Practical Leadership: Learning from Great Rulers in History

This paper examines the applied principles and leadership styles of great ancient men in the light of the Bible as the Word of God. Practically speaking, scholarly literature in leadership and management lacked attention to the study of biblical figures as leaders. The author utilised secondary analysis of qualitative information from documented life stories of renowned leaders in human history. This paper utilizes qualitative content analysis to evaluate patterns of popular ancient leaders' styles in leading their subjects. With content analysis, the author is obliged to read and re-read the text, specifically the Bible, as the main source of data and focus on the specific timeline of the ancient world. The scope and limitation of this paper cover only the discussion on the prominent historical people, specifically Biblical characters, and does not include the current leaders of our time. This paper hopes to bring back the basics on leading people worth emulating by modern-day leaders. It explores the successes and failures of these ancient leaders that shaped history and even world cultures. It also aims to promote a blueprint that was already utilised by leaders in the ancient world regarding leading constituents and subjects. The scope and limitation of this study enfold the discussion on the prominent historical people and does not include the current leaders of our modern time.

Tears in Heaven: Tracing the Contours of a Pan-European Transconfessional Genre

This article explores the genesis, proliferation, and readership of an understudied genre of religious poetry in early modern Europe. The weeping poem—a devotional literary genre combining elements of epic narrative and Petrarchan lyric that focused specifically on the religious grief of biblical figures—swept across Europe in the forty years around the turn of the seventeenth century. Although this genre was instigated by the Italian Luigi Tansillo’s 1560 Le Lagrime di San Pietro and has often been read as exhibiting a distinctively Counter-Reformation spirituality, our survey of weeping poems uncovers the surprising reach of this genre across multiple languages and even into Protestant England. The range and popularity of this specific kind of weeping poetry across early modern national, linguistic, and confessional lines shows how this constellation of texts transmitted a new form of devotional affect founded on imaginative identification with weeping biblical narrators. In other words, these poems demonstrate how interiority, rather than factional political or theological difference, could be the basis for new emotional communities of worship. Moreover, the relative obscurity of this genre to scholars prompts new questions around the viability of continuing to explore early modern European literary traditions from the perspective of nationalist/linguistic/confessional frameworks.

Practical Leadership: Learning from Great Rulers in Histor

This paper examines the applied principles and leadership styles of great ancient men in the light of the Bible as the Word of God. Practically speaking, scholarly literature in leadership and management lacked attention to studying biblical figures as leaders. The author utilized secondary analysis of qualitative information from documented life stories of renowned leaders in human history. This paper uses qualitative content analysis to evaluate patterns of famous ancient leaders' styles in leading their subjects. With content analysis, the author is obliged to read and re-read the text, specifically the Bible as the main source of data and focusing on the specific timeline of the ancient world. The scope and limitation of this paper cover only the discussion on the prominent historical people, specifically Biblical characters and does not include the current leaders of our time. This paper hopes to bring back the basics on leading people worth emulating by modern-day leaders. It explores the successes and failures of these ancient leaders that shaped history and even world cultures.

Like Two Fountains

Chapter 1 focuses on the aging body, and particularly on aspects of gender and sexuality of the aging body. Following a discussion of ancient medical theories regarding aging processes and their echoes in rabbinic texts, the chapter analyzes two rabbinic accounts regarding biblical figures whose bodies managed to defy the laws of aging. The first part of the chapter analyses the narrative of Abraham and Sarah’s return to their youth (BT Baba Metzi‘a 87a) and the vicissitudes through which their bodies went before and after the birth of Isaac, whereas the second part examines one story about King David’s sexuality in his old age (BT Sanhedrin 22a). The chapter argues that through the use of semi-mythical figures, the rabbis reveal both their desire to undo the processes of aging and their profound conviction that aging must ultimately be accepted.

Interaction between image and text during the process of biblical art reception

In our exploratory study, we ask how naive observers, without a distinct religious background, approach biblical art that combines image and text. For this purpose, we choose the book ‘New biblical figures of the Old and New Testament’ published in 1569 as source of the stimuli. This book belongs to the genre of illustrated Bibles, which were very popular during the Reformation. Since there is no empirical knowledge regarding the interaction between image and text during the process of such biblical art reception, we selected four relevant images from the book and measured the eye movements of participants in order to characterize and quantify their scanning behavior related to such stimuli in terms of i) looking at text (text usage), ii) text vs. image interaction measures (semantic or contextual relevance of text), and iii) narration. We show that texts capture attention early in the process of inspection and that text and image interact. Moreover, semantics of texts are used to guide eye movements later through the image, supporting the formation of the narrative.

Moses and a Prophet Like Moses in Deuteronomy

This chapter critically examines the literary figure of Moses in Deuteronomy, particularly the book’s directive that Mosaic prophecy have an ongoing place in Israel (18:15–22). It begins by examining Moses as Deuteronomy’s distinctive persona, YHWH’s covenant mediator able to present a veritable divine voice to the reader. It then turns to Deuteronomy’s vision of leadership in an ideal Israel, including official prophetic leadership. Deuteronomy promises a Mosaic prophet for each new generation, a prophet who will stand among YHWH’s heavenly confidants and directly hear YWHW’s will for communication to Israel. It surveys the employment of the Mosaic paradigm in the Tetrateuch (Gen, Exod, Lev, Num), in the Former Prophets (Josh, Judg, 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kgs) or Deuteronomistic History (Deut, Josh, Judg, 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kgs), and in the Latter Prophets (Isa, Jer, Ezek, Hos, Joel, Amos, Obad, Jonah, Mic, Nah, Hab, Zeph, Hag, Zech, and Mal). Biblical figures of special interest include Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Huldah, Jeremiah, and Malachi. Taken together, the evidence examined shows that the core elements of Mosaic prophecy predate Deuteronomy and are amply attested in the pre-exilic prophets, mostly in those prophets oriented on the Sinai covenant.

The Wisdom of Solomon

The Wisdom of Solomon combines Greek philosophical traditions with biblical exegesis to portray the eschatological fate of humans. To develop his argument, the author draws upon earlier texts in both a creative and a critical way, and integrates them, inconsistently, with Platonic philosophical themes. Imagery of and associations with the figure of Solomon from 1 Kings and Proverbs unite the sections of the book, but the biblical figure remains unnamed since the characteristics of all biblical figures are universalized. The author of Wisdom clearly used the Greek versions of such Hebrew works as Proverbs, 1 Kings, and Sirach, but also shows apparent familiarity with terms and themes from Hebrew works among the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially 4QInstruction. This would suggest some intermediary Greek version or a ready transfer of ideas between Hebrew and Greek Jewish writings. The philosophical material and social context place the work in late first century bce.