Abstract Henri de Lubac has proclaimed that medieval exegetical texts contain a “whole mental universe” within their pages. While full of promise, de Lubac’s statement also points to the problem of how modern readers may profitably engage the unfamiliar mental universe of such texts. The distinctive scholastic practice of structuring a composition by divisio textus can function as a helpful guide not only for understanding the structure of medieval texts but also for understanding the interpretive logic employed by medieval commentators. By focusing on Thomas Aquinas’ lectura ad Ephesios, this paper demonstrates how the divisio textus can help identify important aspects of a commentator’s interpretive logic. The article then turns to examine Aquinas’ interpretation of predestination in Eph 1:5–6a to demonstrate the significance of the divisio textus for understanding medieval exegetical and interpretive decisions at both the macro- and micro-level. The article concludes that the divisio textus can be a helpful tool for uncovering the “mental universe” contained within medieval exegetical texts.
亨利·德·鲁巴克(Henri de Lubac)宣称，中世纪的训诂文本在其页面中包含了“整个精神世界”。在充满希望的同时，德卢巴克的声明也指出了一个问题，即现代读者如何才能从这些文本中不熟悉的精神世界中获益。通过划分文本构建作文的独特学术实践不仅可以作为理解中世纪文本结构的有用指南，也可以作为理解中世纪评论家所使用的解释逻辑的有用指南。通过对托马斯·阿奎那的演讲和《以弗所书》的关注，本文论证了分法文本如何有助于识别解说者解释逻辑的重要方面。然后，文章转向研究阿奎那在以弗所书1:5-6a中对预定论的解释，以证明分裂文本在宏观和微观层面上对理解中世纪训诂和解释决定的重要性。文章的结论是，分割文本可以成为揭示中世纪训诂文本中包含的“精神宇宙”的有益工具。
{"title":"Divisio Textus and the Interpretive Logic Of Thomas Aquinas’ Lectura Ad Ephesios","authors":"Eric Covington","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2017-2001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2017-2001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Henri de Lubac has proclaimed that medieval exegetical texts contain a “whole mental universe” within their pages. While full of promise, de Lubac’s statement also points to the problem of how modern readers may profitably engage the unfamiliar mental universe of such texts. The distinctive scholastic practice of structuring a composition by divisio textus can function as a helpful guide not only for understanding the structure of medieval texts but also for understanding the interpretive logic employed by medieval commentators. By focusing on Thomas Aquinas’ lectura ad Ephesios, this paper demonstrates how the divisio textus can help identify important aspects of a commentator’s interpretive logic. The article then turns to examine Aquinas’ interpretation of predestination in Eph 1:5–6a to demonstrate the significance of the divisio textus for understanding medieval exegetical and interpretive decisions at both the macro- and micro-level. The article concludes that the divisio textus can be a helpful tool for uncovering the “mental universe” contained within medieval exegetical texts.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77322226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders eventually condemned this narrative because of its similarities with Spiritualist exegesis and American Christianity’s use of the narrative to condemn Spiritualism as necromancy. Through establishing an orthodox reading of the passage, leaders strengthened the boundaries separating the two faiths – boundaries that many Spiritualists had argued were at best blurry and overlapping.
{"title":"The Prophetess of Endor: Reception of 1 Samuel 28 in Nineteenth Century Mormon History","authors":"C. Blythe","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2017-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2017-2002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders eventually condemned this narrative because of its similarities with Spiritualist exegesis and American Christianity’s use of the narrative to condemn Spiritualism as necromancy. Through establishing an orthodox reading of the passage, leaders strengthened the boundaries separating the two faiths – boundaries that many Spiritualists had argued were at best blurry and overlapping.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78195301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The reception of Esther has often been fraught with attempts to make the book more palatable to the audience receiving it and to interpret the book in a manner more consistent with the values of that community. This is evidence in cinematic adaptations of the book, where the story is transformed to better suit the genre expectations of the Biblical epic and the perspectives of the intended viewers. By examining two films based on Esther – Esther and the King (1960) and One Night with the King (2006) – some of the interpretive issues surrounding the tone and content of the Biblical source become apparent. If Esther is best understood as a carnivalesque work, as many scholars have suggested, then the expectations of this kind of work have not been met in the cinematic adaptations. Given the importance of film in contemporary Biblical reception, these new readings of Esther are perhaps particularly influential, at least within the restricted communities who view these movies. Likewise, analysis of these changes highlights the values of the makers of these films and the audiences who consume them.
