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Fear, Trembling, And Wonder: Psalms Of Awe, Solomon Aleph

University Honors Theses

This thesis proposes an expansion of genre form criticism within the Book of Psalms to include an additional category: Psalms of Awe. Building on scholarship that emphasizes the Psalms as expressions of religious experience, it draws from philosophical, theological, and critical scholarship to define the experience of awe as a distinct religious experience not fully captured by form critical scholarship. The thesis argues that awe is reflected in the Psalms through the combination of three key Hebrew roots: ירא (fear/reverence), פחד (fear/dread), and פלא (wonder). This is done by analyzing several psalms to explicate how each term captures a different …

The Nuptial Metaphor From Genesis To Revelation: An Examination Of Yahweh’S Divine Romance With Israel And Mankind In Scripture, Clement Chen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study demonstrates that the nuptial metaphor is not merely a marginally interesting literary motif but deeply embedded in the meta-narrative of the text of the Bible and hermeneutically significant in providing an interpretive thematic framework for rightly reading the Scriptures. In other words, this study is a literary and thematic biblical theological study, utilizing historical, biblical, grammatical, and canonical theological approaches to the entire biblical text, of the nuptial metaphor found throughout Scripture as a thematic framework that is hermeneutically significant. Contemporary studies of the nuptial metaphor that recognize and value the nuptial metaphor of God marrying His people …

Frontmatter (Volume 18 Issue 1), Bruce R Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

General Editor’s Note:

C. S. Lewis delivered a series of lectures in February 1943 for the University of Durham, published the month prior as The Abolition of Man. It remains a robust defense of moral law and objective values against the onslaught of what Lewis soon labeled “The Poison of Subjectivism.” He argued that children who are not schooled in ancient wisdom regarding mercy, justice, beneficence, and duty become not simply self-centered adults but easily manipulated people. A society bent on pursuing such a path becomes a society in peril.

Last year’s issue of Sehnsucht included a call for papers …

Adam As Imago Dei Statue In The Hebrew Bible, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

In recent decades, there has been a significant shift in scholarly perspectives on ancient Near Eastern cultic images. This shift moves away from the traditional view that regarded cultic statues as merely idolatrous representations — an attitude often reflected in certain biblical narratives—toward a more nuanced understanding of these images as paradoxical channels for divine presence. Recent research on polemics against idolatry in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts reveals efforts to recontextualize traditions of cultic statues within the lives of biblical patriarchs and prophets, portraying them as bearers of the sacred.

New Paths In Jewish And Religious Studies: Essays In Honor Of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, Glenn Dynner, Susannah Heschel, Shaul Magid

Purdue University Press Books

The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking …

Isaiah 53: Grammatical, Structural And Exegetical Observations, Felipe Braz Federson

Masters Theses

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is a famous passage from the Tanakh that contains important grammatical constructions in Hebrew which, if translated incorrectly, can lead to erroneous exegetical and theological conclusions. Among these problems, the Servant’s relationship with the other characters in the passage is addressed. Through an analysis of the literary context and the structure of the text, not only are several exegetical possibilities substantiated, but two prototype translations are also provided, one based on the Leningrad Codex and another based on the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa).

A Post-New Perspective Analysis Of Darrell Bock's Views Pertaining To Torah Observance, Andrew Lawrence Prout

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In the twenty-first century, Messianic Jews generally fall into one of two broad categories: Those who are Torah observant, and those who consider the laws contained in the Mosaic Law as valuable, but optional. Those who hold the latter position may be Torah observant as an evangelistic strategy, as a way of practicing contextualization, or as a means of doing outreach to ethnic Jews. Nonetheless, they do not believe that sustained Torah observance is a necessary/vital component of their Christian faith. Observant Messianic Jews would argue that when Jesus initiated the New Covenant, he did not nullify/abrogate the Mosaic Covenant, …

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.”

“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.

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.

