This dissertation examines the role and position of Jewish women in the Near East between 200 BCE - 200 CE. This was a very important period in Jewish legal and cultural history. The redaction of the Mishnah, the oldest extant body of Jewish law, was completed at approximately the end of the time under review, and was to have a lasting influence on the Jewish people. No society exists in a vacuum. During these years the Jews lived within the GraecoRoman Empire and this reflected on their attitudes towards women. To appreciate this it has been necessary to go back in time to the Hebrew Bible and to trace any attitudinal changes which occurred over the centuries. Although the Mishnah has been regarded as the terminus ad quem of this investigation, brief mention is also made of prevailing attitudes affecting women in present day Jewish society. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Judaica)

This study aims to examine how Rome understood 'the Other' in the context of Roman plundering of sacred sites. It analyses specifically the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, and how it was affected by the destruction of Corinth in 146 BCE, and the second Jewish temple at Jerusalem, and how the Romans went about destroying it in 70 CE. This study combines archaeological and written sources with iconography, to get as full an image as possible of Roman pillaging. For Isthmia the sources are mainly archaeological, from the excavations made by the University of Chicago. For Jerusalem the source is the ancient text Bellum Judaicum, by Flavius Josephus. The theory is that of 'the Other', as presented by Erich Gruen in his work Rethinking the other in antiquity, which is applied to the many questions in the discussion. The result of this study shows that Romans frequently sacked sacred sites of other peoples and used the artworks from them to beautify their own cities. They used the history and tradition of the Other for their own gain, to create a certain image of themselves. Further, this study finds that Rom considered itself the main power in the Mediterranean during these periods of antiquity.

Cette thèse de doctorat est consacrée à l’étude de l’un des tabous majeurs des sociétés humaines : la consommation par un individu de la chair ou de toute autre substance issue de ses semblables, autrement dit l’anthropophagie (ou cannibalisme). Selon une approche inédite, la problématique a été abordée dans toute la diversité de ses manifestations, au travers d’une documentation très variée, tant textuelle qu’iconographique, dans le cadre de l’Antiquité grecque et latine et au sein du Moyen Age occidental (latin surtout). L’objectif de la recherche était de mettre en évidence les pratiques, les discours et l’imaginaire d’un comportement alimentaire radicalement étranger aux normes culturelles des périodes et des lieux envisagés. Le plan de la thèse est conçu comme un parcours débutant et s’achevant aux confins du monde (le cannibalisme de « l’Autre »), tandis que le cœur du travail est consacré au cannibalisme de « l’intérieur », celui des affamés et des marginaux surtout. Tout naturellement, l’attention se focalise d’abord sur Homère et la confrontation d’Ulysse avec le Cyclope, qui installe dans la tradition l’imaginaire du pasteur des confins du monde, grand amateur de chair humaine. Hérodote, quant à lui, construit l’image d’un monde connu dont les frontières sont occupées par des peuples qui apprécient bien souvent la chair humaine. Là encore, le pasteur nomade est synonyme de sauvagerie. Une telle tradition perdure chez les auteurs latins antiques et médiévaux, qui reprennent à leur compte les anciens anthropophages en les déplaçant parfois, en les multipliant éventuellement. Mappae mundi médiévales, récits de voyage et descriptions du monde maintiennent dans les siècles qui suivent les mangeurs de chair humaine aux marges du monde, là où Colomb s’attendra plus tard à les trouver. Le rôle du cannibalisme en tant que marqueur d’altérité trouve un écho très fort dans la marginalisation de certains groupes ou individus au sein même des sociétés antiques ou médiévales. A notamment été développé le cas des accusations de cet ordre portées contre les premiers Chrétiens. Le danger représenté par le franchissement de la norme fait naître par inversion des pratiques ou des croyances qui visent à exploiter les potentialités curatives ou « magiques » de la consommation de substances humaines : en témoignent le controversé cannibalisme médical ainsi que le matériel offert par les pénitentiels médiévaux. Un bref chapitre s’attache à un autre genre de comportements en marge : des scènes de cannibalisme censées avoir constitué le point culminant d’épisodes de violence collective. Une grande attention a été accordée au cannibalisme de survie, le recours à la chair humaine comme nourriture de substitution en période de famine. Le passage de l’incompréhension antique face à un comportement indigne de l’homme à l’assimilation par la pensée chrétienne de ce type de cannibalisme à un fléau divin a été largement traité. La longue tradition médiévale des récits, issus de Flavius Josèphe, relatant la consommation d’un enfant par sa mère au cours du siège de Jérusalem a permis de démontrer la force de la présence du thème du cannibalisme dans l’imaginaire médiéval en tant que sanction divine. Une ample documentation a pu être réévaluée à la lumière de ce constat, ce qui a notamment permis de montrer de quelle façon l’évocation du cannibalisme pouvait être instrumentalisée afin de signifier la présence d’une sanction divine.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 880-87).

