The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that the Synoptic evangelists, particularly in the eschatological discourses Mt 24, Mk 13 and Lk 21, have employed traditions developed by Christian prophets; and to consider the origins and meanings of these traditions.

M.A. (Biblical Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

by Lai Yuet Sim, Phoebe. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-154). / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.v / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Anti-Canaanite Sentiments in the Hebrew Bible --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Traditional Interpretations --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- "New Studies, New Challenges" --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- Recent Works --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2 --- Defining the Study --- p.10 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Clarifying the Terms --- p.10 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Previous Works on the Book of Hosea --- p.11 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Aims and Scope of the Study --- p.15 / Chapter 1.3 --- Steps of Analysis --- p.16 / Chapter 1.4 --- A Brief Outline of the Thesis --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- Hosean Rejection of Canaanite Heritages? --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1 --- Redactions of the Book of Hosea --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2 --- Analytical Framework --- p.22 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Israelite Cult --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Worship of Baal(s) [Hos 2:4~25] --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Festivals and Feasts [Hos 9:1-6] --- p.33 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Sacred Pillars --- p.36 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Calf Idols --- p.39 / Chapter 2.3.5 --- High Places --- p.43 / Chapter 2.3.6 --- Summary --- p.46 / Chapter 2.4 --- Institution of Kingship --- p.48 / Chapter 2.5 --- Use of Historical Memories and Traditions --- p.55 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- The Baal-Peor Event [Hos 10:9] --- p.55 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- The Exodus-Wilderness Tradition --- p.57 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Beyond the Wilderness Era --- p.61 / Chapter 2.6 --- Hosean Concept of Canaan --- p.63 / Chapter 2.7 --- Summary --- p.64 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- Theoretical Considerations --- p.66 / Chapter 3.1 --- "Culture, Religion and Society" --- p.66 / Chapter 3.2 --- Schools of Anthropological Theories --- p.68 / Chapter 3.3 --- Theories for Analysis --- p.75 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Ethnie-related Theoretical Concepts --- p.76 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- The Myth-Symbol Complex --- p.82 / Chapter 3.4 --- A Summary --- p.86 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Explanation for Hosean Polemical Stand --- p.88 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Israelite Ethnie and Contextual Crisis --- p.88 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- The Religious Factor --- p.88 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- The Social Factor --- p.93 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- The Political Factor --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2 --- Regenerated Yahwism and Ethnie Survival --- p.99 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Hosean Interpretation of the Israelite Society Reality --- p.99 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- The Renewed Myth-Bymbol Complex: Key Elements --- p.100 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- The Hosean World-View and Ethos --- p.119 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Ethnie Survival --- p.121 / Chapter 4.3 --- Summary --- p.126 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Conclusion --- p.129 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary of Findings --- p.129 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Hosean Rejection of Canaanite Heritages? --- p.129 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Explanation for Hosean Polemical Stand --- p.133 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Issue of Anti-Canaanite Sentiments --- p.137 / Chapter 5.3 --- Conceptual Reformulations --- p.139 / Chapter 5.4 --- The Quest for Understanding God --- p.141 / APPENDIX: Translations of selected texts of the Book of Hosea --- p.144 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.150