{"title":"Celluloid Esther: The Literary Carnivalesque as Transformed through the Lens of the Cinematic Epic","authors":"K. Mcgeough","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2017-2004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2017-2004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The reception of Esther has often been fraught with attempts to make the book more palatable to the audience receiving it and to interpret the book in a manner more consistent with the values of that community. This is evidence in cinematic adaptations of the book, where the story is transformed to better suit the genre expectations of the Biblical epic and the perspectives of the intended viewers. By examining two films based on Esther – Esther and the King (1960) and One Night with the King (2006) – some of the interpretive issues surrounding the tone and content of the Biblical source become apparent. If Esther is best understood as a carnivalesque work, as many scholars have suggested, then the expectations of this kind of work have not been met in the cinematic adaptations. Given the importance of film in contemporary Biblical reception, these new readings of Esther are perhaps particularly influential, at least within the restricted communities who view these movies. Likewise, analysis of these changes highlights the values of the makers of these films and the audiences who consume them.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86713819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers. Studies of the Bible and Its Reception 5","authors":"Jacob J. Prahlow","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2017-2007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2017-2007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72908274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article focuses on two newspaper advertisements written by Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, which were published shortly before his death in 2016. These controversial advertisements, appearing in the US and the UK, addressed recent tensions in the Middle East, referencing the books of 2Kings and Esther. The article explores Wiesel’s relationship to contemporary politics, traditions of biblical interpretation, and ideas of sacred temporality. I argue that these advertisements present a vivid case study of the potential difficulties posed by framing contemporary conflicts via biblical archetypes. Specifically, I suggest that they challenge us to develop an awareness of instances in which biblical reception can mythologize suffering by subsuming novel and complex events into premeditated narratives.
{"title":"Elie Wiesel and the Biblical Archetypes of the Contemporary Middle East","authors":"David C. Tollerton","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2017-2005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2017-2005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article focuses on two newspaper advertisements written by Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, which were published shortly before his death in 2016. These controversial advertisements, appearing in the US and the UK, addressed recent tensions in the Middle East, referencing the books of 2Kings and Esther. The article explores Wiesel’s relationship to contemporary politics, traditions of biblical interpretation, and ideas of sacred temporality. I argue that these advertisements present a vivid case study of the potential difficulties posed by framing contemporary conflicts via biblical archetypes. Specifically, I suggest that they challenge us to develop an awareness of instances in which biblical reception can mythologize suffering by subsuming novel and complex events into premeditated narratives.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85838158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article reads the design of the British Imperial War Graves cemeteries in the context of the religious pluralism of the late Empire. Reviewing the deliberations of the design committee and parliamentary debates on the design of the cemeteries, it notes that the Christian character of the cemeteries was relatively muted, a design decision which caused no small amount of public and political controversy, but which permitted the cemeteries to present an image of a unified Empire. The paper argues that the choice of quotations specifically from the apocrypha was an important and deliberate aspect of this presentational strategy.
