This study investigates the reception of Isaiah 6:9-10 in the New Testament, in order to establish whether the interpretation of this authoritative text has remained stable, or has been altered through many hands and years. Furthermore, the question is posed, ‘what does this mean (if anything) for contemporary Biblical interpretation?’ It is clear that the New Testament authors (i.e. Mark, Matthew, Luke and John) employed Isaiah 6:9-10 in different contexts and for different purposes. However, it is argued that these various interpretations do not violate the original sense of the verses as they appeared in the context of the book of Isaiah. Instead, it appears that the New Testament authors have recognized in these verses a resemblance to their own respective circumstances and have subsequently adapted Isaiah 6:9-10 in appropriate and relevant ways to their own respective circumstances. This is similar to what contemporary Bible interpreters do. In the end, it is acknowledged that a Biblical text needs to be interpreted in light of its original setting, but also in light of new contexts, if we take seriously the fact that the Bible is the living word of God. Thus, it is recognized that the Biblical text is the product of both human and divine authorship. As such, the Biblical text has a particular interpretation related to the specific historical context in which it originated, but the Biblical text also transcends this context and offers truth that remains relevant for generations to come. / Dissertation (MTh)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / New Testament Studies / MTh / Unrestricted

For many pre-modern and modern critics, the emergence of Ezra among the post-exilic Jerusalem community marks a significant event in the beginning stages of Judaism. Ezra’s promulgation of a “law of Moses,” bolstered by the theory of Persian imperial authorization, is often viewed as the moment at which the final form of the Pentateuch is published. The accounts contained in Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8-10, however, continue to present historical and literary problems for the exegete. Compounding the difficulties for a reconstruction of Ezra’s activities, recent scholarship has raised questions concerning the viability of state-sanctioned support for the Pentateuch and revived skepticism on the historicity of Ezra and the reliability of the biblical witness. Still, the Ezra Memoir (EM) remains an important source that is shaped by the political, religious, and social worldview of post-exilic Yehud. This study incorporates two scholarly debates: on the one hand, the identification of EM and its supplemental layers; and on the other hand, the development of the Pentateuch up to this period. After the parameters of EM are identified in Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 8-10, this study supports EM’s use of Deuteronomic and Priestly literature but adds that EM also demonstrates significant literary connections to pentateuchal strands that are neither Deuteronomic nor Priestly. These strands are distinguished by the narrative and historical claims that are preserved in the classical pentateuchal documents. This study concludes that EM is a product of the Second Temple that anticipates the final form of the Pentateuch by collecting and integrating multiple presentations of the wilderness generation into a super-narrative that projects Ezra and the returnees as a second exodus and Sinai generation that supersedes their predecessors.

This thesis examines the biblical interpretation of the eminent Victorian Baptist pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), who became one of the most renowned preachers in the English-speaking world. His Metropolitan Tabernacle in London was the world's first 'megachurch', with a weekly congregation of over 5,000; by the end of his life, more than ten thousand copies of Spurgeon's sermons were printed and distributed weekly. Through his example and his publications, he had an immense influence on preaching across the North Atlantic world. This thesis, the first sustained analysis of Spurgeon's biblical interpretation, argues that his preaching success lay in his distinctive approach to Scripture, and that Christ's crucifixion and the priority of conversion formed the interpretive lens through which Spurgeon approached biblical texts. Chapter one examines Spurgeon's early education and conversion, and explores some previously unpublished early sermons. Chapters two and five analyze Spurgeon's mature addresses and publications, including his magazine and biblical commentaries. Chapters three and four, respectively, address Spurgeon's use of the Old and New Testament in his preaching, with particular attention on the language of cross and conversion. Finally, chapter six considers the instruction that he provided to the hundreds of students who attended his Pastors' College.

To extend research on Baumrind’s parenting styles, a scenario study was conducted to determine if the gender of a stimulus child and the parenting style employed by stimulus parents would relate significantly to biblical interpretation style and preferred worship style. A 2x3 independent groups factorial design was employed for analysis in two different procedures. Respondents (152 undergraduate students) were provided with one of six scenarios, each of which varied by gender of stimulus child and by one of three parenting styles employed by the stimulus parent. Respondents were then directed to complete the Scriptural Literalism Scale (Hogge & Friedman, 1967) and the Worship Style Index, which provided measures of biblical interpretation style and worship style respectively. The results suggested that parenting styles relate to how one comes to interpret the Bible and worship style and that gender also relates to worship style. The authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles related more and the permissive parenting style the least to a literal approach to biblical interpretation and to a structured worship style.

