Biblical Hermeneutics

Despite John's distinctive and theological character, however, it still renders an independent memory of Jesus of Nazareth deserving full consideration in any effectively critical quest for the historical Jesus. The question is how do to so adequately, given the unique origin and development of the Johannine tradition. If John represents a self-standing Jesus tradition with its own points to make, however, differences with Mark and the Synoptics might contribute to a sense of history rather than diminishing it.

Since Charles Darwin made the theory of evolution popular, the church has been faced with the problem of either denying the validity of evolution or finding a way to interpret the Bible that will harmonize with both an old-earth scenario and with the belief that humans evolved from lower forms of life. This article will not deny either of these scientific conclusions. Its purpose will be to discuss some of the proposed interpretations of the Bible's teachings that have been presented for the purpose of harmonizing the Bible and science, showing that some of these have serious problems. But first I will present an alterative view that has both mathematical and exegetical support to undergird it. Two benefits that are inherent in this view are its simplicity and its employment of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic. Also it does not contradict any New Testament teaching, which should be a requirement for any methodology employed to discover the Bible's teaching on human origins. I appreciate all those who have taken in hand to harmonize an inspired view of Scripture with the present views of the science community.

From pragmatical point of view there are three ways to read the Bible. The first, here called philological or analytical, has been cultivated in the Bible departments of continental theological schools since the Enlightenment.  According to it, the Bible is to be read like any other ancient document. To Interpret it  means to reconstruct its original meaning(s)  using the tools of the historical-critical method (Biblia a se). In contrast to it, the theological way of reading the Bible understands the Bible as a part of the tradition of a believing community. As such, it is to be read synthetically or holistically, on the tacit assumption of its general consent with -- or even normative function for --  the teaching of the believing community (Biblia pro nobis).  Finally, the spiritual way of reading the Bible represents an existential appropriation of a particular biblical text by an individual reader (Biblia pro me).
As this study argues,  each one of the three ways of reading the Bible is motivated by different question and yields different results. Yet they complement each other and all three belong to the repertoire of responsible theological exegesis.

This essay was published in The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology, edited by Christopher A. Beeley and Mark E. Weedman, for the CUAP Studies in Early Christianity (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018); this is the uncorrected proofs. Exploring the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the Son's relation to the Father, and the agency of the Holy Spirit, it is one of five essays suggesting Johannine contributions to trinitarian discussions in the early church.

For me, Bernd's great commentary evoked two contradictory sayings. The ancient Alexandrian librarian, Callimachos gave us an epigram that became proverbial, "Mega biblion, mega kakon-Big book, big evil." But Epimenides produced a hexameter line which, when emended, may be used to refute Callimachos' proverb: "Alexandrians are always liars, evil beasts, lazy guts."

