This seven-chapter book, highlighted like a trail guide with Markers, will ease you into most basic, repeated themes found in the ancient texts. What is called the Old and New Testaments is a remarkable collection. It is intimidating for sure, but wise, prophetic, thorough and particular, with echoes that repeat into every culture. Through story and turn-arounds you will see how some very different individuals, in different times found their way into God’s real and sustaining peace. They listened to and reckoned with what God offers for soul survival. There’s hope here if you'll take it. / https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1033/thumbnail.jpg

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This dissertation examines the interpretation of the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany in the West from the earliest telling to the early sixteenth century. It begins by exploring the biblical texts from which later understandings were drawn. After examining the interpretations of two early Greek commentators, it traces the emergence of a paradigmatic way of telling about the characters in the patristic period. This paradigm dominated the medieval West, and was first challenged seriously when the Renaissance humanists began returning to the sources in the second decade of the sixteenth century. / Fully developed, the paradigmatic story of the Bethany family shaped the description of the characters, the narrative, and the application of the story to the life of the faithful. Dominating the medieval paradigm was the combination of Mary of Bethany with two other characters from the Gospel accounts: Mary Magdalene and the unnamed woman of great sin. In its fully developed form, the paradigm elaborated the character of this conflated Mary and enhanced her importance, correspondingly reducing the importance of Martha and Lazarus. Lessons drawn from the conflated figure know as Mary Magdalene concerned Mary as an example of the Christian penitent and a sign of the power of grace to convert even the most craven of sinners. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2424. / Major Professor: Walter Moore. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

In this dissertation I study the composition and reception of the Acts of Paul. Scholars often work on the assumption that the Acts of Paul was composed as a whole in the mid- to late second century, and on the basis of this assumption, a diverse group of manuscripts and traditions has been attributed to the Acts of Paul and its hypothetical reconstruction. To critique this practice, I study the traditions attributed to the Acts of Paul, using comparative and historical-critical arguments to identify and evaluate its discreet units. I argue that the manuscripts attributed to the Acts of Paul, rather than providing partial attestation to an early whole, may be better explained as evidence that various compositions and collections occurred under the title "Acts of Paul." / The argument has two parts. In the first part, I analyze traditions that circulated both independently and in at least one of the manuscripts with the title "Acts of Paul," considering each tradition separately: the Martyrdom of Paul in chapter 1, 3 Corinthians in chapter 2, and the Acts of Paul and Thekla in chapter 3. Among other methods, I use comparison with different genres to highlight each text's particularities. The function of these chapters is to exhibit the diverse and composite character of Acts of Paul. / The second part discusses attestation to the Acts of Paul. Chapter 4 discusses the earliest manuscripts that use the title " Acts of Paul," introducing additional acts and reconsidering the texts from chapters 1-3. Then chapter 5 asks how the earliest references to the Acts of Paul relate to what may otherwise be inferred from the extant manuscripts. I conclude that at least three distinct narrative sequences used the title "Acts of Paul" and that collections of "Acts of Paul" varied geographically and chronologically.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between humans and animals in the Hebrew Bible. Although the Hebrew Bible contains a multitude of different perspectives on animals, I argue that there are two basic categories into which these perspectives fall. One group of biblical texts, most notably Gen 1:28, affirms humans’ dominion over animals. Despite the ubiquity of this perspective in scholarly literature, an examination of the entire biblical corpus suggests that these texts represent the minority. A larger group of biblical texts, most notably Job 39:9, depict animals as beyond the dominion of human beings. Rather than attempting to account for every mention of animals in the Hebrew Bible, I will examine a select group of passages that represent each of the two positions. Regarding passages that depict animals as under humans’ dominion, I conclude that while these passages suggest that humans have some authority over animals, that dominion is neither complete nor absolute. Regarding passages that depict animals as beyond humans’ dominion, I will conclude that they in fact indicate that animals are under the direct dominion of God. The Hebrew Bible nowhere grants humans absolute dominion over animals but instead typically presents humans as having little, if any, dominion over animals. In general, the Hebrew Bible presents humans as possessing dominion over domestic animals and lacking dominion over wild animals. This presentation probably reflects the actual relationship that the Israelites had to the animals around them. / Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

High infant mortality and short female life span threatened Israelite women, who were respected as household administrators and educators. The concept of a personal god first observed in second millennium BCE Mesopotamian texts and house shrines involved apotropaic measures against a malevolent goddess who sickened and stole newborn children. Protective blessing inscriptions and deemphasis on the sexual aspect of Israelite figurines indicate that the personal goddess Asherah's function in Israelite religion was connected with protection more than with fertility. Offering benches and incense burners that define semi-public cult rooms in Syria-Palestine accompany female figurines in Israelite houses at Tell Masos, Tell el-Far'ah, Beer-sheba, and Tell Halif. Eye amulets such as those from the eighth century Lachish houses as well as the large-breasted pillar-figurines reflect a long-standing Near Eastern tradition of using eye and breast motifs to protect against the evil eye and child-stealing demons. The figurines' occurrence with women's textile and food preparation implements in female domains indicates that women set up a household shrine with an Asherah figurine near an entrance. The figurines interpreted as votives that mean "this is me" or "this is you" represent a covenant relationship between the breast-feeding mother of a newborn infant and a nurturing and protecting female deity. Israelite women dedicated votive gifts to Asherah and burned incense or oil with prayers and incantations on a regular basis during the vulnerable neonatal stage of a child's life, or at signs of illness. Ancient and modern Near Eastern parallels attest that women burn incense and oil to invoke the presence of a deity they contract with for protection. Pronouncing the deity's name is essential, and in iconic cultures, visual images empowered by prayers form important parts of these rituals.

