Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Essays , livre ebook
200
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English
Ebooks
2013
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200
pages
English
Ebooks
2013
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
26 juillet 2013
Nombre de lectures
1
EAN13
9789990800364
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
8 Mo
Jonathan Nkhoma, in this scholarly collection of essays, enriches the reader with different interesting windows on how one can unearth the riches contained in some of the New Testament writings. The first two essays underscore the importance of placing the New Testament in a proper context and attempt to construct this context by discussing the historical background and the theological understanding of the Qumran Covenanters as derived from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jonathan Nkhoma treats many aspects touching the proper interpretation of the New Testament writings. For example, he shows how the sacramental rituals of washing and eating together in the Qumran Community add meaning to the same rituals carried over to the New Testament. The significance of table fellowship is treated in greater depth in a subsequent essay. Throughout the various essays the question of the historicity of the various texts is treated in a succinct way and the author is able to come to some helpful conclusions drawing on the previous work of many well know scholars. The later essays tackle the very difficult question of martyrdom and Jonathan Nkhoma delves into the history of two particular cases in order to shed light on this difficult subject. All essays are written in impeccable English which flows in an easy style. This collection of essays would be invaluable to anyone who would wish to make a serious study of the New Testament writings.
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Publié par
Date de parution
26 juillet 2013
EAN13
9789990800364
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
8 Mo
Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Essays
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Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Essays
Biblical and Early Christianity Studies from Malawi
Jonathan S. Nkhoma
with a contribution by
Hilary B.P. Mijoga
Mzuni Books no. 12
2013
Contents
Preface 5
1. Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls: History and Practice of the Qumran Community 8
2. Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Theology of the Qumran Community 23
3. Old Testament and Jewish Hermeneutics
4. New Testament Exegesis of the Old Testament
5. Discipleship in Matthew: A Redaction-Critical Study
6. "Love Your Enemies": A Study of Luke 6:27-35
7. Table Fellowship in Luke
8. Acts as History in Ancient Historiography
9. History of the Johannine Community
10.Water as a Revelatory Symbol in John 1-12
11.Ignatius: Martyrdom or Suicide? A Study in Light of his Letter to the Romans
12.Martyrdom of Perpetua: Public Spaces and the Early Christian Martyrs
13.Ritual and Symbolism as Hermeneutical Approach
14.The Use of ‘Hallelujah!’ () and the Malawian Context
15.Gender differentiation in the Bible: Created and Recognized (By Hilary B.P. Mijoga)
44
57
90
96
104
111
121
126
130
138
150
160
174
Abbreviations for Qumran Literature
1QH:ThTehanksgivinHgymns 1QpHab : CommentaryonHabakkuk 1Qsa : The Community Rule or Manual of Discipline a Iv. Qpls : The Messianic Rule or Two-Column Document Iv QFlor : A textual fragment from Cave 4. 4QMMT :Miqsat ma’ase hatorah("Some precepts of the law") CD :ThQeumraDnamascuRsule
1QM:ThQeumraWnaRrule1Qp HAB : The Qumran Commentary on Habakkuk 1QS : The Qumran Community Rule or Manual of Discipline 4Q flor : A textual fragment from Cave 4 LXX:ThSeptuagint
MSS:TextuaMlanuscripts
Preface The present book offers an opportunity to bring together selected essays prepared over the past few years. The book has fifteen essays touching on various issues in Biblical Studies and Early Christianity, ranging from the history and life of the Qumran covenanters, a Jewish religious sect that lived along the Dead Sea in the last few centuries before Christ, and possibly in the first century after Christ, through the problem of martyrdom in the early Church to the question of gender in our own times, as seen from a biblical perspective. The first two chapters on the Dead Sea community first appeared as "Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran Literature) for the Study of the New Testament: An Overview," inMalawi Journal of Biblical Studies2003:49-89. They trace history, life and theology of the Qumran covenanters and conclude by observing the importance of this group for our understanding of the New Testament. The third chapter on the Old Testament focuses on the nature of quotations and Jewish hermeneutical principles which provide background to the hermeneutical practice of the New Testament writers. The fourth chapter is on the exegesis of the Old Testament by the New Testament writers. Although most of these exegetical methods are different fro m our own, they help us understand how and why they arrived at the theological conclusions they made on various issues regarding Christ. The fifth chapter studies discipleship in the Gospel of Matthew and argues for a broader perspective. The sixth chapter examines the command to love enemies and explores its theological implications and its role in shaping Christian identity over the centuries. The seventh chapter discusses table fellowship in Luke, primarily from a Hellenistic perspective, and investigates its implications on the gospel. The eighth chapter examines the historiography of Acts of Apostles placing the discussion in the context of modern debate. The ninth chapter revisits the debate on the history of the Johannine community and observes the importance of the discussion. The tenth chapter offers a brief literary an alysis of water as a theological symbol in the first twelve chapters of John and shows how the writer develops his themes as the narrative progresses. The eleventh chapter studies the martyrdom of Ignatius and attempts a reconstruction of the meaning that Ignatius attached to his own death in light of his Letter to the Romans. The twelfth chapter seeks to understand the place of martyrdom in the early church and its relationship to public space, especially the arena, in light of the martyrdom of Perpetua.