{"title":"Ecclesiasticus, War Graves, and the Secularization of British Values","authors":"A. Vincent","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2017-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2017-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article reads the design of the British Imperial War Graves cemeteries in the context of the religious pluralism of the late Empire. Reviewing the deliberations of the design committee and parliamentary debates on the design of the cemeteries, it notes that the Christian character of the cemeteries was relatively muted, a design decision which caused no small amount of public and political controversy, but which permitted the cemeteries to present an image of a unified Empire. The paper argues that the choice of quotations specifically from the apocrypha was an important and deliberate aspect of this presentational strategy.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76808035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The episode of the Bethlehem massacre (Matt 2:16-18) uses many levels of intertextuality as a rhetorical device, to solicit an emotional response powerful enough to influence the reader’s worldview. What effect do these intertexts have on Matthew’s readers? How is this affective appeal concerning Rachel’s tears intended to impact the reader’s response to Matthew’s story? Rachel weeping is an emotionally charged image that somehow merges two opposites: hope and sorrow. The intertextuality of this figure can influence readers encouraging them to criticize imperial ideologies that have used violence against innocent people in the past, and oppose those which do so currently.
{"title":"Rachel Weeping: Intertextuality as a Means of Transforming the Readers’ Worldview","authors":"Sébastien Doane","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2017-2000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2017-2000","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The episode of the Bethlehem massacre (Matt 2:16-18) uses many levels of intertextuality as a rhetorical device, to solicit an emotional response powerful enough to influence the reader’s worldview. What effect do these intertexts have on Matthew’s readers? How is this affective appeal concerning Rachel’s tears intended to impact the reader’s response to Matthew’s story? Rachel weeping is an emotionally charged image that somehow merges two opposites: hope and sorrow. The intertextuality of this figure can influence readers encouraging them to criticize imperial ideologies that have used violence against innocent people in the past, and oppose those which do so currently.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80944984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article examines how a prophetic religious tradition can exploit the gaps of indeterminacy within a biblical text, in order to develop new readings in response to changing circumstances. Using Brennan Breed’s ideas about biblical texts as “objectiles,” which are prone to change throughout their life, this article traces the interpretation of Genesis 49:10 in the history of a modern prophetic movement. The article proceeds to examine how members of the so-called Southcottian visitation – a British prophetic movement started in the early nineteenth century by the self-proclaimed prophet Joanna Southcott – have used this text to shape their identity and beliefs. By examining how Southcottian prophets of different generations have handled this text – ranging from Southcott herself to a female-led organisation called the Panacea Society established in the early twentieth century – we can see how prophetic readers have used their authority to guide interpretation of the text, and have shaped how it ought to be read within their respective communities. The article shows how Southcottian readers generate a range of different readings of Genesis 49:10, exploring a series of alternative identities and genders for “Shiloh,” and developing new reading strategies for ascertaining the meaning of the term. The article concludes by reflecting on how the text is affected by the Southcottians’ treatment, and how prophetic readers can exert their authority to even change the text itself. Examining how such idiosyncratic readers receive – and change – biblical texts is an important area for investigation by reception-historians keen to understand what texts can do when handled by their diverse readers. Looking at the reception of biblical texts within heterodox religious traditions also raises methodological challenges: it underscores how readings within a religious tradition are processual, develop over time, and can be generated through private, archival correspondence as well as in published media.
