In this study it is not the author's aim to attempt to cover the field pertaining to the origin and development of the Eucharist. A vast number of competent works have been vrritten on the subject, but the primary purpose here is to examine the Eucharistic teachings of the Didache in the light of Canonical, early Christian, and non-Christian literature, in an effort to determine if the Didache presents the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) in its original form as practiced in the primitive Christian Church of the first century. Further, we propose to show how the simplicity of the act was developed into a crystallized rite, or sacrament, by the time of the second century Church.

林志堅. / "2013年9月". / "2013 nian 9 yue". / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-303). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Lin Zhijian.

This project examines the depiction of Jewish and Christian identity in Acts of the Apostles by placing the writer’s ethnic claims within a broader material and epigraphic context. Scholarship on Jewish identity in Acts has often emphasized Jewish and Christian religious difference, an emphasis that has tended to mask the intersections of civic, ethnic, and religious identifications in antiquity. Such identity categories did not exist as distinct, stable entities. Rather, as discussions of identity in antiquity demonstrate, they were contested, negotiable, and ambiguous. Bringing Acts into conversation with recent scholarly insights regarding identity as represented in Roman era material and epigraphic remains shows that Acts presents Jews and Jewish identity in multiple, complex ways, rather than as a simple foil for “Christianity.” The dissertation argues that when the modern distinctions between ethnic, religious, and civic identities are suspended, the innovative ethnic rhetoric of the author of Acts comes into focus. The underlying connection between ethnic, religious, and civic identities provided him with space to present non-Jewish Christians as converted Jews and therefore to identify all Christians as Jews. On the basis of this identification, he marked Christians as a unified Jewish community that enhanced the stability of the city, contrasting them with other Jewish communities. By creating an internal distinction between Christians and other Jews, he privileged Christians as the members of an ideal, unified Jewish community and contrasted them with what he identified as factious, local Jewish associations.

This thesis argues that the rhetoric of perception opens and closes the Gospel of Luke and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, and occurs throughout both narratives as a central plot device. The epistemological theme created by this involves how characters understand the major events of the narrative, especially what seems to be a central element: Jesus’ identity as the Messiah and the scriptural necessity of his suffering and resurrection. The suspense created by the rhetoric of perception allows the author to both communicate key tenets of his theology, as well as offer the audience a model for accomplishing the purpose of his writing, to ‘recognise the certainty’ of his story (Luke 1:1–4). In the Gospel of Luke, suspense is created by the juxtaposition of divine revelation to the disciples and the divine concealment that produces their misunderstanding. This conflict reaches its resolution in the Gospel’s final scenes, in which Jesus opens the mind of the disciples to understand the Scriptures, enabling them to understand what was earlier concealed, the scriptural necessity of the Messiah’s death and resurrection. In Acts, the conflict of misunderstanding is no longer primarily internal to the disciples but external: It is a characteristic of those who do not believe, those to whom the disciples-turned-apostles preach, and it must be overcome through the repentance and belief of the hearers. The resolution provided by the conclusion of Acts is much more negative than that of the Gospel: In the Empire’s capital city, far from that place of illumination where the disciples earlier came to understanding, the proclamation of the gospel is essentially rejected by a Jewish audience to whom is applied the description of Isaiah 6:9–10, rich in its epistemological metaphor.

Thesis (D. Min.)--George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-265).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1997. / Includes catalogs of the sculptures and the drawings for Michelangelo's commission for the apostle statues. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The purposes of this study are to carry out a survey, characterization and description of the genders used currently in the correspondence between the Holy See, the other members and the faithful of the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church, as well as in Saint Paul s Epistles, bringing out evidence that the first have their origin in the texts written by the apostles, mainly Saint Paul. The theoretical basis for the study is found in the studies concerning the concept of genre characterization and of discursive community, more precisely Bakhtin (2003) and Travaglia (2007, 2009). Concerning the correspondence genre, we adopted Kaufman and Rodriguez (1995) and Bazerman (2006). We also analyzed the writings of Fremantle (1956), Polhill (1999), Trobisch (2001) and Silva (2008), whose works refer to Saint Paul s Epistles. We started the research, making a description of the configuration of Saint Paul s Epistles. Simultaneously, we carried out a survey, with the Catholic religious community, of the genres of text written by the Pope, or on his behalf, of which we selected ten. We proceeded, then, to the description and characterization of all these texts, establishing the relationship between them and the Saint Paul s Epistles. The results show that the socio-communicative functions carried out by Saint Paul s Epistles in the communities of the primitive church, are alive currently in the religious discursive community of Apostolic Roman Catholicism, by various genres of texts sent by the Pope to Catholics in the whole world, who, constitute, thus, an actualization of the texts produced by Saint Paul, at the time in which he lived and carried out his role of Church Leader. Complementarily, we characterized and distinguished ten genres of the discursive community of Apostolic Roman Catholics produced by the Pope which the evidence indicates would be derived from the apostles, mainly Saint Paul. / Os objetivos desta pesquisa são proceder a um levantamento, caracterização e descrição tanto dos gêneros usados atualmente na correspondência entre a Santa Sé, os demais membros e os fiéis da Igreja Católica Apostólica Romana, como das Cartas de São Paulo, levantando evidências de que os primeiros têm suas origens nos textos escritos pelos apóstolos, particularmente por São Paulo. A fundamentação teórica do trabalho está sustentada nos estudos sobre o conceito e caracterização de gênero e de comunidade discursiva, mais especificamente Bakhtin (2003) e Travaglia (2007, 2009). A respeito do gênero correspondência, adotamos Kaufman e Rodriguez (1995) e Bazerman (2006). Buscamos, ainda, o trabalho de Fremantle (1956), Polhill (1999), Trobisch (2001) e Silva (2008), cujos trabalhos se referem às Cartas de São Paulo. Iniciamos a investigação, fazendo uma descrição da configuração das Cartas de São Paulo. Simultaneamente, realizamos o levantamento, junto à comunidade religiosa católica, dos gêneros de texto escritos pelo Papa ou em seu nome, dentre os quais selecionamos dez. Em seguida, procedemos à descrição e caracterização de todos esses textos, estabelecendo a relação entre eles e as cartas de São Paulo. Os resultados evidenciam que as funções sociocomunicativas desempenhadas pelas Cartas de São Paulo, junto às comunidades das igrejas primitivas, realizam-se atualmente, na comunidade discursiva religiosa católica apostólica romana, por diversos gêneros de textos enviados pelo papa aos católicos do mundo inteiro, os quais constituem, assim, uma atualização dos textos produzidos por São Paulo, à época em que viveu e exerceu o seu papel de líder da Igreja. Complementarmente caracterizamos e distinguimos dez gêneros da comunidade discursiva católica apostólica romana produzidos pelo papa e que as evidências indicam seriam derivados das cartas dos apóstolos, particularmente das de São Paulo. / Doutor em Estudos Linguísticos

