`Resurrection' can be approached from several angles. The most common angle is what this study avoids: pressing for a `yes' or a `no' answer as to whether `Jesus really rose from the dead'. That is, demanding a definitive and final outcome from the discipline of historical-critical research. This study treats resurrection as a symbol. Symbols intrinsically generate multiple meanings. Historical, hermeneutical and gospel-critical parameters are the constraints within which reflection on the symbol of resurrection must take place, and the validity of perspectives be established. John Dominic Crossan's view of the resurrection is the focal point of discussion in this thesis, for two reasons. (1) He has clearly mapped out his method. (2) He occupies a middle position, by interpreting resurrection metaphorically and theologically. This sets him apart from those who interpret the resurrection literally and historically and those who accept the negative or uncertain outcome from the side of historical-critical inquiry as the death sentence for Christian faith. / New Testament / M.Th. (New Testament)

The Jesus of history and the Christ of faith are two different figures. Two centuries of search for the historical Jesus has led to greater awareness and better use of New Testament criticism, had salutary effects on proper historical biblical research and the desire to look beyond the paucity of material about Jesus in the canonical gospels. Despite proven difficulties the historical Jesus is an endless enterprise eliciting an equally endless fascination. The solution to the Jesus mystery appears better linked to Paul who has never been subjected to the same degree of historical research as Jesus. The figure, character, preaching, and teaching of Jesus was fashioned by the gospel authors not just to fit in. with the primitive church but to provide a natural linkage with Pauline Christianity. Christian faith is only loosely intertwined with Jesus of Nazareth and has everything to do with the Christ de"-ised by Paul. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

`Resurrection' can be approached from several angles. The most common angle is what this study avoids: pressing for a `yes' or a `no' answer as to whether `Jesus really rose from the dead'. That is, demanding a definitive and final outcome from the discipline of historical-critical research. This study treats resurrection as a symbol. Symbols intrinsically generate multiple meanings. Historical, hermeneutical and gospel-critical parameters are the constraints within which reflection on the symbol of resurrection must take place, and the validity of perspectives be established. John Dominic Crossan's view of the resurrection is the focal point of discussion in this thesis, for two reasons. (1) He has clearly mapped out his method. (2) He occupies a middle position, by interpreting resurrection metaphorically and theologically. This sets him apart from those who interpret the resurrection literally and historically and those who accept the negative or uncertain outcome from the side of historical-critical inquiry as the death sentence for Christian faith. / New Testament / M.Th. (New Testament)

The Jesus of history and the Christ of faith are two different figures. Two centuries of search for the historical Jesus has led to greater awareness and better use of New Testament criticism, had salutary effects on proper historical biblical research and the desire to look beyond the paucity of material about Jesus in the canonical gospels. Despite proven difficulties the historical Jesus is an endless enterprise eliciting an equally endless fascination. The solution to the Jesus mystery appears better linked to Paul who has never been subjected to the same degree of historical research as Jesus. The figure, character, preaching, and teaching of Jesus was fashioned by the gospel authors not just to fit in. with the primitive church but to provide a natural linkage with Pauline Christianity. Christian faith is only loosely intertwined with Jesus of Nazareth and has everything to do with the Christ de"-ised by Paul. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivany Dantas Pimentel.pdf: 623770 bytes, checksum: 916aa559472354dec90a569b9e9dcb10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-22 / The aim of this work is to show the life and the achievements of Jesus from Nazareth within the historical context of the society of his time, as a real person who assumes the human condition to insert the principles of the coming kingdom in the society, forging with his words and actions a new kind of existence based on brotherhood, solidarity, justice and, love. According to the synoptic tradition, Jesus has come to establish the kingdom of God not as a landlord of men over men, but as a landlord of service, a good news for the poor people who are the recipients of this kingdom. The idea of the kingdom of God, which is present in the beliefs of the people of Israel since its origins, becomes the center of Jesus activities and teachings, as described in the Gospels. Its approach permeates distinct periods of the History, nevertheless the rescue of its centrality will occur only after the Vatican Council II within the emergence of the liberation theology. In this period, the contributions of Latin American theologians stood out, mainly those of Jon Sobrino. The Liberation Theology aims the society´s commitment with a social transformation of the reality, based on the belief that it is possible to have a world where there is a place for everyone and the human dignity is preserved. The struggle for a fair world (without oppression and servitude) is a sign of the coming of the kingdom. In this sense, Jesus, the ultimate mediator of the Kingdom of God, brings within his message the offer of salvation to all humanity in all its dimensions. Jesus frees the mankind from the negative situations of ignorance, sin, suffering and death / Este trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar a vida e a atuação de Jesus de Nazaré no contexto histórico da sociedade de seu tempo, como um personagem real que assume a condição de criatura para introduzir nela os princípios do reino que se aproxima, forjando com seu exemplo e sua palavra um novo tipo de existência que se firma na fraternidade, na solidariedade, na justiça e no amor. Segundo a tradição sinótica, Jesus veio estabelecer o reino de Deus não como o senhorio de homens sobre homens, mas senhorio de serviço, uma boa notícia para os pobres que são os destinatários do reino. A idéia do reino de Deus, que faz parte das convicções do povo de Israel desde as suas origens, torna-se o centro da atuação e dos ensinamentos de Jesus narrados nos Evangelhos. Sua abordagem permeia os diferentes períodos da história, mas o resgate de sua centralidade ocorrerá somente após o Concílio Vaticano II com o surgimento da teologia da libertação. Nesse período, destacam-se as contribuições de teólogos latino-americanos, em especial as de Jon Sobrino. A Teologia da Libertação busca na sociedade o compromisso com a transformação social da realidade mediante a crença de que é possível a existência de um mundo onde há lugar para todos e a dignidade humana seja preservada. A luta por um mundo justo sem opressão nem servidão é um sinal da vinda do reino. Neste sentido Jesus, mediador definitivo do Reino de Deus traz em sua mensagem a oferta de salvação para toda a humanidade em todas as suas dimensões, libertando-a das situações negativas de ignorância, de pecado, de sofrimento e de morte

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2018-04-11T14:04:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 HAMILTON CASTRO DA SILVA.pdf: 1323368 bytes, checksum: 488dbbec295ae1d1acec471993abe009 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-11T14:04:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 HAMILTON CASTRO DA SILVA.pdf: 1323368 bytes, checksum: 488dbbec295ae1d1acec471993abe009 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-15 / This dissertation was carried out with the objective of presenting the sociohistorical environment of Palestine in the first century, in which Jesus of Nazareth lived, in order to perceive its impacts on the praxis of Jesus, specifically in relation to Roman taxation. We will observe the dominant elites, represented by the Roman Empire, by the family of Herod and by the high priests of the Temple in Jerusalem. These elites, through a system of patronage, exerted a strong economic domination by means of a high tax burden on the peasants. With this, they produced, within the peasantry environment, great indebtedness, loss of property and the destruction of the family. The research sought to demonstrate that historical Jesus is the result and a proposed solution to a situation of economic exploitation in rural villages and towns of Palestine in the first century. The dissertation seeks to present the reaction of Jesus of Nazareth to Roman taxes, analyzing the text of Mark 12: 13-17, specifically the saying of Jesus in v. 17, which states: "Return to Caesar the things of Caesar and to God the things of God." The research shows that this saying indicates that Jesus took a critical stance regarding the payment of taxes to the Romans in favor of the removal of the Roman Empire coins from the lands of Israel. The research shows that the attitude of the historical Jesus against Roman taxes is motivated by a nationalistic and scriptural zeal based on the biblical statement in Leviticus 25:23: "The land [Israel] is mine, says