|
|
- The Covenants of the Patriarchs with Foreigners at Beersheba
Authors: Dariusz Dziadosz
Pages: 335 - 365
Abstract: The author of this paper seeks the original historical context as well as the oldest form, structure and concept of the biblical records of the covenants of Abraham and Isaac with the local ruler(s) as recorded in Gen 21:22–24, 25–33; 26:26–31. The patriarchs, who enjoy the status of foreign/sojourner/ resident in the land of the Philistine king, Abimelek, and their peaceful agreements are depicted in three biblical sources, which are very similar to each other in terms of structure and literary context. Those are compared with selected Hittite, Babylonian and Assyrian records of the royal covenants from the 2 millennium BC. The methodology adopted in the research allowed several important formal and substantive points of contact to be noted in the compared sources. Through this comparison, the paper confirms that Gen 21:22–24, 25 33; 26:26–31 reflects two ancient patterns of bilateral covenants between the monarch and an equal or subordinate social partner: royal grants and suzerain-vassal treaties. The paper also discusses the socio-cultural and legal spectrum of the Near Eastern royal procedures and how they were re-edited and adapted by the editors responsible for the current version of the biblical cycles about the patriarchs.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.15384
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- A Stranger in My Own Land: Can a Sojourner Belong to the Household'
Authors: Bruno Clifton
Pages: 367 - 383
Abstract: Occasionally, the biblical term גר has been taken to refer to a “dependent worker” or “client” based on the thought that household membership can be gained through work provided to the household. Mention of household membership tests the identity of the sojourner in the ancient world as stranger or foreigner; a social category listed with widows and orphans—whose status is also defined by the household— as deserving of protection. Given its centrality as a basic social unit in the ancient Near East, we might expect that purchase in a household would grant a status that dissolves the social distance and attendant consequences (fragility of income, lack of patrimony, object of suspicion) thought to be borne by גרים. In what sense, then, is a “dependent worker” who secures membership in the household a גר ' This article reconsiders how distant a person must be from the society within which he resides to make him a ,גר shifting the semantic emphasis of this term away from origin and towards social integration.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.14712
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- Where Does Salvation Come From' A Reading of 2 Kings 5:1–27
Authors: Jean Louis Ska
Pages: 385 - 394
Abstract: 2 Kings 5:1–27 describes the healing of a foreigner, Naaman the Syrian, a high officer of the King of Damascus, by Elisha, a prophet in Israel. Naaman the Syrian suffers from a kind of skin disease called “leprosy” in the Bible. He thinks that, being rich and powerful, he is in possession of the means to get healed. He has to change his mind and his behaviour, though. He is healed when he agrees to listen to an Israelian maidservant, a slave, to the prophet Elisha, and to his own servants. When he bathes in the Jordan, he symbolically enters the Promised Land because he is healed and, at the same time, he acknowledges that Yhwh is the only Lord of the universe.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.14801
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- The Literary Structure of the Flood Account in the Animal Apocalypse
Authors: Henryk Drawnel
Pages: 395 - 417
Abstract: This article discusses the literary structure of the flood account (1 En. 89:1b–9) in the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85–90). Since the Qumran Aramaic text of the story (4Q206 frags. 8 I and 9) has preserved a shorter text than that found in the ancient Ethiopic version, the study of the literary additions found therein is also undertaken. Although the Aramaic text of the flood account is not free from some redactional elaborations of the literary structure of the story, the literary additions in the Ethiopic version expand the shorter structure, especially in the first part of the account (strophes 2–4). The insertion of new cosmic elements into the story (heavenly roof and earthly enclosure) creates a well-circumscribed space where the punishment of humanity, sons of the Watchers and animals by the waters of the flood takes place (strophe 4). Thus, the Ethiopic longer recension of the flood account is far more distant from the shorter text of 4Q206. The last part of this study takes a closer look at the literary context of the flood story that closes the first part of the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85:3b–89:9) and preannounces its second section (1 En. 89:10–90:19) marred by the shedding of blood and violence between the nations and Israel.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.15612
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- Jan Kochanowski’s Psalter – a Source of Polish Poetry and
Mirror of the Human Mind
Authors: Elwira Buszewicz
Pages: 419 - 437
