This thesis is a context-sensitive study of key epistemological commitments and concerns presented in Philo’s two series of exegetical writings. The major conclusion advanced in this thesis is that two theological epistemologies, distinct yet related, can be detected among these writings. The first epistemology is specific to the Allegorical Commentary. The second epistemology is specific to the ‘Exposition of the Law.’ The epistemology of the Allegorical Commentary reflects a threefold conviction: the sovereignty of God, the creaturely contingency of the human mind and its inescapable limitations. In conversation with key epistemological notions of his day, Philo develops this threefold conviction in exegetical discourses that are grounded in Pentateuchal texts portraying the God of Moses as both possessing epistemic authority and aiding the aspiring mind to gain purification and perfection in the knowledge of God. Guided by this threefold conviction, Philo enlists key metaphors of his day – initiation into divine mysteries and divine inspiration, among others –in order to capture something of the essence of Moses’ twofold way of ascending to the divine, an approach which requires at times the enhancement of human reason and at other times the eviction of human reason. The epistemology of the ‘Exposition’ reflects Philo’s understanding of the Pentateuch as a perfect whole partitioned into three distinct yet inseverable parts. Philo’s knowledge discourses in the ‘creation’ part of the ‘Exposition’ reflect two primary movements of thought. The first is heavily invested with a Platonic reading of Genesis 1.27 while the second invests Genesis 2.7 with a mixture of Platonic and Stoic notions of human transformation and well-being. Philo’s discourses in the ‘patriarchs’ segment reflect an interest in portraying the three great patriarchs as exemplars of the virtues of instruction (Abraham), nature (Isaac), and practice (Jacob) which featured prominently in Greek models of education. In the ‘Moses’ segment of the ‘Exposition,’ many of Philo’s discourses on knowledge are marked by an interest in presenting Moses as the ideal king, lawgiver, prophet and priest who surpasses Plato’s paradigm of the philosopher-king. In keeping with this view, Philo insists that the written laws of Moses represent the perfect counterpart to the unwritten law of nature. The life and laws of Moses serve as the paradigm for Philo to understand his own experiences of noetic ascent and exhort readers to cultivate similar aspirational notions and practices.

My thesis offers a comparison of the Minor Prophets commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Cyril of Alexandria, isolating the role each assigns (1) the Twelve Prophets in their ministry to Old Testament Israel and (2) the texts of the Twelve as Christian scripture. While the two produce radically different commentaries in terms of quantity and detail of christological interpretation, the source of their divergence cannot be reduced to Cyril's admitting messianic prophecy whereas Theodore does not. Rather, I argue that Theodore does acknowledge christological prophecies, as distinct from both retrospective accommodation and typology. Further, a careful reading of Cyril's Commentary on the Twelve limits the prospective christological revelation he ascribes to the prophets and reveals the positive role he grants the Mosaic law prior to Christ's advent. My thesis secondly explores the Christian significance both Theodore and Cyril assign to Israel's exile and restoration, the pivotal event to which the Twelve bear witness. I here argue that Theodore's reading of the Twelve Prophets, while not attempting to be christocentric, is nevertheless self-consciously Christian. Cyril, unsurprisingly, offers a robust Christian reading of the Twelve, yet this too must be expanded by his focus on the church and concern to equip the church through the ethical paideusis provided by the plain sense of the prophetic text. Revised descriptions of each interpreter lead to the claim that the label “christocentric” obscures more than it clarifies and polarizes no less than earlier accounts of Antiochene/Alexandrian exegesis. I advocate rather for an approach that takes seriously Theodore's positive account of the unity and telos of the divine economy and the full range of Cyril's interpretation, in order to move beyond a zero-sum assessment and offer instead a positive account that appreciates the strengths of each Christian reading of the Twelve.