This book is intended as a practical tool to facilitate access to the Qumran collection of Dead Sea Scrolls. As such, it is primarily intended for classroom use and for the benefit of specialists from other disciplines (scholars working on the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament or Rabbinic literature, specialists on Semitic languages, on the History of Judaism or on the History of Religions, among others) who need a reliable compendium of all the relevant materials found in this collection. As such, it is not intended to compete with, let alone to replace, the editio princeps of the materials published in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert or outside this series, or the preliminary publications of materials which have not yet appeared in the DJD Series. The plates printed in the critical editions, as well as the transcriptions, translations and commentaries of the first editors are, and will always remain, the basis of all serious work on the Scrolls.
Whereas the evidence of the biblical manuscripts from Qumran will be shortly available in The Qumran Bible by E. Ulrich, this book offers a fresh transcription and an English translation of all the relevant non-biblical texts found at Qumran, arranged by serial number from Cave 1 to Cave 11. By biblical scrolls we understand here the copies of the books that subsequently emerged as the traditional Hebrew Bible, as well as the remains of tefillin and mezuzot which only contain quotations of those biblical books. In several cases the distinction between biblical and non-biblical texts is not clear-cut. Thus, the so-called Reworked Pentateuch consists mainly of the biblical text of the pentateuchal books, be it sometimes in a different order, but also has some sections with material that is not included in the Hebrew Bible; likewise, we have included the non-biblical psalms from the Psalms Scrolls 4Q88, 11Q5 and 11Q6. Not included are the scant remains of Ben Sira from Cave 2. The inclusion in the edition of these ‘additions’ does not imply a judgment on their ‘biblical’ or ‘non-biblical’ character. In three cases we have included texts not found at Qumran, but related to manuscripts from Qumran; this goes for the remains of the mediaeval copies of the Damascus Document and the Aramaic Levi Document found in the Cairo Genizah, and for the copy of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice recovered at Masada.
The transcriptions of the material included in this edition are fresh transcriptions made by the authors, though it is a very pleasant duty to recognize the debt to all previous work by teachers and colleagues. Our transcriptions rely not only on the identification and placement of the many tens of thousands of fragments achieved by the original editors of the non-biblical scrolls, who arranged the fragments for the photographs made by the Palestine Archaeological Museum in the 1950s and 1960s, and the subsequent editions of these materials by the original editors, but also on all the editions done by other scholars.
Although we have consulted the available editions of the individual manuscripts, the responsibility for the transcriptions here presented is entirely ours. We have checked all the proposed readings against the photographs accessible to us: the photographs provided by the published editions, the photographs included in the Brill microfiche edition and the photographs available in the Oxford-Brill’s CDROM. In most cases one will find no or few significant differences from other transcriptions because these readings are imposed by the univocal manuscript evidence. In the case of ambiguous manuscript evidence, and in view of the practical purpose of this book, we have often adopted the suggestions of previous editors, rather than presenting alternative readings for the sake of originality and difference, even when such readings would be palaeographically or otherwise possible. The restorations of the text offered in the transcriptions are on the whole relatively sparse. The main exceptions are reconstructions based upon the preserved text of parallel copies of the same manuscript.
A considerable part of the materials was already accessible in translation in The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated. That translation has served as the base-text of the translations presented in this edition, but has been thoroughly checked and corrected by the authors. Of the greatest help for this revision was the Dutch translation by A.S. van der Woude included in F. García Martínez & A.S. van der Woude, De Rollen van de Dode Zee Ingeleid en in het Nederlands vertaald (Kampen: Kok, 1994, 1995). Although we have consulted most other translations of individual manuscripts, the responsibility for the translations here presented is also ours. The practical purpose of the book has shaped the final translation: to a large extent literal, neutral and close to the transcribed text, even if the outcome lacks finesse and is less fluent than some other presently available translations. On the whole the translation aims to be a translation of the transcribed text on the facing page. Exceptions have been made for texts like Tobit, Jubilees and 1 Enoch, where the translation fills in the lacunae on the basis of the known non-Hebrew versions for the benefit of the readers. Although we have tried to be generally consistent in the translation of technical terms, we have not established a chart of translation-equivalents to avoid imposing an uniform meaning upon texts which may be of different origin or of different epochs. Other differences of translation, and also, to some extent, method of transcription, may be attributed to the procedure followed by the authors: each author prepared his own lot, and revised the lot of the other author.
The practical purpose of the book has also governed the selection and the presentation of the materials. We have selected the materials on the basis of their extensiveness  and interest, discarding most of the minute fragments which add little to our knowledge. On some occasions we have hesitantly opted for the inclusion of very small and insignificant fragments, only to provide some idea of the material remains of certain compositions, and in order not to leave too many entries empty. On the other hand, larger but, in our opinion, less interesting fragments from manuscripts have been omitted. This means that, in general, we present the largest fragments of a manuscript, and a selection of the smaller ones. Even so, many Q numbers from the different caves are exclusively made up of  unidentified or unclassified fragments, and we have not attempted to reproduce these snippets. In spite of this, we consider this edition relatively complete for the nonbiblical scrolls, and as such it could be useful as a companion volume with transcriptions and translations for the users of the microfiche or the CD-ROM editions of the photographs of the manuscripts.
This same practical purpose has governed the presentation of the transcriptions. We have avoided all diacritical marks which indicate the degree of certainty of a reading. Readings which in our view are sufficiently assured or have a high degree of probability, even if the remains are minimal, are transcribed outside square brackets. When we are not reasonably assured of a reading, we have noted the letter within square brackets, as a reconstruction, or replaced it by one or more dots. We have not reproduced the extent of lacunae; three dots within square brackets ([…]) indicate any amount of missing text and three dots outside square brackets (]…[) any amount of unreadable (either undecipherable or meaningless) letters or words. Readings corrected by a copyist are indicated within accolades. The text printed within accolades ({…}) may represent erasures, letters with cancellation dots, or text otherwise marked by the copyist as not to be read. One particular type of scribal correction, the overwriting and reshaping of individual letters, has not always been presented in the transcription. The indication vacat in the transcription, and Blank in the translation, indicate any amount of space left blank in the manuscript, either intentionally (as indication of a new paragraph) or accidentally. Words written above the line or in Palaeohebrew characters in the manuscript are reproduced as such in our transcription. In only a limited number of cases we have indicated obvious mistakes in the text which have not been corrected by the copyist. Text presented within angled brackets (< >) was written in the manuscripts, but should, in our opinion, be read otherwise or be deleted. Text within round brackets either presents our addition to the text, or indicates our corrected reading of the preceding word or words.
The materials are arranged according to cave and serial number. For the materials which do not have a serial number (1QIsaa, 1QIsab, 1QHa, 1QM, 1QS, 1QapGen, 1QpHab, and the three included non-Qumranic texts)