Unity In Christ: An Annotated Bibliography, Kelly E. Budd, Madison S. Schmidt

Liberty Theological Review

A review of the recent book publications related to the spring theme, "Unity in Christ." We include the following titles.

• Alma, Hans et al. Moral and Spiritual Leadership in an Age of Plural Moralities.
• Anatolios, Khaled. Deification through the Cross: An Eastern Christian Theology of Salvation.
• Barrett, Matthew. Canon, Covenant and Christology: Rethinking Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel.
• Beck, William David and Mike Licona. Raised on the Third Day: Defending the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus.
• Chia, Edmund Kee-Fook. Confucianism and Christianity: Interreligious Dialogue on the Theology of Mission.
• Emerson, Matthew Y. He …

The Glory Of The Lord Whose Likeness Is As The Appearance Of A Human Being/Adam: A Study Of Ezekiel’S Son Of Man/Adam Anthropology, Timothy R. Schmeling

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

Ezekiel has often been criticized as a dehumanizing book. Still it is alternative humanisms that have done so much to dehumanize mankind with the totalitarianism of self-deifying individualism or the totalitarianism of collectively-imposed manmade metanarratives. Far from being a dehumanizing book, the objective of the son of man/Adam is certainly to purge his hearers of all anthropologies of autonomy and license, but this Adamic priestly prophet does this to eschatologically resurrect in them an anthropology of dependence and true freedom. Reasserting the creation theology and anthropology of Genesis, Ezekiel insists that authentic humanism, Edenic humanism (i.e., the original humanism), is …

Revealed History As Prophetic Rivalry: John’S Apocalypse, The Sibylline Oracles, And The Prophecy Of Apollo, Olivia Stewart Lester

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In dealing with the demand of Stephan Palmié, Charles Stewart and Dipesh Chakrabarty to extend the understanding of "history" to the intervention of gods, spirits or superhuman beings, the present article deals with two ancient texts, Revelation 12 and Sibling 4, which speak of the past through divine revelation. These two texts present the past in such a way that their rhetorical means at least potentially call into question the prophecies of Apollo. They refer to certain traditions that are connected with Apollo - in particular the founding myth of the Shrine of Delphi and the legends about the inspiration …

Immortal Combat: Iconoclasm And The Hebrew Bible, Albert L. Mcclure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biblical iconoclasm is any biblical text that describes the disruption of religious observances by physical violence against cult materials. This can include removing cult objects from their appointed places, god-napping divine bodies, outright destruction, cult reform, etc. Biblical iconoclasm, understood this way, is one component of the Hebrew Bible’s iconic politics. Other components of biblical iconic politics – like Idol Parodies, Bildersverbot, and aniconism – have been well studied in the past thirty years. Biblical iconoclasm has not shared the popularity of its collaborators in this respect. This dissertation is necessary because no extended study of iconoclasm in the Hebrew …

Jesus And The Mosaic Law: Agapic Love As The Foundation And Objective Of Law, Robert F. Cochran ,Jr.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Repatriating The Canaanite Woman In The Gospel Of Matthew, Cedric Vine

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This study argues that Matthew’s replacement of Mark’s “Gentile of Syrophoenician origin” with a “Canaanite woman” (Mark 7:26; Matt 15:22) is part of a wider narrative strategy to portray the land of Israel and its cities as a new Sodom, a new Canaan, a new Egypt, and a new Babylon. The study employs Dale Allison’s six intertextual devices (explicit statement, inexplicit citation or borrowing, similar circumstances, key words or phrases, similar narrative structure, and word order, syllabic sequence, and poetic resonance) to demonstrate a consistent authorial intention while identifying contemporary or near contemporary sources that would affirm the likelihood that …

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

Faculty Publications

In this essay I have tried to provide a broad survey of the concept of covenant for Latter-day Saint students of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I began with a sketch of the history of covenant theology in the Christian tradition showing how the early New Testament idea of a baptismal covenant was soon replaced by the Christian institution of sacraments. Although the covenant idea played little role in the historical developments of Christian theology, it did resurge in the Reformation, but without widespread theological impact.

