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This work seeks to define the meaning of being "perfect" in Matthew's Gospel in relation to the Jewish holiness tradition. The first part is composed of three sub-chapters. (1) The first chapter discusses the idea of perfection in the Pentateuch, in which Matthew's perfection is mainly rooted. This chapter intends to study the way in which the idea of perfection is displayed in relation to the concept of holiness in the Pentateuch. The idea of perfection, which was derived from the qualification (oon) of the sacrificial animals that were offered to God, was applied to the priests because they were associated with the sacrificial animals in their functions. The idea is extended to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy on the grounds that the nation of Israel is a holy and priestly nation. (2) The second chapter deals with the idea in the prophetic writings, which is closely associated with three elements: the idea of shalom, the suffering motif, and the New Covenant as a means of the restoration of Israel (a priestly nation). The idea of perfection in the prophetic writings stresses an ethical dimension within a covenantal relationship with Yahweh. (3) The wisdom writings place much emphasis upon wisdom as a means of achieving holiness and perfection. Wisdom literature introduces the divine wisdom as perfect wisdom which the people of God seek after. As a result, the Torah as a source of the divine wisdom is closely linked to the idea of perfection in the wisdom writings. Part two demonstrates how the idea of perfection played an important role in the life of the Jews in the Second Temple period. (1) The idea of perfection is crucial for the understanding of life at Qumran. The idea of perfection in the Qumran community is to be defined in the context of the Jewish expectation that a priestly kingdom would be restored as the fulfilment of the New Covenant. The Qumran covenanters regarded themselves as members of a priestly community which was expected to atone for the sins of the Land. Against this background, the covenanters applied priestly holiness, i.e., perfection, to their life and religious practices. (2) The Pharisaic idea of perfection is closely related to their ideal to establish a priestly nation in the Promised Land. On the basis of this, they applied priestly holiness to the people of Israel in general. Because of the centrality of the Torah and the wisdom influence in the life of the Jews in the post-exilic period, the Pharisaic perfection highly emphasises the importance of the dual Torah (both written Torah and the tradition of elders) as a means of achieving perfection. Part three discusses how Matthew's Gospel makes use of the idea of perfection effectively in his Gospel. Matthew intends to show how the promise of the New Covenant was fulfilled in the work of Jesus. Matthew describes the new people of God as a new Israel: the Church as the new Temple, Jesus as the High Priestly Messiah, and his disciples as priests ministering for the new Temple. Jesus' disciples were likened to the priests who served the Temple in the presence of the Lord. On this ground, Matthew demands that Jesus' disciples should be "perfect". Therefore, for Matthew, the Church, i.e., the new Temple, is the community of perfection. Matthew inherits the Jewish idea of perfection (the centrality of the love command in particular) and applied it to the life of the new people of God.

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This thesis examines the use of Zechariah traditions in Matthew's Gospel. It analyzes and interprets the ways Matthew transmits, alters or adds Zechariah traditions to his sources. Instead of looking at portions of the Gospel in light of Zechariah 9-14 only, this study addresses the entire Gospel and all of Zechariah. In focusing on Zechariah tradition, the thesis has kept the following considerations in view. First, the content and function of Matthew's explicit uses of Zechariah are examined. Second, ways in which tradition derived from Zechariah may have exerted influence on portions of the gospel sub-structure are identified. Third, it explores the extent to which Matthew alludes to characteristic Zechariah themes. Together, these components illuminate how Matthew's Gospel incorporates its Zechariah material, whether alone or in combination with other prophetic traditions. Thus the methodological approach of the thesis is not only grounded in classical methods of biblical criticism but is also open to recent literary methods. In addition to explicit citations, numerous allusions and echoes of Zechariah tradition are present in Matthew. They appear in Matthean materials and in traditions Matthew has taken from Mark and Q. Because the focus of this thesis is open to both the Gospel and the Zechariah traditions in their entirety, two important observations have been made. First, traces of Zechariah material are found in the Infancy and Gaililean healing Narratives as well as in the Passion Narrative. Not only is the impact of Zechariah 9-14 observed, but important sections of Zechariah 1-8 are also discerned in Matthew's narrative structure. Moreover, Matthew's Son of David Christology is enriched and partially defined by Zechariah's prophet-shepherd imagery, as well as by the royal messianic motif.

