This examination explores ways in which the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew elicits and develops the emotions of suspense, surprise, and curiosity within its readers. The dream narrative (common in Greek literature) found at the beginning of the Gospel sets up expectation for Jewish salvation (Matt 1:21; 2:6) though this fails to be realized in the narrative given the salvation requirements set forth in Jesus' discourses and parables. This narrative of failure brings about increasing suspense related to the characters in the plot (leaders of the people, crowds, disciples, and Peter). The narrative ends with the commission to the Gentiles (Matt 28:19-20), as a surprise for the reader given the initial expectation of Jewish salvation. This surprise, however, invokes curiosity, calling readers back to the narrative's beginning. Upon rereading with a retrospective view, the reader discovers that the Gentile mission was foreshadowed throughout the narrative via ironic quotations and echoes of Isaiah (Matt 1:23-24; 4:14-16; 8:17; 12:18-21; 20:28; 21:33-45; 26:28) that now take on universal interpretation. / Cette thèse explore des façons dans lesquelles le récit de l'Évangile de Matthieu provoque et développe pour ses lecteurs les émotions de suspense, surprise, et curiosité. Le récit de rêve (une notion littéraire commune dans la littérature grecque) au début de l'Évangile construit pour le lecteur une attente au salut juif (Matt 1:21 ; 2:6). Par contre, si on tient compte des conditions de salut décrits dans les discours et les paraboles de Jésus, cette attente ne se concrétise jamais dans le récit. Ce récit d'échec augmente le suspense lié aux caractères du complot (les dirigeants spirituels des citoyens, les foules, les disciples, et Pierre). Le récit se termine avec la mission aux gentils (Matt 28:19-20) et considérant l'attente initiale au salut juif, ce passage surprend les lecteurs. Par la suite cette surprise invoque une curiosité qui invite les lecteurs à retourner au commencement du récit. En le lisant de nouveau avec une rétrospective, le lecteur découvre qu'à travers le récit, les citations et les échos ironiques d'Esaïe (Matt 1:23-24; 4:14-16; 8:17 ; 12:18-21; 20:28 ; 21:33-45; 26:28) laissent présager la mission aux gentils. Une interprétation universelle de ces passages devient maintenant nécessaire.

The Septuagint, a collection of Greek-Jewish literature initially composed of faithful translations of the Hebrew Pentateuch and later expanded to include Greek translations of the entire biblical corpus, plus ‘apocrypha,' contains two books whose derivative character is explicitly acknowledged: LXX Esther (F:11) and Second Maccabees (2:19-32). In this thesis, I will be applying methodologies borrowed from Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) to these texts with the assumption that they represent ‘pseudo-translations,' compositions which claim to be direct translations from a source text, but which incorporate original material under disguise. By describing the product, exploring the process, and situating the position of these texts within their target-culture, that of Greek-speaking Egyptian Jews, the models which influenced their composition and the success of their repertoire in shaping Hellenistic Jewish cultural experience and production can be assessed. I argue that LXX Esther and Second Maccabees demonstrate a historical understanding of violence and persecution where God's wrath against his people is turned to mercy by proper behaviour, devout prayer, and willingness to die on the part of exemplary Jewish heroes and heroines. This narrative structure, imposed upon existing treatments of the historical events in question by the adaptors of LXX Esther and Second Maccabees, influenced the understanding and recording of violent experiences by Jews in the Graeco-Roman period. / La Septante, un canon de la littérature greco-juive d'abord composé des traductions fidèles du Pentateuque hébreu, et plus tard élargi pour inclure la traduction grecque de l'ensemble du 'corpus' biblique, plus 'apocryphe,' contient deux livres dont le caractère notoire dérivé est explicit: LXX Esther ( F:11) et le deuxième livre des Machabées (2:19-32). Dans cette thèse, et pour ces textes, je me servirai de méthodologie empruntée des Études Descriptives de la Traduction (EDT) avec l'hypothèse que ces textes représentent des 'pseudo-traductions' (des compositions qui prétendent être des traductions directes à partir d'un 'texte source'), mais qui incorporent des documents originaux en vertu de 'déguisements.' En décrivant le produit, en explorant le processus, et en situant la position de ces textes au sein de leur culture-cible, c'est a dire celle des Juifs égyptiens qui parlent le Grecque, les modèles qui ont influencé leurs compositions et le succès de leurs répertoires dans l'élaboration de l'expérience et la production culturelle juive hellénistique peut être évaluée. Je soutiens que LXX Esther et le deuxième livre des Machabées demontrent une compréhension historique de la violence et de la persécution, où la colère de Dieu contre son peuple est transformé en miséricorde par un comportement approprié, la prière dévote, et la volonté de mourir a l'exemplarité des héros et héroïnes juifs. Cette structure narrative, imposée aux traitements existants des événements historiques en question par les adaptateurs de LXX Esther et le deuxième livre des Machabées, a influencé la compréhension et l'enregistrement des expériences de violences qu'ont subit les Juifs dans la période gréco-romaine.

