A "Balanced" Reading of the Rape of Dinah: Some Exegetical and Methodological Observations

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Noble

AbstractThis article explores some of the central methodological issues connected with ideological readings of the Bible through reflecting upon the contrary interpretations of Genesis 34 offered, on the one hand, by Danna Fewell and David Gunn (which, they claim, is made from the standpoint of a "feminist" ideology) and, on the other hand, by Meir Sternberg (whose reading is charged by Fewell and Gunn with being "androcentric"). After assessing the exegetical disagreements between them, it is argued that both readings are deficient in being over-narrowly focused upon the question of the reader's feelings towards the characters of the story. A new interpretation is therefore offered, which sees the story as primarily concerned with exploring the issues of "crime and punishment." In the light of these exegetical studies it is argued that Fewell and Gunn's claim that all reading is necessarily ideological is undermined by their actual exegetical practice, which oscillates between (i) an objective, reader-independent style of exegesis which makes useful contributions to the understanding of Genesis 34 but offers nothing distinctively ideological; and (ii) a form of ideological "reading" which does not undermine but simply talks at cross-purposes to the doctrine of "foolproof composition" that Fewell and Gunn are attempting to refute. Their "reader-oriented" argument fails because it does not appreciate how the effects that a reader's own ideological presuppositions have upon his or her interpretations may be corrected by a sound exegetical methodology.

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 393-404
Author(s):  
Janusz Królikowski

Origen is the exegete and Old Christian writer whose influence on the under­standing of the Bible has always been determinative. Undoubtedly, for ecclesiasti­cal reasons he deemed the Septuagint superior and regarded it as the Christian Old Testament. He thought highly of Hebrew text as well, which he often used for his research. An expression of this belief was among others the Hexapla worked out by Origen, which can be regarded as an exceptional manifestation of esteem towards the Old Testament and its Hebrew version. Origen’s attitude towards the Bible can be characterized by two approaches: on the one hand it is the ecclesiastical approach which gives the first place to the text commonly accepted in the Church namely the Septuagint, but on the other hand he is open to every other text Hebrew or Greek, trying to understand it and take it into account in his commentary.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Fitri Yuliana

Di satu sisi, penekanan modernisme pada rasionalitas dan historisitas telah menghasilkan kristologi yang kritis-objektif. Di sisi lain, pascamodernisme yang berepistemologi pluralis menghasilkan kristologi yang subjektif. Menanggapi dan menjembatani dua sisi persoalan ini, pendekatan hermeneutis redemptive-historical diajukan sebagai pendekatan alternatif injili. Pendekatan yang berpusat pada Kristus sebagai kulminasi sejarah penebusan (seperti yang disaksikan Alkitab) ini mengaitkan tiga horizon yaitu: textual, epochal, dan canonical untuk menginterpretasikan teks Kitab Suci secara holistik. Pendekatan ini menganalisis sintaksis, konteks sastra, konteks sejarah dan genre-nya (textual horizon), mengaitkannya dengan sejarah penebusan (epochal horizon), dan melihatnya dalam terang keutuhan kanon (canonical horizon). Penggabungan ketiga unsur tersebut menekankan dinamika pemenuhan janji Allah dalam kulminasi tersebut. Dengan demikian, pendekatan hermeneutis redemptive historical dapat mengarahkan orang Kristen pembacaan dan penafsiran Alkitab yang kristosentris. Kata-kata kunci: Pendekatan Redemptive-Historical, Epistemologi, Kristologi Modern Kristologi Pascamodern, Hermeneutika Injili Kristosentris On the one hand, the emphasis of modernism on rationality and historicity has produced a critical-objective Christology. On the other hand, post-modernism with a pluralist epistemology produces subjective Christology. Responding to, and bridging the two sides of this problem, the redemptive-historical hermeneutical approach is proposed as an alternative evangelical approach. The Christ-centered approach as the culmination of the history of redemption (as witnessed to in the Bible) links three horizons, namely: textual, epochal, and canonical to interpret the text of the Scriptures holistically. This approach analyzes syntax, literary context, historical context and its genre (textual horizon), links it to the history of redemption (epochal horizon), and sees it in the light of the canon (canonical horizon). The combination of these three elements emphasizes the dynamic fulfillment of God’s promises. Thus, the historical redemptive hermeneutical approach can lead Christians to read and interpret the Christocentric Bible. Keywords: Redemptive-Historical Approach, Epistemology, Modernist Christology, Post-modernist Christology, Christ-centered Evangelical Hermeneutics


