Thesis (Ph. D.)--Marquette University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 447-478). Also available on the Internet.

Inaug.-Diss.--Frankfurt am Main. / Includes 4 speeches in English given by J.E. Powell. Vita. Bibliography: p. 146-167.

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The main aim of this dissertation is to understand the function of the text The Parables of Enoch (PE) in its ancient context. Despite the complicated and composite nature of this text, I have tried to explain the internal logic of this text, especially with an emphasis on understanding the different timelines with which the author of the text works. A critical evaluation of the limits of working with the preserved Ethiopian translations, as well as with the composite nature of the extant form of the text is the essential prerequisite for the interpretation of PE. In the exegetical part, I seek to demonstrate the main thesis that the purpose of PE is to offer a complex symbolic universe through ancient authoritative visions of the ancestor Enoch that serves to legitimize the shared social reality, which is in danger due to the difficult situation of persecution and oppression. I take the theoretical framework for this research over from the sociological constructivism. While the shared social reality is often in crisis, the symbolic universe as a complex level of legitimation intends to explain this discrepancy between the assumed social reality and the reality of the everyday experience. In the case of PE, it is a discrepancy between the experience of oppression and persecution of the addressees...

From what wells did the apocalyptic writers draw? What motivated them to write such bizarre and fantastic stories about the future end of history and battles between the forces of good and the forces of evil? The Book of Daniel is considered the first and only apocalypse of the Hebrew Bible, and it was the primary inspiration for much of the Book of Revelation, Apocalypse of John in the Christian New Testament. But well before Daniel, apocalyptic passages appeared in Jewish literature. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 came also the discovery of the oldest Jewish apocalypse, written in ancient Aramaic, and well-known in both ancient Judaism and early Christianity: a collection of books known as 1 Enoch. It was in these texts, especially the first and oldest one, the Book of Watchers, that apocalyptic imagery, including the Son of Man figure, first appeared in Jewish writing. Though scholars note developments from the Hebrew Prophets, particularly the Latter ones, a significant evolution took place. The question is why and when? My thesis is that the earliest Jewish apocalyptic writing, the Book of Watchers, 1 Enoch 1-36, was written as a result of Babylonian elements. With the help of scholars specializing in Jewish apocalyptic origins, I hope to show hoe the roots of this fascinating aspect of religion, which captivates and often frightens twenty-first century humans, took hold twenty-five hundred years ago in Mesopotamia.

This thesis examines the ancient Jewish text the Book of Enoch, the scholarly work done on the text since its discovery in 1773, and its seminal importance to the study of ancient Jewish history. Primary sources for the thesis project are limited to Flavius Josephus and the works of the Old Testament. Modern scholars provide an abundance of secondary information. These scholars include R. H. Charles, D. S. Russell, Albert Baumgarten, Seth Schwartz, George Nickelsburg, and James VanderKam. The Book of Enoch was composed from roughly 300 BCE to 10 BCE. The Book of Enoch stands as substantial proof that there was not a single Judaism practiced in Palestine during the Second Temple period, but rather multiple Judaisms that interacted with one another, and out of that both post-Destruction Judaism and apocalyptic Christianity emerged.

Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (New Testament)

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.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--Stellenbosch University, 20008. / The goal of this study is to investigate the speech act of persuasion in the Xhosa drama text Isisila sehobe by Satyo and Gwashu. The investigation into persuasive communication in Isisila sehobe takes as a starting point the persuasive strategies of Larson (1999). The study's main aim is to establish the linguistic realisation through which social aspects of isiXhosa persuasion are expressed in Isisila sehobe. The core persuasive message in this text is concerned with marriage. This study shows that some people take as their reasons for marriage materialistic things such as wealth and as a result such marriages seldom materialise or become stable, because people merely stay together for convenience and not love. In Isisila sehobe the results of such a marriage are disastrous, even leading to death. In addition, this study aims to present an account of how characters in Isisila sehobe realise premises and strategies of persuasion in authentic communication, using the framework of persuasion theory (O’Keefe, 1990).