It is our purpose in this dissertation to discuss some of the major phases of St. Paul's teaching concerning the consummation of the ages of history. So far as we can understand his thinking on the subject, he held to the Biblical presentation of history as constituting basically two ages: the present age and the age to come.

This dissertation argues that the Gospel of John was written (at least in part) as a response to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE and the resulting questioning that would have centered on the location of Jewish worship in that temple’s absence. Along these lines, the Fourth Gospel presents the person of Jesus as the locus of worship, both before and after the resurrection event. The risen Jesus abides with his faithful as the dwelling of the divine Presence/Glory, in the same way that the Presence/Glory had dwelt in the midst of Israel in the wilderness tabernacle during the Exodus. Hence, John presents those who embrace the Jesus-temple as “Israel.” The presentation of Jesus as worship locus relies entirely upon the portrayal of Jesus as sacrifice, which has strong parallels to Akedah traditions found in some rabbinic texts and in Philo of Alexandria, among others. Among the ramifications of such a view is the translation of the term Ἰουδαῖοι, typically translated into English as “Jews.” This thesis argues that the translation of Ἰουδαῖοι is overwhelmingly dependent upon the Fourth Gospel’s theme of Jesus as locus of worship, which depends upon the portrayal of Jesus as sacrifice. Because John’s use of Ἰουδαῖοι is centered on the problem of worship location, it should be translated as “Judeans” in nearly every instance: the Ἰουδαῖοι are those who do not have a temple, while Ἰσραήλ is comprised of those who have the Jesus-temple as their worship space.

In his two-volume account of Christian beginnings Luke fills out for already instructed Theophilus Mark’s account of Jesus, and extends it to tell of the bringing of ‘good news’ for all people, offering a tested alternative to the pagan world-view, worthy to be adopted by citizens of the Roman empire. Primarily employing ‘redaction-critical’ methods and seeking narrative patterns with variations within the whole text, we analyse the roles of Peter in the first half of Acts and the influences upon Luke in their making. They portray the pattern of apostolic witness in message, deed and life, and anticipate the extending of the mission to Gentiles, which is taken up in a heroic way by Paul in the second half of Acts. Then analysing Luke’s reshaping of the account of Peter before Easter in his first volume, we show it is done with an eye to how it will be completed in Acts, how Peter will repent from denying Jesus to strengthen his brother apostles and urge repentance on his fellow-Jews. Luke’s captivating narrative is persuasive for its implied reader in the context of the post-apostolic age, that the apostolic kerygma proclaims the divine gift of salvation expected by Israel’s prophets, despite its rejection by much of Judaism. The missions of Paul are to be received as being in harmony with Peter’s. A foundation has been established which will outface Christian rivalries and strengthen believers under persecution. The influence of Luke’s account on other early Christian writers is tested where evidence is available. Luke’s success is that his account became, almost without rival, the canonical New Testament account of Christian beginnings.

The Apocalypse of Abraham, a pseudepigraphon only extant in a fourteenth century Old Church Slavonic manuscript, has not received much attention from scholars of Ancient Judaism, due in part to a lack of readily available information regarding the history and transmission of the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha. This dissertation examines the historical context of these works with the aim of assessing the probability that they contain ancient Jewish material. The rest of the dissertation is focused on the Apocalypse of Abraham specifically, discussing its date and provenance, original language, probability that it comes from Essene circles, textual unity, and Christian interpolations. This includes treatments of the issue of free will, determinism, and predestination in the Apocalypse of Abraham as well as the methodological complexities in trying to distinguish between early Jewish and Christian works. It also provides an in-depth comparison of the Apocalypse of Abraham with 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch and takes up the question of the social setting for these texts based on relevant precedents set by recent scholars of midrash who seek to probe the “socio-cultural and historical situatedness” of midrashic texts. This discussion includes a survey of parallels between the content of the Apocalypse of Abraham and rabbinic literature to support the argument that a sharp distinction between apocalyptic ideas and what later became rabbinic tradition did not exist in the time between 70 and 135 C.E. Overall, this dissertation argues that the Apocalypse of Abraham is an early Jewish document written during the decades following the destruction of the Second Temple. While seeking to warn its readers of the dangers of idolatry in light of the apocalyptic judgment still to come, it also provides sustained exegesis of Genesis 15, which gives cohesion to the entire document.

The question of whether Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and if so in what sense, is one of the most important in historical Jesus research. Although many factors play a role in answering this question, one has been neglected for far too long: the Christology of Jesus’ disciples. This thesis provides a much needed analysis of the disciples’ view of Jesus. Numerous Gospel passages are evaluated using criteria, such as the criterion of multiple independent attestation and the criterion of embarrassment, to determine their historicity. These passages are then studied against the background of Second Temple Judaism to determine how the disciples viewed Jesus. The analysis demonstrates that from the time Jesus’ disciples first began following him they believed he was the Messiah. Ultimately, this conclusion strongly reinforces the view that Jesus made a messianic claim for himself.

