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The text of the book of Revelation preserves examples of scriptural reuse that cohere with similar patterns of borrowing in other ancient Jewish works. This thesis describes the processes of reuse employed by Revelation's notional author (John), and places them into conversation with modes of reuse employed in other ancient Jewish texts, using Zechariah 1-8 as a test case. The design of the study has been crafted to explore these examples in a manner consistent with ancient textual composition. In the first chapter, I examine a dominant aspect of Jewish and early Christian textual culture: pluriformity. I argue that a pluriform scriptural tradition (in both Hebrew and Greek) was a controlling force that shaped the processes of scriptural reuse and, in turn, composition in this period. This analysis also delimits the possible forms of Zechariah available to ancient readers. With textual pluriformity in mind, the next chapter examines the text of Zech 1-8 preserved in John's scriptural references (Rev 5.6; 6.1-8, 9-11; 7.1; 11.4; 19.11-16). While this analysis is complicated by the author's presentation of reused material in Revelation, the evidence strongly suggests that John was familiar with a Hebrew form of Zechariah. Once John's preferred form of Zechariah is identified, the third chapter describes his techniques of reuse. This portion of the thesis consists of a catalogue and discussion of the differences in graphic representation between segments of Zech 1-8 and their instantiation in Revelation. This examination builds a set of textual data that accesses John's processes and strategies of reading. The fourth section of the thesis explores John's habits of reading as witnessed in his techniques of reuse. This section identifies features of Zech 1-8 that motivated John to engage with and alter the wording of antecedent material. Not every textual difference can be accounted for in this way, but it is evident that John is cognisant of the features of a particular form of Zech 1-8. Many of the differences between source and reuse can be explained as John's attempt to comprehend ambiguities in Zechariah. The final section of the thesis is a comparative analysis. The results of the preceding examinations of Revelation are compared to instances of the reuse of Zechariah in early Jewish literature, including works in the Hebrew Bible, the ancient versions of Zechariah, Dead Sea Scrolls, and works commonly classified as “deutero-canonical.” This analysis grounds previous observations about John's reuse in their native textual culture and acts as an historical control. The evidence suggests that John's modes of reading, reformulation, and reuse are similar to those found in other early Jewish works. The thesis concludes that scriptural reuse in the book of Revelation cannot be understood apart from the realities of textual pluriformity and the practices of scriptural reuse in Jewish antiquity. This approach suggests that John is a “scribal” expert—a careful reader of his scriptural tradition—and that his modes of reuse are conditioned by the textual culture of this period.

This study examines the metaphor of the shepherd in Zechariah 11:4-17, which is a prominent and significant one in the Hebrew Bible. It defines Yahweh‟s relationship with the nation of Israel and those who have faith in him. But Zechariah 11:4-17 presents a shepherd image which contradicts to the basic metaphor in the Hebrew Bible. The thesis of this study argues that the differing shepherd image in Zechariah 11:4-17 is the result of the rejection by the people of the responsible shepherd, which caused Yahweh to surrender his shepherd responsibility. It is a metaphor designed to punish an unrepentant Israel. Zechariah 11:4-17 furnishes an example of a situation where Yahweh surrendered his shepherding responsibilities to those irresponsible shepherds. This example should be incorporated into the said metaphor, so as an objective and comprehensive meaning may be achieved, and one should consider this metaphorical meaning in the study of the subject. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M. Th. (Old Testament)

This study examines the metaphor of the shepherd in Zechariah 11:4-17, which is a prominent and significant one in the Hebrew Bible. It defines Yahweh‟s relationship with the nation of Israel and those who have faith in him. But Zechariah 11:4-17 presents a shepherd image which contradicts to the basic metaphor in the Hebrew Bible. The thesis of this study argues that the differing shepherd image in Zechariah 11:4-17 is the result of the rejection by the people of the responsible shepherd, which caused Yahweh to surrender his shepherd responsibility. It is a metaphor designed to punish an unrepentant Israel. Zechariah 11:4-17 furnishes an example of a situation where Yahweh surrendered his shepherding responsibilities to those irresponsible shepherds. This example should be incorporated into the said metaphor, so as an objective and comprehensive meaning may be achieved, and one should consider this metaphorical meaning in the study of the subject. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M. Th. (Old Testament)

The principal aim of this study is to discern what has shaped the author of 1 Peter to regard Christian suffering as a necessary (1.6) and to-be-expected (4.12) component of faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ. Most research regarding suffering in 1 Peter has limited the scope of inquiry to two particular aspects—its cause and nature, and the strategies that the author of 1 Peter employs in order to enable his addressees to respond in faithfulness. There remains, however, the need for a comprehensive explanation for the source that has generated 1 Peter’s theology of Christian suffering. If Jesus truly is the Christ, God’s chosen redemptive agent who has come to restore God’s people, then how can it be that Christian suffering is a necessary part of discipleship after his coming, death and resurrection? What led the author of 1 Peter to such a startling conclusion, which seems to runs against the grain of the eschatological hopes and expectations of Jewish restoration ideology? This thesis analyzes the appropriation of shepherd and fiery trials imagery, and argues that the author of 1 Peter is dependent upon Zechariah 9-14 for his theology of Christian suffering. Said in another way, the eschatological program of Zechariah 9-14, read through the lens of the Gospel, functions as the substructure for 1 Peter’s eschatology and thus its theology of Christian suffering. In support of this hypothesis, this study highlights the fact that Zechariah 9- 14 was available and appropriated in early Christianity, in particular in the Passion Narrative tradition; that the shepherd imagery of 1 Pet 2.25 is best understood within the milieu of the Passion Narrative tradition, and that it alludes to the eschatological program of Zechariah 9-14; that the fiery trials imagery found in 1 Peter 1.6-7 and 1 Pet 4.12 is distinct from that which we find in Greco-Roman and OT wisdom sources, and that it shares exclusive parallels with some unique features of the eschatological program of Zechariah 9-14; that Zechariah 9-14 offers a more satisfying explanation for the modification of Isa 11.2 in 1 Pet 4.14, the transition from 4.12-19 to 5.1-4, why Peter has oriented his letter with the term διασπορά, and why he has described his addresses as οἶκος τοῦ θεοῦ; and finally that 1 Peter contains an implicit foundational narrative that shares distinct parallels with the eschatological program of Zechariah 9-14. We can conclude that 1 Peter offers a unique vista into the way in which at least one early Christian witness came to understand and to communicate the fact that Christian suffering was a necessary feature of faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ.