Text in German / It is the aim of this study to present the problems concerning the conversion of Jews with communist background to Christianity. This way useful advice shall be won for the missionary work among Jews who came from the former Sowjetunion. At first the social, cultural, religious and political background of the Jews before the immigration into Zsar-Russia until their emigration from the former Sowjetunion are researched. Then, in order to research the processes of conversion, 18 former Sowjetunion Jews who live in Israel were given interview-questionaries to get an idea from personal experiences and knowledge. To get a more objective picture of the conversion subject, testimonies of messianic Jews, statements of pastors, information letters and messianic literature were also consulted. In the last part of this study the mission-theological conclusion of the conversion subject is given and reflected for the missionary work among Jews stemming from the former Sowjetunion. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa e à Inovação Tecnológica do Estado de Sergipe - FAPITEC/SE / The present dissertation, entitled "Inquisitorial persecution and Crypto-Judaism: A study of the processes involving the sergeant-general Diogo Vaz and his relatives (1662-1673)", has as a research object the description and analysis of the Inquisition, specifically in the persecution of New Christians accused of Judaizers in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the Colony. We sought to investigate the cases of Diogo Vaz Penalvo, his sister Anna Rodrigues and other members of his family. For this, we are based on the categories of the Ginzburg (2001) index of the microhistory studied by Giovanni Levi (1992) and Ginzburg (2006), the category of pariah explained by Weber (2010) and the sociology of secrecy, of Simmel (2009), of fundamental importance for the maintenance of Crypto-Judaism. From this, we follow the following steps: to reconstruct the steps of members of a family arrested by the Holy Office and compare them with other cases already studied, collaborating with the study of religious practices that resisted Catholicism in the colonial period; to find in the reports of the documents indications of religious practices considered deviant from the Catholic faith. Finally, this research aims to contribute to the study of the inquisition with a focus on the persecution of the Crypto-Jews, in an attempt to know the religious practices of a family that suffered for more than a decade humiliation, exile and fire. / A presente dissertação, intitulada “A perseguição inquisitorial e o Criptojudaísmo: Estudo dos processos envolvendo o sargento-mor Diogo Vaz e seus familiares (1662-1673)”, tem como objeto de pesquisa a descrição e análise da Inquisição, especificamente na perseguição aos cristãos-novos acusados de judaizantes na Península Ibérica, assim como na Colônia. Buscamos investigar os casos de Diogo Vaz Penalvo, de sua irmã Anna Rodrigues e de outros membros da sua família. Para tal, baseamo-nos nas categorias do paradigma indiciário de Ginzburg (2001), da micro-história estudada por Giovanni Levi (1992) e Ginzburg (2006), a categoria de pária explicada por Weber (2010) e a sociologia do segredo, de Simmel (2009), de fundamental importância para a manutenção do criptojudaísmo. A partir disso, seguimos os seguintes caminhos: reconstruir os passos de membros de uma família presa pelo Santo Ofício e compará-los com outros casos já estudados, colaborando com o estudo de práticas religiosas que resistiram ao catolicismo no período colonial; encontrar nos relatos dos documentos indícios de práticas religiosas consideradas desviantes da fé católica. Por fim, esta pesquisa visa contribuir para o estudo do tema da inquisição com o foco na perseguição aos criptojudeus, na tentativa de conhecer as práticas religiosas de uma família que sofreu durante mais de uma década a humilhação, o degredo, a tomada de bens e o fogo. / São Cristóvão, SE

Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa e à Inovação Tecnológica do Estado de Sergipe - FAPITEC/SE / The present dissertation, entitled "Inquisitorial persecution and Crypto-Judaism: A study of the processes involving the sergeant-general Diogo Vaz and his relatives (1662-1673)", has as a research object the description and analysis of the Inquisition, specifically in the persecution of New Christians accused of Judaizers in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the Colony. We sought to investigate the cases of Diogo Vaz Penalvo, his sister Anna Rodrigues and other members of his family. For this, we are based on the categories of the Ginzburg (2001) index of the microhistory studied by Giovanni Levi (1992) and Ginzburg (2006), the category of pariah explained by Weber (2010) and the sociology of secrecy, of Simmel (2009), of fundamental importance for the maintenance of Crypto-Judaism. From this, we follow the following steps: to reconstruct the steps of members of a family arrested by the Holy Office and compare them with other cases already studied, collaborating with the study of religious practices that resisted Catholicism in the colonial period; to find in the reports of the documents indications of religious practices considered deviant from the Catholic faith. Finally, this research aims to contribute to the study of the inquisition with a focus on the persecution of the Crypto-Jews, in an attempt to know the religious practices of a family that suffered for more than a decade humiliation, exile and fire. / A presente dissertação, intitulada “A perseguição inquisitorial e o Criptojudaísmo: Estudo dos processos envolvendo o sargento-mor Diogo Vaz e seus familiares (1662-1673)”, tem como objeto de pesquisa a descrição e análise da Inquisição, especificamente na perseguição aos cristãos-novos acusados de judaizantes na Península Ibérica, assim como na Colônia. Buscamos investigar os casos de Diogo Vaz Penalvo, de sua irmã Anna Rodrigues e de outros membros da sua família. Para tal, baseamo-nos nas categorias do paradigma indiciário de Ginzburg (2001), da micro-história estudada por Giovanni Levi (1992) e Ginzburg (2006), a categoria de pária explicada por Weber (2010) e a sociologia do segredo, de Simmel (2009), de fundamental importância para a manutenção do criptojudaísmo. A partir disso, seguimos os seguintes caminhos: reconstruir os passos de membros de uma família presa pelo Santo Ofício e compará-los com outros casos já estudados, colaborando com o estudo de práticas religiosas que resistiram ao catolicismo no período colonial; encontrar nos relatos dos documentos indícios de práticas religiosas consideradas desviantes da fé católica. Por fim, esta pesquisa visa contribuir para o estudo do tema da inquisição com o foco na perseguição aos criptojudeus, na tentativa de conhecer as práticas religiosas de uma família que sofreu durante mais de uma década a humilhação, o degredo, a tomada de bens e o fogo. / São Cristóvão, SE

Repetition has received a bad press in certain streams of theological tradition; this reception has in part been caused by, and has in turn affected, readings of the Letter to the Hebrews, which speaks about repetition in ways unique in the New Testament. The present study addresses the insufficient critical attention paid to repetition in Hebrews, challenging the assumption that it functions uniformly and negatively throughout the letter, and exploring the variety of ways in which Hebrews presents repetition. The plurality of prophetic speech displays God’s manifold kindness in the old covenant; such speech is not opposed to but is fulfilled in Christ’s coming, and its ongoing repetition in the new covenant through citation and exposition serves to promote and explicate that event. Repeated mutual encouragement is essential to persevering in the Christian life and avoiding apostasy. And the regular entry of the Levitical priests into the outer sanctuary of the tabernacle in Heb 9.6 foreshadows the continual access to God achieved through Christ. Where repetition has a negative or contrastive role in the author’s argumentation, it does not cause inefficacy but rather indicates a weakness whose source is elsewhere – and which, moreover, is revealed fully only in the light of the Christ event. The uniqueness of Christ and of his death construed as a sacrifice, developed from concepts of singularity in Day of Atonement and early Christian crucifixion traditions, forms a unifying strand in the letter’s Christology. Rather than functioning in simple opposition to repetition, this singularity corresponds to continuity and eternity, and is developed at times in contrast to, and at times in correspondence with, repetition. The study thus offers a reappraisal of repetition in Hebrews, laying the foundations for renewed appreciation of the importance of repetition for theological discourse and religious life.