This thesis examines the use and function of a specific group of Psalms, the so-called “Royal Psalms,” among the texts of the Qumran library. From the time of their integration into the worship practices of the Israelite people in the obscure past to the Second Temple period and beyond, these Psalms continued to be a source of inspiration to the Jewish people. Though there have been many studies that have analyzed their Sitz im Leben, use, interpretation, and application for many different periods, no study has attempted a thorough analysis of their use among the Qumran documents. Analyses of the use in the Qumran texts of certain individual Royal Psalms exist, but these do not attempt to cover the Royal Psalms as a corpus. The present thesis will analyze the appearance in the Qumran library of the eleven generally-accepted Royal Psalms: Pss 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 89, 101, 110, 132, and 144. This study explores whether or not these Psalms are to be found in the known Qumran Psalms scrolls, variations or differences as compared to the Masoretic Text, how they are were interpreted in exegetical and other texts, quotations of and allusions to them, and how themes from the Royal Psalms contribute to the structure and theology of non-canonical royal psalms found at Qumran. An understanding of the use of the biblical Royal Psalms in these texts is of value for our comprehension of what happened to the pre-exilic royal traditions as these hymns continued to be used in a post-monarchic society. This dissertation makes an original contribution toward these goals, establishing that there was an interest on the part of the authors of many of the Qumran texts in royal themes although they lived long after the monarchy had ended.

Les penseurs de l’herméneutique du XXe siècle ont redéfini essentiellement l’humain comme un être en quête de sens, interprétant sans cesse le ‘monde’ à travers ‘son propre monde’, cette compréhension transformante contribuant à son devenir. Serait-il pertinent dans une recherche de sens qui caractérise une démarche de foi, d’utiliser des outils herméneutiques ouvrant les Écritures sur d’autres possibles que ce que la Tradition chrétienne propose aujourd’hui ? Le présent mémoire veut répondre par l’affirmative à ce défi, en appliquant une approche processuelle sur le chapitre 16 du livre d’Ézéchiel, un prophète avec lequel la tradition juive a gardé une certaine prudence et un texte particulièrement osé que la pastorale chrétienne a ignoré. Après une mise en situation qui trace les paramètres fondamentaux de la démarche entreprise dans ce mémoire (chapitre 1), une traduction littérale du texte hébreu est proposée, faisant ressortir les nuances que suggèrent les formes verbales et les éléments particuliers que révèle une analyse macro-syntaxique (chapitre 2); la méthode d’analyse processuelle choisie pour interpréter le texte est inédite dans le monde francophone, tout comme la perspective processuelle de l’étude telle qu’elle se déploie dans les chapitres 3 et 4 du mémoire. L’analyse débouche sur des propositions théologiques originales, redéfinissant notamment la Toute-Puissance divine comme un entêtement qui cherche à convaincre, et inscrivant le pardon divin au creux de la liberté et de la responsabilité humaines. / Hermeneutic thinkers of the twentieth century have essentially redefined man as a being who is in search of meaning, constantly interpreting the 'world' through 'his own world', with this transformative understanding contributing to his future. Is it therefore relevant, in the search for meaning that characterizes a journey of faith, to read the Scriptures in ways that open new possibilities other than those currently offered by the Christian tradition? This essay proposes an affirmative answer to this challenge by applying a Process Approach to the text of Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel, a prophet whom Jewish tradition has historically treated with suspicion and a particularly bold text that the Christians disregarded. After setting the parameters of the study (Chapter 1), a literal translation of the Hebrew text is presented, highlighting the nuances suggested by language choice as well as particular elements revealed by macro-syntax analysis (Chapter 2). The process analysis method chosen to interpret the text is unprecedented in the Francophone world, as is the process context of the study outlined in Chapters 3 and 4. The conclusions identify original theological concepts, most notably redefining God as a stubborn will that seeks to convince, and inscribing his forgiveness deeply in human liberty and responsibility.