In sum, as an important text, the Decalogue not only stipulates religious and social life for ancient Israelite and create the symbol of their identity, but also, in the process of its historical dissemination, responds to different cultures continuously and presents vivid impetus. / The fourth chapter is based on ideological criticism of feminist reading on the Decalogue, which aims to explore the relationship between gender and power. Especially, I will pay close attention both to the subject of the Decalogue and the seventh commandment on adultery, and show that how the paradigm of male domination and female subordination is shaped in the androcentric discourse, including patriarchal control of female sexuality, which results in absentation of female sexual autonomy and woman's helplessness in sexual violence. The thesis will try to explore the normative notions of 'masculinity' and 'femininity' through Foucauldian genealogical critique. / There is always interaction between reader and text. All readers of text, including biblical texts, bring their own interests, presuppositions and prejudices with them. The reader's own interests, values and commitments are what make him or her a person with identity and integrity. The third chapter presents the Decalogue in a Chinese context. In the reader's own context, I will argue how the Decalogue was reinterpreted and reconstructed both by the Jesuits and Chinese Christians in the process of cross-textual reading, and show the dual meaning of "inculturation" and "accommodation". / This dissertation is composed mainly of four chapters. In the first chapter Introduction, I present a history of scholarship on the Decalogue in the past, and explore different interpretive genre, which is identical with the development of biblical interpretation in the twentieth century. As a unique and important text, the Decalogue has very positive significance for religion and social ethics of ancient Israel. The second chapter deals with its literary context and tradition history. The Decalogue is put into a vast cultural context of the Ancient Near East to examine the process of how the Decalogue is sprouted and developed, in which the law codes of Mesopotamia and covenants of Hittite and Neo-Assyrian have a deep influence on it. / This thesis intends to focus on the text of the Decalogue in the Hebrew Bible, and to interpret it in the literary, cultural, and reader's contexts, and feminist perspective. In a broader horizon, the methods of literary criticism, historical criticism, reader-response criticism and feminist criticism will be applied throughout the thesis. / 田海華. / 论文(哲学博士)--香港中文大学, 2005. / 参考文献(p. 232-247). / Adviser: Archie C. C. Lee. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2615. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. 232-247). / Tian Haihua.

李嘉文. / Thesis submitted in: June 2009. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-70). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Li Jiawen. / 致謝 --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / Abstract --- p.iii / 引言 --- p.1 / Chapter 1. --- 硏究背景 --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- 研究範圍和進路 --- p.3 / Chapter 1. --- 方法論的探索 --- p.8 / Chapter 1.1. --- 過去研究成果 --- p.8 / Chapter 1.1.1. --- 保羅詮釋的猶太視野 --- p.8 / Chapter 1.1.2. --- 心理學進路 --- p.9 / Chapter 1.1.3. --- 社會學進路 --- p.10 / Chapter 1.1.4. --- 宗教理論框架 --- p.12 / Chapter 1.2. --- 宗教經驗：一個方法論的嘗試 --- p.14 / Chapter 2. --- 文本分析：林前12:13的問題 --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1. --- 「直接處境」：林前12至14章 --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2. --- 「猶太人、希臘人」與處境無關？ --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.1. --- 林前12:13的傳統：作為洗禮宣言 --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.2. --- 林前12:13的傳統：作為政治宣言 --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2.3. --- 哥林多前書中的「猶太人、希臘人」 --- p.26 / Chapter 2.3. --- 哥林多前書的猶太元素 --- p.28 / Chapter 3. --- 宗教經驗與跨種族群體形成 --- p.32 / Chapter 3.1. --- 個人歸信經驗：從民族宗教到普世宗教 --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2. --- 使徒行傳的傳統 --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3. --- 保羅的理解 --- p.36 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- 對靈恩現象的歸因 --- p.36 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- 對外邦人加入信仰群體的詮釋 --- p.38 / Chapter 3.3.3. --- 對割禮、飲食和「潔淨」問題的處理 --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.4. --- 小結 --- p.41 / Chapter 3.4. --- 作為群體論述的林前12:13 --- p.41 / Chapter 4. --- 宗教經驗與跨種族群體實踐 --- p.44 / Chapter 4.1. --- 宗教經驗與群體論述：無意識的揭示 --- p.44 / Chapter 4.2. --- 宗教經驗與群體論述：宗教距離的拉近 --- p.48 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- 學習理論：外在的超越主體性 --- p.48 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- 集體無意識：内在的超越主體性 --- p.49 / Chapter 4.3. --- 認知理論：從群體到宇宙的團結 --- p.51 / Chapter 4.4. --- 結構化理論：宗教經驗與實踐分歧 --- p.55 / 結論 --- p.58 / Chapter 1. --- 林前12:13的詮釋 --- p.58 / Chapter 2. --- 宗教經驗的詮釋進路 --- p.59 / Chapter 3. --- 後語：跨種族團結的歷史經驗 --- p.60 / 參考書目 --- p.61

