M.Litt. et Phil. / Die boek Openbaring word nie net deur helder en dramatiese beelde gekenmerk nie, maar ook deur die verskeidenheid name wat aan Jesus gegee word. Elke naam hou verband met een of meer eienskappe van Jesus en dui op 'n aspek van sy funksie binne God se verlossingsplan. In die simboliek van Openbaring staan die plek en rol van die Lam sentraal in die afloop van die eskatologiese gebeure. Hy wat as Leeu van Juda histories van Dawid afstam, maar as lam "geslag, (tot versoening aan God geoffer) is het die bevoegdheid ontvang om die boekrol met sewe seels in die hand van God oop te maak (hfst.5). Volgens Botha, De Villiers en Engelbrecht (1988:12) bevat Openbaring 'n potpourri van motiewe en idees wat verband hou met ander godsdienste of Bybelse tye byvoorbeeld Persiese, Babiloniese en Gnostiese motiewe. Die invloed van die ou Oosterse mitologie kan duidelik bespeur word in byvoorbeeld die Babiloniese weergawe van die stryd tussen die Skepper en 'n grout seemonster'. Ook die "hemelse tablette" wat tydens die Nuwejaarsfees 'n uiters belangrike rol gespeel het wanneer die god, Marduk, die draak, Tiamat oorwin en die tablette in sy hand geplaas word om sy mag en oorwinning aan te dui. In Openbaring het die Lam alleen die mag om die boek uit die hand van God te neem en die seals daarvan te breek. Die boekrol wat Johannes sien, bevat al die inligting van God se planne met die geskiedenis. Die feit dat die boekrol met sewe seels verseel is, is 'n aanduiding daarvan dat dit volkome geslote en ontoeganklik is. Niemand in die hemel, op die aarde of onder die aarde kon gevind word om God se plan vir die wereldgeskiedenis te laat oopvou nie. Totdat een van die ouderlinge die aandag vestig dat Jesus Christus, die Lam, waardig is om die seels te breek.

The New Testament as a source of mediated ethical inspiration in literature management bestsellers. Contemporary management literature produced predominantly in the so-called western civilization circle, which is heavily influenced by Christianity. Work is to find and identify ethical inspiration coming mediated from the New Testament of the Bible into the centroid of managerial concepts described in three management bestsellers. As the titles were chosen Good to Great by Jim Collins, Competitive Advantage by Michael E. Porter and Critical Chain by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. The intention is also to achieve overlaps from selected bestseller managers into practical situations and examples that illustrate the elements of business management. The work is to find examples for explaining the positions of the authors in the light of mediated New Testament inspiration. We stand before the question of whether we can demonstrate to the attitudes of the authors the ethical significance of the concept of management and to underpin it by aligning with the ethical principles that we can guess from the interpretations of the New Testament. For selected bestseller, we try to find elements of managerial decision concepts that suggest that they are in agreement with ethical inspiration coming from the New Testament. We...

Thesis (MDiv)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation deals with the concept of celibacy, as interpreted from 1 Corinthians 7: 1-28, the development of the term in the Protestant tradition, and its use in our current context (which includes the Reformed tradition). This dissertation makes a thorough exegetical study and it especially analyses the Protestant tradition (with the development of celibacy within the tradition). Lastly it looks at the way the term celibacy is used today in the Dutch Reformed tradition. The main focus is precisely the relationship and differences that occur between 1 Corinthians 7: 1-28 and the use of the term celibacy in the Protestant tradition, and also the use of celibacy in our understanding today. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie skripsie handel oor die konsep van selibaat, soos geïnterpreteer vanuit 1 Korintiërs 7: 1-28, die ontwikkeling van die term in die Protestantse tradisie en ook die gebruik daarvan in ons huidige konteks (wat die Nederduitse Gereformeerde tradisie insluit). Die skripsie maak ʼn deeglike eksegetiese studie en die skripsie ontleed ook veral die Protestantse tradisie (met die ontwikkeling van selibaat binne die tradisie). Dit kyk ook laastens na die manier hoe die term selibaat vandag gebruik word vanuit die Nederduitse Gereformeerde tradisie. Die hooffokus is juis die verbande en verskille wat daar ontstaan tussen 1 Korintiërs 7:1-28 en die gebruik van die term selibaat in die Protestantse tradisie, en ook die gebruik van selibaat in ons verstaan van die konsep vandag.