the Lord." In this way, Jesus of Nazareth, guided by this nationalistic zeal, presents an ethical proposal based on biblical and apocalyptic traditions, confronting the tyrannical control and abuse of power by the Roman Empire, that is: The ethics of presenting a praxis of option for the little ones, surpassing the regimes of oppression and tyranny. / Esta dissertação foi realizada com o objetivo de apresentar o ambiente sóciohistórico da Palestina no século I, no qual viveu Jesus de Nazaré, a fim de perceber seus impactos nas práxis de Jesus, especificamente em relação à tributação romana. Observaremos as elites dominantes, representadas pelo Império Romano, pela família de Herodes e pelos sumos sacerdotes do Templo em Jerusalém. Estas elites, mediante um sistema de patronagem, exerciam forte dominação econômica por meio de uma alta carga tributária sobre os camponeses. Com isto, produziam, dentro do ambiente do campesinato, grande endividamento, perda das propriedades e desestruturação da família. A pesquisa procurou demonstrar que Jesus histórico é o resultado e uma proposta de solução para uma situação de exploração econômica nas aldeias rurais e vilas da Palestina no século I. A dissertação procura apresentar a reação de Jesus de Nazaré aos impostos romanos, analisando a perícope de Marcos 12,13-17, especificamente o dito de Jesus no v.17, que afirma: “Devolvei a César o que é de César e a Deus o que é de Deus”. A pesquisa mostra que este dito indica que Jesus assumiu uma postura crítica em relação ao pagamento de impostos aos romanos, em favor da remoção das moedas do Império Romano das terras de Israel. A pesquisa apresenta que a atitude do Jesus histórico contra os impostos romanos é motivada por um zelo nacionalista e escriturístico, fundamentado na afirmação bíblica em Levítico 25,23: “ A terra [Israel] é minha: diz o Senhor”. Dessa maneira, Jesus de Nazaré, orientado por este zelo nacionalista, apresenta uma proposta ética pautada nas tradições bíblicas e na apocalíptica, confrontando o controle tirano e o abuso de poder por parte do Império Romano, ou seja: A ética de apresentar uma práxis de opção pelos pequenos, ultrapassando os regimes de opressão e tirania.

The four canonical Gospels describe the synagogues of the Land of Israel as the primary locus of the public activities of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the prominence of synagogues in the extant accounts of Jesus’ life and career, academic research on early synagogues has not yet played a significant role in the study of the historical Jesus. This project incorporates the findings of recent research on ancient synagogues into the study of the historical Jesus. So doing helps to recover a piece of Jesus’ early Jewish context that has been frequently neglected or misunderstood in previous scholarship. This thesis has two related goals. The first is to contextualize Jesus’ activities in synagogues in light of current research on ancient synagogues. The second is to determine the role that the institution of the synagogue played in the aims of Jesus. I argue that the evidence indicates that the synagogue was intrinsic rather than incidental to Jesus’ mission, and that it was both the vehicle and the means by which he intended to realize his aim of the restoration of Israel. The historical investigation in this project helps to clarify our understanding of Jesus’ mission and also helps us to better understand the data involving synagogues in the Gospels. My examination of the evidence finds that the narratives involving synagogues in the Gospels accurately reflect an ancient synagogue setting, and can be better understood in light of current scholarship on synagogues. This speaks in favour of the historical plausibility of these narratives, and highlights the importance of the institutional setting of the synagogue for the interpretation of this data. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The four canonical Gospels describe the synagogues of the Land of Israel as the primary locus of the public activities of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the prominence of synagogues in the accounts of Jesus’ life and career, academic research on early synagogues has not yet played a significant role in the study of the historical Jesus. This project has two related goals. The first is to contextualize Jesus’ activities in synagogues in light of current research on ancient synagogues. The second is to determine the role that the institution of the synagogue played in the aims of Jesus. I argue that the evidence indicates that the synagogue was intrinsic rather than incidental to Jesus’ mission, and that it was both the vehicle and the means by which he intended to realize his aim of the restoration of Israel.

