Chapters 46-51 of the book of Jeremiah contain a series of prophecies against foreign nations, and these 'foreign nation oracles’ form the focus of this thesis. The opening chapter contains a discussion of several outstanding problems connected with these oracles, the chief of these being the problem of authenticity. After examination of the major arguments, the conclusion is reached that the contents of chapters 46-51 are not to be attributed to Jeremiah, but to one or more imitators who employed 'Jeremianic' language. Also discussed are the problems of the differing position and order in which the oracles occur in the Septuagint. The major part of the thesis contains a study of the Septuagint and Targum versions of chs. 46-51, and a consideration of the mediaeval Jewish commentators Rashi, Kimchi and Abravanel. The ancient versions are consulted not as aids to the recovery of a better Hebrew text than the Massoretic text, but rather to gain an insight into the techniques employed by the translators, and to pick out and account for those elements of interpretation which each version contains. The contribution of Rashi and Kimchi to the interpretation of the Hebrew text is also considered, and a separate chapter is devoted to the commentary of Isaac Abravanel. His interest in eschatological speculation significantly affects his interpretation of certain foreign nation oracles. The thesis is primarily concerned with the variety of answers to the problems of exegesis which are provided by the various versions and commentators, and through such answers seeks to understand their presuppositions and interpretative approach.

This thesis is divided into three distinct yet related chapters. The first chapter deals with the question of the actual calendar which is used in Jubilees. The work criticizes scholarly opinions concerning the calendar which have gone relatively unchallenged since the Qumran discovery. The chapter concludes that while the calendar question is difficult and many calendars can be detected as functioning in the work, it is the 28-day month which is dominant and not months of 30, 30 and 31 days. In the second chapter which deals with the genealogy of the patriarchs, the attention of the reader is directed to the names of the wives of the patriarchs. The question which the thesis raises at this point is related to the function of these women in the narrative in relation to the etymology of their names. The conclusion reached is that the narrative and the etymology of the names are clearly related. For example, when the etymological meaning of a woman is favourable, the narrative at that point is positive and vice versa. Chapter Three deals with chronology which is in close proximity to both calendar and genealogy. The question the thesis asks is how the chronology of Jubilees relates to the chronologies of MT, LXX and SP and also raises the question as to which chronology that of Jubilees is dependant upon for its structure. It is determined that Jubilees and SP are most closely related. The structure itself of the chronology of Jubilees is examined and it is concluded that the design is more concerned with past history than future history. The implications of the thesis on the questions of date and authorship are considered. The conclusion is reached that the author is a member of an unnamed conservative-pietist sect who wrote at a time later than Antiochus IV.

The subject of this thesis is the relationship between eschatology and history in the Christian community for which Luke-Acts was written. Chapter 1 formulates the problem in terms of Luke's eschatology. It argues that Luke and his community thought of the End as 'near' and that Luke's historical perspective affected his eschatology. Luke-Acts represents a community that held a relevant eschatological hope and was aware of continuing history. This is the interpretive problem this thesis seeks to enlighten. The perspective to be used in approaching this problem is that of sociological analysis. Chapter 2 explores the use of sociological perspectives in New Testament study and the benefits to be achieved by the use of the sociology of knowledge. Chapter 3 is a sociological analysis of the community in terms of date, location, stratification, racial composition, boundaries, social institutions, and charismatic roles and functions. This material suggests that mission was an important community task. Chapter 4 establishes a sociology of mission for the community, investigating commitment as the mechanism that motivated community members to pursue mission, the importance of mission to the community, the motivation of converts, and the problems encountered in mission. Chapter 5 investigates the social functions of eschatology in the community and finds that it functioned in legitimating numerous aspects of the community's mission experience. Chapter 6 investigates the social functions of history in the community and finds that it functioned in legitimating various aspects of the community's mission experience. In the conclusion it is shown that history and eschatology were functionally related to one another in legitimating aspects of the community's mission experience. This functionality also provided a meaningful relationship in helping the community to make sense of its world. This further prepares us to try and understand these ideas theologically by placing them in a social context.

