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The year 2019 was dedicated by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church to the solemn commemoration, through church, cultural and academic actions, of the scholar patriarchs Nicodim Munteanu and Justin Moisescu and of all the translators of church books. This study represents the portrait of Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu made by the three Transylvanian hierarchs bearers of the name of Saint Nicholas, Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan of Transylvania, Bishop Nicolae Popoviciu of Oradea and Nicolae Colan of Vad, Feleac and Cluj in 1946 on the patriarch’s anniversary. Those three highlighted his qualities as friend, scholar and talented.
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Desemnat ca oraș (polis) de către sfinții evangheliști (Mt 9,1; 11,20; Mc 1,33 și Lc 4,31), ei nu prezintă detalii cu privire la aspectele vieții lui sociale și economice. Însă, ceea ce lor le atrage atenția în chip deosebit este faptul că această localitate a devenit „cetatea lui Iisus”, ca martoră la multe învățături și minuni săvârșite de Mântuitorul Hristos. Prezentând date legate de istoria și caracterul localității Capernaum, studiul de față se oprește mai ales asupra unor aspecte ale cercetării arheologice de aici. Sinagoga din piatră albă, „casa Sf. Petru” și „casele minunilor” din Capernaum, sunt până astăzi repere arheologice semnificative care-l atestă ca pe un sat tipic iudaic, reprezentativ pentru Galileea rurală. Sinagoga, cu etapele succesive ale zidirii ei - „sinagoga centurionului”, zidită deasupra unei case, și „sinagoga albă” de mai târziu - așa cum au fost aduse la lumină de arheologi, istoria „casei lui Petru”, deasupra căreia s-au identificat „biserica-casă” și biserica octogonală bizantină, precum și ruinele „caselor minunilor”, grupate în așanumitele insulae, ne oferă imaginea de ansamblu a unei cercetări arheologice laborioase, materializată într-o fascinantă dedicare studiului „pietrelor care vorbesc”, confirmând Evanghelia și aducându-ne mai aproape de locurile privilegiate de a fi martore ale activității Domnului.
More...Lindvall, Terry, et al. (2016). Divine Film Comedies: Biblical Narratives, Film Sub-Genres, and the Comic Spirit. New York: Routledge.
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The aim of this study is to include the dynamics of recent biblical research in Orthodox and Western, especially Protestant, theological spheres. Both Orthodox and Western biblical theology have their own course of research, which can be inspired by the achievements of both sides. Thus, we see that Orthodox biblical studies have been lately focused on receiving and developing of the exegetical method, and in that sense they can incline to the experience of the West, particularly the historical-critical method. On the other hand, Western biblicists try to convey to the present time the meaning of biblical texts or their supplements, which is closely related to the Orthodox biblical experience. The solution to these problems can be found through a mutually complement with ecumenical connotations.
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The conception of Conquest is part of the so-called Deuteronomistic History (DH). There are many evidences that the Book of Joshua have originated in the seventh century in Judea as the “political program” of Emperor Josiah. The Assyrian conquest of the north and the placing of Judea in the vassal position, according to this tradition, were the result of the neglect of the obligations arising from the Sinai alliance. It was necessary to follow the Lord fully, to eradicate idolatry, and thus to gain God’s favor. In that context, the Book of Joshua had a paradigmatic character, saying that when a chosen people truly follows the Lord, no one can oppose it. Once upon a time, God’s people, adhering to the laws of Sinai, managed to overthrow Hanan, and only in this way they will be able to defeat the Assyrians — this was the key theological message of Josiah’s religious reform, expressed in the spirit of the Deuteronomistic History. Conquest as presented in the Book of Joshua and in some parts of the Book of Judges, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is part of the theological reinterpretation of Israeli identity. We can conclude that Joshua is in fact a metaphorical portrait of Judean King Josiah and that the story about the Conquest of Canaan creates a plan for future conquest but also serves as an example of the right relationship of the chosen people with their God.
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An act of worshiping apostles Paul and Barnabas by citizens of Lystra, which was described in Acts of the Apostles, could not be understood properly without introducing the cultural background as well as religious. Lystra was a province, mostly habited by barbarians, in contrast to its surrounding, where Romans and Hellenes were the dominant populations. For people from that area, worshiping gods in human bodies was custom. We can find justification for that statement in well-known creation of Publius Ovidius Naso known as Metamorphoses, in which he describes appearance of Zeus and Hermes in human bodies. Author of Acts describes one specific situation of misunderstanding (deification of Paul and Barnabas) which was expected to happen during early period of spreading of Christianity and its contact with hellenistic polytheism. He interprets the cult of Zeus and Hermes in christian code: Contrary to hellenistic gods who can show themselves as humans, christian missioners Paul and Barnabas are just mediators of only-existing God. Implication is following: People of Lystra should recognize that God “in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways”, but now they “should turn from these vanities unto the living God”.
