The Spirit in Ezekiel

In the movement from Judah to Babylon during the exile and from judgment to hope throughout the book of Ezekiel, the Spirit of Yahweh participates in divine actions, prophetic speech, revelatory and visionary experiences, and future restoration—revealing the Spirit as the purifying, personal, and permanent presence of Yahweh among his people. First, the Spirit reveals the glory of Yahweh and then separates his glory from the sinfulness of Israel and Judah, indicating the purifying holiness of Yahweh’s presence and ensuing fire of divine judgment. Second, the Spirit’s connection to divine actions and divine anthropomorphisms demonstrates the personal presence of Yahweh in relational and restorative pursuit of his covenant people. Third, Yahweh promises to resurrect, reunify, and restore Israel and Judah by the implantation of his Spirit into their hearts and by the outpouring of his Spirit upon them, so that his presence will dwell among them permanently.

Chastity

This chapter analyzes the Scriptures in several hymns prescribed for Holy Monday, whose central theme is chastity as exemplified by the Joseph story (Gen 37–50). Aspects of Joseph’s story (i.e., being sold by his brothers, refusing the lures of Potiphar’s wife and enduring imprisonment, his ascension to power) are fused together in this day’s hymns. By enduring trials and resisting temptations, Joseph is a type of Christ whose integrity remained undefiled by temptations and trials. Jacob lamenting the loss of his son was portrayed by hymnographers as a type of God lamenting his crucified son. “Trials and scourges” referring to divine judgment of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (2 Macc 7:37) was transferred by hymnographers to Christ’s Passion. The Holy Week’s ubiquitous motif of the “Midnight Bridegroom” (Matt 25:1–13) interconnects with the chastity theme, pointing to watchfulness (i.e., awaiting the coming [Parousia] of Jesus the Bridegroom) as a prerequisite of chastity.

Theories of Prophecy in Jeremiah

In turning prophecy into a form of literature, the authors of ancient Israelite prophetic books repeatedly addressed the nature of prophecy itself. This preoccupation suggests that the phenomenon of prophecy was by no means a simple and known concept to the authors of this literature, but rather one in need of discursive construction. The authors of Jeremiah explored theories of prophecy from a variety of perspectives. While all the Jeremiah traditions assume a basic definition of prophecy as the mediation of a divine message through an intermediary, they also move beyond this conception in a number of ways. Though prophetic literature ostensibly presents disembodied prophecy, the authors of Jeremiah frequently direct their attention to the essentially embodied nature of prophecy. The prophet’s bodily experience, for these authors, cannot be separated from his capacity to transmit the divine message. Other parts of the Jeremiah tradition negotiate a history of prophecy in relation to Moses and Deuteronomy. For these texts, prophecy has to be understood as an unfolding history that begins but does not end with Deuteronomy. Finally, a distinct thread of tradition imagines Jeremiah’s words as carrying an almost magical efficacy. Rather than merely transmitting a message, Jeremiah’s speech has the effect of bringing about the divine judgment on Judah. In each case, the ancient authors navigate the innovative contours of prophetic literature by actively exploring the potencies of prophecy.

The Concepts of Yahweh in the Hymnic Doxologies of Amos 4:13, 5:8–9, and 9:5–6

This article is concerned with the image of Yahweh as portrayed in Amos 4:13, 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. It argues that Yahweh is portrayed as Creator, Lord of creation, all-powerful, all-knowing, transcendent, and immanent and emphasizes his unique creative skills in bringing into being all natural existence in complete independence. It also demonstrates Yahweh's sovereign freedom in controlling the cosmos and indicates that all in the universe is dependent upon him and is subject to his authority. For not only has he created all that there is, he continues to renew and sustain the entire creation. For the author, then, Yahweh owns the cosmos and has the power to rule all creation by summoning, sustaining, governing, and using the forces of nature for his purposes. This sets him over the nations and creation as Lord and gives him the right to claim the worship of all people, as he confers on all creation his own protection. This also becomes an appropriate foundation for understanding the message of divine judgment against the nations in Amos 1:3–2:16.

Fear Appeals, Crisis and the Apocalypse of John: Analyzing an Apocalyptic Coping Strategy with the Extended Parallel Process Model

This article will present and heuristically utilize the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) to analyze fear appeals in the Apocalypse of John. John sought to increase the fear of God in his hearers as a means to cope with other pressing fears and motivate faithful obedience (in line with his vision of what that entails). John rhetorically utilized fear appeals to reshape his hearers’ perceptions of danger and efficacy. He sought to increase fear of one object (God) and the inescapable crisis of divine judgment in order to decrease fear of other crises (death, disease, natural disasters, war, oppressive government, poverty, low social status).

