Faculty of Theology
Department of New Testament Studies
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Prof Gert Steyn published two articles during the year under review. ‘Notes on Ps 101 (LXX) and Ps 103 (LXX) in Hebrews 1 in the light of evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Papyrus Bodmer XXIV’ was published in Acta Patristica et Byzantina 20. It investigates the text forms and occurrences of the quotations from Septuagint (LXX) Psalms 101 and 103 in Hebrews 1 in light of evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Papyrus Bodmer XXIV. It became clear regarding Ps 101 that it is especially the Septuagint that opens up the possibility for a Christological interpretation in Hebrews – principally with its inclusion of kurios, of which the Hebrew equivalent lacks in the Hebrew texts. Regarding Ps 103, there were two traditions: the Masoretic Text and the Hodayot (1QH 1:10–12), and the Septuagint, Targum Jonathan and Hebrews, as well as the Syrian and other eastern versions of 2 Esdras.
The second article, ‘Perfecting knowledge and piety (Philo, Contempl. 3,25): Intertextual similarities between Philo’s Therapeutae and Lukan Early Christianity’ was published in Neotestamentica 43/2. After briefly noting the similarities between the Essenes and Therapeutae (both of which were groups described by Philo), it compares some of the most striking features of the Therapeutae in Philo’s De Vita Contemplativa with similar features in New Testament early Christianity. There are striking intertextual similarities between both groups at a number of points, particularly regarding the depiction of Jesus’s lifestyle, the beginnings of the church within the New Testament literature in aspects relating to social structure, style of worship and the importance of interpreting Scripture.
Contact person: Prof GJ Steyn.
Dr Kobus Kok has done research on the dynamics between ethics and mission in the early church. Early Christianity embodied a new idiom of morality that inspired many in the Roman world and beyond. Christianity's morality was formed and adapted from older traditions of moral discourse, but it radically transformed society of the day in cases of slavery, equality, love and compassion. In a time of moral crisis, ethics and morality in a changing society become a necessary focal point. This project aims at researching the field, and equipping the (church) leaders of tomorrow in a postmodern, democratic, pluralistic society to be agents of moral regeneration.
Contact person: Prof E van Eck.
Prof Ernest van Eck has occupied the topics of ethnicity and parable research. In antiquity, group identity was based on cultural ethnicity. Groups used their ethnicity to define and delineate themselves as unique. Ethnicity was determined by characteristics like family (kinship), name, language, homeland, myths of common ancestry, customs, shared historical memories, phenotypical features and religion. The jewish temple religion and law-abiding jews in the early church (as depicted in Acts and the congregations of Paul) also used their ethnic identity as an argument for justifying the exclusion of other groups/ethnic peoples from the temple and the early church, respectively. Jesus, Acts and Paul, on the contrary, proclaimed that ethnicity meant nothing when it comes to being in God’s presence, being part of the early Christ-followers, or being part of any local (Pauline) congregation. For this reason, it can be concluded that the New Testament bears witness to an inclusive ecclesiology and, by implication, a race-free society.
The authenticity of the parables, as they appear in the Synoptics, cannot simply be assumed. Jesus told his parables in first-century Palestine, an advanced agrarian society under the control of the Roman Empire. Because of the exploitation of the elite, the peasantry in first-century Palestine struggled to live at the level of subsistence. To avoid an ethnocentric reading of the parables of Jesus, the interpreter must take cognisance of the dominant cultural values and norms of the first-century Mediterranean world. Social-scientific criticism facilitates a culture-sensitive reading of the parables of Jesus. The focus of Jesus’s parables is the kingdom of God. Jesus’s social location was that of the peasantry. Jesus’s parables are atypical stories (comparisons) of social critique. They depict the Galilean as a social prophet. They are not theocentric, but make “theological” or ethical points. Finally, indeterminacy exists in the reading of the parables.
Contact person: Prof E van Eck.
Dr Kobus Kok has done research on the dynamics between ethics and mission in the early church. Early Christianity embodied a new idiom of morality that inspired many in the Roman world and beyond. Christianity's morality was formed and adapted from older traditions of moral discourse, but it radically transformed society of the day in cases of slavery, equality, love and compassion. In a time of moral crisis, ethics and morality in a changing society become a necessary focal point. This project aims at researching the field, and equipping the (church) leaders of tomorrow in a postmodern, democratic, pluralistic society to be agents of moral regeneration.
Contact person: Dr J Kok.
Prof Ernest van Eck has occupied the topics of ethnicity and parable research. In antiquity, group identity was based on cultural ethnicity. Groups used their ethnicity to define and delineate themselves as unique. Ethnicity was determined by characteristics like family (kinship), name, language, homeland, myths of common ancestry, customs, shared historical memories, phenotypical features and religion. The jewish temple religion and law-abiding jews in the early church (as depicted in Acts and the congregations of Paul) also used their ethnic identity as an argument for justifying the exclusion of other groups/ethnic peoples from the temple and the early church, respectively. Jesus, Acts and Paul, on the contrary, proclaimed that ethnicity meant nothing when it comes to being in God’s presence, being part of the early Christ-followers, or being part of any local (Pauline) congregation. For this reason, it can be concluded that the New Testament bears witness to an inclusive ecclesiology and, by implication, a race-free society.
The authenticity of the parables, as they appear in the Synoptics, cannot simply be assumed. Jesus told his parables in first-century Palestine, an advanced agrarian society under the control of the Roman Empire. Because of the exploitation of the elite, the peasantry in first-century Palestine struggled to live at the level of subsistence. To avoid an ethnocentric reading of the parables of Jesus, the interpreter must take cognisance of the dominant cultural values and norms of the first-century Mediterranean world. Social-scientific criticism facilitates a culture-sensitive reading of the parables of Jesus. The focus of Jesus’s parables is the kingdom of God. Jesus’s social location was that of the peasantry. Jesus’s parables are atypical stories (comparisons) of social critique. They depict the Galilean as a social prophet. They are not theocentric, but make “theological” or ethical points. Finally, indeterminacy exists in the reading of the parables.
Contact person: Dr J Kok.
|
