Cecilio Arrastia is an author who has written many contemporary Christian works in Spanish. This investigation will explain the themes, analogies, and historical and contemporary references that the author mentions from the Bible and from present and past society. / Chapter 1 will examine the book A pesar de todo ... Dios sigue siendo amor. This chapter will look at the theme of depression and despair. The second book that will be studied and Chapter 2 is Dialogo desde una cruz. This book investigates the seven words of Jesus from the cross. The third work and Chapter 3 is Itinerario de la pasion. The focus of this study will be to discuss the author's analysis of the last week of the life of Christ before and after His crucifixion. The last chapter, chapter 4, examines Tentacion y mision. This central theme of this chapter is the role of the church. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: A, page: 1639. / Major Professor: Roberto G. Fernandez. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

Escorial Biblical ms. I.I.8 (E8) is a translation from the Vulgate into Spanish which contains the Old Testament, from Leviticus through the Psalter. Although portions of the ms. have been published (the Pentateuch, Tobit and the Psalter), much of the text remains unedited. This study proposes to make available an edition of I and II Samuel and to describe the language of the text in a phonological commentary and a vocabulary which examines items of linguistic significance, particularly those peculiar to Biblical texts of the 13th century E8 has generally been considered to be a 15th-century Aragonese copy of a Castilian text from the 13th century, but a theory of Riojan provenience has been proposed. The more widely-held theory is supported by a peculiarity of the Books of Samuel, namely, an abrupt shift in the phonetics of the text at II Samuel 10:10, with a concomitant semantic shift, such that the two portions of Samuel represent separate dialects. A conclusion about the Books of Samuel is offered, but any generalization about the whole text must be postponed until it has all been studied / acase@tulane.edu

The female protagonist of the Apocryphal Book of Judith inspires myriad representations in the arts and humanities. Numerous transformations in her mythos move beyond her representation as a wealthy young widow who chooses to live as a solitary ascetic. The apocryphal Judith, who destroys an enemy general and is feted as a national hero in Israel is interpreted in the twentieth century as a "phallic woman" and a "femme fatale". This dissertation asks "how do we account for this" and analyzes the phenomenon from a feminist critical perspective. / Part one. Social Location, proposes that representations and realities of women in the social cultural milieu of authors and artists influence characterizations of Judith. A dialogue which examines the social location of Jewish women in the late Second Temple period and that of the fictional Judith as a wealthy widow, solitary religious ascetic and educated woman indicates Judith would not have been considered anomalous in the cultural ambient of the author. / Part two. Psyche and Persona, traces transformations in the Judith mythos among theologians and biblical scholars. This analysis determines the extent to which Judith is represented as self-actualizing subject or as objectified and functioning to perpetuate the patriarchal ethos of Jewish and Christian traditions. / Part three. Judith and the Cultural and Personal Agendas of Artists discerns patterns in representations of Judith over the centuries as well as the influence of the personal agendas of artists upon the Judith mythos. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-08, Section: A, page: 2955. / Major Professor: John F. Priest. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

<p>The central portion of Paul's letter to the Galatians consists of three main arguments, each of which invokes a different image of Abrahamic descent: sons (3:7) in 3:6-14, seed (3:16, 29) in 3:15-4:11, and children of promise (4:28) in 4:21-5:1. Current interpretations of these Abrahamic appeals typically portray them as logically problematical, collectively inconsistent, and/or generally unpersuasive, a situation that then leads most scholars to identify them as <italic>ad hoc</italic> responses to the Galatian agitators. This inability to find a coherent model of Abrahamic descent in Galatians, however, threatens to undermine the very gospel itself by suggesting that it cannot effectively counter a Judaizing call that derives from a simple appeal to Abraham.</p> <p>This dissertation argues that Paul does indeed present the Galatians with a coherent account of Abrahamic descent that accords with his persuasive intent of refuting a law-based circumcision. Its key insight lies in the suggestion that Paul understands the Abrahamic <italic>diatheke</italic> in 3:15-18 as akin to a Hellenistic adoptive testament. As a result, the promised Abrahamic seed must be both a son of Abraham and, because of Abraham's divine adoption through the <italic>diatheke</italic>, a son of God, hence Paul's identification of Christ as Abraham's sole seed (3:16).</p> <p>This twofold nature of the Abrahamic seed then suggests a distinction in Paul's other terms for Abrahamic descent. The dissertation accordingly contends that "sons of Abraham" in 3:7 designates, as it typically did in the mid-first century C.E., the Jews, i.e., those physical descendants of Abraham who also share his faith. In contrast, "children of promise" in 4:28 designates gentiles who have through faith received the Abrahamic blessing, i.e., the Spirit of sonship that makes them children of God. Each group thus requires incorporation into Christ to establish their status as Abrahamic seed: the Jews so that they might share in the gentiles' divine sonship, the gentiles so that they might share in the Jews' Abrahamic sonship. This interdependent union of the Jewish sons of Abraham and the gentile sons of God in Christ then constitutes the single divine Abrahamic seed who inherits (3:29). </p> <p>Paul employs this model to refute the necessity of law observance as follows. In 3:6-14, he argues that Christ's accursed death on the cross divides faith from law observance as a means of justification for Jews; the full sons of Abraham accordingly become those Jews who, by dying to the law and embracing Christ, exhibit the same radical trust in God as their forefather exhibited. In 3:15-4:11, he argues that God added the law and its curse to ensure that the Jews could not receive the Abrahamic blessing promised to the nations--i.e., the Spirit that would make the Jews sons of God and, thus, Abrahamic seed--apart from the one seed, Christ. Finally, in 4:21-5:1, he argues that, like Hagar, the non-adoptive Sinaitic <italic>diatheke</italic> produces Abrahamic descendants (i.e., non-Christian Jews) who share the general human enslavement to the <italic>stoicheia</italic>, whereas the adoptive Abrahamic <italic>diatheke</italic> produces Abrahamic descendants (i.e., Christian Jews) whose divine adoption frees them from this enslavement. Each appeal to Abraham thus undermines the gentile Christians' motivation for submitting to the law by demonstrating that Jewish Christians do not even remain under the law.</p> / Dissertation