This is an annotated bibliography on important intertextual works. After this bibliography is given, an extensive general bibliography is also included. For interpreters, especially biblical interpreters intending to work on the subject or use intertextuality as their approach, this may be a useful tool.

We will try to relate the book of Nehemiah to Christ by way of 1. Redemptive-historical progression 2. Promise-fulfillment 3. Typology 4. Analogy 5. Longitudinal themes 6. New Testament references 7. Contrast The theme of Nehemiah We may all agree that the theme of Nehemiah 1 is summed up by recovery 2. But in this reflection we suggest that rehabilitation is a better word for it. God's vindication may even be better still, a phrase that the ESV uses, for example in Micah 7:9. Recovery implies status or condition; rehabilitation is connected with function. We suggest therefore that the theme of Nehemiah (and Ezra) be, "there is rehabilitating grace of God after discipline". For preaching Christ from here, we can look for New Testament material that deals with that theme in connection with salvation in Christ Jesus and its practical outworking in individual Christians and in Christian communities. For example, the prominent place of forgiveness and forbearance among believers comes to mind, both in the teachings of Jesus and in the apostolic writings. A whole letter-though a short one-is dedicated to rehabilitation, Paul's letter to Philemon. We have to bear in mind that Onesimus was not yet a believer when he wronged his master Philemon. Nevertheless, in this letter Paul gives important principles of love as the overruling law that can be of great effect in Christian fellowship when they are applied. We may also think of the heartbreaking rehabilitation of Peter by the Lord Jesus Himself (see John 21). John Mark is another example of rehabilitation (Acts 15:37-39, Col. 4:10, 2 Tim. 4:11). "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye" (Col. 3:13). If we have been wronged by a fellow believer, it is always the furtherance of the Gospel that we should be

Las aportaciones realizadas por el método histórico crítico en los estu- dios bíblicos durante las últimas décadas han permitido que surjan debates y pers- pectivas innovadoras. El debate sobre Pablo continúa abierto. Viejas perspectivas vuelven a ser releídas y discutidas desde nuevas ópticas: el debate entre la fe y las obras de la Ley, el misticismo paulino, la soteriología, su relación con el judaísmo, la cristología paulina. Pablo sigue hablando a la mujer y el varón modernos desde nuevas perspectivas: estudios culturales, estudios poscoloniales, crítica imperial y perspectiva de género e interseccionalidad.

