Browsing by Subject "New Testament."
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Item A canonical exegesis of the eighth Psalm : YHWH's maintenance of the created order through divine reversal.(2010-10-08T16:21:23Z) Keener, Hubert James.; Bellinger, W. H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation presents a canonical exegesis of Psalm 8. The dissertation seeks to contribute to two areas of scholarship: 1) literature on the canonical approach to exegesis carrying forward the emphases first articulated by Brevard Childs, and 2) literature grappling with the question of how one ought to interpret Psalm 8 as Christian Scripture. The first chapter of the study reassesses the canon exegetical approach, concluding that it is a viable and salutary means for interpreting the text theologically, while arguing for some refinements to the approach as it is now understood that clarify its theological underpinnings. The rest of the dissertation then goes on to examine Psalm 8 in relation to the broader canon. In order to bring Psalm 8 into dialogue with the rest of the canon, the study attends to the literary context of the psalm (the Psalter) and utilizes key texts which relate to the psalm (Genesis 1; Job 7; Psalm 144; Matthew 21; 1 Corinthians 15; Ephesians 1; Hebrews 2) as entry points through which to connect Psalm 8 with the broader witness of Scripture. Thus, the study attends to the discreet witness of Psalm 8, the place of Psalm 8 in the shape of the Psalter, the relationship between Psalm 8 and the rest of the Old Testament, and the relationship between Psalm 8 and the New Testament witness. The dissertation describes the place of Psalm 8 within the Christian canon as representing the intersection of three motifs or trajectories: 1) The distinct theological message of Psalm 8, summarized as the reversal motif; the psalm describes YHWH as making his name great in all of creation by exalting relatively insignificant things over and against seemingly superior things, as is seen most prominently in the exaltation of the human to the role of YHWH's vice-gerent. 2) The motif of the conflicted and conflicting human, which permeates the canon; humanity finds itself beset by troubles and prone to misconduct. 3) The motif of the redeeming Christ, who becomes the ultimate representation of the reversal motif and who alone violates the type of the conflicted and conflicting human.Item The characterization of the Christ as ideal king in Ephesians.(2010-06-23T12:33:20Z) Smith, Julien C. H.; Talbert, Charles H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.Lack of consensus regarding an historical situation that occasioned the writing of Ephesians has led to a recent trend in research, which seeks to read the letter as addressing more broadly the related issues of identity formation and behavior within the early Christian community. The present study will argue that in Ephesians, the characterization of the Christ as a type of ideal king, as understood within Jewish and Greco-Roman thought, would have resonated with the authorial audience's cultural expectations, thereby ensuring comprehension of the letter's argument and purpose. The letter's primary theme, the reunification of the fractured cosmos through the Christ (1:9-10), comes into sharper focus when the Christ is understood as the ideal king who establishes on earth the harmony that is understood to exist in the cosmos. Furthermore, salient aspects of the ideal king's reign function as unifying threads that tie various parts of the letter together under its main theme. "Learning the Christ" (4:20), or the resocialization into a way of life aligned with the Christian community, addresses the enablement of ethical behavior. This peculiar expression reflects the Hellenistic understanding of the ideal king as a "living law," possessing and distributing the benefits of divine reason and virtue. The casting of traditional household management codes into the realm of the Christ’s authority (5:22-6:9) reflects the belief that the reign of the ideal king ensures the stability of the social order. Above all, the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles within the Christian community (2:11-22) resonates with a pervasive cultural yearning for unity between disparate ethnic groups, and for freedom from factionalism within the social order. In both Greco-Roman and Jewish thought, such a golden age was thought to be the consequence of the reign of an ideal king.Item Figuring Jesus : the power of rhetorical figures of speech in the Gospel of Luke.(2010-06-23T12:24:29Z) Reich, Keith A.; Parsons, Mikeal Carl, 1957-; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation examines Luke's use of rhetorical figures of speech on the lips of Jesus as a means of persuading his audience to accept a role-reversing message that challenged the social, religious, economic and political systems in the Roman Empire. A figure of speech is the use of either words or thoughts in a way that is uncommon or out of the ordinary. Because figures of speech are the "uncommon" use of language, they stand out to an audience and grab their attention. They are an artful ordering of words designed to be powerful, memorable, and to seize attention. This dissertation takes seriously the adage that says, "It’s not what you say, it's how you say it." The form of the Lukan Jesus' speech is just as important as the content of that speech. To ignore the form of Jesus' speech is to ignore the power and persuasiveness of his message. Luke uses figures of speech in various ways to persuade his audience of the gospel message. He uses figures of speech to fulfill the stylistic virtues of clarity and ornamentation. Fulfilling these stylistic virtues makes the Lukan Jesus' argument easy to follow and impressive, serving as an ethos argument to portray Jesus as one who speaks like the social elites. Further, Luke uses figures as a means of argument and persuasion to draw the audience to side with Jesus and to participate in his message. These figures serve as arguments of ethos, logos, and pathos and create audience members who are invested in the character of Jesus and the gospel message. Finally, Luke uses powerful and memorable figures of speech to proclaim a message of role reversals in the major social, religious, economic, and political systems of the Roman Empire. Using figures of speech that are highly refined and artful allows the proclamation of this role-reversing message to resonate with the audience and ultimately to form its members.Item Reading the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) as the authorial audience.