Introducing Eschatology in the African Context Vol. I

The main purpose of Introducing Eschatology in the African Context (consisting of two volumes) is to offer contemporary Christians a balanced biblical and theological view of Christian Eschatology from an African perspective, to empower believers to be faithful to Christ at all times (even in their trials and sufferings). It is also to call the attention of unbelievers to the divine judgment that awaits them so that they may be encouraged to respond to the call to repent and be saved. Each chapter is organised into various sub-themes with summaries and conclusions at the end. There are questions at the end of each chapter to offer the reader the opportunity to have a deeper reflection on major issues discussed. Universities, Seminaries and Bible Schools can use this book for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Eschatology. The approach used makes the book relevant for scholars as well as non-scholars who desire to know God’s plan for the future of the universe and relate it to their context.

The Down Payment of Righteousness

This chapter studies a letter or set of letters written some fifty to seventy-five years after Paul, partially preserved in Greek, Latin, and Syriac: Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians (Pol. Phil.). The letter's seemingly disjointed themes — from its emphasis on the Philippian community as recipients of Pauline correspondence to its focus on quoting the Pastoral Epistles in condemning philarguria (love of money) to its intense interest in right belief and practice to its stark imagery of divine judgment — make sense when taken in a broader theo-economic context. The chapter focuses especially on Pol. Phil. 8.1–2, in which Polycarp introduces the idea that Christ is the “down payment for our righteousness.” Polycarp understands both the use of money and following proper teaching within a juridical theo-economic context in which Christ has spent blood in suffering as a down payment for humanity's future judgment and that both right belief and right action are required in order to avoid being held liable for that down payment. This text expands the economy of suffering that one finds in Paul's letter, where Christ and suffering are commodified.

Ten Commandments for Reading the Bible

This chapter provides some advice for how to approach the Bible. It first discusses some general dos and don'ts of biblical literacy before providing ten commandments on how to read or use the Bible. First, is to recognize that the Bible does not equate to God and to beware of making the Bible itself an object of worship. The chapter urges readers to be mindful of the Bible's translations and its logical gaps and not to dismiss the wisdom and knowledge of previous Bible scholars. It argues that the Bible should not be used to harm others or to presume to issue divine judgment on others. And it warns against carelessly and simplistically interpreting the Bible, or taking biblical texts out of context. The final commandment is to take the Bible seriously without being blind to its more uncomfortable and unsavory aspects.

Conceiving of the End of the World: Christian Doctrine and Nahua Perspectives in the Sermonary of Juan Bautista Viseo

This article considers questions of authorship in Juan Bautista Viseo’s “Second Sermon for Advent” about “frightful, and terrible signs” of Judgment Day. Although Bautista acknowledges important contributions by Nahua scholars in the production of his Nahuatl-language sermonary, he does not plainly recognize them as coauthors. However, the text itself registers indigenous perspectives. This sermon describes several natural phenomena, such as eclipses, comets, floods, windstorms, and earthquakes, as signs of the Apocalypse. For Nahuas, these phenomena similarly foretold disaster or correlated to storied calamities of ages past. Therefore, the sermon refutes ancestral teachings on celestial signs and age-ending cataclysms, distinguishing so-called lies from doctrinal truth. Yet other passages take a heterodox step in the opposite direction, reinforcing connections between Christian and native thought on world time and portents of doom, or citing figurative “signs” of ancestral tradition that speak to the theme of divine judgment. Such passages, this article demonstrates, suggest Nahua co-authorship.

A Prophetic Judgement without Reprieve: The Concepts of Remnant and Law in Amos 3:12

Overt statements regarding a remnant are strikingly absent in the book of Amos, leading many scholars to find sentiments therein that might lend credence to Amos’ vision for an Israel that survives judgment. In this paper, I analyze the manner in which Amos 3:12 has functioned in this endeavor to find a remnant of Israel in the book. I argue that no such remnant is in view in Amos 3:12 specifically, nor in the book generally. I examine the rhetorical context of Amos 3:12, as well as the syntactical properties of the verse, which help to underscore the role of divine judgment. I place the verse in the setting of ancient Near Eastern legal culture to show how Amos 3:12 functions in terms of Israelite guilt and punishment relative to divine innocence. Finally, I explore how the reading herein is consistent with the rest of the book of Amos.