Digital Commons Network^™

Paul’S Eschatological Joy In Philippians In Its Jewish Background, Shishou Chen

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

Jewish literature regarding eschatology is one of the backgrounds for Paul’s eschatological joy in Philippians. While the OT emphasizes the future joy of a national eschatology, and the Pseudepigrapha develops the moral element, Paul presents a unique triangular concept of eschatological joy between him, the Philippians, and God, emphasizing the communal aspect within believers. His focus shifts from national and moral joy in the Jewish literature to Christ/mission-centered joy. In his already-not-yet eschatological framework, Paul smoothly connects the present joy with the future joy, which is a sharp distinction in the OT, stressing that joy is possible and obligatory for …

Eschatological Consumption Of Leviathan And Behemoth As Revelation Of The Messianic Torah, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The notion that the righteous would one day feast on Behemoth and Leviathan occupied a prominent place in early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts, including testimonies found in the Book of the Similitudes, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch. Thus, from 1 Enoch 60:24 one learns that “two monsters, prepared according to the greatness of the Lord, will provide food for the chosen and righteous.”

Why Did The Rabbinic Work Pesiqta Rabbati Include Apocalyptic Topics In Its Homilies?, Rivka Ulmer

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Jewish Life In The Bronx, Julian Voloj, Reyna Stovall, Sophia Maier

Bronx Jewish History Project

Fordham’s Bronx Jewish History Project: An Introduction Since 2015, Fordham has been building a Judaica collection. While the university already had an outstanding Holocaust collection—the Sydney Rosenblatt Holocaust Collection, which boasts over 10,000 items, including books, ephemera and material objects, and a teaching collection in Jewish history, with standard scholarly literature. It did not have a Judaica collection that would spotlight the historical and geographic breadth of Jewish culture. When I arrived in 2015, with a passion to teach with historical artifacts, with the support of the late Provost Stephen Freedman and Director of Fordham Libraries Linda Loschiavo, I began …

Philosophers Of Catastrophe: Early 20th Century Jewish Proponents And Opponents Of Objectivity In Science, Steven Gimbel, Stephen J. Stern

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The Second World War ended with the exposure of the Nazi death camps and the threat of global nuclear annihilation. The former disclosed the depths of human depravity and the latter warned us about the severity of the consequences that could await us as a result. The grimness of each, much less both, had the effect of shielding from our collective consciousness the equally dire warnings from the First World War that had occurred only a couple of decades earlier. [excerpt]

Shifting Paradigms, Pandemic Realities: The Reception Of Ishay Ribo’S Music In The American Hasidic Community, Tzipora Weinberg, Gordon Dale

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The COVID-19 pandemic has irrevocably changed the landscape of social, communal, and religious life. Within the Jewish community, reactions to the virus have taken many forms. One of the most visible and criticized populations, the Hasidic community of Brooklyn, has been the focus of attention from the media and press, and has responded in unprecedented ways, both in political and social arenas. Our close study of the evolution of a particular instance of atypical musical permissiveness in the period preceding COVID-19, and its subsequent development during the pandemic period itself, follows this metamorphosis, limning the shift in communal norms as …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nibley Fellowship

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Each year at this time we remind graduate students about the Nibley Fellowship Program and its application deadline. Named in honor of the late eminent Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley, this program provides financial aid to students enrolled in accredited PhD programs in areas of study directly related to the work and mission of the Maxwell Institute, particularly work done under the name of FARMS—studies of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Abraham, the Old and New Testaments, early Christianity, ancient temples, and related subjects. Applicants cannot be employed at the Institute or be related to an Institute employee.

“Look To God And Live”, Kristian S. Heal

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Near the end of the children of Israel’s journey to the promised land following their miraculous escape from Egypt, they once again began to complain against the Lord and against Moses. As a result of this sin, the Lord sent “fiery serpents” among them (Numbers 21:6). Faced with physical death, the people went to Moses, confessed their sins, and entreated him to pray to the Lord to take the serpents away. However, the serpents were not taken away as requested. Instead, in what may have seemed an expression of deep irony—but was in reality a sacred symbol—Moses was instructed to …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Institute Supports Graduates And Undergraduates

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Maxwell Institute continues to encourage and support the work of graduate and undergraduate students through two funds.

