Paul’s Zeal

10.53521/a268 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Steven Voorwinde

The concept of zeal is a complex one in Scripture. It is often linked in the Old Testament to physical violence against those who opposed God and his covenant with Israel. This is the kind of zeal demonstrated by Saul the Pharisee in his persecution of the infant church. The zeal of Paul the apostle, on the other hand, had been transformed by the cruciform zeal of Christ. An appreciation of this transformation sheds new light on some exegetical cruxes in Paul’s writings. It also highlights key differences between the old and new covenants and between proper and misplaced religious zeal.


Author(s):  
Christo Lombaard

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?



2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-332
Author(s):  
G.P. Braulik

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.



2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rein Bos

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.



1984 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-160
Author(s):  
Günter Reim

B. A. Mastin, in his article ‘A neglected feature of the christology of the Fourth Gospel’, points out ‘that in the construction of the Fourth Gospel prominence is given to the designation of Jesus as θεός. The Fourth Gospel appears to use the term θεός deliberately of Jesus; in “Paul”, on the other hand, the usage is much more casual, as indeed is the case in the rest of the New Testament, with the possible exception of Heb.i.8f'. Mastin demonstrates that Jn. 1. 1, 18 and 20. 28 speak of Jesus as God. ‘These three verses are placed at strategic points in the gospel, and this underlines the significance of what they say.’ Finally, Mastin states: ‘… it is reasonable to claim that the Evangelist thought it was important that the title θεός should be given to Jesus. It is probable that this feature of his christology is due to controversy with the Jews, and that as a result of this he formulated his estimate of Christ's person in this way.’ I fully agree with these results. The aim of my article is to show the scriptural background for this controversy.



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 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Marta Szabat

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.



2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Elisamark Sitopu

Abstract[Title: Understanding Jeremiah’s Prophecy and His Book] Jeremiah is a prophet in the Old Testament, whose book is thick with a maximum biography. To understand the message of the prophet of Jeremiah, the readers must recognize two important things. First, the prophet Jeremiah himself, and the second,the book of Jeremiah. On one hand, there are frictions between Old Testament scholars about the historicity of Jeremiah's own figure. Is the figure of Jeremiah real or not real? On the other hand, there are many problems regarding the book of Jeremiah, related to the author of the book of Jeremiah. Who was the author of this book?Was it Jeremiah himself, or his secretary Barukh,orsomeone else, or later editors?Other problems related to the text about large differences in Jeremiah's text in the Hebrew and Greek versions of the Bible are very striking. In this study the author intends to provide an alternative solution to the complexity of Jeremiah's figure and his book.Keywords: Prophet Jeremiah, Book of Jeremiah



Author(s):  
Daria Morozova

The Jewish community of Antioch was not monolithic. Communities of different currents tended to gather separately. Apparently, some of them, having received the news of the coming of the Messiah from the apostles, became the first centers of Christianity in Antioch, providing the basis for the future theological school. Such Semitic features of Antiochian patristics as literalism, historicism, and a kind of mystical materialism provoked criticism from other schools. On the other hand, Aramaic-speaking Christians could rightly call the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible "our Scriptures." As heirs to Old Testament prophets and legislators, Syrian apologists addressed the "Greeks" in a paternal tone. Theophilus of Antioch and Theodore of Mopsuestia even show a direct dependence on the rabbinic tradition of interpretation.



1969 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
P. C. Craigie

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’.



Al-Ulum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 474
Author(s):  
Ulya Ulya

This article aims to show the rise of violence in society. One of its causes is the power of religious discourse. The issue departs from the moslems who do their religious teaching always refer to the texts of religious discourse. While the texts that they refer, from one to others, are different.It is no problem if the texts that they refer are used as a basis to improve the quality of their religiousity in the private life. On the other hand, if it is also to judge or classify others who disagree in the public, it is very dangerous. Because it is aware or not, it will discriminate and dominate others by using the basis of religious discourse. Discrimination and domination by using religious discourse are called symbolic violence. And actually, this symbolic violence bocomes the root of emergence of physical violence



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