<p>This dissertation lays the groundwork for a reevaluation of early Protestant understandings of salvation in the sixteenth century by tracing the emergence of the confessional formulation of the doctrine of justification by faith from the perspective of the history of biblical interpretation. In the Introduction, the author argues that the diversity of first-generation evangelical and Protestant teaching on justification has been widely underestimated. Through a close comparison of first- and second-generation confessional statements in the Reformation period, the author seeks to establish that consensus on this issue developed slowly over the course over a period of roughly thirty years, from the adoption of a common rhetoric of dissent aimed at critiquing the regnant Catholic orthopraxy of salvation in the 1520's and 1530's, to the emergence of a common theological culture in the 1540's and beyond. With the emergence of this new theological culture, an increasingly precise set of definitions were employed, not only to explicate the new Protestant gospel more fully, but also to highlight areas of divergence with traditional Catholic teaching.</p> <p> With this groundwork in place, the author then examines the development of several key concepts in the emergence of the confessional doctrine of justification through the lens of biblical interpretation. Focusing on two highly contested chapters in Paul's epistle to the Romans, the author demonstrates that early evangelical and Protestant biblical exegesis varied widely in its aims, motivations, and in its appropriation of patristic and medieval interpretations. Chapter 1 consists of a survey of pre-Reformation exegesis of the first half of Rom 2, and the author demonstrates that this text had traditionally been interpreted as pointing to an eschatological final judgment in which the Christian would be declared righteous (i.e., "justified") in accord with, but not directly on the basis of, a life of good deeds. In Chapter 2, the author demonstrates that early evangelical exegetes broke away from this consensus, but did so slowly. Several early Protestant interpreters continued, throughout the 1520's and 1530's, to view this text within a traditional frame of interpretation supplied by Origen and Augustine, and only with Philipp Melanchthon's development of a rhetorical-critical approach to the text were Protestants able to overcome the traditional reading and so neutralize the first half of Rom 2 as a barrier to the emerging doctrine of justification by faith alone.</p> <p> Chapters 3, 4, and 5 all deal with the reception history of what is arguably the central text in the Reformation debates concerning justification by faith, Rom 3. Chapter 3 turns once more to patristic and medieval interpretation, and here it is argued that that two major strands of interpretation dominated pre-Reformation exegesis. A "minority view" contrasted justification with works of the ceremonial law, arguing that Paul's assertion of justification "apart from works of the law" was aimed at highlighting the insufficiency of the Jewish ceremonial law in contrast with the sacraments of the Catholic church. In contrast with this view, the "majority view" (arising again from Origen and Augustine) argued that the contrast was properly viewed as one between justification and works of the moral law, thus throwing into sharp relief the problem of justification in relation to good works. This tradition generally followed Augustine in drawing a contrast between works of the law performed prior to, and following upon, the initiation of justification as a life-long process of transformation by grace, but at the same time insisted that this process ultimately issued in the believer fulfilling the demands of the moral law. In Chapter 4, I turn to Luther's early exegesis of Rom 3, as seen in his lectures from 1515. In contrast with Luther's own description of his "Reformation breakthrough" later in life, I argue that Luther did not arrive at his new understanding of justification in a flash of inspiration inspired by Augustine; rather, his early treatment of Romans is unimpeachably Catholic and unmistakably Augustinian, although there are indications even in this early work that Luther is not entirely satisfied with Augustine's view. In Chapter 5, I consider the ways in which Luther's followers develop his critique of the Augustinian reading of justification in the first generation of the Reformation. Throughout this period, it was unclear whether Protestant exegesis of Paul would resolve itself into a repristinization of patristic theology, inspired in large part by Augustine, or whether it would develop into something genuinely new. The key turning point, I argue, came in the early 1530's with Melanchthon's rejection of Augustine's transformative model of justification, and his adoption in its place of a strictly forensic construal of Paul's key terms. Many of Melanchthon's fellow reformers continued to operate within an Augustinian framework, however as Melanchthon's terms passed into wider acceptance in Protestant exegesis, it became increasingly apparent that the Protestant reading of Paul could not ultimately be reconciled with patristic accounts of justification.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis is a contribution to the study of the biblical interpretation of the Italian Reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562). Specifically researched is Martyr's use of the Jewish resources of the 1525 Bomberg Bible in his interpretation of Lamentations, Martyr's earliest surviving commentary. The form of this investigation is as follows: first, an introduction to the use of Jewish resources by Christian students of scripture; secondly, an annotated translation of Martyr's Lamentations commentary; thirdly, conclusions concerning Martyr's use of Jewish commentary. After a select bibliography, there are appendices which include a synopsis of sixteenth century Latin translations of Lamentations and an annotated translation of the Jewish commentators on Lamentations in the 1525 Bomberg Bible. An argument will be made that Martyr drew much useful philology from the Jewish commentators but also unwittingly absorbed considerable non-philological exegesis in order to embellish his commentary and on occasion to evade the results of philological exegesis.

This thesis examines the early Jewish reception of the love command (Lev 19:18) during the Second Temple period. Although the ascendancy of this command as the “greatest” command in later Jewish and Christian writings is well-known, the historical interpretative process through which this levitical love command came to be viewed as such is not widely known. The thesis begins by examining the meaning of Lev 19:18 in its original context and then systematically traces its interpretation in Second Temple, Jewish literature by carefully examining its citations in context. The study examines the Greek translation of Lev 19:18 in the Septuagint, followed by a series of sustained exegetical analyses of interpretations of Lev 19:18 in the Book of Jubilees, the Damascus Document, the Community Rule, Galatians, Romans, James, and the Synoptic Gospels. Although the citations of Lev 19:18 are infrequent in the Second Temple period, a careful consideration of each occurrence demonstrates diverse, if complex, developments vis-à-vis Lev 19:18. It is argued that no mainstream Jewish interpretation of Lev 19:18 existed during the Second Temple period, and the analysis repudiates a simplistic, evolutionary trajectory (e.g., from restricted, intra-communal obligation to universal altruism) regarding its interpretative development. The study concludes by identifying important areas of development that paved the way for Lev 19:18 to become the indispensable, hermeneutical key and summary command in Jewish and Christian thought.

