Ad fontes

In the years leading up to his work on Paul, Jerome had become hardened in the conviction that biblical scholars should possess a mastery of the biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek, so that they can read Scripture in its original form. During his stay in Rome between 382 and 385, he had experimented with this back-to-the-sources approach in a number of shorter exegetical set pieces, but it was not until he embarked on his opus Paulinum that he was able finally to apply it systematically in the context of commentaries on whole biblical books. This chapter explores, through detailed case studies, how he develops his ad fontes methodology in the four Pauline commentaries and cumulatively builds the case for Hebrew and Greek philology being absolutely vital to serious study of the Bible, all the while attempting to demonstrate by example that he is the model biblical scholar.

African and Rwandan Translations of the Bible

The article offers a concise presentation of the project linked to the Library Fund of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, namely, to study the inculturation of the Christian faith by relating the documentation on the editions of the Bible to the catechisms in the territories entrusted to the pastoral care of the Congregation for Evangelization of peoples. The vastness of the project itself is marked today by the difficulty of using more extensive documentation than that present in the Fund of the same Library. However, more limited segments of the indicated material of interest can already be identified. More specifically, the African continent shows quite a varied phenomenology of the editions of the Bible: from translations of the Latin Vulgate into local languages, to translations from English or French, themselves translations from Latin. In the post-conciliar period, the translations of the Bible from the original biblical languages emerge. This is the case of the Kinyarwanda versions of the NT (1988, 1989) and of the OT-NT in a single volume (1990, 1992), in which, alongside pastoral purposes, the results of modern biblical exegesis are evident, to the point of proposing categorizations of literary bodies of biblical literature from an interconfessional and also interreligious perspective.

Christian physicalism and the biblical argument for dualism

This paper examines whether biblical descriptions of the intermediate state imply dualism of the sort that rules out physicalism. Certain passages in the Bible seem to describe persons or souls existing without their bodies in an intermediate state between death and resurrection. For this reason, these passages appear to imply a form of dualism. Some Christian physicalists have countered that the passages in question are in fact compatible with physicalism. For it is compatible with physicalism that, although we are necessarily constituted by physical bodies, we can continue to exist without our current bodies in the intermediate state by being constituted by replacement bodies. I argue that broadly Gricean considerations significantly weaken this response. In its place, I propose a new, linguistic objection to the biblical argument for dualism. The linguistic objection says that biblical descriptions of an intermediate state cannot imply dualism in the sense that contradicts physicalism because physicalism is defined by a concept of the physical derived from modern physics, and no term in the biblical languages expresses that concept. I argue that the linguistic objection is less vulnerable to Gricean considerations than the constitution objection. On the other hand the linguistic objection also makes concessions to dualism that some Christian physicalists will find unacceptable. And it may be possible to reinforce the biblical argument for dualism by appeal to recent research on ‘common-sense dualism’. The upshot for Christian physicalists who wish to remain open to the biblical case for an intermediate state is therefore partly good, partly bad. The prospects for a Biblical argument for dualism in the sense that contradicts physicalism are limited but remain open.

Szymon Budny’s linguistic awareness in the light of his writings and translations

The article discusses the relationship between language awareness and national awareness of Szymon Budny. The analysis of Budny’s language awareness leads to conclusions which, according to some researchers, can be treated as arguments in studies on his nationality option. The problem of national awareness is discussed in relation to Budny’s only surviving work in Old Ruthenian, i.e. Katechizm nieświeski (Niasvizh Catechism). This work praises the Old Ruthenian language, yet this does not ultimately prejudge Budny’s attitude to nationality issues. The issue of Budny’s linguistic awareness can be looked at against a broader background in relation to Old Ruthenian, Polish and biblical languages. This article discusses this issue by referring to various definitions of linguistic awareness. The analysis allows us to conclude that in the case of Szymon Budny, we can talk about a developed linguistic awareness, both in normative and cultural, and anthropological terms.

Classical Languages in Chinese Biblical Studies

Following the arrival of Christian missionaries in China, classical European languages also entered China. Whereas Chinese Catholic candidates for priesthood received Latin theological education since the seventeenth century, systematic teaching and learning of the biblical languages Greek and Hebrew only started in the early twentieth century. This essay gives an outline of the spread of classical languages in China, related missionary efforts, educational institutions, Chinese Bible translations, and early Chinese Latinists, some of them trained overseas. The last section considers developments of the twentieth century and the present state of the study of biblical languages in China.

What Languages are in Names? Exploring the Languages in Church Names in Ghana

Several studies over the years have employed the rhetorical question "What is in a name?" to uncover the semantic-pragmatic imports of names. This paper examines church names (ecclesionyms) which constitute part of the religio-onomastic landscape of Ghana to discover the various languages embedded in them. To achieve this task, we gathered names of churches from ‘online’ (websites of associations of Christian churches) and ‘offline’ sources (posters, signages and billboards). We manually searched the data and identified all languages embedded in the church names. Guided by Akoto’s (2018) global-local model of language choice, the analysis showed that churches in Ghana generally adopt three global languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), a glocal language (English) and three local languages (Akan, Ewe and Ga). It is argued that the status of the global, glocal and local languages as canonical/biblical languages, an ‘ethnically neutral’ language and ‘Ghanaian majority’ languages respectively enable the churches to foreground their uniqueness. Implications for language planning in religion are discussed. Keywords: church names, ecclesionym, glocal language, identity, language choice

Paradigm of passive constructions in the Ukrainian translation of the Bible by Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko)

This paper investigates how passive constructions are used in Filaret’s translation of the Bible from Standard Russian (Russian Synod’s translation, 2002) into Ukrainian, not from biblical languages, e.g., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. It specifically argues the nuclear position of the Ukrainian passive constructions paradigm formed by passive constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyi, circumnuclear position of constructions with predicative forms in -no, -to, and peripheral position of constructions with passive verbs in -sia. Ranking of passive constructions with predicative participles over constructions with forms in -no, -to neutralizes syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian, i.e., a focus on predicativity in finite verb forms and forms in -no, -to. The peripheral status of passive verbs in -sia shows a positive tendency for Filaret’s translation of the Holy Writ to distance from the Russian translation succeeded to passive constructions with predicative participles from Old Church Slavonic. The Ukrainian translation is often marked by active constructions (a mononuclear or two-member sentence) which are the authentical feature of the Ukrainian syntax. Simultaneous synonymous usage of active and passive constructions, particularly in the same environments, however, is largely triggered by a lack of distinction between syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian and Russian, and, therefore, provides a syntactical variety. In the Ukrainian translation, usage of active constructions and different types of passive forms almost always intersects with the Russian Synod’s version. Keywords: Ukrainian translation of the Bible, paradigm of passive constructions, constructions with predicative forms in -no, -tо, constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyj, sentences with passive verbs in -sia.

Serious games in theology

In South Africa, the implementation of serious games and gamification (collectively referred to as gaming) in the design of curricula, being presented in schools and institutions of higher education, is mostly a novelty. As we are (should be) in a transitional phase with education, especially on two levels, namely, with the decolonisation of education and preparing education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it would be fitting and high time to fully implement gaming into the curricula. This article takes a look at the implementation of a serious game on an undergraduate level at a residential university. It focuses in a pragmatic way on applying the serious game on biblical languages – Greek, Hebrew and Latin – proposing that they should be presented to the student as paper behind the glass.