The Messenger of the Lord in Early Jewish Interpretations of Genesis
The Messenger of the Lord in Early Jewish Interpretations of Genesis

Author: Camilla Hélena von Heijne

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2010-09-29

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 3110226855

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The focus of this book is on early Jewish interpretations of the ambiguous relationship between God and ‛the angel of the Lord/God’ in texts like Genesis 16, 22 and 31. Genesis 32 is included since it exhibits the same ambiguity and constitutes an inseparable part of the Jacob saga. The study is set in the wider context of the development of angelology and concepts of God in various forms of early Judaism. When identifying patterns of interpretation in Jewish texts, their chronological setting is less important than the nature of the biblical source texts. For example, a common pattern is the avoidance of anthropomorphism. In Genesis ‛the angel of the Lord’ generally seems to be a kind of impersonal extension of God, while later Jewish writings are characterized by a more individualized angelology, but the ambivalence between God and his angel remains in many interpretations. In Philo's works and Wisdom of Solomon, the ‛Logos’ and ‛Lady Wisdom’ respectively have assumed the role of the biblical ‛angel of the Lord’. Although the angelology of Second Temple Judaism had developed in the direction of seeing angels as distinct personalities, Judaism still had room for the idea of divine hypostases.

Abraham in Jewish and Early Christian Literature
Abraham in Jewish and Early Christian Literature

Author: Sean A. Adams

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 056769254X

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This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Jewish and early Christian authors discussed Abraham in numerous and diverse ways, adapting his Old Testament narratives and using Abrahamic imagery in their works. However, while some areas of study in Abrahamic texts have received much scholarly attention, other areas remain nearly untouched. Beginning with a perspective on how Abraham was used within Jewish literature, this collection of essays follows the impact of Abraham across biblical texts–including Pseudigraphic and Apocryphal texts – into early Greek, Latin and Gnostic literature. These essays build upon existing Abraham scholarship, by discussing Abraham in less explored areas such as rewritten scripture, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, the Apostolic Fathers and contemporary Greek and Latin authors. Through the presentation of a more thorough outline of the impact of the figure and stories of Abraham, the contributors to this volume create a concise and complete idea of how his narrative was employed throughout the centuries, and how ancient authors adopted and adapted received traditions.

Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism
Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism

Author: Andrei A. Orlov

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-11

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1000465969

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This book explores the early Jewish understanding of divine knowledge as divine presence, which is embodied in major biblical exemplars, such as Adam, Enoch, Jacob, and Moses. The study treats the concept of divine knowledge as the embodied divine presence in its full historical and interpretive complexity by tracing the theme through a broad variety of ancient Near Eastern and Jewish sources, including Mesopotamian traditions of cultic statues, creational narratives of the Hebrew Bible, and later Jewish mystical testimonies. Orlov demonstrates that some biblical and pseudepigraphical accounts postulate that the theophany expresses the unique, corporeal nature of the deity that cannot be fully grasped or conveyed in some other non-corporeal symbolism, medium, or language. The divine presence requires another presence in order to be transmitted. To be communicated properly and in its full measure, the divine iconic knowledge must be "written" on a new living "body" which can hold the ineffable presence of God through a newly acquired ontology. Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism will provide an invaluable research to students and scholars in a wide range of areas within Jewish, Near Eastern, and Biblical Studies, as well as those studying religious elements of anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and gender studies. Through the study of Jewish mediatorial figures, this book also elucidates the roots of early Christological developments, making it attractive to Christian audiences.

Imago Dei
Imago Dei

Author: Steven Yong

Publisher: Schreiber Verlag

Published: 2021-01-07

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 3753143898

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The question of what it means to be human is a perplexing one. Indeed, one of the most cited and referred concept to shed light on the meaning of becoming human is the notion of צלם אלהים divine image. However, the history of interpretation shows that the three major views, such as structural, functional, and relational, on the concept yielded some discrepancies, both biblical and practical. The purpose of this study is to give an alternative solution consistent with the biblical witness. This writing comes with strategies. It starts with the effort to reread the locus classicus of the divine image text to find some neglected aspects. It yielded to comparable elements between messengers and humans as a representative agent of God in the physical world since humans are created in the image of אלהים, i.e., God and his heavenly court. Observation of the texts of Hagar, Moses, and Jacob narrative show that humans, mimicking messengers, represent God’s presence both by their actions and their very beings. The term פּנים, which is closely representing the notion of presence, then will be observed concerning the concept of צלם. It will be argued that as צלם אלהים, thus, humans represent God’s invisible פּנים presence in the visible world.

