This thesis seeks to further the scholarly discussion of the coherence of the Pastoral Epistles by providing the most thorough analysis to date of the cohesion of each letter. The need for such a study arises from two sources. First, the previous works on coherence of the Pastorals, which have turned the tide of scholarship, focused on thematic coherence of the corpus. While this has been extremely helpful, there is still a need to examine each letter individually and to examine thoroughly the use of language to bind together each discourse unit and the various ways in which the discourse units connect to each other. Second, a renewed and even more extreme argument for incoherence has recently been published (James D. Miller, <I>The Pastoral Letters as Composite Documents) </I>which begs response along the lines just suggested since it analyzes connections and lack thereof within and between the discourse units. In the thesis two chapters are devoted to each letter. In the first chapter on each letter, the letter is examined to determine the boundaries of each discourse unit using cohesion shift analysis (drawing from the work of G. H. Guthrie). Then the cohesion of each unit is analyzed noting common devices from the ancient epistolary genre, rhetorical devices, lexical and semantic repetition and symmetrical patterns. The second chapter on each letter focuses on connections between the units in the letter- connections between contiguous units, semantic chains (drawing from the work of J. T. Reed), and the grouping of units into larger sections. Thus the variety of connections across and throughout the letter are highlighted. A structure is argued for each letter which reflects, as much as possible, these connections and the development of thought in the letter. The thesis concludes that there is a high degree of cohesion in each of the Pastoral Epistles at both the micro and macro levels.

1. In this study I show that the translator of LXX Proverbs frequently rendered Hebrew parallelism in a form that is more closely parallel than the MT, that is, the colons of couplets correspond more closely to each other semantically and/or grammatically. The argument is based on the hypothesis that the Hebrew source of LXX Proverbs is similar to the MT in the cases discussed. The translator's fondness for producing closely corresponding lines needs to be considered when using LXX Proverbs as a source of variant readings. The thesis will assist in evaluating the Greek translation of Proverbs, thus avoiding the misuse of LXX Proverbs for the sake of 'better' parallelisms. 2. The fact that Hebrew parallelism is not as regular as has been thought in the past but is dynamic, as has been demonstrated by recent scholars, supports my findings. 3. There are, however, cases of parallelisms in LXX Proverbs which appear to be less closely parallel than the MT. But these exceptional instances can be accounted for by one of several reasons: the translator's strong desire to produce a cohesive translation beyond the couplet (on the paragraph level), his linguistic and translational alterations, his theological tendencies, and his understanding or taking the Hebrew consonantal text differently or even misunderstanding his <I>Voriage. </I>These considerations at times overrule the tendency towards producing more closely corresponding forms. 4. On the basis of texts where it is reasonable to suppose that the translator of LXX Proverbs was using as his source a text similar to the MT, I shall demonstrate that when the translator produced forms that are more closely parallel this was due to the application of his translation technique. If this is taken into account, it will be seen that in a considerable number of cases where the translator has been thought to follow a different <I>Voriage, </I>the differences from the MT are in fact of a translational nature, giving rise to freer rather than literal word-for-word renderings of the MT. 5. Thus, the translator's tendency to produce forms that are more closely parallel than those in his Hebrew source/Vor/age has relevance for differentiating translational and text-critical cases.

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This thesis aims to build up a picture of the Thessalonian community, its beginning and early problems, as these are reflected in 2 Thessalonians. It is entitled a "theological study" because the main concerns are the meaning and interpretation of the epistle; historical and linguistic questions are not of primary importance. We follow through the birth of the community, its structure and its problems. Section A begins by examining 2 Thess 2.13f where we find the idea of election, which logically and chronologically precedes conversion, and proceeds to the founding of the community through Paul's mission. Section B turns to the apocalyptic passage, 2.1-12, and this section contains the bulk of the thesis. A discussion of apocalyptic literature in general attempts to define the essence of apocalyptic; the results of this investigation are then applied to 2 Thess 2.1-12 to discover how and why Paul has used apocalyptic here. Many interpretations of 2.1-12 are outlined and assessed in turn, and finally our preferred interpretation is explained. In Section C we consider first the apocalyptic error itself, its nature and source. Then the problems of persecution and idleness are discussed. These latter two problems are studied with a view to discovering how far they have contributed to the apocalyptic error and disturbance. Three excursuses follow the main body of the thesis. The first considers wider issues of apocalyptic - the meaning of apocalyptic and its lasting value and truth. The second excursus is a criticism of the hypothesis that 2 Thessalonians is a non- Pauline imitation of 1 Thessalonians, as this theory is argued by W. Wrede. The third excursus is a brief comment on the place of prayers within the epistles and especially in 2 Thessalonians, from the point of view of their psychological effect on the readers.

