No description available.

No description available.

This thesis seeks to provide a fresh perspective on the nature and function of the Old Testament Passover by considering how it shaped and transmitted Israel's collective memory. In this context, special attention is paid to the work of Jan Assman, who argues that the Ancient Near East in general and Israel in particular underwent a transition from ritual repetition to textual interpretation as the primary medium of cultural memory. This model is tested by a detailed exegesis of the Passover texts in Exodus 12-13, Deuteronomy 16 and 2 Chronicles 30 and 35. It is concluded that there is not a general tendency for text to displace rite so far as the Old Testament Passover is concerned. A better framework for understanding the distinctive contribution of each text is the relationship between ritual resemblance (mimesis) and oral or written explanation (catechesis). The thesis explores how these two features of Passover observance interact to shape Israel's memory of her past and her communal identity in the present. Exodus 12-13 portray Israel as a people belonging to YHWH by virtue of the deliverance from Egypt, Deuteronomy 16 recalls the memory of the departure from Egypt as a motivation for Torah observance and Chronicles portrays Israel as an organised cultic community gathered at the temple to petition YHWH to bring an end to national captivity. If there is a trajectory in Old Testament Passover texts it is found in the textualisation of catechesis. In the first instance the Passover's significance is explained alongside the rite itself. However, over time a developing body of authoritative texts provides an everwidening canonical context within which the Passover can be practised and interpreted. The thesis concludes by considering how its findings provide the basis for exploring other Old and New Testament themes.

Thesis (MTh.(O.T.))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis builds upon C.H. Dodd's hypothesis that there were theologically significant textual fields in early Christian interpretation of the Old Testament. It presents Exodus 32-34 as a theologically significant field of the Old Testament Scriptures in Paul on the basis of its importance in pentateuchal priestly theology and Jewish thought, and Paul's quotations, references and allusions to it. The thesis contributes significantly to our understanding of Exodus 32-34 in 1 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 1-2 and Romans 9. It will argue that the story of the violation and restoration of the Sinai covenant in Exodus 32-34 may have helped the apostle to substantiate his Christian convictions and to communicate them to the believers in Corinth and Rome.

No description available.

No description available.

The present study is an analysis of covenantal identity and ritual boundaries based on texts ranging from the Old Testament, the Book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls to the New Testament. A pattern of interdependence between group identity and boundary marks is traced, and the following thesis is examined: a community's identity is reflected in boundary marks, and ritual boundaries reflect a corporate identity. By using this general principle to interpret biblical and intertestamental material a pattern emerges: when identity is defined in ethnic categories, boundaries are wide, national boundaries, when identity is defined in particularistic categories, such as priestly purity, boundaries are narrow markers of purity. When identity is changed, boundaries change. Having chosen the Old Testament covenant concept as a term for ecclesiological identity the writer demonstrates that covenantal identity changes in Palestinian Judaism not least because it narrows down and builds on the principle of law. As a result of this, ritual boundaries become narrow marks of law observance. When such an interpretation is challenged by Paul covenant is redefined. The Old Testament and intertestamental pattern of interdependence helps to explain that Paul reinterprets covenant and why old ritual boundaries are replaced. Since for Paul identity is grounded in faith in the one Christ, the ecclesiological boundary is no longer an exclusive covenant rite, such as circumcision, rather baptism is, since it serves as a rite of identification with Christ and a mark of possession of the Spirit. This reflects a radical change in ecclesiology. When Christian baptism is the boundary marker that reflects unity with Christ and serves as an inclusive rite; it simultaneously becomes the only symbol for incorporation in the one church.

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This thesis focuses on two separate, but related areas: the analysis of translation technique and the Greek texts of Daniel. Foremost in the research of Translation Technique (TT) in the Septuagint is the need for a model that is appropriate for the analysis of different ancient languages. In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on the features of literalism in a translation, but it is argued in this thesis that the focus on literalism is inadequate as a methodology for the analysis of TT. The contention of this thesis is that the analysis of TT should incorporate insights from modem linguistic research. Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis is to develop and apply such a model to the Old Greek (CG) and Theodotion (Th) versions of Daniel. The existence of two complete Greek versions of the book of Daniel that are closely related to the same Vorlage (at least in chapters 1-3 and 7-12), furnish ideal examples for the application of the methodology. Unfortunately, it is no straightforward matter to employ the OG of Daniel, because the available critical edition can no longer be regarded as reliable. The most important witness to the OG version of Daniel is Papyrus 967, and large portions of this manuscript have been published since the appearance of the critical edition of the OG of Daniel in 1954. Therefore, in order to analyze and compare the two Greek texts of Daniel, it is necessary to evaluate all of the variants of Papyrus 967 in order to establish a preliminary critical text of OG. Once a critical text is established the proposed methodology for translation technique is applied to selected passages in the OG and Th versions of Daniel. An analysis and comparison of TT in OG and Th makes it possible to: 1) characterize the TT employed by OG and Th in detail; 2) determine Th's relationship to OG, i.e. is it a revision or independent translation; 3) demonstrate how the Greek texts can be employed effectively for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. On the basis of the analysis of Th's text it is also possible to determine Th's relationship to the body of works, which exhibit a close formal correspondence to the Masoretic text, known as Kaige-Theodotion.