Desde sua construção no tempo do rei Salomão, o Templo de Jerusalém foi pedra angular do Javismo do Sul e, por conseguinte, do Judaísmo do Segundo Templo. O Pensamento do Templo, baseado nas regras de pureza e impureza dentro do espaço e tempo sagrados com as quais se orientava a vida sacerdotal, expandir-se-á de modo vigoroso nesse período com o crescimento da importância e centralidade do santuário hierosolimita na sociedade pós-exílica. Ao mesmo tempo, a valorização do sacerdócio estava em seu auge. O sumo sacerdote foi, desde o retorno de Babilônia, o chefe religioso e político da nação judaica até a ascensão de Salomé Alexandra ao trono no primeiro século a.C., função que lhe seria restituída com a queda da dinastia herodiana na Judéia. Por volta do século II a.C., uma comunidade fundada e liderada por sacerdotes, conhecida atualmente como Comunidade de Qumran, isolou-se da sociedade circundante, objetivando seguir uma estrita observância das regras sacerdotais de pureza. Em seu centro no deserto da Judéia, na região de Qumran próxima ao Mar Morto, seus membros produziram e guardaram manuscritos através dos quais basearam e constituíram sua organização peculiar. Esses manuscritos são denominados Manuscritos do Mar Morto ou, mais especificamente, Manuscritos de Qumran. Entre eles estão o Rolo (ou Pergaminho) do Templo, a Regra da Comunidade e o Documento de Damasco, fontes de interpretação bíblica e de normas comunitárias que os guiaram, enquanto aguardavam o tempo do fim, quando os sacerdotes da Comunidade seriam finalmente reinvestidos de seu poder no Templo purificado. E é baseando-nos nesses três documentos que elaboramos nossa tese ao analisar os discursos veiculados pela liderança comunal, os quais visavam à constituição de uma sociedade sacerdotal, moldada em uma interpretação radical das Escrituras e do mundo. / Since its construction in the time of king Salomon, the Jerusalem Temple was the corner stone of the Southern Javism and, from then on, of the Second Temple Judaism. The so-called Temple Thought, based on the rules of pure and impure inside the sacred place and time which governed the priestly life, will expand vigorously in this period due to the growth in importance and centrality of the Jerusalemite sanctuary inside the post-exilic society. At the same time, the high value of the priesthood was in its peak. The high priest was, from the return from the Babylonian exile on, the religious and political head of the Jewish nation until Salome Alexandras ascension to the throne in the first century B.C., function that was restituted after the fall of the Herodian dynasty. Around the second century B.C., a community founded and leaded by priests, presently known as the Qumran Community, isolated itself from the surrounding society, aiming at following the strict observance of the priestly rules of purity. In its centre in the Judean desert, in the region of Qumran near the Dead Sea, its members produced and kept manuscripts by which they based and constituted their peculiar organization. Those manuscripts are named Dead Sea Scrolls, or, more specifically, Qumran Scrolls. Among them we can find the Temple Scroll, the Rule of Community and the Damascus Document, sources of biblical interpretation and of community rules that guided them while they expected the end of times, when the priests of the Community would, eventually, be reinvested of their power in the purified Temple. Basing ourselves on these three documents we elaborated our dissertation by analyzing the discourse produced by the communal leadership, whose goal was the constitution of a priestly society, shaped in its radical interpretation of the Scriptures and of the world.

