Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The recent discovery of documents at Qumran has provoked renewed interest in the possibility of Jewish influence on primitive Christianity in several areas. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe historically Jewish and Christian disciplinary procedures, particularly excommunication, in order to determine whether the practice of the church indicates indebtedness to pre-Christian Judaism. Since an important excursus, der Synagogenbann, in the Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch by H. Strack and P. Billerbeck is frequently referred to in works on church discipline, a secondary purpose of the dissertation is to examine the methodology and results of the excursus. The investigation covers the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Manual of Discipline, the Damascus Document, rabbinic literature, the New Testament, and the Apostolic Fathers. The curses alah, arar, qalal, and especially herem, were used (often by intimidation)in the Old Testament to maintain moral and spiritual standards. Since anathema is the usual translation in the Septuagint for berem, its use in its classical setting is examined. In addition to the curse, the threat of immediate punishment or future divine judgment was employed to guard the purity of the worship of Yahweh. In the literature of the Intertestamental period, all traces of punishment have disappeared from the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, except for the mention of the curse in a few poetic passages. However, an elaborate system of punishment is found in the Qumran literature. Further evidence of the practice of excommunication in this period is revealed in the rabbinic material. In IQS and CD the punishment for sins generally depended on whether the sins were considered to be against an individual or the community as a whole. Mild punishment was reserved for social infractions against one's neighbor, but irrevocable expulsion was the sentence for sins thought to have been prompted by an attitude that was not sympathetic with the ideals of the group. The conclusions of the excursus, der Synagogenbann, must be revised by giving closer attention to the problem of chronology. The synagogue at the time of Jesus knew of only one ban, the niddui. The shammatha, as a disciplinary measure, was an interchangeable term with niddui, but was confined to the Babylonian Jews. Herem probably did not appear as a term for excommunication in the synagogue until the third century. The principal reason for the pronouncing of the niddui was to safeguard the halakhah. The practice of excommunication in the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers scarcely appears, and the use of the curse as a means of discipline does not occur at all. The first Gospel shows that even though Matthew conceived of the church as a corpus mixtum, judgment was properly a (divine) matter for the future. The mark of a Christian in the church was a readiness to forgive an offending brother. In the crucial Pauline passages excommunication has no prominent place. Paul's use of anathema bore little relationship to church discipline. In the remainder of the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers a spirit of restraint with regard to excommunication characterized the early Christian movement. Thus, members in good standing were to take note of offenders, rebuke them, pray for them, invite and receive them back if they repented. Despite the conclusion that Judaism and the church exercised considerable restraint in the matter of discipline, one cannot claim with certainty the dependence of the church on known Jewish disciplinary practices.

The thesis of this dissertation is that the picture of the New Jerusalem in Revelation draws upon antecedent Jerusalem/Zion theology to provide a meaningful depiction of the final state of believers in Jesus as both communion with God and life as a community. <p> This biblical theological study uses a canonical approach that includes an examination of extra-biblical Second Temple literature as an aid to accessing NT understandings of OT texts. Previous studies of Jerusalem do not cover the entire canon, focus on historical or literary issues rather than theology, or access only OT texts clearly alluded to in Rev 21-22 rather than the entire theological tradition about Jerusalem, which culminates in the "New" Jerusalem</p> <p> The Pentateuch foresees Jerusalem's role as place of contact between God and Israel. In the Historical Books, David completes the conquest of Canaan by taking Jerusalem and establishing YHWH's cult there. But because of the sin of the kings and people God abandons the city for a time. Jerusalem after the return from exile is still less than ideal. In the Psalms, Jerusalem is depicted as God's inviolable holy mountain. The prophets proclaim punishment for sinful Jerusalem but future restoration to the kind of ideal state described in the Psalms. Jerusalem/Zion can be seen as the ultimate goal of both the First and Second Exoduses. </p> <p> Non-canonical Second Temple literature emphasizes the pre-Davidic role of Zion as place of God's contact with humanity. The Babylonians could not have taken the city without God's co-operation, and even then, the Temple furnishings were secretly preserved. Zion's cosmic importance and eschatological role are often emphasized, with emergence of belief in a heavenly Jerusalem.