This article offers a postcolonial reading of Psalm 93, examining its articulation of divine kingship through the lens of African political theology. The psalm’s bold affirmation, “The Lord reigns,” evokes a theocratic worldview rooted in the sovereignty, stability, and moral authority of Yahweh. By situating Psalm 93 within its ancient Near Eastern context and bringing it into dialogue with African notions of sacred kingship, the study explores how Indigenous African concepts of rule—often spiritual, communal, and morally grounded—resonate with biblical theocracy. Drawing on postcolonial hermeneutics, I interrogate the colonial disruptions that have displaced traditional African governance models and evaluate the potential of Psalm 93 to contribute to a theological reclamation of divine authority in post-colonial African contexts. My analysis challenges Western secular frameworks that have historically marginalised both biblical theocracy and African spiritual-political systems. Ultimately, the study seeks to reimagine theocratic discourse not as a regressive political ideal, but as a theological resource for restoring justice, legitimacy, and ethical leadership in African societies emerging from the shadows of colonialism.
Despite possessing the literal meaning “one who is sent,” Hebrew malʾak is almost universally translated into English as “angel” (a transcription of Greek angelos) when the referent is a divine being and as “messenger” when the referent is a human being. However, the Hebrew makes no such distinction between divine and human malʾakîm. Moreover, it is both unnecessary and confusing, since Greek angelos also carries the literal meaning “messenger” in English. More importantly, the biblical malʾakîm, whether human or divine, do not exclusively serve as messengers. While they are often sent to relay a message, this is certainly not always the case. Acknowledging this, Bible translations tend to inconsistently render malʾak based on the perceived context (e.g., ambassador, messenger, angel), as determined by the modern interpreter. For all of the above reasons, it is argued that the English “emissary” (from Latin emissarius, “one who is sent”) can and should be employed in all cases, since the purpose of a Bible translation ought to be to provide an accurate account of what was written, with as little subjectivity or bias as possible.
Scholars have long observed that Biblical Hebrew differs from English and other Indo-European languages in its verbal system. Levinsohn notes that Hebrew conveys aspect rather than tense, requiring translators to infer tense from context, while LaSor underscores the importance of interpreting Hebrew terms within their native linguistic framework. This article explores why Biblical Hebrew prioritises aspect over tense and investigates whether this distinction carries significant implications for interpretation and the construction of meaning. To engage these questions, the study examines how cultural world-views serve as an underlying factor in the prominence of aspectual verbs in Xhosa and Biblical Hebrew, providing a comparative lens for deeper linguistic and hermeneutical insights.
African students are taught the grammar of Biblical Hebrew (BH) from the perspective of Western languages, even though African languages have some features closer to BH than Western ones. It is observed that African students, especially those who speak Sesotho, find it challenging to understand and translate left dislocation in BH. The development of scholars' understanding of this construction has led to confusion between left dislocation and topicalisation. This article intends to address these problems to provide students with an understanding of left dislocation and topicalisation in Sesotho by comparing the Sesotho constructions with those in BH. This endeavour supports an overarching strategy of South African universities to decolonise the curriculum. The theoretical framework on which this study is based is linguistic typology, which is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow multiple comparisons of the crosslinguistic data. By recognising the similarities and differences between Sesotho and BH, Sesotho students will better understand BH left dislocation. In comparing and contrasting these two languages, we will critically examine the Sesotho Bible translation of 1909, revised in 1961, and the translation of 1989(R), which is currently under revision.
This article considers more carefully Raymond Martin's methodology, syntax criticism, proposes a renewal of Martin's work using more recent textual data, and proposes changes to Martin's method that include discarding certain criteria and proposing newer ones. The advances on Martin's work by Karen Jobes are also evaluated and refined. After thorough examination of Martin and Jobes's prior labours, entirely novel translation Greek control data for Septuagint preposition ratios are provided, as well as entirely novel data for the frequencies of kai and de in Septuagint texts. It is hoped that these data become standardised translation Greek control data.
This article examined conditional vow making in neo-Pentecostalism in Nigeria, focusing on the interpretation and application of Hannah's vow in 1 Samuel 1:11 in Living Faith Church, and evaluated this contemporary practice from the New Testament (NT) perspective. Employing historical-critical exegesis and narrative analysis of the biblical text alongside phenomenological and descriptive methods in respect to the church practice, the study postulated that while conditional vows like Hannah's were culturally embedded responses to distress in the Hebrew Bible, the NT emphasises persistent prayer and unwavering faith (pistis) rather than transactional petitions. The article contends that modern vow-making, as practised in Living Faith Church, risks reducing divine sovereignty to a mechanism of human control. From the NT perspective, rather than bargaining with God, Christians should simply make their requests known to God, expecting him to answer according to his own will. The article is thus a contribution to the discourse on context and biblical interpretation in Pentecostal theology in Nigeria.