The story of Rapunzel is a German folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm in  the late nineteenth century as part of a drive to record folk traditions and myths. The story of Rapunzel begins with the long-awaited pregnancy of a poor couple who lived next door to the walled garden of an enchantress. The pregnant wife longed for the rare plant of "rapunzel" to the point of death. So her husband stole into the garden to take some of the plant for his wife. He was discovered by the enchantress and begged for mercy. So she required as payment that they surrender their child to her at birth. This they did. The child (named Rapunzel) grew in loveliness and was placed in an ivory tower, deep in the forest. Each day the enchantress would visit her and ask her to let down her golden hair so she could scale the tower to reach her, using the hair as a rope. One day a young prince was passing by the isolated tower and heard Rapunzel singing. He longed to meet the possessor of such a beautiful voice. Then he saw the enchantress visit Rapunzel, so after she left, he mimicked her commands. Rapunzel let down her golden hair but instead of the enchantress it was a young dashing prince. He went to visit her everyday after the enchantress had been and they planned to run away together. But the enchantress discovered the deceit of Rapunzel and cut her hair in anticipation of the prince's arrival. When the prince got to the top of the tower, he met the enchantress instead of Rapunzel. The enchantress threw down the rope of hair so that the prince fell from the tower and landed in a thicket of thorns. He was blinded and was left to wander the forest alone. However Rapunzel escaped and went to live in a little cottage. One day the prince heard her singing once again. The couple was reunited. As Rapunzel saw his damaged eyes, she wept. But as her tears delicately dropped onto his eyelids they miraculously restored his sight. And of course, they lived happily ever after.

Convocation Address at Bethel University, August 29, 2016 about recent troubles in Minnesota, particularly the shooting of Philando Castille, and our responsibility as followers of the Gospel. There is an audio link also available. After you click the link, it's the first one in the queue; fast-forward to 15:00:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/2016-2017-chapel-college-arts/id1148681753?mt=10

In 1 Pet. 4:11a, those who exercise χαρίσματα involving speech acts are instructed to carry out their tasks ὡς λόγια θεοῦ. Two interpretations of this phrase have gained prominence within Petrine scholarship. Some claim that Scripture is being referenced to establish a standard for regulating the use of communicative gifts in the church. Others contend that the verse sets up a hypothetical comparison designed to emphasize the appropriate manner in which the spoken word should be performed. The problem is that both of these positions have left crucial questions unattended. The purpose of this study is to provide a close examination of the three issues which most significantly impact the interpretation of 1 Pet. 4:11a: (1) the meaning of λόγια; (2) the reconstruction of verbal elision; and (3) the Petrine author’s view of divine revelation through human mediation. In the end, we suggest that the verse is intended to convey a direct correspondence between the comparative image (i.e., one who delivers oracles from God) and the ministry of those who exercised speaking gifts within the Anatolian congregations. That is, when Christians rendered service to the community through various forms of verbal communication, they were understood to be dispensing divine revelation.

Providence, Rhode Island 280 Studies in Rabbinic Narratives also appears that some of these story-cycles were compiled in order to address larger theological issues, such as 5, about righteous gentiles; 4, about astrology and fate; and the stories of destruction in b. Git. 55b-58a (#14 on the list above) about destruction and theodicy. These can also be considered a type of transition to philosophical and theological writings of the post-talmudic period.

This bibliography, which should be considered a work in progress, is a select list of books and articles, mostly by evangelicals, on evangelicalism and Scripture. I omit here works written from what I would describe as a neo-fundamentalist perspective, in which biblical inerrancy is interpreted in an extreme, literalist fashion such that mainstream evangelical biblical scholarship is condemned as compromising (e.g., by using literary and historical critical methods).

This book takes a distinctive approach to the same-sex-union debate by framing the issue as a matter of marriage. Darrin Snyder Belousek demonstrates that the interpretation of Scripture affects whether the church should revise its doctrine of marriage for the sake of sanctioning same-sex union. Engaging charitably yet critically with opposing viewpoints, he delves deeply into what marriage is, what it is for, and what it means as presented in the biblical narrative and theological tradition, articulating a biblical-traditional theology of marriage for the contemporary church. Afterword by Wesley Hill.

This article proposes that the common dichotomy between synchronic and diachronic approaches to biblical literature be set aside in favor of a paradigm centered on the concepts of cohesion and coherence as defined in contemporary linguistics. After demonstrating the difficulties associated with suitably defining and identifying indicators of diachronic textual formation, it argues that a focus on cohesion and coherence allows interpreters to avoid binary judgments as to the text’s unity and to recognize the primacy of coherence over surface-level cohesion. After presenting the linguistic principles that underlie this alternative approach, it concludes by examining several hypotheses of diachronic redaction in Isaiah and demonstrating that avoiding the synchronic-diachronic dichotomy brings textual unity and diversity into clearer focus.

