<p>Motivated by the fact that many modem readers consider the story in Judge 19 to be a disturbing one. this thesis answers the question: How was the unnamed concubine portrayed in antiquity? Translations, retelling, and rabbinic discussions of Judge 19 that date from the Common Era to the end of the Classical Rabbinic Age are considered. This material includes the Masoretic text, versions of the Septuagint, Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, and rabbinic literature of the Tosefta and Babylonian Talmud. These texts are examined and compared to one another, paying close attention to the points of the Judge 19 story that are interpreted, as well as the possible reasons for interpretation. The "going out" of the concubine in Judge 19:2, the ambiguity surrounding her death (19:28), and the negative portrayal of the Levite are common points of interpretation. Many interpretations betray a concern for the portrayal of the Levite. Others, in particular the rabbinic literature, seem focused on the character of the concubine and her place in the story. By noting "exegetical motifs" that are common amongst the interpretations it is possible to realize some continuity in the way that Judge 19 was interpreted in early Jewish literature.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>In the Gospel of John (4:1-42), a story is told ofa Samaritan woman who goes to a well to draw water. While she is there, she encounters Jesus. They converse about living water and true worship. This encounter so impresses the woman that she returns to the Samaritan city of Sychar and tells the people about him. In response, the Samaritans come to meet Jesus, invite him to stay, and, after two days, declare him to be the "savior of the world."</p> <p>Legitimated by a comparison between Wisdom motifs and the Johannine presentation of Jesus, this narrative is interpreted against the background of the Wisdom tradition of early Judaism. The Samaritan Woman follows the paradigm of the Strange Woman found in Proverbs 2:16-19, 5:1-23, 6:23-35 and 7:5-27. Like the Strange Woman, the Samaritan Woman is depicted as an adulteress, as a foreign woman and as a foolish woman. Moreover, the Strange Woman is constructed as the polar opposite of Lady Wisdom and the Samaritan Woman is constructed as the opposite of Jesus: she is female, he is male~ she is a Samaritan, he is a Jew; she does not know, he does know. In this way, both the Strange Woman and the Samaritan Woman symbolize alterity.</p> <p>The narrative genre of the gospels, however, allows development of character to take place - a movement which is not possible within the didactic genre of Proverbs. Within the symbolic layer of the Johannine community, she is no longer an adulteress, but she finds her "legitimate husband" in Jesus. No longer a foreign woman, she is given the possibility of rebirth "from above." No longer ignorant, she brings others to belief through her word. The symbols of alterity are thus reconfigured in the new community.</p> <p>The emphasis on the symbolic representation of this character undermines the recent historical-critical arguments which claim that the Samaritan Woman narrative is based on the story of a historical person.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

The thesis traces the history of the interpretation of the Song of the Valiant Woman, the concluding pericope of the book of Proverbs, from the earliest records to 1600 A.D. It is shown that, for the first fifteen centuries of that history, there is a remarkable parallelism between the Jewish and the Christian traditions of interpretation, even though there was little interaction between them. Each began with a ' literal interpretation of the Song, taking the Valiant Woman to represent a God-fearing Israelite woman, continued with a variety of allegorical readings, and ended in the Middle Ages with a standard allegorical interpretation: the Valiant Woman representing the Torah among the Jews, and the Church among the Christians. From the time of the Talmud and the early Christian church fathers, the interpretation of the Song was overwhelmingly allegorical. This allegorical consensus was broken by the sixteenth-century Reformation in Europe, when Protestant interpreters unanimously returned to a literal interpretation of the Song. The beginning of this new hermeneutical approach can be pinpointed with some accuracy: it arose in Wittenberg in the 1520's, probably initiated by Philip Melanchthon, but soon taken over by his colleague Martin Luther. All Protestant expositors of the sixteenth century, both popular and academic, followed their lead.