Abstract: The article deals with Jan Kochanowski’s Psałterz Dawidów [David’s Psalter], published in 1579. This paraphrase of the biblical Psalter, intensely lyrical in its spirit, was inspired by George Buchanan’s Latin poetic paraphrase of the Psalms, which is strongly Horatianising. Kochanowski’s work can be seen as a presentation of humanist piety. That is to say that the borders between secular and sacred spaces, or even between Judeo-Christian and Pagan traditions, may seem blurred. The Psalter is also interconfessional (or “doctrinally neutral”) and acts as a universal mirror reflecting the human mind. The author analyses three of Kochanowski’s Psalms to demonstrate the intellectual and emotional space of his Psalter and its polyphonic structure: 1 (Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum), 19 (Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei) and 91 (Qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi), displaying some interplays of ideas and different approaches to paraphrasing applied by the poet.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.14572
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- In-between Calvinism and Islam: Ali Bey's Transcultural Translation of the
Bible into Turkish in the Time of Confessionalization
Authors: Agnieszka Ayşen Kaim
Pages: 439 - 461
Abstract: Albertus Bobovius/Ali Ufkî Bey was a typical go-between of his time, a learned translator and convert who benefited from his double religious sensitivity. As a consequence, he was able to create a transcultural translation of the Bible in the 17th century. This paper brings context to these aspects of his life. Ali Ufkî Bey created his works on religion during a time of intensive confessionalization, when Istanbul was a hub for many political interests with various religious and cultural options intersecting in the Ottoman capital. The project of translating the Bible to the national languages of Islam was carried out according to the vision of an alliance between Islam and reformed Christian groups, supporting the thesis of Calvino-Turkism, promoted by John Amos Comenius. As oriental scholars were lacking sufficient command of Turkish, they had to commission highly qualified go-betweens. There were two competing plans: Dutch Calvinist and Anglican. Bobovius was a part of the Dutch plan, along with Yahya Bin Ishak, a Jewish dragoman. The strategies of translation chosen by Bobovius were very modern according to the present knowledge of the art of translation, but in his era, there were difficulties in choosing the right language register and the right religious imagery to find proper equivalents. Underestimated by his contemporaries, Bobovius was rehabilitated by today’s linguists, and his “Turkish Bible” is still in use today. The text does not contest the religious identity of the author of this translation of the Bible but presents the hybridity of this figure against the background of the wider historical and confessional context of 17th-century Istanbul. It also provides examples of Bobovius’s translation choices and an initial interpretation of his methodology of timeless transcultural translation, from the perspective of contemporary translation theories. In the light of contemporary transcultural studies, present-day scholarship may treat Ali Ufkî as a transcultural agent and a gifted go-between.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.14599
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- A Preliminary Bibliography of Polish Publications Concerning the Dead Sea
Scrolls (from 1947 to the Spring of 2022)
Authors: Michał Klukowski
Pages: 463 - 509
Abstract: This publication presents a preliminary bibliography of material on the Dead Sea Scrolls for the years 1947–2022 (spring), which includes only Polish authors’ works which were published. The bibliography has been divided into four parts. The first part gives a list of recent Polish bibliographies, the second one contains monographs and collective works, the third one comprises book chapters and articles appearing in collective works, and the fourth part – papers published in periodicals. The entire work is preceded by a list of abbreviations.
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.13776
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- Samuel Adams – Greg Schmidt Goering – Matthew J. Goff (eds.), Sirach
and Its Contexts. The Pursuit of Wisdom and Human Flourishing (Supplements
to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 196; Leiden – Boston, MA: Brill
2021)
Authors: Marcin Zieliński
Pages: 511 - 513
Abstract: Recenzja książki: Samuel Adams – Greg Schmidt Goering – Matthew J. Goff (eds.), Sirach and Its Contexts. The Pursuit of Wisdom and Human Flourishing (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 196; Leiden – Boston, MA: Brill 2021). Pp. 301. € 125. ISBN: 978-90-04-44733-2 (E-Book).
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.16370
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
- Andrzej Piwowar, Język Grecki Nowego Testamentu. I. Gramatyka –
indeksy. II. Klucz do ćwiczeń – słownik – paradygmaty (Materiały
Pomocnicze do Wykładów z Biblistyki 15; Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL 2022)
Authors: Przemysław Kubisiak
Pages: 515 - 517
Abstract: Recenzja książki: Andrzej Piwowar, Język Grecki Nowego Testamentu. I. Gramatyka – indeksy. II. Klucz do ćwiczeń – słownik – paradygmaty (Materiały Pomocnicze do Wykładów z Biblistyki 15; Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL 2022). Pp. 681 + 391 (key). ISBN 978-83-8288-058-8 (vol. 1). ISBN 978-83-8288-057-1 (vol. 2).
PubDate: 2023-07-11
DOI: 10.31743/biban.16355
Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2023)
|
Open Access journal
