This thesis explores the meaning of the New Jerusalem in Rev. 21-22. It is divided into four major parts. The first one is the OT background study from Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah. This section observes the prophetical messages of restoration, centering around the Temple/Jerusalem motif, which is one of the main concerns of the early Jewish writers and Revelation. The second one is the study of early Jewish tradition. This pmi investigates how the New Jerusalem theme develops during the second Temple period and post-70. This observation shows that some (not all) of the early Jewish tradition understands the rebuilding of the New Temple as the transference of the Heavenly Temple. For this reason, the Heavenly Temple/Jerusalem is emphasized. The third pmi is the NT background study. Here two facts demonstrated: Christ as the New Temple and the church as the New Temple. This conclusion provides a suitable foundation for developing our argument in Revelation. Finally, the fourthpart is the study of the New Jerusalem in Revelation, particularly Rev. 21-22. John uses much of the Jewish tradition in his writing. His main argument is that the church (which is symbolized by several images) is placed in heaven now (chs. 4-20) and the church (which is symbolized by the New Jerusalem) will descend to the earth from heaven (21 :2) in the future. This assumption is closely related to the early Jewish idea. However, he does not follow the current Jewish idea without any modification but he differentiates his understanding from it by christologically interpreting the OT messages. This is well shown in his following announcement: "I saw no Temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" (21 :22).

Texte remanié de--Inaug. Diss.--Fachbereich Evangelische Theologie--Tübingen, 1975-76. / Bibliogr. p. 435-466. Index.

Habilitationsschrift--Bonn. / Bibliography: p. [121]-127.

The present thesis aims to determine the genre, the compositional structure and the hermeneutics found in the letter of James. It is divided into five parts. Part one first examines the various proposals for the genre of James. James is found to be a "counter cultural" wisdom instruction challenging the hearers' worldview and to reorient them to the values acceptable to God. Part two examines the previous attempts to uncover the structure of James. Here I adopt discourse analysis, paying special attention to the formal features of wisdom instruction. Part three explores the importance of law and wisdom to the understanding of the hermeneutics of James. James is using the love command as hermeneutical principle in understanding the Torah and is comparable to that in Matthew. Wisdom, a gift from God, is involved in the "how" of the important hermeneutical task of applying and keeping the law in one's particular situation. It also manifests itself in one's keeping of the law. Part four investigates the meaning of the call to perfection and the predicament of doubleness in relation to law and wisdom in the context of early Jewish and Christian thought. By adhering to the implanted word, doing what this word/law requires, Christians will be on the way to perfection and to life/salvation. Part five looks at the importance of eschatology which provides the underlying framework for the hermeneutics found in James. In conclusion, James is seen as a wisdom instruction which adapts the teaching of Jesus, making it relevant to his readers. Our author exhorts his readers, the messianically renewed people of God, redeemed by the word of truth, to move along the way of perfection in obedience to the law, waiting for the coming of the Lord at the end of this age.

This investigation is based on a hypothesis in consequent of the following questions: How did the biblical narrators, evangelists, as well as correspondents, such as Paul, communicate or explain theological concepts or the εὐαγγέλιον to their urban, highly politicised, culturally diversified and Roman Law orientated audiences, readers or addressees? How may the word of God be explained to modern communities, urban societies who themselves too are highly politicised, live in a culturally diversified country and whose daily life is controlled by the laws of the country in which they live? In seeking to provide answers to these problematic questions, biblical scholars, past and present, have developed various theories and methodologies. Most of these theories and methodologies, though based on exegetical framework, have to this day not provided an adequate or satisfactory answer. There is in addition no consensus among past and present biblical scholars concerning this problem. Each of these theories or methods is limited. None of them is universal or a panacea (Keegan 1985:7). Since the 1970s new theories and methods in the form of rhetorical analysis following in the footsteps of Graeco-Roman rhetorical criticism have emerged and flourished (Du Toit 1992:465,468,469). These were subsequently followed by further developments, also based on the rethorical criticism approach, though with a different emphasis. Within the past 20 years or so, a new way of analysing the text of the Scripture (primarily the New Testament) has been developed. Recently Vorster (1990:107) stated that an analysis of the New Testament letters can no longer stop at a structural analysis, but has to take cognizance of aspects of conversational analysis and rhetoric; that an interactional model rather than a structural approach should be adopted in the analysis of letters. Theoretically, this is a bibliological research problem because to this day no study has produced a theory or an approach that addresses this problem. This fact also endorses the novelty of this research, because there is no study to date that provides an adequate response or solution to the problem concerning Paul’s contextualisation of juridical imagery with theological concepts in order to explain such concepts to his addressees. The number of different theories and approaches are indicative of the fact that the solution to the problem is not in sight as yet. This problem, though valid, cannot be easily solved. However, as investigations in this field proceed researchers will come closer to a solution. The hypothesis, which is under discussion in this thesis is: that Paul contextualised theological concepts with juridical imagery, which were well – known to his addressees by using rhetorical and logical techniques in order to explain these concepts to them. That this approached may be adopted and applied in contemporary exegesis and homiletics. This research brings into prominence Pauline contextualisation of theological concepts with juridical imagery in Romans. Like most of the other approaches, this new approach has also been developed from methods first used in secular studies (Keegan 1985:2). However, it differs from its predecessors in the sense that it investigates how Paul contextualised theological concepts in Romans by utilizing juridical imagery with which his addressees were knowledgable, in order to connect with his addressees’ frame of reference and explain such theological concepts to them. / Prof. Jan A. du Rand

