This work looks at the rite presented in Deut 25:5–10 through a sociological framework. As such, it argues that ritual is a social act aimed at protecting communal interests over the interests of its individual members. More specifically, the rite described in Deut 25:5–10 was meant to act as a bulwark against infiltration of tribal land through exogamy. In later periods, it is argued that the focus of the rite narrowed to the priestly class. / text

The dissertation recounts the variegated journey of the sea in the Hebrew Bible through the lens of myth, metaphor, and muthos. The journey begins outside the Bible in ancient Near Eastern sea myths exemplified by the Ugaritic Baal Cycle and the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, which tell the story of a sea deity whose defeat in cosmic battle against a protagonist god precedes three goodly consequences: creation, kingship, and temple. The story continues with the analysis of the biblical presentation of creation, kingship, and temple with emphasis on the constellation of themes and characters of the sea myth. The dissertation next analyzes the use of the sea myth as a metaphor for three events on the plane of history: the exodus (Exodus 14-15), the Babylonian exile (Isaiah 40-55), and the eschaton (Isaiah 24-27 and Daniel 7). Finally, the discussion moves from the analysis of the ways in which the sea muthos functions as a metaphor for the biblical presentation of individual events to the examination of the role of the sea muthos as a metaphor for a biblical view of historical reality in toto. In sum, the dissertation extends the study of sea imagery in the Hebrew Bible from mythology to metaphorology and narratology to argue for the deep, enduring, and transformative place of the sea myth within biblical tradition. / Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

In 1 Kings 1-2 King David’s impending death divides the monarchy over which of his two sons, Adonijah or Solomon, should be the future king. At this pivotal moment one might expect YHWH to reveal who should take over after David, as YHWH had done before (1 Sam 9:1-10:1; 16:1-13); however, YHWH is silent and the human characters take the lead. Nevertheless, YHWH has not disappeared completely from 1 Kings 1-2 because, as the narrative unfolds, YHWH is invoked twenty-four times. Although this language has drawn some attention, with scholars arguing that it either adds theological validation to the characters’ actions or re"ects a theological perspective that assumes that YHWH acts behind the scenes, there is more that might be said regarding its function in the narratives. In this study, I adopt narrative criticism to undertake a close reading of 1 Kings 1-2 that pays particular attention to how characters and the narrator use invocations of YHWH and the events in the plot that prompt or result from this language. I argue that invocations of YHWH have a number of functions in 1 Kings 1-2, with the function of characters’ invocations being particularly dependent on the identities of the characters, their relationships, and the narrative contexts in which they participate.

O conceito de sabedoria bíblica como corpus, tema ou estilo costuma ser aplicado livremente à leitura da Bíblia Hebraica. Ao mesmo tempo, estudiosos admitem a falta de precisão para a eleição daquilo que deveria ou não compor um tema ou estilo sapiencial, tanto para a análise do texto bíblico quanto para os estudos comparados. Este trabalho apresenta uma breve introdução às abordagens acadêmicas que pretenderam reconhecer a sabedoria bíblica como um gênero literário, enfatizando suas peculiaridades em termos de forma e conteúdo a fim de distingui-la de outros discursos encontrados na Bíblia Hebraica. Além disso, a pesquisa também expõe como os estudos comparados aplicaram os conceitos elaborados por biblistas para a compreensão da sabedoria no Antigo Oriente Médio. / Biblical Wisdom as a corpus, theme or style is frequently applied freely to the reading of the Hebrew Bible. At the same time, the academicians admits the lack of precision on the preference for what should be considered or not as a sapiential theme or style, both for the analysis of biblical texts and for comparative studies. The following research presents a short introduction to the academic approaches which intented to recognize biblical wisdom as a literary genre, enphasizing its peculiarities in terms of form and content in order to make a distinction betweem them from the other discourses found in the Hebrew Bible. Likewise, the research also presents how the comparative studies applied the concepts formulated by biblicists for a comprehension of wisdom in the Ancient Middle East.