There is a general agreement among scholars that the name Lycaonia derives from Luwian *Luka-wani, i. e. "inhabitant of Lukka". This interpretation was introduced by Goetze (1954 [1]) and accepted by Laroche (1976 [2]: 17) and later put under scrutiny by Melchert (2003 [3]: 14) and Simon (2019 [4]). Also Carruba (1996 [5]), Durnford (2013 [6]: 62-63), Schürr (2016 [7]) have accepted what is reported by the chronicles of the Hittite kings: invaders from Lukka (Bryce 1992 [8]) would push towards the Konya Plain. Of course, these records (Hawkins 1995 [9]: 29) are very distant from the first mention of Lycaonia in Cyropaedia by Xenophon around 370 B.C. Another impending problem is how they might be reflected in Genesis, whose historical background is not easy to pinpoint. Paradoxically, some light might come from what seems at first most uncertain. First, because in the rarefied picture of Biblical proto‑history, Lamech is the only Cainite to deserve a full-fledged myth after Adam.

... Institute in Washington, DC, and editor of the North American edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, a federation of journals in thir-teen countries founded in Europe in 1972 by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean Daniélou, Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger, and others ...

Religion was a constant theme throughout Paul Ricoeur’s long career, and yet he never wrote a full-length treatment of the topic. In this important new book, Brian Gregor draws on the full scope of Ricoeur’s writings to lay out the essential features of his philosophical interpretation of religion, from his earliest to his last work.

Ricoeur’s central claim is that religion aims at the regeneration of human capability—in his words, “the rebirth of the capable self.” This book provides a rich thematic account of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of religion, showing how the theme of capability informs his changing interpretations of religion, from his early work on French reflexive philosophy and the philosophy of the will to his late work on forgiveness, mourning, and living up to death. Gregor exhibits Ricoeur’s original contribution to philosophical reflection on such themes as evil, suffering, and violence, as well as imagination, embodiment, and spiritual exercise. He also presents a critical reconsideration of Ricoeur’s separation of philosophy from theology, and his philosophical interpretation of Christian theological ideas of revelation, divine transcendence and personhood, atonement, and eschatology.

Additionally, Gregor provides an expansive look at Ricoeur’s interlocutors, including Marcel, Jaspers, Kant, Hegel, Levinas, and Girard. Theologically-inclined readers will be particularly interested in the book’s treatment of Karl Barth and the Protestant theology of the Word, which was a vital influence on Ricoeur.

The result is a study of Ricoeur that is both sympathetic and critical, provocative and original, inviting the reader into a deeper engagement with Ricoeur’s philosophical interpretation of religion.

Questions about areas of controversy or conflict between the Christian faith and the academic discipline can (and sometimes do) assume an easy dichotomy between the two. One's dual commitments to "the Faith" and the guild are often seen as competing allegiances, each vying for possession of the Christian soul. The guild may even be perceived as intolerant or antagonistic toward the Christian faith. Would-be Ph.D. students of evangelical backgrounds, for example, are often warned not to be naïve, but to be suspicious of secular institutions of higher learning. Such was my experience, as I left Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.; Th.M.) for doctoral work in NT at Emory University. The problem with the aforementioned formulation, however, is the a priori "us versus them" mentality it fosters-a mentality that can foreclose genuine learning opportunities and undermine the very faith it seeks to defend. It also assumes a broad consensus among Christians on the identity and definition of those items of the faith in need of safeguarding vis-à-vis "the guild." Little did I know that upon returning to my alma mater, I would be the one suspected of having wavered from "the Faith."

