This dissertation examines Luke's use of kyrios within his narratives of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke reached back into the common religious cultural context of the early Christians where he obtained his understanding of kyrios as Yahweh from the Greek Jewish Scriptures (Chapter 1). When Luke and his Jewish audience heard kyrios, they first understood it to mean Yahweh. Luke was also writing in the larger cultural context of the Greco-Roman world and the Roman Empire, which was pervasively informed by the imperial cult (Chapter 2). Luke and his Greco-Roman audience (including his Jewish audience) instinctively recognized that kyrios' most obvious Greco-Roman referent was the emperor. Based on these identities of kyrios, Luke used his Gospel as the narrative canvas on which to develop and progressively reveal the identity of Jesus as Yahweh because he is kyrios (Chapter 3). Luke then took this established identity and made an overt political claim that Jesus is superior to the emperor as a god because he is Lord of all (Chapter 4). Luke's narrative agenda not only embraced the Jewish roots from which Christianity was born, it also challenged the environment in which it would thrive and ultimately triumph. For Luke, the identity of Jesus was profoundly clear. Jesus was Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, born a human being and as such he explicitly replaced Caesar as Lord of all. / Religion

This thesis examines of the religious and philosophical origins of racism, arguing that anti-black, anti-African racism has its origins in the biblical account of the ancient Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and the events recounted in the Hebrew scriptures. It begins with an examination of the nature of racism itself, considering how the contemporary experience of and scholarship about racism can illuminate the search for racism’s historical origins. Contemporary experience has taught us that the functioning of racism often operates independently of the explicit racial prejudice coupled with power once thought to comprise it. This understanding has been reflected in scholarship that has examined how racism has functioned through hierarchical discourse, a concept which is defined and analyzed at some length. Following this examination comes a “genealogical” tracing of hierarchical discourse about African phenomena in the Western-dominated academy, leading to the centrality of the religious concept of idolatry in the making of racist accounts of African phenomena. Finally, the thesis concludes with a chapter on the mytho-historical exodus event, which gave birth to this concept of idolatry, analyzing the meaning and significance of the event in the making of racist discourse. This thesis demonstrates that a broader understanding of racism as an outgrowth of a worldview necessarily hostile to alternatives, when applied to the study of the historical development of racism, paints a far more convincing and complete portrait of the origins of racism, its historical development, and its present functioning than studies based on a more narrow understanding of racism. / African American Studies

Four oracles appear in Jeremiah 21:11-23:8 detailing the failure and future of the final kings in Judah, also known as the King Collection. The final oracle against Jehoiachin (he also appears with the names Coniah / Jeconiah) precedes the announcement of the unnamed new Davidide, the Branch. The oracle against Jehoiachin appears to be unique, involving no stipulations of covenant wrongdoing, a feature of Deuteronomistic criticism of the kingship since Solomon. He is one of the most unremarkable kings in Israelite history. Yet, he is the concluding figure in both the Greek (Septuagint or LXX) and Hebrew (Masoretic Text or MT) versions of Jeremiah's King Collection, a significant change from the accounts in Kings and Chronicles. He occupies an important place in Josephus's attempts to sketch the ideal Israelite king, respectful of Roman rule. He is important to the rabbis in developing an atonement theory of the exile. In the New Testament, he appears in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, while the other kings from the King Collection disappear. The Epistle to the Hebrews may adopt similar ideas in developing the analogy of Melchizedek, another insignificant king in Israel's history, as a precursor to Jesus. Ideas developed from the flow of the oracle in the text of Jeremiah, shaped by the polemics of exile, appear in the Acts of the Apostles' casting of Jesus' spiritual kingship on the world's stage. Precritical Jewish and Christian exegesis adopted a harmonizing approach to the oracle, importing reasons from the Deuteronomistic History and the Chronicler for its harsh judgment. Yet discussion of the oracle and its significance in the construction of the figure of Jehoiachin in Jeremiah has all but disappeared from critical scholarship following the groundbreaking work of Bernhard Duhm. Early critical scholarship, while correcting many of the mistakes of precritical exegetes, followed the new Protestant confessionalism of the 19th century. Michel Foucault locates the loss of the theology of the cross as this decisive turn in interpretive methodology. This turn caused modern Protestant interpreters, who are mainly responsible for the foundations of modern critical studies in Jeremiah, to devalue disempowered kings in Israel's history, one of the most important hermeneutical categories in classical Jewish literature, according to Yair Lorberbaum. Thus, Bernhard Duhm, and later scholarship that builds on his work, missed the significance of this oracle in the textual function of the book of Jeremiah and its polemical significance in the debates between post-exile groups of Judeans. Gerhard von Rad, in his revision of Martin Noth's theory of the Deuteronomistic History, saw the importance of Jehoiachin as a source of hope for a renewed Israel. Jack Lundbom most recently observed the development of an oracular frame moving from the center outward in which the oracle against Jehoiachin appears. Yet, to date, little work has appeared on the way the canonical form of Jeremiah frames Jehoiachin and its effect on Jeremiah's end to the DtrH. To make sense of it, we must account for what appears to be an unfulfilled prophecy in Jeremiah 22, as recorded by Jehoiachin's treatment in Jeremiah 52 where, against the expectation of the oracle, the Jewish king again appears on the world stage. Mark Roncace has written extensively on how this type of prophecy functions in the book of Jeremiah. Speech-act theory, as proposed originally by J. L. Austin, and refined by his protégé, John Searle, provides further insight into this issue. Building on the scholarship of von Rad, Lundbom, Mark Leuchter and several other scholars of the sociopolitical forces in the production of biblical texts in exile, we will reconstruct the remarkably adaptable prophetic frame developed in exile around Jehoiachin and his oracle, which set the stage for a return of a Jewish king to the world stage. / Religion