This thesis challenges the position that the serek texts are primarily prescriptive and legal, as they have been customarily defined. It argues that the term serek should be reconceptualized according to descriptive analysis, with the purpose of creating what C. Newsom terms a ‘Gestalt structure.’ In order to achieve this, four serek texts (M, S, Sa, and D) will be analyzed at three literary levels—semantic, textual and hypertextual—explaining how the elements at these levels interact as cohesive wholes, thus serving to create a more complete picture of this group of texts as a literary unity. Thus, while the separate, constituent semantic, textual and hypertextual parts must be analysed as separate elements, the fundamental questions posed regarding these elements will be different in a Gestalt paradigm as compared to a traditional, definitional analysis. Going from the micro to the macro, the first chapter will look at the serek texts through the ‘microscope’ of close philological analysis, examining how the term serek functions atomistically within the Dead Sea Scrolls. Building upon these results, the second chapter will more broadly analyse the structure, themes and narrative apparent in the serek texts, thus creating a fuller understanding of how the serek texts relate to one another and respond to circumstances in community life. Finally, the last chapter seeks yet more broadly to understand the serek texts in the wider literary milieu of the Second Temple Period. Here, a scribal technique present in the serek texts will be compared to a similar technique used in the Book of Isaiah—arguably the most important prophetic work for the Qumran sectarians.

This thesis challenges the position that the serek texts are primarily prescriptive and legal, as they have been customarily defined. It argues that the term serek should be reconceptualized according to descriptive analysis, with the purpose of creating what C. Newsom terms a ‘Gestalt structure.’ In order to achieve this, four serek texts (M, S, Sa, and D) will be analyzed at three literary levels—semantic, textual and hypertextual—explaining how the elements at these levels interact as cohesive wholes, thus serving to create a more complete picture of this group of texts as a literary unity. Thus, while the separate, constituent semantic, textual and hypertextual parts must be analysed as separate elements, the fundamental questions posed regarding these elements will be different in a Gestalt paradigm as compared to a traditional, definitional analysis. Going from the micro to the macro, the first chapter will look at the serek texts through the ‘microscope’ of close philological analysis, examining how the term serek functions atomistically within the Dead Sea Scrolls. Building upon these results, the second chapter will more broadly analyse the structure, themes and narrative apparent in the serek texts, thus creating a fuller understanding of how the serek texts relate to one another and respond to circumstances in community life. Finally, the last chapter seeks yet more broadly to understand the serek texts in the wider literary milieu of the Second Temple Period. Here, a scribal technique present in the serek texts will be compared to a similar technique used in the Book of Isaiah—arguably the most important prophetic work for the Qumran sectarians.

Desde sua construção no tempo do rei Salomão, o Templo de Jerusalém foi pedra angular do Javismo do Sul e, por conseguinte, do Judaísmo do Segundo Templo. O Pensamento do Templo, baseado nas regras de pureza e impureza dentro do espaço e tempo sagrados com as quais se orientava a vida sacerdotal, expandir-se-á de modo vigoroso nesse período com o crescimento da importância e centralidade do santuário hierosolimita na sociedade pós-exílica. Ao mesmo tempo, a valorização do sacerdócio estava em seu auge. O sumo sacerdote foi, desde o retorno de Babilônia, o chefe religioso e político da nação judaica até a ascensão de Salomé Alexandra ao trono no primeiro século a.C., função que lhe seria restituída com a queda da dinastia herodiana na Judéia. Por volta do século II a.C., uma comunidade fundada e liderada por sacerdotes, conhecida atualmente como Comunidade de Qumran, isolou-se da sociedade circundante, objetivando seguir uma estrita observância das regras sacerdotais de pureza. Em seu centro no deserto da Judéia, na região de Qumran próxima ao Mar Morto, seus membros produziram e guardaram manuscritos através dos quais basearam e constituíram sua organização peculiar. Esses manuscritos são denominados Manuscritos do Mar Morto ou, mais especificamente, Manuscritos de Qumran. Entre eles estão o Rolo (ou Pergaminho) do Templo, a Regra da Comunidade e o Documento de Damasco, fontes de interpretação bíblica e de normas comunitárias que os guiaram, enquanto aguardavam o tempo do fim, quando os sacerdotes da Comunidade seriam finalmente reinvestidos de seu poder no Templo purificado. E é baseando-nos nesses três documentos que elaboramos nossa tese ao analisar os discursos veiculados pela liderança comunal, os quais visavam à constituição de uma sociedade sacerdotal, moldada em uma interpretação radical das Escrituras e do mundo. / Since its construction in the time of king Salomon, the Jerusalem Temple was the corner stone of the Southern Javism and, from then on, of the Second Temple Judaism. The so-called Temple Thought, based on the rules of pure and impure inside the sacred place and time which governed the priestly life, will expand vigorously in this period due to the growth in importance and centrality of the Jerusalemite sanctuary inside the post-exilic society. At the same time, the high value of the priesthood was in its peak. The high priest was, from the return from the Babylonian exile on, the religious and political head of the Jewish nation until Salome Alexandras ascension to the throne in the first century B.C., function that was restituted after the fall of the Herodian dynasty. Around the second century B.C., a community founded and leaded by priests, presently known as the Qumran Community, isolated itself from the surrounding society, aiming at following the strict observance of the priestly rules of purity. In its centre in the Judean desert, in the region of Qumran near the Dead Sea, its members produced and kept manuscripts by which they based and constituted their peculiar organization. Those manuscripts are named Dead Sea Scrolls, or, more specifically, Qumran Scrolls. Among them we can find the Temple Scroll, the Rule of Community and the Damascus Document, sources of biblical interpretation and of community rules that guided them while they expected the end of times, when the priests of the Community would, eventually, be reinvested of their power in the purified Temple. Basing ourselves on these three documents we elaborated our dissertation by analyzing the discourse produced by the communal leadership, whose goal was the constitution of a priestly society, shaped in its radical interpretation of the Scriptures and of the world.