(2012-08-08) Stigall, Joshua J.; Parsons, Mikeal Carl, 1957-; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.Since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, interpretation of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus has tended to revolve around two primary issues: (1) the structure and unity of the parable; and (2) the search for parallels to the parable. In the first case, Adolf Jülicher’s attempt to identify the original form of the parable has led scholars to question the unity of the parable in its canonical form. The result has been a tendency to emphasize the importance of one section of the parable over the other. In the second case, Hugo Gressmann’s appeal to the Egyptian tale of Setme Khamuas and his son Si-Osiri has led to a search for the genetic parallel to the parable. Despite the merits of these approaches, I am interested neither in the “original” parable as spoken by Jesus, nor in the “original” tale that is the genetic source of the parable. Rather, I am interested in understanding how the ancient auditor of Luke’s Gospel would have received the message of the parable in its narrative context. Building on the work of Richard Bauckham, I will offer a reading of the parable against the background of the journey to the place of punishment, which is often referred to as a “catabasis” from the Greek word κατάβασις. The stories involve gods, heroes, and mortals, and function as etiological myths, as proof of valor, or as revelatory journey. Most importantly, these journeys also have a rhetorical function in the narrative of which they are part. Because of the ubiquity of the story of the journey to the place of punishment in ancient literature, ancient authors were able to use the story as an effective means of communication in their overall argument. I will argue that the themes of the parable evoke the imagery of the journey to the place of punishment, which would have created a set of expectations that are used in the Gospel for a particular rhetorical purpose, namely to encourage obedience to the demand of the Law and Prophets to care for the marginalized.Item Tatian’s Diatessaron in Latin : a new edition and translation of Codex Fuldensis.(2014-06-11) Zola, Nicholas J.; Parsons, Mikeal Carl, 1957-; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.When Tatian composed his Diatessaron in the second half of the second century, his text would have predated nearly all extant copies of the Gospels today. But his gospel harmony has not survived intact, either in Greek or Syriac. What we have instead are citations and translations. The oldest surviving translation is in Codex Fuldensis, a Latin NT commissioned by Victor of Capua between 541 and 546. Like all surviving translations, its text has been “vulgatized” to read like a standard version of the Gospels, in this case the Latin Vulgate. Scholars once assumed that Fuldensis was the sole parent of all medieval Diatessaronic harmonies, but closer examination in the last century revealed readings in these later vernaculars that seemed to disagree with Fuldensis but agree with Eastern Diatessaronic witnesses. Scholars therefore postulated that an “Old Latin” Diatessaron had somehow survived in the West and fed these vernaculars “unvulgatized” Diatessaronic readings. More recently, some have challenged that premise by demonstrating that certain “Old Latin” readings in the vernacular harmonies actually derive from medieval exegetical glosses—and sometimes simply from mistakes in the printed editions themselves. As a result, the entire Western Diatessaronic tradition is collapsing back into a single witness: Codex Fuldensis. However, the most recent—in fact, the only—edition of Codex Fuldensis is from 1868, by Ernst Ranke. It is known to contain errors and was produced at a time prior to all the major advancements of Diatessaronic studies. Moreover, Codex Fuldensis has never been translated into any modern language. The field is in dire need of an updated edition and translation, which is the aim of the current study. Chapter one provides an introduction to the manuscript and its role in the shifting perspective on the Diatessaron. Chapters two through four provide selected texts and translation of Fuldensis, with apparatus and commentary. Chapter five uses indicative errors in Fuldensis to test its relationship with two later harmonies, Codex Sangallensis and the Liège Diatessaron. Upon completion, this edition and translation of Codex Fuldensis is intended to become the definitive edition of the manuscript for years to come.Item The Topography of utopia : Revelation 21-22 in light of ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman utopianism.(2012-08-08) Gilchrest, Eric J.; Novakovic, Lidija.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.In this dissertation, I set out to achieve two primary goals: first, to construct a detailed description of ancient utopian expectations according to Greco-Roman and Jewish literature, and second, to read Revelation 21–22 in light of these utopian expectations. In order to construct a description of ancient utopianism, I survey a large swath of ancient literature and categorize the various forms of utopian expression. For Greco-Roman utopianism, I suggest three categories: political utopianism, primitivistic utopianism, and afterlife utopianism. For Jewish utopianism, I suggest Edenic utopianism, nationalistic utopianism, and eschatological utopianism. After distinguishing the forms of expression and locating texts within which utopian descriptions are found, I then move to elaborating the various motifs, or topoi, that one finds in this literature. It is through the elaboration of the topoi that the specificity of a given utopia, whether Greco-Roman or Jewish, is given substance. Turning to the task of reading Revelation 21–22, I interpret the text in the context of ancient utopianism, particularly as explicated in its Greco-Roman and Jewish forms. I am interested in the variety of ways this text might have been heard by an original audience composed of both Jews and Gentiles with a range of conceptual backgrounds. I, therefore, read the Apocalypse from two vantage points: the point of view of a Jewish-minded auditor whose primary point of reference is Jewish traditions and the Hebrew Scriptures, and the point of view of a Greco-Roman-minded auditor whose point of reference is Greco-Roman traditions. In this way, I wish to account for some of the diversity that would have existed in the first audience that received the Apocalypse.