This dissertation provides an English translation of Basil of Caesarea's sermon Homilia in divites based on Yves Courtonne's Greek text. I have included details of Basil's scriptural content in the notes. The searches to identify the scriptural content were done using LXX and GNT as databases and employing the search capabilities of Accordance Bible Software. Many scholars' comments on the sermon are also included in the notes. No English translation and annotation of Basil of Caesarea's sermon Homilia in divites has been available, though a devotional book with the translation appeared in 2009 after I began this project. As far as I know, Courtonne's 1935 French language version is the only commentary. While scholars have made assumptions about the date of the sermon, questions remain. I include details of a rigorous search to identify the date of composition which pulls together existing scholarly thought and an intricate search of internal data. I believe the sermon was written in 371 as Basil raised funds for his Basileiados. He invited a group of wealthy men to arrive early for a panegyris and delivered Homilia in divites in the days prior to the panegyris. Moreover, Basil's exegetical and theological writings have received much attention, while this sermon, which is neither overtly exegetical or theological, has only had limited study. Thematically, Homilia in divites is a sermon for Basil's and our times. He vividly describes the way God planned for wealth to be used: wealth is to be distributed not stored. Equally as vividly, Basil describes the consequences of storing wealth. / Religion

It is often left unquestioned that women in the Hebrew Bible desired children. Though this is highly probable, many scholars make the assumption that all women necessarily wanted children. Universalizing the desire for children reduces complex characters to stand-ins for a supposed motif. This also essentializes the role of a female character to that of child-bearer, when actually these women have many different roles. Furthermore, many scholars make the claim that having children is the only way for a woman to improve her status in ancient Near Eastern societies. Yet women did not always receive a change in status because of childbirth. Therefore, the reasons why women desire children are quite varied. / Religion

The interpretation of Paul’s command to imitate him in the New Testament has been widely and variously understood. This work uses close attention to the Hellenistic Jewish context of imitation in Paul’s world and the Latin and Greek epigraphic evidence to demonstrate that imitation was a practical strategy to unite the farflung churches of the early Christian movement. It did not establish Paul as a powerful figure over every church but was limited to those churches personally acquainted with Paul that could know how to conduct themselves by observing Paul’s example. / Religion

This thesis is a study of the interpretation and reception of the writings attributed to the apostle Paul based on the collation of references to Pauline texts in pre-Nicene Christian writings. The material is analysed utilising a method worked out by Teresa Morgan and Raffaella Cribiore to understand the nature and extent of indebtedness to literary authorities in ancient pedagogy. The application of their method means that the most frequently cited passages from the Pauline corpus become the focus for detailed examination, and a chapter is devoted to the following passages: 1 Corinthians 2.6-16, Ephesians 6.10-17, 1 Corinthians 15.50-58, and Colossians 1.15-20. In each chapter, selections from early Christian texts which use these passages are chosen for in-depth analysis because they are representative in their interpretative approaches of the totality of texts examined. Across many different early Christian writings, images and phrases from these Pauline pericopes were used to support and defend a wide range of theological arguments about the nature of divine wisdom and its contrast with human wisdom, the importance of standing firm in faith, the nature of resurrection and the body, and the nature of Christ. On the basis of the analysis throughout this thesis, conclusions are drawn firstly, about the close connection between scriptural interpretation and theological doctrines; secondly, about early Christian formation, separate from scholarly attempts to recover early Christian catechesis, school teaching, and pedagogy; and finally, about early Christian identity and how it is formed and informed by early Christian use of these four passages.

