The present study is a history of interpretation. In that sense it does not fit neatly into the category of Wirkungsgeschichte. Moving through successive periods of the Christian church’s history, we will select representative interpretations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and theological works dealing explicitly with the question of true and false prophecy in an effort to present a sampling of material from the span of the church’s existence. This study seeks to function as a hermeneutical guide for the present interpretive problem of interpreting true and false prophecy in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible by displaying ways various interpreters have broached the subject in the past. In this way it may prove useful to the current impasse concerning the notion of false prophecy in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Seeing continuity, or a family resemblance, in the Christian church’s interpretation of true and false prophecy in relation to the law’s role amongst exilic and post-exilic prophets, we will observe those ways in which a historically informed reading might offer an interpretive guide for subsequent interpretations of true and false prophecy.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This thesis provides a theological and exegetical reflection on the water and environmental crisis in South Africa. The central aim of this thesis is to create a basis for the formulation of an African contextual hermeneutic of the environment using the text of John’s Gospel as a resource. This study will formulate and utilize an African contextual hermeneutic of the environment to interpret John 7:37-39. This reading will focus on the three poles of a contextual reading of a text, namely my context as a South African reader concerned with water and the environment; a literary reading of the text against its own historical context, and a dialogical appropriation of the text in response to the questions of the South African environmental crisis. Out of this process, the study will identify points of agreement between the African understanding of nature and Christian approaches to nature in ways that can help in the formulation of an African Christian hermeneutic of the environment. The study conducts an overview of the water and environmental crisis both globally, and in South Africa. In this area we look at the contributing factors of the rate of environmental degradation and the possibility of clean water running out. Also we will look at the African approaches to fertility and rain making and how their ethics towards the environment can help in creating a Christian ethic of caring for the environment. This will be linked to a study of the feast of Tabernacles as a background to reading John 7:37-39. in light of my concerns for the fertility of the earth and the assurance of abundant rains. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This research seeks to retrieve elements of an economic ethic from Ezra’s building project that can dialogue with poverty and economic inequality in Homoine district in Mozambique. The research argues that the Mosaic economic ethic retrieved from Ezra’s building project is a valuable biblical resource which can be used to orient economic analysis and reflection in Homoine district in the context of poverty and economic inequality. This research consists of three related parts. One part consists of a detailed socio-historical analysis of the context of poverty and economic inequality in Homoine district in Mozambique. The focus here is on three related issues. Firstly, it analyses the general economic-historical background of Mozambique, focusing on the three micro-economic policies that have been influencing the development process of the country since independence. Secondly, it locates Homoine district within this economic-historical background of the country, focusing on the causes of poverty and economic inequality in Homoine district. Thirdly, it analyses the response of the church (United Methodist Church in Mozambique) to the problems of poverty and economic inequality in Homoine district. The second part consists of a socio-historical and literary analysis of Ezra’s building project. The focus here is on three related aspects. Firstly, it analyses the economic-historical background of Ezra’s building project, focusing on the economic situation of the Israelites who were left in Palestine after the destruction of Judah, the economic situation of the Israelites who were deported to Babylon and the economic policies of Persia. Secondly, it locates Ezra 3 within this economic-historical context in order to retrieve elements of an economic ethic from this narrative. Thirdly, it analyses the response of religion towards the economic struggle in Ezra’s building project. The third part consists of an analogical dialogue between Ezra’s building project and the context of poverty and economic inequality in Homoine district. The focus here is on the affinity of struggle for economic liberation between the two contexts and the relevance of the Mosaic economic ethic retrieved from Ezra’s building project in the context of poverty and economic inequality in Homoine district. The research concludes by suggesting that the United Methodist Church and/or theologians should educate communities in Homoine district (and elsewhere in Mozambique) about the Mosaic memory and its liberation capacity as an alternative economic motivation which can reduce the problems of poverty and economic inequality. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