M.A. / Marriage is neither a Jewish nor a Christian invention. Both religions have one thing in common: their origin is traced back to the God of the Bible, who is also the Creator of the universe. While Christianity does not hesitate to trace its origins to Judaism, Judaism perceives it as a perversion of its heritage. Christian ethics have a rich Jewish background. Actually, the very founders of Christianity were Jewish. Jesus and Paul were, first and foremost, Jews. The former was neither a Christian nor did he intend to start a new religion apart from the Jewish faith. He only perceived himself as a Jewish revivalist, and the long-awaited Messiah. The latter was a Jew who got converted to Christianity. The first four books of the New Testament are an attempt, by both eyewitnesses and their disciples, to present a record of the words and deeds of the historical Jesus. Paul interprets the God's plans of salvation as fulfilled in the Jesus of Nazareth. This research paper attempts to compare the teachings of both Paul and Jesus on marriage and divorce. Christian marriage is a marriage in which both partners are Christian believers. Jesus' teaching is generally addressed to a homogenous JeWish Christian community, with few excerptions in the Markan and Lukan versions. In view of Christian marriages, the Law of Christ seems to be binding upon both partners. A problem arose when the Gospel crossed the borders of Palestine into the Gentile lands. Paul became the instrument used by God to put the universality of the Gospel into practice. The issue of mixed marriages comes into place in the Pauline community. In such unions, the Law of Christ would be binding on only one partner, namely, the believer. The apostle finds himself now faced with a real life situation in which there is no direct command of the Lord. His churches looked up to him for answers. Like marriage, divorce is neither Christian nor non-Christian, although many scholars would have us think in terms of their being Christian or non-Christian. Between what is ethically right and wrong, is the twighlight zone of the acceptable or the unacceptable. For the Jew, divorce was custom. The Gentile world also had its own rules governing marriages, which were no better than those held by Jews. Jesus (the synoptics) quotes no code of law for or against the practice of divorce. He bases his argument on the natural order of things - that is, God's original plan at creation. Marriage may be perceived as a pre-fall divine institution, and divorce a post-fall divine concession. In speaking about marriage, Jesus speaks in terms of principles: marriage was meant to be a permanent bond. Man's sinfulness necessitated a compromise on the part of God: to allow for divorce. We propose that the synoptics speak about the ideal. The state of affairs which Jesus propagates is not practical, and cannot be fully realised in the present age of fallen man. Conversely, Paul deals with the practical - the realistic as opposed to the ideal. His teaching reflects the problems of applications in a rather heterogeneous context. The whole law of God reflects the relativised will of God. In Christianity, Jesus seems to be the first person to relativise the very Law of God. In order for us to fully comprehend the perfect will of God, we need to look beyond the code of law, to that state of absolute perfection. The state which man cannot attain in this present life, where sin and the devil are still at large. This seems to have been the approach applied by Jesus in answering questions on marriage and divorce. In the whole record of Jesus' ministry, nowhere was a called to resolve a real marital problem. We thus propose that What Jesus he gives is only a theoretical framework which requires further analysis before it can be applied to real life situations. We also propose both Jewish and Gentile ethical principles need to be readjusted and reinterpreted before they can be adopted into Christianity. The socio-historical context of both the writer and readers will play an important role in our quest for the link between the Pauline and synoptic perspectives on marriage and divorce. The gulf between the ideal and the real seems to be as wide as one between justice and mercy. The following questions raise some of the major concerns in this research: Are there any links between Paul and Jesus (synoptics) on marriage and divorce? If Jesus speaks about the ideal in his absolutist attitude, is there any link between the ideal and the real; between principle and practice?