<p>The New Testament book known as the epistle to the Hebrews contains little obvious reference to Jesus' resurrection. Modern interpreters generally account for this relative silence by noting that the author's soteriological and christological concerns have led him to emphasize Jesus' death and exaltation while ignoring, spiritualizing, or even denying his resurrection. In particular, the writer's metaphorical appeal to the Yom Kippur sacrifice, with its dual emphasis on the slaughter of the victim and the presentation of the victim's blood by the high priest, allows him to explain the salvific significance of Jesus' death and exaltation. The crucifixion can be likened to the slaughter of the victim, while Jesus' exaltation in heaven can be likened to the high priest entering the holy of holies. In this way the cross can be understood as an atoning sacrifice. Such a model leaves little room for positive or distinct reflection on the soteriological or christological significance of the resurrection. </p> <p>This study argues that the soteriology and high-priestly Christology the author develops depend upon Jesus' bodily resurrection and ascension into heaven. The work begins with a survey of positions on Jesus' resurrection in Hebrews. I then present a case for the presence and role of Jesus' bodily resurrection in the text. First, I demonstrate that the writer's argument in Heb 1-2 for the elevation of Jesus above the angelic spirits assumes that Jesus has his humanity--his blood and flesh--with him in heaven. Second, I show that in Heb 5-7 the writer identifies Jesus' resurrection to an indestructible life as the point when Jesus became a high priest. Third, I explain how this thesis makes coherent the author's consistent claims in Heb 8-10 that Jesus presented his offering to God in heaven. I conclude that Jesus' crucifixion is neither the place nor the moment of atonement for the author of Hebrews. Rather, in keeping with the equation in the Levitical sacrificial system of the presentation of blood to God with the presentation of life, Jesus obtained atonement where and when the writer says--when he presented himself in his ever-living, resurrected humanity before God in heaven. Jesus' bodily resurrection is, therefore, the hinge around which the high-priestly Christology and soteriology of Hebrews turns.</p> / Dissertation

The otherworldly depiction of Jesus in coordination with the origin and function of descent-ascent language in the Gospel of John is the subject of this study. In Chapter One it is found that the gospel explicitly and repeatedly refers to Jesus' heavenly origin, his divine titles, his descent from heaven, and his ascent back to his celestial home in order to emphasize his preeminent revelatory authority. Furthermore, it would appear that the gospel attempts to suppress a competing revelatory point of view in which heavenly visions and heavenly ascensions by mortals are normative. A review in Chapter Two of the way in which modern scholars have attempted to come to terms with these matters indicates that the Fourth Gospel depicts its protagonist according to one trans-cultural conceptual paradigm containing a descent-ascent pattern for revelatory figures in order to oppose an alternative paradigm in which both divine descent-ascent and human ascent-descent patterns are present. Focusing upon ancient Jewish and Christian angel stories, Chapter Three demonstrates that an essential difference between the two paradigms has to do with whether the locus of divine-human discourse is earth or heaven. In the EARTHBOUND paradigm revelation is transmitted solely upon the earth and the heavenly messenger possesses unrivaled revelatory authority. But in the alternative HEAVENWARD paradigm the role and status of the heavenly messenger are patently subordinated to the mortal who is permitted to see if not actually journey up into the celestial world. Chapter Four's selective but narratologically-informed reading of the Gospel of John shows how the gospel's depiction of its protagonist according to the EARTHBOUND paradigm methodically suppresses and deconstructs revelatory and salvific beliefs rooted in the HEAVENWARD viewpoint. Of particular interest is the way in which an historically necessary departure from the EARTHBOUND schema, by ironically representing the ascent of Jesus as a lifting up upon the cross, effectively puts to death (from the gospel's point of view) ideas about the possibility of mortals ascending to heaven with or without Jesus prior to the end of their own lives.

