The thesis discusses a series of related techniques that prepare and transform raw linguistic data for advanced processing in order to unveil hidden grammatical patterns. A threedimensional array is identified as a suitable data structure to build a data cube to capture multidimensional linguistic data in a computer's temporary storage facility. It also enables online analytical processing, like slicing, to be executed on this data cube in order to reveal various subsets and presentations of the data. XML is investigated as a suitable mark-up language to permanently store such an exploitable databank of Biblical Hebrew linguistic data. This concept is illustrated by tagging a phonetic transcription of Genesis 1:1-2:3 on various linguistic levels and manipulating this databank. Transferring the data set between an XML file and a threedimensional array creates a stable environment allowing editing and advanced processing of the data in order to confirm existing knowledge or to mine for new, yet undiscovered, linguistic features. Two experiments are executed to demonstrate possible text-mining procedures. Finally, visualisation is discussed as a technique that enhances interaction between the human researcher and the computerised technologies supporting the process of knowledge creation. Although the data set is very small there are exciting indications that the compilation and analysis of aggregate linguistic data may assist linguists to perform rigorous research, for example regarding the definitions of semantic functions and the mapping of these functions onto the syntactic module. / Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / unrestricted

This work addresses the historically-read despotism Genesis 1.28 has often received in its subordination of nature for the interests of human enterprise and counters the notion of reading the entire Bible as an anti-environmental, anthropocentric text. In using a combined literary lens of eco-criticism and new historicism, this work examines the Hebrew Bible with particular attention to the books of Genesis and Exodus, offering within the Torah’s oldest literary tradition (the J source) an environmental connection between humanity and the divine that promotes a reverence of natural world and, conversely, a rejection of rampant urbanization and its cultural departure from nature. It is the goal of this research to create a discourse by bridging the gap between religious and green studies and forging a connection with the works of the early biblical writers and environmental thought of the modern world.

My dissertation analyzes the status of mixed offspring in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple texts to understand the diverse ways children from intermarried couples were presented in pre-Mishnaic Jewish literature. Prior to the Mishnah (m. Qidd 3:12), there is no evidence of a monolithic ruling to regulate the status of mixed progeny. My goal, therefore, is to examine the different ways mixed offspring were treated, and to better understand whether they endured any social repercussions due to their mixed lineage. In turn, I explore the diverse ways Jewish identity was constructed in antiquity, and how matters like gender, lineage, and geography were used to establish social boundaries. Within contemporary scholarship, the study of mixed progeny in antiquity has been incidental to other research topics, including the expulsion narrative in Ezra 9–10, genealogical purity, and the matrilineal principle in Judaism. To date, no comprehensive approach has been undertaken to trace the status of mixed progeny in pre-Mishnaic Jewish literature. My dissertation seeks to fill this lacuna. Following a brief introduction in chapter 1, my subsequent chapters are divided into four time periods: the pre-Persian period (chapter 2); the Persian period (chapter 3); the Hellenistic period (chapter 4); and the early Roman period (chapter 5). Within each chapter, I analyze texts generally dated to those eras that include some information about mixed offspring. In my concluding chapter, I reveal three main factors that impacted the status of mixed progeny in antiquity: genealogy, residential location, and piety. I also provide a heuristic framework to categorize my findings of mixed offspring. While there were two main responses towards mixed progeny in antiquity (accepted or rejected), not every case fits nicely into these two classifications. Therefore, the treatment of mixed progeny must be understood on a spectrum to better appreciate the nuance within each text. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Literary tales about the lives and vicissitudes of officials serving in the courts of powerful kings are attested throughout the writings of the ancient Near East. Such ‘court tales’ were a popular literary form during the Jewish Second Temple period (515 BCE-70 CE). With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of previously unknown ancient Jewish court tales was discovered, along with others preserved in their original languages. The discovery of these texts has expanded our corpus of extant Jewish court tales. Research on these texts has yet to be systematically integrated into broader analyses of the Jewish court tales. This dissertation addresses this desideratum and integrates the court tale evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls into research on the already extant Jewish court tales, with a focus on the themes of punishment, exile, and restoration. Chapter One outlines the history of scholarship on the Jewish court tales. Chapter Two examines the literary themes and concerns of other ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean court tale traditions. Chapters Three and Four analyze the themes of punishment, exile, and restoration within the Jewish court tales, and highlight their uniqueness to the Jewish tales. Chapter Five discusses the development and decline of the Jewish court tales. In doing this, I demonstrate that a major purpose of the Jewish adoption of the court tale tradition was to upend earlier convictions that exilic life was solely a form of punishment, with the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of exilic life and God’s sovereignty over foreign political actors. My examination of the court tales contributes to discussions about the origins of Jewish apocalyptic literature, with the court tales employing eschatological terminology to address the theme of restoration. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study examines the figures of theיקדִּ צַ and עשָׁ רָ in psalms. Drawing on both semantics and poetics, this study argues that the contrast between the figures represented by these terms is part of the conventions of Hebrew psalmody and, as such, can serve various discursive functions within an individual psalm. Using insights from the field of lexical semantics, the study clarifies the possible uses of the words Justand עשָׁ רָ, emphasizing a wider range of uses than is typically offered within a broad behavioral domain for these terms. The study summarizes ways that various books in the Hebrew Bible use the contrast of these figures to develop a description of the literary features related to their presentations. The analysis of 18 psalms that include both figures utilizes insights from narratological theories of character to explore the functions of the contrast between קידִּ צַ and עשָׁ רָ as literary figures within the overall discourse of the psalm. Focusing on the setting of an individual psalm and embracing the possibility of variation reveals that קידִּ צַ and עשָׁ רָ are not only, or even usually, employed to describe the “prototypically good” or “prototypically bad” person in psalms. Rather, the עשָׁ רָ is often a designation for an antagonist, and the קידִּ צַ is often understood as one who is innocently wronged. As such, the literary pattern of their contrast does not focus on the moral character of these figures but on the fairness or justice of God to eventually elevate the position of the קידִּ צַ and destroy the עשָׁ רָ.