What is a “Jewish book”? Does the history of Jewish secularism necessarily follow a Christian example? Did the Jews living in early modern Europe and the Ottoman Empire understand themselves by the same terms contemporary ones do? This dissertation examines five books printed by Jewish printer Gershom (Hieronymus) Soncino (1460[?]-1534) in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in Italy and in the Ottoman Empire, which are posited as ‘secular.’ While Gershom is mainly known in “Jewish bibliography” circles – a concept the dissertation investigates and challenges – as a printer of religious Jewish tomes, a critical microhistorical analysis of the five books, their production, material makeup and reception, reveals a ‘secularity,’ a comfort in being-in-the-world which upends the received temporality of Jewish secularization. In rejecting a retrojection of later ideas of ‘secularization,’ often Christian-inflected and ideologically-biased, onto early modern Jewish cultural production, the dissertation asks that the Jews living in Renaissance Italy and the Ottoman Empire be understood by their own lights. To correctly treat Gershom’s books a critical list of his published titles spanning five languages, was necessary: the dissertation therefore first follows the “political economy of classification” which has historically governed what material has been deemed “the Jewish book,” revealing the embedded discursive biases of this scheme and problematizing some of its techniques. It then moves to investigate the ‘world’ each of five secular books was created and consumed in. The ‘world’ of Isaac ibn Saḥula’s 𝘔𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘢-ḳ𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪 (1490–1491), a compendium of animal fables and the first Hebrew illustrated book in print, is treated as a series of translations between medieval Spain, northern Italy and modern Germany. What do its woodcut illustrations reveal about the representation of the human, the animal and the Jew in Renaissance Italy? The dissertation contends that they reveal a specific Renaissance visual Jewish being-in-the-world. The ‘world’ treated I a grouping of six epic titles Gershom printed in the early 16th century similarly questions ideas of Jewish visuality and national Jewish literature(s): were these chivalric and macaronic titles ‘Judaized’ as ‘foreign’ material, or did the Jews of Italy read and enjoy them all along? An economy of print reuse in these titles further reveals an economic and cultural circuit between the Marche region and Venice. The ‘world’ investigated in connection with the 1534 𝘚𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢-𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳, an arithmetic primer by Elia Mizraḥi that Gershom printed in Constantinople is one of a “Trans-Adriatic circuit” of scientific dissemination, following certain problematics of intercultural and inter-religious ‘translation’ in the Renaissance. Is printing ‘Western’? Was a book printed in Hebrew in the Ottoman Empire – one of the first ever – an ‘Italian’ production? Did its different readers – Jewish and non-Jewish – understand mathematics and science as ‘secular’? The ‘world’ which a chapter on a trilingual Christian exegesis of the Talmud (𝘋𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴, 1518) investigates centers on the question of why a devout Jewish printer would publish a fiercely anti-rabbinic tract. By reading the rise of the 16th-century intellectual-religious phenomenon of Christian Hebraism against the contemporaneous invention of the world’s first Ghetto in Venice, the chapter asks whether the ‘extraction’ of Hebrew and other forms of ‘Jewish knowledge’ during this period can be read as analogous to the rising logic of race, as well as the nascent capitalistic logic of the colony prior to the colony. Questioning and following this ‘early modern extractivism,’ the chapter places 𝘥𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴 in its larger intellectual context, positing a secular Jewish being-in-the-world even within a religiously Christian context, rereading the modern birth of ‘Jewish studies.’ The final chapter investigates some visual aspects of the sumptuous woodcut illustration accompanying a Christian theological title, 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘶𝘮 𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘮 (1507): were they the reason for some bibliographers’ anxieties regarding Gershom’s ‘correct’ religious affiliation? Continuing a discussion on Italian-Jewish worldliness, the chapter fleshes out Gershom’s – and other Jews of the time – adamancy to ‘be in the world’ in which they lived. Taken together, the different ‘worlds’ investigated in this dissertation feature recurring situations of polyglossic hybridity, of ‘diglossia,’ of trans-national circuits operating before the modern formulation of a nation, of a repeated crossing of borders and religious lines of demarcation, of constant translation across and between languages, as well as between the textual and the visual, between the abstract and the material. Gershom himself, the dissertation shows, exhibited a comfort and an ease with ‘being in the world.’ An intervention into both the study of religion and secularity and the history of the book, the dissertation combines insights from Italian history, Ottoman history, Jewish history, book history, art history, sociology, philosophy, and postcolonial and critical theory to counteract a “lachrymose” view of early modern Jewish culture and religion, emphasizing instead its wonderful inventiveness, malleability, intellectual brilliance and its celebration of pleasure.