Repetition has received a bad press in certain streams of theological tradition; this reception has in part been caused by, and has in turn affected, readings of the Letter to the Hebrews, which speaks about repetition in ways unique in the New Testament. The present study addresses the insufficient critical attention paid to repetition in Hebrews, challenging the assumption that it functions uniformly and negatively throughout the letter, and exploring the variety of ways in which Hebrews presents repetition. The plurality of prophetic speech displays God’s manifold kindness in the old covenant; such speech is not opposed to but is fulfilled in Christ’s coming, and its ongoing repetition in the new covenant through citation and exposition serves to promote and explicate that event. Repeated mutual encouragement is essential to persevering in the Christian life and avoiding apostasy. And the regular entry of the Levitical priests into the outer sanctuary of the tabernacle in Heb 9.6 foreshadows the continual access to God achieved through Christ. Where repetition has a negative or contrastive role in the author’s argumentation, it does not cause inefficacy but rather indicates a weakness whose source is elsewhere – and which, moreover, is revealed fully only in the light of the Christ event. The uniqueness of Christ and of his death construed as a sacrifice, developed from concepts of singularity in Day of Atonement and early Christian crucifixion traditions, forms a unifying strand in the letter’s Christology. Rather than functioning in simple opposition to repetition, this singularity corresponds to continuity and eternity, and is developed at times in contrast to, and at times in correspondence with, repetition. The study thus offers a reappraisal of repetition in Hebrews, laying the foundations for renewed appreciation of the importance of repetition for theological discourse and religious life.

The main aim of this dissertation is to understand the function of the text The Parables of Enoch (PE) in its ancient context. Despite the complicated and composite nature of this text, I have tried to explain the internal logic of this text, especially with an emphasis on understanding the different timelines with which the author of the text works. A critical evaluation of the limits of working with the preserved Ethiopian translations, as well as with the composite nature of the extant form of the text is the essential prerequisite for the interpretation of PE. In the exegetical part, I seek to demonstrate the main thesis that the purpose of PE is to offer a complex symbolic universe through ancient authoritative visions of the ancestor Enoch that serves to legitimize the shared social reality, which is in danger due to the difficult situation of persecution and oppression. I take the theoretical framework for this research over from the sociological constructivism. While the shared social reality is often in crisis, the symbolic universe as a complex level of legitimation intends to explain this discrepancy between the assumed social reality and the reality of the everyday experience. In the case of PE, it is a discrepancy between the experience of oppression and persecution of the addressees...

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)

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has provided an opportunity to reexamine the formation of the Gospel of John. This study will utilize Dead Sea finds coupled with other Second Temple literature to examine how the Gospel of John portrays Jesus as being a king. The approach of this study to use a narrative approach that builds on the Gospel of John as a finished text. The contribution of a source critical approach is not disparaged but the narrative approach will allow the Johannine community to be seen in the context of the immediate post-Second Temple era. The limited literacy of the probable first audience of this text suggests that a narrative approach will best be able to understand the background to the formation of the Gospel of John. A central contention of this study is that the Gospel of John was composed after the Jewish Revolt and after the Synoptics. Thus it deserves the appellation of the Fourth Gospel and is called such in this study. The Fourth Gospel was composed at a time when Roman interest in anything connected to Judaism was sure to attract special interest. Thus the portrayal of Jesus as the Davidic Messiah needed to be handled carefully. The imagery of the new David found in 4Q504 compared with the imagery of Jesus being the Good Shepherd becomes an important part of the argument of this study on whether this Gospel portrays Jesus as being the Davidic Messiah. Jesus as the Good Shepherd showed Jews that Jesus is the Davidic Messiah without overtly offending Roman sensibilities. Furthermore evidence from Christian and Jewish sources indicates that an interest in a Third Temple was still stirring between the Jewish and Bar-Kochba Revolts. The Fourth Gospel shows Jesus as the Davidic Messiah who replaces the Temple because the Good Shepherd was the perfect sacrifice. / New Testament / D. Th. (New Testament)

Angelology emerged under the domination of Jewish groups. Reconstructing a brief history for Jewish groups of the Second Temple Period is necessary to ascertain which Jewish group may be aligned with the angelology of 1 Enoch. Moreover, angelology developed within this natural historical context. An exploration of the tradition of angelology includes angelic origins, their functions in the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint, possible mythical associations, and speculation about why angels surfaced within Israelite religion. Examining the background, structure, and contents of 1 Enoch will ensconce the Enochic writings, within the Second Temple Period. Various theories exist concerning the origins, genre, and characteristics of the apocalyptic. Although there is no agreement about these issues, I propose that 1 Enoch exhibits an apocalyptic perspective. While the notion of angels possibly appeared early in Semitic literature, a proliferation of angelology developed by the time of the writing of the books of I Enoch. It is judicious to examine which group possibly produced the Enochic corpus and pos&1"ble reasons for an increase in angelic speculation within these writings. It is my conviction that 1Enoch6 was dependent upon Genesis 6:1-4, which seived as a midrash of this earlier mythical tradition. I aspire to validate that both Genesis 6: 1-4 and the Book ofW atchers exhibits priestly concerns that are in sync with the Pentateuch. Priestly interests evident in the Enochic tradition may suggest the writer was a priest, who sought to address contentious issues involving the Jerusalem priesthood of his time. I believe this research is necessary to establish that Enoch's angelology influenced late Second Temple Jewish society. This is evidenced within subsequent Jewish literatures, which display Enochic angelic concepts, and reflects the belief system of a segment of Jewish society during that time. I am appreciative of the University of South Africa, the examining committee, and professor Spangenberg for their guidance. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)

Angelology emerged under the domination of Jewish groups. Reconstructing a brief history for Jewish groups of the second Temple Period is necessary to ascertain which Jewish group may be aligned with the angelology of 1 Enoch. Moreover, angelology developed within this natural historical context. An exploration of the tradition of angelogy includes angelic origins, their functions in the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint, possible mythical associations, and speculation about why angels surfaced within Israelite religion. Examining the background, structure and contents of 1 Enoch will ensconce the Enochic writings, within the Second Temple Period. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D.Litt. et Phil.