</p> <p> eschatological role are often emphasized, with emergence of belief in a heavenly Jerusalem. In the New Testament, earthly Jerusalem rejects the Messiah, and so forfeits its role as link to glorious eschatological Jerusalem. Old Testament prophecies of renewal are instead fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus, emergence of the church, and ultimately the New Jerusalem.</p> <p> of deep intimacy with God, community among all believers, intense experience of life, and complete eternal safety from sin and evil. This was God's plan since creation. Jerusalem as the goal and focus of God's people on their journey towards him in the Old Testament foreshadows the New Jerusalem as their destination at the end of the age.</p> <p> The dissertation closes with suggestions for practical application and further study.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Historically, the study of NT Greek conditional statements has predominantly set its focus on the Mood and Tense of the protasis. More recently, semantic approaches based on the speaker's viewpoint, or attitude, have also been adopted, to classify conditionals either as statements of assertion or projection. As such approaches are based on a limited number of linguistic features and functions, they offer only a partial understanding of conditionals. Most grammarians also largely ignore the wider contexts of the biblical texts and conditionals' rhetorical function. The purpose of this study is twofold: to critically examine current methods of describing and classifying conditionals to propose a new method based on theory of language and the analytical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL); and to apply the proposed interpretive framework to analyze selected conditionals found in the Gospel of John, exploring how Jesus uses conditionals to persuade his audience and how conditionals serve the persuasive purpose of the Gospel. Instead of following the conventional lines of investigation, this thesis adopts Systemic Functional Linguistics' multi-stratal structure and multi-functional concept of language. Structurally, the interpretive framework expands from the units of words and clauses to those of clause complexes. All three major functions of language (ideational, interpersonal, and textual) are included as part of the total meaning. An analytical interpretive framework is then set up and applied to selected conditionals in John 3-11. Based on the evidence such as the choice of the Mood, thematic structure, logico-semantic relation, grammatical intricacy, clustered and consecutive conditionals, and conditionals as topic and summative statements, it is concluded that the conditionals Jesus uses present a strongly persuasive case for the author's purpose of writing. On one hand, the conditionals that Jesus uses rebut the Jews' charge of blasphemy and make a convincing case for his Christological claim. On the other hand, conditionals by Jesus also provide his audience and the reader of John with a different viewpoint (an alternate world) to understand the deeper meaning of faith and discipleship. Johannine conditionals perform the function of persuading the reader of John toward faith and spiritual growth in Jesus (20:31). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Marcion is unanimously acknowledged to be one of the most important and most intriguing figures of the Early Church. In spite of this importance, there is no comprehensive up-to-date study on his life and thought. Thus, the desire to fill this gap within the academic world – which is inconvenient for both students and professors alike – has been my inspiration for writing this thesis. However, this work does not only aim at providing a complete study on Marcion for the twenty-first century, but also at ridding scholarship from several severe misconceptions regarding the arch-heretic. The main argument of my study is that previous scholarship has turned Marcion’s exegesis of Scripture upside down. He did not find the inspiration for his doctrine in the teachings of the Apostle Paul, it is the Old Testament and its portrait of an inconsistent, vengeful and cruel God which forms the centre of his doctrine. Marcion does not understand the Old Testament in the light of the New, he interprets the New Testament in the light of the Old. This insight casts a new light on Marcion’s place within the history of the Church, as the initiator of a fundamental crisis of the Old Testament in the second century. But not only did he have an enormous influence on Christian exegesis, he also stands at the beginning of the epochal fight between orthodoxy and heresy. As the first man to ever officially break with the Church, and whose biography would become a stereotype for future heresiologists, Marcion can rightfully claim the title of ‘arch-heretic’.