Informed by social theorist Pierre Bourdieu's work on fields of cultural production, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the competing ways in which scribal agents have attempted to shape and lay claim to the wedlock trope for the purpose of legitimating their theopolitical interests. The wedlock trope speaks to a very real and authoritative conception of order in the ancient world. Scribes considered this order self-evident and 'natural.' The wedlock trope participates in this underlying world-view of order. The doxa of natural order—always already self-evidently true—is a theoretical construct in the articulation of monolatry (Hos 1:2). Wedlock is only subsequently troped as history (Hos 2:5 and 16-17; Jer 2:2; Eze 16:1-8). Origins are contested sites. Indeed, the figuration of the historical marital / covenantal 'event' is precisely what is at stake in scribal struggles to impose the dominant definition of theological 'truth.' The wedlock trope is the ideal theological marketing strategy: it does not need to be explained, authorized, or legitimated. The stability of natural order itself is what underlies the scribal struggle to legitimate, appropriate, and / or transform competing histories. / Informé par les travaux du sociologue Pierre Bourdieu concernant les champs de production culturel; le but de cette thèse est d'explorer les voies concurentielles dans lesquelles les agents scribes ont tenté de modeler et de s'approprier le trope mariage dans le but de légitimer leurs intérêts théopolitiques. Le trope mariage s'adresse à une conception très réel et autoritaire d'ordre dans le monde ancien. Les scribes consideraient cet ordre manifeste et naturel. La doxa de l'ordre naturel, toujours déja a priori vraie, est une construction théorique dans l'articulation de la monolâtrie (Os 1:2). Le mariage est seulement par la suite troper comme histoire (Os 2:5 et 16-17; Jer 2:2; Eze 16:1-8). Les origines sont des sites contestés. En effet, l'événement historique mariage / alliance est précisément ce qui est en jeu dans les luttes scribes pour la légitimité dans le champ littéraire. Le trope mariage est idéal comme stratégie de marketing théologique: il n'a pas besoin d'être expliqué, autorisé, ou légitimé. La stabilité de l'ordre naturel même est ce qui sous-tend les tentatives concurentielles des scribes afin de légitimer, approprier, et / ou transformer les prises de positions vis à vis les origines.

This dissertation examines Jewish exegesis of the book of Job to two ends. First, it explores four topics previous generations of scholars left unstudied or incompletely examined. Second, it uses the results of these studies to describe the history of the Jewish tradition of Job exegesis from the period of the Talmud until the present. / Chapter 1 provides a review of the scholarly literature treating various aspects of Job exegesis from antiquity to the post-Holocaust period and highlights a number of issues in need of further study. / Chapter 2 argues that Wertheimer's reconstruction of Midrash Iyov, although unlikely an accurate presentation of a rabbinic original, preserves a number of authentic rabbinic sources. In contrast to the known tradition these preserve a laudatory view of Job that appears to have been suppressed. / Chapter 3 contextualizes the rabbinic exegesis of Job. Earlier scholars argued that the rabbinic interpretation of Job was shaped by anti-Christian and anti-Gentile attitudes, and that it responded to Christian exegesis. These studies were challenged because historical evidence for this Jewish-Christian discussion was lacking. In response to this challenge, this chapter provides additional evidence and argues that the discussion did take place. The two participants were the fourth century Babylonian Jewish sage Rava and his Christian contemporary Aphrahat. A comparison of their comments on Job establishes a relationship between the two and substantiates earlier scholarly claims. / Chapter 4 explores the relationship between the Zohar's exegesis of Job and that of Maimonides and Nahmanides. The research concludes that the Zohar's interpretation is a weaving of these two scholars' views and presents Job as one who suffered because he was ignorant of mystical secrets. / Chapter 5 examines the interpretation of Job in the post-Holocaust period. It argues that in contrast to the pre-Holocaust tradition, which blamed Job for what happened to him, post-Holocaust thinkers have not allowed the victim to be blamed. These thinkers have preferred to challenge God rather than Job. / Concerned with the second objective of the present study, chapter 6 provides an outline of the major trends in Jewish Job exegesis. In the Second Temple period Job was described as a pious figure to be emulated. The earliest rabbis maintained this view. By the late third or early fourth centuries, Christian valorization of Job led to Jewish negation of his importance. This led to the depiction of Job as a blasphemer deserving of divine punishment. The view of Job as a less than innocent victim was preserved but modified in various ways in the middle ages (by mystics, philosophers, and peshat exegetes), and was perpetuated through the mid-twentieth century. Only the Holocaust forced a reevaluation of this view. Job was able to have his righteousness restored in an age when interpreters understood, by virtue of their own experiences, that the innocent could truly suffer unjustly.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2006. / (UMI)AAI3255587. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: A, page: 1026. Adviser: W. Hall Harris.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2007. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

