Hasil untuk "The Bible"

J. Gold

H. Marks

Andrew Spaumer, Azwihangwisi H. Mavhandu-Mudzusi

Churches are considered one of the important structures responsible for providing care and support to vulnerable populations. One such population are children in need of care and support. This article presents the support provided by Pentecostal religious leaders to children needing care and protection. The study was conducted in Pentecostal churches in Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, which is found in Gauteng province, South Africa. This qualitative study used an interpretative phenomenological analysis design. Data were collected from nineteen purposively selected leaders in Pentecostal churches using face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was guided by the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework for data analysis. Findings indicate that religious leaders within Pentecostal churches are involved in providing care and support to children in need of care. The process they are engaged in include proper identification of those children, attending to physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs. However, each religious leaders use their approach depending on the relationship they have with members of government institutions such as police services and social workers. In order to enhance the support provided the children in need of care and protection, by religious leaders within Pentecostal churches, it is recommended that religious leaders are well informed about the role of different members of multidisciplinary teams such as social workers, psychologists, police officers, parents and other community structures. Moreover, there should be formalised collaboration and referral processes that will ensure that the child’s rights are not further violated in the process of provision of support. Contribution: The study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the role Pentecostal church religious leaders are playing in child protection. Furthermore, it sheds light on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to ensure that children in need of care and protection are holistically supported.

Helen Rees

Relationship to the Mission of Gordon-Conwell This course, which seeks to maintain academic excellence in the highest tradition of Christian scholarship (GCTS Missions Statement, Article 2), helps students to become knowledgeable of God’s word and competent in its interpretation (GCTS Missions Statement, Article 1). This will contribute to the students’ development of a vision for God’s redemptive work in the world and to formulate strategies that will lead to effective missions, evangelism, and discipleship (GCTS Missions Statement, Article 6). Being rooted in God’s word and knowing how to interpret and apply it is essential to these tasks.

Abednego Tri Gumono, Yusak Tanasyah, Amos Naolaka

The realization of character education is a shared responsibility of both parents and educational institutions. Higher education as an integral educational facility has a responsibility to develop aspects of character. This is because character is an important domain in forming a student's personality as a whole. In this way, students can grow cognitively, affectively and psychometrically. The Faculty of Education, Pelita Harapan University has a profile of students who are competent, have character, have a calling as Christian teachers (Calling), and have compassion (compassion). To realize this profile, it must be supported by the professionalism of lecturers with the characteristics of having a loving spirit like the good Samaritan and a spirit of self-emptying of Christ in serving. The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between lecturer professionalism and student Christian character. The results of this research will provide an overview, evaluation, and input to build Christian character in a sustainable manner. The method used in this research is a correlative quantitative method. The research results show that lecturer professionalism is significantly related to students' Christian character. The research results show that there is a correlation between lecturer professionalism and student Christian character of .537. Thus, it can be concluded that the correlation between lecturer professionalism and student Christian character is in the strong category. The test results show the significance value (p = .000) is smaller than 0.05. This means that there is not enough evidence to accept the proposed hypothesis (reject Ho). Thus, it can be concluded that there is a significant correlation between lecturer professionalism and student Christian character. BAHASA INDONESIA ABSTRACT: Perwujudan pendidikan karakter merupakan tanggung jawab bersama antara orang tua dan institusi pendidikan. Perguruan tinggi sebagai salah satu sarana pendidikan yang tidak terpisahkan memiliki tanggung jawab untuk mengembangkan aspek karakter. Hal ini dikarenakan karakter merupakan domain penting dalam membentuk kepribadian mahasiswa secara utuh. Dengan demikian, mahasiswa dapat berkembang secara kognitif, afektif dan psikomotorik. Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Pelita Harapan memiliki profil mahasiswa yang kompeten, berkarakter, memiliki panggilan sebagai guru Kristen (Calling), dan memiliki belas kasih (compassion). Untuk mewujudkan profil tersebut, harus didukung oleh profesionalisme dosen dengan ciri-ciri memiliki semangat mengasihi seperti orang Samaria yang baik hati dan semangat mengosongkan diri seperti Kristus dalam melayani. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui hubungan antara profesionalisme dosen dengan karakter kristiani mahasiswa. Hasil penelitian ini akan memberikan gambaran, evaluasi dan masukan untuk membangun karakter kristiani secara berkelanjutan. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kuantitatif korelasional. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa profesionalisme dosen berhubungan secara signifikan dengan karakter kristiani mahasiswa. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat korelasi antara profesionalisme dosen dengan karakter kristiani mahasiswa sebesar 0,537. Dengan demikian, dapat disimpulkan bahwa korelasi antara profesionalisme dosen dengan karakter Kristen mahasiswa berada pada kategori kuat Hasil uji t menunjukkan nilai signifikansi (p=.000) lebih kecil dari 0.05. Hal ini berarti tidak terdapat cukup bukti untuk menerima hipotesis yang diajukan (tolak Ho). Dengan demikian, dapat disimpulkan bahwa ada hubungan yang signifikan antara profesionalisme dosen dengan karakter kristiani mahasiswa.