D.Litt. et Phil. / The aim of this study is to extract the world vision underlying 1 Peter, and to give an account of the competing frameworks of thought active in the text. A semiotic literary method, devised by Wolmarans (1994), was used to supply answers to the following questions: Why was the letter written? Against what type of socio-historical situation does the letter react? What alternatives does 1 Peter supply? How is the reader moved to alternative attitudes, views and actions? The letter was subdivided into smaller analytical units and analysed in two basic steps, namely a structural analysis and a pragmatic (or transactional) analysis. The structural analysis included a syntactic and semantic examination, and a representation of the unit in a logical form. The pragmatic analysis included remarks on the epistle's communicative strategy, a description of the unacceptable practical situation, the actual textual world, and a description of how the text wants the world to be, the alternative textual world. An account is also supplied of the ways in which the implicit reader is moved from the actual textual world to the alternative possible world by means of transuniversal relations. The application of the method resulted in a new interpretation of the descent of Jesus into Hades (3:19; 4:6). It is argued that its function was to proclaim final punishment to the fallen angels of the Noah tradition and the souls of the wicked humans in the time of Noah. 1 Peter 4:6 is translated and interpreted in a novel way as: "For this reason Jesus proclaimed himself to the dead, in order that they may be judged for living according to human principles in the flesh, and in order the [the living] may live according to the principles of God in the spirit. The reason why the epistle was written is found in an oppressive social environment. The heads of households oppressed their slaves and wives verbally as well as physically, while Christians in general experienced verbal oppression in a heathen environment. Generally, an absence of brotherly love is experienced in Christian communities, as well as authoritarian styles of leadership. The epistle therefore supplies an alternative way of coping with an oppressing reality. It also calls to a strong and imminent eschatological vision, retains but reinterprets social relations in the household in more humane terms, and uses the shepherd flock metaphor to reinvent relations of authority in Christian communities. Strategies used in the epistle to persuade its implicit readers, is Messianic-eschatological reinterpretation of Old Testament texts, the words of Jesus, some Pauline traditions, analogical arguments (especially viewing Christians as resident aliens) and topoi, for example that no one would ill treat somebody who acts good. The epistle is dated around 90-95 AD and viewed as pseudepigraphic.

D. Litt. et Phil. (Theology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The basic aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between a number of christological and ecclesiological themes. The first section of the essay is concerned with the identification of the traditions employed by the author in his presentation of an ascension theology in 1:20-23 and 4:8-10. Having once established these traditions, an attempt is made to trace a Traditiongeschichte for them. The second part of the essay is concerned with the relationship between the ascension theology and the kephale and pleroma motifs which are present in both pericopes. This investigation necessitates an examination of the Pauline theology. At the same time within this section an attempt is made to trace the source of the pleroma terminology as used by the author of the epistle. In the third section of the essay the interest is more general; an attempt is made to discover how the "component parts" of the author's ascension theology are used elsewhere in the epistle. In the fourth and last section of the essay the interest is again with traditions, specifically the use made of the traditions inherent in the ascension pericopes in the epistle in the writings of both the Church Fathers and of authors outside the main stream of Christian thought.

By focussing on literary translation dynamics, and on how the current vernacular Bibles (specifically John 1:1-18 in Southern and Northern Sotho) encourage certain and not other understandings of the Bible (popular theology), this project attempts to achieve three related goals: (a) to reintegrate me as a Mosotho Biblical Studies student into the world and discourse of my people, (b) to bridge the gulf between the world of the Basotho believers and the academic world which has produced copious resources for the study of the Bible, and (c) to explore the implications of, or to assess the value of, the availability of the Bible in the vernacular for the Church and the academy in South Africa. The first goal is rather subjective and difficult to quantify. The second is critical in a complex plural society like South Africa. The third cannot be dealt with conclusively, perhaps the use of this project lies in pointing out various possibilities in this arena. The overarching bias (hypothesis) is that conscious critical work with the Bible in the vernacular is enriching in more ways than one. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

D.Phil. et Litt. / The interaction between law and love in Pauline writing has been an interesting topic, where we have discovered that the law of God cannot be separated from his agape love, which has followed mankind from creation and eventually leads him to eternity. We discovered that the law of God reveals God's character and that is his love. The Law of God and His Love are one and cannot be separated from each other. God gives the law to prove to man that he loves him deeply and eternally. When Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, He died because of the love for his created beings and the law that was broken and could not be altered or changed without the shedding of blood. The redemption of the sinner had to be made possible through the shedding of blood by the one who had not broken God's law. The love and death of Jesus can only be understood through the plan of salvation, which is the interaction between law and love as exposed in Pauline writings. This is a mystery of the wonderful love of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to discover the way Paul blends the law and love in a way that it makes it hard to separate the two. If not carefully studied, one would not be able to see this fact in Pauline writings. The Law of God is actually the expression of His love to us. He would like. us to love Him by keeping the first four commandments and loving our fellow man by keeping the last six of the Ten Commandments. We need to have a positive outlook on the law, so that we may love to do God's will and honour Him because He loved us dearly and did not spare His own son for our redemption. The plan of redemption was born out of the eternal love of God towards humanity that could not be measured by anything on earth and in Heaven. In chapter one and two, we look at the overview of law and love in Pauline writings. The Pauline framework, its theology and the ethics of law and love. The whole plan of salvation for all humanity and how God loves all His creation. Although God had a chosen people through Abraham, He only wanted to make His love known throughout the world and all generations. God had always had His special people through whom He made His love and care known although they sometimes failed to is do His will. Like the children of Israel failed him throughout the ages and He has always been patient with them until they killed Jesus on the Cross.