Hermeneutics, or understanding, has fascinated humanity for most of its existence. The emergence of sacred, legal, and literary texts and their concomitant social contexts raised even more interest in understanding as values such as pure-impure, right-wrong, or aesthetic-non-aesthetic gained importance in human culture. The article models hermeneutics as, at least, a sextuplet pendulum that is constrained and hence attracted towards the key agents in a hermeneutic process, namely the sender, text, receiver, contact, code, and context. Based on the model, I try to work out a conceptualisation of hermeneutics that is non-reductive and non-linear. In particular, I explore a causality in hermeneutics that is based on the creation of possibilities through constraints. The article considers two aspects of this complex of constraints: (1) an ecology of strange attractors constrains the possibility space of interpretation, and (2) an ecology of strange attractors constrains a trajectory without specifying a path. As with most other scholarly endeavours, reductionism, linear logic, and billiard-ball-like causal explanations dominate in a variety of hermeneutic approaches. Since the rise of reception theory in the 1960s, understanding was reduced to what a receiver could understand from a text, whether critically or popularly. I close by suggesting the ecology of attractors in the hermeneutic process as an antidote for the dominance of the receiver.
Qur'anic verses 2:228 and 4:34 respectively prescribe divorce proceedings and general relations between husbands and wives in the early Muslim community. In dealing with the aspect of divorce (2:228), the terms ahaqqu (better right [of husbands]), mitlu (similarity [of spousal rights]), and daraja (degree [of husbands above wives]) are used, and in dealing with the general obligations of spouses within marriage (4:34), the terms qaww & amacr;m & umacr;na ([men as] caretakers [of wives]), faddala (favouring [of men by Allah]), and anfaq & umacr; (spending [of men for the benefit of women]) are used. In the article the explanations of the aforementioned terms by five interpreters (mufass & imacr;r & umacr;n) are discussed and compared. The five mufass & imacr;r & umacr;n are al-Tabari (d. AD 923); al-R & amacr;z & imacr; (d. 925); al-Zamakhshar & imacr; (d. 1143); al-Qurtub & imacr; (d. 1273); and Ibn Kath & imacr;r (d. 1373). Their views are systematically supplemented by references to the tafsir of al-Tha'& amacr;labi (d. 1035) and annotations from the Qur'anic commentary of Ibn '& Amacr;sh & umacr;r (1879-1973) published in 1984. The procedure followed is to use al-Tabari and al-R & amacr;z & imacr; as our point of departure, and then to complement their views with those of the other three Qur'anic interpreters. Furthermore, during the discussion of the chosen interpreters' elucidations of the six aforementioned terms, common themes are identified and highlighted. This methodology differs from the customary approach of identifying patriarchal, interpretative tendencies among mufass & imacr;r & umacr;n in a chronologically progressive way, particularly by Muslim feminists. However, careful note is taken of detailed criticisms of traditional interpreters by women scholars. Underlying the present study is the research question of how the concepts "gender equality" and "male superiority" are defined, contextualised, and reconciled in classical exegesis. This implies testing the hypothesis of whether the said notions are distinct categories or overlap in the way they feature in the material that is perused.
This article argues that Ps 40 should not be interpreted within a cultic milieu but as part of the literary context of the Psalter. As part of the conclusion of the final cluster in Book I, and thus as part of the conclusion of the first book of Davidic psalms, it is closely related to (especially) Pss 1-2 and Ps 35. When read as part of this context, it becomes clear that the psalmist, as the "servant" of YHWH, represents the in-group of faithful believers in the late post-exilic period who earnestly studied the Torah and attempted to follow its directives. They were waiting for YHWH's intervention to save them from renegade fellow Jews and foreign overlords who oppressed them.
The use of songs for instructional purposes is a shared tradition in both African folk culture and the Hebrew scriptures. This article examines Psalm 105 as a song which emphasises divine exclusivity, drawing connections to African song traditions that serve to preserve essential beliefs for future generations. While all psalms were originally sung, their melodies have been lost over time, though they continue to be used in liturgical contexts. However, scholarly analysis of the psalms as songs has declined. This article begins by exploring the role of songs in African traditional cultures as tools for information retention and teaching, highlighting their parallels with the psalms. It then provides an analysis of Psalm 105 and concludes with the implications of viewing the psalms through the lens of song.