Łukasz Kraj

The aim of this article is to analyse the role of biblical references in Al Berto’s (Alberto Raposo Pidwell Tavares’) last poetry volume, Horto de Incêndio, published in 1997. Previous research on this poetry has identified intertextuality, an interest in corporeality and the problem of the relationship between experience and text as dominant features of this work. Building upon these insights, I demonstrate that the numerous allusions to the Bible, especially evocations of the Apocalypse, in Horto de Incêndio are related to the author’s attempt to textualise the experience of illness and allow us to partially reconstruct his view of the ontology of the literary text.

Charel D. du Toit

The parable of the Prodigal Son is traditionally viewed from an androcentric perspective, focusing on the male characters, such as the father and brothers. However, this article suggests that the original listeners may have perceived female characters as present and significant. It briefly explores the roles of the Prodigal’s mother and the father’s mother, proposing an alternative interpretation. Evidence indicates that a 1st-century audience might have envisioned a parallel narrative, termed ‘the Parable of the Two Mothers’, within the story. This imagined parallel parable could reflect the high-context understanding of the original hearers. The article aims to reconstruct this proposed parallel parable not only as a potentially imagined narrative within the Prodigal Son but also as a counter-narrative tool. This tool seeks to aid faith communities in addressing gender-based violence (GBV) by offering a narrative device that brings women’s voices to the forefront in congregational and social contexts. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary nature of this article contributes to the debate on the roles and importance of women in the church by investigating the value that women had in the parables of Jesus. Furthermore, this article promotes an inclusive reading of biblical texts aiming to combat the pandemic of GBV in South African communities. By reading women as present in the text, emphasis is given to the voices of women in the Bible and the importance of their representation today. This research is also in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender equality and women empowerment.

Sarah Werner

Hilary Marlow and Mark Harris (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and Ecology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022), 478pp., $150 (hbk), ISBN: 9780190606732.

Baginda Sitompul, Afriani Manalu, Grace Metaria Sihombing et al.

In the Bible there is a lot of information that writes down the teachings that Jesus did. The fruit of Jesus' teaching is proof that He is a teacher who has a personality, broad insight, role model, both from His words and deeds. The works of Jesus are inseparable from the culture of learning that has been carried out since he was young. This is one factor that makes Him appear as the Great Teacher. After finishing studying from school, Jesus taught with creative and effective methods for His followers. For this reason, in the context of Christian Religious Education (PAK) which is taught in formal schools, it is necessary to refer to Christian Religious Education at the time of Jesus, so that the principles of Christian Religious Education in schools can be specifically maintained from time to time. The researcher will explain how Christian Religious Education was when Jesus was a Jewish boy, starting with His education in the midst of the family, education at Beit Safar, education at Beit Talmud, education at the Beit Midrash stage, to the implementation of Christian Religious Education in schools today. The purpose of writing is to study Christian Religious Education at the time of Jesus in schools and the implementation of Christian Religious Education in formal schools. The method used in writing is a qualitative research method with literature as the main source.

Joseph Muyangata, Sibiziwe Shumba

The COVID-19 pandemic which started in China in 2019, was originally described as a public health emergency of intercontinental concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020. Due to its speedy rate of spread, the WHO then declared it a pandemic after 6 weeks. The global spread of COVID-19 has been attributed to the high mobility between and within countries. Having noted the wide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost every country affected, developed strict and restrictive public health measures to control the spread of the virus. Such measures included restrictions on country borders and social gatherings. Hence, the main purpose of the paper was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in relation to religion, health and poverty in Harare urban communities as well as determining solutions to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on those sectors. The research methodology was qualitative in nature. Primary data were collected through in-depth telephone interviews and online open-ended questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to select the study participants. The findings showed that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered and exposed the inequalities in health. The pandemic also had a strong impact on religious activities and it exacerbated poverty levels as well. Those who had all the access to medication, food and vaccinations during the height of COVID-19 may not fully appreciate the impact that poverty coupled with pandemics left on their communities both religiously and socially. Malnutrition, hunger and sickness were the order of the day among the poor. Contribution: The conclusion was that COVID-19 negatively impacted on the health, religious and social sectors. Therefore, it is critical to maintain preventive and curative services, especially for the most vulnerable populations such as children, older persons, and people with disabilities.

