The thesis concludes that because the cult-centred approach has been so concerned with the cultic functions of the psalms, it has failed to appreciate the personal contributions of the psalmists, and in so doing has often misinterpreted the primary purpose of a psalm. A life-centred reading of the Psalter is therefore a vital component in correcting this imbalance in psalmic studies today.

Thesis Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Essa pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar a tradução dos salmos na NTLH (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), a qual segue o princípio da equivalência dinâmica ou funcional de Eugene Nida, em que o sentido prevalece sobre a forma. Investigamos como essa tradução lida com textos poéticos, abundantes em figuras de linguagem e onde aspectos formais geram sentido. Para isso, descrevemos a teoria de Nida e as críticas pertinentes da teoria de tradução, aspectos da Poesia Hebraica e finalizamos com o estudo da tradução de alguns salmos feita pela NTLH. / This research aims at analyzing the translation of the Psalms in NTLH (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), which adopts Eugene Nidas principles of Dynamic Equivalence or Functional Equivalence, in which sense prevails over form. We investigate how this translation deals with poetic texts that abound with figures of speech and in which formal aspects generate sense. Therefore, we describe Nidas theory and some of its pertinent criticism; aspects of Hebrew Poetry; and, finally, we analyze some of the Psalms translations in NTLH.

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: By means of literary, linguistic and comparative literary approaches, this study examines the literary structure of the alphabetical acrostic poems in the Psalms. First, a literary approach is used to analyze the form and content of each alphabetical acrostic poem to show that the literary structure of the poems is varied. Selected Psalms 9-10, 111 and 112 are translated from the Hebrew and compared to ancient Near Eastern languages especially Akkadian and Ugaritic. Second, by means of linguistic approaches, the literary structure of each poem is determined on both micro and macro levels using the researcher’s own translations of these psalms. Furthermore, a comparative literary approach is employed to compare the forms of ancient Near Eastern acrostics, in particular Akkadian, Egyptian and Ugaritic poems, to Hebrew acrostics. The analysis reveals both similarities with other ancient Near Eastern forms as well as the uniqueness of the Hebrew alphabetical acrostic poems. Both linguistic and literary insights are used to determine the relationship between the different forms. The findings suggest that the alphabetical acrostic poems were probably written around or after 1000 B.C.E. since the ancient Near Eastern poems were written before 1000 B.C.E. The unique 22-line form of the Hebrew alphabetical acrostics also indicates that Hebrew thought was distinct from what can be observed in other ancient Near Eastern texts. On the basis of this research, a conclusion is reached and suggestions for future research are made. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Deur literêre, linguistiese en vergelykende literêre benaderings ondersoek hierdie studie die literêre struktuur van die alfabetiese akrostiese gedigte in die Psalms. Eerstens word ‘n literêre benadering gebruik om die vorm en inhoud van elke alfabetiese lettervers te ontleed om aan te toon dat die literêre struktuur van die gedigte verskillend is. Die gekose Psalms 9-10, 111 en 112 word uit die Hebreeus vertaal en in vergelyking met die Ou-Nabye-Oosterse tale, veral Akkadiese en Ugarities, bespreek. Tweedens, deur linguistiese benaderings, word die literêre struktuur van elke gedig op beide mikro-en makro vlakke bepaal deur gebruik te maak van die navorser se eie vertalings van hierdie psalms. Verder, word ‘n vergelykende literêre benadering aangewend om die vorms van die Ou-Nabye- Oosterse akrostiese gedigte, in die besonder Akkadies, Egiptiese en Ugaritiese gedigte, met Hebreeuse akrostiese gedigte te vergelyk. Die ontleding toon die ooreenkomste met ander antieke Nabye- Oosterse vorms sowel as die uniekheid van die Hebreeuse alfabetiese akrostiese gedigte. Beide linguistiese en literêre insigte word gebruik om die verhouding tussen die verskillende vorms te bepaal. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat die alfabetiese akrostiese gedigte waarskynlik geskryf is rondom of later as 1000 vC, angesien die antieke Nabye-Oosterse gedigte voor 1000 vC geskryf is. Die unieke 22-reël vorm van die Hebreeuse alfabetiese akrostiese gedigte dui ook aan dat die Hebreeuse denke te onderskei is van wat in ander antieke Nabye-Oosterse tekste gereflekteer word. Gebaseer op hierdie navorsing, word tot ‘n gevolgtrekking gekom, en word voorstelle vir toekomstige navorsing gemaak.