ANOTATION The work deals with translation and interpretation of the original Hebrew text of Genesis 11, making the use of synchronous exegetical method. The method focuses mostly on careful observation of multi-layered meanings of Hebrew terms, direct speeches, macrosyntactical markers, parallelisms and sentence constituents. To reach deeper dimension of the text, the work also takes into account the original non-vocalized text, graphical form of the text, consonances and metathesis. One of the most significant features of this work is the attention paid to the timeless nature of Hebrew verbs, which allows to read the narrative about human desire, pride, non-hearing, illusions, inner decay and the way back to God not as a story from the past, but as a lively anthropological message.

The focus of this thesis will be an exegesis of the term burnt offering in Old Testament. The diploma thesis deals with the location of the cult (Tent of Meeting, temple), priests in Israel, human offerings and reconstruction of ritual burnt offerings with an evaluation of particular acts based on translation and interpretation of the first chapter of Leviticus. The purpose of this work is to detect, what function and meaning this ritual had for the community of Israel, as well as what message the texts contain, with respect to burnt offerings for the current reader.

KYNCLOVÁ, Dana. Biblical Stories in Hagiotherapy and Pastoral Care. Praha, 2013. Master's thesis. Charles University. Faculty of Education. Department of Psychology. Supervisor M. Kucera. Keywords: pastoral care, hagiotherapy, Christianity, integrated approach, psychology, theology, spirituality, religion, psychotherapy, Bible, Bible stories, exegesis, existential psychotherapy This thesis deals with the relationship of hagiotherapy and pastoral care on the basis of their approach to work with motifs from biblical stories. The theoretical framework of the study are various findings on the relationship of psychology and theology and their application disciplines of psychotherapy and pastoral care from a clear definition of the boundaries of both disciplines to their integration. Due to the default assumption that personality is composed of bio-psycho-social-spiritual needs, an integrative model has the potential to meet human needs in this wholeness. Hagiotherapy, as a direction of existential psychotherapy using Bible stories as a therapeutic tool, is close in nature to pastoral care and this fact gave rise to the research project. The aim of the research is to determine how hagiotherapy and pastoral care work with the motifs of biblical stories and whether it is possible to find similarities in...

Peut-on parler d’une théorie des nullités dans la doctrine après le Code civil ? C’est à cette question que l’on a cherché à répondre dans ce travail. En effet, la réponse, habituellement, apportée à cette dernière appelle des précisions. Selon cette réponse, après le Code civil, il y a eu une théorie des nullités dans la doctrine. D’abord, il y a eu une doctrine classique qui est composée, majoritairement, d’auteurs du XIXème siècle. Ensuite, à coté de cette doctrine, il y a eu une doctrine dite moderne, composée majoritairement d’auteurs du XXème siècle. Si, pour construire une théorie générale des nullités, la doctrine classique a utilisé l’état de l’acte, la doctrine moderne elle, elle a utilisé le critère lié au but de la règle violée. Dans ce travail, on a cherché à renouveler cette réponse, d’une part en mettant en évidence les limites de l’idée d’une doctrine classique ou moderne et d’autre par en montrant l’inadéquation de ces théories générales, construites par les auteurs après le code civil, au droit positif. Ce qui nous a permis de proposer d’abandonner toute vision globale sur doctrine et sur la théorie des nullités. Aussi, on a proposé de remplacer cette vision globale par une conception diverse des nullités. Une conception diverse d’abord, en ce qui concerne la doctrine, dans la mesure où il n’y a pas d’un coté la doctrine classique et de l’autre la doctrine moderne. Mais aussi une conception diverse en ce qui concerne la théorie des nullités elle-même, dans la mesure où il n’y a pas une seule théorie pour tous les types de contrats, mais des théories diverses qui épousent les spécificités de chaque contrat. Telles sont les conclusions auxquelles nous sommes parvenus à l’issue de ce travail. / Can we speak of a theory of nullity in the doctrine after the Civil Code? This is the question we sought to answer in this work. Indeed, the answer usually given to the latter requires clarification. According to the response after the Civil Code, there was a theory of nullity in the doctrine. First, there was a classical doctrine which is composed mainly of lawyers of the nineteenth century. Then, next to this doctrine, there was a doctrine called modern, composed mainly of lawyers of the twentieth century. If, to construct a general theory of nullity, the classical doctrine has used the state of the act, the modern doctrine, she has used the criterion related to the purpose of the rule breached.In this study, we sought to renew this response, first by highlighting the limits of the idea of a classic or modern doctrine and the other by showing the inadequacy of these general theories, built by the authors after the Civil Code, the positive law. This allowed us to propose to abandon any overall vision and doctrine on the theory of nullity. Also, it was proposed to replace this global vision by various design nonentities. A diverse design first, with regard to doctrine, to the extent that there is no one side the classical doctrine and other modern doctrine. But also various design regarding the theory of nullity itself, insofar as there is no single theory for all types of contracts, but various theories that espouse the specifics of each contract.These are the conclusions we have reached the end of this work.