So far only a limited number of biblical books in Church Slavonic has been studied and edited, and the book of Ecclesiastes does not feature among these. Ecclesiastes is not a mainstream book such as the Gospels and the Psalter but rather a peripheral biblical text never used in Eastern Orthodox liturgical services. Its late date and small number of witnesses, which also reflect its marginal status, are additional reasons why this particular book has not attracted much scholarly attention in the past. This thesis is intended to contribute to studies in the history of the Church Slavonic Bible by editing the unpublished text of Ecclesiastes including its catenary versions and discussing its textual tradition. Ecclesiastes surfaces as a complete text relatively late: the earliest extant Cyrillic manuscripts are from the 15th century. Such a late date may be an indication that there was no pressing need for translating the non-liturgical book of Ecclesiastes. Two Church Slavonic translations of Ecclesiastes are extant: one, attested in Cyrillic manuscripts, survives in three distinct types: a continuous version of the text (32 manuscripts of the 15th-17th centuries), a fragmentary commentated version (1 manuscript of the 16th century), a fragmentary commentated insertion (8 manuscripts of the 15th-16th centuries). The other translation is a Croatian Church Slavonic version in Glagolitic breviaries (17 manuscripts of the 13th-16th centuries). The structure of the thesis is determined by the nature of the subject, which deals with textual criticism. The chapters are organised into a series of sections which all have headings. This somewhat 'atomistic' approach is necessitated by the fact that we are faced with fragmentary and incomplete evidence of manuscript sources, and therefore only detailed examination and comparison of various manuscripts and versions of the text will enable us to solve, at least in part, the textual history of the book in question. The limitations of the present study are the scarcity of manuscripts and the lateness of the tradition. These, however, are familiar 'obstacles' recognised by Slavists working on similar subjects. The thesis consists of an introduction, which presents a brief historical outline of the Church Slavonic biblical translations, 4 chapters, conclusion, bibliography and 2 appendices: the first of these contains a variorum edition of the continuous text of Ecclesiastes; the second, the parallel texts from continuous, commentated and interpolated versions. Chapter 1 gives a list of all the extant manuscripts of Ecclesiastes with short descriptions including dating (on palaeographical grounds), and investigates the textual relationships between various groups of manuscripts using the classical method of textual criticism and stemmatics. This leads on to a discussion of the type of edition to be used. At the end of the chapter a stemma codicum is constructed. Analysis of the language is carried out in an attempt to date the translation on linguistic grounds. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Greek and Slavonic catena and explores some of the key issues arising out of the existence of several versions and early fragments of Ecclesiastes. It deals with problems concerning the date and place of the translation of Ecclesiastes. Detailed analysis sheds some light on the textual peculiarities of the three versions: commentated, interpolated and continuous. The complex interrelationship between these three versions is investigated further and a comparison with the earlier extant fragments of the catena is also carried out. Chapter 3 deals with the quotations from Ecclesiastes in early translated texts and in original Old Russian literature. Quotations found in medieval Slavonic texts, both translated and original, appear to be independent of the translation of continuous Ecclesiastes known from manuscripts of around the 15th century. However, the quotations prove that parts of Ecclesiastes were known in some form of exegetical compilations. Chapter 4 investigates the translation of Ecclesiastes in the Croatian Church Slavonic breviary tradition. It examines claims made by scholars in the past and present with regards to its authorship and to the language of the source from which this text was translated. The conclusion is drawn that the text was translated purely from Latin. This conclusion is based on a number of findings: errors of translation, divergences in wording and grammatical forms between the Croat Glagolitic and Cyrillic Church Slavonic texts, and certain syntactical constructions such as periphrastic expressions for the future, which point unambiguously to a Latin original. In addition the date of the translation is placed roughly between the 12th and the 13th centuries. The conclusions summarize the findings of the study: textual analysis of the continuous text of Ecclesiastes indicates that all the extant Cyrillic manuscripts come from a single translation; this translation was made at some time between the 10th century and the beginning of the 15th century. Commmentated and interpolated versions should be treated as redactions deriving from a fuller catena. This fuller catena may have given rise to the continuous text through the removal of the commentary. Alternatively, the orginal plain text may have been added to the newly translated commentary to produce a commentated version. Bearing in mind that it is hard to decide conclusively between these possibilities, the difficulties of reconstructing archetypes of the plain text and the commentary are shown. The investigation of the text in the Croatian tradition demonstrates that the translation in the breviaries was made from Latin, and thereby eliminates the hypothesis that Methodius was the translator of this version. GB is chosen as a base text for the edition in Appendix 1. The main reason for doing so is pragmatic, for it offers as complete a text as is available to us. Besides, the availability of information on the cultural and historical circumstances surrounding the production of GB, in addition to its importance for the history of the East Slavonic biblical tradition makes it more worthwhile. By publishing the text from manuscript Sinodal'nyj 915 (GB) with a critical apparatus, supplying variants from other manuscripts, the editorial 'control' which the compilers of GB exercised while working with the text translated from Greek is illustrated. They appear to have compared their exemplar with another Slavonic witness to fill a lacuna in the middle of the text, and they shortened the interpolation by removing the commentary. It seems that they deliberately left the biblical verses in the interpolation intact. The textual evidence does not support the supposition that the compilers of GB collated their text of Ecclesiastes with any Greek or Latin sources. The choice of GB for the edition constitutes a significant step towards wider research into and eventual publication of the Gennadian Bible, which has received little attention hitherto, despite its significance as the first complete Church Slavonic Bible. In appendix 2 three versions of Ecclesiastes are presented in a tabular form: the continuous version is taken from the manuscript Sinodal'nyj 915 (GB), the commentated version from the manuscript Undol'skij 13, and the interpolated version from the manuscript Pogodinskij 1 with variant readings from the manuscripts of group 1. In the thesis several new findings are presented. These are: the absence of any link between the versions of Ecclesiastes in the Cyrillic and in the Glagolitic manuscripts, and the implausibility of a Methodian origin for the Croatian Church Slavonic text.