</p> <p>It is shown that the history of interpretation of this single pericope reflects the broader periods and movements of biblical hermeneutics. The tradition of allegorical interpretation reflects the influence of the Alexandrians Philo and Origen, the persistence of allegory in the Latin West reflects both a Scholastic respect for tradition and a sophisticated definition of the nhistorical n sense, and the Protestant return to a literal reading reflects both the hermeneutical rejection of allegory and Luther's doctrine of Beruf or "calling" applied to the Valiant Woman. Along the way, many unnoticed details of textual history, exegesis, translation, lexicography and intellectual filiation are brought to the fore. / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This dissertation locates the central place religion plays in the thought of Northrop Frye. It is argued that Frye's interpretation of William Blake forms the locus for his entire critical enterprise. Not only is Frye's literary theory based on the foundation he first encountered in Blake's thought, as is commonly accepted, but here it is argued that Frye's essentially religious perception of reality also has its origins in Blake. A critical study of the manner in which Frye gives further expression and nuance to this religious vision forms the basis of this study. This dissertation will be of value to those interested in all aspects of Northrop Frye's critical theories, as well as those interested in philosophical theology as it pertains religious epistemology and ontology, and the role the imagination plays in perception.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>"Jesus wept" (John 11 :35) is the shortest verse in the Bible, yet it reveals much about the human and divine natures of Jesus. The tears of Jesus have usually been understood by commentators as an expression of anger or proof of his human nature, but rarely as genuine grief at the death of a beloved friend although Jesus' behaviour is consistent with expressions of grief in the Old Testament and New Testament examples, Homeric Greek culture, and contemporary psychological insights into grieving. However, the Platonic and Socratic ideals of masculine control of emotions, which continue to influence western culture, make it difficult to think of Jesus as weeping.</p> <p>In John's Gospel, Jesus is described as God in the flesh. Rarely has his weeping been thought to reveal anything about God despite the fact that God is said to mourn and grieve in the Old Testament, especially in the prophets and Jeremiah with whom Jesus the Prophet is often connected. The degradation of anthropomorphic language, and Greek ideas about the ideal passionless God have lead to an apathy axiom in theology and christology which is preserved in the doctrine of the two natures of Christ and the Creed of Chalcedon. A christology which is based on who Jesus is, rather than what divinity is, can allow Jesus to be included in the identity of God and God to be revealed in the tears of Jesus. The weeping of Jesus reveals the empathic love of God and requires an empathy axiom as the basis for theology. The empathy axiom can be seen in the thought of Jung Young Lee, Kazo Kitamori, and Jiirgen Moltmann. The weeping of Jesus challenges the impassibility of God.</p> / Master of Theology (Th.M)

<p>This thesis is an attempt to discover something of the theology and chrlstology of the author of the Apocalypse through a study of his characterizations of God and Jesus. The methodology of Narrative Criticism is used, particularly with respect to the literary techniques of characterization. Once established these are applied to carefully selected pericopes throughout the text.</p> <p>The titles he ascribes to them are the first topic for analysis, for, clearly, they convey a great deal about their perceived characters and statuses. The author describes thelr respective appearances in his visions--not in a matter-of-fact way, but using symbols drawn mostly from the Hebrew Bible, which would have been familiar and full of meaning for his readers/listeners.</p> <p>The question must be asked, is it appropriate to apply narrative criticism to something as ethereal as a series of 'visions', which may be either genuine and historical, or literary fictions such as are typical of many Jewish apocalypses? Whether or not the visions are 'genuine' is largely immaterial, since the seer of Patmos embedded them in a narrative framework, which legitimates the use of this methodology.</p> <p>Other writers on this topic may have chosen different pericopes as being more illustrative of the characters of God and Jesus, but those which I have selected, I believe, together create the clearest portraits of the two divine Dramatis Personae in 'John's' Revelation. It has been my concern that the author's own conceptions of the characters of God and Christ should emerge from this study--and t hey have done so--c ast, apparently, in the mold of the powerful Shepherd/Kings who, for almost three millennia, terrorized the peoples of the Ancient Near Eastern world</p> <p>Biblical quotations are from the NSRV except where otherwise specified.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Theological Studies (MTS)

