Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)

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Le récit de création de Genèse 1,1–2,4a – récit d’introduction de la Bible hébraïque – n’a jamais cessé d’animer et de stimuler les esprits et a laissé une forte empreinte sur la culture populaire. En effet, malgré son histoire millénaire et sa pluie de commentaires, ce récit continue, encore de nos jours, à susciter des discussions et des débats sur des enjeux toujours plus pointus et complexes. Dans la foulée, l’objectif général de ce mémoire est de dégager et d’examiner une des dimensions moins explorées de ce récit, à savoir ses vestiges de royauté (divine) et, par extension, leur possible reconfiguration sacerdotale à la période postexilique. Pour y parvenir, des méthodes littéraires et historiques, notamment l’analyse narrative et l’histoire comparée, seront mises à profit tout au long du mémoire. Il s’agira, d’abord, d’investiguer la caractérisation du roi YHWH dans certains psaumes (Ps 47; 74; 89; 104). Ces premiers éléments de l’étude serviront de comparatif pour la suite de l’enquête. Je procéderai par la suite à l’excavation de traces de la royauté divine en Genèse 1, le récit phare de ce mémoire. Finalement, les deux derniers chapitres me permettront d’insister, d’une part, sur la contextualisation historique postexilique de cet écrit, en particulier l’influence sacerdotale, et d’autre part, de dégager les principaux éléments de la caractérisation « royale » d’Elohim en Gn 1, en soulignant toute l’originalité de leur configuration sacerdotale par rapport aux Psaumes. / The creation story of Genesis 1.1–2.4a – the introductory story of the Hebrew Bible – has never ceased to captivate and thus left a strong imprint on popular culture. Despite its millennial history and its multitude of commentaries, this story continues, even today, to spark discussions and debates on ever more specific and complex issues. The general objective of this dissertation is to examine a rarely explored dimension of this narrative, namely the traces of (divine) kingship found in its midst and the potential priestly reconfiguration of this royal dimension in the postexilic period. To do so, literary and historical methods, including narrative criticism and comparative history, will be used throughout the dissertation. First, I will investigate the characterization of king YHWH in various psalms (Ps 47; 74; 89; 104). The rest of the investigation will build on these first steps of the study. I will then proceed to excavate traces and remains of divine kingship in Genesis 1. The last two chapters will allow me, on the one hand, to address the historical context of this text, in the post-exilic period, as well as the important priestly influence on Gen 1; on the other, to identify the main elements of the "royal" characterization of Elohim in Gen 1 while highlighting and acknowledging their priestly revitalization when compared to the Psalms.

English speakers use the concept of "darkness" in a number of metaphors to portray a wide variety of experiences from evil to fear to ignorance. These metaphorical connections or entailments are so natural that we can see an image of a dark-clad person in a film or book and usually be correct in assuming that they are at best questionably moral and at worst a villain. The Old Testament (OT) also employs dark images and dark imagery to various effects. From Job's description of the underworld in Job 3 to Isaiah 's description of the coming light that will dispel the darkness in Isa 8- 9, to the dark paths the wicked trod in Eccl 2:14, the OT uses a number of metaphors of darkness. For most of these examples, it would be easy to assume that the ancient Hebrew writers of the OT were working with the same concepts of darkness that we do today and thus interpret these passages along the same lines as our own modem English metaphors. But such assumptions can and have led to a number of misunderstandings and conflicting interpretations of passages that employ dark images. These miscommunications are most apparent in passages where God's presence is indicated by darkness like at the Sinai and Temple theophanies (Exod 20:19-20 and 1 Kgs 8:12, respectively) as well as later poetry about God (Ps 97:2). By combining the theoretical framework of Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT), and the methodology of Conceptual Blending (CB), this study will work toward a clearer understanding of how the writers of the OT understood darkness and how that shaped their use of it in their images and imagery of death, captivity, the unknowable, and God. It will be shown that the ancient Hebrew conception and use of darkness centres around three key recurring metaphors - Death is Darkness, Captivity is Darkness, and the Unknown is Darkness - while the metaphor Evil is Darkness is foreign to the OT. These findings serve to provide greater clarity in interpreting those OT passages that portray God as having a penchant for darkness.

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This paper investigates Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 from the perspective of the hermeneutical implications of their historical context appropriated into a modern contextual understanding and possible application. To do this, four prominent historical theories (relating the ban to procreation, idolatry, against nature/the order of creation, and Canaanite practices) of the origin of the verses, and the ban therein, are chosen to be analysed. The analysis will be based on a theoretical framework which is modelled to present a theory of how historical knowledge and its derived hermeneutical implications enables a dynamically equivalent cultural appropriation. The investigation poses two questions – (1) what are the hermeneutical implications, and (2) what might a dynamically equivalent cultural appropriation into a modern context look like? In answering these question, it is found that when understanding the historical context as giving clues to the cultural world of the author and first reader(s), the four theories produce different results, but in none of them is it said to be either impossible or always possible to apply the ban. Further, even the group of people that are concerned by the ban differs. There is also a note of warning given, as these theories and others on the matter are very hard, if not impossible, to choose between, and therefore one has to motivate quite well why one selects one over the other in creating an interpretation and appropriation, since such a choice might, but should not, be more based on preference than on facts. Questions are in this paper sometimes posed but not answered, which runs in line with the overarching goal to rather draw some lines of interpretation than to hold an interpretation to be certain, while still exemplifying a transparent and theoretically well founded way to appropriate these verses. / Denna uppsats undersöker Leviticus 18:22 och 20:13 med fokus på den historiska kontextens hermeneutiska implikationer approprierade till en modern förståelse och eventuell applikation av verserna. För att göra detta kommer fyra vanligt förekommande historiska teorier till varför verserna med deras förbud finns (teorier som relaterar förbudet till fortplantning, avgudadyrkan, en handling mot naturen/skapelsens ordning, och kananeiska sedvänjor) analyseras. Analysen tar sin grund i ett teoretiskt ramverk som utformas för att visa hur en historisk kontext och dess hermeneutiska implikationer möjliggör en dynamiskt ekvivalent kulturell appropriering. Uppsatsen ställer två frågor: (1) Vilka är de hermeneutiska implikationerna, och (2) hur skulle en dynamiskt ekvivalent kulturell appropriering till en modern kontext kunna se ut? Dessa frågor besvaras utifrån ett perspektiv på den historiska kontexten som bidragande till att förstå författarens (eller författarnas) och de första läsarnas kulturella värld, och de fyra teorierna producerar ganska olika resultat. Det kan dock sägas att i inget av fallen blir slutsatsen att förbudet inte går att använda, eller att det alltid kan användas. Vidare framgår det att till och med vilka som berörs av förbudet skiftar beroende på anledningen till att förbudet finns. Ett varningens finger lyfts också för att påpeka att det är svårt, om inte omöjligt, att välja en av dessa teorier (eller de många andra som finns) som bättre. Därför måste sådana val, vilka sedan ligger till grund för tolkningar och tillämpningar, vara väl motiverade. Det finns annars en risk att sådana val kan ske mer baserat på preferens än fakta. Vidare ställs det frågor som inte alltid besvaras, vilket ligger i linje med viljan att snarare påvisa några tolkningsramar än att se en tolkning som korrekt, samtidigt som ett teoretiskt välgrundat och genomskinligt sätt att appropriera dessa verser exemplifieras.