The thirteenth chapter discusses ritual and symbolism as a potential hermeneutical method for the interpretation of the New Testament in the wake of multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of the New Testament. The fourteenth chapter is an essay on the use of the term "Hallelujah" (). It is an attempt to trace the biblical history of this term and survey its usage from biblical times to the present, with a special focus on its usage in the cotemporary Malawian religious context. The final chapter is an essay on the question of gender, prepared by the late Hilary B.P. Mijoga, then Associate Profe ssor of Theology and Religious Studies in the University of Malawi. It first appeared inJournal of HumanitiesNo. 13 (1999): 87-113. Professor Mijoga argues that gender differentiation in the Bible is created and recognized and suggests that it is its manipulation today that has led to the marginalization of the female gender. All these chapters have been presented, as essays, at various academic fora at the University of Malawi, Mzuzu University and Harvard University in the Un ited States. I am therefore very grateful to the late Professor Mijoga then of the University of Malawi; Professor Klaus Fiedler of Mzuzu University; Professor François Bovon and Professor Karen King of Harvard University; and Professor Sean Freyne of Trinity College, Dublin, who was a visiting professor at Harvard in the early years of my research on Jesus and the language of mystery. I am of course solely responsible for any weaknesses that may still remain. I dedicate this book to the late Dr. Hilary B P Mijoga, then Associate Professor in the University of Malawi, who first introduced me to Biblical scholarship in general, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament in particular. May 2, 2012, Mzuzu J.S.N.
.
Chapter One
Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls: History and Practice of the Qumran Community
Introduction The initial scholarly response to the Dead Sea Scrolls was an awareness of the contribution they would make to our understanding of the Old Testament. Soon, however, scholarly opinion shifted to their significance to the New Testament as the Christian public longed for an explanation of their relationship to early Christianity. The discussion of the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament has basically involved two positions: on one hand, there are those who see an almost direct relationship between the belief and practice expressed in these scrolls and the belief and practice of early Christianity so that the advent of the latter 1 becomes virtually one of "the successive phases of a movement." On the other hand, there are those who feel that direct dependence is almost an untenable opinion in view of the current evidence despite all the similarities that have been appealed to. In this and the following chapter, I will argue that while the similarities are so striking as to deserve the postulation of a common religious milieu as their background, the differences between the two movements are quite distinctive so that any theory that looks at the two movements as "successive phases of a single movement" can only be sustained with great difficulties. Here, in this chapter, I will discuss the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls community commonly known as the Qumran Community, and their practical religious life and how these relate to the New Testament.
The History of the Qumran Community It is now generally accepted to identify the Qumran Community as part of the Essene Movement, one of the three major sects of Judaism, the other two being Pharisaism and Sadduceism. The initial development of classical Jewish sectarianism can be traced back to the Baby lonian Exile. A search for priestly purity even goes further back to the division of the kingdom of Israel when it became necessary to legitimize the ancestry of Judean and especially Jerusalem priesthood in 1 Edmund Wilson, "The Scrolls from the Dead Sea", in James C. VanderKam,The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1994, p. 160.
, conscious opposition to the priesthood established by Jeroboam in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In order to get tenure at the Jerusalem Temple, the Zadokite 2 descent of a particular priest had to be established first. The flight of northern priests to Judah following the Assyrian attack on Israel after 733 BC only intensified 3 the question of legitimacy for purposes of service at the Jerusalem Temple. After exile the desire for a pure priesthood, a priesthood that would not only reflect but also provide a foundation for true Israel is clearly indicated in Ezra’s 4 priestly moral reforms. A century or so later, sectarianism became a major feature in Judaism owing largely to political and religious discontent generated by the poor governance of their Ptolemid and Seleucid masters and the secularization of the priesthood which was accused of apostasy for their adoption of some Hellenistic features. Matthew Black tells us that the period 300 BC - 100 AD was a "creative and fluid period in Judaism … characterized as that of a widespread and vigorous Jewish sectarianism, a kind of Jewish non-conformity, opposed to the official Judaism of Jerusalem … 5 centered on the temple and the Jerusalem Sanhedrin." He suggests that this sectarianism was represented in the north by anti-Jerusalem, anti-pharisaic Samaritan groups and in the south by the monastic and semi-monastic sect of the 6 Essenes located by the Dead Sea. More specifically the rise of the Qumran Community is associated with the appearance of a reform movement during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC): the Hasidim or the "pious ones." They aligned with Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabeaus in a liberation struggle against the Syrian tyrant in 167 BC (1 Macc 2:42). The revolt was fueled by mainly religious motives: what the pious called the ‘blasphemies’ by the Hellenized Jews who were favored by the Syrian administration and the removal from office of Jason, a Zadokite high priest in favour 7 of the non-Zadokite Menelaus in 172 BC (2 Macc 4:23-26). 2 Zadok was himself a priest at David’s court who anointed Solomon as king of Israel. He was descendant of Ithamar, the younger one of Aaron’s surviving two sons and tr aced his descent through the Shilonite Priest-hood (2 Sam.:8:17; 15:24; 20:25; 1 Kings 18, 2:35). 3 W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann "Qumran and the Essenes: Geography, Chronology and Identification of the Sect," in Matthew Black (ed),Theological Collection II: The Scrolls and Christianity, History and Theological Significance, London: SPCK, 1969, pp. 16,17. 4 Ibid., p. 18. 5 Matthew Black, "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins," inTheological Collections II, p.97. 6 Ibid. 7 W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann, "Qumran and the Essenes," p. 18. Also, Raymond E. Brown, "The Teacher of Righteousness and the Messiah(s),"Theological Collections IIpp. 37f.