In this thesis I explore the emergence of the Christian triad with reference to two contemporary movements: Middle Platonism and Gnosticism. The earliest Christian writer to enumerate the three constituents of what would become the Christian Trinity is Justin. In addition to his three extant works, Justin’s triadology can be diagnosed from those he directly influenced – Tatian and Athenagoras – who I have (somewhat artificially) grouped under the heading the “school of Justin”. The ontological triad adopted by these Christian thinkers is compared with the triads of Middle Platonism and Gnosticism, both in terms of their structure and in terms of the function and ontological status of the individual constituents of these triads. In this thesis I propose that a liturgical triad of primitive Christianity, the trine baptismal formula, was conflated by the “school of Justin” with the ontological triad of Middle Platonism, resulting in three referents of the baptismal formula being embued with new functions and ontological status. Whilst emerging as a hierarchical triad, the logic of Platonic ontology when combined with Christian tradition required the sharp distinction between God, as Being, and all other things resulting in a Christian triad that was also a unity. This new triad became fixed as a central tenet of Christianity. I find no plausible connection between any known Gnostic triad and the triad of the “school of Justin”. There is some interaction between Gnostic and Platonic thought during this period. It is possible that the Triple-Powered One pre-empted the Being-Mind-Life triad of Neoplatonism.

In 1972, with the publication of Violence and the Sacred, René Girard makes the stunning assertion that violence is the foundation of culture. Humanity’s innate urges for competition and rivalry entrap us in cycles of violence, which left alone would find no resolution. Girard calls the cause of this rivalry “mimetic desire”, and the only way out of this deeply embedded vengeance is to create a scapegoat to take the blame, reconciling the conflicting parties. Girard asserts that the biblical texts uniquely reveal the mechanisms of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating, and even demystify sacrificial rituals as nothing more than sacrilized “good” violence to keep a fragile peace. This revelation, according to Girard, can finally allow us to remove violence from the sacred. Much scholarship has been devoted to Girard’s theory, in particular how it offers a viable alternative to the still-dominant sacrificial theology of the cross. But there is little scholarship on the connection between Girard and Judaism; and Girard’s own work leaves us with a picture of Judaism that is at best incomplete, and at worst unable to find an answer to disturbing violence permeating the scriptures. This dissertation brings the Hebrew Bible into dialogue with Girard’s ideas in a systematic fashion to assert, contra Girard, that the Jewish revelation is a full, effective and even practical expression of his theory. After an overview of Girard’s work in the first chapter, the dissertation examines three Jewish “vaccines” to the mimetic disease as follows: the Birkhat ha-Banim (“The Blessing of the Children”); the reading of the Book of Esther on Purim; and the reading of Jonah on Yom Kippur. The conclusion to the dissertation asserts, drawing on these three demonstrations, the following points: 1) Rene Girard gives an important and clarifying lens to aid us in finding a new way to talk about, understand, and unify Jewish scripture and ritual; 2) a Jewish perspective can help flesh out what a different “revelation” of Girard’s mimetic desire looks like—even providing prescriptions to curtail this desire; and 3) positive mimesis is possible, and there are Hebrew examples of it free of originary violence. The final chapter addresses certain challenges in reconciling Girard with Judaism, moving toward a sincere Jewish Girardianism that will harmonize with the central views of the tradition.

Amid the recent turn to Paul’s reading of Scripture, the role Deuteronomy plays in his letters has generally been examined in individual citations without regard to the larger role Deuteronomy plays in Paul’s letters, or with an exclusive focus on either the theological or the ethical importance of Deuteronomy for Paul. In contrast, this study argues that Paul read Deuteronomy with three interlocking construals (as ethical authority, as theological authority, as an interpretation of Israel’s history), each equally basic. These construals can be combined to achieve a sense of the shape of Paul’s Deuteronomy as a whole. In order to ascertain and specify these construals, Paul’s engagement with Deuteronomy is examined as an instance of Jewish engagement with the book. Part I, therefore, supplies the historical conditions of Paul’s and other Jewish authors’ encounter with the scroll of Deuteronomy (Chap 2). On this basis, Part II proceeds to survey the major Jewish interpreters of Deuteronomy from the 3rd c. BCE to the 3rd c. CE (Chaps. 3-8). Because Paul is himself a Jewish author, this study foregoes the traditional bi-partite thesis division into “background” and Paul, opting instead to see Paul as one in a chain of Jews who turned to Deuteronomy to make sense of the present. These chapters thus also provide a sustained analysis of Deuteronomy’s broader effective history in Second Temple Jewish writings – and, in a few cases, beyond. In light of the range of interpretations to which Deuteronomy was susceptible, the concluding chapter examines what is distinctive about the shape of Paul’s Deuteronomy and what contribution this may make to debates on Pauline theology and to the study of Second Temple Jewish biblical interpretation.