<p>To determine the importance and function of the concept of grace in the letters of Paul, this study examines texts, as they occur throughout the undisputed Pauline letters, which have to do with the apostle's beliefs concerning dependence on God at the time of entrance into the Christian community and texts which relate to dependence on God throughout the life of the believer. Although the study does not focus exclusively on the issue of the law in relation to the church, it points toward answers to questions about Paul's views of the role of grace in relation to the Jewish Law.</p> <p>The picture that emerges is that grace is a theme of vital importance for Paul, not simply because it is a useful part of his arsenal in the battle against what he perceives to be a wrong-headed reliance on "works of the law." For Paul, salvation cannot be contingent on any human activity; it must, rather, be a gift.</p> <p>Paul believes di vine grace to be a fundamental component of the matrix of the believer's life, past, present and future. The study concludes that the "justification" texts fall into a pattern widely evident in the Pauline corpus. Paul's views on grace may be shaped by polemical concerns, but his beliefs about grace also shape the polemical texts, causing him to reject "works" of any kind as leading to divine action which benefits humanity. Faith and obedience are the believer's response (made possible by God) to God's offer of salvation and to divine resources which make possible compliance with the ethical demands of the gospel.</p> <p>In Paul's thought the divine and human do not play equal roles. Paul intends his paraenetic texts to be taken seriously, but demonstrates that he believes that human achievements and effort find their origin in the divine realm. Paul is not a theological fatalist: people can frustrate the work of the Spirit, but when they allow themselves to be led "by the Spirit," God's purposes will be accomplished. For Paul, one of the most significant defining characteristics of life in Christ is dependence on God's grace.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Although Paul is sometimes depicted as anti-rational, he actually assumes in his letters that human reason, with the aid of the Spirit, can achieve genuine religious knowledge. The specific kind of reason which Paul assumes will be fruitful has a distinctly narrative shape. Paul's theological knowledge is structured as a story within which he and his converts interpret their own lives. Ethical reasoning is a matter of "emplotting" oneself within this theological narrative and asking what fate lies ahead in the story for one who acts in certain ways. When we look more closely at the letter to the Galatians we find that Paul is primarily arguing there for a re-configuration of Israel's theological narrative. The Apostle understands new events as further episodes in the one over-arching story. This means that, just as later chapters in a book can surprise readers and force them to reconsider what they read early on, so new experiences can open up interpretive "gaps" in Israel's theological story and force its adherents to construe the traditional narrative in new ways. Paul argues that both the cross of Christ and the Galatians' experience of the Spirit force just this kind of re-interpretation of the story, and his central argument in Galatians is an attempt to show that his own construal of the narrative is more coherent than those of his competitors. This kind of narrative, hermeneutical logic in Paul's argument not only explains some of the Apostle's notoriously difficult exegesis of Israel's scriptures, but it may also offer a useful epistemological model for contemporary Christian theology.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>A common twentieth-century hypothesis, found in various forms in the work of Berdyaev, Toynbee, Foster, Jaki, Cox, White, and many others, is that the Bible taught the West to regard nature as inanimate, raw material, operating according to mechanical laws, and hence subject to rational understanding and ultimately to human dominion. According to this hypothesis, it was the Biblical attack upon 'pagan' doctrines of animate nature, combined with the Biblical injunction to rule over the earth, which created the modern Western consciousness of . nature and hence paved the way for modern industrial civilization. This hypothesis is used by some of its proponents to blame the Bible and by others to praise it, according to their evaluation of modern technological mastery.</p> <p>This dissertation establishes that the hypothesis is untenable. It shows: (a} that ancient Western 'paganism' was neither in theory nor in practice identifiable with 'nature-worship', and did not restrain human aggression toward nature nearly as much as is often supposed; (b) that the Bible, in particular the Old Testament, appears to teach restraint, not unlimited mastery, regarding nature; (c) that the 'Biblical understanding of nature' discussed by these modern writers is actually a re-statement of the pro-technological Biblical apologetics of Francis Bacon and his seventeenth-century followers, and, like that earlier interpretation of the Bible, is selective and misleading. Therefore, it is the Baconian reading of the Bible, not the Bible itself, which is to be praised or blamed for the consequences of modern technological mastery over nature. The Bible itself, like the ancient paganism to which it is often opposed, favoured a limited technical mastery over nature, whereas the modern West, following Bacon, has committed itself to unlimited mastery.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)