The specific thesis that is tested in this study is that there is continual interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal religious experience in the Book of Psalms. The main theoretical argument is that the sanctuary cult had a formative role in creating the piety of the psalmists. The study attempts to explore the specific nature of that relationship and to benefit from the contributions of three major approaches to the Psalms, i.e., the form critical approach (Hermann Gunkel), the cultic approach (Sigmund Mowinckel) and the Psalter-shaping approach (Gerald H. Wilson, James L. Mays, Jerome F. D. Creach, Mark D. Futato, J. Clinton McCann and Walter Brueggemann). The study suggests that the ongoing interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal piety in the Psalms is the result of the creative power of cult. It offers evidence of the possible shaping of the Psalter around the sanctuary motif. It also offers a unique perspective on the piety of the psalmists, suggesting that the psalmists, and particularly the editor(s) of the present shape of the Psalter, promoted the eschatological hope of Israel in the new temple and the heavenly aspect of Israel’s sanctuary. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in association with Greenwich School of Theology, U.K., 2013.

The specific thesis that is tested in this study is that there is continual interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal religious experience in the Book of Psalms. The main theoretical argument is that the sanctuary cult had a formative role in creating the piety of the psalmists. The study attempts to explore the specific nature of that relationship and to benefit from the contributions of three major approaches to the Psalms, i.e., the form critical approach (Hermann Gunkel), the cultic approach (Sigmund Mowinckel) and the Psalter-shaping approach (Gerald H. Wilson, James L. Mays, Jerome F. D. Creach, Mark D. Futato, J. Clinton McCann and Walter Brueggemann). The study suggests that the ongoing interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal piety in the Psalms is the result of the creative power of cult. It offers evidence of the possible shaping of the Psalter around the sanctuary motif. It also offers a unique perspective on the piety of the psalmists, suggesting that the psalmists, and particularly the editor(s) of the present shape of the Psalter, promoted the eschatological hope of Israel in the new temple and the heavenly aspect of Israel’s sanctuary. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in association with Greenwich School of Theology, U.K., 2013.

Part I of this thesis has been written with a view to exploring the relevance a text over 2500 years old has for contemporary ars poetica. From a detailed study of ‘The Book of Job’ I highlight three main tropes, ‘cognitive dissonance’, ‘tĕšuvah’, and ‘dark saying’, and demonstrate how these might inform the working methods of the contemporary poet. In the introduction I define these tropes in their theological and historical context. Chapter one provides a detailed examination of ‘Job’, its antecedents and its influence on literature. In chapters two and three I examine in detail techniques of Classical Hebrew poetry employed in ‘Job’ and argue for a confluence between literary technique and Jobian cosmology. Stylistically, the rest of the thesis is a critical meditation on how the main tropes of ‘Job’ can be mapped onto contemporary ars poetica. In chapter four I initiate an exploration into varying responses to cognitive dissonance, suggesting how the false comforters and Job represent different approaches to, and stages of, poetic composition. A critique of an essay by David Daiches is followed by a detailed study of Seamus Heaney. In chapter five I map the trope of tĕšuvah onto contemporary ars poetica with reference to the poetry of Pilinszky, Popa, and to the poems and critical work of Ted Hughes. The chapter concludes with a brief exploration into the common ground shared between the terms tĕšuvah and versus as a means of highlighting the importance of proper maturation of the work. Chapter six consists of a discussion of how the kind of ‘dark saying’ found in ‘Job’ 38-41 impacts on an understanding of poetic language and its capacity to accelerate our comprehension of reality. I support this notion with excerpts from Joseph Brodsky and a close reading of Montale’s ‘L’anguilla’. Chapter seven further develops the notion of poetry as a means of propulsion beyond the familiar, the predictable or the clichéd, by examining the function of metaphor and what I term ‘quick thinking’, and by referring to two recently published poems by John Burnside and Don Paterson. In chapter eight I draw out the overall motif implied by a close reading of ‘Job’, that of the weathering of an ordeal, and map this onto ars poetica, looking at two aspects of labour, which I identify as ‘endurance’ and ‘letting go’, crucial for the proper maturation of a poem or body of poems. The concluding chapter develops the theme of the temple first discussed in chapter one. I argue for a connection between Job as a temple initiate, who has the capacity to atone for the false comforters, and poetry as a form of ‘at-one-ment’. This notion is supported by reference to Geoffrey Hill and Rilke. Part II of the thesis consists of a selection of my own poems, titled ‘Bedrock’.

