Authors:Giovanni Rizzi Pages: 519 - 545 Abstract: Hospitality is a widespread practice in the ancient Near East, also regulated by written legislation. Biblical legislation protects the orphan, the widow and the foreigner; but there is also an opposite tendency of not being able to accept the presence of pagan populations in the land of the fathers. The protocol of hospitality is a practice in the biblical world which never reached the form of written legislation, and which is presented as a set of literary motifs disseminated in numerous texts, without configuring a true and proper literary genre. The stories of Gen 19:1–29 and of Judg 19:11–30 are influenced by the dialectic between the two tendencies of the biblical world; what emerges from their comparison is the warning that the violation of the protocol of hospitality is an indication of the unravelling of the society. A canonical reading of the two biblical stories proposes as an example the behaviour of Abraham, who practices unconditional hospitality without limits. PubDate: 2023-10-27 DOI: 10.31743/biban.15078 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 4 (2023)
Authors:Pietro Bovati Pages: 547 - 562 Abstract: The introduction of the article presents some methodological clarifications that aim to achieve a proper thematic treatment of the foreigner in the Bible. It (a) states the need to place the study of terms that indicate the foreigner in the relevant semantic field, (b) stresses the importance to be accorded to the founding narratives, and (c) indicates the value of the term “figure” as applied specifically to the immigrant. The contribution is then divided into three sections: 1. “The Phenomenology of the Foreigner in the Bible” shows the criteria for defining the foreigner, and emphasises the specific notion of the immigrant; 2. “The Biblical Theology of the Immigrant” illustrates the precariousness of the one who requests hospitality and, at the same time, makes manifest the divine blessing for the one who welcomes him. 3. “The Biblical Norms Regarding the Immigrant” show how different precepts tend to equate the immigrant with the citizen itself. PubDate: 2023-10-27 DOI: 10.31743/biban.15357 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 4 (2023)
Authors:Krzysztof Kinowski Pages: 563 - 590 Abstract: The expression וַיַַּעַַַל בְְּכָָל־הָָאָָרֶֶץ in 2 Kgs 17:5a is apparently simple and devoid of semantic or syntactic difficulty. This Hebrew phrase is, however, interpreted variously by the scholars who generate a considerable plurality of its translations. The problem appears to lie in the diversity with which the meaning of the verb √ עלה and of the preposition בְְּ, and further, their semantic and syntactic relation in 2 Kgs 17:5a, are interpreted. The examination of these lexemes’ semantics and their interrelated syntax in the Hebrew text leads to the following conclusions: (1) the verb √ עלה has there a technical-military meaning “to invade, attack, march against;” (2) it is used stereotypically and from the sociolinguistic perspective it denotes the nuance of an upward movement; (3) the meaning of בְְּ is spatial in 2 Kgs 17:5a and marks an area moved through; (4) the syntactic relation √ בְּ + עלה is not equivalent to √ עַל + עלה , and consequently, the technical-military meaning of the verb does not remove the spatial meaning of the preposition. It is proposed to translate 2 Kgs 17:5a in a following way: “And then (the king of Assyria) marched up throughout the whole country.” Such a rendering expresses both the Assyrian military actions, a physical movement upwards, and the area moved through. From the historical point of view, it describes the first stage of the Assyrian attack, the invasion going throughout the whole country of king Hosea (v. 5a), followed by an attack directed against its capital, Samaria (v. 5bc). Other interpretations (translations), either ignoring or highlighting one of the discussed features only, may be considered incomplete, questionable or unacceptable from the semantic and syntactic point of view. PubDate: 2023-10-27 DOI: 10.31743/biban.16334 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 4 (2023)
Authors:Marcin Biegas Pages: 591 - 616 Abstract: This article analyses the image of David as an exorcist. The choice of the research topic has been inspired by the fact that in the literature, more specifically, in an article by Kenneth E. Pomykala, this issue is presented in a very general way, by indicating only texts where such an image of David can be found, without entering into their deeper interpretations. Also, no scientific article covering this topic in detail has been published to date. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part presents biblical texts in which – as Pomykala has proven – one can talk about this characteristic of David. In the second part, fragments of two Qumran manuscripts, 11Q5 and 11Q11, are analysed. Finally, an analysis of the literaturę of early Jewish writings, portraying David as an exorcist, is provided. PubDate: 2023-10-05 DOI: 10.31743/biban.14979 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 4 (2023)
Authors:Piotr Herok Pages: 617 - 633 Abstract: This article examines the summary statements in the first gospel. The investigation aims to establish a precise set of Matthean texts belonging to this literary genre. Following a presentation of a variety of solutions (R. Schnackenburg, J. Gnilka, E. Schweizer, D.A. Hagner, R.H. Gundry, J. Nolland, A. Paciorek, U. Luz, R.T. France, W.D. Davies and D.C. Allison, C.S. Keener, G.R. Osborne, C.A. Evans, S. Grasso, W. Egger, B. Gerhardsson, L. Novakovic), literary considerations are examined against the background of various scholarly propositions, giving precise criteria to denote a given gospel text as a summary. On this basis, eight Matthean texts are proposed as summaries – (1) 4:23–25, (2) 8:16–17, (3) 9:35–36, (4) 12:15–21, (5) 14:13–14, (6) 14:34–36, (7) 15:29–31, and (8) 19:1–2 – while showing their thematic interpenetration and mutual dependence. PubDate: 2023-10-27 DOI: 10.31743/biban.14912 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 4 (2023)
Authors:Agata Pawlina Pages: 635 - 660 Abstract: Wojciech Bobowski is better known in international academia under the Latinised version of his name: Albertus Bobovius and by his Turkish name: Ali Ufki. Most probably, he was born in Lviv, ca. 1610 and died in Constantinople, ca. 1675. He left for posterity numerous works that today we would classify as belonging to several fields of the humanities: musicology, linguistics, religious studies, cultural studies, political history and even ethnography. His best-known works include one of the earliest translations of the Bible into Turkish (1662–1664), an influential treatise on Islam (1690), a description of the Topkapı Palace (1665) – the main seat of the Ottoman sultan, where he lived and worked as a court musician – and collection of more than 500 Ottoman Turkish musical pieces written in European stave notation (ca. 1640–1650). In this paper, the author first presents outcomes of her current archival research on Bobowski’s early life in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then, she demonstrates the possibility that when working on Mezmuriyye – the Ottoman Turkish psalter, Ali Ufki took inspiration from the Polish translation of the Genevan Psalter from French by Maciej Rybiński, an influential bishop of the Reformed Church in the 17th-century Poland. This theory is based on the analysis of linguistic content of French, Polish and Ottoman Turkish lyrics, as well as the striking visual resemblance of Bobowski’s Mezmuriyye and one specific old-print of Rybiński’s Psalmy Dawidowe na melodie francuskie uczynione published in 1608. PubDate: 2023-10-27 DOI: 10.31743/biban.14575 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 4 (2023)
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