The quest for the historical Jesus can be advanced by a consideration of disagreement scenarios recorded in the gospels. Such “conflicts” afford the opportunity not only to analyse the positions of the protagonists, but by comparing them, to better appreciate their relative stances. ¶ One area of disagreement that has remained largely unexplored is that between Jesus and the Pharisees over the “kingdom of God”. Indeed, “kingdom of God” formed the very foundation of Jesus’ preaching and thus ought to be the place where fundamental disagreements are to be found. As Luke 17:20-21 represents the only passage in the Gospels where the Pharisees show any interest in the kingdom of God, it forms the central hub of the thesis around which an account of the disparate beliefs of Jesus and the Pharisees on the kingdom of God is constructed. ¶ The main thesis is this. Luke 17:20-21 can best be explained, at the level of the Pharisees and Jesus, as betraying a fundamental disagreement, not in the identity of the kingdom of God, which they both regarded as primarily the Divine Royal Presence, i.e. God himself as king, but in the location of that kingdom. The Pharisees located the kingdom in the here-and-now, Jesus located it in heaven. Conversely, at later stages in the formation of the pericope, the pre-Lukan community identified the kingdom as the Holy Spirit located in individuals with faith in Jesus and the redactor identified the kingdom as Jesus, located both in the Historical Jesus and the Jesus now in heaven. ¶ Chapter 1, after the usual preliminary remarks, presents an analysis of Luke 17:20-21 as a chreia, a literary form ideally suited as the basis on which to compare the beliefs of the Pharisees and Jesus. The work of three scholars vital to the development of the main thesis is then reviewed and evaluated. By way of background, a portrait of the Pharisees is then presented, highlighting in particular, issues that will be of importance in later chapters. Finally, a section on the Aramaic Targums suggests that some targum traditions may be traced back prior to AD 70 and that these reflect the influence and beliefs of first century Palestinian Pharisees. ¶ Chapters 2 and 3 are a consideration of every instance of the explicit mention of God as king (or his kingship) and the Divine Kingdom respectively, in contemporary and earlier Jewish Palestinian literature and in Luke-Acts. A model of the kingdom of God is developed in these chapters that will be applied to Luke 17:20-21 in the next chapter. ¶ Chapter 4 presents a detailed exegesis of Luke 17:20-21, taking into account scholarship on the pericope since the last monograph (an unpublished dissertation of 1962) on the chreia. It offers a composition history of the pericope and measures previous exegesis against the view of the kingdom of God as developed in chapters 2 and 3. ¶ Chapter 5 presents a summary of the work that relates directly to Luke 17:20-21, some implications arising from the findings and, several possible avenues for future research.

In the year 2000 the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth two millennia ago is celebrated. If Jesus was seen as merely a historical figure, the significance of his life would be no different from that of people like Socrates or Alexander the Great. In Greco-Roman culture Alexander the Great, among other heroic figures and emperors, was regarded as son of God. However, since the first century followers of Jesus have worshipped Jesus as God’s son. This study asks questions as to the importance of Jesus within Hellenistic-Semitic and Greco-Roman contexts and his continued importance today. The first aspect is studied from a social-cultural perspective and the second from the angle of both the (Christian) believing community and the (secularized) university. Chapter one deals methodologically with the fact that, as in the case of Socrates, Jesus did not himself put to pen either the message of his words and deeds or the interpretation of his birth and death. Jesus’ vision should therefore be deciphered from what others said about him. Identifying a research gap with regard to existing Jesus research, chapter two will specifically aim at showing that today a new interdisciplinary frame of reference has come into being in the social sciences within which historical Jesus research is carried out. In chapter three it is argued that the starting point of the quest for the historical Jesus could be the nativity stories, despite all their mythological elements. Yet, in taking such a step, one should be aware of historiographical pitfalls when one studies the process of the “historization” of myth. In chapter four, entitled the “Joseph trajectory”, it is demonstrated that Joseph, the father of Jesus, should probably be seen as a legendary figure. With the help of cross-cultural anthropology and cultural psychology chapter five explains an ideal-typical situation of someone in first-century Herodian Palestine who bore the stigma of being fatherless, but who trusted God as Father. In chapter six the tradition about Jesus’ relationship towards “fatherless” children and “patriarchless” women is studied. Chapter