The Biblical Annals, 2023, Tom 13 (70), Nr 3
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- ItemThe Covenants of the Patriarchs with Foreigners at Beersheba. The Historical and Legal Background of the Traditions in Gen 21:22–24, 25–33 and Gen 26:26–31(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Dziadosz, DariuszThe author of this paper seeks the original historical context as well as the oldest form, structure and concept of the biblical records of the covenants of Abraham and Isaac with the local ruler(s) as recorded in Gen 21:22–24, 25–33; 26:26–31. The patriarchs, who enjoy the status of foreign/sojourner/ resident in the land of the Philistine king, Abimelek, and their peaceful agreements are depicted in three biblical sources, which are very similar to each other in terms of structure and literary context. Those are compared with selected Hittite, Babylonian and Assyrian records of the royal covenants from the 2 millennium BC. The methodology adopted in the research allowed several important formal and substantive points of contact to be noted in the compared sources. Through this comparison, the paper confirms that Gen 21:22–24, 25 33; 26:26–31 reflects two ancient patterns of bilateral covenants between the monarch and an equal or subordinate social partner: royal grants and suzerain-vassal treaties. The paper also discusses the socio-cultural and legal spectrum of the Near Eastern royal procedures and how they were re-edited and adapted by the editors responsible for the current version of the biblical cycles about the patriarchs.
- ItemA Stranger in My Own Land: Can a Sojourner Belong to the Household?(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Clifton, BrunoOccasionally, the biblical term גר has been taken to refer to a “dependent worker” or “client” based on the thought that household membership can be gained through work provided to the household. Mention of household membership tests the identity of the sojourner in the ancient world as stranger or foreigner; a social category listed with widows and orphans - whose status is also defined by the household - as deserving of protection. Given its centrality as a basic social unit in the ancient Near East, we might expect that purchase in a household would grant a status that dissolves the social distance and attendant consequences (fragility of income, lack of patrimony, object of suspicion) thought to be borne by גרים. In what sense, then, is a “dependent worker” who secures membership in the household a גר ? This article reconsiders how distant a person must be from the society within which he resides to make him a ,גר shifting the semantic emphasis of this term away from origin and towards social integration.
- ItemWhere Does Salvation Come From? A Reading of 2 Kings 5:1-27(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Ska, Jean Louis2 Kings 5:1-27 describes the healing of a foreigner, Naaman the Syrian, a high officer of the King of Damascus, by Elisha, a prophet in Israel. Naaman the Syrian suffers from a kind of skin disease called “leprosy” in the Bible. He thinks that, being rich and powerful, he is in possession of the means to get healed. He has to change his mind and his behaviour, though. He is healed when he agrees to listen to an Israelian maidservant, a slave, to the prophet Elisha, and to his own servants. When he bathes in the Jordan, he symbolically enters the Promised Land because he is healed and, at the same time, he acknowledges that Yhwh is the only Lord of the universe.
- ItemThe Literary Structure of the Flood Account in the Animal Apocalypse(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Drawnel, HenrykThis article discusses the literary structure of the flood account (1 En. 89:1b–9) in the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85–90). Since the Qumran Aramaic text of the story (4Q206 frags. 8 I and 9) has preserved a shorter text than that found in the ancient Ethiopic version, the study of the literary additions found therein is also undertaken. Although the Aramaic text of the flood account is not free from some redactional elaborations of the literary structure of the story, the literary additions in the Ethiopic version expand the shorter structure, especially in the first part of the account (strophes 2–4). The insertion of new cosmic elements into the story (heavenly roof and earthly enclosure) creates a well-circumscribed space where the punishment of humanity, sons of the Watchers and animals by the waters of the flood takes place (strophe 4). Thus, the Ethiopic longer recension of the flood account is far more distant from the shorter text of 4Q206. The last part of this study takes a closer look at the literary context of the flood story that closes the first part of the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85:3b–89:9) and preannounces its second section (1 En. 89:10–90:19) marred by the shedding of blood and violence between the nations and Israel.
- ItemJan Kochanowski’s Psalter – a Source of Polish Poetry and Mirror of the Human Mind(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Buszewicz, ElwiraThe article deals with Jan Kochanowski’s Psałterz Dawidów [David’s Psalter], published in 1579. This paraphrase of the biblical Psalter, intensely lyrical in its spirit, was inspired by George Buchanan’s Latin poetic paraphrase of the Psalms, which is strongly Horatianising. Kochanowski’s work can be seen as a presentation of humanist piety. That is to say that the borders between secular and sacred spaces, or even between Judeo-Christian and Pagan traditions, may seem blurred. The Psalter is also interconfessional (or “doctrinally neutral”) and acts as a universal mirror reflecting the human mind. The author analyses three of Kochanowski’s Psalms to demonstrate the intellectual and emotional space of his Psalter and its polyphonic structure: 1 (Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum), 19 (Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei) and 91 (Qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi), displaying some interplays of ideas and different approaches to paraphrasing applied by the poet.