La présente thèse cherche à étudier l’histoire de la réception et de la présence de Charles Baudelaire dans l'univers poétique de l'hébreu moderne, à travers l'influence de son œuvre sur la création poétique en hébreu comme à travers les traductions hébraïques de sa poésie. Cette dernière partie inclut une analyse comparative approfondie de différentes traductions de la poésie de Baudelaire parues en hébreu au courant du XXe siècle.À travers cette approche nous cherchons à voir dans quelle mesure il existe des corrélations entre la traduction et la réception poétique de Baudelaire d'une part, et l'évolution particulièrement rapide du langage poétique de l'hébreu moderne d'autre part.Dans toutes les générations de la poésie de l’hébreu moderne, des auteurs majeurs ont traduit Baudelaire. Ce grand intérêt pour sa poésie s'explique, entre autres raisons, par le motif suivant : traduire Baudelaire en hébreu constitue un projet singulier de par le statut unique de son œuvre qui est à la fois la pierre angulaire de la Modernité poétique en général, et le point de départ de la poésie hébraïque moderne en particulier.La poésie hébraïque moderne peut être comparée à un arbre sans tronc ; ses racines, les textes de l'hébreu classique, sont profondes et séculaires. Sa cime, la nouvelle création poétique des 120 dernières années, est fraîche et verdoyante. Mais s'il tient debout, c'est grâce à ses branches qui sont suspendues sur les riches ramifications de ses voisins – les corpus poétiques étrangers qui ont toujours alimenté ce jeune corpus. Traduire Baudelaire en hébreu moderne, c'est – symboliquement – contribuer à greffer, rétroactivement, un tronc sur cet arbre. / This thesis examines the history of the reception and of the immanence of Charles Baudelaire in Modern Hebrew poetry through the influence of his work on original poetic work in Hebrew and through the translations of his poems into Hebrew. As part of the latter, a detailed comparative analysis is offered of some of Baudelaire’s poems translated into Hebrew and published through the 20th century.In examining these questions we wish to examine the extent to which one may trace a correlation between, on the one hand, the translation and reception of Baudelaire’s poetry and, on the other hand, the exceptionally rapid evolution of Modern Hebrew poetic language.In every generation of Modern Hebrew poetry, Baudelaire was translated by major authors. This significant interest in his poetry can be attributed, among other reasons, to the constructive role that such translation plays in Hebrew. For, in the Hebrew context, Baudelaire's poetry has a unique role: he is both a keystone of Modern poetry in general and the starting point of Modern Hebrew poetry in particular.Modern Hebrew poetry can be compared to a tree without a trunk: Its roots – the classical Hebrew texts – are ancient and deep. Its crown – the New Hebrew creation of the last 120 years – is fresh and green. But what keeps it standing are its branches that lean on the rich offshoots of its neighbours in the forest: the foreign poetic corpora which have always nourished this young literature, born modern. Translating Baudelaire into Modern Hebrew implies, symbolically, a contribution to the retrospective grafting of a trunk to the tree.

This dissertation is basically a reading the book of Lamentation as a literary whole in a sense of a text-centred approach, which aims to interpret the Scripture as divine communicative action. The major philosophical resources that I employ in this study are the Speech-Act theory developed by J. Austin and J. Searle, and the concepts particularly exemplified in the work of K. Vanhoozer. I look at repetition and literary techniques in Lamentations as a clue to its structural unity. In the body of the dissertation, Instead of historical-critical approaches, I claim that the meaning exists not ‘behind the text,’ but ‘in the text itself as a whole.’ One of the most important literary approaches to understanding the book of Lamentations is to note the poetic voices, which interweave in the text. The poetic voices are my main focus of understanding the book of Lamentations. I explain the literary meaning reading the text and demonstrate that we must find the canonical level of the meaning which supervenes on the literary level. The meaning of a text at a literary level must be carefully studied and modified by the ‘fuller sense (or meaning)’ derived from the canonical context. The ‘fuller sense’ of Scripture associated with divine authorship emerges only at the level of the whole canon. Here for the canonical meaning of the text, I focus on Vanhoozer’s assertion, having proposed the suitability of speech act theory for the various tasks of biblical interpretation and theological hermeneutics. When we read the text, there is no utterance from God in Lamentations. It is the missing voice. The main theme of Lamentations is "Where is the true comfort?". The text presents no comfort. In the literary context, God keeps silent (non-speaking). Canonically, however, Christian readers as God’s people read the Bible, connecting it to Jesus Christ. Within the canonical context, we can indeed find an answer and God’s answering speech (that is, His act), because Jesus is their true comforter acting as God’s response. We can find this response in his teaching (e.g. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount) and in his mission (e.g. presenting his body as the temple, being Immanuel, God-with-us). / Dissertation (MA(Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted