Matthew’s first two chapters provide fertile ground for debate surrounding his four fulfillment quotations. In an age when biblical interpretation often defaults to the authority of the reader or leans heavily on presuppositional systems, Matthew provides tools for biblical inte…
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In this dissertation, I investigate reflection on divine providence and the formation of paideia (school culture) in Christian Alexandria (c. 100-250). My research focuses on a conceit developed in the writings of Clement and Origen of Alexandria that divine providence functions…
Judaism has traditionally embraced text study as a communal endeavor of dialogic interpretation. Yet, synagogue schools have largely ignored this social practice, framing literacy instead as a set of skills to “inoculate” Jewish students from assimilation into secular culture. T…
Among linguistic philosophers, speech act theory has illuminated the fact that uttering a sentence does not merely convey information; it may also involve the performing of an action. The concept of communicative action provides additional tools to the exegetical process as it p…
The thesis defended in this dissertation is that postcolonial biblical interpretation is a viable interpretive strategy for the reading of the Hebrew Bible by black African women in post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing its methodological cues from Musa W. Dube's postcolonial fem…
This dissertation explores how seventeenth-century German and Dutch Protestants approached the task of interpreting the Bible according to its literal sense, or sensus literalis. It focuses on two of the most respected and learned Protestant theologians and exegetes active in th…
This dissertation examines the treatment of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, in Jewish biblical interpretation up to the 10th century CE. The particular focus of this examination is Jewish identity, and how Jethro's non-Israelite identity in the Bible is addressed by rabbinic exege…
Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian exegetes of late antiquity operated within an identifiable interpretive tradition that had its roots in the earliest recorded theological criticisms of the Homeric epic tradition, criticisms which were to have far-reaching and decisive influenc…
For nearly two millennia, Church and Synagogue have conceived of each other using characterizations of Israel and the nations that are drawn from the book of Exodus, the central narrative of Israel's liberation and establishment as God's people. This dissertation examines two la…
A wise teacher will adapt the lesson according to the learning ability of the student. Depending on the student's level of comprehension, the teacher can alter the method of instruction in a manner that is best suited for the circumstances. God practiced the same strategy in his…
Postmodern theorising has presented the reader as an active agent in the process of the interpretation of texts. Sociology of knowledge approaches have identified both the author and the reader of texts as socially embodied within a context. This study presents a unique collecti…
Although both Jews and Christians consider the Hebrew Bible sacred scripture, they often differ on the interpretation of this text. In fact, throughout history it has been common for Christians to interpret Hebrew Bible passages in order to criticize or condemn Jewish religious …
This dissertation examines and catalogues the history of interpretation of the ambiguous speakers in John 3:16-21 and 3:31-36. The history of interpretation leads to the conclusion that the passages are best understood as spoken by Jesus, not the Evangelist. Chapter 1 introduces…
Process theology, along with its connection to questions of suffering and theodicy, presents a perspective that is largely absent within biblical scholarship. Similarly, a lack of clear cohesion with the biblical text is an evident critique of process theology. A hermeneutic tha…
This thesis analyzes critical and non-critical approaches to the interpretation of scripture against the four psychological features of religious coping identified by Ken Pargament—differentiation, integration, flexibility, and security—to argue that an ecclesial-critical approa…