This thesis uses insights from a modern theory of communication, Relevance Theory, to examine the function of certain particles - in particular the conjunction hina - in Koine Greek. This particle has been regarded from the time of Classical Greek as an introducer of purpose clauses and so has been thought to have the lexical meaning of ‘in order that.’ More recently, however, scholars have recognised that in the New Testament at least, no more than 60% of the uses of hina merit such a translation, with a considerable number of independent clauses being introduced by this particle also. Apart from the New Testament it is the case that pagan writers of Koine used this particle to introduce a wider range of clauses than merely those with a telic relationship to the main clause of the sentence. This is particularly noticeable in the Discourses of Epictetus, a philosopher who taught in the latter half of the first century of the Christian era. In addition, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a notable critic of literary style and the historian Polybius, both writing within the Koine period used hina to introduce indirect commands and noun clauses as well as purpose clauses. The frequency of such uses (approximately 10% of all the instances of this particle) in their writings is considerably less than that of Epictetus, but those uses are nevertheless present in their works. Since iota-nu-alpha was used for this wider range of clauses by pagan, non-Jewish authors, some of whom spoke Greek as their first language, it seems extremely implausible to attribute such use to the incompetence of the implied authors of the New Testament, or ‘Semitic interference’. Since the many instances of non-telic hina in the New Testament are identified with reference to the context in which they occur, the telic instances should also be deduced from such context. I claim that the function of this particle is not to introduce a purpose clause nor does it have a fixed lexical meaning of ‘in order that’, but rather that it alerts the reader to expect an interpretation of the thought of the speaker or implied author. Of course in many instances a clause introduced by hina will be a purpose clause, but this is inferred from context rather than solely from the presence of this particle. This thesis proposes a unified account of the function of hina which fits the developing pattern of the language and relates it to the particle 'hina', and provides a theoretical basis for its use as an indicator of speaker or subject’s thought, thus enabling a reader to re-examine biblical texts whose interpretation has been problematic to date.

<p>This study examines the use of the Tanakh (the Jewish canon of the Bible) in the gospels of Mark and Matthew. At its core is a comparison of Tanakh references in these gospels which focuses on two central questions: Does Matthew raise the prominence of the Tanakh in his gospel? Is there a correlation between Matthean adaptations of Markan references and a the strength of his Jewish identity? </p><p>First and foremost, this investigation focuses on Mark, Matthew and the books that comprise the Tanakh in Greek (LXX) and Hebrew (MT). The gospels are surveyed according to NA28, the LXX according to the Gottingen Septuagint series, and the MT according to BHS. Additionally, all major variants of these three texts are considered. </p><p>The first methodological step in this comparison is the categorization of the 104 Tanakh references in Mark into three groups - explicit, implicit, and subtle references - with one chapter devoted to each. In each chapter, I open by pointing out the main focus of the Markan references. On a verse-by-verse basis, I then determine whether each Markan reference relies on the LXX or the MT, and if its Matthean version makes the Tanakh presence more or less prominent. Each chapter concludes with a concise summary of these individual comparisons. </p><p>A fourth chapter provides a discussion of the four Matthean omissions of the first verse of the Shema (Deut 6:4), an overview of scholarly understandings of these omissions, and my explanation for their elimination. </p><p>The main findings of this study are: 1) Matthew tends to make explicit Tanakh references more prominent in his gospel. This trend is present, albeit less evident, in the implicit references, and it is reversed in the subtle references. 2) Both Mark and Matthew were probably able to independently translate from the Hebrew text of the Tanakh. 3) The phrase “God is One,” which appears four times in Mark, is entirely eliminated from Matthew. 4) The primary effect of Matthean modifications of Markan references is the elevation of Jesus’ image rather than Law observance.</p><p>Thus, the primary conclusions of this study are: 1) that the Tanakh presence is enhanced in Matthew. 2) However, the evidence does not support the notion that this pattern stems from a Matthean Judazation of Mark but, rather, from an attempt to underscore the divine identity of Jesus.</p> / Dissertation

Our work deals with the role of Psalm 118 in the New Testament, which is also the name of our work. In order to figure out the function of Psalm 118 in the New Testament we analyzed the Psalm itself and offered quotations and remarks of it. Our thesis is that authors of the New Testament have found a new meaning for Psalm 118. This meaning is Christological and along with that we hope that these authors do not take our cited quotations out of context too harshly. Consequently, we provided the reader with an analysis of three New Testament quotations of selected verses, namely the concept of context, exegesis and the use of the psalm 118. The first selected texts deal with confidence in God and the second ones with rejected corner stone. Lastly, we considered the exultations and blessings of the King. We are looking at interpretation of our Psalm and the use of the context of cited verses.