Text in Afrikaans / Die proefskrif ondersoek die funksie van fonteine en putte in die religie van ou Israel. Die religie van die Hebreeuse Bybel word tradisioneel beskryf as 'n historiese religie waarin Jahwe, die god van Israel, fundamenteel gemoeid is met die verlossing van sy volk in die gang van die geskiedenis, terwyl die wêreld van die natuur van marginale belang is. Dit is egter duidelik dat die natuur in die vorm van haar grondwaterbronne 'n belangrike rol in ou Israel se leefwerêld gespeel het, nie alleen as lewegewende bronne in die droē fisiese Palestynse landskap nie, maar ook in hulle narratiewe en simboliese wêrelde. Fonteine en putte was kultiese plekke en heilige ruimtes waar teofanieē plaasgevind het, konings gekroon is, regsgedinge gevoer is, voorvadergeeste opgeroep is en die nageslag van ou Israel verseker is toe die voorvaders hulle toekomstige bruide by putte ontmoet het. Deur middel van die ou Nabye Oosterse ikonografie as hulpwetenskap in die interpretasieproses, is gevind dat die rede vir die sakrale waarde wat aan die waterbronne geheg is, opgesluit is in ou Israel se kosmologie wat hulle met hulle mitologies-gesinde en natuurvererende bure gedeel het. Daarvolgens ontspring fonteine uit die kosmiese onderaardse oeroseaan om lewe en vrugbaarheid te bring aan alles wat lewe. Die beeld het daartoe aanleiding gegee dat fonteine en putte metafories vir vroulike seksualiteit en vrugbaarheid gedien het. Die waterbronne tree ook as draers van hoop op. In verhale oor die wonderbaarlike ontstaan van fonteine in die wildernis deur lewensonderhoud aan die Israetiete tydens hulle woestynomswerwinge te voorsien. Ons kan met sekerheid aanneem dat ou Israel hulle watergate as lokaliteite van integrasie, sin en orde teen die aanslae van die chaosmagte ervaar het. Deur die eeue het die mensdom nagedink oor eksistensiele kwessles soos lewe en dood, vrugbaarheid en steriliteit, die redes vir rampe en oor wat die toekoms inhou. Dit is ten diepste religieuse vrae wat die vervloe bybelskrywers vir hulle tyd en omstandighede aangespreek het deur 'n refigurasie van Palestina se waterbronne. Grondliggend aan hierdie studie as 'n herevaluering van die natuur in die Hebreeuse Bybel om menslike wesens as deel van die natuur op te stel en nie as staande bo die natuur nie. / The dissertation investigates the function of springs and wells in the religion of ancient Israel. The religion of the Hebrew Bible has traditionally been descibed as a historical religion in which Yahweh, the god of Israel, was fundamentally concerned with the salvation of Yahweh's people In history in which the world of nature is of marginal interest. However, it is evident that nature in the form of its groundwater sources played an important role, not only as life giving sources in the arid physical environment of Palestine, but also in their narrative and symbolic worlds. Springs and wells served as cultic centres and sacred places where theophanies took place, kings were crowned, lawsuits conducted, ancestral spirits conjured up and the future progeny of Israel was ensured when patriarchs betrothed their future brides at wells. By means of ancient Near Eastern iconography as an interpretation aid, this study finds the reason for the sacred value attributed to groundwater sources in the cosmology of ancient Israel which she shared with her mythically-minded and nature-worshipping neighbours. Springs were believed to arise from the cosmic subterranean ooean to bring life and fertility to all living things. This image caused springs and wells to serve as metaphor of female sexuality and fertility. They also act as agents of hope in stories of miraculous springs in the desert which provide sustenance during the Israelites' desert wanderings. We can safely conclude that ancient Israel experienced their springs and wells as localities of integration, meaning and order amidst the threatening forces of chaos. Through the ages humankind reflected on existential questions regarding life and death, fertility and sterility, the reasons for disasters and what the future holds. These are profoundly religious questions addressed by the biblical authors for their time and circumstances by implementing a refiguration of the groundwater sources of Palestine. Ultimately this study serves to re-evaluate nature in the Hebrew Bible and to construe human beings not as standing above nature, but as part of nature. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