What is "the Book?" Theology and philosophy have traditionally postulated the metaphysical precedence of orality and considered literacy as a subsequent, historical turning point: one day, an original logos "came down" and "enclosed itself" inside the Book. The "community of the Book" has continued to read and write within the epistemological boundaries of this first inscription. Literature has increasingly disengaged the Book from this logocentric foundation. Modern writers have even postulated the philosophical priority of "being in the Book" (Jabes) and redefined logos as one phase of writing (Derrida). Simultaneously, they have attempted to describe the "outside" of the Book: not as logos or truth, but as the endless, meaningless murmur of words which Blanchot calls "rumeur." Rumor, not unlike logos, is yet another form of writing inscribing exteriority within the Book in a complex textual strategy which Nancy calls "excription." Writing may then be defined as the production of an oscillating limit ("&") between an inscribed livre and an "excribed" parole. Exergue: Rumeur. Blanchot's rumeur, Beckett's voix, Serres's noise, Bonnefoy's parole, as well as John's logos en arche are extreme cases of textual "excription." Introduction. Critical review of speech/writing theories. Chapter 1: Sacre/Le Livre & la Parole. In Exodus, Ezechiel, John, Koran, and Dogon myth, the divine Word "descends" into the Book, forming an ethical community. Chapter 2: Cycle/Le Livre & le Monde. The closed figure of the Book is projected onto the indefinite spaces of world (Dante, Koyre), mind (Rorty) and episteme (Foucault, Diderot, Hegel, Novalis). Chapter 3: Modernite/La Litterature & le Livre. Jewish Kabbalah (Isaac the Blind, Zohar) offers a grammatocentric counterpoint which has influenced modern definitions of "Book" (Mallarme, Jabes, Derrida). Logocentric metaphysics undergoes serious alterations as the figure of the Book "melts" into literature (Rabelais, Cyrano, Voltaire, Valery). Conclusion. What generates the fragile delineation between livre and parole is an insatiable desir de l'ecrire (Bourjea).

The Apocalypse of Abraham, a pseudepigraphon only extant in a fourteenth century Old Church Slavonic manuscript, has not received much attention from scholars of Ancient Judaism, due in part to a lack of readily available information regarding the history and transmission of the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha. This dissertation examines the historical context of these works with the aim of assessing the probability that they contain ancient Jewish material. The rest of the dissertation is focused on the Apocalypse of Abraham specifically, discussing its date and provenance, original language, probability that it comes from Essene circles, textual unity, and Christian interpolations. This includes treatments of the issue of free will, determinism, and predestination in the Apocalypse of Abraham as well as the methodological complexities in trying to distinguish between early Jewish and Christian works. It also provides an in-depth comparison of the Apocalypse of Abraham with 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch and takes up the question of the social setting for these texts based on relevant precedents set by recent scholars of midrash who seek to probe the “socio-cultural and historical situatedness” of midrashic texts. This discussion includes a survey of parallels between the content of the Apocalypse of Abraham and rabbinic literature to support the argument that a sharp distinction between apocalyptic ideas and what later became rabbinic tradition did not exist in the time between 70 and 135 C.E. Overall, this dissertation argues that the Apocalypse of Abraham is an early Jewish document written during the decades following the destruction of the Second Temple. While seeking to warn its readers of the dangers of idolatry in light of the apocalyptic judgment still to come, it also provides sustained exegesis of Genesis 15, which gives cohesion to the entire document.

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In the mid 1990's, Aarhus University's Per Bilde detailed a new hypothesis of how Judaism, Christianity and Gnosticism were connected. Bilde suggested that Christianity acted as a catalyst, propelling Jewish Apocalypticism into Gnosticism. This dissertation applies the epistle of Jude to Per Bilde's theory. Although Bilde is not the first to posit Judaism as a factor in the emergence of Gnosticism, his theory is unique in attempting to frame that connection in terms of a religious continuum. Jewish Apocalypticism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism represent three stages in a continual religio-historical development in which Gnosticism became the logical conclusion. I propose that Bilde is essentially correct and that the epistle of Jude is written evidence that the author of the epistle experiences the phenomena. The author of Jude (from this point on referred to as Jude) sits in the middle of Bilde's progression and may be the most perceptive of New Testament writers in responding to the crisis. He looks behind to see the Jewish association with the Christ followers and seeks to maintain it. He looks forward to what he perceives as a shift from early orthodoxy and battles that shift. My thesis is to use the text of the epistle of Jude to uncover its historical situation. I posit that it portrays an early church leader grounded in Jewish Apocalypticism and facing the beginnings of a new "heretical" movement. This is a thesis of connections, and the work lies in using the epistle of Jude to illustrate those connections. This study is significant in two respects. First, it will clarify background issues of Jude. Earlier scrutiny of Jude focused on its unique aspects, such as Jude's use of the non-canonical texts of 1 Enoch and the Testament of Moses. More recent scholarship has centered on the literary and rhetorical analysis of the text. I will concentrate on using the text of Jude within the context of this theory in order to determine a clearer view of the historical setting in which Jude wrote. Second, this work will further the theory of connections between Jewish Apocalypticism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. Although much work has been done to validate the connections between Judaism and Gnosticism, less has been done specifically with regard to Jewish Apocalypticism and even less with Per Bilde's theory of the critical middle role of early Christianity. And no one has used Jude in this particular discussion. / Religion