Nicholas P.L. Allen, Pierre J. Jordaan

Given the strong mimetic and dramatic qualities found in Judith the authors make the suggestion that perhaps, before LXX Judith became a fixed, written text, the basic fabula might well have been part of an oral tradition. The authors accept that an appropriately written dramatic work, whether transmitted through reading or an oral presentation, by means of its performative qualities, has the potential to achieve immediacy. Here, the audience may become captivated with its own familiarity and memory of popular, communally shared narratives. Accordingly, this article attempts to find evidence in the Greek text of LXX Judith for a possible oral precursor. In this context, corroboration is sought for the employment of verbal aspect and mood of the Greek language as well as instances of drama, theatrics, bodily gestures, mnemonic devices or special emphasis on the employment of the senses such as sight, taste and smell. The authors suggest that based on an analysis of the text of Chapter 13, there is much circumstantial evidence for the Judith fabula once being an oral narrative – one that embodies the dramatic and even encourages audience participation. This characteristic strongly suggests the removal of the fourth wall – the notion of an imaginary boundary between any fictional work and its audience. Contribution: This article shows that Judith 13 is indeed the climax of the narrative. However, it goes further. It is a vivid scene with various performative aspects. There are props, dialogue and audience participation. This research is cutting-edge and paves the way for new explorations.

Tamar Kadari

Abstract This article analyzes the reception of the Bible in a group of midrashim called amoraic midrash, or aggadic midrash, which reveal the centrality of Scripture in the world of the rabbis. Each midrash is organized around a particular biblical book and its verses, bringing a collection of interpretations taught by different rabbis in the land of Israel in the first five centuries of the Common Era. These compositions were redacted towards the end of the Amoraic Period and immediately after and are therefore referred to as midrashei amoraim. The title midrashei aggadah reflects their content, with almost no interpretations dealing with halakhic issues. In this article, I explain the unique fashion in which midrashei aggadah function as a mode of biblical interpretation, the creative ways biblical verses were employed by the rabbis, and the conception of the Bible’s unity evidenced in their midrashim. I then present the main role of biblical verses as an organizing principle in two genres of midrashic compositions. I conclude with the question of the link between midrashei amoraim and the world of the synagogue. Do these midrashim teach us about biblical reception and interpretation solely among the intellectual elite or also among the general public?

Pieter van der Zwan

Compared with other biblical books that are named after its main protagonist, Job mentions many (at least 72) body parts. Yet hair is explicitly referred to only once, even when it plays a relatively significant role in other books in the Hebrew Bible. This virtual absence of hair in the book can at first glance be explained by the shaving of Job’s ‘head’ as early as 1:20, using a different verb, גזז, from the one in Leviticus 13:33 and 14:8.9, גלח, where the context is that of צָרָעַת, wrongly translated as ‘leprosy’, but probably referring to the same skin problem from which Job is suffering. This connection to the skin is important, because the two body parts seem to be almost mutually exclusive, as also suggested by 1:21 immediately after the aforementioned shaving, where Job considers himself to be essentially עָרֹם [naked]. This means that hair has, amongst other functions, also a clothing-like role in the book of Job. Three questions will hence be explored: how ‘absence’ is to be psychoanalytically interpreted and more specifically, what consequences all of this has on the virtual absence of hair in the Book of Job and, finally, what relevance this absence has for the South African context. Contribution: Applying a psychoanalytical perspective to both the body and to absence, the biblical text is contextualised on a broader horizon than what the purely historical-critical approach can render. The additional African context widens the relevance of the ancient book even further.

Acep Aripudin, Mohammad T. Rahman, Dede Burhanudin et al.

This article describes a new method of viewing a historical phenomenon based on its social significance. This method enabled the classification and analysis of a group in a context simultaneously and chronologically. Using historical phenomenology, the authors found a polarisation of Chinese Muslims’ thoughts and practices in the Indonesian context. As an example, the technique of classification of Islamic thoughts is illustrated to discover Chinese Muslim figures’ religious activities. This method allows an improved social investigation to probe deeply into Chinese Muslims’ formal religious life. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the new method is confirmed by the calculation of the polarisation of Chinese Muslim religiousness, leading to the fragmentation and diversification of Indonesian Chinese Muslims in the realms of politics, economic practices or Islamic rituals. New research results improve the understanding of how a social history of an ethnicity could grow and assimilate in a context. The assimilation could contribute to religious harmony in such a pluralistic country such as Indonesia and can be used for making better social decisions, especially related to the lives of minorities, who urgently need policymakers and stakeholders to accommodate the rights of those who are still in the process of gaining fairer recognition. Contribution: Using historical phenomenology, this article tries to classify and study a group in a setting concurrently and chronologically. An in-depth social inquiry into the formal religious life of Chinese Muslims discovered a calculation of religious Chinese Muslims’ polarisation, which led to the dispersion and diversification of Indonesian Chinese Muslims’ politics, economic practices and Islamic rituals. New policy proposals can be made by evaluating religious polarisation.

A. Berlin

This essay focuses on biblical views of exile as portrayed in historiographic narrative and in prophetic and poetic literature. It considers the pre-exilic idea that exile is a punishment for unfaithfulness to God and the broader postexilic concept of the ongoing exile as a way to describe the Jewish condition in the restored Judah. Drawing on Mesopotamian documents as well as on the Bible, it constructs a picture of Jewish life in the Babylonian exile and discusses the diaspora stories of Esther and Daniel, where Jews preserved their ethnic identity and flourished. In the Bible, exile transcended the historical deportations and became an important element in postexilic Jewish identity.

DeeAnn Eva Mcqueary

A. Dafni, B. Böck

BackgroundPrevious lists number from 55 to 176 plant species as “Biblical Medicinal Plants.” Modern studies attest that many names on these lists are no longer valid. This situation arose due to old mistranslations and/or mistakes in botanical identification. Many previously recognized Biblical plants are in no way related to the flora of the Bible lands. Accordingly, the list needs revision.MethodsWe re-examine the list of possible medicinal plants in the Bible based on new studies in Hebrew Biblical philology and etymology, new studies on the Egyptian and Mesopotamian medicinal use of plants, on ethnobotany and on archaeobotany.ResultsIn our survey, we suggest reducing this list to 45 plant species. Our contribution comprises 20 “newly” suggested Biblical Medicinal Plants. Only five species are mentioned directly as medicinal plants in the Bible: Fig (Ficus carica), Nard (Nardostachys jatamansi), Hyssop (Origanum syriacum), balm of Gilead (Commiphora gileadensis) and Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum). No fewer than 18 medicinal plants are mentioned in old Jewish post-Biblical sources, in addition to those in the Bible. Most of these plants (15) are known also in Egypt and Mesopotamia while three are from Egypt only. Seven of our suggested species are not mentioned in the Bible or in the Jewish post-Biblical literature but were recorded as medicinal plants from Egypt, as well as from Mesopotamia. It is quite logical to assume that they can be included as Biblical Medicinal Plants.ConclusionsAll our suggested Biblical Medicinal Plants are known as such in Ancient Egypt and/or Mesopotamia also. Examination of our list shows that all these plants have been in continuous medicinal use in the Middle East down the generations, as well as being used in the Holy Land today. Precisely in King Solomon’s words, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

G. West

In 1987 the South African biblical scholar Itumeleng Mosala was the first black theologian from either the United States or South Africa to argue that the Bible was intrinsically a site of class struggle. Mosala’s argument recognized the value of redaction criticism, which Mosala extended to include an ideological recognition of the class sectors engaged in ideological contestation, providing him an entry point into the ideological contestation inherent within the biblical text. Likewise, Marxist sociological categories, particularly notions around mode of production, gave Mosala resources with which to assign a particular class identity to a particular redacted “voice.” This essay reflects on Mosala’s contribution and its significance thirty years later, particularly in the South African context, and considers Mosala’s use of Marxist concepts such as “mode of production,” his understanding of the relationship between biblical text and interpretive context, and his “prophetic” warnings about working with an ideologically uncontested Bible.

Andrés Rosero Bolaños

El libro trata de una catequesis práctica, pues, insiste en una "catequesis para la realidad de la vida" y quiere acomodarse a una línea de pedagogía actual, lográndolo de modo conciso, preciso y ameno. Se trata de una experiencia de catequesis en la diócesis de Madrid (España) que da buenas bases para una buena reflexión en nuestra catequesis colombiana y Latinoamericana, ya que estamos haciendo buenos esfuerzos de mejorar nuestros propios planes catequísticos. (…)

L. Ferrell