The thesis provides a descriptive survey of the history of interpretation of Revelation 11:1-13. Prior to 1000 AD it aims to be comprehensive, but after this date concentrates on Western interpretation. Ch. 1 - Prior to 1000 AD. Rev 11:1-13 is examined in relation to the wider complex of traditions concerning Antichrist and the return of Enoch and Elijah. The commentary tradition on Revelation is examined, including an extensive reconstruction of Tyconius. The passage is applied in two ways: 1. to two eschatological figures, usually Enoch and Elijah. 2. to the Church from the time of Christ's first advent until his return. Ch. 2 -1000-1516 Exegesis similar to that of chapter 1 is found. There is new exegesis from Joachim of Fiore, who believes that the two witnesses will be two religious orders, and Alexander Minorita, who reads the entirety of the Apocalypse as a sequential narrative of Church history, arriving at the sixth century for 11:1-13. Ch. 3 -1516-1700 Protestants interpret the beast as the papacy/Roman Church, and the two witnesses as proto-Protestants prior to the Reformation, often interpreting their 1260 day ministry as 1260 years. Catholics respond by applying the passage either to the eschatological future or the distant past. Ch. 4 -1701-2004 Protestants continue to see the 1260 days as 1260 years, although this interpretation declines markedly in the nineteenth century. Both Catholics and Protestants apply the passage to the distant past of the early Church. Historical critical exegesis introduces a new exegesis, where John is regarded as having incorrectly predicted the return of two individuals shortly after his time of writing. Applications to the entirety of the time of the time of the Church increase in popularity in the twentieth century.

This thesis will investigate the extensive Graeco-Roman characteristics of the Lystra speech and in so doing convey some clarity in the otherwise widely differing opinions held about it. This will be achieved by showing that Lystra was a Hellenistic city of some importance with a varied population. It will be argued that the initial reaction of the Lystrians to the miraculous healing of the cripple is to be understood as representing typical Graeco-Roman notions. This will include Luke's use of a legend which not only adds local colouring to the narrative but also introduces Graeco-Roman themes such as the blurring of the distinction between humans and gods and the custom of sacrifice. This contextualization immediately portrays the Graeco-Roman nature of the Lystrians' behaviour and attitudes. In addition to these themes it will be argued that the Lystrians are shown to being reliant on secondary notions of God, which when exposed to the proclamation of the apostles will prove to be inadequate. It will also be argued that the speech of the apostles is structured in a typically Graeco-Roman rhetorical form, where the errors are first exposed before the truth is presented. In conjunction with this structure it will be argued that the philosophical concept of which Dibelius has shown to be clearly presupposed in the Areopagus speech, is not only present in the Lystra speech but forms the philosophical basis on which it is structured. This concept explains the insistence by the apostles that they are human and that God has no need of such worthless things as sacrifices. It also explains the presentation of God's activity in creation and providence as an antithesis to a god who is in need. The Graeco-Roman aspects are brought to a close with the discussion of idea that an awareness of God does not depend on secondary notions acquired from legends or customs but that the truth is grasped through a process of reflection on creation and providence. This is an important notion in the speech for it exposes the Lystrians as being in need of a reorientation of their beliefs in God, away from those which are secondary to those which are primary and compatible with the truth.