The Farewell Discourse is a unique and climactic portion of John's Gospel which serves as a hinge on which the entire Gospel narrative pivots from Jesus' public ministry to his Passion. Shallow readings of this Discourse often pass over or ignore significant aspects of the text, especially the instruction and preparation Jesus was giving by word and action to make ready his disciples to continue his mission to the world after his departure. Other readings (notably form-critical) see the text as disarranged and therefore not a coherent whole. A thorough analysis employing the elements of Greco-Roman rhetoric has shown that there is a rhetorical dimension to the Discourse which makes sense of the text as a coherent whole. The Farewell Discourse was found to follow a rhetorical arrangement which gives a literary explanation to some assumed form-critical problems such as the ending at 14:31. Not only does this rhetorical structure give appropriate closure and transition with movement from one topic to another, it does so with a chiastic arrangement of the major topics. This thesis demonstrates that assumed disarrangements, repetitions and amplifications that have appeared problematic to other approaches do not detract from, but actually enhance the ability of the text to move and persuade. Rhetorical analysis is thus capable of giving insights into the text that otherwise might be overlooked or ignored. Throughout the Discourse, Jesus' ethos (character) as the divine one who "knows" stands out boldly and his persuasive appeal (logos) to the pathos (emotional response) of the disciples is strong, both as he seeks to move them beyond their present sorrow and distress and as he prepares them to face the future realistically and with confidence. The fourth evangelist thus presents Jesus operating rhetorically (in act as well as speech) and strategically uses Jesus' interaction with his disciples to seek a rhetorical outcome with his readers. This rhetorical approach provides a bridge between literary approaches on the one hand (which can proceed at the expense of taking into account the historical context) and historical critical approaches on the other (which can proceed at the expense of hearing the text speak as text). A rhetorical reading accounts for both literary and historical dimensions of the text. This thesis demonstrates that it is an effective interpretive methodology which elucidates dimensions of the text not adequately accounted for by other approaches.

Abstract This thesis discusses 226Ra distribution in the seawater of the East China Sea and the sea off northeastern Taiwan. Six profiles and fifteen surface water samples were measured. Water samples were collected during cruises 493 and 523 in July, 1997 and July, 1998, respectively. 226Ra measurements were performed by the regenerated 222Rn method that had been widely used for seawater samples. The surface water 226Ra activities vary between 8.7 and 15.9 dpm/100kg in the East China Sea. There is an increase in surface water 226Ra northward toward the estuary of the Changjiang. This variation is somewhat similar to that observed in the East China Sea by Nozaki et al. (1976). The surface water 226Ra activities vary between 9.1 and 10.8 dpm/100kg in the area off northeastern Taiwan. There values are higher than KEEP-MASS cruise of July, 1992. The Kuroshio Current not easy to enter shelf, so the dilution effect of Kuroshio is smaller. Otherwise, There are 226Ra in profiles were measured from six stations on Cruise 493 (13 and 15) in Kuroshio area and Cruise 523 (5, 7, 13 and 15) in shelf. The deep water profile on Cruise 493 (st.13) displays a phenomenon 226Ra increase from about 9.7 dpm/100kg at 5m to about 14.3 dpm/100kg at 500m, station 15 from Cruise 493 displays a phenomenon 226Ra increase from about 9.8 dpm/100kg at 5m to about 17.7 dpm/100kg at 800m. 226Ra profile at station 7 showed that the gradient from 600m to 750m is large, and 226Ra concentration does not increase below this depth. 226Ra maybe associated with nepheloid layer due to lateral or horizontal transport of the water mass. Each 226Ra profile shows a downward increase from less than 10 dpm/100kg at the surface, and shows the underlying sediments as the main source. Based on the radioactive disequilibrium observed between 210Pb and 226Ra, all the ratios of Pb-210/Ra-226 in Station 13 are greater than 1, except at 400m. The 210Pb concentration is high and the ratio of Pb-210/Ra-226 is greater than 1 at 800m.

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Radium contamination in the lakes near uranium mines and its intake by fish and other aquatic species are of great concern in environmental radiation protection. As an alternative technique to Liquid Scintillation Counting, we present a gamma-ray spectrometric method for low level 226Ra analysis, particularly in live fish. The HyperPure Ge and a 4π NaI(Tl) array were employed as gamma-ray spectrometers. The 226Ra spectra for each spectrometer were collected in order to compare their analytical performance. From the HPGe 226Ra spectra, a detection limit of 6.81 Bq with 99% confidence was determined for an hour counting with the three strongest peaks combined. For the 4π NaI(Tl) 226Ra spectra, in order to optimize the spectral analysis, a method applied to nine different energy regions was attempted and it turned out that the detection limit is best when the total integral count subtracted by the corresponding background is used. The detection limit of the 4π NaI(Tl) was 0.99 Bq with 99% confidence for one hour counting. A benchmark simulation for point source position dependence on relative peak efficiency showed a good agreement with the experimental data. To extend 226Ra analysis to volumetric aqueous samples, MCNP Monte Carlo simulations showed that for three cylindrical volume sources, as the simulated volume source size increased from 60 ml to 125 ml to 250 ml, the full-energy peak efficiency in the energy range of interest for 226Ra decreased by approximately 3% for each size increase, due to attenuation in the source volume. A method has been proposed in order to demonstrate this technique for a live fish, whereby a fish injected with 226Ra would be kept in its own special aquarium and its gamma-ray spectrum collected. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

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