Augustinianum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-384
Author(s):  
Sabrina Antonella Robbe ◽  

The paper focuses on Rufinus’ translation of Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica 1, 1-3, which discusses trinitarian and christological matters. Firstly, I will analyze how Rufinus amends or removes statements which are close to Origenism and Arianism, sometimes replacing them with orthodox ones; I will then examine Rufinus’ way of citing and interpreting the Bible, by correcting Eusebius’ reading, when it is suspected of heresy, or by explaining passages himself. This work of emendation reveals, on the one hand, Rufinus’ desire to give the readers a text which fits perfectly with the nicen-constantinopolitan creed, and, on the other hand, his aim of protecting himself from accusations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000842982110448
Author(s):  
Balázs M Mezei

In this article I overview Paul Ricœur’s understanding of divine revelation on the basis of some of his relevant writings. I argue that Ricœur’s hermeneutics of revelation has two aspects: on the one hand Ricœur’s explains the complex ways of acquiring and interpreting divine revelation especially with respect to the Bible; on the other hand, he acknowledges that revelation, originating in God’s freedom, is immediately given. In Ricœur’s view, the understanding of this immediacy is tainted by the presence of evil in human understanding which hinders the realization of revelation itself. As a critique of this standpoint I argue that the immediate givenness of revelation is logically and phenomenologically presupposed in our interpretations. Any hermeneutics of revelation entails a phenomenology of revelation. This phenomenology contains both the self-founding of human beings and, at the same time, the recognition of the absoluteness of the divine. Husserl’s phenomenology offers a way to the understanding of the immediacy of revelation through his central term of Eigenheitlichkeit. Ricœur understands this term not as genuine reality but rather as appartenance, ‘belonging to’, and reshapes its meaning in line with a hermeneutical naturalism. This explains his difficulty to conceive properly the sovereignty of revelation and the importance of phenomenology in the understanding of its immediate character.


2021 ◽  

Is Plato’s philosophy still relevant for current issues in politics and political science? In order to answer this question, the contributions to this volume endeavour to re-read the Platonic dialogues and to interpret them in terms of textual hermeneutics on the one hand. On the other hand, they refer to Plato from a systematic point of view and apply his philosophy, in particular the method of Socratic dialogue, to discussions on contemporary political issues. The volume is dedicated to Barbara Zehnpfennig, whose works aim at making Socratic–Platonic philosophy fruitful for the present on the basis of a new interpretation of Plato’s philosophy. With contributions by Anke Adamik, Sarah Al-Taher, Viktoria Bachmann, Philip Breuer, Johanna Falk-Seifert, Bettina Fröhlich, Benjamin A. Hahn, Hendrik Hansen, Thomas Haslböck, Raul Heimann, Johannes Frank Hoerlin, Vanessa Jansche, Peter Kainz, Christina Kast, Eva-Maria Kaufmann, Ulrich Kühn, Laura Martena, Julian Obenauer, Victor Peneff und Thomas Wimmer.