In chapter one of this work, as a preliminary to the formulation of the question that this thesis will attempt to answer, the changing understanding of the part played by the interpreter in the process of interpretation is discussed. This outline begins with the understanding of the role of the interpreter in liberal theology - where he is thought of as one who applies critical methods to the text in a detached and scientific way. After this the hermeneutic spiral is discussed - the formation of this model acknowledges to a greater degree the individual and human part played by the interpreter. This is followed by a brief examination of the most recent theories of interpretation in which meaning is regarded as residing not in the text but in the interpreter himself. The task of this thesis is to determine whether, as these recent theorists suggest, the reader creates meaning instead of reading out what somehow lies in the text itself. The task of this thesis is to ascertain, by studying the interpretationsof John's Prologue by Origen, Luther and Bultmann, whether the text does in fact operate as a series of sign-posts that pOint the interpreter to a destination within his own semantic universe. This may be determined by noting whether or not the contexts, i n the broadest sense, of these interpreters have played a formative part in their interpretations. contextual influences are regarded as existing wherever there is a procedure or meaning in the interpreter's commentary which one expe cts to find there as a result of one's knowledge of the interpreter's life and previous writings. Our research reveals that Orige n, Luther and Bultmann have produced three very different commentaries in which the common denominator is the formative influence of the interpreter's context. Each of these writers has produced an interpretation that is consistent, in both approach and theology, with their previous exegetical and theological thought. This indicates that contextual factors have played a significant part in determining their interpr etations of John 1 :1-18. It would appear that these interpreters have been led to find the meaning of John's Prologue not with reference to any new, unprecedented set of symbols, but with reference to their own, well-worn semantic universes. In the conclusion it is noted that this research appears to support what many modern theorists have said as to the locus of meaning in interpretation. In the conclusion it is also noted that many of the fears raised by these findings - that readers and writers, or speakers and hearers, may become so isolated and trapped in their own thought worlds that any real contact with the outside is impossible - may be groundless. These findings also point to a certain consistency between the interpreters and their communities. This refutes the fears as to the isolation and solitary development of the individual in that it points to a certain community or corporate aspect which plays a part in the development of the indivi dual's semantic universe . / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in

M.Phil. (Greek) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Text in Afrikaans / Die bydrae van die lsraelitiese wysheidsliteratuur word in die teologiese nadenke oor die wese sowel as die regverdigheid van God in 'n groot mate onderbenut gelaat. Dit hoef egter nie so te wees nie. lndien die wysheid van Israel teen die agtergrond of breer konteks van die ontwikkeling in die konvensionele oud-Oosterse wysheid en vanuit 'n toepaslike orienteringspunt benader word, kan die betekenis daarvan histories en eksegeties op so 'n wyse ontsluit word dat die relevansie met betrekking tot die teologiese gesprek oor God en die teodisee aangetoon kan word. In die lig hiervan word die kritiese wysheid van Israel aan die hand van 'n elliptiese ordeningsbeginsel, wat enersyds die heerskappy van God en andersyds die moontlikheid van gemeenskap tussen God en mens as wentelpunte het, histories en eksegeties ondersoek. Verskillende reaksies op 'n gemeenskaplike ervaring van God se transendensie word in die lsraelitiese wysheid gehandhaaf en ontwikkel. Al word die terme 'transendensie', 'immanensie' en 'teodisee' nerens in die wysheidstekste van Israel gebruik nie, kom die motiewe nogtans voor. Die alternatiewe wat gehandhaaf en uitgewerk word, beklemtoon die verband tussen godsbeskouing en die ervaring van God as of verwyderd of immanent. Op soek na die balans tussen die transendensie en immanensie van God, bied die kritiese wysheid van Israel wel 'n perspektief waarin so 'n omvangryke ervaring van die wese van God moontlik is dat die beperkinge van rasionaliteit, en daarom ook vrae wat uit die teodisee-vraagstuk voortvloei, oorkom kan word. / The contribution of the sapiential literature of ancient Israel to theological reflection on both the essence and the justice of God is to a large extent neglected. This need not be the case. If Israelite wisdom is approached from a suitable vantage point and against the background or in the wider context of the sapiential movement in the ancient Near East, it becomes possible to historically and exegetically unravel the meaning and relevance of Old Testament wisdom in theological discussion of God and theodicy. In this light a historical and exegetical exploration of Israel's critical wisdom is undertaken with the aid of an elliptical guiding principle in which the supreme lordship of God is the one focal point, and the possibility of intimate communion between God and humans the other. Different reactions to a common experience of the transcendence of God are maintained and developed in the wisdom of ancient Israel. Although the terms 'transcendence', 'immanence' and 'theodicy' are never used in their wisdom texts, the motifs themselves did occur. The connection between the God concept and the experience of God as either remote or immanent, is emphasized by the alternatives which are developed in both the conventional and critical wisdom. In search of balance between the transcendence and immanence of God, the critical wisdom of Israel does offer a perspective within which comprehensive experience of the essence of God is possible to such an extent that the limitations of rationality, and therefore also the questions emanating from the riddle of theodicy, can be exceeded. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / Th. D. (Ou Testament)