he aim of the thesis is to investigate the rhetorical dimensions of selected Markan controversy dialogues (2.15-17, 18-22, 23-28; 3.22-30; 7.1-23; 11.27-33) in light of their redaction, form, and transmission histories. Specifically, I shall evaluate scholarly claims that these dialogues are examples of the Hellenistic literary form called the chreia. Consequently, the thesis is a formal analysis, though certain historical conclusions will emerge. I shall structure the thesis in three main sections and twelve chapters. The first section will present an overview of the history of the investigation of the controversy dialogues from Dibelius to the present day and will conclude that the specific type of rhetorical criticism which I shall evaluate and traditional historical criticism can be mutually beneficial when used together. The second section will describe rhetoric as understood in antiquity and outline the definitions, classifications, and elaborations of the chreia given in the ancient handbooks known as the Progymnasmata. The final section will bring together the insights of historical criticism and rhetorical analysis in the study of the six Markan pericopes. The most important conclusion which I propose is that the primitive form of these dialogues was modelled after the chreia form. This suggests that they emerged not from some anonymous collectivity but were consciously formed by individuals with some education and knowledge of a pagan literary form. They were conceived in a unitary fashion. I further argue that the rhetorical situation from which the dialogues emerged was the synagogue where the followers of Jesus were arguing for a less strict religious observance and were being opposed by a more rigorist, Pharisaic party. During the process of transmission the form decayed as more material was added, and there is no evidence that either the tradition or Mark himself knew the form or moulded the materials in imitation of the form. Although these pericopes do show an intensification of polemic, they do not reveal any laws of transmission, at least from the rhetorical point of view. Finally, the arguments used in the original dialogues are based on human wisdom and common values, and do not refer to the Jewish law or the traditions. Jesus is depicted as a teacher of wisdom who, like a Greek philosopher- teacher, calls pupils to himself.

Genesis 2:23 speaks of a miraculous couple in a literal one-flesh union formed by God without a volitional or covenantal basis. Genesis 2:24 outlines a metaphoric restatement of that union whereby a naturally born couple, by means of a covenant, choose to become what they were not in a metaphoric one-flesh family union—such forms the aetiology of mundane marriage in both the Hebrew Bible and the NT. It is this Gen 2:24 marriage that is understood in the Hebrew Bible as the basis of the volitional, conditional, covenantal relationship of Yahweh and Israel, and in the NT of the volitional, conditional, covenantal relationship of Christ and the church—that is, Gen 2:24 is the source domain which is cross-mapped to the target domain (God ‘married’ to his people) in the marital imagery of both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. It is an imagery that embraced the concept of divorce and remarriage. The NT affirms that the pattern for mundane marriage is to be found in Gen 2:24 (Matt 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12). But NT scholars and the church have conflated the aetiology of the Gen 2:24 marriage with that of Adam and Eve’s marriage described in Gen 2:23, and thus see that the NT teaches that mundane marriage is to be modelled on the primal couple—a model that imposes restrictions on divorce and remarriage that are not found in the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, this study suggests that the NT writers would not employ an imagery they repudiated in their own mundane marriage teaching, and that an exegesis of that teaching can be found, focusing on divorce and remarriage, which is congruent with its own imagery.

M.A. / The fact that God (Yahweh) is often depicted in the Old Testament as violent is a problem. Especially for us who come to the text as modern readers. Even though our society is full of violent acts, there is a general remorse towards violence. A small book like Nahum is filled with violence and introduces Yahweh at an early stage as a “vengeful God”. It then goes further and describes the fall of Nineveh and the Assyrians in a graphic manner. This vengeful and violent God was central to the problem of this dissertation. The problem was: How should the violence in the current form of Nahum be interpreted and how should it be understood in a modern context. This study will make use of dual methodology due to the fact that the text of Nahum was rooted in a concrete social and historical situation. Firstly the social and historical circumstances is studied and used to interpret the text. To understand the problem in a modern context the second part of the dual methodology will come into play. This will look at the ideology that is ingrained in the rhetoric of the text. The question will be asked whether Yahweh is as violent as He is described or whether His description in Nahum could be a construct of society and ideology. Proposals for new readings of Nahum and new metaphors and constructs for God is then suggested.

The best starting point for an examination of the theme and theology of the Exodus in the Old Testament is the Psalter, for here is recorded the living faith of Israel over a long period. The compilation of the Psalter from its earliest poems to its latest additions and final editing spans several centuries. It is a collection of collections, revised and edited more than once. Most scholars today agree that its material ranges in date from pre-exilic to late post-exilic, there being a swing away from an extravagant preference for a Maccabean dating of many Psalms. The Exodus theme to be found in the Psalter thus falls within a broad historical sweep. In the Psalter, individual and communal expressions of faith both have their place. Personal Psalms lay bare the human heart with the gamut of its emotions from despair to deep joy and praise. Psalms which were used corporately draw together the worshiping community in a way which reveals the unity of Israel, the nation, to be founded upon their relationship to Yahweh. Into the fabric of individual and national life, the thread of the Exodus faith was woven. Our task is to follow this thread, and discover the pattern which it weaves against its background. In the analysis which follows, each of the five Books of the Psalter will be examined in turn, the important passages being dealt with first, then the oblique references to the Exodus, and, lastly, those which may be described as conjectural. There are some nine Psalms which deal directly with the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings ... Chap. 1, p. 1.

There must be certain reasons why one embarks on a study of the Holy Spirit. The first is perhaps because there is a need today for a Biblical doctrine of the Spirit. The second follows from the first, for there is a need for a deeper knowledge of the Spirit and His work. He is the life-giving Spirit, and we need today to be spiritually alive. The third reason for a study of this kind is that we need a deeper understanding of the power of the Spirit in the affairs of men in the world. We have got away from the idea that God works amongst us through His Spirit, and we tend to think more and more of the achievements of man, and the power of the machine to do as we wish. We need to return to the power of the Spirit, and to be instruments of God's wishes. Finally, our Christianity today, in this country, appears to be so lifeless, so stuck in the groove of routine - the interminable bazaars, money raising efforts, and social half-hours - that we have lost the enthusiasm of first century Christianity, the driving force of the Spirit spurring us on to bring the Gospel of Life to the hungry world. We need in our modern experience and our modern condition, to find the powerful enthusiasm, as a result of the Spirit' s working in us, that the early Christians found when they were filled with Him and worked under His guidance. So we undertake the study of the Spirit among the early Church, in the hope that we too may desire to be filled as the Apostles were filled.

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