This study contributes to the available knowledge on the difficulty of using the Bible as a source in Christian ethics. In the study, the use of the Old Testament in Christian ethics is explored and analysed. The central research question is: What makes the use of the Old Testament in Christian ethics so difficult? The research findings reveal that the relationship between ethics and culture is problematic and contributes to the challenge of using the Old Testament in Christian ethics. The study is descriptive and is informed by research that has been done in the fields of Biblical Criticism and Christian ethics. The study focuses on methods and traditions of Biblical Criticism and Christian ethics that can play a role in interpreting biblical narratives in the Old Testament. It is important to look at the various tools and methods of Biblical Criticism to interpret biblical narratives and broaden our knowledge of biblical texts. Relevant approaches in Christian ethics can be useful in making pertinent contributions on moral issues since the focus is on character and community, and biblical texts can be used to shape moral identity. To demonstrate how a specific text in the Old Testament can be used in Christian ethics, the narrative of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38 is discussed in terms of character and community. The objective of this part of the study is therefore to show how Biblical Criticism and Christian ethics can be used when interpreting a text. The main argument is that Christians often find it difficult to integrate ethics and culture because the relationship between ethics and culture is problematic. The challenge is how one should interpret ethics, in this case Christian, in a particular culture as it plays an integral part in identity and moral formation. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / MA / Unrestricted

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Robert D. Linder / In England, 1532‐1649 was an era during which questions about obedience to rulers dominated ethical discussions. Most English people also respected biblical authority for governing certain behaviors. Obedience was central to the monarchy’s survival and the Bible was central to reformation of an English Church laden with medieval accretions. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 13:1‐7 was the most important biblical passage for understanding the Christian’s relationship to civil authority during this period, and interpreters had such high regard for biblical authority that the backing of this passage was crucial to the acceptance of any political theory that involved ideas about obedience or disobedience. Though eisegesis was not out of the question as a technique among these interpreters, societal and political circumstances motivated most exegetes to examine the text more closely than they might have if St. Paul’s meaning had been irrelevant. These conditions led to creative handling of the text that permitted the exegetes to continue to submit to biblical authority while advocating their varied opinions on obedience to civil authority. Some interpreters moved outside the constraints of traditional views of monarchy and obedience to develop a theory that God mediated his call to rulers through those who elected them. Acceptance of this theory finally brought about rejection of divine right monarchy, as symbolized by the execution of Charles I in 1649. By too quickly concluding that these English expositors merely sought biblical justification for their views after the fact, scholars have failed to appreciate how Romans 13 positively shaped Reformation views of the Christian’s relationship to the state. As the title suggests, this study will examine the discernable shift from seeing Romans 13:1‐7 as a text that commands non‐resistance to rulers to one that not only permits disobedience, but requires it. Thus, Romans 13 is not simply an influential political text, but stands as the most important political text of the period under consideration. This dissertation supplies a needed analysis of representative exegesis of Romans 13:1‐7 during this critical period of English history and considers the influence of these expositions on the development of republian ideals.

The Book of Ben Sira, written at some point between 198 and 175 BCE, is a Second Temple Jewish wisdom text which regularly echoes or quotes the Hebrew Bible. A recent area of study in biblical scholarship has been that of scribal culture, written sources and physical remains left behind by societies with manuscripts and a scribal profession. While scholarship on Ben Sira has centred on his use of texts and on his sociocultural background, these issues might be better understood by examining Ben Sira through the lens of scribal culture as understood in biblical scholarship. This thesis proposes first to study the primary data of Ben Sira closely in order to discern characteristics of Ben Sira's individual scribalism or personal compositional style. This can then be compared to other evidence of ancient scribal culture. The central argument of the thesis is that the lens of scribal culture tells us more about the complexity of this ancient composition. Chapter One introduces the thesis and covers scholarship on Ben Sira and on scribal culture. Chapter Two examines the portrayals of Noah (Sir 44:17-18) and Phineas (Sir 45:23-26), exploring how Ben Sira uses one major biblical source in each. Looking at the portrayals of Hezekiah-Isaiah (Sir 48:17-25) and Josiah (Sir 49:1-3), Chapter Three highlights the harmonization of multiple sources. Chapter Four examines Ben Sira's lines on weather (Sir 43:11-19) in order to evaluate the relationship between quotation and literary model. Chapter Five approaches the sociocultural and textual spheres on the subjects of death and the body (Sir 41:1-15). Chapter Six investigates Ben Sira's perspectives on physicians (Sir 38:1-15) in the light of ancient medicine. Each of the selected passages shed a slightly different light on the scribalism of Ben Sira.