New Testament / M. Th. (New Testament)

The Hebrew language of remembering is complex and theologically interesting. The effective, relational, actualising aspects of zkr are particularly evident in language of prayer, especially in Psalm texts. Prayer is a remembering of God, a reminding of God, and a call to remember the pray-er herself, and such performative illocutions are addressed to both human and divine audience alike. The texts become not only present acts of remembering, but also means by which future acts of remembering are to be performed. Questions in Psalms criticism, of public or private Sitz-im-Leben, of form classification, and the ongoing debate about which critical methods to bring to Psalms scholarship, are brought together in an attempt to answer how remembering in prayer works in the Psalms. By employing hermeneutics informed by linguistics, not only the semantic field of zkr may be studied, but also pragmatic questions appropriately tackled. Thus the potential contributions of speech-act theory and discourse analysis when applied to the Psalms are indicated, alongside what comparable work has already been done by others in Psalms scholarship in these areas. Further linguistic insights which have not previously been applied to Psalms study, such as Audience Design, are then also brought to bear. Broader areas such as the theological nexus of memory, prayer, place and time, are then explored. Memory is thus seen to be an important constituent of Psalmic prayer at all levels of analysis, as a tool by which prayers are passed down and God and his people remain in relationship. Connections between remembering, didactic, and Wisdom are noted. The centrality of memory in the performance of prayer is viewed as a prototype for New Testament prayers, culminating in the Eucharist and evident for instance also in the Lord’s Prayer. Memory, in prayer texts and in their hermeneutics, both enshrines the past, and makes an ever-relevant present anticipate the future.

This thesis is the first modern joint study of biblical Cherubim and Seraphim. I begin by setting out the recent history of their interpretation, before taking each of the biblical texts in turn. Chapter 1 looks at the references to Cherubim in Ezekiel. I argue that the Cherubim in Ezek. 1-11 are based upon the two large Cherubim in the sanctuary in Jerusalem. I investigate the different traditions represented by LXX and MT versions of Ezek. 28 and identify a tradition which may account for the MT of this chapter. Chapter 2 covers the other descriptions of living Cherubim in the biblical texts in Gen. 3 and Ps. 18. I argue for a conscious link with the Jerusalem Temple in both texts but for their independence from each other. All the references to Cherubim in the Temple and the Tabernacle are looked at in Chapter 3, and I offer a radical re-imagining of the two large Cherubim in the Solomonic Temple and on the Kapporeth in the Mosaic Tabernacle. In Chapter 4 I question the validity of translating the Cherubim Formula as “enthroned upon the Cherubim”, and offer an alternative translation which makes reference to all the Cherubim mentioned in the text. In Chapter 5, looking at the references to saraph, I follow Joines and others in arguing for a serpentine form for the Seraphim, but argue that this identity was forgotten at an early stage of the textual transmission, and that they were then seen as part of Yhwh’s heavenly host. Finally, I argue that the role of Cherubim and Seraphim is similar, being primarily apotropaic, but that both are associated with theophany and, less frequently, with heavenly worship.

The Thesis explores the Venetian Inquisition's handling of cases involving crypto-Jewish, crypto-Muslim practices and some cases where people had lapsed into Islamic ways, especially when in remoter parts of the Venetian empire or within the Ottoman empire and who sought reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Despite their differences, the offences involved the practice of dissimulation and connected with Venice's position as a transit city, since for most offenders, Venice was one among their various destinations in their peregrinations in the Mediterranean. The Thesis draws on the printed transcripts of cases involving Judaism, but also unpublished archival material in both the State archive, and the Patriarchal archive. The discussion, with close textual analysis focuses on the lengthy testimonies given before the Inquisition by a variety of people, who appeared as accusers and witnesses, and examines what they perceived as alleged crypto-Jewish and crypto-Muslim practices in the atmosphere of growing concern about religious deviance in late Renaissance Venice. It analyses the tribunal's approach to the accusations and offences, and changing patterns of practice, paying close attention to the Inquisitors' questioning strategies. As most offenders had undergone conversion, this Thesis analyses how they fashioned their identity in front of the Inquisitors who, on the basis of Church and State regulations, insisted on unambiguous religious identities. The Thesis delineates the convergences and divergences in the handling of these offences, and challenges some perceptions of power relations between accusers and accused. While following these investigations, much is revealed about communities in cosmopolitan Venice, their locations and inter-actions, and how Christian and non-Christians perceived, and mis-perceived, each other. Insights are also provided into movements of individuals - as for commercial or mercenary military purposes - in and between remoter parts of the Venetian empire and the Ottoman empire.