scholarly journals Mysticism and/in the Old Testament: Methodological orientation and a textual example

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Lombaard
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mission History ◽  
The One ◽  
Interpretative Framework

This contribution is the second in a series on methodology and Biblical Spirituality. In the first article, ‘Biblical spirituality and interdisciplinarity: The discipline at cross-methodological intersection’, the matter was explored in relationship to the broader academic discipline of Spirituality. In this contribution, the focus is narrowed to the more specific aspect of mysticism within Spirituality Studies. It is not rare for Old Testament texts to be understood in relationship to mystical contexts. One the one hand, when Old Testament texts are interpreted from a mystical perspective, the methods with which such interpretations are studied are familiar. The same holds true, on the other hand, if texts in the Old Testament, dating from the Hellenistic period, are identified as mystic. However, African mission history has taught us that the Western interpretative framework, based on ancient Greek philosophical suppositions (most directly the concepts rendered by Plato and Aristotle) and rhetorical orientations, is so strong that it transposes that which it encounters in other cultures into its terms, thus rendering the initial cultural understandings inaccessible. This is precisely the case too with Old Testament texts dating from pre-Hellenistic times, identified as mystic. What are the methodological parameters required to understand such texts on their own terms? In fact, is such an understanding even possible?

scholarly journals Antropology of the Saint Apostle Paul

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Porfirije Peric
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

This paper analyzes and systematically examines the teaching of the Apostle Paul on man. In the first part of the study the influence of Jewish and ancient Greek anthropological teaching on the thought of the Apostle Paul is examined. The aim of this examination is to point out, on the one hand, that Paul?s teaching is primarily based on the Old Testament anthropology, while on the other hand, that it contains anthropological formulations which point to their Hellenistic origin. The second part deals with the most important anthropological terms: spirit (??????), soul (????), body (????/????), mind (????), and heart (??????). By the investigation of these terms and concepts behind them it is concluded that in the Pauline anthropological thought man is neither spirit, nor soul, nor body, but a complete being, a psychosomatic one, composed of both soul and body together.

scholarly journals Mytens tvang

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Albinus
Keyword(s):  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The purpose of the article is to show how the negative dialectics of Adorno gets involved with a concept of myth that is questionable in several respects. First of all, Adorno tries to combine, but rather conflates, two understandings of myth. On the one hand, the concept of myth is defined as the ancient Greek mythos, in which the subject of man is projected on to nature; on the other hand, myth is defined as the backfire of enlightenment, in which self-reflection becomes the blind spot of instrumental reason. Along these lines of argument, Adorno’s interpretation of Homer, which, at any rate, is highly inspiring, attempts to demonstrate that Odysseus is already enlightened in that he keeps the myth at bay in order to gain his self. The point is, as a matter of dialectic necessity, that he just ends up in myth once again, albeit in the second sense, namely by being a victim of his own self-denial. A question that seems to remain unanswered, though, is how the two kinds of myth are related. Further, Adorno draws on a problematic distinction between myth and literature in order to claim that Homer separates himself from the realm of myth. By adopting Adorno’s own game of interpretation, however, it is possible to regard myth as such, including the Homeric one, as being contingently open-ended rather than just a matter of dialectic determination.

scholarly journals Psalms and Liturgy: Their reception and contextualisation

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-332
Author(s):  
G.P. Braulik
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
The Other ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Lord's Prayer ◽  
Historical View ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Canonical Text ◽  
The One ◽  
Old Testament Studies

In the interpretation of texts in modern Old Testament studies, a double change in perspective, which has important consequences for the liturgical use of the Psalms, is currently taking place. In the first reorientation, the movement is “from the hypothetically reconstructed ‘original’ text to the text written down in bookform and then to the canonical text”; in the second, the attention moves “from the text to the recipient”. On the one hand, the whole Psalter and its connec-tions with the totality of Holy Scripture are thus increasingly becoming the focus of attention. On the other hand, reception aesthetical, reader-oriented exegesis is overcoming the cleft caused by a purely historical view, in favour of a situational perspective. The article delineates this change and applies especially the first approach to the Psalms. The Psalter then appears neither as a mere lectionary nor primarily as a prayer text, but as a text for meditation. Its technique of the juxtaposition of certain Psalms (iuxtapositio) and of the chainage or concatenation of keywords (concatenatio) opens up new and diverse dimensions of meaning.This is illustrated according to Psalm 103. Its connections to its immediate context are first explained, upon which a few lines of canonical intertextuality within the whole Bible are traced. We are thus lead to recognise a certain multi-perspectivity, reaching from the Sinai pericope to the Lord’s prayer.

scholarly journals Van wie zegt de profeet dit? Een een-voudige vraag en een meervoudig antwoord

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rein Bos
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Biblical Criticism ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
The One ◽  
Christian Congregations ◽  
Single Question