{"title":"Southcottians and Shiloh: Genesis 49:10 and the Morphology of a Messianic Hope","authors":"Jonathan P Downing","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2016-1005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2016-1005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines how a prophetic religious tradition can exploit the gaps of indeterminacy within a biblical text, in order to develop new readings in response to changing circumstances. Using Brennan Breed’s ideas about biblical texts as “objectiles,” which are prone to change throughout their life, this article traces the interpretation of Genesis 49:10 in the history of a modern prophetic movement. The article proceeds to examine how members of the so-called Southcottian visitation – a British prophetic movement started in the early nineteenth century by the self-proclaimed prophet Joanna Southcott – have used this text to shape their identity and beliefs. By examining how Southcottian prophets of different generations have handled this text – ranging from Southcott herself to a female-led organisation called the Panacea Society established in the early twentieth century – we can see how prophetic readers have used their authority to guide interpretation of the text, and have shaped how it ought to be read within their respective communities. The article shows how Southcottian readers generate a range of different readings of Genesis 49:10, exploring a series of alternative identities and genders for “Shiloh,” and developing new reading strategies for ascertaining the meaning of the term. The article concludes by reflecting on how the text is affected by the Southcottians’ treatment, and how prophetic readers can exert their authority to even change the text itself. Examining how such idiosyncratic readers receive – and change – biblical texts is an important area for investigation by reception-historians keen to understand what texts can do when handled by their diverse readers. Looking at the reception of biblical texts within heterodox religious traditions also raises methodological challenges: it underscores how readings within a religious tradition are processual, develop over time, and can be generated through private, archival correspondence as well as in published media.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86079974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Of all biblical topoi within the repertoire of Western culture, the Gog and Magog narratives have a presence in literary reception history that far outweighs their slender beginnings. They tend also to be an alien element in the metanarratives in which they occur. Even in their earliest biblical manifestation, the ‘Go’ narratives seem to have been grafted onto an existing text. Almost always, their use implies the recovery of the archaic as a means of replenishing or revitalizing present culture. At the same time they persistently signal the phenomenon of the unassimilable in human experience. The topos of Gog of the land of Magog in Ezekiel 38–39 modulates into the twin apocalyptic figures of Gog and Magog of Revelation 20:8–9. Later they become part of the conceptualization of the cultural Other, the uncivilized hordes which must be kept at bay. In European literature they assume a plastic form as representations of what is excluded from culture. In British literature (with which we will be chiefly concerned) they occupy an ambiguous position as figures of the defeated paganism which Christianity has replaced and yet as symbols of a hopeful or whimsical alterity which resists the language, the hegemonic discourse, of the status quo.
{"title":"Gog and Magog in Literary Reception History: The Persistence of the Fantastic","authors":"Anthony C. Swindell","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2016-1003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2016-1003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Of all biblical topoi within the repertoire of Western culture, the Gog and Magog narratives have a presence in literary reception history that far outweighs their slender beginnings. They tend also to be an alien element in the metanarratives in which they occur. Even in their earliest biblical manifestation, the ‘Go’ narratives seem to have been grafted onto an existing text. Almost always, their use implies the recovery of the archaic as a means of replenishing or revitalizing present culture. At the same time they persistently signal the phenomenon of the unassimilable in human experience. The topos of Gog of the land of Magog in Ezekiel 38–39 modulates into the twin apocalyptic figures of Gog and Magog of Revelation 20:8–9. Later they become part of the conceptualization of the cultural Other, the uncivilized hordes which must be kept at bay. In European literature they assume a plastic form as representations of what is excluded from culture. In British literature (with which we will be chiefly concerned) they occupy an ambiguous position as figures of the defeated paganism which Christianity has replaced and yet as symbols of a hopeful or whimsical alterity which resists the language, the hegemonic discourse, of the status quo.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77236461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The Santa Barbara Bible (University of California, Santa Barbara, University Library MS BS 75 1250) was first introduced to scholarship in 1971 by Santa Barbara professor Larry Ayres. In the years since that pioneering study, art historians have advanced our knowledge of the place and date of the Bible’s production. Adding to that an understanding of commercial manuscript production in thirteenth-century Paris, the present article comes as close to clarifying the creation of this lovely book as current evidence allows.
{"title":"Santa Barbara’s Thirteenth-Century Paris Bible: A Second Look","authors":"R. Rouse, M. Rouse","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2016-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2016-2002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Santa Barbara Bible (University of California, Santa Barbara, University Library MS BS 75 1250) was first introduced to scholarship in 1971 by Santa Barbara professor Larry Ayres. In the years since that pioneering study, art historians have advanced our knowledge of the place and date of the Bible’s production. Adding to that an understanding of commercial manuscript production in thirteenth-century Paris, the present article comes as close to clarifying the creation of this lovely book as current evidence allows.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74344912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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