Each year at this time we remind graduate students about the Nibley Fellowship Program and its application deadline. Named in honor of the late eminent Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley, this pro-gram provides financial aid to students enrolled in accredited PhD programs in areas of study directly related to the work and mission of the Maxwell Institute, particularly work done under the auspices of one department of the Institute, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, such as studies of the …

Confronting Hate Antisemitism, Racism, And The Resistance, Magda Teter

Faculty Publications

Antisemitism and anti-Black racism have often been viewed as separate issues. The exhibit “Confronting Hate: Racism, Antisemitism, and The Resistance,” a fruit of the work of students in HIST 4312: Antisemitism and Racism taught by Professors Westenley (Wes) Alcenat and Magda Teter in 2021-2022, seeks to open a conversation about historical and phenomenological connections between racism and antisemitism. The exhibit highlights the way popular culture, scholarly works, and art have served to construct ideas about race and racial identity. It explores how racist ideas became entrenched in European and American cultures and how Jews, Black people, and their allies strove …

Another Goodbye, Jeffrey A. Summit

Appalachia

No abstract provided.

“Nebuchadnezzar, My Servant”: A Reexamination Of The Honorific Title “Servant Of The Lord"”, Ian S. Reyes

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Moses, David, and Joshua are all designated the honorific title “servant of YHWH” in the HB. Even a cursory reading of the HB texts involving these figures would leave little surprise as to why they are bestowed this exclusive moniker. There are only ten individuals who are given this title in the MT, and of these ten, the majority of them do not raise questions, except one—the sixth-century Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Some have argued that his inclusion in this list is a result of a scribal error, or that it is limited in scope, as only a description of function. …

Higher Meanings: A Speaker Series Connecting Mathematics And Religion, Lawrence M. Lesser, Patricia S. Barrientos, Ben Zeidman

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

An innovative grant-funded general adult audiences international speaker series on connections between mathematics and religion yielded six 2021 (now archived) presentations. We share reflections and lessons learned, informed by two sets of surveys.

Jesuits In The New World: A Contrast In Conversion Of North And South America, John C. Haynes Jr.

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

This paper contrasts the methodologies of French Jesuits in New France of North America against the Spanish Jesuits in the Rio de la Plata region of South America to explain differences of conversion rates of the indigenous peoples to Christianity. Several significant differences allow for diverging experiences between the two. Ultimately, this research proposes that it is the Brazilian slave trade that is the largest driving factor in the comparative success that the Spanish Jesuits achieved in the reductions amongst the Guarani people.

History News, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Awards and Honors, Meetings and Calls for Papers, News

History News, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

The Annual Meeting, Journal Issues, Awards and Prizes, News, Meetings

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Charles III: Florida and the Gulf, edited by Patricia R. Wickman, reviewed by Charles W. Arnade; Florida’s Air Force: Air National Guard 1946-1990, by Robert Hawk, reviewed by John P. Ingle, Jr.; A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast During the Sixteenth Century, by Paul E. Hoffman, reviewed by F. Lamar Pearson, Jr.; The Public Life of Aedanus Burke: Revolutionary Republican in Post-Revolutionary South Carolina, by John C. Meleney, reviewed by Aubrey C. Land; Fleeting Moments: Nature and Culture in American History, by Gunther Barth, reviewed by Richard A. Bartlett; Constitutions and Constitutionalism in the …

Pathology, Identity, Or Both?: Making Meaning From Early Christian Martyrdom, Matthew J. Recla

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2022

Partly in response to an earlier ‘pathological approach’ that seemingly stigmatised early Christian martyrdom, recent scholarship has adopted an ‘identity approach’ that explains martyrdom as a normative discourse of self-construction. This explanation of martyrdom as Christian identity-making, not willing death, is insufficient for three reasons. First, this approach implicitly reaffirms the theological claim that religious identity alone makes martyrs. In doing so it reduces the complexity of the individual martyr to ‘Christian’. Second, this approach excises the existential phenomenon of the martyr from martyrdom. Third, the term ‘identity’ has become ubiquitous, and its use to mark both sameness and difference …

Did Abraham Lie About His Wife, Sarai?, Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, John S. Thompson

BYU Studies

Before he journeyed into Egypt, Abraham was instructed by God: “Behold, Sarai [later Sarah], thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon; therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see her, they will say—she is his wife; and they will kill you, but they will save her alive; therefore see that ye do on this wise: Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live” (Abr. 2:22–23).

Jews In Ancient Egypt, Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, John S. Thompson

BYU Studies

The Egyptian papyri acquired by Joseph Smith in 1835 can be confidently dated to many centuries after Abraham’s lifetime. Based on several factors, it can be determined that the papyri were written in a period when Egypt was governed by a dynasty of Greek rulers who reigned from circa 300 to 30 BC. A question that readers of the Book of Abraham might have is how a late copy of Abraham’s record originally written sometime around 2,000–1,800 BC could have ended up in the possession of an ancient Egyptian living many centuries later.