In contrast, over the last century, the role of the covenant idea …

Exorcising Mythicism’S Sky-Demons: A Response To Raphael Lataster’S “Questioning Jesus’ Historicity.”, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

God’S Library: The Archaeology Of The Earliest Christian Manuscripts [Review] / Nongbri, Brent., Christopher R. Chadwick

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

Zondervan Handbook Of Biblical Archaeology: A Book By Book Guide To Archaeological Discoveries Related To The Bible [Review] / Price, J. Randall And H. Wayne House., Elizabeth Emswiler

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

Redefining The Roles Of The Rural Levites In Deuteronomy, James Douglas Wilson

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Plausibility Of Animal Sacrifices In Ezekiel 40-48 Literally Operating In The Millennial Kingdom Under The New Covenant, Ian Bacon

Masters Theses

This thesis delves into the controversy surrounding the presence of animal sacrifices in Ezekiel 40-48. In these chapters Ezekiel depicts a temple that dispensationalists believe to be literally fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom.Yet, some claim that a literal understanding of these sacrifices in the future negates the work of Jesus on the cross. The response by many dispensationlists is to argue that these sacrifices will be performed to memorialize the death of Jesus. This thesis proves that the sacrifices in Ezekiel 40-48 are for purification purposes to atone for the contamination of sin so that the glory of Christ may …

Insights Into The Translation And Interpretation Of The Targum To The Book Of Jeremiah, Meng Loeng Yip

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Unveiled Faces: The Heavenly Counterpart Traditions In Joseph And Aseneth, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

From one of the Manichaean psalms we learn that in the final moments of his life Mani was beholding his heavenly double with “eyes of light.” This was not the only encounter this Syrian visionary had with his upper celestial identity. The Cologne Mani Codex tells us that the heavenly counterpart first manifested himself to Mani at the age of twelve and he continued his visits, to assist with revelations, until Mani’s death. In several texts Mani’s celestial alter ego is designated as a spirit and even called the Paraclete, the same title the Holy Spirit bears in the Fourth …

Gendered Language And The Construction Of Jewish Identity In 2 Maccabees, Joshua Ezra Burns

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Moral World(S) Of Malachi, Robert Alan Cope

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Sin And Its Place In The Experience Of Suffering: Presenting The Basis For A Sound Theodicy, Roman Wiens

Master's Theses

Topic

One of the most significant issues in theism is the obvious existence of evil and suffering. Thus many philosophers (especially Atheists) propose this fact alone negates the existence of an all-loving, omnipotent, and caring God. This attacks both the integrity of God and the coherence of the scriptural accounts. In response, theologians around the world proposed theodicies to show that the existence of a God, as portrayed in the Bible, is coherent with suffering in this world.

Purpose

The different approaches to this problem are categorized in four categories, outlined, and evaluated in one chapter about the most noteworthy …

The Shema Through The Ages: A Pre-Modern History Of Its Interpretation, Esteban J. Hidalgo

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

This article traces the history of the interpretation of Deuteronomy 6:4 from its original context, through the dawning of early Christianity in the Second Temple period up to the twilight of the late medieval period. The reader will appreciate the persistent centrality of an unchanging doctrine and simultaneously discern fluidity in its meaning and application in both Jewish and Christian perspectives. Proportionally, the focus is placed on how early Christian writers hermeneutically accommodated the doctrine of the Trinity in the oneness of God as stated in the Shema.

Menorah Review (No. 82, Winter/Spring, 2015)

Menorah Review

Books in Brief -- Conservative Judaism at a Crossroads? -- Franz and Edith Rosenzweig: Hero and Heroine -- Have You Heard This One? -- Judaism in Israel -- Moreshet: Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides -- My Friend and I -- They Will Revere His Glory in the East (Isaiah 59:19) -- Zachor