The Biblical Annals, 2022, Tom 12 (69), Nr 4
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- ItemHuman Creativity in the Context of Creativity of God in Gen 1–2(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Pikor, WojciechIn the biblical perspective, stories about the creation of the world in Gen 1–2 remain to be the basis to a discussion about human creativity. The premise of the text – creation of man “in the image of God” – makes us assume that, according to the Bible, creativity of man is to be the image of God’s creativity. Verification of this thesis goes from presenting history of interpretation of the biblical idea, namely creation of man “in the image of God,” then points to the need of analyzing the narrative of this phrase. Since the image of God presented in Gen 1 is not descriptive, the second part of the paper examines the way God reveals himself in this text through his creative action. The key to God’s creativity is his word of creation which he uses to differentiate created beings and establish relationships among them in order to build harmony in the newly founded world. The final part of the paper focuses on the analysis of verbs which in Gen 1–2 refer to human creativity; those verbs also point to their possible association with words as instruments for creating, organizing and arranging reality shaped by man. Following that comes the conclusion that God’s creativity is extended into creativity of man who was made “in the image of God.”
- ItemThe Sick Person’s Relationship with God in the Healing Process according to Ben Sira (Sir 38:9–11)(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Piwowar, AndrzejBen Sira’s teaching on medicine and healing in Sir 38:1–15 is divided into two parts: the first (38:1–8) deals directly with the medicine of the time (doctors – 38:1–3 and the medicines they used – 38:4–8), while the second focuses on the healing process (38:9–15). In the latter, the sage first focuses on the attitude of the sick (38:9–11) towards God and the role and tasks of the physician in the process of healing the sick (38:12–15). The article addresses Ben Sira’s teaching on the relationship of the sick man to the Lord (38:9–11). The sage, after positively evaluating and responding to modern medicine (a novelty in the Old Testament), returns in 38:9–11 to the implicitly expressed conviction found in the Bible that only God can restore health to a sick person – that He is the only physician. He therefore urges the sick person to turn to God. According to the sage, turning to the Most High (38:9a), prayer (38:9b), the rejection of sin and iniquity (38:10) and sacrifices (38:11) play an important role in the process of recovery. Sir 38:9–11 has a concentric structure with a call for a change in moral conduct at its centre (38:10). These are surrounded by appeals to turn to the Lord (38:9 and 38:11). According to Ben Sira, healing from illness is the work of God, so the sick person should make a conversion (abandon sin and turn away from evil) and renew his relationship with the Most High. According to him, conversion is crucial in the healing process – without it, the sick person cannot return to health and full strength. In this way, the sage expresses the Old Testament teaching about illness as the result of sin (retribution) and God as the only physician. What is new in Ben Sira’s teaching is the call to offer sacrifices for the recovery of health and healing from suffering.
- ItemJesus’ Friends in John 15 and the Hellenistic Royal Court(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Rzepka, JacekThe present contribution utilizes the reference to disciples as Jesus’ friends in Jesus’ Farewell Talk to the Apostles in John 15 as evidence of the contemporary understanding of the Hellenistic royal in essentially non-Greek circles of the Greco-Roman East. It also argues that this passage may help to explain the very nature of the Hellenistic royal friends (philoi) as compared to other possible types of relation to monarchs (servants – douloi, companions – hetairoi) in the earlier Hellenistic Age.
- ItemDivine and Human Spirit in Rom 8:16. Paul and Epictetus on Free Will(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Kowalski, MarcinThe article focuses on the phenomenon of free will in Paul, taking as the starting point Rom. 8:16. At the beginning, a concise exegetical analysis of Rom 8:16 is presented, placed in the rhetorical context of Rom 8. Subsequently, a comparison is drawn between Paul’s and Epictetus’s views on divine and human agency. First, the Epictetus’s idea of freedom is presented with a special emphasis on the notion of proairesis, understood as the true self of a person, responsible for free moral choices and actions. Next, the similarities and differences between the Epictetus’s and Pauline vision of free will are discussed. What connects the apostle and the philosopher are convictions that free will can exist in a divinely determined world and that human volition requires continuous education and subordination to God’s will. The elements that clearly distinguish Paul from Epictetus are the natural image of deity to be imitated in the human pursuit of freedom, and a genuinely relational, corporeal and emotive character of free will in the apostle. The psycho-somatic nature of human personality and will in Paul invites a dialogue between the apostle and modern science but it has to be carried out cautiously, bearing in mind the different methodologies, the idea of transcendent deity and Christological foundation upon which the Pauline idea of freedom and free will is built.
- ItemDwelling and Clothing as Metaphors for the Human Body in 2 Cor 5:1–4(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2022) Mickiewicz, FranciszekThere is an allegory of the human body in 2 Cor 5:1–4 that is discussed by many scholars and has many different interpretations. The author of this article joins this discussion and tries to answer the question of what the theological message of this pericope is. The metaphors that make it up can be divided into two groups: 1) home metaphors; 2) metaphors of putting on and taking off of clothes. In his text, Paul arranges them in an antithetical way and refers to two stages of human life: the earthly life of believers, which a person leads in a destructible body and which ends in death, and the future condition of believers, which begins with the reception of the resurrection body. The analysis carried out in the article leads to the conclusion that, in his reflection, Paul does not write anything about the intermediate state which is referred to by the followers of Platonic and Gnostic thought in the Hellenistic environment. He eagerly wishes to stand before the Lord during the Parousia without losing his mortal body in order to pass to eternal life without the experience of death by putting on the glorious body.