This article examines how subtle “textual framing” embedded within the presentation of all religious texts can influence the texts even before they are read. Using Psalms as a point of departure, 116 of the 150 psalms begin with introductory titles or superscriptions also known as paratexts, for example, “Lamenatzeach—For the Choirmaster.” Depending on the editions, these paratexts are often distinguished from the base or main text of the psalm by some form of spacing to indicate that they were not part of the original text. Their purpose is to frame the psalm for the reader. This study explores the Psalter’s paratexts as metaphors for the framing strategies adopted by various theological ideologies within their internal written, oral, and other formulations; and suggests a critical and conscious engagement with all “paratextual framing,” rather than an unmitigated acceptance thereof.
This study identifies unique aspects present in Princess Khnumet’s diadem through a hybrid approach incorporating Van Straten’s four-phase iconographic methodology and semiotics. Van Straten’s first phase identifies the materials, colours, and techniques that are present in Khnumet’s diadem. The second phase deals with the iconographic significance of the colours and motifs on the jewellery piece. The third phase discusses the use of iconographical themes to identify a theme that represented Khnumet’s diadem in its entirety. The fourth phase makes use of the historical, cultural, and social background of the Twelfth Dynasty, Middle Kingdom, to determine the influences that may have affected the design of the jewellery piece. Lastly, the discussion identifies how certain aspects were repeatedly present in Khnumet’s diadem, from which one can deduce how certain themes were predominantly selected. This study thus illustrates that the individual motifs are interconnected to the broader iconographical theme within a jewellery piece.
Early Islamic sources present the degrading of the goddess Uzza to a mere idol: al-Uzzah. A recently found Late Bronze Age inscription from Timna in the Wadi Arabah, written in the Proto-Sinaitic script, revealed a small piece of evidence for the prehistory of the deity Uzza. The inscription was written in two ovals and reads: R. 'ZRMM; L. & Scaron;KLH. I interpret this as 'z-rmm & scaron;kl(l)h, "Az-Ramam, the scribe." The theophoric element 'z indicates that the deity Uzza was already venerated in the Late Bronze Age.
In the introduction to the book of Job, God allows Satan to inflict terrible devastation and suffering on his prominently righteous, pious, and prosperous God-fearing servant, Job. In response to his suffering, Job's three well-meaning friends assert various Deuteronomistically oriented "sin and retribution" theological answers. The result is not comfort for Job, but ongoing nightmares. At Job 7:20 Job addresses God in response to his nightmares, but here a text-critical problem arises: There is a crucial difference between the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) and the Septuagint (LXX) versions. The MT states "I have sinned ... (why am I) a burden against myself?" (KJV). The Greek (LXX) version has: "If I did sin ... (why am I) a burden on you?" (my italics). Modern English Bible translators have responded to text-critical research by rejecting the majority MT version of Job7:20, and chosen to render the LXX version instead. The hypothesis of this article is that the difference in these two versions of Job7:20 makes a significant difference in terms of the understanding of theodicy in the book of Job; the MT version of Job 7:20 allows for an exegesis which goes a long way towards resolving the underlying problem of theodicy. Furthermore, the rejection of the MT version by text-critical scholars as reflected in modern English translations may point to significant implications in terms of the "parting of the ways" between Christianity and its Jewish origins. This article uses an interdisciplinary and intertextual methodology to explain the hypothesis. The main source is the monistic exegesis of the book of Job in the set of engravings by the artist/poet William Blake (1757-1827). Two apocryphal books, Tobit and 4 Ezra, are used to explain Blake's exegesis because they confirm certain important aspects of Blake's exegesis.
This article examines all evidence of the word combination pi rho omicron alpha iota rho epsilon sigma iota & varsigma; pi nu epsilon upsilon mu alpha tau omicron & varsigma;, which represents a linguistic and intellectual peculiarity of the LXX Ecclesiastes. It explains in which way the choice of words and the stylistic devices of the LXX translator, who is also a poet, puts into context the relation of pi rho omicron alpha iota rho epsilon sigma iota & varsigma; pi nu epsilon upsilon mu alpha tau omicron & varsigma; in LXX Ecclesiastes to Genesis 2-3 (serpent) and Job 18:18-22 (lying spirit) and Zach 13:2 (unclean spirit) and traces the vanity and nothingness in this world back to the purpose of the spirit.