Covenant Language In Biblical Religions And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

BYU Studies

Because twenty-first-century public discourse in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to feature the language of covenant more and more often, it may be helpful to step back and reexamine the scriptural and historical backgrounds for covenant theology and terminology. When the Restoration took shape in the first half of the nineteenth century, it was dependent primarily on the language of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and contemporary Protestant teachings for a context in which to interpret the language of Joseph Smith’s revelations and the Book of Mormon. After two centuries of modern linguistic …

The Holocaust In Slovakia: The Deportation Of 1942 Through The Prism Of Oral History, Peter Salner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

On October 28, 1918, after the end of the Great War, Slovakia became part of the Czechoslovak Republic. Two decades later, on October 6, 1938, the country’s political leadership declared autonomy, and within a few months, on March 14, 1939, the Slovak National Assembly voted for the establishment of an independent state. Already during the period of autonomy, the government adopted anti-Jewish legislation (this trend would continue throughout the brief lifespan of the new state) aimed at gradually shutting Jews out of social and economic life. This state-sponsored persecution of the Jews culminated in mass deportations which began in 1942. …

Divine Speeches In The Book Of Psalms: Their Role, Placement, And Implication For The Message And Structure Of Selected Psalms, Dragoslava Santrac

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

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An Exegetical Analysis Of The Johannine Jesus’S Son-Father Relationship In The Fourth Gospel With The Theological Significance And Implications In Contemporary Context, Jing Yih Hsieh

Theses

This exegetical study focuses on the distinctive characteristics of the Johannine Jesus’s unique cognitive perception, his claims of equality with God in the language of oneness in the Son-Father relationship in the Fourth Gospel, and with theological significance and implications in contemporary context.

Prophets, Pagans, And Papyri, Stephen O. Smoot, Kerry Muhlestein

BYU Studies

Egypt has a long history of exchange and contact with a variety of people. Ancient people of diverse ethnic backgrounds made their way into Egypt—whether as war captives, mercenaries, merchants, invading armies, members of diplomatic parties, refugees, or simple migrants—bringing with them their language and culture. One such group was the ancient Jews, whose enslavement at the hands of “a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph” (Ex. 1:8), and exodus under the prophetic leadership of Moses may be the best-remembered incident of a Hebrew presence in Egypt, but it was not the only one.

Abraham And Osiris, Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, John S. Thompson

BYU Studies

Figure 1 of Facsimile 3 of the book of Abraham was interpreted by Joseph Smith as “Abraham sitting upon Pharaoh’s throne, by the politeness of the king, with a crown upon his head, representing the Priesthood, as emblematical of the grand Presidency in Heaven; with the scepter of justice and judgment in his hand.” This interpretation has clashed with those offered by Egyptologists, who have instead identified the figure as the god Osiris. What’s more, two Egyptologists have claimed to arrive at this interpretation from reading the hieroglyphs to the right of figure 1.

Kenneth S. Stern’S, The Conflict Over The Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate [2020 Toronto And Buffalo: The New Jewish Press/University Of Toronto Press. $29.95], Steven Leonard Jacobs

Journal of Hate Studies

The Conflict Over the Conflict is an important contribution to the overall literature regarding the (seeming) turmoil on many of our college and university campuses—but not all, including my own where controversial issues surface rarely if at all—vis-à-vis the Israel/Palestine conflict, free speech and controversial speakers, and the like. Stern brings to the discussion not only his lawyerly training and his skill set, but, as of late, his directorship of the academic Bard College Center for the Study of Hate and thus combining both with a singular focus. Even more importantly, perhaps, his firm commitment to the campus as the …

“It Kind Of Shows The Terrible Morality Of This Scene": Using Graphic Novels To Encourage Feminist Readings Of Jewish Hebrew Texts With Religious Significance, Talia Hurwich

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This study considers whether and in what ways graphic novel adaptations of traditional Jewish Hebrew texts can encourage adolescent Modern Orthodox girls to adopt autonomous critical responses when encountering narratives that present women in unequal roles vis a vis men. According to scholars, Jewish literacy should teach students to read traditional Hebrew texts reverently while forming autonomous interpretations and opinions. Instead, Jewish educators teach normative readings posed by approved rabbinic authorities. This is particularly the case when teaching issues relating to gender among Modern Orthodox Jews, a conservative Jewish denomination, strives to synthesize tradition with the values of modern, secular …