Daniel VII was written by one conservative Jew in 166-5 B.C. The man-like figure of vs 13 is an empty symbol of faithful Jews, the Saints of the Most High, in triumph. The Maccabean victory of 164 B.C., gave rise to two exegetical traditions. The "syrian" tradition identified the Maccabean victory as the predicted triumph, and preserved a complete outline of the original author's interpretation of Daniel vii. The "western" tradition retained the eschatological orientation of vss 9-14, and continually revised its interpretation of the chapter in accordance with an actualizing exegesis. The Jewish version of this tradition preserved the original corporate interpretation of the man-like figure. Other ‘western’ Jews identified him as the Messiah, and one early group identified him as Enoch. The western Christian tradition identified him as Jesus at his second coming. There was no "Son of man concept” in Judaism. No trace survives of any use of Daniel vii by the historical Jesus. There are no formula quotations of it in the New Testament, and the only New Testament writer who made much use of it was the author of Revelation. It was influential in the formation of one group of Son of man sayings: Mk xiii.26, xiv.62, viii.38c, Mt xxiv.44//Lk xii.40, Mt x.23, xvi.28, xxv.31, Lk xviii.8. All these sayings are to be attributed to the early church, some of whose members searched the Old Testament for the return of their Lord and found it at Daniel vii.13.14. These sayings probably originated in Greek. Mark and Matthew both recognized some use of Da vii.l3, and belonged to the western Christian tradition. The origin of the Gospel term “the Son of man” is to be found elsewhere.

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The general properties of manuscript traditions are considered first. A mathematical model is proposed for the history of a textual tradition as a stochastic "birth-and-death" process. Thus we may check presuppositions which orthodox (i. e. Maasian) textual critics habitually make without self-sufficient grounds, e. g. on the likelihood that a ms of given date will prove to derive from an extant ancestor and have no independent value. The thesis is mainly devoted to the analysis of particular traditions. The usual representation of the ms inter-relations is a stemma, or family-tree. I found that that method, although logically sound, rested on assumptions which were usually unrealistic. A new representation is proposed, viz a two-dimensional map, on which each ms is represented by a point, and the distances between points correspond to the degrees of textual divergence between mss. The map helps in recovering the textual history and choosing between rival readings. Four examples follow, on texts from Cyprian, Aeschylus, the Vulgate and St. Luke's Gospel. This new method is then applied to the textual criticism of the Peshitta Psalter, the collations of W. E. Barnes being employed. Critical rules are obtained, and defended on philological grounds. The main conclusions are: (a) this Psalter is not the resultant of several translation attempts, but a single version; (b) the original reading sometimes survives in the Florence codex (9al) alone; (c) Syriac-speaking Fathers had virtually the same Peshitta text as our mss, but occasionally used other sources; (d) the translation seems to be a Christian rather than a Jewish work. The history of the text is outlined and related to the critical rules. The application of these is illustrated in annotations to the text. Sundry emendations and comments on unexpected renderings are also offered. There follow a review of other numerical studies in textual criticism, and an Appendix on the Peshitta of Jeremiah xlvi-li.

In the opening chapter of this dissertation, some solutions are offered for the problems arising from the confused and contradictory traditions relating to Job in talmudic-midrashic literature. In successive chapters, the aggadic exegesis of the Book of Job is analysed and evaluated in detail, in order to demonstrate that it was profoundly influenced by traditional views relating to the book's authorship and historical setting. The early tradition that Moses himself was the author of the Book of Job suggested that it shared a special relationship with the Pentateuch, which is presupposed by the Rabbis' consistent use of material from well-defined sections of the book in their expositions and homilies on many aspects of the creation of the world, the corruption of the Generation of the Flood and their ultimate annihilation, and the mythical monsters, to which only a passing allusion is made in the Genesis account of the creation, The aggadic interpretation of the book was influenced further by a tradition of high antiquity, that Job was actually a contemporary of the bondage and the exodus. Consequently, numerous utterances by Job and his companions were treated as allusions to events and personalities involved in Israel's early history as a nation. In the final chapter, the aggadic content of the Targum to Job is re-examined in order to show its conformity with the rabbinic interpretation of the book, and the antiquity of certain traditions preserved in the extant text of the Targum, which may shed some light on the question of the relationship between the existing Targum and the ancient text current in the First Century CE.

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