This dissertation examines the portrayals of the Temple, synagogue, and house-churches in Luke-Acts to pose a Lukan challenge to the Korean church by using a model of architectural space which is derived from social-scientific ideas originating in anthropology, sociology and social psychology. The dissertation proposes the relevance of the Lukan house-church to the Korean church today so as to transform the latter's character in its architecture and use of space into the inclusive and missionary one which is featured in Luke-Acts. The argument of the dissertation begins with an exploration and defence of social-scientific method (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 begins with a history and analysis of Korean Christianity which raises problem surrounding its use of architectural space, before setting out a socialscientific model of architectural space, which is then applied to contemporary Korean church architecture. Challenging current understandings of a positive Lukan attitude toward the Temple, this study proposes in Chapter 3 that Luke had a negative understanding of the Temple in that it was an oppressive institution characterised by segmented spaces which divided the people of God and thus showed its illegitimacy in relation to the saving plan of God in Jesus. The dissertation next proposes in Chapter 4 that first-century synagogues were subsidiary Temple spaces which were extended to most parts of Mediterranean world from the central sanctuary in Jerusalem, and that Luke portrays the synagogues as similar to the Temple. Contrary to the Temple and synagogue, the house in Luke-Acts expresses the inclusive salvation of the gospel which incorporates a variety of people regardless of social status, gender, age and ethnic origin (Chapter 5). In this interpretation, the house-church is represented as an inclusive space accessible without institutional constraints. In the Gospel, it serves to express the Kingdom of God into which sinners are invited to enter through meals and to be incorporated into a fictive-kinship group created by Jesus. In Acts, the house is not only a locus of Christian meetings in which the social relationships, characteristic of family, are practised to enhance and legitimise the social identity of Jesus' followers, but also the modus operandi of Christian mission through which the Christ-movement spreads throughout the Mediterranean world. This study concludes with an Epilogue containing brief suggestions for changes in Korean church architecture and use of space based on these Lukan insights, which have the potential radically to transform Korean Protestant Christianity.

Especially during the last hundred years, the church has become more aware of the work of the Holy Spirit. This interest has not only occurred in the holiness, pentecostal and charismatic movements, but in the church at large as well. Some have described this rediscovery as a "second great outpouring of the Holy Spirit" while others have spurned it as soulish emotionalism and ecstasy. Still others declare that the church has discovered nothing new and in a sense no new Pentecost has occurred; for to speak of the church at all one must speak of "two thousand years of Pentecost". This renewed interest in the Holy Spirit has various exponents with even still more assessments of its value, meaning and direction. All engaged in discussing the Holy Spirit today from various theological stances use biblical language concerning the Holy Spirit. Often this usage does not adequately consider the varied contextual and redactional significance of these expressions. This thesis analyzes one such phrase, "filled with/full of the Holy Spirit", in Luke-Acts and points out the significance and limitations for the phrase in a Lucan context. When other redactional and traditional points are encountered in Luke-Acts they are analyzed as well. It is apparent that Luke uses fulness of the Spirit as part of his overall programme of presenting the mission of Jesus and its expansion in the witness of the church in terms of the Holy Spirit. It is hoped that a clearer understanding of Luke's use of the concept will clarify the church's use of the phrase and reduce misunderstanding and division in the church over her greatest asset and very ground of being, the Holy Spirit.

M.Th. / In this study Ideological and Sacred Textures from Robbins' socio - rhetorical approach, were utilised in reading Job. The aim was to identify diverse images of God; those constructed by the author of Job as well as diverse images of God surfacing through the receipt of the Joban text by different interpreters. It was found that adherents to different ideologies construct different sacred or God - images. The followers of the doctrine of retribution from God into a retributive God and those believing in protest wisdom make Him a sovereign God. It was further found that the two mega - images of God should be regarded as complementary. Some extreme images of interpreters were discarded, while others were utilised to enrich our understanding of God. It is only through dialoguing that these diverse images of God can meaningfully interact and enrich each other.

M.A. (Biblical Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract