This work is concerned with the word berith (covenant) in the historical and wisdom books of the Old Testament, and continues research done in previous articles on berith in the Pentateuch and the prophetic literature. The main aim is to discuss in some detail the texts containing the word berith in the historical and wisdom books of the Old Testament and to examine the meaning and use of the word in these writings. The interrelationships between berith and other words in the contexts in which they appear are explored and explained. Finally, berith in the historical and wisdom books usually refers to one of the covenants of the Pentateuch, and which of these is applicable in each case will also be discussed. / Old Testament & Ancient NE / M.Th. (Old Testament)

Les marches aléatoires en<br />milieu aléatoire constituent un modèle permettant de décrire<br />des phénomènes de diffusion et de transport en milieux<br />inhomogènes, possédant néanmoins des propriétés de<br />régularité à grande échelle. Le premier chapitre,<br />introductif, illustre la richesse de comportements des marches<br />aléatoires en milieu aléatoire. Le second chapitre concerne la<br />marche de Sinai (cas récurrent) et répond négativement à une<br />conjecture d'Erdös et Révész initialement posée pour la<br />marche aléatoire simple. Il révèle un paradoxe lié au<br />phénomène de localisation obtenu par Sinai. Dans le troisième<br />chapitre, nous nous intéressons à la limite supérieure de la<br />marche de Sinai en paysage aléatoire et traitons une conjecture de<br />Révész. Les quatrième et cinquième chapitres concernent les<br />marches aléatoires en milieu aléatoire transientes de vitesse<br />nulle. Un résultat classique de Kesten, Kozlov et Spitzer dit que<br />le temps d'atteinte du niveau n converge en loi, après<br />renormalisation, vers une variable aléatoire positive stable, mais<br />ils n'obtiennent pas la description de son paramètre. Nous<br />présentons ici une nouvelle preuve de ce résultat: une analyse<br />fine du potentiel associé à l'environnement nous permet<br />d'obtenir une caractérisation complète de la loi stable limite.<br />Le cas d'environnements de Dirichlet s'avère être<br />particulièrement explicite.

This work is concerned with the word berith (covenant) in the historical and wisdom books of the Old Testament, and continues research done in previous articles on berith in the Pentateuch and the prophetic literature. The main aim is to discuss in some detail the texts containing the word berith in the historical and wisdom books of the Old Testament and to examine the meaning and use of the word in these writings. The interrelationships between berith and other words in the contexts in which they appear are explored and explained. Finally, berith in the historical and wisdom books usually refers to one of the covenants of the Pentateuch, and which of these is applicable in each case will also be discussed. / Old Testament and Ancient NE / M.Th. (Old Testament)

No description available.

Time-delayed actions appear as an essential component of numerous systems especially in evolution processes, natural phenomena, and particular technical applications and are associated with the existence of a memory. Under common conditions, external forces or state dependent parameters modify the length of the delay with time. Consequently, an altered dynamical behavior emerges, whose characterization is compulsory for a deeper understanding of these processes. In this thesis, the well-investigated class of time-homogeneous finite-state Markov processes is utilized to establish a variation of memory length by combining a first-order Markov chain with a memoryless Markov chain of order zero. The fluctuations induce a non-stationary process, which is accomplished for two special cases: a periodic and a random selection of the available Markov chains. For both cases, the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy as a characteristic property is deduced analytically and compared to numerical approximations to the entropy rate of related symbolic dynamics. The convergences of per-symbol and conditional entropies are examined in order to recognize their behavior when identifying unknown processes. Additionally, the connection from Markov processes with varying memory length to hidden Markov models is illustrated enabling further analysis. Hence, the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of hidden Markov chains is calculated by means of Blackwell’s entropy rate involving Blackwell’s measure. These results are used to verify the previous computations.

The aim of this study is to highlight the significance of the prohibition of making any image of God as found in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 with its inner-biblical interpretations in Exodus 32:1-6 and in Isaiah 40:18-20. This study has discussed the close connection between the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment of the Decalogue, the idea of Yahweh’s incomparability in the introduction and the command to worship God only in the first commandment. God’s incomparability prevents Israel from worshipping any other god by making images of them or making any image of God. The ‘construct of the introduction and the first two commandments of the Decalogue’ serves as a linchpin concept in our understanding of the prohibition of making any image of God. The aniconism matriculated in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 in relation with the introduction and the first commandment in Exodus 20:2-3 forms the basis for the prohibition of making any image of God from the Sinai event onwards. This construct in Exodus 20:2-6 is shared with Exodus 32:1-6 and Isaiah 40:18-20. There an inner-biblical interpretation of the aniconism of the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 in reaction with the introduction and the first commandment in Exodus 20:2-3 explicates and applies the meaning of the command in a new situation. Chapter 1 deals with the statement of the problem and the hypothesis of this study, its methodology, theological rationale, and the aim of this study. Chapter 2 discusses that the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 is important, not only as a phenomenon in the Pentateuch, but also as the provenance of aniconism in the rest of Old Testament. Exodus 20:4-6 can be considered as the explicit traceable provenance of the prohibition of making any image of God in the Pentateuch and the rest of Old Testament. The ‘introduction and first two commandments of the Decaologue construct’ provides a framework within which the meaning of the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment can be understood in the context of the introduction of the Decalogue in Exodus and the first commandment of the Decalogue. The second commandment of the Decalogue is sometimes backed up by only the first commandment of the Decalogue and sometimes by both of them. The origin of the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 as the prohibition of making any image of God whether it comes from the early or later stages of Israel’s history is discussed with the discussion on the arrangement of the Decalogue in the Sinai pericope (Ex 19:1-24:11) and the relation between the two Decalogues in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The sharp differences of opinions on the provenance of the prohibition in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 is dealt with. This study supposes that the dating of the prohibition on making any image of God of the Decalogue should be attributed to Moses’ time as stated in the text of the Pentateuch. Chapter 3 deals with one key Pentateuchal text for the prohibition of making any image of God, Exodus 32:1-6, as an example that the second commandment represents the prohibition on making any image of God in relation with the introduction and the first commandment of the Decalogue proclaiming God’s incomparability, which is called ‘the introduction and the first two commandments of the Decalogue construct’ in this study. Exodus 32:1-6 is regarded to be an interpretation of the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6. Chapter 4 deals with Isaiah 40:18-20, which forbids idol-fabrication and the worship of an image of God in its relation with the proclamation of God’s incomparability, as well as with the worship of other gods and their images. This chapter deals with the similarity of the negative attitude toward worship of God through images found in the legal and prophetical parts of the Hebrew Bible. Theologically speaking, Isaiah’s message is in line with the Pentateuch, and flows from the office of the prophet as a plenipotentiary of God to condemn the transgression of the covenantal law. This similarity of the idea between them is seen in respect of its linguistic aspects. Considering the rules of the nature of analogies between texts, there can be seen a correlation between the introduction and first two commandments of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:2-6 and the passage dealing with the incomparability of God and the idol-fabrication in Isaiah 40:18-20. The final chapter summarizes the flow of the argument in this thesis dealing with three phenomena of aniconism in the Old Testament and suggests the conclusion of this thesis based on the result of the exegetical and thematic study on the three passages. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

No description available.

The aim of the MA thesis is to discuss and analyse different illustrations, paintings, carvings in wood and stone and woodcuts of ships of the new kind (Carrack, carvels), from the 15th century to the middle of the 16th century, and compare them to the Griffon-hound ship, and to understand how they have evolved. The ships of the time had large stern and end castles, three to four masts, and where built for the war tactic of boarding. The oldest ship of the new kind that have been found, is the Griffon-hound, a ship that belonged to the Danish king Hans, and sunk due to a fire 1495 outside of Ronneby in southern Sweden. Besides being the oldest of its kind, the ship also has a very specific figurehead that resembles a monster with a screaming human head in its gap. By discussing and analysing the artworks it is possible to learn more about the ships. After analysing them, the result is that the artworks do show how the ships have evolved. Some of the different attributes that the artworks display have also been found when investigating the wreck of the Griffon-hound. More attributes might still be on the wreck site, hidden under the sediment. An example is the remains of the anti-boarding nets that a lot of the artworks show, and that have been found on the wreck of the Mary Rose, the English ship that belonged to king Henry VIII. The Mary Rose is younger than the Griffon-hound, but artworks of older ships also show the anti-boarding nets, or the beams on top of the castles. The purpose behind having a large variety of different artwork is to increase the knowledge about the ships of the time, and to make sure that the attributes that is being analysed doesn’t only occur in one or two artworks.

Peacekeeping is a means by which international or regional organizations control conflict situations that are likely to endanger international peace and security. Most scholars have viewed the contributions of peacekeeping forces only in terms of failures, and they have not investigated fully the political-military circumstances" under which conflict control measures succeed. This dissertation is an attempt to bridge this gap and to show how the OAU compares with the UN in carrying out peacekeeping missions. The method of research was the case study method in which primary and secondary data was used to describe the situations in which six peacekeeping forces operated. The content of resolutions, official reports and secondary data were examined for non-trivial evidences of impediments to implementation of mandates. Findings from the research indicate that peacekeeping missions not properly backed by political efforts at settlement of disputes, cooperation of the superpowers, and financial and logistic support were ineffective and usually unsuccessful. Lack of consensus and pursuit of national interests have resulted in ambiguous or unrealistic mandates and have reduced the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations. Moreover, parties to a conflict were interested only in solutions that favored their interests and were often skeptical about the role and credibility of peacekeeping forces. But the continued violations of ceasefire agreements in defiance of the presence of peacekeeping forces were due partly to the force's inability to use force except in self-defense , Most of the forces operated under serious operational and logistical difficulties and they were inadequately funded. But none of the three factors has been responsible alone for the failure of peacekeeping missions. The coordination of UN operations has been better than that of the OAU. In civil war situations, national governments have requested peacekeeping forces because they could not, unaided, put down their opponents. The UN has deployed its forces only as a means of relaxing tensions while member-states have pursued other interests.

Abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / In this study, social exclusion in an independent, faith-based girl’s school in South Africa was investigated. Bullying is widely recognised as being unacceptable and is addressed by many schools in the form of anti-bullying policies. However, on ongoing basis, girls are being socially excluded from relationships and because this behaviour is often so subtle, it is neither recognised as a form of bullying nor is it being addressed within schools. Theologians argue that educational institutions ought to evaluate the ethical dimension of knowledge construction and that a focus on moral norms, values and virtues need to be a fundamental part of such communities, so that the well-being of its members is fostered. Unless problems such as social exclusion are understood from a theological-ethical perspective, it is unlikely that there will be a permanent change in girls’ behaviour. Changing societies that accommodate bullying requires changes in perspectives, attitudes and behaviour, and schools can make a significant contribution in providing a community in which every child feels accepted and is afforded dignity. This study offers a theoretical-ethical perspective of social exclusion and draws on insights from the fields of theological ethics, sociology, psychology and anthropology. The reasons why girls are socially excluded, the girls’ and the school’s systemic patterns of behaviour and what educators can do to develop an inclusive community are identified. To determine to what extent the theory was supported, alumnae were asked to complete the questionnaires and be interviewed. Some staff members also completed questionnaires and agreed to be interviewed. The findings of the empirical research indicated that the theoretical research was largely supported. Some interesting observations emerged from the questionnaires and interviews that expanded the understanding of social exclusion. One important finding was that the girls who are being excluded from social relationships feel that they are to blame and that they somehow deserve to be excluded. They experience strong feelings of shame as well as loss of self-esteem. This prevents them from discussing or reporting the problem and therefore the structures that are in place for such reporting are not effective. Another important finding was that there is a disconnection between the girls and the staff regarding the effectiveness of current interventions. Therefore, based on the theoretical research and the findings of the empirical data, this dissertation makes recommendations for establishing a community that promotes the well-being and dignity of all. / In hierdie studie is ondersoek ingestel na sosiale uitsluiting in ’n onafhanklike, geloofsgebaseerde meisieskool in Suid-Afrika. Treitering word wyd as onaanvaarbaar erken en word deur baie skole in die vorm van anti-treiterbeleide aangeroer. Dit is egter so dat baie meisies voortdurend op sosiale vlak uit verhoudings gesluit word en omdat hierdie gedrag so subtiel is, word dit nie as ’n vorm van treitering erken nie en dit word ook nie in skole aangespreek nie. Teoloё voer aan dat opvoedkundige instellings die etiese dimensie van kenniskonstruksie behoort te evalueer en dat ’n fokus op morele norme, waardes en deugde noodwendig ’n fundamentele deel van sodanige gemeenskappe behoort te wees sodat die welsyn van gemeenskapslede bevorder kan word. Tensy probleme soos sosiale uitsluiting vanuit ’n teologies-etiese perspektief hanteer gaan word, is dit onwaarskynlik dat daar enige permanente verandering in die meisies se gedrag sal wees. Om samelewings wat treitering akkommodeer te verander, vereis verandering in perspektiewe, houdings en gedrag en skole kan ’n aansienlike bydrae lewer om ’n gemeenskap te vestig waarin elke kind aanvaarding en waardigheid ervaar. Hierdie studie bied ’n teoreties-etiese perspektief ten opsigte van sosiale uitsluiting en steun op insigte uit velde soos sosiologie, sielkunde en antropologie. Die studie identifiseer redes waarom meisies sosiaal uitgesluit word, die meisies sowel as die skool se sistemiese gedragspatrone, en wat opvoeders kan doen om ’n inklusiewe gemeenskap te ontwikkel. Om te bepaal tot watter mate die teorie ondersteun word, is oudleerders gevra om vraelyste te voltooi en om aan onderhoude deel te neem. Sommige personeellede het ook vraelyste voltooi en tot onderhoude ingestem. Die bevindinge van die empiriese navorsing het getoon dat die teoretiese navorsing grotendeels ondersteun word. ’n Paar interessante waarnemings het uit die vraelyste en onderhoude geblyk. Hierdie waarnemings het die verstaan van sosiale uitsluiting heelwat verbreed. Een belangrike bevinding is dat meisies wat van sosiale verhoudings uitgesluit word, voel dat hulle die blaam daarvoor moet dra en dat hulle om een of ander rede verdien om uitgesluit te word. Hulle ervaar sterk gevoelens van skaamte sowel as verlies aan selfwaarde. Dit weerhou hulle daarvan om die probleem te bespreek of te rapporteer en daarom is sodanige rapporteringstrukture nie doeltreffend nie. ’n Ander belangrike bevinding is dat daar nie ’n uniforme begrip is tussen die meisies en die personeel ten opsigte van die doeltreffendheid van huidige intervensies nie. Daarom, gebaseer op die teoretiese navorsing en die bevindinge van die empiriese data, maak hierdie dissertasie aanbevelings ten opsigte van die skep van ’n gemeenskap wat die welstand en waardigheid van almal bevorder. / Kwesi sifundo kuphandwe ngokubukulwa kwisikolo samantombazana esizimeleyo nesisekelwe elukholweni eMzantsi Afrika. Ububhovubhovu buthathwa jikelele njengento engamkelekanga kwaye kuyaliwa nabo kwizikolo ezininzi ngokusebenzisa imigaqo nkqubo yokulwa ububhovubhovu. Noxa kunjalo, kuyaqhubeka ukubukulwa kwamantombazana kubudlelwane obuthile. Ngenxa yokuba lo mkhwa usenzeka mayana kakhulu, awuqondwa njengobubhovubhovu kwaye akukho nto yenziwayo ezikolweni. Iingcali zakwaLizwi zithi amaziko emfundo kufuneka ayivavanye inkalo yolwazi lwesimilo esinyulu, agxininise kwiinqobo zokuziphatha, nezexabiso lobuntu ekufuneka zibe yinxalenye esisiseko kwabahlala kula maziko, ukwenzela ukuba baphatheke kakuhle bonke abahlala apho. Ukuba iingxaki ezifana nokubukulwa aziqondwa ngokwenkalo yezokholo nobunyulu, mhlawumbi akungekhe kubekho umahluko ekuziphatheni kwamantombazana. Ukuguqula uluntu olwamkela ububhovubhovu kufuna ukutshintshwa kweembono, izimvo nokuziphatha kwaye ke izikolo zingafaka igxalaba kakhulu ekumiseleni imiphakathi apho wonke umntwana eziva amkelekile, aphatheke ngesidima. Esi sifundo siveza inkalo yokucinga esekelwe kwingcingane yobunyulu yokubukulwa, kwaye ithabathela kwizimvo zezifundo zobunyulu bezokholo, ezentlalo, ezobume bomphefumlo nengqondo, nezeengcambu zoluntu nezizwe. Izizathu zokubukulwa kwamantombazana ekuhlaleni, imigaqo nkqubo yezikolo nokunokwenziwa ziititshala ekuphuhliseni imiphakathi edibanisayo yimiba echongiweyo. Ukuze kubonwe ukuba ingaba le ngcingane inenkxaso engakanani na, kwacelwa abafundi bakudala beli ziko ukuba baphendule uluhlu lwemibuzo, bavume nokudlana indlebe nabaphandi. Bakhona nabanye abasebenzi beziko abaluphendulayo uluhlu lwemibuzo, bavuma nokudlana indlebe nabaphandi. Okwafunyaniswayo kuphando olusekelwe kubungqina babonisa ukuba ngokwenene, ingcingane yophando yayinenkxaso kakhulu. Kwavela amanqaku anomdla kwiimpendulo zemibuzo nodliwano ndlebe, kwaye oko kwalwandisa ulwazi malunga nokubukulwa eluntwini lwendawo. Okunye okubalulekileyo phakathi kwezinto ezafunyaniswayo yaba kukuba amantombazana abukulwayo kubudlelwane nabanye babeziva ngathi banetyala, kwaye bafanele ukubukulwa. La mantombazana ayeziva engathi asehlazweni kwaye ayengazixabisanga. Le nto yenza ukuba angayixeli le mpatho, angafuni nokuba kuxoxwe ngayo. Ngoko ke imiqathango ebekelwe ukuxela lo mkhwa ayisebenzi. Kwaphinda kwafunyaniswa ukuba kukho ukungadibani phakathi kwamantombazana nabasebenzi malunga nempumelelo yemiqathango yokuwakhusela. Ngoko ke, ngokukhokelwa luphando lwengcingane nobungqina obufunyaniswe kuphando, le ngxelo yophando inika iingcebiso zokuseka umphakathi okhuthaza ukuphatheka kakuhle nangesidima komntu wonke. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological Ethics)