Of whom does the prophet say this? A single question and a multifaceted answerTheologians seeking to preach Old Testament texts meaningful way in Christian congregations face a great challenge. On the one hand, very little has been written in homiletical textbooks about hermeneutical problems facing those who wish to read the Old Testament from the perspective of Christ’s life and death. On the other hand, advances in biblical criticism seemed to have made any such attempt problematic to begin with. In this article, the author attempts to provide a practical-theological contribution to this hermeneutical challenge by reconsidering the heuristic value of mediaeval fourfold interpretation of scriptural passages. By focussing on the servant song of deutero-Isaiah (53) in light of its reinterpretation in Acts 8, this paper aims to provide some suggestions on how Christological interpretation of the Old Testament can be done in a way that takes the original context seriously and is able to read the text from a Christian perspective without the one reading infringing on the other.

scholarly journals Orygenes i hebrajski tekst Pisma Świętego

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 393-404
Author(s):  
Janusz Królikowski
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Hebrew Version ◽  
The One ◽  
Christian Writer ◽  
The Church

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.

scholarly journals Syn i ojciec w „Bojaźni i drżeniu” Sørena Kierkegaarda

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Marta Szabat
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Fear And Trembling ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
The One

This article concerns events of the Old Testament – Yahweh commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son – Isaac – on Mount Moriah. This passage from the Old Testament, from the Book of Genesis, became the basis of Søren Kierkegaard’s considerations in Fear and Trembling. In the text I refer to, on the one hand, Kierkegaard’s considerations, while on the other hand I try to identify other possible interpretive tropes that could be useful, for example, during classes on the subject of faith or the status of ethical dilemmas in the modern world.

Ancient Musical Writings as Persuasive Texts

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-284
Author(s):  
Massimo Raffa
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract This contribution is meant to shed light on how ancient Greek music theorists structure argumentations and address their readership in order to be understandable, effective and persuasive. On the one hand, some of the most important treatises, e.g. Ptolemy’s Harmonics (with Porphyry’s Commentary) and what remains of Archytas’ and Theophrastus’ works, are taken as case studies; on the other hand, the paper deals with some argumentative patterns recurring in harmonics demonstrations, especially with reference to the usage of everyday life experience as evidence supporting acoustic and harmonic theories.

‘Yahweh is a Man of Wars’

1969 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
P. C. Craigie
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human History ◽  
Modern Reader ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One

The declaration that ‘Yahweh is a Man of Wars’page 1 poses a problem for the modern reader of the Old Testament. The direct connexion between God and war seems to be alien to the spirit of the New Testament. And today, when the horrors of war are so constantly in the news, this epithet for God seems to be all the more abhorrent. The epithet was quoted at the beginning of an article in an earlier volume of this Journal, A. Gelston's ‘The Wars of Israel’.page 2 The problem becomes most acute in the question of the wars of conquest, for there we can trace two aspects of Yahweh's activity. On the one hand, Yahweh uses war as a means of judgment on the sinful Canaanitespage 3; on the other hand, He uses war as a means to an end, namely the fulfilment of the patriarchal and Covenant promises.page 4 Although Gelston mentions this double aspect of the wars of conquest (p. 326), his conclusions only satisfy the former of the two aspects (p. 331). Of his five summary points, two are applicable to this particular case. The first is that ‘when Yahweh is identified with Israel's cause, the motive is usually the execution of judgment on Yahweh's enemies’, and secondly he declares that ‘Yahweh alone is ultimately sovereign in human history, and his cause is always just’.

scholarly journals Can Senecan Theater of Passions Educate a Virtuous Person?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-257
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Sanzhenakov
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
The Other ◽  
Virtuous Person ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Dramatic Works ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Roman Tragedies ◽  
The One

The article is devoted to the consideration of the pedagogical content of Seneca’s tragedy. The article provides a solution for the problem, which is contained in the controversy – on the one hand, Seneca as other Stoics believes that the passions negatively affect the soul of human being, on the other hand, his tragedies portray plots overrun with passions involving murder, perfidy, betrayal and other crimes. The author suggests that this feature of the plot of dramatic works of Seneca cannot be explained by simple respect of the tradition, according to which the passion is the main driving force of both the ancient Greek and ancient Roman tragedies. The author shows that Seneca intentionally uses certain artistic techniques to achieve the pedagogical effect.

Greek Seers and Israelite-Jewish Prophets

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-482
Author(s):  
Armin Lange
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
The One

AbstractAncient Greek seers (manteis) and Ancient Near Eastern prophets have often been compared with each other. Although in rare cases Greek seers communicate a divine message to a wider audience and are thus comparable to Ancient Near Eastern prophets and Israelite-Jewish prophets in particular, Greek seers are distinctly different from Ancient Near Eastern prophets. In most cases Greek seers employ forms of deductive divination while the use of deductive divination is the exception with Israelite-Jewish prophets. If Greek seers use intuitive divination they do not rely on divine revelations but have special ability to perceive more than normal human beings. Although Ancient Near Eastern prophets and Greek manteis do thus not equate, the comparison of the two sheds better light on the characteristics of both. On the one hand, the Ancient Near Eastern understanding of the prophet emphasizes heavily his reliance on divine revelation. This is especially true for Israelite and Jewish prophets. On the other hand, the Greek mantis acts mostly as a diviner in his own right. His special insights and knowledge go back to his abilities.

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