This dissertation coordinates two problems which have hitherto resisted adequate synthesis: the form-critical problem of describing proverbial-sounding Synoptic sayings and the tradition-historical problem of assessing the rhetorical habits of Jesus and his immediate successors in oral tradition. The approach taken here to linking these qualifies not only form-critical assumptions of continuity between written forms - in Kleinliteratur - and identifies oral Sitze im Leben of mnemotechnical scholasticism, but also of the recent emphases on radical discontinuity between oral and writing modes of tradition. The connection proposed here between re-description of so- called Wisdom-sayings and oral traditional aspects of the gospels is in the Hellen educational category of gnome. Defined, exemplified and prescribed in basic Graeco-Roman educational texts as well as in technical, philosophical manuals of Rhetoric and in a rich collection-literature, gnome is superbly attested as an exercise in primary education, in all kinds of public-speaking and in cross-cultural (including Jewish) tradition. Moreover, Hellenistic cultivation of gnome primarily as a speech-type, indeed as a conversational means of argumentation in any Sitz im Leben, and only secondarily though still extensively as a literary technique makes it a particularly pertinent term of comparison for New Testament criticism. Recognizing gnomic continuity between oral and written Synoptic tradition allows discussion of the authenticity not only of individual sayings (on criteria of dissimilarity), but also collectively of the gnomic manner (on criteria of oral-literate continuity and multiple attestation): quite apart from the (in)authenticity of each gnome, gnomic style is central to Jesus' self-expression and earliest tradition. In this sense gnomai are a particularly valuable data-set for reassessing the critically controverted relationship between Jesus' rhetoric and law: in Synoptic tradition gnome is exploited suggestively as a non-legal means of addressing conventionally legal topics.

The thesis which is argued has two basic elements. First, it is asserted that the methods of using scripture which Paul exhibits in the epistles are largely adaptations of methods found in a wide range of early Jewish sources. Second, it is argued that Paul's method of scriptural interpretation and argumentation is fundamental to the theological development of the discussion in Romans 9-11. In contrast to the types of investigations which focus on specific and in some cases isolated aspects of the use of scripture in the epistles in relation to Jewish literature, a comparative method is employed in this thesis in order to relate the structural, verbal, thematic, and interpretative characteristics of Paul's manner of using biblical quotations to a wide range of Palestinian Jewish sources. With regard to Romans 9-11, the objective is the examination of Paul's method of arriving at a theological statement. Thus, the theological concepts and ideas expressed in chapters 9-11 are viewed in light of the method which Paul has used to construct a response to a troublesome issue in the early church. It is argued that the discourse in these three chapters of Romans has its coherence in the method of scriptural argumentation which Paul has used. Furthermore, it is asserted that the theology reflected in chapters 9-11 is in part the product of scripture's verbal and thematic contribution to the discussion.

The thesis concludes that because the cult-centred approach has been so concerned with the cultic functions of the psalms, it has failed to appreciate the personal contributions of the psalmists, and in so doing has often misinterpreted the primary purpose of a psalm. A life-centred reading of the Psalter is therefore a vital component in correcting this imbalance in psalmic studies today.

The thesis is an examination of the wisdom literature preserved in the book of Proverbs, and of evidence pertinent to the nature and historical setting of this material. The first section examines the arrangement of sayings in the sentence literature, reviews the comparative Near Eastern material and its significance for the exegesis of Proverbs, and discusses the claims that early wisdom was secular, rejecting them. The second section concentrates upon the setting of the literature, with studies of 'wisdom' and 'wise men' in the Old Testament, the internal evidence for associating Proverbs with the royal court, the nature of the Joseph Narrative, Solomon's wisdom and the influence of Egypt on his administration, and, finally, the biblical and epigraphic evidence for formal education in Israel. On the basis of these studies, it is concluded that conventional views of the wisdom literature as scribal and pedagogical are ill-founded and in need of revision. It is suggested that indications within Proverbs itself are a better guide to the nature of the material, and that early wisdom literature should be viewed as an integral part of the literary culture within Israel, not as the product of an international movement or specific professional group.

No description available.

This study comprises two distinct sections. The first part is a study in the origins and methodology of Saint Jerome's Excerpta de Psalterio; and the second part a first translation into English of the Latin text, which is printed in the Corpus Christianorum Series Latina. In the first part, (the dissertation), I have arranged my research into three chapters. The first tackles the history of the Excerpta text, its title(s), and the question of Jerome's authorship. In this chapter I was particularly interested to research the links between this work and another by Origen, whom many scholars have suggested is the true author of the Excerpta. The second chapter takes a look at the educational background and situation of Jerome in the history of Biblical interpretation. Then it moves on to a more particular examination of Jerome's interpretative technique in the Excerpta. One of the aims of this chapter was to try to see Jerome's technique both as heavily indebted to, and yet innovatively building upon the work of other previous and contemporary Biblical interpreters. The third chapter examines in detail some of the characteristic uses of Hebrew words in Jerome's works, with an aim to assessing Saint Jerome's level of understanding of the Hebrew language. This is done with a view to reviewing the Excerpta in a new light, which takes into account all the linguistic work done by Jerome and not by Origen. This goes some way to clarifying dispute over the authorship of the work in question. This is followed by the Translation, the first (known) into English from the Latin of the CCSL, including footnotes and biblical references.

No description available.