Recent deconstructionist trends within Syro-Palestinian archaeology and biblical studies have now converged on the Israelite Monarchy causing two major ceramic reappraisals of the Iron Age I and II Periods. The result is a proposal for a new low chronology in Syro-Palestinian archaeology. These trends are creating more problems than they are solving by naively assuming ceramic change was consistent throughout Syro-Palestine and manipulating the archaeological data to fit the new models. The dissertation addresses the radical archaeological and historical reconstructions of the current trend by focusing on the Iron Age I-II transition in the northern parts of the Philistine coast and Shephelah (foothills)--Aijalon Valley Region. Excavations at Tel Miqne-Ekron provide new evidence for an evaluation of recent chronological proposals and aide in the development of a ceramic corpus of the Aijalon Valley Region. As a border site between the coastal region and the hills, Tel Miqne is an important site to isolate and compare regional variations and the complex socioeconomic variables that pattern the archaeological record. The dissertation is divided into three parts. Part I includes a review of current work in Syro-Palestinian Iron Age research and an overview of ceramic theory development. Part II contains the core database: (1) development of the Tel Miqne Stratum IV typology, and (2) a comparanda, with other sites in the region and attempt to isolate the chronological and spatial patterns of the Iron Age transition (11/10th century B.C.E.). Part III contains the results and interpretations. This study concludes that: (1) ceramic change is not chronologically homogeneous and therefore regional variation must be incorporated in all ceramic analyses; (2) the proposed new Low Chronology for the Iron Age in the southern Levant cannot be supported by the archaeological evidence; and (3) the Aijalon Valley Region reflects the complexity of the Iron Age transition as many ethnic elements and political groups vied for control of the important crossroads and access to coastal ports.

<p> This thesis examines the hypothesis that among other, possibly coincident, archetypal or developmental meanings, the traditional story of Adam and Eve strongly reflects multiple and conflicting major conceptions of infant psychological development, including prominent ones arising from depth psychological approaches that do not include a strong role for myth. A core element of this examination is a single in-depth illustration: The story of Adam and Eve closely tracks not only the central conceptions of Melanie Klein&rsquo;s narrative of infancy but also many of the details. Several examples in the literature are described in which other infancy narratives are linked to the story, some of which relate to the Klein parallel, and the concluding section lists and briefly discusses possible major examples not yet developed in the literature as avenues for future research. The last two chapters discuss some implications of the hypothesis, if true, for therapy, culture, and religion. </p>

<p>Christians engaged in mission and worship have been dealing with the issues of culture and contextualization since long before the word 'culture' was even used to describe what it does today in the the social sciences. Christian discussions about the importance of context for mission and worship employ the term 'culture,' 'cultures,' and their corresponding concepts in nearly identical ways to how the social sciences use them. Mission and worship proceed from Christian understandings of salvation history, the mission of God, and the role of the church which derive from theology rooted in Scripture. The terms 'culture' and 'cultures,' are usually defined, however, in ways that exclude any specific reference to Yhwh's involvement in them, from their origins to their destiny. This fundamental dissonance between common assumptions about culture and the biblical record may obscure important aspects of the uniqueness of human societies pertaining to mission and worship from our discussion. </p><p> This study raises the question of whether Christians are adequately served in these discussions by the meaning invoked with the words 'culture' and 'people group.' If the concepts of mission and worship themselves proceed from Christian understandings of Scripture, then Scripture is a natural place to look for guidance about how mission and worship have taken place and are to take place in the present day. Here I emphasize certain categories that emerge by hermeneutical tracing of biblical themes related to the topic of ethnic cultures. </p><p> I present the study in three parts. First Part I addresses questions about biblical theological views of ethnicity and ethnic cultures in Christian identity and worship. The studies center around the biblical theme of the glory of the nations with the research questions 1) What are the specific meanings of glory ([special characters omitted]) and nations ([special characters omitted]) as they appear in Revelation 21:24, 26 in canonical perspective? 2) What are the origin and destiny of the nations ([special characters omitted]) in Scripture? And 3) How does the narrative of Salvation History clarify the development of the glory of the nations? </p><p> In Part II an ethnographic case study of Sundanese Christian churches presents ethnographic data gathered with the following two questions in mind: 4) How have elements of traditional ethnic culture shaped the distinctively Sundanese Christian church movement? And 5) How do distinctive aspects of Sunda Christian identity and worship affect the appeal of the movement? </p><p> Finally in Part III I seek to integrate the thematic biblical and ethnographic streams to expose the missiological significance of the <i>glory of the nations</i> as a distinctively Christian concept and category for understanding ethnic cultures. The study culminates with practical recommendations for the re-examination and incorporation of the biblical concepts of [special characters omitted] and [special characters omitted] and a focus on the Hebrew identity within Scripture into mission practice and application to worship and church formation in multicultural congregations. </p>

<p> A Shepherd&rsquo;s responsibility is to care for and guide sheep in such a way that they (sheep) can effectively and proficiently perform the duties that are natural and necessary to sheep. The same is true with leaders and managers as it relates to their followers. This quantitative correlational research study was conducted to discover whether the biblical shepherd leadership model, particularly its characteristics, practices, and responsibilities (CPR), were related to successful church growth. A 45-item Likert type survey was used to ascertain the level of shepherd leadership of 106 pastors in the Church of God in Michigan. This score was then compared with statistical information found in the treasurers and ministry reports namely, attendance, tithe, and conversions that took place at these pastors&rsquo; local churches within a five year period. The results of the study showed a statistical positive association between shepherd leadership and the attendance and financial data. The data also showed a negative association between shepherd leadership and conversions. These findings will be helpful to pastors, educators, and church leaders to be more effective in ministry.</p>