The thesis aims to examine and refine the concepts of flesh and spirit in Musar le-Mevin, discussing Jörg Frey's hypothesis of the possibility to derive Paul's concept of sarx from Palestinian sapiential literature, in light of recent advancements in the field. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the term baśar and its relationship to sin, knowledge and election. The second part focuses on the term jeṣer, its possible translation and the role it might have played in the development of the concept of jeṣer ha-raʿ as an evil agent. The third part analyses the term ruaḥ and describes how the sapiential composition develops its specific view of the spirit. The last chapter attempts to locate the text in relation to other intertestamental views of flesh and sin. Finally, the thesis discusses the possibility of studying Musar le-Mevin as a background to Paul's anthropology. The thesis suggests that the text develops an idea of allotted shares of the spirit which determine a person's position and fate. It also attempts to describe how this view incorporates ruaḥ baśar as a designation for those who were not given the knowledge of good and evil. The term baśar might be understood as the outcome of a fusion of the traditional Biblical connotations of fleetingness and earthliness with a pessimistic...

This paper deals with the anti-Semitic pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is placed in the historical context of its origin, considering political and social causes behind the formulation of many previous conspiracy theories and anti-Jewish narratives and their motifs, which are eventually reflected in The Protocols. This complex conspiracy narrative is then subjected to structural analysis, which seeks to identify dominant themes structured into binary oppositions, through which it aims to capture a potential "meaning" or significance of the narrative that was relevant to readers of its time but also addresses contemporary conspiracy theorists. Finally, the work attempts to outline one of the root causes that makes Jews ideal adepts for a major role as conspirators in conspiracy narratives, that lies in their extraordinary, liminal state, defined by their relationship to the majority, in this case, Christian society.

This dissertation explores the value system held by the author of the Epistle of James. Most likely, this interesting Epistle of a former Galilean peasant is a collection of his sermons or discourses gathered and edited by one of his followers. The Epistle does not relate to any specific problems of concrete communities or persons and, therefore, it may be viewed as an encyclical letter. The author's main tone is: «you must act in this way and only this way». Therefore this document is a type of «halakhah», a literary form used by the sages of Israel before the Common Era. «Halakhah», as well as the Greek literary form paraenesis, does not imply any discussion of the material, but rather calls the readers to submission. The author of this «halakhic» encyclical shifts the attention of his readers from their realities to his idealistic world. He omits many aspects of Second-Temple-Period Jewish life, focusing his attention instead on the rules of spiritual life common for both Judeans and Christians. This focus explains why the Epistle has only two brief and indirect references to Jesus Christ, who as the hero surprisingly does not play a distinctive role. for several reasons the Messiah is replaced by famous characters from the Tanakh (i. e., Abraham, Rahab, Job, and Elijah) as being the best examples for...

This thesis covers the interpretation of life and work of Marc Chagall, jewish painter of 20th century. Goal of the thesis is to highlight symbolic motives of his work, and later on interpret those on selected pieces. The thesis is divided into four parts. First part is devoted to the life of the painter and his jewish origin, which had a significant influence on the character of his work. Second part covers the meaning of symbols in art and religon in general. Third tries to compare Chagall's conveyance with two jewish philosophers of the dialog: E. Lévinas and F. Rosenzweig. Fourth then interprets selected pieces with philosophical or religious extent. Whole thesis is based on the conception that art is able to convey messages and interpret the world around us.

The thesis deals with European sacral architecture of the twentieth and the twenty-first century. Particularly, it refers to Judaic, Roman-Catholic and Islamic buildings. The second part puts into historical context the sacral constructions of individual religions including their function, characters and typology. In the third part of this thesis the representative sample of significant modern sacral constructions is selected, always under circumstances regarding their creation, the urban description and the setting in a specific location as well as the architectural layout, the interior arrangment and a possible use of special technological procedures at their construction. The mutual comparison and the evaluation of the modern European sacral architecture development are carried out in the fourth part. This section notices the function and the usage of light and presents some extraordinary buildings from this point of view. The final fifth part tries to answer the question, how a modern temple should look like.