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has provided an opportunity to reexamine the formation of the Gospel of John. This study will utilize Dead Sea finds coupled with other Second Temple literature to examine how the Gospel of John portrays Jesus as being a king. The approach of this study to use a narrative approach that builds on the Gospel of John as a finished text. The contribution of a source critical approach is not disparaged but the narrative approach will allow the Johannine community to be seen in the context of the immediate post-Second Temple era. The limited literacy of the probable first audience of this text suggests that a narrative approach will best be able to understand the background to the formation of the Gospel of John. A central contention of this study is that the Gospel of John was composed after the Jewish Revolt and after the Synoptics. Thus it deserves the appellation of the Fourth Gospel and is called such in this study. The Fourth Gospel was composed at a time when Roman interest in anything connected to Judaism was sure to attract special interest. Thus the portrayal of Jesus as the Davidic Messiah needed to be handled carefully. The imagery of the new David found in 4Q504 compared with the imagery of Jesus being the Good Shepherd becomes an important part of the argument of this study on whether this Gospel portrays Jesus as being the Davidic Messiah. Jesus as the Good Shepherd showed Jews that Jesus is the Davidic Messiah without overtly offending Roman sensibilities. Furthermore evidence from Christian and Jewish sources indicates that an interest in a Third Temple was still stirring between the Jewish and Bar-Kochba Revolts. The Fourth Gospel shows Jesus as the Davidic Messiah who replaces the Temple because the Good Shepherd was the perfect sacrifice. / New Testament / D. Th. (New Testament)

This dissertation examines the role and position of Jewish women in the Near East between 200 BCE - 200 CE. This was a very important period in Jewish legal and cultural history. The redaction of the Mishnah, the oldest extant body of Jewish law, was completed at approximately the end of the time under review, and was to have a lasting influence on the Jewish people. No society exists in a vacuum. During these years the Jews lived within the GraecoRoman Empire and this reflected on their attitudes towards women. To appreciate this it has been necessary to go back in time to the Hebrew Bible and to trace any attitudinal changes which occurred over the centuries. Although the Mishnah has been regarded as the terminus ad quem of this investigation, brief mention is also made of prevailing attitudes affecting women in present day Jewish society. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Judaica)

Thesis (MPhil (Dept. of Ancient Studies) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This thesis sets out to examine, as far as possible within the constraints of a limited study such as this, the nature of the Jewish protest movement against the occupation of their homeland by the Roman Empire in the years after the territory had become a direct province of the Empire. These protests were mainly instigated by and initially led by Jewish peasants who experienced the worst aspects of becoming a part of the larger Roman world.

This thesis investigates how understandings of history in diverse texts of the Graeco-Roman period illuminate Lukan eschatology. Two strands of Lukan scholarship have contributed to an enduring tendency to underestimate the centrality of eschatology to Luke/Acts. Hans Conzelmann's thesis, that Luke focused on history rather than eschatology as a response to the parousia's delay, has dominated Lukan scholarship since the mid-twentieth century, with concomitant assumptions about Luke's politics and understanding of suffering. Recent Lukan scholarship has centred instead on genre and rhetoric, examining Luke/Acts predominantly in relation to ancient texts deemed the same genre while overlooking themes (including those of an eschatological character) that these texts do not share. This thesis offers a fresh approach. It illuminates the inherent connections between Luke's understanding of history and its end, and demonstrates significant ways in which Luke's eschatological consciousness shapes key themes of his account. By extending comparisons to a wider range of texts, this study overcomes two clear methodological shortfalls in current research: limiting comparisons of key themes to texts of similar genre, and separating non-Jewish from Jewish texts. Having established the need for a new examination of Luke's eschatology in Chapter 1, in Chapter 2 I set out the study's method of comparing diverse texts on themes that cut across genres. Chapters 3 to 6 then consider each key text and Luke/Acts in relation to a different aspect of their writers' conceptions of history: the direction and shape of history; determinism and divine guidance; human culpability and freedom; and the present and the end of history. The analysis shows that in every aspect of history examined, Luke/Acts shares significant features of the texts with which, because they do not share its genre, it is not normally compared. Setting Luke/Acts in conversation with a broader range of texts highlights Luke's periodised, teleological view of history and provides a nuanced picture of Luke's understanding of divine and human agency, all of which is affected in fundamental ways by his portrayal of the present time already within the final period of history. As a result, this study not only clarifies Lukan eschatology, but reaffirms the importance of eschatology for Lukan politics and theodicy.