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[pt] O livro de Joel poder ser considerado uma unidade teologicamente unificada dentro da literatura profética por causa da temática do yôm YHWH. O contexto de Jl 2,12-18 é de uma catástrofe natural que provoca a carestia e ausência dos produtos necessários para subsistência. Diante desta situação de crise, o povo de Judá-Jerusalém vive uma condição de apatia espiritual. Ainda há, no entanto, esperança de que por meio de uma ação litúrgica se possa mudar este contexto desfavorável. O profeta, então, seguindo a convocação de YHWH, interpela a comunidade para que ela possa fazer o processo de retorno a Ele. É neste contexto que se desvela o tema do yôm YHWH. Este yôm não é considerado uma ameaça para o bem estar da comunidade. Ao contrário, o yôm YHWH é interpretado como um dia de salvação para Judá-Jerusalém, porque YHWH é um refúgio e uma proteção para seu povo. O chamado do profeta para retornar a YHWH é interpretado como uma convocação para o povo honrá-lo, demonstrando uma renovada lealdade e confiança com gestos sinceros demonstrados por ritos religiosos. O sentido último deste retorno para YHWH não se refere aos pecados do povo. Este retorno expressa o desejo sincero de retornar e ouvir a palavra de YHWH, novamente, numa situação de aflição. Neste contexto, retomada a relação de comunhão entre a comunidade e YHWH, o povo aceita a oferta da graça divina e retorna para Ele, com todo seu coração. YHWH não somente restaura os bens materiais a seu povo, mas oferece seu coração e seu próprio ser. Ele retorna para Judá-Jerusalém, enquanto seu povo também retorna a Ele. / [en] The book of Joel can be considered a unit theologically unified within the prophetic literature because of the theme of yôm YHWH. The context of Jl 2:12- 18 is a natural catastrophe that causes famine and lack of necessary products for subsistence. Facing this situation of crisis, the people of Judah-Jerusalem live a condition of spiritual apathy. There is still, however, hope that through a liturgical action is to change this unfavorable context. The prophet, then, following the call of YHWH, calls out to the community to make the process of returning to Him. In this context that unveils the theme of yôm YHWH. This yôm is not considered a threat to the welfare of the community. Instead, the yôm YHWH is interpreted as a day of salvation for Judah-Jerusalem, because YHWH is a refuge and a protection for his people. The prophetic call to return to YHWH is interpreted as a call for the people honor Him, demonstrating a renewed loyalty and trust with sincere gestures demonstrated by religious rites. Ultimate meaning of this return to YHWH does not refer to the sins of the people. This return expresses a sincere desire to return and hear the word of YHWH, again, in a situation of distress. In this context, the retaking of communion relationship between the community and YHWH, the people accept the offer of divine grace and return to Him with all your heart. YHWH restores not only material goods to his people, but his heart and offers its own being. He returns to Judah-Jerusalem, while his people also return to Him.