constitutive importance of “companion species,” emphasized by Donna Haraway, including in Israel’s case goats and sheep; (2) the instability of the human/animal binary, emphasized by Jacques Derrida and other thinkers; and (3) ubiquitous associations between species difference and differences among humans, particularly, in the case of biblical literature, gender and ethnic differences. Each of these features is used to read the story of Jacob and several related biblical texts.

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