Thesis advisor: Thomas D. Stegman / The majority of exegetes agree that the so-called “Letter” to the Hebrews is actually a homily, meant to be read aloud to a Christian community gathered for worship. In The Context of the Text: Reading Hebrews as a Eucharistic Homily, I argue that the specific venue for the public reading of Hebrews was a celebration of the Eucharist. It is my contention that the author presumed and exploited this Eucharistic setting in order to bolster his claims about the superiority of Christ and his sacrifice to the sacrifices of the “first covenant”, as well as to entreat his readers to remain faithful to Christian Eucharistic worship. This dissertation begins in Chapter 1 by considering the “state of the question,” examining the positions of scholars who take – respectively – negative, agnostic and positive positions regarding Eucharistic references in Hebrews. Chapter 2 situates the question of Hebrews and the Eucharist within the broader milieu of the liturgical provenance of New Testament writings. Chapter 3 considers the issues of Hebrews’ authorship, date of composition, audience, rhetorical strategy, and literary structure as they pertain to my argument that the text was written for proclamation at the Eucharist. Chapter 4 offers an extensive study of several passages from Hebrews which appear to allude to the Eucharist without mentioning the sacrament explicitly (Hebrews 6:4; 9:20; 10:19-25; 12:22-24; 13:10; and 13:15), setting forth the claim that the allusive nature of these references is explained by the Eucharistic milieu for which the homily was written. In particular, I argue that a Eucharistic understanding of Hebrews 13:10 (“We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat”) is the linchpin for understanding other Eucharistic references in Hebrews and that this verse serves as a major reinforcement of the author’s earlier claims regarding the supreme efficacy of Christ’s redemptive work. I hold that the author’s mention of an “altar” in 13:10 is meant to be understood as a reference to the Eucharistic table and that, taken as such, this statement parallels the claim in 8:1 (“We have such a high priest”) in order to demonstrate that Christians have both a superior priest (Christ) and a superior cultic act (the Eucharist). Finally, Chapter 5 considers interpretive traditions (particularly patristic and Eastern) which bolster the case for a Eucharistic interpretation of Hebrews. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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Bibliographic citation Martin Šály, Between spirit and tangibility: Dynamics in the life of the New Testament church and limits of its application in history (Mezi duchem a hmatatelností: Dynamika života církve v Novém zákoně a meze jejího uplatnění v historii). Dissertation, Charles University in Prague, Evangelical Theological Faculty, Prague, 2016. Summary The subject of the paper is the New Testament church. The author first draws attention to hermeneutic difficulties of the subject. These include e. g. a distinction between (1) the theological language of the church, which can be found in the NT in the form of many various images of the church, and (2) the NT passages intended to talk about the church as a religious organization, to target church ethics and so on. In the NT, however, the perfect distinction between the two areas is not always possible. Methodically, the work conceives the New Testament church to live in a dynamic space formed with various axes between different poles. Therefore, the NT church is not described here using certain typical attributes, but it is viewed in the dynamic space of "tensions between poles". The following pairs of poles are described for the New Testament church life: spirit - tangibility; The tradition of Jesus of Nazareth - The church tradition; ideal - reality;...

The importance and richness of 1 Peter�s soteriological language is generally acknowledged by commentators. However, apart from a few scattered and sporadic remarks in commentaries and in articles no full-scale study of 1 Peter�s soteriology has been carried out. This thesis seeks to fill that gap by conducting a detailed theological-critical study of the concept of salvation in the first letter of Peter. Part one of this thesis outlines the presuppositions and approach to theological-critical exegesis taken here. Basic to a theological exegesis of Scripture, it will be noted, is the recognition of its dual authorship as a divine and human communicative action embodied in written discourse. This means that the interpreter must be oriented primarily toward the subject matter of the biblical text and be committed to discerning the meaning placed there by the divine and human authors. This is another way of saying that the theological interpreter must take seriously the literal sense of the text. To do this, I will suggest, involves three things (each of which will be discussed): (1) literal sense exegesis; (2) intercanonical conversation; (2) intercatholic conversation. Part two contains a detailed theological-critical analysis of those passages in 1 Peter that treat the topic of salvation: 1:1-2; 2:4-10 (election); 1:18-21; 2:21-25; 3:18 (atonement); 1:3, 23-25 (regeneration); 1:3-12; 3:18-4:6 (eschatological salvation). We will see that 1 Peter�s soteriological outlook exhibits a salvation-historical framework which locates the initiative for salvation in God�s eternal, sovereign and gracious electing purpose (1:1-2; 2:4-19), decisively inaugurated in the death (1:10-12, 18-21; 2:21-25; 3:18) and subsequent resurrection, ascension, exaltation and vindication of Christ (1:3, 11, 21; 2:4d, 7d; 3:18e, 19, 21d-22; 4:13; 5:1, 4, 10), existentially realized through the proclamation of the message of salvation (1:12, 23) and the experience of the new birth (1:3, 23), and finally consummated at the return of Christ when suffering and death will give way to life, victory and vindication (1:3-12; 3:18-4:6). Peter�s unique presentation of the believers� eschatological salvation in terms of future victory and vindication is designed to engender hope amongst a small minority of believers facing the onslaught of a hostile world against their faith. In part three I seek to bring the results of my exegesis into dialogue with a variety of theological traditions (e.g., Reformed, Neo-orthodox, Lutheran, Arminian, Pelagian, Wesleyan) in order to allow 1 Peter to make its own distinctive contribution to the ongoing discussion (both between the traditions and between the bible and theology) but also to allow that dialogue to shape and sharpen our own understanding of salvation in 1 Peter. Because of the confines of space the discussion here is limited to the doctrines of election, atonement and regeneration. While at a conceptual level this thesis is an investigation of the concepts and presentation of salvation in the first letter of Peter, at a methodological level it further seeks to overcome the present and unfortunate segregation of biblical studies and theological studies and hopes further to open up the way for a more fruitful dialogue between the two.