There is no consensus on why Ezekiel 20 differs so strongly from the other historical traditions and texts known from the Torah. Are the authors simply purposefully selective in their reuse of earlier ‘historical' material, or do they offer a synopsis of all the material available to them, inadvertently preserving a particular stage in the development of the pentateuchal material? Or, more likely, is the answer somewhere in between? It is these questions that the present study begins to answer. Part One offers an analysis of the general linguistic influences of the priestly, Holiness, and deuteronomic corpora on Ezekiel 20, demonstrating that the impact of all three has been overstated. Part Two, the core of the study, examines in detail four texts of the Torah which share a statistically significant number and type of locutions with Ezekiel 20: Numbers 13-14; Exodus 6.2-8; Exodus 31.12-17; and Leviticus 26. Across these texts, both unilateral and bilateral literary reuse of or by Ezekiel 20 is established, and the ramifications for the composition and rhetoric of both the Torah texts and Ezekiel 20 is explored in detail. Part Three synthesises these findings, confirming that, and describing how, Ezekiel 20 compositionally interacts with the priestly and Holiness writings, offering insight into the extent and nature of a stratified, likely independent P. Three prevailing models of the composition of the Torah are then examined for points of continuity and discontinuity with this picture, with the result that none of them are able to account for all of the data collected herein. In sum, it is no longer sufficient to consider the literary dependencies between Ezekiel 20 and the priestly or Holiness material, let alone Ezekiel and the Torah, as mono-directional.

The linguistic character of the “biblical” Dead Sea Scrolls has been of interest to scholars since the very beginning of scrolls research. However, scholars have disagreed over the nature of the language found in those scrolls. Some argue that the “biblical” scrolls are essential to our understanding of Second Temple Hebrew, while others set these scrolls aside in favour of the non-biblical texts. Yet, no one has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the “biblical” scrolls, which is essential if we hope to settle this debate. This study fills that void by providing a comprehensive analysis of all the “biblical” DSS. Over forty different features are discussed through a comparison between the “biblical” scrolls and the other major witnesses to the Hebrew Bible. Current linguistic theories, including robust inferential statistical tools, are utilised within the analysis in order to provide conclusions based on sound methodology. This study begins with a global analysis of all the “biblical” scrolls, focusing on a comparison between the plene and defective manuscripts. Through that analysis, this study concludes that there are very few linguistic modernisations found in the “biblical” scrolls. In order to verify this conclusion, five individual scrolls are analysed. Finally, this study closes by providing a qualitative analysis of the “biblical” scrolls and shows their linguistic character to be most consistent with a scribal culture of linguistic stability and textual authority.

Thesis advisor: David S. Vanderhooft / In this dissertation, I explore the metaphorical value of law in the Hebrew Bible and Hellenistic Jewish literature. While the study of biblical law and Hellenistic Jewish halakah is well established, less attention has been paid to the intentional use of legal diction to create legal metaphors—metaphors that draw upon legal language for the sake of generating new ethical and theological insights. My argument is based upon Roger White’s theory of metaphor which states that a metaphor juxtaposes two otherwise unrelated vocabularies in order to produce new meaning. Thus, I draw upon comparative study of ancient Near Eastern law as a means of understanding the register of biblical Hebrew legal diction concerning land tenure and inheritance. With the legal background established, I investigate three sets of metaphors, one drawn from the prohibition against violating established property boundaries and two drawn from the legal domain of inheritance: the inheritance of wisdom and the inheritance of glory. These legal metaphors demonstrate the profitability of attending to legal diction. The boundary metaphor demonstrates that when attempting to describe the good or virtuous life, law served not only to provide a description of obligations, it also shaped the way in which early Jewish communities understood reality itself. The inheritance of wisdom metaphors demonstrate that sophisticated comparisons could be drawn between legal concepts and scribal learning, particularly when wisdom was thought of as a document. The inheritance of glory metaphors demonstrate the way in which semantic shifting impacts the meaning of a metaphor. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

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This thesis explores the theme of time in the book of Qohelet. Throughout his work Qohelet depicts the temporal reality as intensely problematic for human attempts to fashion a meaningful existence, even in the present. A tension is established in the book between the temporal realities of the world and human time-experience. This tension becomes especially apparent in relation to the field of human cognition: our ability to understand and respond properly to our temporal conditions is drawn fundamentally into doubt by Qohelet. The lacking correspondence between temporal reality and human experience of time affects every temporal area in our existence. Qohelet does not allow the human being any meaningful access to either past or future because of the reality of oblivion. Unable to appeal to a meaningful human continuity, individual human beings are unable to make sense of their present existence too. In addition to analysing Qohelet’s conception of time, the thesis investigates the consequences which this time-conception has for the author’s own philosophical endeavour. Significantly, Qohelet aims to describe an area of reality which he considers fundamentally inaccessible to the human mind. This results in an ongoing tension between statements of knowledge and statements of ignorance; between wanting to investigate human life in time and being unable to do so. This dichotomy is especially apparent in Qohelet’s discussion of the lost temporal horizons of past and future. Past and future cannot be approached directly, but must either be discussed through an examination of their influence on the present or established negatively, simply by stating their inaccessibility. Qohelet’s three main narrative texts demonstrate this particularly clearly. A final chapter uses the analysis of Qohelet’s time conception to undertake a comparative analysis of Qohelet and early layers of 1 Enoch.