The Nicene Creed (AD 325), expressly states that Jesus Christ "for our salvation came down from heaven" and that He "was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried and the third day He rose again, according to the scriptures." Here the structure and sequence of soteriological events are explicitly stated in creedal formulation, where Christ's crucifixion holds the strategic centre point, where Jesus not only dies, but dies for our salvation. The Cross is the emblematic sign of Christian authenticity, the kernel of the kerygma of faith and paradoxically the preferred mechanism that God uses for salvation. Indeed, St Paul proclaimed to the world in the first century: "We preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Even in the Gospels the apparent contradictory sign of the Messiah being nailed to a tree is highlighted, with taunts from onlookers and the last satanic tempatation, to "save yourself and come down from the Cross", is used to psychologically torment him in a last ditch attempt to abort the salvific enterprise; but salvation transparently can only come through the acceptance of the Cross. For as the great Spanish mystic and doctor of the Church St John of the Cross declares: "If you desire to possess Christ, never seek him without the Cross ... whoever seeks not the Cross of Christ, also seeks not the glory of Christ." Jesus indicates the magnetic pull of the Cross when He says in His own words: "and I, when I am lifted up from the Earth, will draw all men to myself", thus indicating the portal or ladder to heaven that the Cross symbolizes, where the divine glory shines diaphanously through the wood of the Cross. "It is as well to remember, however, that when we speak about the glory of God we are in fact speaking about the disclosure of his nature, which means that in his death, Jesus glorifies God and he himself is glorified; in other words, we see here the nature of God, and the nature of his Son. The glory of God is revealed." On Good Friday the centrality and instrumentality of the Cross is venerated, "behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the saviour of the world." The Cross is thus heavily laden with soteriological significance but we should never look at the Cross without being reminded of the resurrection, for the death and resurrection of Christ cannot be separated, since both are part of the mysterious purpose of God.

He spoke and galaxies whirled into place, stars burned the heavens, and planets began orbiting their suns – words of awesome, unlimited, unleashed power. He spoke again and the waters and lands were filled with plants and creatures, running, swimming, growing, and multiplying – words of animating, breathing, pulsing life. Again He spoke and man and woman were formed, thinking, speaking, and loving – words of personal and creative glory. Eternal, infinite, unlimited – He was, is, and always will be the Maker and Lord of all that exists. And then He came in the flesh to a speck in the universe called planet earth. The mighty Creator became a part of the creation, limited by time and space and susceptible to age, sickness, and death. But love propelled Him, and so He came to rescue and save those who were lost and to give them the gift of eternity. He is the Word (John 1:1); He is the Bread of Life (6:35); He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6); He is the Giver of Living Water (4:13-14); He is Jesus, the Christ. Without light, water, and food there could be no life. It is exactly these elements that John uses as symbols in his Gospel to present Jesus as the Light, Water and Food to the reader. Each of these symbols is a vital part of the context of eternal life though for this study the focus will be on water, and its symbolism in the book of John. We will firstly consider the meaning of Johannine symbolism, Following, the significance of the water motif in the Old and New Testament, the characteristics of John’s use of the Old Testament and the Johannine writings. We will end our study with the eschatology and the symbolic meaning of water in John 4. / Prof. J.A. du Rand

This thesis aims to set out parameters within which Christian ethical reappropriations of Old Testament Narratives can take place. Chapter One sets out the philosophical foundations for the project making special use of the work of Paul Ricoeur. It is argued that the notion of a narrative-self is crucial to understanding how it is that story can ethically shape its audience. Four specific ways in which it does this are set out. Chapter Two argues that story is far more important in OT ethics than has usually been appreciated. It moves' on to defend a hermeneutical model suggested by N. T. Wright for Christian interpretation of the OT. Having set forth the hermeneutical method in the first two chapters, Chapters Three to Five attempt to apply it to a case study. Chapter Three overviews the ethical use that has been made of Genesis 34 in the history of interpretation, whilst Chapter Four proposes an interpretation. Chapter Five is an attempt to interpret Genesis 34 within the context of the biblical metanarrative. It is argued that this sheds new light on appropriate and inappropriate Christian ethical uses of the chapter.