Author(s):  
Charles Hefling

The “prelims” of the Book of Common Prayer include a number of tables, rules, schedules, and lists. All of these are necessary for specifying components of Divine Service that vary from day to day, most importantly the reading and recitation of passages from Christian scripture. The specification is significant in two ways, which this chapter will discuss. On the one hand, the various instructions situate Prayer Book worship in time, and more particularly within the annual sequence of holydays and seasons known as the ecclesiastical or liturgical year. On the other hand, they define the relation of the Book of Common Prayer to the still more sacred text of the Bible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 712-725
Author(s):  
Blaire A French

The call to read Chronicles ‘midrashically’ in Leviticus Rabbah 1.3 and Ruth Rabbah 2.1 challenges the contemporary understanding of intertextuality in the early Rabbis’ interpretation of Scripture. David Stern, James Kugel, and others claim that the sages considered each word of the Bible to be equal, regardless of who wrote it or when. The Rabbis’ insistence, however, that Chronicles receive special treatment contradicts this assertion. This article argues that Chronicles’ late date of composition had a dual effect. On the one hand, Chronicles’ lateness reduced its authority and led the Rabbis to give greater weight to the words of the Primary History in their intertextual readings. On the other hand, Chronicles’ retelling of the past provided a biblical warrant for the Rabbis’ own reshaping of tradition.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
AL Makin

AbstractBoth the Bible and the Qur¸ān contain anthropomorphic passages, and so a theological debate over their interpretation is very common in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the Qur¸ān, there are several anthropomorphic texts which describe God as having bodily features like those of human beings. For instance, God is said to have a face, eyes, feet, and hands. Various attempts were made to interpret such texts, either literally by accepting the corporcality of God or metaphorically by avoiding the implication of anthropomorphic texts. It is interesting how Ibn Hazm, who upheld Zāhirī theory (maintaining the literal meaning), tried to interpret Qur. 38:76, 5:67, 48:10 and 36:70 where reference is made to "the Hand of God." On the one hand, he felt he should maintain the literal meaning, according to which god is supposed to have hands. On the other hand, he declared himself to be a defender of tawhīd (the unity of God), which demanded that he reject all possibility of similarities between God and any of his creatures. This paper will focus on Ibn Hazm's argument by looking at his al-Fisal wa al-Milal wa al-Nihal.


Author(s):  
Anthony Ossa-Richardson

Like his other works, André Rivet’s magnum opus, the Exercitationes on Genesis (1633), was born from religious controversies. It aimed to uncover the one and only Reformed truth of the biblical message, against the multiplicity of Catholic traditions and textual ambiguities. Exploring the hermeneutical limits of what the Bible could teach, Rivet defended the homogeneity and perspicuity of the Bible, slyly relying on Catholic scholars such as Benito Arias Montano to assert the primacy of the Hebrew Bible and the integrity of its text. Catholic scholars, on the other hand, attempted to account for possible discrepancies in the Vulgate. Both sides deemed themselves holy, and both arrogated Providence to the legitimation of their church and their preferred text. This is to say that textual criticism was ultimately guided by theological and confessional considerations.


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Fuchs

AbstractThe proliferation of biblical feminist interpretations and readings in the last two decades suggests that we may witness the emergence of an autonomous field of studies. In this essay I suggest that in order for such a field to emerge as an autonomous and thriving area of academic inquiry we must begin to think theoretically and critically about the work that has been done, the objectives of this work and the relationships between and among various approaches to the field. In this essay I call for a rigorous and critical biblical feminist epistemology that seeks to address on every turn the question of knowledge production as power; on the other hand I call for a radical democratization of the field and the questioning of any and all orthodoxies and hierarchies that may have already emerged in the field. The first "centripetal" approach insists on clarifying the foundations of the field, establishing genealogies of knowledge and an evolutionary trajectory, crediting and acknowledging theoretical points of origination. Respect for precedence and antecedence is required so as to avoid repetition, imitation and dilution. The second "centrifugal" approach emphasizes the need for interrogating, displacing and destabilizing foundational paradigms in Biblical Studies at large and for the continued questioning of stable identities of "women" as subjects and objects of inquiry. A vigorous field of Feminist Biblical Studies ought to deploy both approaches opening the way to both debate and contestation between various feminist approaches to the Bible on the one hand and to dialogue and alliance between methodologically, theoretically, politically and culturally different approaches on the other.


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