Theology and Tolkien
Theology and Tolkien

Author: Douglas Estes

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-08-22

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1978712642

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The Lord of the Rings and other works of J.R.R. Tolkien have had a far-reaching impact on culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In print and on film, Tolkien’s works seem to be incredible epics, but religious aspects are less obvious. Yet Tolkien himself stated in his letters that the chief conflicts of his epic works were “about God, and His sole right to divine Honour,” and whether Sauron can wrest and destroy all that is good in Middle-earth. It is from this that readers awaken to the theological truths that imbue Tolkien’s works. In Theology and Tolkien: Constructive Theology, an international group of scholars consider how Tolkien’s works (and Jackson’s interpretations) can help us build better theologies for use in our world today. From essays on the music of creation in the Ainulindalë, to angels, demons, and Balrogs, to Tolkien’s theology of God, providence, evil, and love, to the eschatology of the Final Chord of the Great Music, this book invites the reader to journey through Middle-earth as the contributors engage the theology of Tolkien’s works and its impact on the world.

Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?
Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?

Author: L. Michael Morales

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2015-12-08

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0830899863

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How can creatures made from dust become members of God's household "forever"? In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Michael Morales explores the narrative context, literary structure and theology of Leviticus, following its dramatic movement from the tabernacle to the temple—and from the earthly to the heavenly Mount Zion in the New Testament.

Scripture Re-envisioned: Christophanic Exegesis and the Making of a Christian Bible
Scripture Re-envisioned: Christophanic Exegesis and the Making of a Christian Bible

Author: Bogdan Gabriel Bucur

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-11-05

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9004386114

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Scripture Re-envisioned discusses the christological exegesis of biblical theophanies and argues its crucial importance for the appropriation of the Hebrew Bible as the Christian Old Testament. The Emmaus episode in Luke 24 and its history of interpretation serve as the methodological and hermeneutical prolegomenon to the early Christian exegesis of theophanies. Subsequent chapters discuss the reception history of Genesis 18; Exodus 3 and 33; Psalm 98/99 and 131/132; Isaiah 6; Habakkuk 3:2 (LXX); Daniel 3 and 7. Bucur shows that the earliest, most widespread and enduring reading of these biblical texts, namely their interpretation as "christophanies"— manifestations of the Logos-to-be-incarnate—constitutes a robust and versatile exegetical tradition, which lent itself to doctrinal reflection, apologetics, polemics, liturgical anamnesis and doxology

Your God Is a Devouring Fire
Your God Is a Devouring Fire

Author: Michael Simone SJ

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-07-19

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 166678754X

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In the ancient Near East, the distinction between the divine realm and the material world was not always clear. In Mesopotamia, statues, kings, and even cultic utensils could become "gods" in their own right. Certain biblical traditions show this idea as well. Yhwh appears as a human during visitations to Abraham and Jacob (Gen 18:1-2 and 32:25-31). Yhwh also can act through objects (Gen 15:17; 1 Sam 5:1-5). This suggests that, in Israel as in Mesopotamia, a distinction between humans and gods was one of status more than ontology. Throughout the ancient Near East, religious literature included motifs that emphasized divine status, such as power, size, wonder-working ability, and the possession of numinous qualities. In Israel, these divine "status symbols" were frequently storm motifs like cloud, precipitation, and fire. Fire was one of the most common, perhaps because, being vivid and powerful, it shared Yhwh's life-giving, transformative, yet dangerous qualities. In certain narratives, fiery motifs accompany an embodied divine presence. At other times, fiery phenomena are the sole perceptible indications of divine presence. As a motif of divinity, fire can symbolize divine agency even functioning at a distance from Yhwh or shared with a secondary agent like an angel, tool, or weapon. Israel's extensive use of fire in the cult gives witness to similar traditions. Divine fire accompanies each new cultic inauguration in the Hebrew Bible. A tradition in Leviticus suggests that this fire remained continuously burning and served as a "gate" that allowed God to received portions of the cultic offering. In the Hebrew Bible, fire was thus a "status symbol" of divinity, drawn from traditional storm motifs and ancient conventions of divine embodiment. In its vivid ethereal appearance and power to give, transform, and take life, it symbolized the presence and agency of Yhwh, the God of Israel.

The Glory of the Invisible God
The Glory of the Invisible God

Author: Andrei Orlov

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-12-26

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 056769268X

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Andrei Orlov examines early Christological developments in the light of rabbinic references to the “two powers” in heaven, tracing the impact of this concept through both canonical and non-canonical material. Orlov begins by looking at imagery of the “two powers” in early Jewish literature, in particular the book of Daniel, and in pseudepigraphical writings. He then traces the concept through rabbinic literature and applies this directly to understanding of Christological debates. Orlov finally carries out a close examination of the “two powers” traditions in Christian literature, in particular accounts of the Transfiguration and the Baptism of Jesus. Including a comprehensive bibliography listing texts and translations, and secondary literature, this volume is a key resource in researching the development of Christology.