Religious Studies

This thesis sets out a new interpretation of Irenaeus’ understanding of the nature and basis of authority of the apostolic writings, on the basis of his theology of revelation. In Part One, the traditional interpretation of Irenaeus’ view of the apostolic writings as scripture equivalent to the Jewish scriptures is refuted through an extended evaluation of its three substantiating arguments. This evaluation finds that Irenaeus reserves the use of grafhv as a scriptural title exclusively for the Jewish scriptures, that his use of the apostolic writings as the testimony of authoritative authors differs significantly from his use of the Jewish scriptures as an inherently authoritative scriptural text, and that the evident equivalence of authority between the apostolic writings and the Jewish scriptures does not entail equivalent scriptural status. These findings lead to the conclusion that the traditional interpretation cannot sustain its argument.

In Part Two, an alternative account of the place of the apostolic writings in Irenaeus’ thought is advanced. It is contended that rather than being conceived as scripture, the apostolic writings constitute the written record of the apostolic tradition and the primary means of accessing its content, deriving their unique revelatory authority on the basis of apostolic origin. Apostolicity, not inspiration, accounts for the unique revelatory authority of the apostolic writings. An investigation of Irenaeus’ understanding of the Word as Revealer of the Father reveals that apostolicity functions as a second category of unique revelatory authority (alongside yet distinct from the scriptures) on the basis of the apostles’ unparalleled relationship to Jesus Christ, the consummation of the Word’s revelation. In this way the apostolic writings possess the ontological status of authoritative written record of the divinely sanctioned mediation of the Word’s consummate revelation to humanity.

This article suggests an alternative approach to the modern emphasis
on the Spirit as the ground of the authority of Scripture – a view
largely absent in the church of the first four centuries – on the basis of the
thoroughly trinitarian account of the process of divine revelation articulated
by Irenaeus. In his account, the Logos, as the Revealer of the Father,
is the primary agent of all the Father’s revelatory actions. In this way the
Logos, working in cooperation with the Spirit, provides the basis for the
revelatory authority of Scripture

The phrase ἡ δύναμις κυρίου combines two common and theologically significant lexemes, yet occurs only once in Greek Exodus and a handful of times, in varying forms, elsewhere in the Septuagint. This paper will briefly examine the occurrences of this phrase along with other closely related phrases in ancient Greek literature, in order to shed some light on its exegetical implications in Exodus 12:41. It will begin by comparing the lexical choice made by the Exodus translator with similar lexical choices in other parts of the book. Then, attention will be given to occurrences of these lexemes in the remainder of the Septuagint. Finally, their use in Classical and Hellenistic Greek outside of the Septuagint will be considered. Although this phrase is unique in Greek Exodus, it will provide us with important insights about the way the Exodus translator approached the task of translation. We will argue that the peculiarities of these lexical choices fit nicely with the overall theological themes of the book, and allow the translator to underscore the power of the Israelite God in contrast to the power of the Egyptians.

Repeated verses and lines occur with relative frequency in the Hebrew text of Proverbs. This study explores how those repetitions are translated in the Septuagint version. Translated repetitions provide unique insight into the decision making process of the translator because they show how the same text is handled in differing contexts. In Greek Proverbs, repetitions are handled in a wide variety of ways, ranging from exact replication of the Hebrew repetition to completely different, independently translated lines.

This study asks what factors lead to differences between the Greek lines in each translated repetition. Insights from Translation Studies allow for a nuanced analysis the translated repetitions, presented in the form of a textual commentary. Five factors are identified and discussed. They are: textual influences, contextual influences, the translator’s comprehension of the Hebrew text, the translator’s awareness of the Hebrew repetition, and translation shifts.

It is argued that no single factor can sufficiently explain the differences among the translated repetitions and that a complex web of influences lies behind each difference. This is significant because previous research has tended to attribute such differences either to textual variants or to deliberate, conscious decisions made by the translator. This study highlights many of the more basic translational features of the Greek text.

The Cave 4 Apocryphon of Jeremiah C from Qumran survives in several copies, and presents significant links between the prophet Jeremiah, the scriptural book of Jeremiah, and the collectors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because the prophet is only occasionally named in the Scrolls, and there are only a few clear instances where the book is cited, Jeremiah appears to have had a limited impact on the imagination of the Qumranites. However, through a careful appraisal of the Apocryphon manuscripts, and a reconsideration of Jeremiah's influence in the Dead Sea Scrolls via his reputational authority, this study shows that clusters of traditions were tied to Jeremiah’s prophetic and priestly distinction, with an emphasis on matters of leadership and empire.

It has been over fifty years since the publication of the first volume of the Discoveries in the Judaea Desert series, and five years since the final volume in the series appeared in 2009. In this paper, I intend to problematise the official publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961–2011) according to the fourfold critique: first, literary presuppositions and the classification of texts; second, scribal presuppositions and the identification of manuscripts; third, textual presuppositions and the work of scribes; and finally, socio-religious presuppositions and the function of scriptures.

In 2012 the Israel Antiquities Authority launched the new photographic digital database for Judaean Desert manuscripts, the Leon Levy Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Library (www.deadseascrolls.il). The site features new images of a large number of Qumran mss, with the promise of many more on the way, including for many of these fragments the first ever photographs in full colour. This paper illustrates how the new IAA photographs can assist efforts of manuscript identification, reconstruction and interpretation on a digital platform applied to one of the Cave 4Q copies of the War Scroll, 4QMa (4Q491). I will set special attention on the colour photographs and the usage of colour for increasing our knowledge about this scroll. First, I will very briefly introduce 4Q491, and its somewhat controversial history of scholarship. While the first editor identified and published the fragments all together as part of a single manuscript, others have since delivered persuasive arguments for the existence of two and even three separate scrolls among the fragments, and this is a matter that I will challenge directly through an investigation of the new digital images. Second, I will illustrate my study in two parts of the physical features of 4Q491, in a close examination of one set of fragment pieces—those assigned to frg. 11 i–ii. I will initially explore and identify patterns of damage in the overall shape of the fragment pieces and the composite whole, and will illustrate how these are most clearly discerned with the application of colour. Then I will use targeted colour selection of the RGB images to make digital transparencies of the fragments, which are a useful tool for precisely interpreting various types of surface damage. Third, the results of my physical examination of frg. 11 i–ii will be applied to the whole manuscript in terms of how to understand the scribal activity, how to classify its literary content, and finally how a new arrangement of the fragments affects the structure of the composition and its meaning.

This is a public lecture that took place at TWU sponsored by the TWU Dead Sea Scrolls Institute and the Alumni Association on Re-Imagining the Scriptural Past in the Dead Sea Scrolls. A curious feature in the study of textual transmission and the development of ideology in early Judaism is the treatment of the Prophet of Jeremiah and the book that bears his name. By way of analogy to the modern phenomenon of the internet dissemination of "facts" about Chuck Norris, Dr. Davis illustrates how the reputation of Jeremiah the prophet strongly influenced a wide range of traditions and texts that survive from Second Temple Judaism.