The aim of this dissertation is to study differences and correspondences in the syntactic structures in two Danish translations of the Bible which were made in two fundamentally different times; this means in the first complete translation of the Bible into Danish, the so-called Christian III Bible from the year 1550, and in the contemporary translation of the Bible from the year 1992. The studied corpus is represented by the Gospel of John. The main areas of research are word order in main clauses and subordinate clauses, and use of conujunctions in chosen types of subordinate clauses. The work points out the possible influence of its translation template, the Luther Bible from the the year 1545, on the syntax of the Christian III Bible. Key terms: Christian III Bible, 1992 Bible, conjunctions, word order, syntax, diachrony

This dissertation analyzes Rick Warren's hermeneutic based on his writings, conferences, sermons, and Bible studies. Chapter 1 introduces the topic giving special attention to Warren's popularity and the need for an examination of his hermeneutic. Chapter 2 demonstrates that Warren's purpose-driven hermeneutic is based on his understanding of the purpose of the Bible. In particular, Warren's doctrine of the Bible, his Bible study methodology, and his emphasis on the essential nature of application to the task of Bible interpretation are addressed. Chapter 3 examines Warren's preaching as a source for evaluating his hermeneutic. This chapter gives an explanation of his verse-with-verse methodology and how he uses Scripture to develop sermon series, individual messages, and the preaching points within his messages. Chapter 4 addresses Warren's hermeneutic as it is revealed in his writings and conferences. The chapter focuses on The Purpose Driven Church and its associated conference and materials, The Purpose Driven Life and the various Bible studies associated with the "40 Days of Purpose," and Warren's other books. Chapter 5 is devoted to Warren's use of translations and paraphrases as key to understanding his hermeneutic. An overall list of translations and paraphrases used by Warren is given along with a statistical analysis of the frequency of translation usage in his various works. A final chapter offers a conclusion to the study. An evaluation of overall trends, strengths, and weakness of Warren's purpose-driven hermeneutic is included. This chapter also gives a summary of the conclusions that the research has supported and an examination of some implications of Warren's hermeneutic to the greater field of church growth preaching. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

M.A. (Biblical Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Thesis advisor: Andrew Davis / Thesis advisor: Richard J. Clifford / The theme of exile in the second part of the book of the prophet Isaiah has prompted me to reflect on the refugee crisis in Cameroon. Refugees in the north of Cameroon hail from Nigeria where Boko Haram, an Islamic militant movement, has destroyed their towns and villages. The new exodus is about the triumphant and glorious return of the exiles from Babylon to the promised land. At this triumphant return, the main actor is God. I perceive parallels between this experience and the refugee experience in the north of Cameroon. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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Myanmar has undergone a political upheaval since colonial times. The country suffers in every aspects of life due to the political situation. Religious teachings, social and cultural traditions prolong these difficulties. Therefore words such as authority, power and submission have gained important in Myanmar. Those in power employ these to reinforce their rule and control people. In this context, a question that arises is what is the role of Christianity in Myanmar? Therefore the specific question for Christianity is to address how the teachings of the New Testament contribute or hinder the pursuit of freedom by the powerless and how we apply the concepts of authority, power and submission focused in some New Testament letters. This work looks at some New Testament texts which demand the authority, power and submission in people’s social, political and religious life. The postcolonial feminist uses imperial studies, decolonising, depatriarchalising, decoding, and de-moding as tools to analyse how these texts came into being with the influences of Greaco-Roman patriarchal, colonial and imperial systems. It also looks at how these texts were exegeted by mainstream scholarship, missionaries, Asian liberation theologians and Feminists and specifically by Myanmar Christians. This is in order to scrutinise if these interpretations reinforce or resist the authority and power. The postcolonial feminist resistant reading examines the texts from a Myanmar Buddhist context. It challenges all the colonial/imperial and patriarchal mentalities not only in the texts but also in parallel Buddhist teachings and Myanmar cultural traditions and tries to find out the unheard voices and hidden resistant materials respectively. This reading focuses on balancing power and submission. This work is a weapon to challenge the power, a voice to represent and a remedy for empowering ‘the others’ or the marginalised.

To date, the single criterion of Family 13 constituency has been the relocation of the Pericope Adulterae from its traditional location in John 7:53. This dissertation demonstrates why this criterion is inadequate and proposes a new criteria. After an overview of the history of research, potential Family 13 witnesses are classified by means of a methodology originated by Dr. David Parker’s use of Text und Textwert. This process identifies 8 witnesses inappropriately nominated as Family 13 members, thus establishing GA 13, 69, 124, 346, 543, 788, 826, 828, 983, and 1689 as valid members. Each of these 10 witnesses is then described palaeographically as a discrete artefact. Phylogrammatic software, originally designed for DNA analysis, is then adapted to exhaustively study these Johannine Greek texts. The by-product of this novel process complements and validates the earlier Text und Textwert process. Also available as a result of this study are original witness transcriptions (available at http://www.iohannes.com/family13/), a Critical Apparatus of Family 13 in St. John’s Gospel, an exhaustive description of the contents of 18 potential witnesses, and a description of the computer analysis process used in the study.