The Biblical Judith was written over 2,000 years ago and has become elemental material for artists and writers who struggle with male and female identity. Questions about how beauty has been defined, and who has defined it, as well as the subject of violence as gender-specific territory arise out of the intertextual study of the many re-workings of Judith and Holofernes' "romance."^ A rich array of Judith characters are developed by artists and writers that reveal cultural values about women. Judith as chaste widow is visually presented in the stone archivolt of the Chartres Cathedral and in Alfred Stevens Victorian painting. She is present in the literature by way of the Old English epic; through Christine de Pizan's allusion in The Book of the City of Ladies and Guillaume Salluste du Bartas' epic, La Judit (1574). Christina of Markyate's chaste sexuality is due to her reverence for Mary and Judith articulated in her twelfth century autobiography. In some of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, Judith, like Custance is upheld as the essence of virtue and purity, while in other tales, she appears suspect.^ In the tradition of the "woman worthy" or femme forte there is Donatello's statue (ca. 1456-60), Giorgione's sixteenth century painting, and a multitude of works by Botticelli, Mantegna and Cranach. But the strength of the artist and her figures are felt in Artemisia Gentileschi's five paintings of Judith and her cohort, Abra. In studying Artemisia I found myself standing with Mary Garrard, Artemisia, Judith and the Handmaid in a newly formed collage of strength. And soon Shelley Reed, a Cambridge artist, joined us with her revision of Hans Baldung's sixteenth century painting in which she again removes the head and leaves the figure of a woman defending her right to bodily integrity.^ Judith's sexual provocativeness is a favorite image in art as she becomes stereotyped as the femme fatale. Hans Baldung (1525), Saraceni (1615-20), Valentin de Boulogne (ca. 1626), Vouet (1621), Caravaggio (1598-99), Rubens (1630s), Correggio (1512-14), Vernet (1831) and Klimt (1901, 1909) present us with a riveting portfolio on this theme.^ Contemporary literature is saturated with the sexual nature of power provoked by Judith and Holofernes. Plays by Hebbel, Giraudoux and Barker provide Judith with a far from heroic finish. But Nicholas Mosley's Judith finds a way to survive with Holofernes: heads do not roll, they connect.^ Such deep and moving dialogs are formed between art and literature in the study of Judith that I hope the annotated bibliography of 480 works of literature, art and music included in the Appendix invites further study. ^

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The objective of this dissertation is to explore the meanings, significance, and functions of sacred space developed in the Hebrew Bible. A wide range of categories, models, and geographical forms of biblical sacred space will be presented: the cosmos, Mt. Zion, the Land of Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple, the Tabernacle, sanctuaries and sacred sites, the high places, and the micro-scales of cultic installations, such as the Ark, altars, sacred poles, and sacred pillars. From a biblical point of view, the two realms of the sacred and the profane co-exist. The sanctity of a place can be restricted and intensified to a certain zone of space or micro-scales of cultic installations. It can also be extended to a wider scope of space, such as the entire sanctuary, the entire city, the entire land, or the cosmos. These models of sacred space used in the biblical texts reflect the manifestation of the specific worldview that is governed by the concept of holiness and the particular concepts of God associated with the notions of divine dwelling presence, divine glory, and divine rest. The Israelite model of sacred space emphasized in a particular biblical text can also represent related transformations of the functions, meanings, and significance of the concepts of sacred space. For instance, the establishment of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem signifies the transformation of the legitimate place of worship in ancient Israelite religion, from a dynamic model to a permanent, static one. Its meanings, significance, and functions are now contingent upon the fixed location in Jerusalem. This dissertation provides evidence of the plurality of meanings, significance, and functions of the concepts of sacred space in the Hebrew Bible. This exploration of the biblical concepts of sacred space includes a discussion of various issues: defining forms, sources of sanctity, rules of access and boundaries, and contexts and uses of biblical sacred space. The exploration also includes consideration of the distinctive intentions of various biblical writers and their perspectives on geographical and spatial realities.

This dissertation is intended as an exposition of the examples and precepts of prayer in the life of Jesus, as recorded in the four Gospels

Adam, the father of all men initiated a fall from innocence; the story of postlapsarian humanity discloses an omnipresent attempt to return to the Garden, the state of innocence. This journey back to consciously achieved innocence is revealed in the story of Israel's quest for the Promised Land, a land covenanted to this people by YHWH. To live in a holy land (sacred space), Israel must put off all attachments to mortal aims, she must sacrifice the profane, horizontal world and enter the sacralized, vertical sphere to become hale, healthy, holy, and whole: wholeness accompanies this return to the center.The Old Testament is the story of a people who fail to come to the promised wholeness. Although Israel never realized this potential holiness, her movement from Egypt through the Wilderness to Canaan is typology for everyman's journey to a new consciousness: God separated Israel from the profane world opening the door to cleansed perception, greater unity and conscious innocence. In keeping his covenant they would find the sacred and return to the center, thus recreating the primordial pattern: moving from chaos to order--the eternal return.