This study examines the metaphor of the shepherd in Zechariah 11:4-17, which is a prominent and significant one in the Hebrew Bible. It defines Yahweh‟s relationship with the nation of Israel and those who have faith in him. But Zechariah 11:4-17 presents a shepherd image which contradicts to the basic metaphor in the Hebrew Bible. The thesis of this study argues that the differing shepherd image in Zechariah 11:4-17 is the result of the rejection by the people of the responsible shepherd, which caused Yahweh to surrender his shepherd responsibility. It is a metaphor designed to punish an unrepentant Israel. Zechariah 11:4-17 furnishes an example of a situation where Yahweh surrendered his shepherding responsibilities to those irresponsible shepherds. This example should be incorporated into the said metaphor, so as an objective and comprehensive meaning may be achieved, and one should consider this metaphorical meaning in the study of the subject. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M. Th. (Old Testament)

Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)

This thesis aims to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of biblical criticism in the seventeenth century. Its central objective is to put forward a new interpretation of the work of the Oratorian scholar Richard Simon. It does so by placing Simon's work, above all his Histoire critique du Vieux Testament (1678), in the context of the great increase in critical study of the text of the Bible that occurred after 1620. The problems and questions that confronted European scholars at this time were profound, as new manuscript discoveries combined with existing learned and polemical debates in such a way that scholars were forced reconsider their opinions on the history and text of the Old Testament. Rather than study these works solely in the discrete tradition of the history of scholarship, however, this thesis shows why they have to be considered in the context of the print culture that made their production possible, the confessional divisions that shaped and deepened the significance of their philological arguments, and the intellectual cooperation, exchange, and disagreement that determined how contemporaries understood them. The results of this research contribute to existing scholarship in several significant ways, of which four stand out for special emphasis. First, through extensive archival research it markedly revises our current understanding of the work of Jean Morin, Louis Cappel, Johannes Buxtorf II, and Richard Simon. Second, it shows that the history of biblical criticism must consider the work of Catholic scholars in the same level of detail as Protestant scholars. Third, it breaks the link between innovative philological and historical work and radical theological or political thought. Fourth, it calls into doubt the current consensus that seventeenth-century scholarly life is best understood through the concept of the international and inter-confessional 'Republic of Letters'.