The five exteroceptive senses are used extensively as metaphors for describing the divine-human relationship in the Old Testament. The thesis seeks to explore the significance of sensory language for understanding the TENAK's perspectives on the relationship between God and mortals. A phenomenology of the senses is sketched in the first chapter drawing upon the works of Merleau-Ponty, Straus, Leder, Howes and Classen. This leads the author to delineate the "rubrics" (salient features) of the Senses. / The rubrics are applied to individual texts which use sensory language to see whether they serve as a useful tool for exegesis. Tables are presented which contain lexical data on sensory language used to describe God's knowledge of humans (chapter two) and humanity's knowledge of God (chapter three). Differences in the sensory language describing the two directions of knowledge are noted and commented upon. / The thesis thus looks at the sensory language in the TENAK at both a micro-level (individual texts) and a macro-level (over-all patterns of sensory language). It is argued that the rubrics serve as a positive tool of exegesis and that the patterns detected are of significance in understanding certain basic perspectives of the TENAK'S view of the relationship between the deity and mortals.

This dissertation inquires into the introductory character of Deuteronomy 1-3 through a study of its rhetoric. A brief review of relevant scholarship provides an initial orientation to the question. Features of the text that emerge as rhetorically significant include the relation of the text to its biblical parallels, the positioning of the reader vis a vis the people, and the shaping of the reader's sense of time and distance. These features are arranged in the text so as to encourage a sense of identity with the community addressed in Deuteronomy 1-3 while, at the same time, reminding the reader of genuine distance from the events of Moses' speech. Identification with this community positions the reader to hear the law addressed to its members in Deuteronomy. Reminders of distance from the circumstances of Moses' speech encourage the reader to understand that this law is addressed to her within the actual circumstances of her life.

The garden of Eden's serpent appears only in Genesis 3 of the Hebrew Bible but its identity, role, or symbolism, have since been a matter of debate. Literal, allegorical, and mythical interpretations are evident in Jewish sources from the Bible until the end of the thirteenth century, but are not uniformly represented. Literal interpretations---those that rely on an actual serpent capable of communicating with Eve---account for the majority of Jewish interpretations, often to the complete exclusion of other possibilities. Allegorical and mythical interpretations of the serpent are found in the works of Philo and the Pseudepigrapha, disappear in the classical rabbinic texts, but then reappear in Pirqe de Rabbi Eliezer and medieval Jewish philosophical and mystical sources. The patterns of literal and non-literal interpretation may be connected with the history of the concept of the devil within Judaism and with changing attitudes toward esoteric interpretations and midrash.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-75).

(Thesis)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-206).

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-50).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Capital Bible Seminary, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69).

Thesis (M.A.)--Cincinnati Bible Seminary, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-123).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1987. / Abstract. Includes Hebrew text of Genesis 11:27-25:11. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-212).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-203).