Demythologisering en existentialistische interpretatie van het Nieuwe Testament De relevantie van de theologie van Rudolf Bultmann voor vandaag door Marcel van der Bolt-Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) was een van de meest invloedrijke nieuwtestamentici van de twintigste eeuw. Zijn hermeneutiek van het Nieuwe Testament is van grote betekenis geweest voor de systematische theologie. Bultmann is met name bekend geworden om zijn theorie van demythologisering. Hiermee wilde hij het evangelie toegankelijk maken voor de moderne mens en een antwoord geven op de vraag naar de zin van de menselijke existentie. Voor Bultmann betekende dit afscheid nemen van de historiciteit van eeuwenoude waarheden. Is zijn theologie daarom per definitie irrelevant voor diegene die daar juist grote waarde aan hechten? Of moeten we dieper kijken en brengt zijn theologie ook inzichten naar voren die ons beeld van het evangelie juist zouden kunnen verruimen?

Given modernity’s explosion of diversity and specialization of knowledge, few ideas or concepts can be thought of as truly universal or unifying. However, the idea of living and dying well, also known as “human flourishing” (expressed in antiquity as εὐδαιμονία in the Greek, Maat in Egyptian, and ars vivendi/ars moriendi in Latin), has been a thematic thread that has woven its way throughout the warp and weft of the tapestry of human history. Bedrock to human existence are questions such as: “What does it mean to live and die well?”; and “What of human suffering and death?” Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, perhaps more than any other New Testament (NT) writing, succinctly addresses these questions and more. Surprisingly, there is a lacuna in contemporary scholarship regarding Paul's conception of human flourishing within Philippians. This essay seeks to fill (albeit, partially) this lacuna. In this essay, I contend that Philippians is central to Paul’s reimagined conception of human flourishing as a cruciform life, and that while he was surely aware of the topic of living and dying well in the cultures around him, Paul stands in stark contrast to them.

This article examines how St. Thomas Aquinas developed rich theological insights to be used ultimately in his preaching ministry as a thirteenth century magister in sacra pagina. His exegetical approach deploys a careful divisio textus to arrive at the
literal meaning and doctrinal sense of the scriptural passage. The ambiguities of difficult passages are examined dialectically by short logical disputations that uncover the riches of the text. The fruits of these labors were then brought together in the master’s university sermon for the conversion and perfection of souls. Thus, the three duties of the medieval master codified in the statutes of the University of Paris – namely, to teach, to dispute, and to preach – contextualize the task of the medieval theologian, rooting him in the revealed Word of God and requiring him to care for the souls of his students and colleagues in his preaching by announcing and explaining the sense and practical import of sacra doctrina. This article also examines the proximate historical source for these three duties as the practice of lectio divina was brought out of the monasteries and into the public sphere of the academies in the great cities of medieval Europe. There is much we could learn today from recovering this robustly ecclesial and pastoral way of pursuing biblical theology.

Artykuł analizuje, w jaki sposób bogaty dorobek teologiczny św. Tomasza
z Akwinu jest wykorzystywany w jego praktyce kaznodziejskiej jako XIII-wiecznego
“magister in sacra pagina”. Jego egzegetyczne podejście wyraża się w ostrożnym “divisio textus”, aby dotrzeć do dosłownego i doktrynalnego sensu danego tekstu biblijnego.  Ambiwalentne interpretacje trudnych tekstów są dialektycznie analizowane za pomocą krótkich, logicznych dysput odkrywających bogactwo tekstu. Owoce tej pracy były niejako zbierane w kazaniu średniowiecznego mistrza ukierunkowanym na nawrócenie i doskonalenie dusz. Trzy obowiązki średniowiecznego mistrza wyrażone w statutach Uniwersytetu Paryskiego – nauczanie, prowadzenie dysput oraz kaznodziejstwo – wskazują na zadania średniowiecznego teologa, zakorzeniając go w objawionym Słowie Boga i wymagając od niego troski o dusze swoich studentów i kolegów wyrażane w głoszenie sensu i praktycznych implikacji sacra doctrina. W artykule przeanalizowano także zródła historyczne dotyczące wspomnianych trzech obowiązków takie jak “lectio divina” przeprowadzana poza klasztorami, w publicznej sferze akademii w największych miastach Europy. Ten model eklezjalnej i pastoralnie ukierunkowanej teologii biblijnej może stanowić również wzór dla współczesnej jej kontynuatorki.