The historicity of the United Monarchy has recently come under attack. The biblical 'minimalists' say that a reconstruction of ancient Israel is impossible with the sources that we have access to, and the glory and wealth of Solomon's empire is mere fiction. They disregard the Bible as a reliable source, and archaeology because it is mute and open to interpretation. Some scholars have suggested lowering the traditional dates on certain archaeological strata, resulting in an entirely different picture of the tenth century BCE. Other scholars say that the United Monarchy definitely did exist and consider the Bible a valuable historical source. The evidence for the tenth century and the United Monarchy as shown by the Hebrew Bible and archaeology is investigated as well as various key sites in Israel. The conclusion is that the traditional chronology and viewpoint of the United Monarchy still needs to be respected. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Studies)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the social and cultural contexts of 1QS (Serek ha-Yahad) by means of a textual study. The analysis of the text is performed in a synchronic perspective. This means that lexical choices, grammatical forms, references, topics, themes, and intertextuality are analyzed text-internally. By doing so, this study sheds new light on old questions of textual cohesion and coherence, questions that until now have been dealt with mostly from a diachronic perspective. The text analysis entails investigation in view of three interrelated dimensions of language function: ideational, interpersonal, and textual. These imply language as transmitting information, creating and sustaining relations, and functioning to organize itself into cohesive units. Although applying some of the terminology from the field of text linguistics (SFL), the focus in this study is on what a text means rather than why. This means that the semantic-pragmatic aspects of language are of foremost interest here. The analysis is performed from bottom and up, then from top down again. Words, phrases, and sentences are investigated up to the broadest linguistic level, namely, to the semantic discourse itself. With an understanding of the larger discourse at hand thanks to this analysis of textual cohesion and coherence, textual details are once again revisited and interpreted anew. In this work, 1QS is analyzed from beginning to end—chronologically, so to say. Then, at the end of each major section, the discourse is analyzed overall. Following the text analysis, conclusions of the investigations are presented. The conclusions argue that the hierarchal structure of the community and its stringent regulations are to be understood as a corrective in response to corrupt society. It is also argued that language in 1QS has a performative function. Rather than describing the way things are, it aspires to evoke the ideal society. Instead of understanding 1QS and the community mirrored in it as a deviant group with little or no contact with the surrounding world, it is then understood as a potent contribution to late Second Temple Jewish discourse concerning how to create a just society and a sanctifying cultic practice. In the final chapter, the insights gained from textual analysis of 1QS are brought into encounter with the theoretical framework posited by French historian and philosopher René Girard (1923–2015). In light of Girard’s philosophy, the hierarchal organization of the community (the Yahad) as well as its regulations can be interpreted as an effort to prevent a mimetic crisis. The function of the scapegoat in 1QS is discussed in light of Girard’s grand theory of the mechanisms of scapegoating in all societies. The study closes with the tentative hypothesis that the community in 1QS deconstructs the scapegoating mechanism by taking the role of the scapegoat upon itself.

This thesis explores the relationship between the books of Kings and Chronicles and considers the value of having two different versions of the same monarchic history within the Tanak. It furthermore explores how these books are read in relation to one another. To be more specific, its concern is how the book of Chronicles is read in relation to the book of Kings as Chronicles is so often considered to be a later rewritten text drawing upon an earlier version of the Masoretic Text of Kings. The predominant scholarly approach to reading the book of Chronicles is to read it in light of how the text was emended (additions, deletions, etc.). This approach has great value and has furthered our understanding of the theology and purpose of Chronicles. While this thesis fully affirms this diachronic approach to reading Chronicles, it also finds it to be lacking. This said, I suggest that this predominant way of reading Chronicles through the lens of its source (Kings) sometimes misses the theological and rhetorical features of the Chronicler's text. In light of this suggestion, this thesis will answer the following question: “why were two narratives retained in the Tanak and what possible answers to this question might emerge by looking at the similarities and differences in the two narratives' contents, arguments, and theology?” The method by which this question will be addressed is to read the Solomon narratives in the books of Kings and Chronicles in two ways: first, to read each narrative as a whole and independently of one another, and second, to examine each narrative together in an effort to understand their uniqueness. The result of this analysis will show that these narratives can in fact read as whole narratives independent of one another, and furthermore, that Solomon is in fact less idealized (contra popular scholarly opinion) in the book of Chronicles.

The historicity of the United Monarchy has recently come under attack. The biblical 'minimalists' say that a reconstruction of ancient Israel is impossible with the sources that we have access to, and the glory and wealth of Solomon's empire is mere fiction. They disregard the Bible as a reliable source, and archaeology because it is mute and open to interpretation. Some scholars have suggested lowering the traditional dates on certain archaeological strata, resulting in an entirely different picture of the tenth century BCE. Other scholars say that the United Monarchy definitely did exist and consider the Bible a valuable historical source. The evidence for the tenth century and the United Monarchy as shown by the Hebrew Bible and archaeology is investigated as well as various key sites in Israel. The conclusion is that the traditional chronology and viewpoint of the United Monarchy still needs to be respected. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Studies)