seven shows that the “myth of the absent father” was very well known in antiquity. Ovid’s story of Perseus (who was conceived virginally) is retold. The intention is to show why the second-century philosopher Celsus thought that the Christians unjustifiably mirrored this Greek hero, son of Zeus, in their depiction of Jesus. Other examples within Greek-Roman literature are the myths surrounding among others Hercules and Asclepios. In explaining Hercules’ adoption as son of Zeus (which implies his deification), the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus tells the story of an empty tomb and an ascension to heaven. The Roman writer Seneca also tells the story of Hercules’ divine conception and his adoption as child of Zeus. In the New Testament Paul (Seneca’s contemporary) is particularly known for the notion “adoption to become God’s child”. This notion is explained in the light of the parallels found in Seneca’s tragedies about Hercules, his satire on the emperor Claudius and the references by Diodorus Siculus and in the Carmina Priapea to the notion of “adoption” and miraculous conceptions of god-like human figures. Chapter eight focuses on the origins of the church and the development of the dogma of the “two natures” of Jesus as both human and divine. In the last chapter the continued importance of the historical Jesus today is discussed. One of the most urgent social problems of our time is that millions of children are growing up fatherless. This study is about the historical Jesus who filled the emptiness caused by his fatherlessness with his trust in God as his Father. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Ancient Languages / unrestricted

This thesis focussed on the matter of Judean ethnic identity in the first century CE. At first we pointed out that New Testament scholarship lacks an overall interpretive framework to understand Judean identity. There is not an appreciation of what informed the entire process of Judean ethnic identity formation in the first century, or at any period for that matter. This lack of interpretive framework is acute in scholarship on the historical Jesus, where the issue of Judeanness is most strongly debated. We investigated the reconstructions of John P Meier and John D Crossan, and attempted to identify what content, be it explicitly or implicitly, or by omission, do they assign to Jesus’ Judean identity. But as yet, we were not in a position to say just what kind of Judean Jesus was. We then proceeded by developing a Socio-Cultural Model of Judean Ethnicity. At first Sanders’ notion of covenantal nomism was explored and redefined to function primarily as an ethnic descriptor. We combined the notion of covenantal nomism with Berger and Luckmann’s theories on the sociology of knowledge, and saw that covenantal nomism could function as the Judean construction of reality. It is a convenient way to define the Judean “symbolic universe”. Dunn’s “four pillars of Second Temple Judeanism” was then reviewed, which looked at the importance of the Temple, God, Election and the Torah. The “new perspective” on Paul as developed by Dunn also proved useful, as he brought attention to the importance of traditional customs (e g circumcision and food laws), and how it served as “badges” for Judean identity. The approaches of Sanders and Dunn, however, lacked the insights of ethnicity theory. Ethnicity theory has identified two primary alternatives when it comes to ethnicity formation: constructionism and primordialism. We looked at the attempt of Jones to integrate the various approaches by her incorporation of the concept of the habitus. An overview of Duling’s Socio-Cultural Model of Ethnicity followed, which lists all the relevant cultural features and which emphasises the predominant constructionist approach. We integrated all of the above into our own proposed model, which we termed covenantal nomism. It is a pictorial representation of the Judean symbolic universe, which as an ethnic identity, was proposed to be essentiall primordialist. The model was then given appropriate content, by investigating what would have been typical of first century Judean ethnic identity. It was also demonstrated that their existed a fundamental continuity between Judea and Galilee, as Galileans were ethnic Judeans themselves and they lived on the ancestral land of Israel. Attention was then focussed on the matter of ethnic identity in Q. We investigated the stratification of Kloppenborg and suggested that the third stratum which refers to the Torah properly belongs to the polemical and apologetic strategy of the main redaction. After analysing the two stratums it was concluded that Q points to a community whose Judean ethnic identity was in (re)construction. Apart from the cultural features of name and land, all cultural features demonstrated strong elements of discontinuity with traditional covenantal nomism. The Q people were given an eschatological Judean identity based on their commitment to Jesus and the requirements of the kingdom/reign of God. / Thesis (PhD (New Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / New Testament Studies / unrestricted