The writers of Chronicles are famous for their creative use of the different Vorlagen (available sources) at their disposal. In their use of some Pentateuch (mainly genealogies) and Deuteronomistic (mainly Samuel–Kings) materials, changes in space and time are often used as rhetorical devices. Examples of these will be explored to come to a better understanding of the writers’ creative use of space and time in the late Persian and early Hellenistic contexts to envision a new future.
This article focuses on three portions at the end of the Qur’anic chapter, Luqman 31, known as the wisdom surah par excellence. They are 31:29–30, sunrise and sunset; 31:31, ships sail; and 31:32, surviving a storm at sea. Commencing with 31:31 (ships sail) the characteristics of the individual portions are described as well as the way they link or are interchained. One objective of this study is to show how syntax, stylistics, and a theology–addressee perspective interact on an intra- and inter-textual level. A second objective is to frame the contents of the three portions within comparable Qur’anic and biblical material. Attention is also drawn to textually and methodologically related secondary sources. Two of the portions are introduced by the rhetorical question, “Do you not see that Allah ...?” Underlying the study is thus the question about the essence of the divine–human relationship suggested by the three Qur’anic portions. The answer arrived at in the study is that a vision of the ` of Allah implies ethical accountability and exacts dedicated worship.
In this article I probe the use of patriarchal or male-centric language in Genesis 3:16, Ephesians 5:22–24, and 1 Timothy 2:11–12 through the theory of poststructuralist feminism. By applying poststructuralist feminist theory, which stresses the deconstruction of binary oppositions and rejects the stability of meanings, I unmask how these biblical texts cement gender hierarchies and solidify male hegemony. Genesis 3:16’s depiction of women’s increased pain in childbirth and their submission to their husbands is scrutinised for its role in fuelling male-centric standards. Ephesians 5:22–24’s directive for wives to submit to their husbands is critiqued in light of poststructuralist feminist evaluations of fixated gender roles, while 1 Timothy 2:11–12’s prohibition on women teaching or exercising power over men is re-evaluated to uncover underlying cultural and historical prejudices. This poststructuralist feminist discourse aims to deconstruct traditional interpretations and offer alternative readings that question entrenched gender disparities. The overall findings underline the demand for more inclusive interpretations of these biblical texts and highlight the universal implications for contemporary gender dynamics within religious and social contexts. To further contextualise the argument, I engage a young woman who questions patriarchal or male-orientated expectations within her community, linking her journey to the three selected biblical texts.
Archaeological studies are essential on the subject of Judah’s emptiness during the Babylonian exile, as referenced in 2 Chronicles 36:20–21 and Lamentations 1:3–4. The biblical accounts about the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE imply that it was uninhabited. However, archaeological evidence indicates that Jerusalem remained inhabited, framing the issue as one of perspective rather than literal emptiness. The lack of evidence for a functional capital city during this period indicates the nature of the desolation. The absence of the divinely driven royal and cultic activities that defined Judah are the crux of the matter. The subsistence agricultural activities in Judah benefited Babylonian interests, at the total disregard of Judah. Judah lost its sovereignty, pride, and glory associated with God’s presence. Meanwhile, God’s wondrous acts were experienced in Babylon, leaving Judah bereft of divine favour and involvement. Judah was “written off” by divinity for a period referred to as a Sabbath rest. The desolation is not total depopulation, but the deliberate absence of God in all spheres of life for many years. Archaeological extrapolations point not to the lack of residents, but the absence of leadership and the profound disengagement of God. God actively wrought the desolation, as indicated in pre-exilic and exilic prophecies concerning the disaster. This article contributes to the understanding that God has repeatedly expressed his involvement in Judah’s desolation, illustrating his departure and explaining the true nature of Judah’s desolation in contrast to its previous identity as a nation under God.
This article examines all evidence of the word combination προαίρεσις πνεύματος, which represents a linguistic and intellectual peculiarity of the LXX Ecclesiastes. It explains in which way the choice of words and the stylistic devices of the LXX translator, who is also a poet, puts into context the relation of προαίρεσις πνεύματος in LXX Ecclesiastes to Genesis 2–3 (serpent) and Job 1–2 (Satan), as well as to 1Sam 16:14 etc. (evil spirit), 1Kgt 22:19–23 par. 2Chr 18:18–22 (lying spirit) and Zach 13:2 (unclean spirit) and traces the vanity and nothingness in this world back to the purpose of the spirit.
