Originally presented as the author's thesis, Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-101).

Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-126).

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-278).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, The Divnitiy School, Aug. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This dissertation delves into a body of Palestinian literature, film, and art from the past two decades in order theorize the relationship between borders and their representations. In Israel and Palestine, a region in which negotiating borders has become a way of life, I explore the ways in which ubiquitous boundaries have pervaded cultural production through a process that I term “bordering.” I draw on theoretical contributions from the fields of architecture, geography, anthropology, as well as literature and film studies to develop a conceptual framework for examining the ways in which authors, artists, and filmmakers engage with borders as a space to articulate possibilities of encounter, contestation, and transgression. I argue that in these works, the proliferation of borders has called into question the Palestinian cultural and political consensus that created a shared set of narratives, symbols, and places in Palestinian cultural production until the last decade of the 20th century. In its place has emerged a fragmented body of works that create what Jacques Rancière terms “dissensus,” or a disruption of a cultural, aesthetic, disciplinary, and spatial order. Read together, they constitute what I term a “border aesthetic,” in which literature, film, and art produce new types of spaces, narratives, and texts through the ruptures and fractures of the border. I trace the emergence of this aesthetic and the new genres and forms that distinguish it from earlier Palestinian literary, political, and intellectual projects through analyses of the works of Elia Suleiman, Sayed Kashua, Raba’i al-Madhoun, Emily Jacir, Yazid Anani, and Inass Yassin. In their attempts to grapple artistically with the region’s borders, these authors, directors, and artists create new codes, narratives, vernaculars, and spaces that reflect the fragmentation wrought by pervasive boundaries. These works, fluent in multiple mediums, genres, and languages, reveal both the possibilities and the limits of this aesthetic, as they seek to contest borders but nevertheless remain bound by them. / text

This thesis is a critical edition of the Judeo-Arabic commentary on the Hebrew text of the Book of Job by one of the greatest Karaites of his age (second half of the tenth century A. D.), Yefet Ben 'Ali the Karaite. An examination of the photocopies and microfilms of the original Manuscripts of Yefet Ben 'Ali written in the XIth, XIV-XVIIth, XVth and XVIth centuries resulted in a delimitation of the number of chapters in this edition i.e. chapters I-X. None of the four Manuscripts is complete and I have tried to complete the presentation of the first ten chapters of Yefet's commentary on the Book of Job by filling in the gaps of the master copy which I used (Ms. A., Or. 2509 B. M. ) from the other Manuscripts. I used it as a main text because it is almost a complete copy compared with the others, as far as the first ten chapters are concerned. The four Manuscripts which I used are housed in the British Library in London. This edition is prefaced by an introduction, comprising a discussion of the information we possess about Yefet's life in Basrah and Jerusalem, with reference to his works in general and the authenticity of his work on the Book of Job in particular. This is followed by a description and analysis of the commentary, discussing the method used by the commentator, and how he made it possible for large numbers of Jews in non-Arabic speaking countries to make free use of his interpretations of biblical texts allied to the Karaite theological viewpoint and its relationship to Mu'tazilite views. There follows an analysis of the language used by Yefet in his text and exegesis, i.e. morphology, orthography and so on. A comparison is then made with Saadia Gaon, including a brief discussion of the language and exegesis of the two scholars which deals with the fundamental characteristics of Judeo and classical Arabic; in addition, notes on the text are appended in which attention will be drawn to Yefet's characteristic vagueness in interpreting the Hebrew text of the Book of Job. Special attention is paid to the vowels in each of the Manuscripts, and differences between the Manuscripts are footnoted throughout the text of this edition. The appendix takes cognisance of M. E., i.e. Opp. Add. 4.165 of the Bodleian Library, listing fully the differences between it and the printed text of this edition.

This discussion is based on a word by word comparison of the source document and the translation throughout the 1364 verses of the book. The conclusions drawn are: 1. the translator's main aim was to present the sense of his Hebrew Vorlage without change, and to do so in a readily accessible presentational style. The evidence on which this conclusion is based is the presence of two co-existing forms of translation throughout: (i) almost always literal, in presentation of the sense. The few points at which the sense is modified almost all pertain to the theme of the movement from the Temple- and sacrifice-based pre-exilic religion to a prayer-based religion compatible with exile; (ii) often non-literal, stylistically, in pursuit of the precise and intelligible presentational style. When the translator wished to add lexical items, breaking the constraints of quantitative literalism so as to increase the precision of expression, he did so. 2. Comparison of earlier with later mss. shows that these characteristics are to be found not only in the work of the translator, but also in the work of later editors: evidently those editing the Peshitta mss. valued the presentational style sufficiently to impose it on the text even though they knew that by so doing they were likely to lessen the correspondence between that text and the Hebrew Vorlage. 3. The Vorlage was probably a document almost but not quite at the end of the process of recension which led to the formulation of MT: a group of minuses in which LXX and the Peshitta agree against MT, occurring at points of the Hebrew text where textual criticism suggests some underlying problem, constitute the evidence on which this conclusion is based. 4. The translator's approach to the choice of lexical equivalents is that of one who enjoyed exercising literary initiative. 5. There is no evidence that more than one translator was involved. 6. Future work, assessing the literary style of the Peshitta as a whole, is suggested to throw light on the puzzle of the incompatibility of the Peshitta to Isaiah and to Psalms with the classification of the other books of the Peshitta according to the characteristics of the translation technique.

The significance of wine to the residents of ancient Palestine is demonstrated by the large number of archaeological sites where a wine making installation has been identified and the role wine plays in the Hebrew Bible, the major work of literature to survive from ancient Palestine. The role of wine in the Hebrew Bible has generated a large volume of material, although this has been partly driven by the ongoing temperance debate. Despite this there has been little or no thorough research as to which words and thus passages should be investigated to comprehensively examine wine in the Hebrew Bible. In addition those studies which do exist do not demonstrate any in-depth knowledge of wine production and its implications in translating and interpreting the Hebrew Bible. This work aims to address these two issues. The origin of wine demonstrates that wine was known in Palestine during the Biblical period. Agriculture and Diet provide information as to the value and context of wine production. Semantic tools detail the linguistic information for examination of the ancient Hebrew words related to wine. The styles and production methods of wine and other alcoholic beverages in the ancient world set limits for the identification of beverages. All other information must be considered in the light of these four areas. The core of this work is an examination of the key words related to wine: the likely members of the ancient Hebrew semantic field of wine the key words for grape, vine and vineyard and three words identified as installations used in wine production. It is only after such detailed examination that any in-depth study of wine in the Hebrew Bible should be considered.

Thesis (M.A.R.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2005. / Vita. Subtitle appears in Hebrew script. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-98).