This essay is based on trying to understand the relationship that exists between Josephus’ writings and the pseudepigraph Assumptio Mosis. Although the comparisons made between the texts in this essay are not enough to give a definite answer, none of the examples exclude that Josephus may have used Assumptio Mosis as a primary source. Rather, there are indications in which a direct relationship between Josephus and Assumptio Mosis potentially could explain from where Josephus acquires some of his source material, especially for his narrative of the time period around 4 BCE–6 CE. / Denna uppsats bygger på att försöka förstå relationen som finns mellan Josefus skrifter och pseudepigrafen Assumptio Mosis. Även om jämförelserna som görs mellan skrifterna i denna uppsats inte räcker för att ge ett säkert svar i slutändan, utesluter inga av exemplen att Josefus kan ha använt Assumptio Mosis som direkt källa. Snarare finns indikationer i vilka en direkt relation mellan Josefus och Assumptio Mosis skulle kunna förklara varifrån Josefus hämtar en del av sitt källmaterial, inte minst för hans narrativ om tiden runt 4 f.v.t–6 v.t.

This paper will look at the interpretation and translation of ἀρσενοκοῖται (1 Cor 6:9) in the list of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God. The word is mentioned in 1 Cor 6:9-10, and it has been translated in ways going from “homosexual”, “men who lay with men” and “sodomite” to “a man who lets others use himself or who uses others for debauchery” and “pedophile”. By looking at the views on sexuality, and male same-sex sexuality in particular, pertaining the Greco-Roman society and the Jewish culture contemporary to Paul, and also paying attention to the textual context as well as the context of the congregation in Corinth, the study has its aim set on finding what the word might have denoted to the first readers in the congregation in Corinth, and to Paul. The goal, then, is not to find a translation of the word ἀρσενοκοῖται that is literal, but to find one that is as close to a dynamic equivalent as is possible. This goal will, hopefully, be attained by giving the translation to the modern reader that is the one most likely to connote the same ideas and emotional connotations as the Greek word did in its original context. As the meaning of words change with time and context, there is a need for a translation that can bridge the gap created by that shift of meaning. Building that bridge in the case of ἀρσενοκοῖται is the goal of this paper. When the meaning, or meanings, that is found most likely to have been attained by the ancient readers is found, there will be a critical evaluation of some of the modern translations (and some a bit older) of the word in 1 Cor 6:9 to see if there already exists a translation that can be said to reach the goal of dynamic equivalence, given the meaning that is found most plausible in this paper. The study will argue that that is not the case, and therefore also propose a new translation, one that is argued to be closer to dynamic equivalence than those that has been evaluated. This translation is ”Men who sexually exploit men to gain social powers”. / Denna uppsats undersöker översättningen och tolkningen av ordet ἀρσενοκοῖται, det ord som avslutar 1 Kor 6:9 och är del av en lista över dem som inte kan ärva Guds rike (6:9-10). Ordet har översatts på olika sätt genom tiderna, med förslag som sträcker sig från “homosexuella”, “sodomiter”, “män som ligger med män” till “en man som låter utnyttja sig eller utnyttjar andra till osedlighet” och “pedofiler”. Genom att titta på hur sexualitet, och främst då manlig homosexualitet, sågs i den grekisk-romerska och judiska kontexten på Paulus tid, samt studera ordets litterära kontext och församlingens kontext i Korint, är målet att utröna vad ἀρσενοκοῖται bar med sig för betydelser och konnotationer för Paulus och de första mottagarna i Korint. Vad ett ord betyder är inte alltid statiskt över tid och rum utan förändras ofta, om än gradvis. Det riskerar därför att uppstå en klyfta mellan det som ordet från början innebar samt uppfattades som att det innebar, och hur det uppfattas idag. Den här uppsatsens mål är att överbrygga den klyftan för ἀρσενοκοῖται genom att ta reda på vad det grekiska ordet innebar i sin ursprungliga kontext och sedan ge en översättning som på bästa möjliga sätt ger en modern läsare konnotationer som i högsta möjliga grad stämmer överens med de konnotationer som de antika läsarna fick när de mötte ordet. Detta innebär alltså att målet inte är att ge en bokstavlig översättning av ἀρσενοκοῖται, utan en dynamisk ekvivalent översättning, där läsaren så långt det är möjligt får möjligheten att uppfatta det de första läsarna uppfattade. När den, eller de, meningar det är mest troligt att ordet bar med sig i sin ursprungliga kontext är konstaterade, kommer en kritisk utvärdering utifrån den slutsatsen göras av ett antal moderna översättningar (och några lite äldre), för att se om det finns en existerande översättning som uppnår dynamisk ekvivalens. Det kommer visa sig att så inte är fallet, och en ny översättning kommer därför att föreslås: ”Män som sexuellt utnyttjar män för att vinna social makt”.