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Chrysostom was not a preacher of Christian communism, but a preacher of the union of all people in Christ, the communion of church, Eucharistic, unity of unity of faith and love, but also in all material goods. One of the constant topics of his socio-ethical preachings (and his preaching was almost always of such character) is the problem of social injustice, material and social inequality, the problem of wealth and poverty, the greed of property greed. If we look at the Old Testament prophetic movement, as much as it was initiated by the pluralism of Israel, it also appeared as a prophetic reflection and response to a concrete theological-social problem, represented in an unequal distribution of goods and a system of social inequality. The era in which Chrysostom enters the historical scene is the era of a society based on slavery principles, and the global characteristics of the empire of that time have greatly influenced Christian communities and interpersonal relations. In these and such circumstances, St. John appears as a “social prophet” of his time, and his criticism and condemnation of society, typologically educate the prophetic methodology and way of addressing. The author’s intentions of this work is a historical-critical review of Chrysostom ‘s perception of the social concept of the Old Testament prophets, that is, his actualization and contextualization of the prophetic message, transformed in Christ’s gospel commandments of love for God and for the fellowmen.
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The extension of the biblical canon in Orthodoxy represents a thorny, still unsolved, and probably unsolvable issue. Its history begins with the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek (the Septuagint) when, during the Second Temple period, after Ezra generally established the books received by Judaism, several books, mostly in Greek, which we call Anagignoskomena, meaning “acknowledged” or “worthy of reading”, were added to the Greek manuscripts. Moreover, in the deuterocanonical period, Judaism produced a series of other writings which largely circulated within the people, but in secret, unofficially, and which were not inventoried or later included on the lists of acknowledged books or in the official manuscripts containing the canonical books or the books of the Anagignoskomena. Nonetheless, the fascination they held and the authority some of them had were stronger than those of canonical writings. Some lacunal canonical biblical texts were being enriched or explained by them, sometimes offering many helping elements “from tradition”. The present study is intended to be an incursion into the world of these writings, which first influenced certain canonical writings, namely those acknowledged initially by the synagogue and then by the tradition of the Church. We will be surprised to find out that, although they are officially denied, the Christian writers from the past and, later, Christian and contemporary tradition have absorbed elements from them. Throughout the history of the biblical canon, there has been a certain attraction towards the forbidden or the taboo. Therefore, up to the life of the modern Christian, we will find notions and teachings which come from tradition, but which initially originate in these writings, to which official theology avoids granting too much importance.
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Hebrew Bible has been used in the past often and almost exclusively to foil a New Testament passage, thus overemphasizing on messianic prophecies, to fuel and defend a dogmatic statement, thus resorting to allegory and typology as the key hermeneutics, or to criticize, (and even demonize) the Jews as Christ haters, while not plumbing the Hebrew Bible for its own identity and intrinsic relevance. In the following lines, I bring forth a few examples of what I call “the power of metaphor of the Hebrew Bible”. And I will do this with deep respect to this literary-religious corpus that has never lost its “best-seller” status, while looking at these ever ancient, ever new biblical texts with the eye of a student of Bible and Semitic philology, but at the same time struggling to listen to the child in me, to return to those days when at my mother’s knees (literally!) I heard for the first time about Noah and the Flood story. What comes next is a brief immersion into the Hebrew Bible theological grammar with no claim whatsoever of ex-cathedra authority in selecting the texts.
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The present study aims to carry out an analysis of the relation between the Bibles of Samuil Micu and Andrei Șaguna from an isagogic perspective, with a particular focus on the canon and canonicity of the books of the Holy Scripture. We believe that, through such an analysis, we can observe what they have in common, but also what differentiates the two Transylvanian editions of the Holy Scripture so that we can help those interested in understanding the reasons behind the current controversies as to the relation between them. Although these controversies refer to the biblical text of the two Scriptural editions, the fact that the attitude towards it was caused by denominational factors, whose doctrinal background is represented by two different traditions of understanding the biblical canon, has been overlooked. This is why we find that the evaluation of how the two Romanian editions of the Holy Scripture (the Bible of Samuil Micu, 1795, and the Bible of Andrei Șaguna, 1856-1858) relate to the canonical tradition of each Church and cultivate their isagogics is fundamental for the establishment and understanding of the relation between them.
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This is a book review of: Ioan Chirilă (coord.), Dumitru Abrudan, Petre Semen, Oancea Constantin, Remus Onișor și Mircea Basarab, Introducere în Vechiul Testament [Introduction in Old Testament] (București: Basilica, 2018), 870 p.
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Book review of: Fr. Ioan Chirilă (coord.), Paula Bud, Stelian Pașca-Tușa, Bogdan Șopterean, Vechiul Testament în scrierile bibliștilor ortodocși români – ghid bibliografic [The Old Testament in the Writings of Romanian Biblical Orthodox Scholars] (Cluj-Napoca, Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2018).
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