<p> Theological interpretation of Scripture has been ascendant in recent decades, and theologians and biblical scholars from a variety of backgrounds, areas of expertise, and ecclesial commitments have rallied around it. Increasingly, however, divisions are fraying the heretofore united front against historical criticism's dominance in academic biblical interpretation. This dissertation is an exploration of the reasons for these divisions. Its motivating thesis is that differences in ecclesiology lie behind disagreements about bibliology, which manifest in turn as divergences over theological interpretation. Prior to and operative within judgments about the nature, authority, and interpretation of the Bible stand judgments about the being, mission, and authority of the church. But the relationship between the two is not so linear as that. For the connections between them are direct and materially operative, and only more so when they remain implicit and therefore unexamined. Every account of the Bible both assumes and implies an account of the church, and vice versa: the lines of influence are reciprocal and circular. The Bible is always the church's book, the church always the community under the Bible's authority. </p><p> This dissertation responds, diagnostically and constructively, to this situation through engagement with particular figures. Specifically, it expounds one specific strand of bibliology influenced by the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth: the work, respectively, of John Howard Yoder, Robert Jenson, and John Webster. Each of these theologians is a contemporary Barthian <i> of a sort</i>, a student but not a disciple of the Swiss master. Given Barth's influence over the development of theological interpretation, this commonality is helpful both genetically (all three trace their thought to the&ndash;proximate&ndash;source) and substantively (their proposals share enough to make disagreement intelligible, and interesting). Moreover, Jenson, Webster, and Yoder represent, between them, the three great traditions of western Christendom: catholicism, the magisterial reformation, and the radical reformation. The specific ways in which their ecclesial commitments shape, inform, and at times determine their theological treatments of Scripture provide ideal examples of the phenomenon at issue in this dissertation.</p><p> Across five chapters, the project's principal aim is to demonstrate as well as examine the inseparable relationship between theology of Scripture and theology of the church. Along the way, the positions and proposals represented by Yoder, Jenson, and 'Webster come to light, and critical analysis of each highlights their respective strengths and shortcomings. In fulfilling these tasks the dissertation serves both as an initial reception of these theologians' bibliologies and as a critique of a feature&ndash;at times a problem&ndash;endemic to the current renewal of theological interpretation of Scripture.</p><p>

<p> Ezekiel the Tragedian&rsquo;s Exag&omacr;g&emacr;, a circa second-century BCE play, incorporates Jewish traditions that may associate Moses with resurrection and that describe Moses as having a vision in which he ascends to heaven, where he is elevated above the angels to a cosmic kingship. The extra-biblical traditions in this drama present Moses as more similar to the Jesus of the NT than does the biblical tradition of Moses. New Testament depictions of Jesus&rsquo;s ascent to heaven and portrayals of Jesus through a Moses typology may be influenced by these traditions. This study will focus on traditions represented in the ascent-to-heaven scene (Ezek. Trag. 68&ndash;89) and in the scout&rsquo;s report (Ezek. Trag. 243&ndash;69) and will examine the likely influences of such traditions in the Letter to the Hebrews.</p><p>

<p> While ethical arguments for nonviolence have persisted for generations, theological arguments for an absolutely nonviolent God have recently emerged. Some theologians deem violence in every form to be immoral and punishment to be a form and cause of violence, so they contend that a moral God must be nonviolent and non-retributive. Also, this nonviolent God assertion undermines other doctrines including penal substitution in the atonement, eternal punishment in hell, and temporal judgments in biblical narratives. In response, I will argue that God&rsquo;s justice has a retributive aspect, for He gives to people what they deserve including punishing sinners or a substitute in their place. His justice is a necessary divine attribute, for to be true to Himself, God highly values His image bearers by dignifying their free will and choices by assuring that they experience the results of their decisions. Thus God&rsquo;s retributive justice provides a moral framework for His violent judgments. </p><p>

The book of Esther stands in a complex relationship to the Christian tradition. Accepted as canonical by ancient Israel, Judaism, and Christianity, the book nonetheless is known in the Church not for its powerful narrative of Jewish deliverance, but rather for the ways in which Christian interpreters have rejected the narrative as too violent and too “Jewish” to be normative in any way for Christians. Reading the Hebrew version of the Esther story preserved in the Masoretic Text, one at first notices the story’s complete lack of overt references to Israel, Torah, or even the God of Israel, suggesting to many gentiles throughout Christian history that it is not a religious narrative, but rather a story of Jewish nationalism “gone mad” in a willful excess of ethnic violence, as one interpreter has described it. Reading the narrative with attention to the myriad of canonical allusions contained within the story, however, the interpreter will recognize that the God of Israel is indeed present in the Esther story, manifest precisely in the perduring presence of his covenantal partners, the Jews. This reading of the narrative is made apparent in the Septuagint versions of the Esther story, which display their religious sensibilities overtly. But this reading is also evident in the Masoretic Text, seen first in the victory of Esther and Mordecai over Haman. This victory both represents and embodies the Jewish victory over Amalek, the cosmic opponent whose existence throughout history has continually challenged and undermined the divine order in creation. The reader then sees that Israel is present in the Esther story in the zeraʻ hayyĕhûdîm, the seed of the Jews who (perhaps even unknowingly) enact a real and efficacious form of liturgical memory in their fasting, penitence, and military action. Despite the characters’ (and the narrative’s) religious silence, the portrayal of Jewish victory in the Esther story challenges the Church to rethink its understanding of salvation history, as well as the Church’s place in the biblical understanding of God’s covenant with Israel and the divine order of creation.