"The Mission of the Apostle Paul in Corinth and Its Historical Background". This thesis aims to present the figure of the Apostle Paul on the basis of biblical and historical reports are available. It describes his life, conversion and preaching Christianity on his mission trips, especially in Corinth. It deals with the life of people at the time and the arrangement of the ancient society. In particular, attention is focused on the historical aspect but also related missionary activities in Corinth. It pays attention to the context of his relationship to Judaism and other pagan cultures. Also included is a clear theological analysis of his letters to Corinth. The work is complemented by maps, archeological excavations from Corinth, showing the layout of the city and dwelling, where early Christians gathered. Attention is also paid to the Christian community in Corinth and everyday problems solved in the letters of the Apostle Paul.

The purpose of this Thesis has been to write, for the first time, an authentic, unbiased "Biography of Erastus Fairbanks Snow, Missionary, Pioneer, and Colonizer." Biography was chosen at the suggestion of Dr. Lowry Nelson, Professor of Rural Social Economics, of Brigham Young University, and because of a natural fondness for western history, and a sincere appreciation for the men and women who made "The West" liveable. For the particular subject chosen, I am indebted to Dr. William J. Snow, Professor of History at Brigham Young University.

Four oracles appear in Jeremiah 21:11-23:8 detailing the failure and future of the final kings in Judah, also known as the King Collection. The final oracle against Jehoiachin (he also appears with the names Coniah / Jeconiah) precedes the announcement of the unnamed new Davidide, the Branch. The oracle against Jehoiachin appears to be unique, involving no stipulations of covenant wrongdoing, a feature of Deuteronomistic criticism of the kingship since Solomon. He is one of the most unremarkable kings in Israelite history. Yet, he is the concluding figure in both the Greek (Septuagint or LXX) and Hebrew (Masoretic Text or MT) versions of Jeremiah's King Collection, a significant change from the accounts in Kings and Chronicles. He occupies an important place in Josephus's attempts to sketch the ideal Israelite king, respectful of Roman rule. He is important to the rabbis in developing an atonement theory of the exile. In the New Testament, he appears in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, while the other kings from the King Collection disappear. The Epistle to the Hebrews may adopt similar ideas in developing the analogy of Melchizedek, another insignificant king in Israel's history, as a precursor to Jesus. Ideas developed from the flow of the oracle in the text of Jeremiah, shaped by the polemics of exile, appear in the Acts of the Apostles' casting of Jesus' spiritual kingship on the world's stage. Precritical Jewish and Christian exegesis adopted a harmonizing approach to the oracle, importing reasons from the Deuteronomistic History and the Chronicler for its harsh judgment. Yet discussion of the oracle and its significance in the construction of the figure of Jehoiachin in Jeremiah has all but disappeared from critical scholarship following the groundbreaking work of Bernhard Duhm. Early critical scholarship, while correcting many of the mistakes of precritical exegetes, followed the new Protestant confessionalism of the 19th century. Michel Foucault locates the loss of the theology of the cross as this decisive turn in interpretive methodology. This turn caused modern Protestant interpreters, who are mainly responsible for the foundations of modern critical studies in Jeremiah, to devalue disempowered kings in Israel's history, one of the most important hermeneutical categories in classical Jewish literature, according to Yair Lorberbaum. Thus, Bernhard Duhm, and later scholarship that builds on his work, missed the significance of this oracle in the textual function of the book of Jeremiah and its polemical significance in the debates between post-exile groups of Judeans. Gerhard von Rad, in his revision of Martin Noth's theory of the Deuteronomistic History, saw the importance of Jehoiachin as a source of hope for a renewed Israel. Jack Lundbom most recently observed the development of an oracular frame moving from the center outward in which the oracle against Jehoiachin appears. Yet, to date, little work has appeared on the way the canonical form of Jeremiah frames Jehoiachin and its effect on Jeremiah's end to the DtrH. To make sense of it, we must account for what appears to be an unfulfilled prophecy in Jeremiah 22, as recorded by Jehoiachin's treatment in Jeremiah 52 where, against the expectation of the oracle, the Jewish king again appears on the world stage. Mark Roncace has written extensively on how this type of prophecy functions in the book of Jeremiah. Speech-act theory, as proposed originally by J. L. Austin, and refined by his protégé, John Searle, provides further insight into this issue. Building on the scholarship of von Rad, Lundbom, Mark Leuchter and several other scholars of the sociopolitical forces in the production of biblical texts in exile, we will reconstruct the remarkably adaptable prophetic frame developed in exile around Jehoiachin and his oracle, which set the stage for a return of a Jewish king to the world stage. / Religion